Sermons

Introduction

Let's look together at the word of God. Luke chapter 11. We'll cover verses 1-4. And the title of this sermon is "A Simple Way to Pray. A Simple Way to Pray." I'll be reading from the Legacy Standard Version, Luke 11. Let me read for us. Getting my timer out for all your sake. There we go, all right.

Luke 11:1-4, "And it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.' And He said to them, 'When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.  Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'" This is the word of God. Let's pray one more time.

[Prayer] Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for Christ, the living Word. We thank You, Christ, that You are a good shepherd and that You came to teach us how to pray, to teach us a simple way to pray. And I pray this morning that You would open our eyes to behold the wonders here in these few verses, and that You would encourage us, that You would challenge us, that You would woo us, that we would be more a praying people. I pray for the saints here and for this church, that it would continue to grow as a praying church, a church that is consciously dependent upon You in all that they do. And I pray above all that You would show us the glorious person of Christ, the One who gives us access to the Father. We pray these things in His name and for His namesake. Amen. Amen. [End]

Well, 500 years ago, there was a man named Peter. He was a barber in Germany. And one day he was at his barber's chair and he was working on someone and a notorious figure walks in the door. This figure was a fugitive. There was a great price on his head. The Roman emperor said, "If you deliver this man to us dead or alive, there will be great wealth for you; and if you are found helping this man, you will forfeit all of your livelihood."

And this man walks into Peter's barber shop, and Peter recognizes this man, and the man asks for a haircut and a shave. And Peter's calculating in his mind, "What do I do?" And he decides to invite the man to sit down. And he begins to shave this man, and he has his straight-blade razor right along his neck, and he's thinking, "All it would take is a simple flick of my knife to take the life of this man."

But instead of taking his life, he asks the man in his chair, "Will you teach me to pray?" Because that man – you might have guessed it, you might not have – is Martin Luther. Martin Luther came to be shaved by this man named Peter the barber. And Martin Luther, of course, was the great Reformer, a former Catholic monk. He was the translator of the Bible, he was the leader of the Reformation, and he was the one who brought the word of God back to the people of God in their language. He was known for making Christianity accessible and helpful for ordinary folk.

And Peter, who was standing there, thought, "What is more valuable to me, to have wealth or to learn how to pray?" And Peter thought, "I need to know how to pray." And so he asked Martin Luther, "Will you teach me to pray?" And Luther then went home that night and he wrote a simple little book called A Simple Way to Pray. And the significant bulk of that little book that he wrote to Peter was walking through these simple words from Jesus: the Lord's Prayer, or maybe better referred to as the disciples' prayer because, of course, Jesus couldn't pray all of these words.

Now, prayer is difficult. Prayer is difficult. It's relatively simple in what we're called to do, but I doubt there's a single person here right now who would say, "I am satisfied with my prayer life. I pray like I want to pray." Some of us feel too busy to pray. We feel maybe too confident in ourselves to pray in our own strength or our own wisdom. Some of us might be plagued with guilt and shame, and when we think about praying, it thinks, "Well, I'm a sinner, I've sinned. How can I draw near to God in prayer because I'm guilty?"

Some of us might have been led where we should not have been led with good theology, and we think, "If God is sovereign, well then why would I pray? God is going to do what He's going to do. He already knows what I need. He already knows the future or what He's ordained. Why would I pray?" We have these and many other struggles with prayer. Maybe our prayers feel cold or feel formal. We might pray the formula, we might pray the words, but our soul isn't engaged.

Prayer is not an easy thing to do. And it was for that reason that the disciples on this day witnessed Jesus in prayer. They were watching Jesus praying. And it was the rich prayer life of Jesus that prompted the question that we read in verse 1, "After Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to pray.'"

Now, Jesus' responds within the gospel of Luke – which this would have been a different occasion than the Lord's prayer we have in Matthew – Jesus responds with three simple verses in our Bible, less than 40 words. You could say this prayer in all of 15 seconds. But the depths of these few words are too deep. The heights and glories of these words are too high. And Jesus essentially gives us, any who would want to learn from Him, this simple way to pray. He gives us an address and five petitions.

