The Request to Pray
Well, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. And we're going to look at the Lord's Prayer this morning as we see Jesus' disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to pray.
Over the years, I've been around several people that refuse to take no for an answer. I've seen this many times in the grocery store line or at Walmart or Target when a young mother or father are taking their toddler to the checkout only to be interrupted by a tantrum of, "I want the candy bar. Give me a candy bar. I need a candy bar." And that suddenly turns into tears and raised voices, tantrums and stamping of feet and all kinds of things.
I've seen things thrown. I've seen kids try to jump out of the stroller—not stroller, out of the cart. I've seen people or kids try to run from their parents in an effort to get what they want. They just simply refuse to take no for an answer.
Or what about the coworker who is desperate to get a coalition built around their cause and their project and they refuse to take no for an answer? They demand that you provide the data that they desperately need. They demand that you help them make the presentation that's going to have to be given. They demand that you attend certain meetings as a part of this project. And all the while they refuse to take no for an answer.
Have you ever been around a Christian who refuses to take no for an answer?
Persistent Faith in the Gospel
A believer who is so convinced of the gospel that they can't help but share it. They want everybody to believe it, and they don't want to take no for an answer. These kinds of Christians are persistent. They share their faith with contagious infection. They are excited about Jesus and they want other people to know him, and they refuse to simply be dismissed or allow Jesus to be ignored.
All of these examples seem to serve the point that there are people and there are circumstances in which we demand and we are persistent in our request. As Jesus' disciples are learning at his feet, traveling with him from place to place, they come to him with their own request and they are insistent that he teach them how to pray.
I've made the point as we've been working through Luke's Gospel that this is Luke's biography of the life and ministry of Jesus. It's not a chronological sequence of his events as much as it is a thematic presentation so that believers can be convinced of Christ and all of his claims.
Luke has already made it clear that no one can earn their salvation. Chapter 10 was Luke presenting Jesus and his rebuttal to self-righteousness, where people were proud of what they had done or what they could do. And Luke said that believers, quoting Jesus, should simply rejoice that our names are written in heaven. We shouldn't boast in what he's called us to do.
The Context of the Lord's Prayer
We should instead do it because of who he is. And we should also do it because of how much he loves us. When it comes to the topic of prayer, we see Jesus praying throughout his life and ministry.
And in Luke chapter 11, Luke records for us the Lord's Prayer in particular. This is a prayer that's familiar to many of us as we have recited it perhaps from when we were young children. Maybe we've recited it in church services aloud together. Maybe we've even memorized the words of the Lord's Prayer.
But most of us have memorized the version that is recorded in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 6. Here in chapter 11 of Luke's Gospel, he presents a shortened version of the Lord's Prayer as a response to the disciples' request for him to teach them how to pray.
The disciples wanted their master to teach them how to pray because they had seen him commit so much effort to prayer. Think of this. The disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them anything. They could have said, "Jesus, teach us how to be better preachers, how to proclaim the kingdom and the gospel." They could have also come to him and said, "Show us how to perform more miracles."
But instead of preaching or miracles, they asked Jesus how to pray. They knew that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, prioritized prayer during his time on earth. And if Jesus made prayer such a high priority, then they realized it needed to be a priority for them as well.
The disciples witnessed Jesus' personal commitment to prayer, and they wanted to learn about the content of his prayers. They probably had heard Jesus pray multiple times, and we sometimes think of the disciples as falling asleep when Jesus prayed. But now they wanted a pattern for their own prayers so that they could continue their fellowship with God, as Luke records this account of Jesus teaching the disciples to pray.
Prayer as a Unifying Force
Really, what he's helping them understand is that prayer will unify the church. Prayer will unify the church. And I see several reasons that this is the case in our text this morning.
So let me read from Luke chapter 11, verses 1 through 13. One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray," just as John taught his disciples. He said to them, "When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation."
Then Jesus said to them, "Suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. A friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer him.' And suppose the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be open. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
Here Jesus, in just a few short verses, provides a master class in communication with God.
A Model for Communication with God
In the first section of this passage, Jesus provides a model prayer for his disciples. Again, as Luke is writing, he's recording the events of Jesus' life so that future believers could be convinced of Christ's deity and authority.
Luke begins this section by saying one day Jesus was praying in a certain place. This is extremely ambiguous. The date and the location were secondary to Luke because the primary focus was on Jesus' model prayer.
