Today I’d like to help you pray for those you are burdened for – those God has placed in your path who need their sins forgiven – your neighbor, your co-worker, your family member, the person who serves you at the coffee shop…

We often experience many problems in this. One of the problems is actually caring enough about the eternal condition of those in our life that we pray constantly. We just don’t see people as we should. We are way to apathetic about this – some of us are anyway. So we certainly need to pray that God would open our eyes to what’s at stake here.

Another big problem – the issue for today – is how we pray for these folks. Here too, again, is where we are often confused and, I think, defeated. If our theology isn’t right here we can we have a disconnect between how we pray and how God works. I want to be God’s person here. I want the heart of Christ so that John 15:7 is active.

John 15:7 (ESV)
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

So, the confusion I’d like to talk about is around how God actually rescues people. If I am better connected to faith is created, I can pray for that to happen. Anyone who reads the Bible will get a very clear message – Jesus came to absorb the judgment of God for all those who believe in him. We seem to have a death-wish don’t we. We hate, we steal, we lust, we profane God in our language and in our action… we live for the gifts of God rather that the glory of God – and if God does not rescue us we will get exactly what we’re asking for – God’s judgment. Jesus came to take the judgment of God for all who trust in him to save them from the judgment of God. That’s what happened on the cross – God poured out his judgment on Jesus so that we could live – he takes my place. The great exchange – his life for my life, his perfection for my imperfection.

So, here’s the difficulty. Generally we have two different ways of thinking about how I come to faith in Christ. And these two different ways of thinking produce two completely different ways of praying. So here is a summary of these two ways of thinking:

First – it is commonly thought that while God made salvation available in the death of Jesus, we must, apart from God’s intervention, make the autonomous decision to repent of sin and put our faith in Jesus. While God makes salvation available, it is my “open” decision and responsibility to accept it. God makes the offer and it’s up to me to take him up on it. In this way of thinking, the death of Jesus and my self-determined decision to repent and trust him are very much equal in importance. So, while it is God’s desire that I am saved, he can’t really do much about it other than hope that I will chose him.

If this is the way you think, my question for you is, “How do you actually pray for someone’s salvation if they must, on their own, choose Christ?” How do you pray for them?

The second way of thinking is very different than the first and leads to a different way of praying. Here, not only does God make salvation available, he actually overcomes my defiance, and turns my rebellious, self-centered heart toward himself. As an object of his mercy he calls me to himself with power. Seeing Jesus and his breathtaking, loving work on the cross for me is not left up to me. God in his mercy actually saves me – from start to finish. No credit to me – all to God.

If you’re in this camp you would pray for someone who doesn’t yet believe differently – right? I can actually pray that God would save my child, save my neighbor, save my family member.

So, I’d like to share three truths that can help us pray correctly for the salvation of those we care about.

The first truth – For me to survive the judgment of God, I must repent of my sin and turn to Jesus as my only hope. I must do the believing.

John 3:16 (ESV)
…God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 6:40 (ESV)
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

John 11:25 (ESV)
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

Now – this should create a real dilemma. While I must abandon self and trust Jesus in order to live, the Bible seems to say that I’m incapable of that.

John 6:44a (ESV)
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…

John 8:34 (ESV)
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”

Romans 3:10-12 (ESV)
…as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Romans 8:7 (ESV)
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Ephesians 2:1 (ESV)
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…

Ephesians 4:18 (ESV)
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

The second truth – we are incapable of God-saturated, Jesus-exalting, self-abandoning belief.

So then, how does this work? How can I believe if I can’t believe?

Ephesians 2:1-5 (ESV)
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved… – God, please give life to my neighbor.

Romans 9:16 (ESV)
So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. – God, please have mercy on my neighbor.

Acts 16:14 (ESV)
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. – God, please open the heart of my co-worker

2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. - God, please shine in the heart of my wayward child.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV)
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. - God, please give my child a new heart and a new spirit and cause her to walk in your statutes and be careful to obey you. We should be praying for the salvation of our children when they’re still in the womb.

2 Timothy 2:24-25 (ESV)
And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵ correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth… - God, please grant repentance to the person that serves me coffee every morning.

In other words, “God, please have mercy on my co-worker. Would you convict him of his sin and show him how helpless he is before you? Please open his heart to the truth of the gospel and the beauty of Jesus. Would you please save him? And keep me faithful in praying for him, and serving him, and sharing the gospel with him.

The third truth – Jesus saves from beginning to end. We need to pray that way.

This is the way Paul prayed.

Romans 10:1 (ESV)
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for [my Jewish brothers] is that they may be saved.

I’d like to ask you another question. If you, today, have put your trust in Jesus as your Savior; if your sins have been forgiven and you are living under the smile of God rather than the judgment of God, why is that? Is it because you were smart enough to make the right choice or because God in his mercy actually saved you?

