 Today we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 4 here in Luke chapter 11 as we continue a verse by verse study in The Gospel of Luke and so let's begin reading together here in Luke chapter 11 verse 1 I'll read to verse 4 and we'll get into our study Luke chapter 11 beginning at verse 1 Luke writes now it came to pass as He was praying in a certain place when he ceased That one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples So he said to them when you pray Say our father in heaven Hollywood be your name Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us Do not lead us into temptation But deliver us from the evil one Jesus is about to give his disciples What has been referred to as the Lord's prayer? but the fact is this is not really the Lord's prayer because in this he's not specifically praying it would be more correct to call John 17 the Lord's prayer because in John chapter 17 Jesus is actually praying This would more correctly be called Jesus's model prayer because that's what he's doing He's teaching his disciples something about prayer as Is true with other teachings that Jesus gives in the New Testament. This is not the first time that he gives this particular lesson The other place that this particular prayer is mentioned is in Matthew chapter 6 and in that particular section The prayer that Jesus gives to them or models for them is part of what is called the Sermon on the Mount in that particular portion of scripture Jesus actually was emphasizing simplicity in prayer and Taught them something about prayer by using the Pharisees as an example of how not to pray and Another thing about that that makes it a bit different is that Matthew made it very clear that Jesus when he was teaching that lesson Was actually on a mountain but here Luke simply says that Jesus was praying in a certain place and so this prayer that he gives is very similar to almost identical to the prayer that he gave in the first place But it's actually a second time that he gives the same prayer And so what we'll do today as we'll look at chapter 11 at that prayer now notice as we look at this together It says that Jesus is is going to be actually responding to a specific request It says in verse 11 verse 1 chapter 11 It came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he sees that one of his disciples said to him Lord Teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. I want you to see that the the request is Lord. Teach us to pray Lord teach us to pray now. I find this interesting they use one They use John the Baptist as an example of somebody who obviously was one who prayed and who taught his disciples to pray But what I find interesting about this is that this is the only place you find in scripture That his disciples make a request like this and I want you to see this I want you to see that that they never ask in any of the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke nor John never do they ever ask Jesus to teach them how to preach They they never say Lord teach us to preach so that we can go forth in and we can communicate Teach us the the art of homiletics in order that we might be able to preach in such a way as to convince people Concerning the things that we have to say they never do that They never say Lord teach us to teach they never say to him teach us Exegetical methodology so that when we go through the scripture We might make sure that that we in when we give forth your word it comes out properly that we're not reading into it But actually presenting they don't say teach us how to teach they know where say to him teach us how to be leaders No, we're in scripture Do you ever see any of the apostles who are entrusted with taking this message out to the whole world? Do you ever see them say to him teach us to lead not one time Lord? Give us a seminar on leadership teach us the the prerequisites for a leadership How do we do that or how do we select leaders? They never do that They never say Lord teach us to organize teach us to do demographic studies They never say anything like that teach us to open a Starbucks. They never do anything like that They never ask for those kinds of of things at all and I find that Fascinating think about it for a minute if you were to walk up to the Lord and you were to say to God I want you to teach me to do something. What is it that you would ask him to teach you to do? What is it about Jesus Christ that was so? Stupendous so enormous so obvious that it caused his disciples to walk up to him and say we want you to teach us to do Something that John has taught his disciples to do we are asking you to teach us to pray We're not asking you to teach us to preach. We're not asking you to teach us to teach We're not asking you to teach us to organize. We're not asking you to teach us to lead We're not asking you to teach us how to do demographic studies. We are asking you to teach us how to pray teach us how to communicate with God. They saw something in Jesus' relationship with his father that was so fascinating and so extraordinary and so wonderful that their request to him was Lord, teach us how to pray. Jesus' prayer life was the center of his ministry. Luke has been highlighting it as we've gone through the gospel. Remember in chapter three, you don't have to turn here. You find it in verses 21 and 22. Remember how that when Jesus was baptized, the Bible says when Jesus was baptized by John while he