Throughout Jesus' life and ministry, Jesus stopped to pray. He prayed at his baptism in Luke chapter 3 and when he called his disciples in Luke chapter 6. Several times, including at the Transfiguration, he withdrew to pray alone. But he also prayed with others. On the eve of his betrayal, he prayed in the garden. And finally, even in his dying breaths on the cross, he prayed.
So on this day, it says when Jesus finished praying, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray," just as John taught his disciples to pray. Again, Jesus is found praying in the presence of his disciples, and his prayer is compelling. They're not watching him and going, "Goodness, what time is it? When is this guy going to be done? Why does he take so much time in prayer?" Instead, they were eager for him to finish so they could ask how they could learn to pray the way he did.
Apparently, the disciples wanted Jesus to teach them his distinctive content, perhaps his outline or his framework. There were other Jewish teachers in the first century, including John the Baptist, who taught their followers how to pray. But now the disciples wanted Jesus to teach them how to pray so they could pray like him.
Luke's shorter version of this prayer is different than the longer version recorded in Matthew's gospel in Matthew 6:9-13. Both versions of the prayer parallel one another with minor variations. No doubt Jesus probably taught them this prayer more than once. And as Matthew and Luke recalled it, they recorded it differently not because there were contradictions, but because it hit them differently in different contexts. In Matthew in particular, Jesus was giving a corrective as a contrast to the prayer of religious hypocrites. Now here in Luke, Jesus is sharing a model prayer with content for his disciples to imitate.
Jesus' prayer gives us multiple reasons that we should pray. He starts with our Father in heaven who hears our prayers. Then he shows that this Father is perfectly holy and worthy of all of our worship. So we should long for his authority over all the earth. And in our lives, he also shows that the Heavenly Father provides everything that we need for our daily sustenance. And then he forgives our sins and prevents temptation. Thus, Jesus says, when we pray, he tells us what to say in our prayers. Jesus did not mean here to limit his disciples to these words or sentences that the only thing we can pray is this?
A Unified Group of Believers
No, that's not his point. He is offering here a model or an outline for our praying. Jesus expected his disciples to pray in their own words, in their own way, with their own personality. But the content of their prayer would define the disciples as a unified group of believers. They would have the same reasons for prayer, the same motivations, and the same desires when they went to their heavenly Father.
Jesus' model prayer does not provide a checklist of all the disciples' wants and needs. This isn't like a typical church meeting where he says, "What would you like us to pray for? John, how's your elbow after the injury that you had last week? Mary, how's your toe fungus that you've been getting treated? Herman, how's your grandfather?" He doesn't do any of that in this particular prayer. I'm making fun of it a little bit because sometimes our prayers are so low level that it's almost an insult to God's sovereign power. It's not to say that he doesn't care about elbow injuries or toe fungus or grandparents, but it is to say that he cares about so much more than those.
So Jesus says when we pray, this is how we ought to pray. We should pray with content that would define us as Christians. And this content would provide the reasons for our prayer. Jesus' model here starts with total dependence on God and a recognition of his holiness. Then he prays for the Father to extend his sovereign rule over all the earth, that he would provide for the necessities of life and the forgiveness of sins and provide deliverance from temptation.
Jesus provided this model so that his disciples would become ultimately a church. Other Jewish rabbis taught their students how to pray, but Jesus taught the disciples Christian reasons for prayer. His model would define the disciples as different from John's followers or some other rabbis' followers. If they prayed like Jesus, it would mark them as Christ followers.
In this prayer, Jesus started with "Father" in verse 2. He says, "Father," to help the disciples recognize the importance of his heavenly Father and the God who wanted a relationship with his children. This form of address was recognizing the Father's authority as God, as well as his love and affection for his disciples. Jesus demonstrated that the Father was not distant or far removed from the affairs of human beings, but that we have a Father who hears our prayers. So when we pray, we can approach God as one who knows us and loves us.
Next, Jesus directed the disciples to pray, "Hallowed be your name." Hallowed is not a word that we use in modern English or parlance, but he's simply directing the disciples to remember God's perfect holiness. No one apart from Jesus Christ or God the Father or the Spirit of God possesses perfect righteousness. Our human beings are sinners who fall short of the glory of God. So God's name must be honored above all other names, and his name should be made known to everyone. We honor God the Father when we pray because he is perfectly holy and he is worthy of our worship. When we say, "Hallowed be your name," we are saying that God alone is worthy of our worship more than any other person in our life. As much as we may love a parent or a grandparent, as much as we might like one of our friends, only God's name is holy. Only God's name is sacred and should command our attention.
