Fellowship in the Word

Jason Gebhardt: Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Bil Gebhardt: They see prayer as a completely different kind of vehicle. So, in verse five, for example, Jesus is speaking and he says, "When you pray, you're not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full."

That is exactly what the Pharisees do. The Pharisees love public prayer, very boisterous, loud, very graphic, very descriptive public prayer, so everyone would say, "Wow, listen to these guys. These guys are something." Jesus said, "Let me tell you what they are. They're hypocrites. That's not what prayer's supposed to be at all."

Jason Gebhardt: Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now, as once again, he shows us how God's Word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: Last week, I started a series titled "How to Live in These Last Days." If these are the last of the last days, how should we live? And last week, the first thing I said was that we should stop worrying. And the reason for that is simple: worrying is fruitless, it is faithless, and it's fatherless. And so, consequently, being so concerned or worried about the state of the world or the darkness of the times is not a luxury that we as believers should ever have in our lives at all.

Today, I want to challenge you in a couple of ways, but primarily, I want to challenge you to make prayer the priority of your life. I want you to understand what prayer fundamentally is. I feel that most Christians would all say, "I pray all the time." On the other hand, though, I'm not sure they truly understand what prayer's about. Tim Keller writes this: he said prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life. We must learn to pray. We have to.

There's nothing more important or harder or richer or more life-altering. To fail to pray then is not merely to break some religious rule; it is a failure to treat God as God. It is a sin against his glory. Prayer is simply a recognition of the greatness of God. And that's what I want to talk about. I have a hunch that when we pray, we think prayer is simply my list of things that I want to talk to God about or that I'd like to have happen in my life. And that's a complete misunderstanding of what prayer should be in our lives.

Prayer is such an essential part. C.D. Gordon said this: he said you can do more than pray after you've prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you've prayed. And he's exactly right. So, I want to start first with the words of the Lord where we were last week. And I want you to go with me to Luke chapter 21 and verse 34. Last week, we dealt with the beginning of this section.

Notice verse 34, Jesus is speaking and he says, "Be on your guard so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation or drunkenness and the worries of life, and that the day will not come on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth." And then he says this: "But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place and to stand before the Son of Man."

Jesus is telling his disciples that as we get to the last days and the last days of the last days, they better be about prayer. That's the way they should be able to look at this. In fact, in Luke 18, he told his disciples the story and he said you have to always be praying and never give up. He's trying to warn them about the way things are going to be. And for us, our view of prayer causes us to do neither of those things. We usually do give up.

Have you ever been praying about something and asked yourself the question, "Is this working? Is it working? Am I getting anywhere with this?" You see, I think we have a tendency to think about it that way because we've put these petitions before God and then nothing seems to be happening from our point of view. So, I kind of want to look at two passages today. Go with me to Luke chapter 11 and we'll also be looking at Matthew chapter 6.

Both of them have what has become historically and wrongly called "The Lord's Prayer." Okay, there is not the Lord's Prayer, period. This is not about the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is in John 17. If you want to know what the Lord's praying, look at John 17. This is not that at all. In fact, in verse one of chapter 11 of Luke, it says, "It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.'"

Now, it's interesting, there's a reason behind this, not a very good spiritual one. The reason behind it is all Jewish rabbis had a certain formula and style of prayer. And if you were one of the followers of that rabbi, you prayed just like they did. So, apparently, John the Baptist's disciples prayed a very specific way that everyone knew, "Oh, you follow John the Baptist." So, they want that recognition. "Lord, would you teach us to pray with some kind of formula you have to do that?"

Now, I find that rather fascinating, the whole idea behind it. But there's a good side of it. Notice what they didn't ask him. "Lord, could you teach us to walk on water? Could you teach us to heal leprosy? Could you teach us how to feed 5,000?" No, they said, "Can you teach us to pray?" And he said, "When you pray," and then he gives what we call historically the Lord's Prayer. He's going to answer three questions in this section of Luke: What are we to pray for? verses 1-4. How are we to pray? verses 5-10. And why are we to pray? verses 11-13.

Now, what's interesting, what are we to pray for here? You see, what is that to be? Now, hold your place here and go with me to Matthew because these are parallel and I want to say something about this. Now, in Matthew chapter 6, this is the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is trying to get a context here. And the reason he wants to get a context is the people of his day had no understanding of prayer at all.

