Teach Us To Pray - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. What are we? If we're one thing, we're a forgiven people. Everything that you and I have in Christ is because of God's forgiveness.

Everything. We are the forgiven people. And from God's point of view, how then can you not forgive others? How do you not forgive others? You bathe in my forgiveness and then you hold it against someone else. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. You see, it's never a matter of asking. For so many of us, I think that's our prayer life. There's a way I want my world to be.

Here's my list, Lord. And I want my world to be this way. And then when it's not that way, you go, and he doesn't answer my prayers. There's a reason. He's God, you're not. You see, there's a difference there. That's the whole idea. This isn't a matter of, and by the way, there are whole aspects of our Christian faith, especially afoot now, that reverses the whole thing and basically says that God's role is to give you what you want.

That's his role. And your faith has so much power, it makes God give you what you want. Many, many years ago, Paul Yong-gi Cho was a pastor in South Korea of a very large church. I remember reading a quote of his, and his quote was simply this, Jesus Christ is the slave of my lips. In other words, I tell God what I want, and because of the power I have over him, he then gives me what I want.

Jesus would very much disagree with that. Is my prayer real, and is my prayer simple? And then, third question, is my prayer worshipful? Is my prayer worshipful? He said, pray then in this way. So, Jesus is now going to give them the disciples prayer.

Pray in this way. First of all, pray is interesting. It's an imperative mood.

It means it's commanded. People often say, well, if God knows everything, then what do I have to pray for? There are a lot of good reasons you should pray, but here's one of them. He commanded you to.

You see, that kind of ends the whole thing. I'm commanded to pray. He said, you pray. Okay, I'll pray. He said, pray, and when it says in the numeric and standard, he says pray then in this way.

In this way is a little bit, I don't know if it's the best acro way, it's utos in Greek. And it means pray like this. Pray in this manner. The last thing Jesus intended with this short prayer is that you would pray the prayer. He doesn't want you to pray the prayer. He wants you to pray like this. You see, that's not the way they prayed. They prayed in a very different kind of way.

Jesus said, look, I want it to be very short and very sweet. He said, you just pray in this manner or pray in this way, and then you know now we get into the prayer itself. The first thing he says is, our Father.

Now, from our point of view, that makes great sense to us. The disciples' point of view when he said that would have been like, I don't think I can do that. I don't think I can talk to God like my Father. The Jews didn't do that.

That's way too intimate. He's God. Remember, they wouldn't even speak the word Yahweh. You know, when they were writing it, even a scribe who wrote it, when he wrote it, he had to clean himself afterwards. And before he could write it again, their idea is that's God. He's way out there and he's very different than we are, and Jesus says, no, our Father.

What's interesting and even more interesting is this. In the Greek text of the Matthew, it says pater, which we get the word Father from. The Greek word is pater, but Jesus didn't use the word pater because Jesus didn't speak to the masses in Greek. Matthew was writing the account in Greek, but Jesus spoke to the masses in Aramaic.

And in Aramaic, you know what Jesus would have said? Abba. That's the word.

Our Abba. You know how that translates in English? Daddy. That's an intimate word. Father in our language is kind of formal. Daddy is kind of intimate. And he said, our Father, our Daddy.

This idea, wow, this is really something. He says, our Father, who is in heaven? By the way, one other thing you can get from just this part of the verse. I'm not trying to control your prayer life, but I've always done this my whole life. But whenever you pray, you pray to the Father. Look at the New Testament. Every time there's a prayer offered, it's offered to the Father. And it's offered under the authority or in the name of the Son, Jesus.

Through the power and instrumentality of the Holy Spirit. But you pray to the Father. A lot of Christians want to pray to Jesus.

I think Jesus would say, you've missed me by one here. You pray in my name. But you pray to the Father. He said, our Father, who art in heaven. He says, and then these words, hallowed be your name.

Hallowed be your name. Isn't that a terrible word in English? Someone said to me, what's hallowed mean? I mean, it's in English, hallowed. It's sort of like the word holy.

And in English, it's just as bad. And I say to you, think of something holy. It's astounding what will end up coming into your head. You know, there's holy places. It's a holy, it's something very mystical. There's nothing mystical about the word holy. The word agios, which is holy, means to separate. It means separated from. That's all it means. And so, by the way, is God separate from everything else?

Yes. Because everything else is created. He's the creator.

The philosophers had it right. They said God is holy, w-h-o-l-l-y, other. God is not like anything because He's God. Everything else is a creation of God. He is holy.