Then Jesus encouraged the disciples to pray for the kingdom to come. He says, "Your kingdom come." The Jews longed for the day when God would exercise his divine authority and justice to restore Israel. But Jesus did not come as a political Messiah. His mission was not to deliver Israel from Rome. Jesus prayed for God the Father to reveal his authority over all the earth and establish his kingdom. As Jesus' disciples, we pray for God's sovereign rule to be made known. Though there are many rulers in this world and there are many who rise up against God, one day God's kingdom will squash them all and his rule and reign will be forever.
Next, Jesus addressed the disciples' daily need for nourishment. No doubt, as they traveled from house to house, making their way ultimately to Jerusalem, they experienced hunger and being tired because they didn't always have a place to stay and they didn't always know where their next meal was coming from. So Jesus said, "Give us each day our daily bread." God the Father provides for his children each and every day. He does not supply everything in advance and sort of top up your bank account and say that should do until you die. But instead, he promises everything we need along the way.
Notice again, he doesn't promise everything that we want. Not like the petulant child at the checkout who's saying, "Give me, give me, give me." Instead, God is saying that we can pray, asking for our daily necessities, and he will attend to them. God the Father, in fact, uses our daily need for food to prompt prayerful dependence. Yet think about how far removed we are from that dependence.
Most of us think that food just magically appears at restaurants in exchange for money, or that it magically appears at the grocery store in exchange for money. And yet, food comes at great cost. The burger you might enjoy for lunch or the chicken sandwich you might have at Chick-fil-A later this week came at the cost of a creature's life. And yet, God promises he'll provide all we need to sustain our lives.
Jesus teaches his disciples and us to depend on the Father's provisions every day. And last, Jesus prayed, "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation." Jesus had no need for forgiveness himself, but he taught his disciples to admit their own sinfulness and ask for forgiveness from God. Jesus gave the disciples this pattern for ongoing confession and the need that they would have to forgive one another.
The spirit of forgiveness marks true disciples of Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus emphasized the forgiveness of sins throughout his teaching. All the way back in chapter 7, he introduced it, and the scribes and the Pharisees accused him of blasphemy. Yet, "since God forgives our sins, we must also forgive others who sin against us," he says. If we cannot forgive or if we choose to remain unforgiving, then we may not have received God's forgiveness in the first place.
In other words, Christians can forgive. That doesn't mean that it's easy or that we forgive and forget. That is nonsense. Forgiveness is difficult, and we don't do it because we're morally upright people or because we're somehow more virtuous than the scoundrel that needs us to forgive them. No, we forgive because God has forgiven us and we realize how much God has given us through Jesus Christ. We should never lose sight of our dependence on the righteousness of Jesus. So when we ask for forgiveness of our sins, we're not asking because we lost forgiveness. We're asking because we're being reminded anew of just how far we have fallen from God's glory.
Ultimately, the content of Jesus' model prayer forms a community of faith. It started with Jesus' disciples. Again, they came to him and said, "Teach us how to pray." And this community of faith continues from every generation down to us. Christians prayerfully acknowledge our dependence on God the Father. And while we should use Jesus' model prayer for our private devotion, what's more significant is how this prayer shapes us collectively into the people of God.
This is why in some church traditions they recite the Lord's Prayer every Sunday. Sadly, it can become rote and something that thoughtlessly falls off of our tongues. And yet this prayer, when we meditate on it and when we repeat these themes in our hearts and minds, brings us together in a way that is powerful.
Ladies, you'll have to forgive this illustration. But with college and professional football seasons about to start, we could think about Jesus' model prayer like a football team's playbook. Each coaching staff has a unique playbook for their team philosophy and their specific plays, and many of them sound like gibberish and a foreign language. It's almost nonsensical. But in their team practices, the coaches teach their athletes their playbooks. Then those individual athletes must memorize the playbook until it becomes second nature in their minds.