The Address: "Father"

That's how this prayer breaks down, an address and five petitions. And so let's work through the address and the five petitions together. Let's learn from Jesus. Let's picture ourselves sitting at his feet, asking Him, "Lord, teach me to pray," and He says, "Okay." First of all, you must begin with the word – and what's that word? – "Father." Verse 2 begins with the address, "Father."

Now hear me, this might be the most significant thing of the morning. All of salvation and all of prayer is bound up in that single word: "Father." Your whole salvation, all of the essence of prayer is bound up in that simple word: "Father." You were born of Adam, your first father; and in him, you were born spiritually dead, spiritually dead, a heart of stone with Adam as your father. The Bible called you a child of wrath in bondage to the devil, and you had no right to draw near to God.

Yet God had another Son, His only begotten Son, the second Adam, the second Person of the Trinity. And as the only begotten Son, He became flesh. He lived a perfect life of obedience. He perfectly fulfilled the law. He ended His life on a cross, forsaken by His Father in His human nature, so that sinners and rebels like you and me could call God Father. I mean, that's astonishing that a rebel could call God Father, that sinners could be saved by the grace of God's own Son, so that sinners could be born again this time as children of God.

Now hear this, the highest privilege of your salvation is not merely the forgiveness of your sins, it's not merely your justification, it's not merely your sanctification, it's that you can call God father. That is the highest privilege of your salvation. And now that you call God Father, and as you're born again, what's the very first thing you utter as a spiritual newborn?

Well, what's the first thing humans tend to utter? Much to mother's chagrins, it's usually, "Dada." They love their dads. And in fact, the Aramaic word for father is "Abba," which likely came about because that's the sound that a baby would make, "Abba." It's the sound of just a baby speaking to their father. That is the first word of your soul when you are born again, "Father. Abba. Father." And nothing's more natural for a child than to cry out, "Father, I need you. Help me, Dad, I need you. Dad."

And so it is with a Christian. This is where prayer begins, when you understand that God is now your Father. And I don't know what your earthly father was like, but let me remind you who your heavenly Father is like. He's the most able, He's the most capable, He's the most compassionate, He's the most tender, He's the most present. He's never on his phone, distracted. He's the most resourceful, He's the most wealthy. He cares for His children.

And so we come to our Father with this address, "Abba, Father." That is the beginning of prayer. If you don't get that, you won't get prayer. This, rest of this prayer will be a locked prayer for you. Yeah, we might say the words, but if your heart and soul does not cry out, "Abba, Father," you need to be saved before you learn to pray.

First Petition: "Hallowed be Your Name"

But for a Christian, we begin with this address, "Abba, Father," and then there are five petitions. Grammatically speaking, they're all in the imperative mood, meaning they are – when an imperative is addressed to God, it's a request. These are pleas, a request from God, five imperatives. And the first request, the first petition is, "Hallowed be Your name."

Now that was new for me. I always thought "hallowed be Your name" was like a praise, like, "Blessed be Your name. Hallowed be Your name, You're holy." But that's not what this is. This is a plea. This is a request. This is your first prayer request after you are born again and you say, "Father," guess what the first thing a Christian ought to pray for? "God, may Your name be hallowed. May Your name be exalted."

Hallowed means to be holy or to be set apart. God's name refers to all of who He is, all of His attributes. Think of the third commandment of the ten commandments, "Don't take the Lord's name in vain." It's wanting God's glory to be known in and through your life and in the world. That's the first thing Jesus teaches us to pray for, "May Your name be hallowed." The chief end of all of your praying is that God may be glorified.

In my trial right now, my first desire is that God would be glorified. In my illness, in the illness of my family member, my first desire, my prayer, my petition, "God, be glorified." In this decision I have to make, before you pray for wisdom, which you should, you should pray, "God, whatever would bring You the most glory, that's what I want." In all of my longings for my future, "God, whatever would bring You glory." In my marriage, not, "Lord, help me with them." "Lord, be glorified, be glorified." In my workplace frustrations, in my home, in my neighborhood, my first prayer is that, "God, Your name would be glorified." We are to funnel every prayer we ever pray through this first petition, and bring it – we're going to get there – but start it. here in this God-centered way, "God, be glorified in my life and in my needs." That's Petition Number One.

