August 4, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Believers and non believers alike have committed the Lord's Prayer
to memory. But if that's all you've done with it,
you're missing its real value. Today on turning point, Doctor
David Jeremiah continues the series Prayer the Great Adventure by
sharing how the Lord's Prayer can be a rich.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Framework for your own prayers.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
To introduce the conclusion of Prayer Pagans and Pretenders, here's David.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
And thank you for joining us. If this is your
first time to join with us in the teaching of
the Word of God. We are just at the beginning
of a new series on the subject of prayer. We
call this book Prayer the Great Adventure, because it truly
is an adventure. As you understand prayer more and more,
you'll discover that that is an absolutely wonderful title for
(00:52):
any discussion about prayer. We're going to get to part
two of Prayer, Pagans and Pretenders as we begin the
early introductory section of this prayer from Matthew chapter six,
verses five through thirteen. Before we open our bibles and
continue our discussion from Matthew, let me just remind you
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that during the month of August, we have an amazing
book that we want you to have. You know, I
don't judge books always by their cover, but coverers have
a lot to do with whether or not you want
to read a book. And if you see this book
and you pick it up, you will want to have
it and you want to read it because it's so
beautifully designed. And in the book are prayers that we
have collected on the different subjects of our life, like
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when I'm in a hard season, when I'm battling hopelessness,
when I feel afraid of death, when I have to
make a decision, when I feel despaired. These are just
a few of the things in the book, and for
every one of those questions there's a suggested prayer and
they suggested portion of the Word of God. It's really
hands on help to all of us in our spiritual life.
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I'm sure it will be a blessing and will enhance
your prayer life. And we'd love for you to have
a copy of this book. And you can have your
copy for a gift of any size to turning Point
during the month of August. Please make sure you ask
for the book when you send your gift, and it
will be on its way here's part two of pagans
and pretenders. And Jesus said, when you pray, don't pray
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like the hypocrites do. And notice that the 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 2 (02:41):
Oh? Yes, yes they do.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
And Jesus describes one of the characteristics of heathen praying.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It is vain repetition.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It is coming to God is if we have to
repeat over and over again the same kinds 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
possible for us to fall into the vein of heathen praying. Now,
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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
that have come to us out of the history of
the church. But a prayer book has a pre written prayer,
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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'll ever experience. So
you just look in the index and find the prayer
you want, open it up, and you pray this prayer
out loud. Now, if the prayer represents the genuineness of
your heart, then God will hear it and it will
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be acceptable to him. So often what happens through liturgy,
and one of the challenges with liturgical worship is that
what becomes wrote and routine to us becomes vain repetition,
so that we stand in mouth words they mean nothing
to us. And Jesus is trying to help us understand
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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 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
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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.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Don't do it, Jesus.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Said, you know, as Christians, we do that ourselves, don't
We do we ever use vain repetitions words in our prayers.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Do you know what?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
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. 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 2 (05:15):
Father over and over and over again.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
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.
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It's so good Donna to see you. Donna. Donna was
good for us to be in church, wasn't it. Donna,
Oh Donna, what a wonderful service it was. Donna, Oh 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.
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You don't talk like that to somebody you know and love.
You talk with them normally. 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
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his name because he knows that I know who he
is vain repetitious. 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.
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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 because they're praying with themselves. And the
Lord warns us against that our prayer must not be heathen.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Into 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
another prayer.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
And that's a vain repetition.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
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 hearts,
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and so 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.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Our appetites for it.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
As you come to this prayer, begin to realize and
delve into its meaning, and you discover some great theology.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I want you to.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Look down at the prayer and notice the emphasis upon
God in the first three petitions, Thy Kingdom, thy Name,
thy Will. And then notice the second part of the
prayer and it's 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,
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Us forgive us, lead not into temptation, us deliver from evil.
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
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you can just say, God, I'm empty, But oh God,
You're so full, and you are my source, and you're
the one to whom I come.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You are my father.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
For the good of others.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
So here in this prayer is everything that we need
to do when we pray. I studied the Lord's Prayer
some years ago, and for a period of time in
my walk with God, I used to pray the outline
of this prayer every day.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And let me tell you how it.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Works, because it's kind of an exciting thing to do.
