Christ's teaching on prayer. We should consider prayer from a number of different viewpoints, but begin first of all with what the Lord Jesus himself had to say about it while he was here. And first of all, let's consider his own prayer life. On one, this is emphasized in Luke. A, he is presented as praying on Seven Occasions in Luke. And D, this is in keeping with his portrait as the Son of Man. You remember that each of the Gospels gives the Lord Jesus in a different viewpoint, from a different viewpoint. Matthew presents him as the King, Mark as the perfect servant. Luke is the Son of Man, and John as the Son of God. Because he took the place of a perfect man, in total dependence upon his father, total subjection to him. It's in keeping with Mark that he should be seen praying in these many times. Now, number two, the occasions of his prayers. A, at his baptism, Luke three, twenty-one to twenty-two. Now, this was John's baptism, let me say, in passing. has nothing to do with why we are baptized. We don't get baptized because Jesus was. He was baptized as a Jew, and he did it to fulfill all righteousness. That is, he wished to be totally identified with the nation of Israel. And because the nation of Israel was called to repentance, John's baptism meant that they were acknowledging themselves to be worthy of death. and that they were looking to God to fulfill his purposes in the coming of the king and the kingdom. Must never be confused with believers' baptism. Anyway, at his baptism, he is presented as praying. And V, in the fifth chapter of Luke, verses fifteen to sixteen, as his fame spread abroad, as he became better known, as people of thought together to hear it. In fact, this prayer in Luke five is in between two very important times of service. We can learn a good lesson from this. You need to pray a great deal when people are speaking well of you and they're thinking well of you. And when you finish one work for the Lord, you need to pray before you start the next one. Our Savior gave us a good example in this. And see, he prayed before choosing the Twelve Apostles. Luke chapter six, twelve to sixteen. I think one of the reasons why the Lord Jesus continued all night in prayer before he chose the Twelve was because being the Son of God and knowing all things, he knew that he was choosing deliberately a man whom he later called the devil. It says a devil in the King James Version, but he said one of you is the devil. He knew that he was choosing a man who was going to lift up his heel against him. The Old Testament scriptures prophesied of this, and it must have been a very difficult thing. but he knew that he was doing this very thing. And D. He prayed at the crisis at Caesarea Philippi in Luke nine. Now the crisis of Caesarea Philippi was the time when His popularity had already reached the zenith, and then he said to Peter, whom the men say that I the Son of Man am. And when Peter confessed him, then the Lord Jesus said, Now I've got something else to tell you. The Son of Man is going to be condemned, crucified, and will rise again. It was not until that point that he began to tell his disciples about his death. So it was a crisis point. That teaches us to pray whenever we reach any kind of a crisis. And E, he prayed at his Transfiguration, recorded in Luke chapter nine. The Transfiguration is recorded in the other two synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark, but nothing is said there about his pray. You of course know that this was a time when he manifested his glory and showed that he was the true coming king. And if he prayed before teaching his disciples about prayer. In Luke chapter eleven verse one they said, John taught his disciples to pray, please teach us to pray. I thought a great deal about this before taking on this responsibility of trying to teach you about prayer. It's a very serious business to try to help anyone else to know about prayer. We must be sure that we ourselves have really a prayer life, that we are praying. Each person whom you lead to Christ will have to be taught how to pray, not teaching words, but you'll have to teach him the principles of prayer. You want to be sure that you yourself are in right condition to do so. And last, in Luke twenty-two, he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Now we must never think of his prayer as being of weakness or as trying to get out of the cross, but he was praying to his father in full view of all that the cross would mean. not the physical suffering, but his being made sin, and he's being forsaken, and his going down into death, out of which no one hath been able to return, for Satan had the power of death. But in the death of the Lord Jesus he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil, Hebrews two says, and triumphed over it. It was a great crisis. Now, number three, the places for prayer. Sometimes we wonder where is the right place to pray. You know that the Lord Jesus said to go into your closet and pray. So you ought to have a place. But he prayed in all kinds of places. In Matthew, he prayed in the desert place. He was feeding the five thousand. And it says he blessed and broke the bread and gave unto them. So this was what you might call a public prayer. In front of all those people, he thanked his father for what there was to eat that day. A good example. And then D, he prayed in a solitary place. In Mark chapter one, it says, A great while before a day, he arose and went into a solitary place to pray. And after he'd finished praying, they said, the