prayed, heaven opened, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and his father spoke to him, you are my beloved son and you I am well pleased from the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, prayer was an earmark. In Luke 5.16, Luke tells us that he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and he would pray. In Luke chapter six verses 12 and 13, Luke writes that he went to a mountain, he prayed all night and then he chose the 12. And in Luke chapter nine verse 18, Luke mentions that he was alone praying when he asked the disciples who the crowd said he was. Prayer is earmarked throughout the gospel of Luke as a highlight of Jesus Christ and his ministry. His ministry was empowered through his time of prayer with his father and his prayer life left an impression on his disciples. There was something about his fellowship with his father that left a lasting impression on them and they wanted to have what he had. They wanted to have a fellowship with the father that was rich and powerful, that was alive and lasting. Why is that important? Why would Luke present to us the fact that his disciples approached Jesus and said, Lord, teach us how to pray? Well, one of the things we need to remember is that during the time of Christ, prayer was very much a part of Jewish daily life. As a matter of fact, devout Jews prayed three times a day. They would pray at nine in the morning, they would pray at noon, and they would also pray at three o'clock. The psalmist in Psalm 55 verse 17 said it this way, he said, evening, morning, and at noon, I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. And so Jews would pray three times a day, morning, noon, and early night. That was part of a devout Jews' prayer life. That was his daily religious ritual. In the morning and in the evening, they would repeat scripture, and one of the scriptures they would repeat is found in Deuteronomy chapter six verse four, the Lord is our hero Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord. And then they would possibly, and more than likely if you were devout, you would pray what was called the shmoneh sray, which is 18 prayers that they had for various occasions. And faithful Jews would pray all 18 prayers three times a day in an abbreviated version. Wherever a faithful Jew was, when it was time for prayer, they would stop and they would pray. No matter where. They do it, by the way, even to this day. The Hasidim, the Hasidic Jews, will do the same thing even to this day, even on an airplane. When we fly to Israel, and very often we will fly all airlines, and there will be Hasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews on the plane. And inevitably at dawn, first thing in the morning, you will see them in the back of the plane, and they have their shawls on and they're praying. When you get to Israel, you will see Hasidic Jews, Orthodox Jews, who will take the time during the day, no matter where they're at. They'll stand on a street corner. They may be at the western wall. Wherever they're at, at the time of prayer, they will put on their shawl and they will begin their prayers. You will see that even to this day. The Jews would celebrate. They would celebrate their ability to call on God. And for them, prayer was a wonderful privilege that God gave to them, and so they would pour out their hearts to the Lord in their communication to him. But unfortunately, during the time of Jesus Christ, they began to formalize ways to pray. And originally it was simply to encourage people to a life of prayer, but as is almost always the case, the formalization of prayer actually led to problems because what happened is ritual and repetition replaced a relationship and produced a religious behavior because ritual and repetition always will produce religious behavior. But it started taking the place of fellowship with God and communication with God because prayer at its simplest is simply communicating or speaking to the Lord. It's opening up your heart and speaking to him. And with good intentions, they desired to teach people that it's important to communicate to God and we have these 18 sets of prayers that you can, or 18 prayers that you can pray in and we want you to do so because it's a good thing to do and unfortunately it created a formal religion even though they had good intentions as it began to formulate these prayers and encourage people to these actions. What happened? Well basically five things happened during the time of Christ which is gonna give you some insight concerning why Jesus gives to us what has been referred to as the Our Father or the Lord's Prayer. Five basic things. Let me run them down to you very basically and then we're gonna look at this prayer together. But this is what was taking place during the time of the writing of the Gospel of Luke. This is what was taking place during the time of Jesus and this is why Jesus is teaching him what he is teaching them to do and this is why Jesus taught them twice the same basic prayer. See what happened is when you begin to ritualize in everything what happens is prayer becomes instead of relationship as I mentioned a moment ago. First thing is it becomes a ritual and therefore relationship is no longer there. What happens is a prayer becomes something that you memorize and then it's something that you repeat and as a result of that it loses its content. A second thing that developed was prayers for every object