First of all, the prayer starts with praise, and the
Bible tells us that we're to enter into the presence
of God with praise and thanksgiving. It says hallowed be
thy Name. Basically, that means we come to God, and
the first thing we do is we honor Him, and
we worship him, and we praise him many If you
(10:00):
know how easy it is to rush into the presence
of God, and you got your grocery list, and you're
halfway down the list, and all of a sudden you
realize you haven't even said a good thing about God
from the outset of your prayer. I find that tendency
because what motivates us, what drives us, the things we
feel in our hearts, the needs, and God wants us
to come first of all.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
And open the prayer gate with worship and praise.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Take the names of God, take the psalms, Take anything
you want to that will help you do that. But
I find that when I praise Him first. Now watch carefully. Psychologically,
it's creatively helpful because if you come to God with
your long grocery list of needs, and most of us
have one, and you first do not see him high
and lift it up in all of His greatness and power,
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you won't have the confidence in your prayer that you
should have. Make God big in your prayer before you
do anything else. Praise Him first, and then after praise
comes priorities, Thy Kingdom Come, will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. What in the world would
happen in your life if God's will was done on
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earth as it is in heaven. How is God's will
done in heaven, absolutely perfectly, completely, And so it's a
good thing. Secondly, to just bring your life before Him
and say, Lord, here's my priorities. And I've told you
what my priorities are. I go over these over and
over again. I'm first of all a person before God.
I have a relationship with him. Then I'm a partner
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with my wife and I have a relationship with her.
And then I'm a parent for my children and I
have a relationship with them. And then I'm a pastor
over this church. But Everyone who understands that applauds the
fact that the church.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Is number four.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
We need to be number four because my relationship is
first with God, then with Donna, then with my children,
and then to the work God has called me. Now,
what would happen in your life if every day you
came to God and you said.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I will be done on earth as it is.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
In Heaven, in my relationship with You, in my relationship
with Her, in my relationship with my children, and in
my leadership and relationship in this church.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Pray through your priorities.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
First of all, there's praise, and then there's priorities, and
then there's provision. How many of you have any needs?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Give us this day our daily bread?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And some of you are thinking, there's two kinds of
bread pastor which kind are we talking about here? Both kinds,
whatever kind you need for this is a symbol of
God's desire to meet our needs, his providing for us.
Start with praise, and then you work through your priorities,
and then you bring your needs. Notice, you don't bring
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your needs until you focused on your priorities and you
focused on who God is, and then you talk about provision.
And then when you get done with your provision. Then
you talk about personal relationships. And I want you to
notice this. This is about forgiveness. But as we're going
to see, this is the only part of the prayer
that is repeated for emphasis.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Later.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us. And when you get to the end of
the prayer, it says, if you don't do that, your
Father in Heaven won't forgive you either. I mean, it's
an awesome thought that here in this prayer is the
key to our relationships with each other. As we pray
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through the prayer, as we follow this outline, we're praising God.
We're sorting out our priorities. We're asking God for the
provision that we need the things we need in our life.
And then we're talking about relationships. Lord, is there somebody
in my life that I haven't forgiven? Because you've said
you want to forgive me in the same manner in
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which I forgive others, And so you deal with the relationship.
Isn't life full of relationship challenges, friendships and sometimes family
relationships and working relationships. How many of you know that
you could pray about relationships every day, and it would
be helpful to you.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Amen. It's right here in the outline.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Now, let's remember you praise God, you deal with your priorities,
you ask God for what you need, You talk about
your personal relationships, and then you ask God for protection. Lord,
leave me out into the temptation, but deliver me from evil.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Lord protect me today.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Do you know being a Christian today like walking through
a minefield every day? You know you don't know what
you're going to step on that's going to blow up
in your face. You just need to ask God to
help you not to walk in the path where evil is,
and you ask for his protection, and then it all
ends where it began, back in the throne room again.
