August 3, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to turning Point. How's your prayer life? If you're
like most believers, you'll admit that there's probably some room
for improvement. Today, doctor David Jeremiah begins a series to
help you grow in this area, using the pattern for
prayer given by Christ himself. Kicking off his series Prayer
the Great Adventure. Here's David to introduce to day's message
(00:29):
Prayer Pagans and pretenders.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, you know, the Bible is filled with instruction and
how to pray, but there's no better teaching section than
that which the Lord Jesus gave his disciples when they said,
to the Lord, teach us to pray. And I've always
been reminded that they didn't ask him to teach them
to preach, or to counsel or to lead. They said, Lord,
teach us to pray. And what follows is what we
(00:53):
know as the Lord's Prayer, perhaps better entitled the Disciples Prayer.
And before Jesus came, it's into the actual prayer itself.
He gives his disciples some instructions, and I like to say,
before Jesus taught them what to do, he taught them
what not to do. And it's good instruction for us,
and we'll get to it in just a moment as
(01:14):
we open our Bibles to the sixth chapter of Matthew.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But before we go.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
There, let me remind you that we're in a new
month and we have a beautiful new resource to present
to you. It's a book called Everything to God in Prayer.
It's guided prayers for your deepest needs and biggest dreams,
and each section has a heat scripture and a prayer
that you can use. These prayers are kind of like
(01:37):
jump starts for your own prayer life. For instance, here's
a prayer for when I need courage, and it starts out,
Dear Lord, thank you for drawing near to me when
I'm afraid. You are my strength. And though I may
not see you, I know you are here and You're enough.
And there's much more in this purpot. That's how the
prayer starts. And they're just so beautifully designed and will
(01:58):
encourage you in your prayer life. That's the thing I'm
very excited about. And when you send a gift to
Turning Point during the month of August of any size,
ask for your copy of the book Everything to God
in Prayer, and will send it to you right away.
Here is part one of prayer, pagans and pretenders. The
(02:21):
daughter of an atheist once said to a friend of
hers that she'd been brought up without any religion at all.
I do not believe in God, she said. Then she
added a little wistfully. But the other day in an
old German book, I came across a German prayer, And
(02:42):
if the God of that prayer exists, then I think
I might be able to believe in him. What is
that prayer, her friend asked. Then she replied, slowly, repeating
in German, our Father who art in heaven. The Lord's
prayer is indeed one of the most wonderful proofs of
(03:06):
the existence of God there is in the scripture. For
there could not be the thought of a God that
is so sublime and so beautiful, and of man's relationship
to him, unless God existed, and unless he initiated the
information so that we would know this that we call
(03:27):
the Lord's prayer in the Book of Matthew in the
sixth chapter is one of many prayers that the Lord
Jesus prayed, some twenty prayers that we know of, for
a fact, on one occasion, and it is baptism in
Luke III.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Were told that he prayed.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
When the crowds began to press upon him in Capernium,
and he feared the spirit of monopoly. Were told that
he got up a great while before dawn, and he
prayed when he contemplated the selection of his apostles.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Interestingly enough, the Lord.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Jesus prays all night before he did that. We could
add to this the high priestly prayer recorded in John seventeen.
And we all know about the prayer in the Garden
of Gsemite when Jesus said, nevertheless, not my will, but
Thine be done. But the most familiar of all the
praying which is associated with the Lord's name, is that
(04:22):
which we are focusing on, and that is the prayer
we call the Lord's prayer. Now I ought to say
at the outset that this cannot really be the Lord's prayer,
because the Lord could never pray forgive us our debts
as we forgive those who are our debtors. We call
it the Lord's prayer because it is the prayer the
Lord taught his disciples. In all reality, it is our prayer,
(04:45):
or it's the disciples prayer.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
As we introduce this.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Prayer today, and as we think about some of the
things the Lord said to introduce praying to us, it
would be helpful to us, I think if we would
just pause for a moment and remember how very special
this prayer is in our world today. First of all,
it is in almost all of the common liturgies of
the liturgical churches. It is the earliest recollection of most
(05:16):
every one of us as children. In fact, I was
reminded that when I was in the third grade, which
was in another lifetime, I had a teacher whose name
was missus Gaydell. I will not forget her. She made
an impact on my life, and every day at the
beginning of our class she was my homeroom teacher. She
would stand before our class in a public school and
(05:39):
lead us in the Lord's Prayer.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
We have come a long way, haven't we?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
And we've been going in the wrong direction. The Lord's
Prayer was known by almost every child, regardless of what
their religious background might have been, for it was.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
A part of our heritage.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Often in weddings, the Lord's Prayer is either recited or
it is sung. Very seldom do you officiate at a
funeral or at a graveside service without the Lord's Prayer
being a part.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Of what happens there.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I know some families that recited at meal time and
others that say it before they go to.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Bed at night.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Just sixty six words in the King James version of
this prayer, But oh how powerful and how wonderful these
words have been. It is amazing to me to see
over the years the place this prayer has been accorded
in church history. If you go back through the early
(06:40):
church men like Origin and Gregory of Nysa and Tertullian
and all of the church fathers that we've studied, almost
all of them had substantial expositions on the Lord's Prayer.