disciples said, everybody's looking for you. Well, he said, we have to go on to the next town. That's why I came forth. So he was undoubtedly praying for guidance from his father as to where he wished him to go. Remember, he's taking the place of a dependent man, in spite of his being the eternal son of God. He is taking the place that you and I ought to take place. places we ought to take. We should never attempt to do anything in our own wisdom. And then C.E. went into a mountain, and this is on the occasion we referred to a little bit ago when he chose his twelfth, and he continued all night in prayer in a mountain. You know, of course, that the Lord Jesus had no place to lay his head, and he often slept out on the Mount of Olives or in some other place. And then you find him in John chapter eleven praying in the cemetery. You find him weeping on the way to the cemetery, in spite of the fact that he knew he was going to raise lasters from the dead. And there by the grave he prayed, Father, I thank thee that thou hearest me. But he said, I know that thou hearest me always. But for the sake of those who stood by, I said it. He wanted us to know that his father hears him. And then you see him in Mark chapter fourteen praying at a table when he institutes at the Lord's Supper. That's a good thing for us to remember. Even if you're in a public place, even if you're in a restaurant, don't be ashamed to bow your head and thank the Lord, acknowledge his kindness for you. to you and giving you food. Now number four, there is no record of his praying for personal needs. There is no record of his praying for personal needs. A, he would not make stones into bread. Now he was very prayerful before he went... was led by Satan up into the wilderness to be tempted. He had just been in prayer about this. In the third chapter of Luke, beginning of the fourth chapter, he was led into the wilderness to be tempted. The Spirit of God is said to have led him into the wilderness. And when he was tempted by Satan to feed himself, though he had been forty days without food, he refused to do so. And D. He would not pray for angels to deliver him. Matthew chapter twenty-six, he said, I could ask my father for twelve legions of angels. Now in the Roman legion there were from three to six thousand men. So twelve legions of angels would be somewhere between thirty-six thousand and seventy-two thousand angels. When you remember that one angel destroyed the whole Assyrian army of one hundred and eighty-six thousand men, you see he'd have quite a regiment there. Look after him, but he refused to do it. This was the time. He said in the trough of John, he said, Father, what shall I say? Deliver me from this hour? For this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. That's the way he prayed. Not for himself. And I referred a little bit ago that he had nowhere to lay his head. Luke nine fifty-eight says this. We have no record of his praying about a place to sleep or being discontented with his lot. There's nothing wrong with praying for what you need for yourself, but you can see its relative unimportance. Now in the second section of our study, some precepts about prayer. One, the pattern prayer. This is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, but of course it is not the Lord's Prayer at all, because our Blessed Lord never needed to pray, forgive us our sins. He didn't have any. It was the disciples' prayer. If you want to read the Lord's Prayer, read the seven feet of John. That's really the Lord's Prayer. That's where he prayed for his own. But this was a pattern prayer. Now let's see some of the ways in which it is a pattern. A, he said, In Luke eleven two, when ye pray, say. Emphasize that word say. Verbalize your prayers. There's a great danger in our praying simply in our thoughts, because you may drift off into other thoughts. You'll find it very helpful if you do what the Lord said. When you pray, say. I find it very helpful to pray aloud if I can be somewhere where I won't disturb anybody else. And then B, he said, say our Father. You remember, he shares his Father with us. John twenty, verse seventeen, he said, tell my disciples that I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. So he is now our Father. And then C, the patterned prayer, puts God's things first. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. God things first. It said that Sir Walter Raleigh was asked by the Queen of England to come to this country to take care of some of her affairs. And he said, Your Majesty, I would be glad to serve you, but my business is in bad shape. And she said, Raleigh, If you make my business your business, I'll make your business my business. When he came back from America to England, you find out that his business was three times the size it was when he left. With the Queen managing it, it got along very well. You remember that. If you put God's things first, you can't possibly lose. And then, D, it states our own needs, both spiritual and physical. prayed about sins, prayed about bread. Now why state our needs when the Lord has told us, your Father, Noah, what things you need of? Well, because he wants us to come to him and make our request known unto him. And then finally, Matthew six and seven tells us, use not vain repetitions as do the heathen or the pagan. So the Lord's prayer, so-called, was never given to be repeated. It was given to be a pattern. When you simply recite it as fast as you can, as many churches do, and the more Our Fathers you say, or the more prayers you