For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the
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glory forever. The glory and the praise of God are
the bookends.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Of this prayer.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
And if you start with praise and you end with
praise in between, everything that you need you can bring
to God following the outline of the Lord's prayer, somewhere
going to say today will pass to Jeremiah.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I'm sure glad you got around in my.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Prayer because this is something I'm really into the Lord's Pearl.
I've been saying the Lord's prayer for as long as
I can remember, and I'm glad you're going to teach
on this.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
It's about time my prayer, the Lord's prayer? Is it really?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Someone gave this to me some years ago, and I
want to share it with you. And you do your
own grading, all right, You take the test, you keep
your own score.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Here it is.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Can I say our if my religion has no room
for others in their need? Can I say Father if
I do not demonstrate this relationship every day I live?
Can I say, who are in Heaven? If all my
interests and pursuits are on earth? Can I say, hollowed
be thy name? If I, who am called by his name,
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am not holy? Can I say, Thy Kingdom Come if
I am unwilling to give up my own sovereignty and
accept the righteous reign of God?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Can I say Thy will be done?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
If all I care about is my mine, my own will,
and I'm resentful of having it pushed on me in
my life. Can I say on earth as it is
in Heaven unless I am truly ready to give myself
to serve Him on earth? Can I say, give us
this day our daily bread without expending honest effort for it,
or by ignoring the genuine needs of my fellow man.
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Can I say, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us? If I continue to harbor
a grudge against my neighbor. Can I say, lead us
not into temptation if I deliberately choose to remain in
a situation where I'm likely to be tempted? Can I say,
deliver us from evil? If I'm not prepared to fight
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in the spiritual realm with the weapon of prayer? Can
I say Thine is the kingdom if I don't give
the king the disciplined obedience of a loyal subject. Can
I say Thine is the power if I fear what
my friends and neighbors are going to say about what
I do. Can I say Thine is the glory if
I'm always looking to get praise from myself? Can I
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say forever? If all I care about is today? Can
I say Amen? Unless I honestly say, cost what it
may God, this is my prayer. Don't own this prayer,
my friends, just because you memorized it.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Before we're finished, you.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Will see that if we get gripped by this prayer,
it will do more than give us something to say
when we bow our heads, but it will cause us
to walk in fellowship with God. The most complete and
powerful expression of man's submission to God is the Lord's Prayer.
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In a Southern hospital some years ago during the war,
a young man lay dying and the chaplain of the
army hospital came to pray with him. On his round
of duties. Something inside of the chaplain's heart told him
that it'd be a good thing for him to pray
the Lord's prayer. So he wasn't in the habit of
doing that, but he came to the bedside of this
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young soldier and he prayed the Lord's prayer. When he finished,
the boy's eyes were filled with tears, and the chaplain
tried to respond to him and talked to him about
his need of Christ, and all the boy would say
was this, My mother years ago used to pray that
prayer with me, and oh how good it was to
hear it again. It's often the case when you've been
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away from God that you hear something familiar and it
kind of causes you to come back. Some of you
have experienced that the chaplain went on his round of duties,
and the next day, when he was in the hospital,
he stopped by to see the young soldier. But when
he came to the room, the bed was clean and remade,
and when he asked the attendant, he was told that
the young soldier had died. But he said, just an
hour or so after you left, as he passed out
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of this life. You might be interested in what he said.
He was praying out loud, and he said, my father,
my father. Yes, mother, he's my father. Now I've accepted him.
He's my father, and I'm soon coming to be with
you and my father in heaven. My friends, you can't
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pray the Lord's prayer if God is not your father.
And you say, well, isn't everybody in the family of God,
I'm afraid not. There are two families in the world.
And if you've never been born into God's family, if
you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you
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are not a child of God and God is not
your father. So don't pray a prayer that doesn't belong
to you. This prayer is for the people who have
trusted Christ and are a part of the Family of
God through being born again spiritually into his family. But
the good news is anyone who wants to can experience that.