Luther gave countless expositions of this prayer in his sermons
and in the Presbyterian churches today. An exposition of the
(07:01):
Lord's Prayer forms the last nine Questions of the Westminster Catechism.
Andrew Murray said that the Lord's Prayer is a form
of prayer that becomes the model and inspiration for all
other prayers, and yet always it draws us back to
itself as the deepest utterance of our souls before God.
(07:23):
We can pray a lot of prayers. And it is
a good thing to be reminded that the disciples did
not say, Lord teach us a prayer.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
They said, Lord teach us to pray.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And the prayer is not something that we're just to
say as a rote prayer. But we'll get into that
in a moment. But it is a pattern for praying,
and it is a wonderful outline for praying, and it
has been given a great place in the history of
the Church and in most of our lives. It has
also been used in an unfortunate way. Now and again.
(07:59):
I read of a minister who parked his car in
a no parking zone in a large city, and because
he was short of time and couldn't find a space
where there was a meter, he put a note under
the windshield wiper that read, I have circled this block
ten times. If I don't park here, I'll miss my appointment.
(08:19):
Forgive us our trespasses. When he returned, he found a
citation from the police officer along with this note, I
have circled this block for ten years. If I don't
give you a ticket, I'll lose my job. Lead us
not into temptation. The Lord's prayer.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Many of you understand that.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
There's somewhat of a struggle with prayer for a lot
of people. If I could be theological for a moment,
there are two camps that have to do with the
sovereignty of God. And let me try to explain this
so that it's not complicated, because if it's complicated, I
won't understand it. There are a group of people who
(09:13):
followed in the train of John Calvin, and they're called Calvinists.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Have you ever heard that word.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Calvinists are really strong on the sovereignty of God. The
God is in charge. And then there's another group called
the Armenians. Have you heard of those folks. They're followers
of a man by the name of Arminius and they're
very much into the free will of man. So you
(09:43):
have the Calvinists and you have the Armenians. Well, the
Calvinists believe that everything's up to God and nothing's up
to man, and sometimes the Armenians believe that everything's up
to man. Hardly anything's up to God. I read a
story some time ago that illustrates how some of these
(10:03):
questions sometimes can even frustrate mature Christians. George Whitfield was
a Calvinistic evangelist. John Wesley was an Armenian evangelist, and
believe it or not, one time they were preaching together
(10:24):
in a campaign, rooming together in the same rooming house
each night, actually staying in the same room, George Whitfield
the Calvinist and John Wesley the Armenian. After they had
been preaching in this community for some time, they went
back to their boarding house one night, and exhausted, were
(10:46):
preparing for bed, and they were going to pray. Whitfield,
the Calvinist prayed like this, Lord, we thank THEE for
all those with whom we spoke today, and we rejoiced
that their lives and destinies are entirely in Thy hands.
Honor our efforts according to your will.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And he rose from his knees and got into bed.
John Wesley, who had hardly gotten past the invocation in
his prayer, looked up from the side of the bed
and said, mister Whitfield, is this where your Calvinism leads you?
Then he put his head down and went on praying,
and Whitfield stayed in bed and went to sleep. About
(11:30):
two hours later, Whitfield woke up and sure enough there
was Wesley still on his knees beside the bed. So
Whitfield got up and went around the bed to where
Wesley was kneeling. And when he got there, he found
out that John Wesley was asleep, and he shook him
by the shoulder and he said, mister Wesley, is this
(11:52):
where your Arminianism leads you? Somewhere between Calvinism and Arminianism
is the real truth? And you know what I've discovered.
There is no place in all of the Bible that
puts that together better than the Lord's prayer.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
For the Lord's prayer.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Is Thine is the Glory, Thine is the power, Thy Kingdom, Come,
Thy will be done. And in the middle is give
us our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses. There isn't
any conflict in the will of God. When we get
to heaven someday, there's not going to be an Armenian
(12:34):
part of heaven in a Calvinistic part of heaven. But
the Lord's prayer, Oh, what a balance it brings to
all that we do, and how we can learn not
only to pray, but how we can learn about life
by studying its words and following its pattern. It's found
(12:54):
two places in the Bible, in Matthew chapter six and
in Luke eleven. And we're studying it in the sixth
chapter of the Book of Matthew.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Now, before the.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Lord actually gives the prayer in the sixth chapter, he
presents a couple of requirements, and we need to take
care of these in this message so that we understand
that the Lord said, after this manner, pray. But then
he said, there's some things I want to tell you
about prayer before you actually pray. And the first thing
(13:27):
he talks about is that our prayers must not be hypocritical.