Second Petition: "Your Kingdom Come"

Second petition is similar, but it's a little more focused: "Your kingdom come, Your kingdom come." God's glory is more of a general, in whatever I do, whether I eat or drink, I want God to be glorified. But this is getting a little more specific. This is helping me focus, "Why am I on this planet? What am I doing here?" Not just, "I want God to be glorified in whatever I want to do," but, no, "I'm supposed to be about something. I'm here to be about God's kingdom coming."

What's interesting about mankind, what's tragic is that we've been seeking to build our own kingdoms pretty much from Day One on. Remember Babel, "Let us make a name for ourselves"? That's the cry of all of our hearts and our flesh. That's the desire of every human nation and culture, "Let us make a name for ourselves." If you want to understand of people like Elon Musk and all of their achievements, that's it. For those who don't know Christ, this, to build their kingdom, "to build a tower up to heaven so that we don't need God," this is what they're living for and aiming for and focused on. But not so with Christians. We are about another kingdom.

Some of us might be frustrated in our prayers because we feel like God isn't answering our prayers. And James reminds us in James 4:2, he says, "You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God?" But we're reminded here that we don't use prayer as a means to fulfill our pleasures, but to bring about the kingdom of God.

Now, let's get a little theological for a moment. And I'll do it this way, I'll ask you a question: Is God sovereign over everything? Yes. Over every molecule in the universe? Yes. Over every sinner and sin? Yes. Over every kingdom? Yes, of course. God's already sovereign. His kingdom is over all. So what are we praying here? Well, what we're praying for, some theologians call it the mediatorial kingdom.

God is sovereign over all, but many people don't recognize that sovereignty. Many people refuse to bow the knee to the sovereign. He is King, they just don't recognize Him as such. And so what we're praying for is that God's rule would be recognized on earth, that human hearts and lives would recognize there is a God and He is the King of kings; ultimately, that God would establish His kingdom in the hearts of mankind. This is our commission as the church. This is the Great Commission: "The harvest is ready, the workers are few."

So, what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to pray, "God, raise up workers to go into Your harvest field because we want to see Your kingdom come." So, Petition Number One, "God, in whatever I do, I want You to be glorified." Petition Number One. Petition Number Two is, "I want to be focused, I want my life to be focused towards the kingdom of God."

And now before we move on, let's just remind ourselves again that we were not only spiritually dead, we were also – we were rebels to the King of kings. And the King gave His own Son. He gave His own Son as an offering, as a sacrifice, so that rebels could become subjects and sons and daughters. This is the gospel, so that we could be rescued from a kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God's own Son.

And even now, if you have not recognized Christ as King, know this: though you are His enemy, He extends His hands of mercy, His blood-stained, scarred hands to you, saying, "Come. Come to Me, and you will not be punished, you will be forgiven. I have been punished so that if you would come, you could be a member of My kingdom." That invitation is open even now.

Third Petition: "Give Us Each Day Our Daily Bread"

Our third petition Jesus teaches us, first, "Father, hallowed be Your name." Second, "Your kingdom come." Third, "Give us each day our daily bread." Now, I love the transition, right? We just went from the glory of God. We just went from the kingdom of God to, "Could I have lunch today, God?" I love Jesus. I love the way He did this on purpose. He wants us to feel, to recognize the almost absurdity of it. The glorious God of the whole universe cares about your daily bread. The same God who is sovereign over all things is concerned with your stomach, with your little, practical problems.

There's nothing too great for God, and there's nothing too small to bring to God, something as simple as your daily bread. And this is profound because this is where we actually live, is it not? Do we not spend all of our time trying to just provide for ourselves in this world? And like the curse that Adam received, we're trying to work, but the ground is cursed and it doesn't yield like we want it to, and we get fearful and worried and anxious about tomorrow.

Was not the garden of Eden, the test in the garden of Eden, wasn't it about food? Wasn't it about, "Where will you get your provision? Who will you turn to? Whose word would you trust? Would we trust God's word to provide, or should we just pursue our own food, our own way in our own wisdom? Now that was the test in the garden of Eden and it's the test of every person every single day: "Who am I trusting? Who am I looking to? Do I believe God is going to provide and care for me?"