He is set apart. Notice, He said, you say to your Father, the intimacy, holy, set apart, is your name. Now, in our culture, again, the word name doesn't mean much because in our culture, how do you pick names? Normally, you pick a name if it has nothing to do with the relative that you're trying to honor. Normally, what you do is you pick a name that goes well with your last name.

So, alliteration. I mean, if your last name ends with a T, the first name starts with a T. You want to have something snappy. In biblical times, that wasn't the way you pick the name. The name meant everything in the scriptures.

You, in a sense, your goal in life was to live up to your name. That's why, by the way, God always changed their names. Abram became Abraham. Saul, named after a terrible king, ended up becoming Paul, which means a little. Peter became pebble. He changed their names.

In other words, that's important. He said, hallowed, set apart is your name. The name of God. The name of God set apart. The idea of worship.

See, think of the Old Testament. You have a name like Yahweh, and then there are so many adjectives that the God, the God who shines, the God who is, the God who thunders, over and over again, all these things, it's who God is. God's name reveals God's character. It reveals God's plan, and it reveals God's will. And my prayer is, set apart, hallowed is your name, Father. In other words, is it an act of worship? Ask yourself, in your prayer life, do you worship God? You see, do you end up taking a phrase like this and turn it into praise? How much of your prayer life do you spend praising God for who He is and what He's done? How much of it?

You see, if we're really honest, not much. He says, no, that's where you have to start. You have to start praising God and thanking God.

Why? God relishes that. You're His child. The idea is He wants that conversation with you. Again, you're not praying to Him to inform Him. You're praying to Him to worship Him. Is my prayer real, is it simple, is it worshipful? And then He says in verse 10, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Is my prayer submissive? Notice what it says in verse 10. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. You know, when we read that, if we were going to emphasize something, we always emphasize the wrong word.

Here's how we would normally do it in our culture. Your kingdom come, your will be done. In other words, it's kingdom and it's will. That's what we're talking about. But I think we emphasize the wrong word.

The word we should emphasize is your. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Do you pray like that? Your will be done. In other words, at the essence of your own prayer life, do you say, Lord, I want what you want for my life. That's what I want.

I want what you want. I'm submissive to it. Your will be done. You see, his will's done perfectly in heaven. Lord, with my life, make it your will done. See, there's a submissiveness to our prayer.

What we do is we say my will be done, my kingdom be done, and I keep praying for something. You know what? He's not delivering. He's not giving me what I wanted.

Wow. Where's the submissiveness? Now, one of the things that's wonderful about God, by the way, is he's extremely patient with us. And one of the things I tell people all the time, the Bible clearly allows you to pray your humanity. You're allowed to pray your humanity.

Remember the Garden of Gethsemane the night before the crucifixion? Jesus went off by himself and he prayed. And what did he pray? He said, Father, let this cup pass from me.

Wow. What do you mean, Father? I don't want the wrath of God on me. Now, he understood the wrath of God on all sin in a way you and I could have never understood it. But he had an idea of what was coming the next day. And he said, that's his humanity praying.

He's a perfect human being with no sin, no judgment on him. And he says, let this cup pass from me. And then this word, nevertheless.

And what did he say then? Not my will be done, but yours. Do you pray with a nevertheless when you pray your humanity? You see, it's an important thing to do.

Lord, this is what I want to have happen. Nevertheless, your will be done. You see, there's a submissiveness to this. One of the most important things to understand in prayer, your prayer life is simply that he is God and you are not. He has infinite wisdom. He sees the end from the beginning. He loves you with an immeasurable amount of love.

You see, can you submit to that? Or do you keep saying, I don't understand why he keeps telling me no in my prayers. Is my prayer submissive?

And then he moves on. He says, give us this day our daily bread. Now, how many of you prayed that today?

See, it's not real practical to us, is it? I mean, you had all the daily bread you could possibly want, right? But it means more than that. What he's really talking about, I love what Martin Luther wrote on this. Martin Luther writing on the Sermon on the Mount said this. I see my daily bread as my food, my wealth, good weather, my house, my wife, my children, and peace. In other words, Luther said, Lord, sustain me another day. Just sustain me another day.

You know, it's really interesting. Dr. Joe Harvey, who we support in the Congo, told me that one of the big advantages that being a believer in the Congo among the Congolese versus an American is that when he said a Congolese praises prayer, give us this day our daily bread, they mean give us this day our daily bread. And he said, so they see God deliver them that way.

He said Americans have so much, they never think of this. But the point of it is, when you think about it, sustain me for another day, Lord. You see, just today, I'm dependent on you for every single day of my life.

That's what he is saying. You see, this is a practical way of praying. Give, he says, it's a supplication.