He actually uses the word hypocrite in the verse when
you pray verse five, Matthew six, you shall not be
like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in
the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that
they may be seen by men. And I tell you
(13:48):
they have their reward. The day in which Jesus spoke
these words, the Jewish Pharisees especially were committed to praying
on the set hours of the clock three o'clock, six o'clock,
nine o'clock, twelve o'clock. Always when they came to that
(14:09):
every third hour, they would stop wherever they were, and
they would pray out loud.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
And in reading some of the history of the day.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I discovered that some of the Pharisees used to plan
their day out so that they would be in the
most public place at the time when the clock chimed
three or nine or twelve, so that at twelve o'clock
they might be in the center of the city. And
when they got to the center of the city, oh,
it's twelve o'clock, imagine that, and they would lift their
(14:40):
hands up and out loud, they would pray, and everybody
would look around and say, boy, that must be some
spiritual person there. And Jesus said, when you pray, don't
pray like that, because hypocritical praying focuses on position instead
of piety. Matthew twenty three, twenty eight says, even so,
(15:03):
you also outwardly appear righteous, but within you are full
of hypocrisy and iniquity. It's not always true that what
you see in the outside represents the reality of the person.
Jesus wants us to know that it is not that
we pray publicly that He cares about. Don't do this
(15:24):
as the hypocrites do. For Hypocritical praying focuses not only
on position instead of piety, but hypocritical praying focuses on
recognition instead of reward. One of the most sobering thoughts
to come from studying the Lord's prayer men and women
is this that no man can at one and the
(15:45):
same time be trying to impress men and be able
to impress God. You can't do that, And so Jesus
warns us at the outset the prayer, the Lord's prayer
is not necessarily something we should fancy doing it public
for attention. Don't do your praying for others because you see,
(16:06):
hypocritical praying focuses on recognition instead of reward. The Bible
says that we are not to pray in that way.
But then the Lord adds another warning to us. He says,
don't pray like the hypocrites do. And notice that the
(16:26):
word hypocrite is in verse five, but in verse seven
he said, don't pray like the heathen do, and that
word is in verse seven. Don't pray like the hypocrites,
and don't pray like the heathen. You say, well, pastor Jeremiah,
do the heathen pray?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Oh? Yes, yes, they do.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
And Jesus describes one of the characteristics of heathen praying.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
It is vain repetition.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
It is coming to God is if we have to
repeat over and over again the same kind of words,
almost like a spiritual mantra, for God to hear us.
And it is possible for us, even as evangelicals, maybe
graduates of Christian colleges and Christian high schools, it is
(17:14):
possible for us to fall into the vein of heathen praying. Now,
in many churches, some from which you may have come,
they have what they call a prayer book. And I
am not against prayer books. I don't want to make
a statement against them. Some of the greatest things you'll
find are in some of the old old prayer books
(17:34):
that have come to us out of the history of
the church. But a prayer book has a pre written prayer.
And if you get a good prayer book, you can
get a prayer for anything your heart desires, any kind
of occasion, any kind of moment you will ever experience.
So you just look in the index and find the
prayer you want, and open it up, and you pray
(17:54):
this prayer out loud. Now, if the prayer represents the
genuineness of your heart, then God will hear it and
it will be acceptable to him. But so often what
happens through liturgy, and one of the challenges with liturgical
worship is that what becomes wrote and routine to us
(18:15):
becomes vain repetition, so that we stand in mouth words
they mean nothing to us. And Jesus is trying to
help us understand that what he longs for from his
people is not the right set of words, not the
right vocabulary said in the right intonation. But what he
wants is a relationship with his people, so that we
(18:38):
come to him as we would come to a friend,
and we converse with him, and it's meaningful in relationship.
It's interesting to me that at the very front of
this prayer, which is often prayed in a vain, repetitious way,
there is a warning against doing that. Don't do it,
Jesus said, you know, as Christians, we do that ourselves,
(19:01):
don't We do we ever use vain repetitions words in
our prayers. Do you know what I've noticed that we
get into the habit of doing as Christians? And I
suppose I've gone through a phase of this, and maybe
you have to, and maybe you're in the midst of
a phase of this. We use words as vocal pauses,
where someone uses the name of God or the name.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Father over and over and over again.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
And Father, we just want to say, and Father, we
just want to do and Father, we just want to pray,
and Father this, and Father that. Now you try that
on the person who is closest to you in normal
human conversation. You go home to your wife and you say, Donna.