And then again, remember Christ. Where Adam and Eve failed in the garden, Christ did not fail. He resisted the temptation of the devil to produce bread for Himself apart from God's command. We are prone to wander; but Christ, the bread of life was faithful. And if God has given us His own Son, would He not provide for us daily bread for all of our practical needs? The God who clothes lilies and feeds the birds, is He not going to feed you and care for you? Is He not concerned about you? And so He teaches us to pray for God's glory, pray that His kingdom would come, and then bring any practical need, bring it to Him.

God even brings about needs that we would learn to seek Him and to trust Him, that we would learn to pray. Isn't it true that when we're comfortable, it's a lot harder to pray than when we're suffering? It was said that Jonah was asleep in the ship, but he was praying in the whale. Isn't that true? Isn't that true as God trains us, we're often sluggish? We're often sleepy like the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. God might allow these sufferings, these lack to train us, to cry out, "God, give me just my basic needs."

Fourth Petition: "Forgive Us Our Sins, For We Ourselves Also Forgive Everyone Who Is Indebted to Us"

We come to the fourth petition, "and forgive us our sins." Now, Jesus begins practical, and then He turns the corner here to get spiritual, and this is very important, I want us to hear this. When you pray this prayer, Luke 11:4, when you're praying the Lord's prayer and you get to this point and you say, "Forgive us our sins," you say that as a child of God who's already called Him Father.

It's not like your sins aren't forgiven until you get to this part of the prayer. No, you're already a Christian, you're already justified, you're already adopted, you already have the right to draw near to God, His throne of grace with your sins completely forgiven. This little petition here is not a prayer for salvation, this is a prayer for communion with God, this is a prayer for fellowship with the Father.

The greatest grief of a Christian is to grieve his spirit in sin. That's what actually pains us when we sin. And the greatest joy of a Christian is restored fellowship with God that comes through a confession of sin, "Father, I've sinned. Have mercy on me." We don't pray that because the blood of Jesus stopped covering us when we sinned; we pray that because we recognize that our fellowship with God has been affected profoundly by our sin.

Again, remember Adam and Eve in the garden. When they sinned, what was their response? It's the same response you and I have. They fled. They ran away. They wanted to cover themselves up with their own little works, tying their fig leaves together. And again, what is the gospel that God came looking for them? They didn't go to God, God came looking for them. Is that not your story? You were a wandering, lost sheep, and God in His mercy came looking for you. He pursued you as your good shepherd. He picked you up and He brought you back to Himself.  

Fifth Petition: "Lead Us Not Into Temptation"

And so when we get to this petition, we're essentially saying, "God, forgive me, in that restore to me the joy of my salvation, restore to me the sweetness of fellowship. I don't want this sin between You and me." This is a prayer of confession, a prayer of reconciliation with God. And then notice what's attached to it, "Forgive us our sins." Even the fact that it's plural, "Forgive us our sins," this is the first – actually, back at, "Give us each day our daily bread," this prayer kind of turns a corporate corner. This cues us in that prayer is not only an individual thing, it's a church thing, it's a body of Christ thing.

And I don't know about you, but I struggle to pray, and I'm helped when others pray with me and I'm praying with them, and it's kind of like we're little coals all over the place, and when we get together, the heat kind of just warms up. We're helped in our prayers. We're concerned about our life as a church together.

And we say, "Forgive us our sins." Why? Or what's connected? "For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us." Now this is important, because as we just said, this is a prayer of restoring fellowship with your Father. One of the most profound ways to hinder your communion with God is the sin of unforgiveness. And I see this in my house every day.

As you heard, I have five kids and they're all pretty young, and there's a decent amount of conflict continually. And I'm just going to paint a hypothetical picture, okay? Imagine one of my children takes some toy and they just hit the other one of my children right on the forehead, and they're just screaming. And then the guilty one runs to me and says, "I love you Dad. Will you forgive me? Will you snuggle me?"

Now listen, I love them and they're still my child, but there's not going to be peace between me and them until there's peace between them and their sibling. There's just not peace. And because I love them, I'm not snuggling them. I'm saying, "Hold on, stop. I love you. You go back to your brother, back to your sister and you say sorry and you make it right. And once you've made it right, then yes, come, first, for discipline, and then for snuggles, because I love you."