The good news is that no matter who you are,
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or what you've done, or where you've been through life,
if you want to be a part of the family
of God, the invitation is extended, and all you have
to do is say yes, I will accept what Christ
has done for me on the Cross as my entrance
into God's family. And then He will be your father
and you will be his son his daughter. Then you
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can say with meaning my Father in Heaven. Until then
you cannot. And if there is any lesson in the
Lord's prayer for those of us who are believers, let
it be this one that God desires more than you know,
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your personal intimate fellowship with Him daily, to talk with
him daily, to commune with him, not in high sounding terms,
not in vain repetitions, but in the simplicity of the
words modeled by our Lord.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
To his disciples.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Father Manning is a Catholic priest, a wonderful writer, and
I believe, a godly man. One occasion, he was called
late one night and asked if he could go to
the hospital, and when he inquired about it. He was
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told that there was someone there who was very ill.
They thought he might not make it through the night,
and they didn't know who to call. He wasn't a Catholic,
but could he come, and Father Manning went. When he
got to the hospital, he found a man in the
hospital bed and there was a chair next to the bed.
As he got acquainted with this man who was so
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seriously ill, the man said, I had to talk to someone.
I had to talk to some clergyman tonight because a
few months back, someone told me that if I really
wanted to experience genuine prayer, if I really wanted to
feel like I was talking with God, and I was
struggling with that, maybe what I should do is just
set it chair up in my room and just believe
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in visualize in my own mind that God was there.
Talked to him and he said, you know, people have
been coming through the hospital and they think I'm crazy
because I've been talking to God by the hour, especially
in these last days.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Sometimes I talked to him for two hours.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And since I began to realize that this is a
conversation and a personal thing, I've just grown.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
So much in my love and my fellowship. Is that
all right? Is that alright? Father?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
He said, you know what, I think God would be
honored by that, honored that you wanted a personal, intimate
relationship enough to really understand that what you were doing
is what you should do. That God wants you to
talk with him. He cares about you. He is not
some person distant from you. He's close to you, and
he cares and he wants your intimate personal fellowship. And
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they prayed together, and Brandon Manning left. He came back
and was not surprised to learn that this man had
passed on to the next life. And when he talked
to the nurse, she said, you know, there was something
very strange about this man in his death. Somehow before
he died, he got out of bed and when we
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found him, his head was laying in the chair. And
I have to believe that man discovered what it was
like to really communicate with God.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
He knows you, he loves you, he wants.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
You to talk with him. You don't have to be
some spiritual giant to do it. You don't have to
take some class to do it. What you got to
do is just understand he's your father, your Father in Heaven.
Open your heart to him, tell him what's in your heart,
and he will hear you, and he will answer you.
And the Lord's Prayer will help us learn how to
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do that better.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
As I mentioned at the beginning, the Lord's prayer is
not necessarily a prayer for us to memorize it, say
prayer for us to use as an outline for our
own prayers. And you'll find that very instructive if you
do it. What did Jesus pray about? What should I
pray about? And following that pattern, you will increase your
ability to pray with meaning every day. Hey, don't forget.
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We are going to New England and Canada in October.
I haven't said much about it recently, but I just
want you to know. We'll be sailing on Holland American
Zyder Dam fourth through the eleventh of October, and we'll
be visiting some beautiful, beautiful sites in that part of
the world. We've done this before and we highly recommend it.
It's a great way to spend a few days away
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from the routine, enjoying the fellowship of other people in
the study of the Word of God and God's beautiful creation.
Ask about it when you write, or go to our
website and we'll see you right here next time.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you've just heard came to you from Shadow
Mountain Community Church Senior Pastor, Doctor David Jeremiah. Has the
Lord been moving in.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Your life through this ministry?