If that's her name, you say, Donna. It's so good
(19:51):
Donna to see you.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Donna. Donna was good for us to be in church,
wasn't it. Donna? Oh, Donna, what a.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Wonderful service it was, Donna, Donna, what is the matter
with you? And she would look at me and say,
I don't want you to talk with me in vain repetitions,
and she would be right. You don't talk like that
to somebody you know and love. You talk with them normally.
(20:20):
And sometimes we do that out of nervous habit, don't
we Sometimes we just do it out of habit. And
maybe it's good for us to take the admonition of
our Lord and say, when I talk to God, he's
my friend. After I address him the first time, I
don't have to keep calling his name, because he knows
that I know who he is.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Vain repetitious.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
There's an interesting thing in the account of the Publican
and the Pharisee. In Luke's account, it says this that
the Pharisee went there and prayed with himself. Isn't that
an interesting thought? Have you ever noticed people that pray
with themselves. Maybe God's listening in, but he's the second thought,
(21:07):
because they're praying with themselves. And the Lord warns us
against that our prayer must not be heathen.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
INTI bet there are millions who write their prayers down
on paper, and they use prayer machines, and they put
their little prayer requests in these prayer machines, and they're
like wheels and they turn around like this, and they
believe that every time the wheel passes in front of
Heaven that the prayers offered. So as many times as
they can pass that wheel in front of Heaven, that's
(21:38):
another prayer.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And that's a vain repetition.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's the kind of thing we get into sometimes if
we're not careful. And Jesus warns against that one man
has written that one sentence burdened with a heart's desire,
is dearer to God than an hour's rehearsing of words
and phrases with no longing behind them. God wants our
(22:02):
hearts and sow these warnings at the outset of the prayer. Now,
the interesting thing, as you come to this prayer, and
we just want to kind of wet our appetites for it.
As you come to this prayer, you begin to realize
and delve into its meaning, and you discover some great theology.
(22:24):
I want you to look down at the prayer and
notice the emphasis upon God in the first three petitions.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Thy Kingdom, thy Name, thy Will.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
And then notice the second part of the prayer and
its emphasis upon the poverty of man. And I'm going
to change the way the words are just so you
can get the point. I want you to watch carefully
in your Bibles and notice, us give daily bread, Us
forgive us, lead not into temptation, us deliver from evil.
(22:55):
In the first part of the prayer, it's thy, thy, Thy.
In the second part of the prayer, it's us Us Us.
God has all the glory and all the power and
all the Majesty, and you and I have all the
needs and all the wants and all the poverty, don't
we Isn't it great to come to a prayer where
you can just say, God, I'm empty, But oh God,
(23:16):
You're so full, and you are my source, and you're
the one to whom I come.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
You are my father.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Samuel Zweimer once wrote that every possible desire of the
praying heart is here. This prayer contains a whole world
of spiritual requirements, and it combines in simple language every
divine promise, every human sorrow and want, and every Christian
aspiration for the good of others. So here in this
(23:46):
prayer is everything that we need to do when we pray.
This teaching and prayer by the Lord has a good introduction,
and we're in the middle of it right now. We'll
finish it up tomorrow before we get into the actual
prayer itself. The Lord's Prayer is hanging on the walls
of many homes, and it's emblazoned across the banners of
(24:10):
many schools. It is a standard prayer that's taught to children,
And believe it or not, I'm old enough so that
I can remember when I went to school, and it
was a public grade school. We prayed the Lord's Prayer
every day before school started. That's how I learned about
this prayer for the very first time. Many of you
(24:32):
have similar reminders in your memory system. But what we
need to do now is to learn what the prayer
actually means and how it can guide us in our
future prayer life. And we'll be doing that throughout the
month of August. I hope you'll stay with us. We're
going to have a great time exploring this prayer together.
See you next time right here on this good station.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on Doctor Jeremiah Series Prayer The Great Adventure,
please visit our website, where we also offer two free
ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points
magazine and our daily email devotional Sign up today at
Davidjeremiah dot org slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dot org slash Radio,
or call us at eight hundred ninety four seven nineteen
(25:18):
ninety three. Ask for your copy of David's new book,
Everything to God and Prayer Guided Prayers for your deepest
needs and biggest dreams. It's yours for a gift of
any amount you can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible
in the English Standard, New International, and New King James versions,
complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's decades of study.