And the worst group for understanding it are the Pharisees. They don't really understand it at all. They see prayer as a completely different kind of vehicle. So, in verse five, for example, Jesus is speaking and he says, "When you pray, you're not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full." That is exactly what the Pharisees do.

The Pharisees love public prayer, very boisterous, loud, very graphic, very descriptive public prayer so everyone would say, "Wow, listen to these guys. These guys are something." Jesus said, "Let me tell you what they are. They're hypocrites. That's not what prayer's supposed to be at all. In fact, whenever you tell them you admire how they pray, that's their reward. God doesn't give them any reward."

He says, "But when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret what is done in secret will reward you." His point in that verse is simply this: most prayer in your life and mine should be in secret. Now, there are times for public prayer, there are times with other believers you pray, but most of your prayer life, the lion's share of your prayer life, should be private. It should just be between you and God. It's not a public thing.

Well, then he goes on and he says, "And when you're praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So, do not be like them. Your Father who knows what you need before you ask him." Now, look at the words that he just gives right there. He said, "Do not do what? Meaningless what?" And what's the church done for 2,000 years? Repeated it.

"Do not do meaningless repetition. Let's repeat that. Let's repeat this over and over and over and over and over again." It's an amazing thing. Under certain traditions, how horrible this is. I had a friend when we were young and I can still remember him saying things to me like this—and his name was Bill also, but his name was Bill Dunbar—and Bill said to me, he said he went to confession and I said, "Well, what do you have to do?" He said, "Ah, it's not bad. I think I've got like 20 or 22 Our Fathers to do."

Okay, what do you mean? You've got to repeat it as punishment to deal with your sin. How horrible can this be? You can't get further away from the truth than that particular thing is. Now, what's interesting about it is, if you go back and hold your place there, you've got Matthew. Now, I want you to go to Luke with me for a moment. And now let me read it all in Luke first, starting in verse two.

He says, "And when you pray, say, 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us of our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who's indebted to us. Lead us not into temptation.'" Now, go back to Matthew and he says, "Our Father who's in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."

Now, I hope just with that one little reading you notice something: they're not the same. They're not the same. Now, if repeating them was absolutely necessary for some magical formula, the words would be identical. Whether he's talking in Luke or Matthew, they would be exactly the same words. They're not the same words. Because he's actually telling them, "Look, whenever you pray in this particular way." And so, what we find out is this is a roadmap. This is a sample of prayer. That's the way this works.

So, he starts out in both cases, and the first thing he says in Matthew is, "Our Father who's in heaven." Then he says the same thing he says in Luke, "Hallowed be your name." That's an interesting thing. It's an old English word. When's the last time you used the word "hallowed"? This morning on the way to church? Think about that word. It almost means nothing to us. Hallowed be your name. And it's an interesting thought, but what it really means is it means perfect or it's *hagiazo*, and it can mean holy. You could say it that way as well. Holy is your name.

Now, remember, the name is crucial in the Bible. Whenever someone has a name, that person is to have the attributes of whatever their name is, and that's why so many biblical characters have certain kind of names ending in E-L for God or something like that. But God's name is to be hallowed. So, he says, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." You see, this thing about prayer is really interesting. It's not man's idea. Prayer's God's idea.

Man's turned it into his own idea and his own thing, but it's not his idea. This is about God's idea. And God's view of prayer is very different than ours. God views prayer as an act of worship. That's how God sees it. When you pray, you worship me. That's what prayer is. It's about me. God's glory is the object of prayer. That's the whole point. God's all about his glory. And so, that's the object of prayer, and that's the way this thing works.

Just to show you how long this lasts, go with me to Revelation chapter five for just a moment. Revelation chapter five and I want to look at verse eight. Now, notice what Revelation 5:8 says: "And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." Now, think of that. What's incense?

Incense is part of the liturgy of worshipping God in the Old Testament. You burn incense to God. But notice they give meaning to what incense is. Notice how he says it: "Golden bowls full of incense." What's the incense? The prayers of the saints. Our prayer to God is an act of our worship to God. It's accepted by God as worship. And so often we don't think about it in those kind of terms.