Matthew 7:7-11, “ask, seek, knock” [Listen]

Jesus is now beginning to close his discourse. In Matthew 5-7 he has boldly challenged his hearers to think about being the people of God in a way that was different from their religious programming. In fact, Jesus was very confrontational in laying the truth before his listeners. In his words we hear about the people the Holy Spirit creates as Jesus becomes their treasure. He repeatedly challenged the rightness of the religious leadership. It could very easily sound as if Jesus was attempting to overthrow the current power base – he was. To make matters worse, he just finished comparing the religious leadership of the day to pigs and dogs. He was really stretching the minds of anyone who would listen. You can easily imagine all the doubts and uncertainty that would come up after hearing this. And so now he says:

Matthew 7:7-11 (NIV)

“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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.”

This passage is not about prayer the way 6:5-15 was about prayer. In this section Jesus tells his listeners pray, seek, and knock.

This passage is specifically about God’s promise to give what is good to his children.

God wants us to want what he wants.

Jesus has just told them that their God-centered culture was not as God-centered as they might think. They must break with what is wrong, leave the religiosity of the day and understand God’s heart. Their religious leaders are not the ones to lead them there.

Ask, seek and knock – God wants to give them what is good.

God wants his children to pursue the Kingdom with vigor!! Pray – yes, look intently – yes, knock down the door in your pursuit!

In Luke’s parallel passage there is an example of pursuit.

Luke 11:5-13 (NIV)

Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. “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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. “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 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!”

This is a great example of how we should pursue God. In this story it was late at night and all were in bed. That might stop most people, but not the person in this story. Bold action with purpose is the point regardless of the “little” considerations. Go pursue God until he answers.

We should pursue God through a missional life

1 John 3:21-24 (NIV)

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

Here is a picture of someone pursuing God – someone who is fighting sin and longing to be God’s person (obey his commands). He/she will receive what they ask for.

We should pursue God with singular focus and not waiver.

James 1:5-7 (NIV)

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;

We should pursue God in our personal relationships

James 4:1-3 (NIV)

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

We should pursue God in our ministry – people (mission)

1 John 5:13-16 (NIV)

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.

We should pursue God in our mission

John 15:16 (NIV)

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

Pursuing God is a difficult thing because we know where it will end. When we pursue God as our greatest treasure he will answer by showing himself to us, implanting his purposes in us, growing his vision in us. In this we will more and more see Jesus as better than everything. We will see this world’s enticements fading in value and the purposes of God growing in value – we will be compelled to give our lives to Jesus in every way. I find this difficult. Even though I know I will gain great joy and fellowship with the One who is life itself, I still struggle when I think of walking by faith – it is difficult to trust. What is the answer here? Ask, seek, knock.

Are you pursuing God vigorously? How are you aligning your life so that God can use you?

Matthew 6:7-15, “the Lord’s prayer” – part 2 [Listen]

As you may know, the concept of prayer and the topic of prayer runs throughout Scripture. Some of Jesus’ most amazing promises were made about prayer.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:7-8)

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. (1 John 3:21-22)

For many, verses like these create problems. We are insulted when we see that God giving us what we long for is conditioned upon our longing for his purposees. I often want to imagine God serving my self-serving plan instead of me being cought up in Gods eternal purposes.

If we are aligned with Jesus (if his heart is our heart, if his goal is our goal, if his intentions are our intentions, if his passion is our passion) he will give us whatever we ask. God wants to answer our prayers, and God’s IS activly and perfectly bringing his wonderful plan to completion, and his will is that you and I are a part of that.

Let’s look at our passage for today:

7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“ ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’

14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Just a couple things in review:

This is not THE SACRED PRAYER that carries a magical impact if we simply recite it. This is a prayer Jesus modeled to illustrate the point he was making in verse 7 – don’t babble in your praying like a heathen might. Instead do it like this…

Even though the words of this prayer are not magical we do see some of the things Jesus would consider important such as, “God our main thought and hope is that you be seen as holy in this world.”

Verse 11 – “give us today our daily bread”

All we have is a result of God’s grace. Daily our needs are met by Gods kindness. We are dependent on God for EVERYTHING.

But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth… (Deut 8:18)

Verse 12 – “forgive us our debts (sins-Luke 11:2-4), as we also have forgiven our debtors”

This is stated in a very interesting and completely logical way. Following God results in a person who understands forgiveness. The person who follows God has a sense of how much has been forgiven. This results in a person who must be forgiving because they truly understand they deserved nothing and yet were given everything.

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

“Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

“The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

“But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

“His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’

“But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

“This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:21-35)

It is VITAL that we learn this. Love and forgiveness live together. There is no way I can show the trademark of Jesus (love) if I can’t forgive.