(25:40):
Get all the details when you visit our website.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Davidjeremiah dot org.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Slash Radio, This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow
as we continue the series Prayer the Great Adventure on
Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
Welcome to turning Point. How's your prayer life? If you're
like most believers, you'll admit that there's probably some room
for improvement. Today, doctor David Jeremiah begins a series to
help you grow in this area, using the pattern for
prayer given by Christ himself. Kicking off his series Prayer
the Great Adventure. Here's David to introduce to day's message
(00:29):
Prayer Pagans and pretenders.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, you know, the Bible is filled with instruction and
how to pray, but there's no better teaching section than
that which the Lord Jesus gave his disciples when they said,
to the Lord, teach us to pray. And I've always
been reminded that they didn't ask him to teach them
to preach, or to counsel or to lead. They said, Lord,
teach us to pray. And what follows is what we
(00:53):
know as the Lord's Prayer, perhaps better entitled the Disciples Prayer.
And before Jesus came, it's into the actual prayer itself.
He gives his disciples some instructions, and I like to say,
before Jesus taught them what to do, he taught them
what not to do. And it's good instruction for us,
and we'll get to it in just a moment as
(01:14):
we open our Bibles to the sixth chapter of Matthew.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
But before we go.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
There, let me remind you that we're in a new
month and we have a beautiful new resource to present
to you. It's a book called Everything to God in Prayer.
It's guided prayers for your deepest needs and biggest dreams,
and each section has a heat scripture and a prayer
that you can use. These prayers are kind of like
(01:37):
jump starts for your own prayer life. For instance, here's
a prayer for when I need courage, and it starts out,
Dear Lord, thank you for drawing near to me when
I'm afraid. You are my strength. And though I may
not see you, I know you are here and You're enough.
And there's much more in this purpot. That's how the
prayer starts. And they're just so beautifully designed and will
(01:58):
encourage you in your prayer life. That's the thing I'm
very excited about. And when you send a gift to
Turning Point during the month of August of any size,
ask for your copy of the book Everything to God
in Prayer, and will send it to you right away.
Here is part one of prayer, pagans and pretenders. The
(02:21):
daughter of an atheist once said to a friend of
hers that she'd been brought up without any religion at all.
I do not believe in God, she said. Then she
added a little wistfully. But the other day in an
old German book, I came across a German prayer, And
(02:42):
if the God of that prayer exists, then I think
I might be able to believe in him. What is
that prayer, her friend asked. Then she replied, slowly, repeating
in German, our Father who art in heaven. The Lord's
prayer is indeed one of the most wonderful proofs of
(03:06):
the existence of God there is in the scripture. For
there could not be the thought of a God that
is so sublime and so beautiful, and of man's relationship
to him, unless God existed, and unless he initiated the
information so that we would know this that we call
(03:27):
the Lord's prayer in the Book of Matthew in the
sixth chapter is one of many prayers that the Lord
Jesus prayed, some twenty prayers that we know of, for
a fact, on one occasion, and it is baptism in
Luke III.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Were told that he prayed.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
When the crowds began to press upon him in Capernium,
and he feared the spirit of monopoly. Were told that
he got up a great while before dawn, and he
prayed when he contemplated the selection of his apostles.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Interestingly enough, the Lord.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Jesus prays all night before he did that. We could
add to this the high priestly prayer recorded in John seventeen.
And we all know about the prayer in the Garden
of Gsemite when Jesus said, nevertheless, not my will, but
Thine be done. But the most familiar of all the
praying which is associated with the Lord's name, is that
(04:22):
which we are focusing on, and that is the prayer
we call the Lord's prayer. Now I ought to say
at the outset that this cannot really be the Lord's prayer,
because the Lord could never pray forgive us our debts
as we forgive those who are our debtors. We call
it the Lord's prayer because it is the prayer the
Lord taught his disciples. In all reality, it is our prayer,
(04:45):
or it's the disciples prayer.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
As we introduce this.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Prayer today, and as we think about some of the
things the Lord said to introduce praying to us, it
would be helpful to us, I think if we would
just pause for a moment and remember how very special
this prayer is in our world today. First of all,
it is in almost all of the common liturgies of
the liturgical churches. It is the earliest recollection of most
(05:16):
every one of us as children. In fact, I was
reminded that when I was in the third grade, which
was in another lifetime, I had a teacher whose name
was missus Gaydell. I will not forget her. She made
an impact on my life, and every day at the
beginning of our class she was my homeroom teacher. She
would stand before our class in a public school and
(05:39):
lead us in the Lord's Prayer.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
We have come a long way, haven't we?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
And we've been going in the wrong direction. The Lord's
Prayer was known by almost every child, regardless of what
their religious background might have been, for it was.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
A part of our heritage.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Often in weddings, the Lord's Prayer is either recited or
it is sung. Very seldom do you officiate at a
funeral or at a graveside service without the Lord's Prayer
being a part.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Of what happens there.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I know some families that recited at meal time and
others that say it before they go to.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Bed at night.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Just sixty six words in the King James version of
this prayer, But oh how powerful and how wonderful these
words have been. It is amazing to me to see
over the years the place this prayer has been accorded
in church history. If you go back through the early
(06:40):
church men like Origin and Gregory of Nysa and Tertullian
and all of the church fathers that we've studied, almost
all of them had substantial expositions on the Lord's Prayer.