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Tell us how at Turning Point pobox thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. Visit our
website at Davidjeremiah dot org, slash Radio, or call eight
hundred nine four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your
copy of David's new book for Strengthening your Prayer life,
(25:25):
Everything to God in Prayer, It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also download the free Turning
Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet, or search
in your app store for Turning Point ministries. To access
our content, visit Davidjeremiah dot org slash radio for details.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Prayer The
Great Adventure on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
Believers and non believers alike have committed the Lord's Prayer
to memory. But if that's all you've done with it,
you're missing its real value. Today on turning point, Doctor
David Jeremiah continues the series Prayer the Great Adventure by
sharing how the Lord's Prayer can be a rich.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Framework for your own prayers.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
To introduce the conclusion of Prayer Pagans and Pretenders, here's David.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
And thank you for joining us. If this is your
first time to join with us in the teaching of
the Word of God. We are just at the beginning
of a new series on the subject of prayer. We
call this book Prayer the Great Adventure, because it truly
is an adventure. As you understand prayer more and more,
you'll discover that that is an absolutely wonderful title for
(00:52):
any discussion about prayer. We're going to get to part
two of Prayer, Pagans and Pretenders as we begin the
early introductory section of this prayer from Matthew chapter six,
verses five through thirteen. Before we open our bibles and
continue our discussion from Matthew, let me just remind you
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that during the month of August, we have an amazing
book that we want you to have. You know, I
don't judge books always by their cover, but coverers have
a lot to do with whether or not you want
to read a book. And if you see this book
and you pick it up, you will want to have
it and you want to read it because it's so
beautifully designed. And in the book are prayers that we
have collected on the different subjects of our life, like
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when I'm in a hard season, when I'm battling hopelessness,
when I feel afraid of death, when I have to
make a decision, when I feel despaired. These are just
a few of the things in the book, and for
every one of those questions there's a suggested prayer and
they suggested portion of the Word of God. It's really
hands on help to all of us in our spiritual life.
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I'm sure it will be a blessing and will enhance
your prayer life. And we'd love for you to have
a copy of this book. And you can have your
copy for a gift of any size to turning Point
during the month of August. Please make sure you ask
for the book when you send your gift, and it
will be on its way here's part two of pagans
and pretenders. And Jesus said, when you pray, don't pray
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like the hypocrites do. And notice that the 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 2 (02:41):
Oh? Yes, yes they do.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
And Jesus describes one of the characteristics of heathen praying.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It is vain repetition.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It is coming to God is if we have to
repeat over and over again the same kinds 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
possible for us to fall into the vein of heathen praying. Now,
(03:16):
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
that have come to us out of the history of
the church. But a prayer book has a pre written prayer,
(03:37):
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'll ever experience. So
you just look in the index and find the prayer
you want, open it up, and you pray this prayer
out loud. Now, if the prayer represents the genuineness of
your heart, then God will hear it and it will
(03:58):
be acceptable to him. So often what happens through liturgy,
and one of the challenges with liturgical worship is that
what becomes wrote and routine to us becomes vain repetition,
so that we stand in mouth words they mean nothing
to us. And Jesus is trying to help us understand
(04:18):
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 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
(04:40):
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.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Don't do it, Jesus.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Said, you know, as Christians, we do that ourselves, don't
We do we ever use vain repetitions words in our prayers.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Do you know what?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
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. 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 2 (05:15):
Father over and over and over again.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
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.
(05:40):
It's so good Donna to see you. Donna. Donna was
good for us to be in church, wasn't it. Donna,
Oh Donna, what a wonderful service it was. Donna, Oh 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.
(06:01):
You don't talk like that to somebody you know and love.
You talk with them normally. 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
(06:23):
his name because he knows that I know who he
is vain repetitious. 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.
(06:44):
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 because they're praying with themselves. And the
Lord warns us against that our prayer must not be heathen.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Into 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
another prayer.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
And that's a vain repetition.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
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 hearts,
(07:47):
and so 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.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Our appetites for it.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
As you come to this prayer, begin to realize and
delve into its meaning, and you discover some great theology.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I want you to.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Look down at the prayer and notice the emphasis upon
God in the first three petitions, Thy Kingdom, thy Name,
thy Will. And then notice the second part of the
prayer and it's 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,
(08:29):
Us forgive us, lead not into temptation, us deliver from evil.
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
(08:52):
you can just say, God, I'm empty, But oh God,
You're so full, and you are my source, and you're
the one to whom I come.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You are my father.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
For the good of others.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
So here in this prayer is everything that we need
to do when we pray. I studied the Lord's Prayer
some years ago, and for a period of time in
my walk with God, I used to pray the outline
of this prayer every day.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And let me tell you how it.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Works, because it's kind of an exciting thing to do.