Once the athletes learn the playbook and the team knows the plays inside and out because they practiced them together, they experience incredible results on the field. Even when a play goes wrong, they tend to know why it went wrong because they understood the play. They remembered the details. The quarterback should know where to throw the ball. The running back should know when he should take the ball and run or when he should block a linebacker. A receiver knows when to expect a timing pass, where to be on the field, and when to turn. And the defense knows how to cover the opposing offense.
The playbook unifies the team. Without the playbook, they would just be a bunch of talented athletes running around the field doing the best they could, but there'd be at least 10 other guys on their team doing their own thing. They need a playbook to bring them together.
Jesus' model prayer, usually called the Lord's Prayer, provides the church with an important playbook. He gave us specific content to direct our prayers and to underscore our dependence on the Heavenly Father. When we commit to pray this way as the people of God, he transforms us individually and corporately. Prayer unites the church around Jesus' priorities. That's why when we have a prayer meeting, though we want to show concern and care for one another, and we can ask for personal requests and make those known, but really what we ought to do when we gather to pray as a group is pray according to Jesus' kingdom priorities.
That we would recognize our Heavenly Father, that we would worship him and bring honor to his name, asking for his kingdom to come to the ends of the earth, recognizing our dependence on him for every need that we have, and praying for the forgiveness of sins, both in our lives and our church, but also in the lives of people that we come into contact with. As we pray those kinds of prayers, it touches every sphere of life and it makes us the church.
Most people, if we were to go out on the street this afternoon, if you were to walk through the Avalon and just say, "Can I pray for you? What would you like me to pray for?" Some would recoil and say, "Well, you're weird." But some might say, "Wow, thank you for asking. My mother is sick. She's in the hospital. Would you pray for her?" Or, "I'm facing a really serious decision and I don't know what to do. Can you pray for that?"
People on their own, even apart from God, have felt needs that they want to pray for. But Jesus is directing his disciples above the felt needs and giving them reasons to pray according to the principles of his kingdom. He provides a model prayer, and secondly, he expects persistent prayer to flow out of that. Jesus expects persistent prayer to flow out.
The Parable of Persistent Prayer
After Jesus models prayer, or gives his disciples his model prayer, he told them two parables. Jesus used parables throughout his teaching ministry to illustrate spiritual truths with relatable stories. His parables were not primarily intended to be spiritual allegories filled with symbolic meaning. Instead, he was connecting his teaching with people's lives through simple, powerful stories.
So Jesus said to them in verse 5, "Suppose you have a friend and you go to him at night." Immediately, Jesus drew the disciples into a familiar scene. As they were traveling throughout Judea and Samaria, they had arrived at multiple people's homes and probably late at night. Jesus and the disciples were dependent on people's hospitality for their food, for their shelter, as they made their way to Jerusalem. There was no Motel 6 with the light on, and there was no 24-hour drive-through at Whataburger. Instead, they depended on the mercy of other people.
But in this case, as Jesus is painting a picture with this parable, he's not describing what had happened to them. He's giving them a scenario to help them understand persistence. Jesus describes here a desperate host. He says, "Suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.'" This man shows up at his friend's house hungry and tired, desperate for some help. But his friend cannot feed him because he's run out of food. So his friend goes to his neighbor and asks for bread.
When he asked for three loaves of bread, we might picture three large loaves of Wonder Bread or Publix bread or whatever, but that's really not what's in view. Picture three small, almost rolls of bread, like giving someone three of Sister Schubert's biscuits just to make you a little bit hungry. But the idea is, the man came to his friend's house that he knew where he would be received, but the friend had nothing to give him. So this friend got up out of his bed and went next door asking for help.
But Jesus paints another part of the picture. He said, "Suppose the neighbor, the one inside, answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked and my children and I are in bed. I can't give you anything.'" This would have been a highly unusual response because in first-century Palestine, people showed this kind of hospitality. But the challenge was most people in first-century Palestine lived in single-room dwellings. So to wake up the father would likely involve waking up everyone in the household. In Jesus' parable, this tired father who's already locked the door, has everyone settled in bed, says to his desperate and needy neighbor, "Leave us alone."
So Jesus turned this story into a lesson about persistent prayer. The cultural expectations would have been within bounds for this man to ask for help with bread, and for him to keep asking until he was given what was needed. This is why Jesus says in verse 8, "I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need."