And the point is there's no peace. There's no peace in the home, and there's no peace between that child and their father who loves them until they're at peace with one another. Is this not what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 18 with the parable of the man who is forgiven a debt that's astronomical, and then he would turn around and strangle out someone else for a lesser debt? It's not that it doesn't happen, but when it happens, don't expect your communion with your Father to be sweet. Don't expect your quiet times to be rich. Don't expect you to have this amazing devotional life and prayer life. Expect the heavy hand of God's discipline to be on you until you make it right with your brother or your sister. This is what Jesus is teaching us. It's just expected. We would forgive everyone who's indebted to us because God has forgiven us.

And never are you more like your Father than when you forgive someone of their sin. Remember – we have time. Let's look at Genesis 50 real quick for a quick cross-reference, one of the greatest examples of human forgiveness in the Bible. Genesis chapter 50, this is the climax, the end of the great story of Joseph who has been sinned against profoundly by his siblings. They sold him into slavery, forsook him. And God in His providence brings them back together. He's now the ruler of Egypt. Their father is dying and has died, and the brothers are concerned.

In Genesis 50:15, "Then Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, and they said, 'What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and returns back to us all the evil which we dealt against him!' So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, 'Your father commanded before he died, saying, "Thus shall you say to Joseph, 'Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they dealt evil against you.'" So now, please forgive the transgression of the slaves of the God of your father.' And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, 'Behold, we are your slaves.' But Joseph said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day to keep many people alive. So now, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.' And he comforted them and spoke to their heart."

This is a picture of a man who understands God is sovereign over all the sins that others have sinned against him. God sent him. God sent him. "Well, they sent them in their sin." Well, yes, that's true. But who's sovereign over that? God is. God meant it, intended it, ordained it for good. And this is the perspective of every child of God, no matter truly the heinous, wicked sins people may commit against us, we can say, because of who we know our God to be, that "God meant this for good. And so I can forgive. He's forgiven me, He's meaning this for good, and I can forgive them."

So, we've seen the address, "Father," the first petition, "hallowed be Your name, may You be glorified." The second petition, "May Your kingdom come." The third petition, "Give us our bread." The fourth petition, "Forgive us our sins." And now, fifth and finally, we read, "Lead us not into temptation. Lead us not into temptation."

Jesus ends this prayer with a sobering note. You don't need the reminder, but we'll give it again. You right now live on a three-front war as a Christian. First, you live in the world, the world which is this collective system of lies. It's been said worldliness is that which makes sin look normal and godliness looks strange. That's the world. It might be blatant sin, Romans 1 kind of sin. It might be Christless morality in religion. It might be Christless conservatism. That's the world, deceiving lies of the world.

You also live with an enemy, the devil, described as a roaring lion, a thief, a liar, a destroyer, a tempter. What's sobering about him is he's shrewd and opportunistic. He knows our weaknesses. He attacks us just where he knows we are most vulnerable at just the right time in just the right ways. His temptations are defined as fiery darts. He waits for just the right moment, and then boom, these inflamed moments of severe temptation – do you not know these? – just severe temptation. And then on top of that, you have your own flesh, your own sinfulness, indwelling sin. The world's calling you, the devil is attacking you, and then you have in you this ally of the world, and the devil's saying, "Yes, yes, I want it!"

One of the most astonishing verses to me in all the Bible, Psalm 119, the very last verse of this glorious psalm. I love this psalm of the word of God and the joys of walking in the word of God. This psalmist who wrote the longest psalm in all of the Bible, he ends it like this: "I have wandered off like a lost sheep." Isn't that amazing? The end of Psalm 119? The guy who says, "O how I love Your word. It's better to me than anything." He says it again and again and again and again, and the very last thing: "I've wandered off like a lost sheep."

Do we not know Romans 7: "I do the things I don't want to do, I don't do the things I want to do." Jesus said He sent us out like sheep in the midst of wolves. Picture that. You guys are going to Ireland, just picture – you're going to just picture these nice little sheep. And then there's a pack of wolves, and Jesus is like, "All right, go ahead. Go on out there. Go out to the wolves."

This is what it's like: the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are our enemies. And Jesus arms us with a final petition in the Lord's prayer: "Lead us not into temptation. Lead us not into temptation." Think of that picture in Psalm 23, "He leads us in paths of righteousness for His name's sake." Even as we walk following our shepherd through the valleys of the shadow of death with enemies, we pray, "Don't lead me into temptation."