First of all, the prayer starts with praise, and the
Bible tells us that we're to enter into the presence
of God with praise and thanksgiving. It says hallowed be
thy Name. Basically, that means we come to God, and
the first thing we do is we honor Him, and
we worship him, and we praise him many If you
(10:00):
know how easy it is to rush into the presence
of God, and you got your grocery list, and you're
halfway down the list, and all of a sudden you
realize you haven't even said a good thing about God
from the outset of your prayer. I find that tendency
because what motivates us, what drives us, the things we
feel in our hearts, the needs, and God wants us
to come first of all.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
And open the prayer gate with worship and praise.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Take the names of God, take the psalms, Take anything
you want to that will help you do that. But
I find that when I praise Him first. Now watch carefully. Psychologically,
it's creatively helpful because if you come to God with
your long grocery list of needs, and most of us
have one, and you first do not see him high
and lift it up in all of His greatness and power,
(10:45):
you won't have the confidence in your prayer that you
should have. Make God big in your prayer before you
do anything else. Praise Him first, and then after praise
comes priorities, Thy Kingdom Come, will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. What in the world would
happen in your life if God's will was done on
(11:06):
earth as it is in heaven. How is God's will
done in heaven, absolutely perfectly, completely, And so it's a
good thing. Secondly, to just bring your life before Him
and say, Lord, here's my priorities. And I've told you
what my priorities are. I go over these over and
over again. I'm first of all a person before God.
I have a relationship with him. Then I'm a partner
(11:28):
with my wife and I have a relationship with her.
And then I'm a parent for my children and I
have a relationship with them. And then I'm a pastor
over this church. But Everyone who understands that applauds the
fact that the church.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Is number four.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
We need to be number four because my relationship is
first with God, then with Donna, then with my children,
and then to the work God has called me. Now,
what would happen in your life if every day you
came to God and you said.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I will be done on earth as it is.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
In Heaven, in my relationship with You, in my relationship
with Her, in my relationship with my children, and in
my leadership and relationship in this church.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Pray through your priorities.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
First of all, there's praise, and then there's priorities, and
then there's provision. How many of you have any needs?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Give us this day our daily bread?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And some of you are thinking, there's two kinds of
bread pastor which kind are we talking about here? Both kinds,
whatever kind you need for this is a symbol of
God's desire to meet our needs, his providing for us.
Start with praise, and then you work through your priorities,
and then you bring your needs. Notice, you don't bring
(12:41):
your needs until you focused on your priorities and you
focused on who God is, and then you talk about provision.
And then when you get done with your provision. Then
you talk about personal relationships. And I want you to
notice this. This is about forgiveness. But as we're going
to see, this is the only part of the prayer
that is repeated for emphasis.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Later.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us. And when you get to the end of
the prayer, it says, if you don't do that, your
Father in Heaven won't forgive you either. I mean, it's
an awesome thought that here in this prayer is the
key to our relationships with each other. As we pray
(13:22):
through the prayer, as we follow this outline, we're praising God.
We're sorting out our priorities. We're asking God for the
provision that we need the things we need in our life.
And then we're talking about relationships. Lord, is there somebody
in my life that I haven't forgiven? Because you've said
you want to forgive me in the same manner in
(13:44):
which I forgive others, And so you deal with the relationship.
Isn't life full of relationship challenges, friendships and sometimes family
relationships and working relationships. How many of you know that
you could pray about relationships every day, and it would
be helpful to you.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Amen. It's right here in the outline.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Now, let's remember you praise God, you deal with your priorities,
you ask God for what you need, You talk about
your personal relationships, and then you ask God for protection. Lord,
leave me out into the temptation, but deliver me from evil.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Lord protect me today.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Do you know being a Christian today like walking through
a minefield every day? You know you don't know what
you're going to step on that's going to blow up
in your face. You just need to ask God to
help you not to walk in the path where evil is,
and you ask for his protection, and then it all
ends where it began, back in the throne room again.