and occasion began to evolve and so they would pray for a rain. They would pray for light. They would pray for darkness. They would pray for a new moon or they would pray for good traveling. They would pray for good news. They would pray for bad news sometimes and what happened is the prayer replaced the ritual prayer replaced their fellowship with God and the simple relationship that they normally should have had. A third thing happened and that is they began to be offered at certain times of the day eclipsing a moment by moment prayer life. Paul tells us pray without ceasing. It's not that I wake up in the morning and just keep talking until I go to sleep. It speaks about a moment by moment relationship with God where you're driving in your car and you're speaking out loud to him or if you're doing so you better hope there's somebody sitting next to you so people driving by don't think you're crazy but you have this moment by moment conversation. I know you have that I do too. There are times when I'm driving or wherever it is wherever I am it doesn't really matter because you can pray wherever you are at any given time and I might just begin to pray and I'll just say something simple to him Lord you see what's going on here can you help me with this or father I don't know what I'm supposed to do about that and that is more of a relational kind of thing in terms of prayer but what happened is they ritualized it and it began to lose its meaning. A couple of other things you might find interesting is long prayers came into fashion during that time. Long prayers came into fashion. Jesus actually spoke against that practice in Matthew 23 because in Matthew 23 verse 14 he was speaking to the scribes and Pharisees the religious leadership of Israel and he said to them what would he use scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayers therefore you will receive greater condemnation and so long prayers came into fashion and somebody would just become very wordy and once again you don't really need to have that many words when you're communicating to the Lord and the result, the fifth thing it led to insincerity and hypocrisy. Insincerity and hypocrisy. Jesus mentioned that in the Sermon on the Mountain in Matthew chapter six verse five when he said when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. As shortly I say to you they have their reward. They like to pray in services but they also like to pray out there on the street corners, why? Because they are crowded because there are avenues of thoroughfare people congregate and so as the time of prayer hits they begin to pray and then the people will see them and that's why Jesus said that they may be seen by men. You see sincerity is a prime requisite in every approach to the God who requires truth in the inward parts and who hates all hypocrisy, falsehood and deceit. So the purpose of their prayers began to be seen by men and that's what happens when you ritualize prayer. You see our personal time with God is often behind closed doors. Jesus referred to it as the secret place. The secret place that he said that we should go to in our prayer life is our place of intimate communion with him and the truest and most secret place that we have will always be our hearts and the Bible tells us in Hebrews 4.13 that all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And so rather than standing on a street corner or making long wordy prayers in synagogue services Jesus would be speaking against that practice by saying you have ritualized and formalized a relationship with God. You have made it what it's not to be. You have taken your fellowship with God and you have exchanged it for an appearance of a fellowship with God and that's what religion at its heart is guys. Religion at its heart is simply doing external things because they have a certain appearance that people have deemed to be spiritual and as a result of that you can have a very religious appearance and people who will defend you and say oh this is a very religious person and when asked why are they religious they will probably say because they love to pray because they love to give because they love and what they're talking about is these are things that we have seen them do that's why Jesus when he speaks in Matthew concerning hypocrisy and all that's why Jesus in Matthew chapter six speaks about the external aspects of religion as he discusses fasting and giving and praying because we can as believers have an outward appearance that we are doing religious things when in reality our words may be abundant but our hearts are far from God and as a result of that I can even with my many words actually be more of an offense to God than to be one who blesses him. What does Jesus teach us to do? Well he would teach us to speak our hearts to the Lord and to avoid ritualized prayer he would have us to enjoy our talks with the Lord. You know I enjoy time with my wife I enjoy time with my children I as a person enjoy the time that God gives to me with my grandson I enjoy that I really do my grandson has gotten into the habit Josiah has gotten into the habit of whenever he's upset with his mom he will say to my daughter Corinne I wanna go to grandma's house and live there I'm packing up and I'm moving over there you know he does that now and he's more than welcome by the way I wouldn't mind him doing that but maybe I can get him to do that someday but he says that and so today