Luther gave countless expositions of this prayer in his sermons
and in the Presbyterian churches today. An exposition of the
(07:01):
Lord's Prayer forms the last nine Questions of the Westminster Catechism.
Andrew Murray said that the Lord's Prayer is a form
of prayer that becomes the model and inspiration for all
other prayers, and yet always it draws us back to
itself as the deepest utterance of our souls before God.
(07:23):
We can pray a lot of prayers. And it is
a good thing to be reminded that the disciples did
not say, Lord teach us a prayer.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
They said, Lord teach us to pray.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And the prayer is not something that we're just to
say as a rote prayer. But we'll get into that
in a moment. But it is a pattern for praying,
and it is a wonderful outline for praying, and it
has been given a great place in the history of
the Church and in most of our lives. It has
also been used in an unfortunate way. Now and again.
(07:59):
I read of a minister who parked his car in
a no parking zone in a large city, and because
he was short of time and couldn't find a space
where there was a meter, he put a note under
the windshield wiper that read, I have circled this block
ten times. If I don't park here, I'll miss my appointment.
(08:19):
Forgive us our trespasses. When he returned, he found a
citation from the police officer along with this note, I
have circled this block for ten years. If I don't
give you a ticket, I'll lose my job. Lead us
not into temptation. The Lord's prayer.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Many of you understand that.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
There's somewhat of a struggle with prayer for a lot
of people. If I could be theological for a moment,
there are two camps that have to do with the
sovereignty of God. And let me try to explain this
so that it's not complicated, because if it's complicated, I
won't understand it. There are a group of people who
(09:13):
followed in the train of John Calvin, and they're called Calvinists.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Have you ever heard that word.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Calvinists are really strong on the sovereignty of God. The
God is in charge. And then there's another group called
the Armenians. Have you heard of those folks. They're followers
of a man by the name of Arminius and they're
very much into the free will of man. So you
(09:43):
have the Calvinists and you have the Armenians. Well, the
Calvinists believe that everything's up to God and nothing's up
to man, and sometimes the Armenians believe that everything's up
to man. Hardly anything's up to God. I read a
story some time ago that illustrates how some of these
(10:03):
questions sometimes can even frustrate mature Christians. George Whitfield was
a Calvinistic evangelist. John Wesley was an Armenian evangelist, and
believe it or not, one time they were preaching together
(10:24):
in a campaign, rooming together in the same rooming house
each night, actually staying in the same room, George Whitfield
the Calvinist and John Wesley the Armenian. After they had
been preaching in this community for some time, they went
back to their boarding house one night, and exhausted, were
(10:46):
preparing for bed, and they were going to pray. Whitfield,
the Calvinist prayed like this, Lord, we thank THEE for
all those with whom we spoke today, and we rejoiced
that their lives and destinies are entirely in Thy hands.
Honor our efforts according to your will.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And he rose from his knees and got into bed.
John Wesley, who had hardly gotten past the invocation in
his prayer, looked up from the side of the bed
and said, mister Whitfield, is this where your Calvinism leads you?
Then he put his head down and went on praying,
and Whitfield stayed in bed and went to sleep. About
(11:30):
two hours later, Whitfield woke up and sure enough there
was Wesley still on his knees beside the bed. So
Whitfield got up and went around the bed to where
Wesley was kneeling. And when he got there, he found
out that John Wesley was asleep, and he shook him
by the shoulder and he said, mister Wesley, is this
(11:52):
where your Arminianism leads you? Somewhere between Calvinism and Arminianism
is the real truth? And you know what I've discovered.
There is no place in all of the Bible that
puts that together better than the Lord's prayer.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
For the Lord's prayer.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Is Thine is the Glory, Thine is the power, Thy Kingdom, Come,
Thy will be done. And in the middle is give
us our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses. There isn't
any conflict in the will of God. When we get
to heaven someday, there's not going to be an Armenian
(12:34):
part of heaven in a Calvinistic part of heaven. But
the Lord's prayer, Oh, what a balance it brings to
all that we do, and how we can learn not
only to pray, but how we can learn about life
by studying its words and following its pattern. It's found
(12:54):
two places in the Bible, in Matthew chapter six and
in Luke eleven. And we're studying it in the sixth
chapter of the Book of Matthew.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Now, before the.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Lord actually gives the prayer in the sixth chapter, he
presents a couple of requirements, and we need to take
care of these in this message so that we understand
that the Lord said, after this manner, pray. But then
he said, there's some things I want to tell you
about prayer before you actually pray. And the first thing
(13:27):
he talks about is that our prayers must not be hypocritical.