The word translated "shameless audacity" is also translated with an older word, "impudence." The idea here is that there was a man who is begging desperately, asking for help with a sense of urgency. He needs his request met. And this desperate man would boldly and persistently make the request known until he received his answer. He shamelessly asked for help until his neighbor responded. Notice he doesn't shame the neighbor. He just keeps asking and won't take no for an answer. He's not manipulative. He's not pitching a fit. He just keeps asking.
Therefore, Jesus instructed his disciples to be persistent in the same way with the Lord's Prayer. Notice in context, Jesus is not saying, "Be like the child at the checkout line and say, 'Please, please, please, give me, give me, give me.'" Jesus is saying, "Pray the Lord's Prayer with this kind of persistence."
So he says to them in verse 9, "Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you." The verbs "ask," "seek," and "knock" could also be translated "keep asking," "keep seeking," and "keep knocking." Jesus wanted his disciples to keep praying without getting tired or giving up.
But note again, they should be praying the kinds of themes that are found in the Lord's Prayer. Keep recognizing that you have a Father who is holy. Keep honoring this Father and begging him to bring his kingdom to bear on this earth. Keep seeking for the Lord to provide all that you need for your daily nutrition. And keep persistently imploring God for forgiveness and the capacity to forgive those who sin against you. Jesus wanted his disciples to keep praying and trusting the Father's sovereign plan. God hears our prayers and he answers us. This is why Jesus continues, "Everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be open."
God graciously responds to our prayers with answers, with guidance, and with opportunities. Our generous and loving Father answers our prayers not because of our persistence, but according to his divine pleasure and will. He tells us what to pray for, and he wants to bring that into our lives, into our church, and into our world.
One commentator has said this: "It has well been noted that the purpose of prayer is not to get man's will done in heaven, but to get God's will done on earth." Prayer is asking God to use us to accomplish what he wants so that his name is glorified, his kingdom is extended and strengthened, and his will is done.
Let me repeat a phrase from that quote where he says, "the purpose of prayer is not to get man's will done in heaven, but to get God's will done on earth." Simply put, Jesus is teaching the disciples and us how to pray because persistent prayer changes us. The point of prayer is not to change the mind of God. It's not to provide God with new information that sheds light on the situation and God says, "You're right. I didn't realize that. I made a mistake. Or if only I had known." No, God knows, and he wants us to become more like him.
The essence of the Lord's Prayer is that we would pray according to his will so that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, quoting Matthew. God the Father is more than a 911 emergency dispatcher. I'm grateful for the people that take those phone calls; I can't imagine the level of stress that they must deal with. But we should not wait until we have an emergency or a crisis to communicate with our Heavenly Father. Although we can certainly pray in the midst of great difficulties, and we should, we should also learn to persistently pray throughout every part of our lives.
This is why Paul tells the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing, that there should be little difference between our thinking and our praying, that they should flow together in and out of one another. Our loving Father wants to hear from us often, and he delights in hearing and answering our prayers.
Parents, think about your children when they're young. You love when your child, when they were a toddler, comes running to you and grabs your leg, looking up into your face with those big eyes and a broad smile, and they want your help. You also love it as they get older and they need your help and they can now communicate to you and ask for your help. But then something happens in the teen years when you suddenly become dumb as a human being. You know nothing and you are the last person that will be asked for help. But what do you want more than anything? You want your teenager to realize that you're the same parent that loved them when they were a toddler clinging to your leg or an elementary student who was upset because of something that happened on the playground.
Your heavenly father wants you to pray according to his will because he's listening and he desperately wants you to pray—not because he needs your prayers, but because he wants your prayers. God provides a model prayer and he expects us to pray with persistence. And the last thing that I see in this passage is that Jesus promises God's goodness will come of it. Jesus promises God's goodness. To conclude his lesson on prayer, Jesus offered a second shorter parable. And in this parable, he describes a good father caring for his son.
The Goodness of the Father
Which of you fathers, if your son asked for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asked for an egg, will give him a scorpion? This is meant to be shocking because the answer is, of course, not. No good father would say, "Ha, you thought you wanted a fish? Take this viperous snake. Ah, you wanted an egg? Take this deadly scorpion." No, that would not be the case. A good father would never feed his son a deadly poisonous snake or give him a deadly poisonous scorpion if they simply wanted fish or an egg. A good father would bless his son and give him his request to provide food. Maybe he didn't have a fish or an egg, but he could have provided some other form of sustenance. A good father would never turn his son's request into a curse.