I was speaking to him and I said to him I said I understand that when you're upset at your mama that you will say to her that you wanna go and live at grandma's house and you wanna be with grandma cause Corinne had just told me that and he says no I didn't say that he said I wanna live with you I don't wanna be with grandma I said good boy good boy you've learned your lessons well but you know I had him just today I he was in the office with me and I hadn't seen him I had I was out of the office on Monday and Tuesday I returned today and I hadn't seen him for a couple of days and he came into the room and before you know it he's sitting on the couch next to me and then before you know it he's sitting on my lap and then he's laying his head on my shoulder and now I'm kissing his forehead and just touching and holding him and loving him I wasn't looking at my wife saying oh yes it's time for me to do that you know it's two o'clock and that's the time I'm supposed to be holding him I don't ritualize that I don't ritualize fellowship I don't ritualize love I don't make that part of the agenda of my day I have to schedule in some time with my kids or my grandson if I don't do that with my wife you know okay honey it's seven o'clock we need to get to the Starbucks and get some coffee because you know we are gonna have some time you and I I don't do that and none of you do either because that's just not real now is it that's just not real we enjoy our moments together and we schedule each other in as the Lord gives us access to but that doesn't mean that we we have to say well okay it's three o'clock I better talk to Marie it's two o'clock I better call up and see how David's doing don't do that at all why would I do that with the Lord why would I do that with him why would I say oh it's morning it's noon it's three o'clock I better pray I better stop whatever I'm doing and pray and make sure that everybody sees that I'm doing that too you don't do it and so Jesus is speaking about that and he's saying listen you need to have a relationship with God and don't be a repetitious individual which I find interesting because in Matthew when Jesus is speaking and giving this model prayer in Matthew chapter six listen to what he says in verse seven when he says when you pray do not use vain repetitions as they heathen do for they think that they will be heard for there are many words do not use vain repetition but I have to tell you when I grew up I was taught the our Father and I was taught to repeat this prayer at certain times in certain places and it was taught to me in an exact opposite of what Jesus intended to communicate I know people to this day who will do the our Father in a ritualized sense contrary to what Jesus had just said when he said don't use vain repetition as the heathen do they will do it they will do the our Father and various other prayers because they were told this is what you need to do it's the opposite of what Jesus Christ taught us to do I find it fascinating that if a person were simply to read the Bible look into Matthew chapter six and see what Jesus is speaking about get its context understand its meaning you would suddenly realize that he's not teaching me to formally say these words as if they are a magic mantra that if I repeat God somehow is going to listen and do what I'm asking and so we need to see what he's talking about as we look at this particular portion of scripture one I'll ask two questions and then get into this a little more what is prayer? I've already mentioned its communication to God its fellowship and friendship and relationship with the Lord but somebody once wrote that prayer is a sincere sensible affectionate pouring out of the soul to God through Christ in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit for such things as God has promised and that I think is a good definition of prayer and as I pour out my soul to the Lord and as I know the word of God and I say Lord you have said so in your word therefore I pray according to your word and I'm asking for your hand of assistance in my life as I do so I'm evidencing dependence I'm evidencing faith I'm evidencing communion I'm evidencing a love relationship with God and I am also showing sincerity as I do so so what is prayer? Prayer is pouring your heart out to God in fellowship making your needs known to him and trusting that he'll meet them and secondly how then am I to pray? Well Jesus tells us that here in verse two he says to him when you pray say in other words along these lines I'm telling you to pray I'm not saying repeat these words without sincerity but I'm telling you this is what I want you to know about prayer and how do you pray? Well notice how he begins we all know this we were all taught this at one point in another in our life but let's look at it a little bit at a time and you're gonna see why I can only take you to four verses today rather than the thirteen he begins by saying this our Father in heaven when it comes to prayer guys prayer is based on your relationship to God as your Father prayer is based on a relationship with the God that you have trusted for salvation Christians understand prayer to be an outpouring of a heart that has been redeemed that is in relationship with God we speak not to that some great power up there or the spirit in the sky or some awesome presence or some cosmic consciousness we say our Father because we