And I want to close. I think this will be helpful for us. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6. Paul ties all of this practical prayer together in this profound way in Ephesians chapter 6. And you're familiar with it, I'm sure, the armor of God passage in Ephesians 6. And what Paul begins to do is he sums up the privileges you have in Christ: His life, His death, His resurrection, His grace, kind of metaphorically pictured in this armor. And then he ties all the armor of God. He ties putting on all the armor of God with this single – you call it participle. It's showing you what does this look like in verse 18. But let's read the whole passage to get the build up there.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength." Praise God, our strength is not in ourselves, it's in Christ and His strength. "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore," – and here's the metaphor of what he provides for us in Christ – "having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, also receive the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

And now we come to this picture, this summary statement. Let's tie all that together. What does that look like? Verse 18, "praying. at all times with all prayer and petition in the Spirit." This is like walking in the armor of God. This is utilizing the strength of God. This is going into battle ready with the armor of God. Prayer is putting on Christ practically and going into battle into the world in which He has called us. Prayer is the means by which the sovereign God has provided to protect His children from temptation.

We mentioned at the beginning some of us wrestle with prayer because God is sovereign. "If God is sovereign, why do I pray?" And we learn as we study the Bible that God who has ordained all things also ordains all the means. God doesn't ordain things without ordaining the means. And the means of keeping us from temptation is prayer. That's how He keeps you. When you pray, "Well, am I forcing His hand?" No, He's ordained you to be kept from temptation as you pray. This is the way he keeps us.

Conclusion

J.C. Ryle has wisely put it, and tragically put it, "We fall in private prayer before we fall in public." This is where the battle is fought. This is where the battle is fought. And maybe as a charge to you as a church: may you be strong in the Lord because you're strong together in prayer, because you recognize we need God. We can't do what He's called us to do without Him. We need Christ. We need God. We need His glory to be first and foremost. We need to be about His kingdom and not our kingdom. We need Him for our provision. We need Him for our communion and fellowship with God and our fellowship with one another. So prayer is this expression, "We need You, God."

And again, as we see here in Ephesians 6, and as we see Christ Himself instructing us, what grace God has given us. Prayer is not God saying, "Go work hard on your own and then I'll take care of you." No, this is all given to us. Prayer is us availing ourselves of what He has given to us in His Son. And oh, what a Father we have. What a Father we have. When you pray according to His will, He is pleased. He's pleased to answer that prayer.

What a Savior we have, the Son of God who would give Himself up so that rebels and sinners could come, could draw near and forgive them, could call God our Father. Oh, what a spirit we have, crying out constantly for us, "Abba, Father," constantly stirring us back to the Father. What a mediator we have, that right now in heaven Jesus Christ is not standing off, saying, "Come and pray to Me." He is at the right hand of the Father praying for you. Right now Jesus Christ is bearing you up in prayer before the Father. What a privilege God has given us to pray. May we individually and as a church draw near to God in prayer.

[Prayer] Father, we thank You for Your word, for the riches of these simple words. Thank You, Jesus, that You teach us to pray. Lord, would You continue to help us long to pray? Lord, would we get around others who pray and learn from them, be inspired by them? Would we study the great prayers of the saints in Your word and in history? Would we be encouraged as we see You answering prayer?

Lord, would You remind us of our privilege that we have to call You Father? Teach us, Lord, to truly begin every prayer with that word and all that it entails: "Father." Would Your glory be first in our desires and all of our petitions? Would Your kingdom be what we're living for? However You've called us uniquely in our job and vocation and stage of life, would we be seeking Your kingdom?

Lord, teach us to bear our burdens before You of all the practical needs, the health needs, the financial needs, the relational needs. Thank You that You are concerned about those things. Teach us, Lord, to crave fellowship with You, to bring our sins before You, to confess them that we would enjoy communion with You. And Lord, would we be those who forgive? Would Trinity be a church that is known as those who forgive, those who are gracious, who are displaying the gospel in their relationships? And would you keep us from temptation? Keep us, Lord, from our enemies, from the world and its pull from the devil and its temptations from our own flesh. Keep us, Lord. Would you keep us? Thank you for this simple way to pray, Jesus, that You have given to us. And I thank You that You have given us Your Spirit and You will help us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.