For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the
(14:44):
glory forever. The glory and the praise of God are
the bookends.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Of this prayer.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
And if you start with praise and you end with
praise in between, everything that you need you can bring
to God following the outline of the Lord's prayer, somewhere
going to say today will pass to Jeremiah.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I'm sure glad you got around in my.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Prayer because this is something I'm really into the Lord's Pearl.
I've been saying the Lord's prayer for as long as
I can remember, and I'm glad you're going to teach
on this.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
It's about time my prayer, the Lord's prayer? Is it really?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Someone gave this to me some years ago, and I
want to share it with you. And you do your
own grading, all right, You take the test, you keep
your own score.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Here it is.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Can I say our if my religion has no room
for others in their need? Can I say Father if
I do not demonstrate this relationship every day I live?
Can I say, who are in Heaven? If all my
interests and pursuits are on earth? Can I say, hollowed
be thy name? If I, who am called by his name,
(15:48):
am not holy? Can I say, Thy Kingdom Come if
I am unwilling to give up my own sovereignty and
accept the righteous reign of God?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Can I say Thy will be done?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
If all I care about is my mine, my own will,
and I'm resentful of having it pushed on me in
my life. Can I say on earth as it is
in Heaven unless I am truly ready to give myself
to serve Him on earth? Can I say, give us
this day our daily bread without expending honest effort for it,
or by ignoring the genuine needs of my fellow man.
(16:21):
Can I say, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us? If I continue to harbor
a grudge against my neighbor. Can I say, lead us
not into temptation if I deliberately choose to remain in
a situation where I'm likely to be tempted? Can I say,
deliver us from evil? If I'm not prepared to fight
(16:42):
in the spiritual realm with the weapon of prayer? Can
I say Thine is the kingdom if I don't give
the king the disciplined obedience of a loyal subject. Can
I say Thine is the power if I fear what
my friends and neighbors are going to say about what
I do. Can I say Thine is the glory if
I'm always looking to get praise from myself? Can I
(17:02):
say forever? If all I care about is today? Can
I say Amen? Unless I honestly say, cost what it
may God, this is my prayer. Don't own this prayer,
my friends, just because you memorized it.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Before we're finished, you.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Will see that if we get gripped by this prayer,
it will do more than give us something to say
when we bow our heads, but it will cause us
to walk in fellowship with God. The most complete and
powerful expression of man's submission to God is the Lord's Prayer.
(17:47):
In a Southern hospital some years ago during the war,
a young man lay dying and the chaplain of the
army hospital came to pray with him. On his round
of duties. Something inside of the chaplain's heart told him
that it'd be a good thing for him to pray
the Lord's prayer. So he wasn't in the habit of
doing that, but he came to the bedside of this
(18:09):
young soldier and he prayed the Lord's prayer. When he finished,
the boy's eyes were filled with tears, and the chaplain
tried to respond to him and talked to him about
his need of Christ, and all the boy would say
was this, My mother years ago used to pray that
prayer with me, and oh how good it was to
hear it again. It's often the case when you've been
(18:31):
away from God that you hear something familiar and it
kind of causes you to come back. Some of you
have experienced that the chaplain went on his round of duties,
and the next day, when he was in the hospital,
he stopped by to see the young soldier. But when
he came to the room, the bed was clean and remade,
and when he asked the attendant, he was told that
the young soldier had died. But he said, just an
hour or so after you left, as he passed out
(18:53):
of this life. You might be interested in what he said.
He was praying out loud, and he said, my father,
my father. Yes, mother, he's my father. Now I've accepted him.
He's my father, and I'm soon coming to be with
you and my father in heaven. My friends, you can't
(19:13):
pray the Lord's prayer if God is not your father.
And you say, well, isn't everybody in the family of God,
I'm afraid not. There are two families in the world.
And if you've never been born into God's family, if
you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you
(19:33):
are not a child of God and God is not
your father. So don't pray a prayer that doesn't belong
to you. This prayer is for the people who have
trusted Christ and are a part of the Family of
God through being born again spiritually into his family. But
the good news is anyone who wants to can experience that.