have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ in John 1 verses 12 and 13 Jesus said as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood nor of the will of flesh nor of the will of man but those who have been born of God we received him and to those who have received him to them gave he the power to become sons of God even unto those who have what believed on his name I have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ that's why I as a Christian can say unto him my Father our Father the Bible in Galatians chapter 3 verse 26 says you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ that's how you become a son of God I mentioned recently God has no grandchildren he only has his children he has no grandchildren just because my mom or my dad are a saved people does not mean that I automatically enter into heaven because I don't enter in based on their relationship with him I enter into heaven based on a personal relationship with him he is my God I am his son and I can speak in that way it's interesting in the Old Testament God reveals himself to the nation of Israel and in various times he will address himself with with an identification from the very beginning in the book of Genesis for example in the Hebrew language in reference to God the word Elohim will be used and that word Elohim in the Old Testament the Hebrew word is a word that is used over 2,500 times it begins in Genesis and continues on through the entire Old Testament or God may be referred to by the word Adonai the word Adonai in Scripture means the Lord or the Master and you see him addressed in that way of various times you see it in Genesis 15 verse 1 and other places there are times that he reveals himself by the name roughly translated Jehovah the word Jehovah in identifying God is used 5,321 times it's used very commonly in the Old Testament you find it mentioned in Exodus chapter 3 verses 13 through 15 when the Lord God is revealing himself in a covenantal way to a man by the name of Moses and so you see him referring him to himself as Jehovah but then you have what are called compound names he will refer to himself for example as Jehovah Jaira you find that in Genesis 22,14 and that simply means the Lord will provide he is Jehovah Rafa the Lord my healer he is Jehovah Nisi the Lord my banner he is Jehovah Shalom the Lord my peace he is Jehovah Ra'a the Lord my shepherd Jehovah sitgenud the Lord our righteousness Jehovah Shama the Lord who is there he is Jehovah Sabaat the Lord of hosts he's referred to as Al Shaddai the Almighty God Al Elion the Most High God Al Olam the Everlasting God you see this all through the Old Testament but in the Old Testament he never reveals himself in a personal way the way Jesus Christ teaches us in the Old Testament though it does say the Lord is truly our God and he is our Father we are the clay and he is the potter but the fact is it is speaking in a general sense how that God created the nation of Israel and so when the writer Isaiah makes point that God is our Father he's not saying that God has a personal relationship with me in the sense that Jesus brings about in the New Testament you see in the Old Testament there are these variety of ways to express who God is but in the New Testament Jesus gives us something that the Old doesn't he says he's your Father and that is the most tender loving name that God has he's your Father now I realize that some people didn't have a good relationship with their Father and have a very difficult time with that concept I understand that and that's a growing problem even today and more so today than ever before frankly but a Father who loves you and a Father who cares for you a Father who provides for you a Father who defends you a Father who would do anything for you is a Father to be loved and Jesus says he's our Father you need to understand that tonight he's your Father he's your Father you know and Jesus taught us that he said he can be your Father he can be the one who loves you who cares you, who carries you and ministers to you I was talking to my daughter Corinne the other day I speak to her even though she's a woman who's and we got a baby we're gonna have our second baby real soon my second grandchild a little girl and she's a woman you know married with her babies and all but just the other day I was talking to her and as a dad does she came into my office and I was sitting there talking to her and just started reminiscing as fathers can and I'm one who does and I said you know baby girl I said just let me tell you something about my relationship with you as a baby you know she was talking about the fact that she's about to give birth to her little girl I said you know and when you were getting your first shot and then we took you into the doctor's office and the nurse I carried you in and the nurse looks at the nurse looked at Marie and looked at me and said we're gonna have to hold her we're gonna give her a shot and she was just a tiny little thing and I held her and as I held her in my hands and they pulled her a little diaper down and they put that shot and my daughter Corinne actually stiffened up and leaned back and looked me straight in the eyes like what are you doing man and I have to tell you I started to cry I have to tell you I told her I said I cried when you got your first shot I said when you learned to walk I drove up the driveway one time and you were just learning to walk and you saw daddy and she raised her