1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we begin our five-week sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer is taken from Luke 11:1-13. In this sermon series we are going to learn about: the gift of prayer, who should pray, why we should pray, what to say when we pray, and how we can go about using the gift of prayer. The message today is entitled, “The Gift of Prayer,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Not to let you down from the start, but I can’t teach you to pray. As much as I teach about prayer, lead prayer in our worship services, and have a time of daily prayer, I’m far from an expert. I am in awe of those saints who speak of spending hours in prayer. I’m frustrated by them. I have a hard time focusing for minutes at a time. I’m discouraged by so-called “prayer warriors” who boast of seeing their prayers “avail much” when it seems to me that God’s answers are too often hidden from my sight. Prayer as a discipline is something I strive to achieve, but like so many disciplines in my life, it is full of stops and starts. No, I do not presume to teach anyone how to pray. I am no master of prayer.
3. But Jesus is. In fact, he is the master of prayer. He alone can teach us to pray. This master of prayer is not your typical “spiritual guru” who is going to merely guide you through secret disciplines which guarantee more “powerful” or “transformative” prayers. Though Jesus is the greatest teacher we have, he is so much more than a teacher. He is our Lord and Redeemer! He is the giver of gifts! Before we can ever talk about the discipline or the practice of prayer, we first need to hear the good news: Jesus has given you the gift of prayer. God the Father hears your prayers on account of Jesus Christ, who has given you the Holy Spirit, who drives you to pray. Prayer is a gift from the triune God, given to all who believe.
4. Jesus gave this gift to the disciples during his earthly ministry. Luke gives us this wonderful account where the disciples actually get one right. It was a rare occurrence, so it stands out. In Luke 11:1–13, we find Jesus in prayer. When he had finished, one of his disciples came with a request, “Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). This disciple gets something right—he acknowledges that he is lacking something. He can’t pray. He needs to know how. So, in his lack and inability, he turns to his gift-giving Rabbi, his teacher. His request is actually the model prayer! A beggar coming with empty hands to the one who can help. And Jesus is only too happy to answer! Jesus, like his Father, always stands ready to give!
5. In response to this faithful prayer request, Jesus gives two gifts. And, not just to this disciple, but to all of us who come to him desiring prayer. Jesus gives the petitions we are to pray, and he gives the promise that God will answer. In this way, we learn that prayer has two parts: our petitions and God’s promise. Jesus gives us his words and the Father’s ear.
6. GIFT #1: THE WORDS TO PRAY. Jesus does not rebuke his disciples for not knowing how to pray. Too much of our conversation about prayer induces guilt or shame for not knowing how or what to say. Jesus, on the other hand, smiles upon this question and is gracious towards those who ask. He begins by giving us, disciples, the words we are to pray. He gives us what we have called “The Lord’s Prayer.” When giving this gift in Luke’s Gospel (11:2–4), he gives us a shortened version of the full prayer he gave in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel (Matt. 6:9–13). Here, Jesus leaves us without excuse. If you don’t know what to say when you approach the Father, Jesus places this gift in your hands, or better said, these words on your lips. You go before the world’s Sovereign with seven requests, or petitions, asking him to accomplish for you what you can’t do on your own.
7. Jesus invites you to approach God, as Martin Luther says, “with all boldness and confidence [so that] we may ask him as dear children ask their dear father.” (Martin Luther, Luther’s Small Catechism (St. Louis, Concordia Publishing House, 2017 ed.), 19–20. Jesus gives you the prayer for God’s holy name, his coming kingdom, and his inevitable will to be given to you in your life. He opens your eyes to your daily, earthly needs as he guides you to pray for daily bread, a life saturated and formed by forgiveness, guidance away from temptation, and deliverance from Satan’s relentless assaults. This prayer encapsulates all that we need for life and salvation. And Jesus gives it to us as a gift!
8. But, this raises another question: How do I know the prayer will do any good? On what basis can I pray with all boldness and confidence, as the Small Catechism says? This leads us to the second gift Jesus gives us: the gift of a promise.
9. GIFT #2: THE PROMISE OF A LISTENING GOD. A number of years back I remember seeing a series of books with titles like, The Power of the Praying Wife or The Power of the Praying Parent. (Stormie Omartian, The Power of the Praying Wife (Eugene, Harvest Publishing House, 2014). Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Parent (Eugene, Harvest Publishing House, 2014). Now, I don’t doubt the sincerity of the author in trying to encourage people to pray in their various vocations. In fact, all of us are incapable of faithfully fulfilling our responsibilities without a complete dependance upon God. But, I fear the titles of these and other such books are misleading. The power of prayer doesn’t reside in the parent or spouse who prays the prayer. The power of prayer is with the God who listens. “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory” (cf. 1 Chron. 29:11). Better said, when we pray, we are relying on the power of the listening God!
10. Jesus gives us the promise that God our Father is listening to our prayers and will answer them for our good: “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9). Jesus is saying, “I am giving you the prayer to pray and the promise that when you put this in the Father’s ear, he is listening and delighted to answer!” When you pray the Lord’s Prayer, you can imagine the Father bending all the way down from heaven to earth, hearing your cry and getting up to act. It’s like a dad bending down to hear his two-year old daughter whisper a secret into his ear. It fills that father with delight. I must imagine it is infinitely more wonderful when the Father hears our cries. As Jesus says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:13).
11. Jesus not only teaches us to pray, he gives us the gift of prayer and the promise that God is listening. Having received these gracious gifts, we are ready to explore prayer more deeply. In this sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer, I hope to help you hear what Jesus teaches us about prayer and what it looks like to pray in light of the gospel. I will also offer resources to you later that I’ve found useful in an effort to help you pray. But, as I said, I can’t teach you to pray. So, let us join the disciples and turn to the One who gave us the gift! Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, and our Lord. Amen.
12. PRAYER—Almighty Father, in bidding us to pray, your dear Son and our Redeemer has given us the gift of prayer and promised that you would answer us according to your will and for our good. Forgive us for doubting this promise and rejecting these gifts. We thank you that Jesus is our great high priest who daily intercedes for us and that, for the sake of his shed blood, we are forgiven and welcomed into your presence. Open our ears to hear your Holy Spirit’s teaching on prayer and guide us to pray as Jesus has taught us. Amen.
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