He actually uses the word hypocrite in the verse when
you pray verse five, Matthew six, you shall not be
like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in
the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that
they may be seen by men. And I tell you
(13:48):
they have their reward. The day in which Jesus spoke
these words, the Jewish Pharisees especially were committed to praying
on the set hours of the clock three o'clock, six o'clock,
nine o'clock, twelve o'clock. Always when they came to that
(14:09):
every third hour, they would stop wherever they were, and
they would pray out loud.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
And in reading some of the history of the day.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I discovered that some of the Pharisees used to plan
their day out so that they would be in the
most public place at the time when the clock chimed
three or nine or twelve, so that at twelve o'clock
they might be in the center of the city. And
when they got to the center of the city, oh,
it's twelve o'clock, imagine that, and they would lift their
(14:40):
hands up and out loud, they would pray, and everybody
would look around and say, boy, that must be some
spiritual person there. And Jesus said, when you pray, don't
pray like that, because hypocritical praying focuses on position instead
of piety. Matthew twenty three, twenty eight says, even so,
(15:03):
you also outwardly appear righteous, but within you are full
of hypocrisy and iniquity. It's not always true that what
you see in the outside represents the reality of the person.
Jesus wants us to know that it is not that
we pray publicly that He cares about. Don't do this
(15:24):
as the hypocrites do. For Hypocritical praying focuses not only
on position instead of piety, but hypocritical praying focuses on
recognition instead of reward. One of the most sobering thoughts
to come from studying the Lord's prayer men and women
is this that no man can at one and the
(15:45):
same time be trying to impress men and be able
to impress God. You can't do that, And so Jesus
warns us at the outset the prayer, the Lord's prayer
is not necessarily something we should fancy doing it public
for attention. Don't do your praying for others because you see,
(16:06):
hypocritical praying focuses on recognition instead of reward. The Bible
says that we are not to pray in that way.
But then the Lord adds another warning to us. He says,
don't pray like the hypocrites do. And notice that the
(16:26):
word hypocrite is in verse five, but in verse seven
he said, don't pray like the heathen do, and that
word is in verse seven. Don't pray like the hypocrites,
and don't pray like the heathen. You say, well, pastor Jeremiah,
do the heathen pray?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Oh? Yes, yes, they do.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
And Jesus describes one of the characteristics of heathen praying.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
It is vain repetition.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
It is coming to God is if we have to
repeat over and over again the same kind of words,
almost like a spiritual mantra, for God to hear us.
And it is possible for us, even as evangelicals, maybe
graduates of Christian colleges and Christian high schools, it is
(17:14):
possible for us to fall into the vein of heathen praying. Now,
in many churches, some from which you may have come,
they have what they call a prayer book. And I
am not against prayer books. I don't want to make
a statement against them. Some of the greatest things you'll
find are in some of the old old prayer books
(17:34):
that have come to us out of the history of
the church. But a prayer book has a pre written prayer.
And if you get a good prayer book, you can
get a prayer for anything your heart desires, any kind
of occasion, any kind of moment you will ever experience.
So you just look in the index and find the
prayer you want, and open it up, and you pray
(17:54):
this prayer out loud. Now, if the prayer represents the
genuineness of your heart, then God will hear it and
it will be acceptable to him. But so often what
happens through liturgy, and one of the challenges with liturgical
worship is that what becomes wrote and routine to us
(18:15):
becomes vain repetition, so that we stand in mouth words
they mean nothing to us. And Jesus is trying to
help us understand that what he longs for from his
people is not the right set of words, not the
right vocabulary said in the right intonation. But what he
wants is a relationship with his people, so that we
(18:38):
come to him as we would come to a friend,
and we converse with him, and it's meaningful in relationship.
It's interesting to me that at the very front of
this prayer, which is often prayed in a vain, repetitious way,
there is a warning against doing that. Don't do it,
Jesus said, you know, as Christians, we do that ourselves,
(19:01):
don't We do we ever use vain repetitions words in
our prayers. Do you know what I've noticed that we
get into the habit of doing as Christians? And I
suppose I've gone through a phase of this, and maybe
you have to, and maybe you're in the midst of
a phase of this. We use words as vocal pauses,
where someone uses the name of God or the name.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Father over and over and over again.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
And Father, we just want to say, and Father, we
just want to do and Father, we just want to pray,
and Father this, and Father that. Now you try that
on the person who is closest to you in normal
human conversation. You go home to your wife and you say, Donna.
