The Disciple Learns to Pray - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, September 22nd. Today's lesson reminds us that true disciples of Jesus Christ should devote themselves to prayer. to pray to talk to the Father. Before he chose those 12 apostles, he prayed all night long. There were many, many times he spent all night in prayer seeking the Father's guidance and direction. That group of apostles saw in him the supernatural power of God and they saw also, I believe in him, something that was so evident to them after he spent a long period of time in prayer, they could see something happening in his life and in his ministry that just awed them. So upon one occasion the scripture says that after he'd been praying, one of them said, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.

They wanted what he had. They wanted the sense of fellowship that he had with the Father. They could see a sense of oneness between him and God that they wanted. And they knew that the key to that oneness was in his prayer. So they said to him, would you teach us to pray as you pray? When they said, Lord, teach us to pray, they were saying, Lord, teach us to be as dependent upon the Father and to trust him for everything, guidance, provision, sustenance in the life, as dependent as you are, you teach us how to have the same attitude. Now in response to that, he taught them two things. And that's what I want us to discuss because I believe that a true disciple, in order to be a true disciple, you must not only have him as your savior, have him as your Lord.

Let him reproduce his life through you. If that is happening, you're going to know how to pray. And I do not believe a person can learn a greater lesson in this life once he's a Christian than to learn how to pray. And let's look, if you will, beginning in verse two, because here he gives them a pattern of prayer. It does not mean that every time you pray, you've got to pray this prayer.

It does not mean that every time you pray, you have to pray all of this. But he gave them a pattern which prayer should include. And he said, and you and I have quoted this from the time we were a child, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. He says that the disciples approached the God in prayer is my Father, our Father, who art in heaven, not who's down here on my level, but who art in heaven, but praise God after Pentecost. Listen, after Pentecost, they could pray our Father, who art in heaven, and who is in my heart, living through me through the Holy Spirit. You see, the one thing Jesus did in the beginning of that prayer was to focus their minds upon the fact that God is the object of their prayer. And secondly, he is the adequate source of everything that they need.

And thirdly, they are an integral part of the family of God. Now, if you and I took the time, we could stay on that one prayer, I believe, for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks because of what he has involved in such a few words. He said, we're to pray our Father who art in heaven.

Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. And then he said, as it is in heaven, your will is being done, so be it here in earth. And that is that the disciple who prays must first of all, not only worship the Father and praise him, not only must be concerned about the work of the kingdom around the world, but he likewise, and notice what we said about the definition of prayer, likewise, he must be willing to submit to the will of God. Now listen, is it not hypocrisy to pray thy will be done as it is in heaven so it be on earth and at the same time knowingly and willingly resisting the will of God in our hearts? My friend, if you and I analyze prayers the Lord Jesus has taught it, most of our praying never gets beyond the lips. How can we expect God to hear prayer that comes out of disobedient rebellious hearts when he says the pattern of prayer that reaches glory is the pattern of prayer that is submissive in will to the perfect will of the Father. What the Father wants done in heaven, we want done down here. What he commanded us in the scripture, we must be obedient to here. And so much of our praying never gets beyond the lip, never gets beyond the human mind. Oh, the words may reach somebody else's ears, but my friend, the message will not change hearts, nor will it influence God.

What does he say? He's saying that when a disciple prays, when you and I pray to the Father, we must go to God with the spirit of obedience and submission to the Father's will period. And therefore it is mandatory upon us to find out what his will is.

And if we do not know, we must ask him, Lord, show me your will. How shall I pray about this? But he said, men are to pray in this manner.

Now there are lots of prayer books. You can get all kinds of books with prayers where people pray, but this is the prayer that Jesus said we're to pray. He says, we're to pray as your will is in heaven, so be it done upon earth. Now, how can I pray that unless I'm willing to pray, first of all, as your will is in heaven, so be it in my heart.

And as it is true in my heart, then it will be true among the hearts of those about me. And as we travel in our business, as you travel in your school, as you travel on the campuses in your community, if we are praying for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven, that demands first of all, subservience to the master. All my prayer is vain glory. My prayer, he says, is sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. My friend, it matters not how long you pray if the attitude is not yielded to him.