And Jesus is telling us, "Look, I want you to think about this." So, he says, "You start this whole thing out, Father, hallowed be your name." And so, the whole idea behind this is this is about God. Holy be your name. And then he says, "Your kingdom come." So, we move from God's person to God's program. Your kingdom come. So, in these last days that we're talking about facing, what's one of the things we should pray all the time? Your kingdom come.

How's the Book of Revelation end? "Come, Lord Jesus." We should be praying for him to come, not, "Hey, Lord, give me enough strength to make it through these last days. This place—it's getting worse and worse and worse. Help me get through there." No, your kingdom come. If it's going to become apostate and worse and worse and worse as the closer it comes to coming, the more you and I should be praying about come. We want him to come. That should be exactly the way this whole thing works.

Haddon Robinson writes this: he said we must be willing for all of the little kingdoms that matter so much to us now should be pulled down. If we want God's rule over all men and women at some future time, it follows that we want his control in our lives today. Unless we are sufficiently concerned about making our lives his throne and bringing others into glad submission to him, we cannot pray with integrity for God's kingdom to come. If I want God's kingdom to come to everybody, I certainly would want God's kingdom to come to me now.

It's interesting, then he moves to his priorities, and what he says in Matthew is he says, "Your kingdom come," and he says, "your will be done." He said, "I want your will to be done." And that's worthy of praying because, now, in one way God is sovereign. I understand that. I'm not saying he's not. But is his will always done? In fact, when you're sinning, is that his will being done? You're sinning so he's making you sin? No, we know that's not true. His will's not always done.

But he says, "I'd love your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven." How's God's will done in heaven? Perfectly. That's what I pray for for earth. I pray that your will would be able to be done. That's what he is saying I would hope that it would work from that point of view, as perfect as it is in heaven. And if I want that, by the way, I would want his will to be done in my life as well.

Now, there's something going on here in these, and you'll find it's kind of an interesting thing. And that is the pronouns that are used in this. I don't know if you think about this, but with the pronouns that are used here, there is God and you, and then there's us and our. Guess who's not in the prayer? Me. I'm not in the prayer, neither are you. Now, we know, "No, no, it's me." No, it's not. There's only us.

One writer said this: he said you cannot say the Lord's Prayer or even once say I. You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer or even once say my. Nor can you pray the Lord's Prayer and not pray for another. For when you ask for daily bread, you must include your brother. For others are included in each and every plea. From the beginning to the end of it, never once does the prayer say me. And yet when we pray, don't we pray almost exclusively selfishly, praying about this about me? I'm praying for me. He says be careful with that. I don't think you should really be doing that from that point of view.

So, he says, "Your will be done." Then he says, "Give us each day our daily bread." I'll never forget this. Many many years ago, I was in the back room here at the church, and Joe Harvey was with us and he was in the back room we were having lunch together. And Joe was a medical doctor who was in the Congo for many many years. And we actually sent a people group over to the Congo to spend some time with he and Becky.

And Joe—we were just talking and Joe said to me, "You know, I feel so sorry for your people." I said, "Really?" He goes, "Yeah. I don't really think they can grasp that." I said, "Grasp what?" He said, "'Give us this day our daily bread.'" He said, "I don't think they get it." He said, "The believers in the Congo that he's led to Christ, they pray it every day, and God delivers them the bread they need to get through the next day. They pray for God's sustenance every day."

Now, do we do that? How many of you woke up today and said, "Boy, I hope I get something to eat today"? You've never had that thought, did you? What you're deciding is which restaurant you want to go to. You see, what do I really want to have? But he said no. And by the way, it's more than just bread; it's the sustenance.

In fact, Martin Luther says this: What does daily bread mean? Martin Luther said everything that nourishes our body and meets its need, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, a devout spouse, devout children, devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and other things like these. In other words, what we're saying is God, you sustain us every day. We want you to sustain us every day.

And that's such an important thing because you know God does this. You see, God sustains us every day. Remember what Jesus said to Peter? He said Satan desires what? To sift you like wheat. What's he mean by that? He'd kill you in a second if he could. He'd kill all of us. So, what sustains you every day? God does. And I recognize that. I'm sustained by God. You see, that's the way this whole thing works. Give us this day our daily bread, continue to sustain us, Lord, the absolute best that you can possibly do so.

Jason Gebhardt: You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you'd just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible.

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