If that's her name, you say, Donna. It's so good
(19:51):
Donna to see you.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Donna. Donna was good for us to be in church,
wasn't it. Donna? Oh, Donna, what a.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Wonderful service it was, Donna, Donna, what is the matter
with you? And she would look at me and say,
I don't want you to talk with me in vain repetitions,
and she would be right. You don't talk like that
to somebody you know and love. You talk with them normally.
(20:20):
And sometimes we do that out of nervous habit, don't
we Sometimes we just do it out of habit. And
maybe it's good for us to take the admonition of
our Lord and say, when I talk to God, he's
my friend. After I address him the first time, I
don't have to keep calling his name, because he knows
that I know who he is.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Vain repetitious.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
There's an interesting thing in the account of the Publican
and the Pharisee. In Luke's account, it says this that
the Pharisee went there and prayed with himself. Isn't that
an interesting thought? Have you ever noticed people that pray
with themselves. Maybe God's listening in, but he's the second thought,
(21:07):
because they're praying with themselves. And the Lord warns us
against that our prayer must not be heathen.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
INTI bet there are millions who write their prayers down
on paper, and they use prayer machines, and they put
their little prayer requests in these prayer machines, and they're
like wheels and they turn around like this, and they
believe that every time the wheel passes in front of
Heaven that the prayers offered. So as many times as
they can pass that wheel in front of Heaven, that's
(21:38):
another prayer.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
And that's a vain repetition.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's the kind of thing we get into sometimes if
we're not careful. And Jesus warns against that one man
has written that one sentence burdened with a heart's desire,
is dearer to God than an hour's rehearsing of words
and phrases with no longing behind them. God wants our
(22:02):
hearts and sow these warnings at the outset of the prayer. Now,
the interesting thing, as you come to this prayer, and
we just want to kind of wet our appetites for it.
As you come to this prayer, you begin to realize
and delve into its meaning, and you discover some great theology.
(22:24):
I want you to look down at the prayer and
notice the emphasis upon God in the first three petitions.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Thy Kingdom, thy Name, thy Will.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
And then notice the second part of the prayer and
its emphasis upon the poverty of man. And I'm going
to change the way the words are just so you
can get the point. I want you to watch carefully
in your Bibles and notice, us give daily bread, Us
forgive us, lead not into temptation, us deliver from evil.
(22:55):
In the first part of the prayer, it's thy, thy, Thy.
In the second part of the prayer, it's us Us Us.
God has all the glory and all the power and
all the Majesty, and you and I have all the
needs and all the wants and all the poverty, don't
we Isn't it great to come to a prayer where
you can just say, God, I'm empty, But oh God,
(23:16):
You're so full, and you are my source, and you're
the one to whom I come.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
You are my father.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Samuel Zweimer once wrote that every possible desire of the
praying heart is here. This prayer contains a whole world
of spiritual requirements, and it combines in simple language every
divine promise, every human sorrow and want, and every Christian
aspiration for the good of others. So here in this
(23:46):
prayer is everything that we need to do when we pray.
This teaching and prayer by the Lord has a good introduction,
and we're in the middle of it right now. We'll
finish it up tomorrow before we get into the actual
prayer itself. The Lord's Prayer is hanging on the walls
of many homes, and it's emblazoned across the banners of
(24:10):
many schools. It is a standard prayer that's taught to children,
And believe it or not, I'm old enough so that
I can remember when I went to school, and it
was a public grade school. We prayed the Lord's Prayer
every day before school started. That's how I learned about
this prayer for the very first time. Many of you
(24:32):
have similar reminders in your memory system. But what we
need to do now is to learn what the prayer
actually means and how it can guide us in our
future prayer life. And we'll be doing that throughout the
month of August. I hope you'll stay with us. We're
going to have a great time exploring this prayer together.
See you next time right here on this good station.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on Doctor Jeremiah Series Prayer The Great Adventure,
please visit our website, where we also offer two free
ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points
magazine and our daily email devotional Sign up today at
Davidjeremiah dot org slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dot org slash Radio,
or call us at eight hundred ninety four seven nineteen
(25:18):
ninety three. Ask for your copy of David's new book,
Everything to God and Prayer Guided Prayers for your deepest
needs and biggest dreams. It's yours for a gift of
any amount you can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible
in the English Standard, New International, and New King James versions,
complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's decades of study.
(25:40):
Get all the details when you visit our website.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Davidjeremiah dot org.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Slash Radio, This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow
as we continue the series Prayer the Great Adventure on
Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
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