The prayers are of no avail whatsoever. So he said to them, if you're going to pray, if you're going to have fellowship with the father, if you're going to have power with him, then first of all, you must pray and point your prayer first of all, to him, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done as it is in heaven, so be it here upon earth. Then having praised the father and having taught them to focus their attention upon him and to hallow him and to reverence him and to acknowledge him as the source of all things and to acknowledge their dependence upon him, then notice what he said. He changed then from the pattern of looking upon him to looking within at one's needs.

Now he mentions three things. First of all, he mentions praying for present need. He said, then you pray, give us day by day our daily bread. Give us day by day our daily bread. That is, we are to look to him. Now, so often people say, well, are you to pray for material things? You are. How do you know that you are?

Because that's exactly what he said. He said, you're to pray day by day as the need arises for our daily bread. That does not mean that we're to go around in poverty saying, well, I'm just going to look to him just for the next meal.

Don't know where it's coming from. It doesn't mean that, but he means the attitude of prayer is the attitude of absolute dependence upon him, whatever he wants to give and how, but as the need arises. The second thing I want you to notice, not only present need, but past sins. Listen, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. He says, we're to pray for the forgiveness of our sins.

We are to ask the Lord to cleanse us, to pardon us for iniquities, for transgressions that we have committed. Listen, I'm telling you, dear friend, there is no way to be heard of a holy God when I have sin residing in my heart. That's why he said, when you pray, pray our Father, who art in heaven, holy is your name. Holy is your environment. Holy is everything about you.

Holy are your attributes. How can a believer who has sinned disobedience and bitterness and animosity in their heart approach a holy God and expect to be answered? He cannot. And my friend, I wish I knew how to say that strongly enough, that all praying from bitter hearts, all praying from hearts of animosity, all praying from hearts that have willful known sin contained within the human heart is of absolutely no avail, cannot be heard, will not be heard, is a waste of energy and words. Yet what happens? A fellow just tries to defy God.

That's all. I'm going to pray anyway, as if that's going to make God here. Then I want you to notice, not only does he say present needs, secondly, past sins, but future trials.

Watch this. He says, and need is not in a temptation, but deliver us from evil. Someone would say, would God lead you in a temptation and induce you to sin? Never. Now watch. He's not saying that we should pray for God not to induce us to do evil because he would never do evil.

Because he would never do that. He's simply saying that the disciples prayer every day, not only should include present need and past sins, but also future trials. There will be times of temptation and trials that will approach every believer. Now he says, when that happens, he says, lead me through this.

Lead us not into it. And he doesn't mean by that, a plea for God to refrain from, from allowing these things to confront us because they're always going to confront us. Jesus was tempted.

Everywhere you go, there'll be temptations and trials and heartaches. He says, but in your prayer, our prayers, present need, past sin, and future trials and temptations. We are to ask for the Lord's protection and watch care and sensitivity to temptation and protection and time of trial. Lead us not into temptation, he says, but deliver us from evil. That is when we're confronted with these things, we're asking for his deliverance and his protection in times of trial, temptation and tribulation.

He says the disciples prayer is first of all, to approach the father, then to deal with daily need. Then he taught them a great lesson. Then he said to them, he gave them illustration. He said, now suppose a man comes to one at night and because of the law of the land, a host was responsible for providing the bread, the needs of the one who had come to visit. He does not have anything because the bread's only baked a day at a time, they didn't keep it overnight. And so his cupboard is empty.

He goes out to ask someone else for bread. Now in those days, their doors were left open and they didn't close their doors and lock them like we do. All the progress we have, we've shut each other out.

They left everything open. And when a man closed his door at nighttime, that meant he and his family were asleep. Now, if you'll read that, it says my family and I are going to bed. What he means with that is this, in those days, usually everybody slept together. And sometime they brought the animals and the chickens and everything else.

And then they just had one place for these, for the livestock and some other place for the folks to sleep. And so literally what he said was true, that if I get up and answer that man's plea, I'm going to wake up the whole family because he had his family all around him. He said, now I can't do that. But then the scripture says, not because this man was his friend, but because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needed. Now, let me tell you what Jesus was not saying. He was teaching persistence in prayer. He said, here's the pattern, our father, which art in heaven. He says, that's the pattern you ought to gauge your praying by. But secondly, he says, there must be persistence in your praying, not just one time, but keep on and keep on and keep on. Now, he was not saying if you will pray long enough and hard enough and intensely enough, you will convince a God who is unwilling to change his mind and do what you want him to do.