hand up and she started saying daddy daddy I said you raised your hand you ran to me but I could see you were gonna trip because there was an incline and I knew you were gonna trip and mama didn't see you in time and you tripped and you fell and you scratched yourself I still remember that and I started to cry when I told her you know I said I picked you up and I held you and I wept like I am right now I said because I want to tell you something I want to say this to you when you were born the Lord put into my heart to do everything I could to give you joy in your life and to see you hurt broke my heart and that's an evil wicked father I'm only quoting Jesus because in verse 13 of the same chapter Luke 11 13 Jesus said if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him I'm just an evil father but I love my baby and I would lay my life down for her in a heartbeat without a thought as any other parent in this room would do for yours without a thought take my life spare hers my mama used to tell me that when the sun would shine on my face and I'd get uncomfortable she said I used to get angry at the sun and I would think oh mama that's a very dramatic way to put it you know very kind of you to say that but you know then I had my baby and we're driving and I'd hear her squirming in that back seat in a little car seat and I'd turn around and I'd see the sun on her and I'd look up at the sun and I'd get angry at the sun you know I understand what mama was saying you really can get frustrated because of the discomfort that life can produce in a child's life if I then being evil know how to give a good gift to my child what is a better gift than to love them what is a better gift than to lay your life down for what is better than that and I know how to do that and I would be willing to do that and I'm an evil father so one I've come to understand and am learning to understand that our God is our father and our father loves us and that's what Jesus wants us to know he's not distant it's not a ritual it's a fellowship with a father our father he says in heaven so a second thing obviously is our father is in heaven and as he says our father in heaven hallowed or hallowed be your name because he does dwell in heaven he is reverenced with godly fear that word hallowed or holy speaks of his character it speaks of his plan and it speaks of his will the knowledge that we have a heavenly father who is holy is intended to cause us to approach his throne with soberness and a worshipful heart this knowledge of God's holiness does not keep us from approaching him but it does encourage us to come in with a sobriety and a reverence for him our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name he says your kingdom come our desires should be God's rule throughout the universe it is our longing as believers to see Jesus rule and to see Jesus reign on earth your kingdom come in Psalm 94 verse 3 the scripture says Lord how long will the wicked how long will the wicked triumph and every godly person has the agony in their heart where they're saying may your kingdom come even as a Psalmist in Psalm 90 verse 13 says return oh Lord how long have compassion on your servants your kingdom come I long for the day when we don't have people running for office lying to us and we have to choose between the one who lies the less I look forward to the time when we have a righteous rulership therefore your kingdom may come he goes on to say your will be done on earth as it is in heaven may your will be done on earth in other words may we be those who perform your will let us do those things that are pleasing to you may your will be done on earth even as you have ruled in heaven may you rule on earth and may you rule in our hearts your will be done now I find it interesting how it doesn't say my will be done and I have to say this briefly there is a certain teaching that some of you have perhaps heard and some of you may have come out of that basically says find something in scripture and they demand it from God find a scripture that you want to use as a club if you will against God and say you said it therefore you need to do it one of the safest things you can do if not the safest thing in prayer is just to say Lord your will be done I mean Jesus himself said not my will but yours be done and if the son said that to his father who am I to demand that he does what I want him to do you know the Lord can give us our requests but even as the psalmist said he will send leanness to our soul I might be able to twist his arm until he gives to me even as Ezekiah said I don't want to die when God said prepare for your going to and he puts his face against the wall and the king cries because he's going to die and the Lord grants him several more years doesn't allow him to go at that point but ultimately what happens is he has a son Manasseh who became one of the most evil kings that the nation ever saw and so we can ask we can say oh God but may your will be done not ours years ago we had a young lady in our fellowship I performed her marriage she and her husband were dear to me and I had known them for a while when they got married I performed her wedding their wedding actually and she became pregnant with her first child and we got a prayer request would you please pray that she might give birth in a natural sense because they're talking about doing a C-section and she doesn't want a C-section she wants to give birth in a