Verse 13 – “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”

Verse 13 is very difficult. There is not broad-based agreement on what this verse actually means. One reason is that God does not tempt anyone! (James 1:13)

The thought behind this is probably more like, “Do not lead me toward trial which create the possibility of sin”

When Jesus moves into our hearts we will start looking at everything differently. The power of God’s salvation is so life-shattering that change in the way we think and act must follow. After all, when Jesus claims us for himself we:

• Gain a new heart
• Have the HS living in us
• Union with Jesus

When we refuse to align with God’s will, God lovingly moves us toward those trials that will help us understand the frailty of this world and the fulfillment there is in giving ourselves to him.

Verse 14-15 – “ For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

If, as a result of our salvation, we don’t gain a forgiving spirit, we may not actually have a salvific relationship with Jesus. This is VERY important.

The prayer in Matthew 6 not only models what we should ask for, it paints a picture of who we should be. We should be people that above all, first and foremost, long for God to be seen by all. They long for God’s complete reign to be established here. They are not independent people – they are completely dependent on God. And as a result of knowing how much has been forgiven, they live lives of mercy and grace.

Matthew 6:5-10, “the Lord’s prayer” – part 1 [Listen]

This section is familiar to many and very profound. The Lord’s prayer (or the Disciples Prayer) gives us a glimpse into how Jesus would have us pray and what we should pray for.

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Vs 5) If we pray so that others think we’re part of the spiritual “elite” our prayer has no audience except those who we are trying to impress.

Vs 6-8) Prayer, for those who embrace Jesus, is relationship between the individual and a God that is personal. Prayer is not a manipulative incantation to a god that is removed from us and uncaring. God sees through us and knows us and is for us.

“go into your room” – I think the point here is that prayer is NOT FOR SHOW. We must make every effort to stay away from self-exaltation in our prayer (even if that means we pray in a closet). While we should pray like crazy in private (private prayer should be at the core of our existence), it is not wrong to pray publicly:

When they heard [Peter & John had been released from jail], they raised their voices together in prayer to God. (Acts 4:24)

When this had dawned on him (God had sent an angel to rescue Peter), he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. (Acts 12:12)

Vs 9-13) For our purposes this morning I’d like to make two points about the prayer Jesus gives to his disciples:

• First – the point of this prayer. Don’t “babble” using “many words”. Instead, pray like this… The prayer Jesus gives his disciples here is not designed to be “the sacred prayer”. It’s designed, primarily, to show us how God is approachable and how we can approach him.

• Second – it does reveal, I think, what Jesus thought might be natural, core topics for someone in prayer. In other words, this prayer gives us an amazing glimpse into some of those things Jesus would consider appropriate or important.

This prayer is NOT meant to limit or confine our prayer. Paul says we should pray all kinds of prayers and requests and remember the saints:

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. (Eph 6:18)

So let’s look at topics Jesus mentions. The first issue (vs 9-10) Jesus starts with is the priority that is primary – God’s glory. Our prayer should reflect the mission we are called to align with. Our prayer should reflect the mission we should joyfully embrace – God being seen as holy (hallowed be your name) and God’s plan of salvation and complete reign (your kingdom come, your will be done).

Hallowed be your name (vs 9)

God as holy – God is above everything – completely sovereign, perfectly just, and separated from sin. This is what happened when the prophet Isaiah met God:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Is 6:1-5)

When God is seen for who he is the natural response is brokenness (see Matt 5:3-5).

Your kingdom come (vs 10)

The sense here is that we long for God’s work to reach its intended end. We long for the time when everyone everywhere will see Jesus as Lord and acknowledge God as King. In that day everyone will acknowledge God as God and sin will be gone.

While the kingdom is already here,

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you (is in your midst – NASB).” (Luke 17:21)

the focus in the passage today is on the time when sin no longer has power anywhere, Satan is vanquished and finally, we fully see God’s victory:

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” (Rev 11:15)

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. (Rev 12:10)

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.” (Rev 19:6)

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What does it mean for us to pray that God’s will be done on earth?

If God is sovereign, his will will be done! How can my prayer affect God’s sovereign plan? If it does, is God really sovereign?

Let me start by saying this: Your prayer creates a response from God that he would not have if you didn’t pray – and that doesn’t mean God is not completely sovereign.

God’s sovereign plan is that he, in his great mercy, not only saves the helpless through Jesus’ death; he also gives them a new heart and permeates their lives with the Holy Spirit. These undeserving recipients of God’s mercy and grace (you & me) are being moved toward the image of Jesus with a new vision, a new reality, a new joy based on God’s values. Salvation is not just heaven someday, salvation is new life now! When the sweet aroma of Christ-bought, God-ordained prayer rises to heaven, God responds. God responds to prayer and works because we pray.

Does this mean God is not sovereign? No! God sovereignly creates these prayers in us. These prayers are assured by the sovereign, saving work of God. In other words, God’s saving work is so powerful that the result WILL BE people who long for the same things God desires.

Our prayer is not made independent of God’s work.

In the end will God accomplish his will if I don’t pray? Yes – but I won’t be part of it.

This reality points us to the power of Jesus. His work on the cross is so powerful that the result is that helplessly sinful people actually become children of God. Jesus is a powerful savior.