He was not saying that, but here's what he's really saying. He's saying in the persistence, which you and I are to utilize in our prayer, that is keep on talking to him because many times he's not going to answer the first time. First of all, the situation is not right. Secondly, we're not right to get the answer. And thirdly, he's going to utilize someone else and work in their life to bring the answer to pass. There are many times our prayer requests are legitimate.

They're right. They're in the will of God, but the timing is not right. He says, keep on praying. When he delays a prayer, oftentimes he's teaching us patience, teaching us trust that if he says he's going to do a thing, if a thing is the will of God, he's going to do it.

Keep on praying. And when you've got the victory, you can stop praying and start praising the Lord. Now, persistent praying is not begging. Persistent praying is bringing before the Lord what I have the legitimate right to bring before him. It is bringing it to him in faith, recognizing his holiness, recognizing my relationship, that I'm in the kingdom and that I'm in the Father. He says, we're to pray.

And then he says, ask, and the tense of the verb is ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking for everyone that is asking will receive. He that is seeking will find.

He that is knocking will have the door of supply open to him. And then he gives a beautiful example. He says, now, what, Father of you, if your son comes home in the afternoon and says, Dad, I want a hot dog.

And what do you do? You give him a stick. He said, you wouldn't do that. Or if your daughter comes home and she says, I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, what would you give her? A stone, you wouldn't do that. Or if she comes and she says, I'd like to have a cheese omelet for an afternoon snack, what would you give her? A piece of cardboard?

No. He says, if you then, being a sinner, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will a loving, inexhaustible, divine, gracious Heavenly Father give to those who ask him of the Holy Spirit? So what is he saying? He's saying, my friends, simply this, that a disciple in order to be a true disciple must know how to pray. And how is he going to pray?

He's going to approach, first of all, his father, praising him, worshiping him, talking to the father about who he is, then about the father's work, the kingdom, then about the father's will submissive to him. Then he says, turn those prayer requests upon your own needs, present needs daily of whatever they might be, past sins, the forgiveness of my sin, the forgiveness of my brother. And then he says, future trials and temptations, bring those to the Lord asking for his protection and his watch care.

And as you persist, as you keep talking to him, he because he loves you, he because he loves you, not because you've persuaded an unwilling God, but he because he loves you. If a man will rise to meet the need of a brother here, how much more will the Heavenly Father, who's never asleep, who has an inexhaustible supply, who has the key to unlock the treasure house to all that he has for you at any moment you're willing to believe him by faith. He says, if you then being evil know how to do that for your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father do for those who love him. He will give them the Holy Spirit. Now my friend, however much God is able to use you will be directly related to your knowledge of how to pray to get through to God and your persistence of staying with it and your faith to believe that God is who he says he is.

Holy God, inexhaustible, knowing no boundaries, and who is willing to give his children every good and perfect gift. Now my friend, when he taught us how to pray, he taught us how to get on the inside of his heart and get what he's got, but most of all become what he is. Heavenly Father, if we would be honest, all of us would have to pray the same prayer that these apostles request. Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us the necessity of it, how dependent we are upon you and then teach us how. Thank you for giving us such a beautiful and yet brief and concise prayer that we could memorize and recall, not in order simply to repeat to you daily, not as some magic words we put on the end of what we've made our request for, but rather a simple pattern, including the things that we ought to remember about yourself, about our needs, and about your wonderful willingness to hear us and to answer us. Now Father, I pray that you'll teach us how.

Dear God, teach us how, but even equally to teaching us how, teach us to do it. Lord, send whatever is necessary into our lives to get us on our knees, keeping us there, because that's where life becomes the sweetest and most fruitful, most enjoyable, and most fulfilling in absolute and total dependence upon you. Speak to our hearts today, and I want to ask you for somebody here who's not a Christian, somebody who's never received Christ as their Savior, that in these moments there would be the confession, the admission, the submission, the committal of his or her life to Christ. In a simple prayer, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins. I'm turning my life over to you today, and I want you to have your way in my life, whatever that means. Speak to that heart and give them the courage to step out and make public that confession of their faith, for we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen. Thank you for listening to The Disciple Learns to Pray. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by or In Touch Ministries, stop by, InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.