Lord, give me what I need today to sustain me for the day. So is it real, is it simple, is it worshipful, is it submissive, is it practical? And then the last one, is it repentant when you pray? He says, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Wow, you know this. Forgive us of our debts. That's an awkward word, by the way.

Ophilema is the word. It's one of the five words in the New Testament for sin. Forgive us of our sins.

I learned it when I was a kid through trespasses. And the idea of it is, Lord, please forgive me of my sin between you and me. Now, he's not talking, by the way, of judicial sin. Judicial sin, as Pastor Brad was talking about earlier, means we have been forgiven one time for all sin.

We are declared righteous by God in our standing. He's not talking about judicial forgiveness. He's talking about daily forgiveness. 1 John 1-9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Illustrated by Jesus in John 13. Remember Jesus decided he would wash their feet? And so, finally when Peter was willing to do it, remember what Peter said to Jesus? Well, don't just wash my feet, wash me all over.

And what did Jesus say? You've already been bathed. You see, you've already been bathed. You're forgiven that way.

I'm talking about day in, day out. You see, I have to present my feet to the Lord on a daily basis. Lord, you can wash it. You can cleanse it.

But this one has a condition and this is where you and I don't like this at all. And this may have a lot to do, by the way, the ineptness of your own prayer life. Forgive us our debts as we also are forgiven our debtors. Lord, I want you to forgive me exactly the same way that I forgive others. Do you pray that way?

I mean, be honest. Is that how you pray? Lord, I want you just to forgive me the way I forgive others. Jesus, by the way, he might think, well, maybe he didn't mean that. Well, how about verse 14? For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. And if you do not forgive others, then your heavenly Father will not forgive your transgressions.

Can't be clearer. He reiterates it in two more verses. We don't like that much, do we? And yet, on the other hand, what are we? If we're one thing, we're a forgiven people. Everything that you and I have in Christ is because of God's forgiveness.

Everything. We are the forgiven people. And from God's point of view, how then can you not forgive others? How do you not forgive others? You bathe in my forgiveness, and then you hold it against someone else. You see, turn back with me just to chapter 5 and verse 23 for a moment and look at what Jesus says here. He says, therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and then remember that your brother has something against you, you've got to leave the offering before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offering. He said, don't even come and worship me. If there's something between you and someone else, you get that straight before you come and worship me.

Did you ever wonder why our prayer lives are so empty sometimes? Is it because of an unforgiving spirit among ourselves? That there may be people in your life you refuse to forgive? I'm not going to forgive them. They hurt me deeply. He said, on a temporal basis then, God says, I won't forgive you either.

It gets as straightforward as something could be. There has to be a repentance when I pray. I have to deal with sin between me and God and between others and me.

I have to deal with that. And he says, you have to do it no matter what. He then says after that, he says, do not lead us into temptation, deliver us from the evil. God says in James, now don't tempt anyone. He says, Lord, keep me as far from temptation as possible. And you know why? Because I'm weak. Lord, keep me away from temptation.

I have to stay away. And then in brackets, and that's why it's in brackets in your Bible, it says, for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, amen. The reason it's in brackets, it's not in the oldest manuscripts we have, the best manuscripts we have. It was perhaps a later edition. It could have been in the original.

It fits well. It's a doxology, but it's probably not in the original. So the disciples say to Jesus, they say, would you teach us how to pray? And Jesus said, okay, first thing, make your prayer real, private, secret. Secondly, make your prayer simple, not repetitive.

Don't think that you're going to get my attention because you keep repeating things over and over again. Thirdly, make it worshipful. Understand who I am. Praise me for who I am. Honor my name in prayer.

Also be submissive. Your will be done, not mine. Your will be done, Lord.

And then be practical. Today, Lord, sustain me. And lastly, be repentant. Make a short account of sins between you and the Lord. Jesus said, I will teach you.

These are the important elements. Of all these years that I've walked with the Lord and all these years that I've pastored this church, I've come to one conclusion that's helped me a great deal, and I hope it helps you. I'm going to conclude with it.

I get great comfort in one single fact. God's answers are wiser than my prayers. Let's pray. Father, I'm afraid that so many of us actively pray, and we come before your presence each and every day with a laundry list of things that we want to have happen. Father, I pray that the words of Jesus here just simply convict us that there's much more to it. You speak to us through your word. We speak to you through our prayer.

We love the intimacy we have, but we want to honor you for who you are. Father, make us aware of the elements in our own prayer life that are not there, the things that have hurt us, the things that have gotten in the way between our relationship with you. Thank you for these short and wise words of Jesus Christ when it comes to prayer. We pray in his glorious and wonderful name.

Amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to We pray in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. We'll see you next time.