natural way and all and so we prayed and as a church we prayed and this is basically what we prayed Father your will be done you know her desire your will be done your will be done and she was crying and crying and crying and because they had to do a C-section and she was so upset she had a C-section she wanted for some reason to go the other route you know but she had a C-section when they opened her up the doctor said this is this is just so good that we took this baby out C because they did not know that the umbilical cord had wrapped around the baby's head and had that baby come through the birth canal the doctor said your child would have been born strangled to death stillborn because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and through natural birth and the time that it takes your baby would have died and we didn't say Lord we are praying for this particular we simply said thy will be done and it is so wise to just trust the Lord who knows everything and first John chapter 5 verse 14 John said it this way John said this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and so we say Lord whatever your will be done may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven may you rule heaven and earth he says give us this day our daily bread Lord we want to have a true and a real dependence on you therefore we pray that you would provide everything that we truly need we ask that you would provide our physical needs for your word tells us in Philippians 419 that my God shall supply all my need according to your riches in glory in Christ Jesus and so I ask that you Lord will supply my need not my greed I mean I could ask you for a thousand things that are greedy what I'm asking you for are the things that I need he said give us this day our daily bread not our weekly bread not our monthly bread not our yearly bread may we have a day by day dependence on you Lord he goes on to say in verse 4 and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us forgive us our sins which is something that God is quick to do the Bible makes it very clear if we confess our sin that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so we come to him and we say God forgive us and he is quick to do so the Bible in Nehemiah 9 verse 17 says you are a God ready to pardon gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and so we can come to him in that way and we can say God forgive us of our sins and God says I do forgive you I wash you with the blood of Jesus Christ but he also says that we are to forgive everyone who is indebted to us Lord you have forgiven me now I ask that I might have the grace to forgive those who have hurt me I ask that I might be able to reflect the reality of a knowledge of sins forgiven by being a person who forgives also there are those who say I've been forgiven who will not release and it's interesting because sin is spoken of as a debt here somebody has hurt me they owe me but I am to have a willingness to release them from that debt in Ephesians 4 32 the scripture says to be kind one to another tenderhearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you if I have been forgiven in other words I forgive somebody else and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one Lord sometimes as we follow you and we follow the leading of what we believe is your spirit we may actually put ourselves in a position that is really not spirit led but is flesh led so I pray that you're leading in my life will be so clear that I will be able with no mistake to follow you you see sometimes people will say well the Lord has led me to be a witness and I want a witness and I would say well amen to that and the Lord is leading me to witness to people who were like I was and I'd say more than likely is so I was an alcoholic I'm going to a bar on Friday night I'd say I don't know about that well why not where's your grace these people need the Lord too well of course they need the Lord too but is it possible if you go into that bar to lead the alcoholics to Christ that you might find yourself in temptation is it possible that you might be there seated next to somebody on a bar stool sharing the Lord and they say can I buy you a drink I'm interested is it possible that you might drink that beer and as you drink that beer might want a second one to show that you're not a legalist to show that you're in the grace of God is it possible that by the spirits leading he wants you to be led to speak to people about his love is it possible that you may mistake his leading for something that he's really not leading you into and enter into temptation all along thinking God led you there and the answer is yes it is possible so be very careful that when you're making determinations that you don't just jump into the decision but that you seek the Lord get Godly counsel if necessary and then move out as he leads because sometimes you might feel that the spirit of the Lord is leading you somewhere when in reality it is your flesh deliver us from the evil one Lord we do not belong to him though we walk in a world that is ruled by him you have overcome the wicked one and through you we will too and so Lord I pray that we might learn to depend on you constantly walk in your spirit become overcomers and have fellowship that doesn't lead to religious access and legalism but might be fresh in relationship with you because when it's all said and done you are our father and we love you