get, you might as well do what they do in India. Print your prayers around the wheel and then give the wheel a spin. And every time it goes around, it's supposed to pray that prayer for you. That's a lot easier. and a lot faster. Now, number two, the requisites to prayer. In our Lord's own precepts now, we're considering the requisites to prayer. A, faith in God. Matthew twenty-one, twenty-two said all things, whatsoever ye ask, in prayer, believing ye shall receive. And in Luke eight and fifty, he said, Fear not, believe only. That's our job, to believe God. And B, another requisite in prayer, is forgiveness. Mark eleven, twenty-five says that when you stand and pray, forgive. Then he said, Your Father also will forgive you. Now remember that this was a prayer. of Jewish disciples before the church. You contrast this with Ephesians four in verse thirty two, where we read that you and I are to forgive one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us. So we have already been forgiven and we pray on that basis. I mean, we forgive on that basis. But in any case, an unforgiving spirit was a hindrance to prayer. forgiveness is a requisite. And then C, fasting was a requisite. Mark nine and twenty nine. Now, fasting has troubled a lot of people. It really doesn't need to at all. Fasting is connected in Scripture with food. It's also connected with abstaining from other pleasant and necessary things. We may go into this a little later. But fasting is simply an indication that I am more interested in what I'm praying about than I am food or any other thing. That was the real reason for it. And the Lord said, when you fast, don't smear your face up to make it look like you're gaunt and hungry. That's the way he said the Pharisees do, to get credit for men. But he said, wash your face and anoint yourself and go on as though you were not going without things at all. I think sometimes this is one of the reasons why our prayers are not answered, because we are not sincerely seeking from God. And then, D, this prayer was to be in his name, John fourteen, thirteen and fourteen. tells us that we were now to pray in his name. That means in his worth, in his person, as though he were praying, doing it for his glory, seeking it for his honor. And then D, the Lord taught that it was not a matter of worthiness. Luke seven, one to ten, not worthiness. There was a centurion who came to the Lord, and the Jews said, Lord, he's a Roman, but he's worthy that you do this favor for him. And the centurion said, Oh, no, Lord, I'm not worthy at all. I'm not even worthy for you to come under my roof. But the Lord blessed him, in spite of his unworthiness. And then last of all, John fifteen seven, abiding in him. He said, Abide in me. That means stay in close fellowship with me, keep in touch with me. Now section three, let's consider the four parables of our prayer, and appropriately they are all contained in the book of Luke, two of them in the eleventh chapter and two in the eighteenth chapter. Number one, the friend at midnight. I'm entitling it this way. You can call it whatever you want to, but it's a story about a man who came to his friend at midnight and said, friend led me three loaves. And his friend said, I can't. I'm already in bed and I can't disturb the family. But he just kept asking until he got it. Now he said, if his friend will give it to him to get rid of him, don't you think you're having a father who will be glad to do it for you and he loaves you? So he is teaching us, and I've left a blank line so that you can fill this in, teaches God's loving care. The parable of a friend at midnight teaches God's loving care. Now, number two, there's the parable of the son asking from his father. The son asks. of the Father, Luke eleven, nine to thirteen. Now he said, if a father has a son who asks him for bread, will he give him a stone? If he asks him for an egg, will he give him a serpent? Now he said, if you're evil and you give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts? And eventually he included the Holy Spirit would be given. So the second parable teaches God's best for his children. There's just one little catch here. You will have to trust God as to what's best. The trouble with us is that we don't have sense enough to know bread from stones. A lot of things that we think would be bread, if we got them we'd turn out were stones. And a lot of times the Lord hands the things we think are stones and they turn out to be bread. You just trust him about it, and you'll find that he always gives the best to those who leave the choice to him. Now the third parable is the unjust judge. This was a judge who was troubled by a widow coming continually, wanting him to do something about her oppressors. Finally he said, well, I'll do it just to get rid of her. Now the Lord said, if an unjust judge will do it that way, won't your Heavenly Father avenge you speedily? So he is teaching us importunity in prayer. Importunity means stick to it even. Keep at it. Keep praying. Keep coming. Stay with him. And the fourth one, the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. In this same eighteenth chapter, nine to fourteen, a Pharisee prayed with himself, Lord, I thank thee that I'm not his other man. And then he looked around because he's praying with his eyes open. He wanted to be sure that he had an audience. And he said, I'm not even like this ungodly, this publican that's standing over here. But the publican would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, smote on his breast, saying, God, look at the mercy seat. and be propitiated toward me. So this teaches propitiation and reconciliation for the humble. That word humble is important here. The publican went down to his house justified rather than the other. Now you want to give some time and thought to the study of these parables. And our last section promises about prayer. These are in the teaching of the Lord Jesus himself. One, the Father cares about you. A, He will provide. Luke twelve, thirty-two. Fear not, little flock. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He'll provide. And B, He will avenge. the story we just had of the widow, Luke eighteen, verse seven. He will avenge. You don't need to do it. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. You leave it in the Lord's hands. And then see, the Father loves you. John sixteen twenty-seven. The Lord Jesus said, I'm not going to say that I'll ask the Father to do something for you. Well, he said the Father loves you. He wants to do things for you. Never think of God as having to be tough, needing to doing nice things for you. He wants to do the very best for you. And D, John, chapter one, says that the Father will keep you. The Lord Jesus prayed, Father, keep through thy name. those whom thou has given me. He said, While I was here, I kept them. Now I'm coming to thee. He said, You keep them. And finally, he rewards. Matthew six, six and eight. The Father which seeth in secret shall reward you openly. This had to do with fasting and prayer. And the second section of this prayer brings results. Now the results are not always the same. A. In Luke twelve, thirty and thirty-one, he says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. So just put on all added. Now this is one of the results of prayer. You take everything to the Lord, and you put the Lord's things first. You can count on him taking care of the detail. You can count on him adding whatever he sees that you need. I've seen some remarkable cases like this when I didn't even know that I had the need. Before I knew about the need, the Lord had supplied it. And he does. And then B, he will spare you temptation. Matthew twenty six and forty one. He says, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. If you feel that your prayers are not bringing results, here's one result that you can always count on. The time that you have spent in prayer has resulted in you being kept from temptation. I never heard of anybody getting in trouble yet, Craig. You can get in trouble talking. You can get in trouble acting, but you can't get in trouble praying. Nobody ever wasted any time praying. You'll be spared temptation by then. Now this is not a psychological quirk. We're not talking about... And some people teach prayer that it really doesn't accomplish anything except it does something to you on the inside. Not that kind of thing at all. I'm not talking about that. That's Norman Vincent Peale's line of reasoning. Pure psychology. Not saying that at all. I'm saying that association with the Lord in prayer results in your being kept from temptation. And then see, Matthew with God, nothing is impossible. So put down there nothing impossible. Now it may seem impossible to men, but of course all of God's things are impossible so far as man is concerned, but not to God. And D, he says in Matthew eighteen, if two of you shall agree, put down, it shall be done. That's what he said. Two of you shall agree touching anything, if you shall ask of my Father which is in heaven, it shall be done for you. And last of all, there's the problem of some prayers being denied. In Luke eight, verses thirty eight and thirty nine you have a story of a man who was a demoniac he uh... he was possessed by enough demons to fill two thousand hogs i don't know how many that takes but uh... when they asked him his name he said my name is legion because there were many demons within him and uh... they were all afraid of this man he lived in the tombs and he cut himself and he went naked and he cried at all hours of the night, yelling around, and people were afraid of him. And the Lord cast the demons out. And then the demons were permitted to go into the slime. You remember that Jews never should have been raising any slime in the first place. And they lay them down in a steep place into the sea and were drowned. And when the people living around there saw that it was bad for the hog business, they asked the Lord to leave. So the Lord got in the ship and left. Then the man who had been healed asked the Lord if he could go with him. And strangely enough, the Lord answered the prayers of the people who asked him to leave. But he did not answer the prayer of the man whom he had just cast the demon, out of whom he had just cast the demon. He said to the man, No, you can't go with me. You go back to your friend. and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you. Well, one gospel says that he told it throughout the city, but another one says that he published it in Decapolis. If you look on the map, there is no such town as Decapolis. Decapolis is from the words Deca, which is ten, and Apollos, which is city. And it was a region of ten cities that were banded together. Well, the Lord said, you go home and tell your friends. And he wasn't satisfied with telling his friends. Then he told everybody in that city and finally expanded to include Twin Cities in that area. Now, you can see why the Lord didn't answer his prayer. But count on this. The Lord does promise to answer prayer, but only if it's in keeping with his will.