Jesus used this parable to argue from a lesser example of a sinful father to a greater example of a sinless heavenly father. "If you then," verse 13, "though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" Jesus' disciples could offer persistent prayers to their heavenly father because he wanted to give them good gifts consistent with the content of this prayer. He would listen to their prayers like a father listens attentively to his son, and he would send the Holy Spirit to meet their needs.
Confidence in the Father's goodness undergirds Christian prayer. We pray to a God that we can trust. And God the Father hears our prayers and answers us according to his goodness and providence. As I conclude, think about this question: What kind of church would Milton Community Church be if we were increasingly defined by praying the content of Jesus' model prayer? How would the Lord's Prayer change you? How would it impact your family? And how would it define the culture of our church?
In summary, I believe if we were the kind of church that gathered to pray these kinds of themes with one another, we would become a church that loves our Heavenly Father dearly. It would come off our lips, not only in our prayer, but in our conversation with one another. It would be evident that we've had communion with our heavenly Father. We'd also be a church that lives according to God's holiness. Not that we are trying to dress a certain way or put on airs, but we would live according to his holiness because his gospel would transform us. We would become not of the world, but we would instead become more like our Father.
We'd also be a church that would long for the sovereign rule of God. We wouldn't put our hope in a politician, a president, or some other elected official and say, "If we just get the right party or the right people into government, then we can save America." Saving America is far too small a goal. We should instead be longing for the kingdom of God to take root in our world and to extend to all the corners of the earth.
And we'd also be a church that depends on God for his provisions. We wouldn't simply count our dollars, look at our bank account, watch the stock market, and worry about our retirement. Instead, we would depend on God to provide everything that we need, and he does. I'm grateful for the many believers who sacrificed to build this building and to provide it for us. That many of us are here that had nothing to do with the building of this building and making the payments to pay off the debt, and yet God has been so good and will continue to be.
And lastly, we would be a church that forgives one another, a church that doesn't hold grudges and a church that is not bitter about the past, a church that is not trying to keep score, but a church of people that lovingly forgive one another because we have been so forgiven. We wouldn't see other people's sin as the barrier, but we would see our sin as greater. Dave Harvey, in his book, *When Sinners Say I Do*, says that one of the keys to marriage is starting from the posture that you're the worst sinner in the relationship. That it's not your husband's fault or your wife's fault, that it's perhaps your fault. That it's not that they've sinned against you, it's the many ways you've sinned against them.
And if we had that kind of understanding in the life of the church and all levels of the church, imagine how attractive that would be to a world that can't forgive, a world that's always looking for a scapegoat, a world that always wants justice, but it really is vengeance. Imagine a church that offers forgiveness because we have been forgiven. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, they're not simply words that roll off the tongue and have no meaning. And when we pray the Lord's Prayer, we're not like a child or a coworker who won't take no for an answer.
But we pray the Lord's Prayer because we long with eager desire, with shameless import, shameless audacity, to use the NIV's phrase of it, that God would do his will in our lives, in our church, in our world. Are you praying those kind of prayers? Do you gather with other Christians to pray those kind of prayers? Are your family devotions surrounded with those kinds of prayers?
If not, I would encourage you to go back to the Lord's Prayer as a model for how to pray and be persistent and trust in God's goodness, starting with your salvation and continuing until our glorification.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we bow before you this morning, we recognize that you love us. We're grateful that we have a God who's not simply a judge who's trying to get us, but you're a father who tenderly and compassionately loves us. Help us to live in light of that love.
And Father, help us to honor your name, to recognize your holiness, and to worship you in spirit and truth. Father, we pray that your kingdom would come, that we would desire your kingdom more than anything else, that we would desire for your rule to extend even beyond our borders in America, that your rule would extend to every tribe and tongue and nation.
And God, provide everything we need. We admit that in our culture we have so many gifts and advantages that we take them for granted and we become like the spoiled child because we simply want more. And God, help us to not forget that we depend on you every day.
And then forgive us our sins, for they are many, and help us to be a forgiving people. God, mark our church by the principles of this prayer. Help us to be a people that are contagious in our Christianity, not because we're simply the cool kids or because we figured something out, but help our Christianity to be contagious because we're in love with Christ. We pray these things in Jesus' glorious name. Amen.