The good news is that no matter who you are,
(19:55):
or what you've done, or where you've been through life,
if you want to be a part of the family
of God, the invitation is extended, and all you have
to do is say yes, I will accept what Christ
has done for me on the Cross as my entrance
into God's family. And then He will be your father
and you will be his son his daughter. Then you
(20:17):
can say with meaning my Father in Heaven. Until then
you cannot. And if there is any lesson in the
Lord's prayer for those of us who are believers, let
it be this one that God desires more than you know,
(20:37):
your personal intimate fellowship with Him daily, to talk with
him daily, to commune with him, not in high sounding terms,
not in vain repetitions, but in the simplicity of the
words modeled by our Lord.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
To his disciples.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Father Manning is a Catholic priest, a wonderful writer, and
I believe, a godly man. One occasion, he was called
late one night and asked if he could go to
the hospital, and when he inquired about it. He was
(21:20):
told that there was someone there who was very ill.
They thought he might not make it through the night,
and they didn't know who to call. He wasn't a Catholic,
but could he come, and Father Manning went. When he
got to the hospital, he found a man in the
hospital bed and there was a chair next to the bed.
As he got acquainted with this man who was so
(21:41):
seriously ill, the man said, I had to talk to someone.
I had to talk to some clergyman tonight because a
few months back, someone told me that if I really
wanted to experience genuine prayer, if I really wanted to
feel like I was talking with God, and I was
struggling with that, maybe what I should do is just
set it chair up in my room and just believe
(22:02):
in visualize in my own mind that God was there.
Talked to him and he said, you know, people have
been coming through the hospital and they think I'm crazy
because I've been talking to God by the hour, especially
in these last days.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Sometimes I talked to him for two hours.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And since I began to realize that this is a
conversation and a personal thing, I've just grown.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
So much in my love and my fellowship. Is that
all right? Is that alright? Father?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
He said, you know what, I think God would be
honored by that, honored that you wanted a personal, intimate
relationship enough to really understand that what you were doing
is what you should do. That God wants you to
talk with him. He cares about you. He is not
some person distant from you. He's close to you, and
he cares and he wants your intimate personal fellowship. And
(22:51):
they prayed together, and Brandon Manning left. He came back
and was not surprised to learn that this man had
passed on to the next life. And when he talked
to the nurse, she said, you know, there was something
very strange about this man in his death. Somehow before
he died, he got out of bed and when we
(23:12):
found him, his head was laying in the chair. And
I have to believe that man discovered what it was
like to really communicate with God.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
He knows you, he loves you, he wants.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
You to talk with him. You don't have to be
some spiritual giant to do it. You don't have to
take some class to do it. What you got to
do is just understand he's your father, your Father in Heaven.
Open your heart to him, tell him what's in your heart,
and he will hear you, and he will answer you.
And the Lord's Prayer will help us learn how to
(23:49):
do that better.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
As I mentioned at the beginning, the Lord's prayer is
not necessarily a prayer for us to memorize it, say
prayer for us to use as an outline for our
own prayers. And you'll find that very instructive if you
do it. What did Jesus pray about? What should I
pray about? And following that pattern, you will increase your
ability to pray with meaning every day. Hey, don't forget.
(24:18):
We are going to New England and Canada in October.
I haven't said much about it recently, but I just
want you to know. We'll be sailing on Holland American
Zyder Dam fourth through the eleventh of October, and we'll
be visiting some beautiful, beautiful sites in that part of
the world. We've done this before and we highly recommend it.
It's a great way to spend a few days away
(24:39):
from the routine, enjoying the fellowship of other people in
the study of the Word of God and God's beautiful creation.
Ask about it when you write, or go to our
website and we'll see you right here next time.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you've just heard came to you from Shadow
Mountain Community Church Senior Pastor, Doctor David Jeremiah. Has the
Lord been moving in.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Your life through this ministry?
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Tell us how at Turning Point pobox thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. Visit our
website at Davidjeremiah dot org, slash Radio, or call eight
hundred nine four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your
copy of David's new book for Strengthening your Prayer life,
(25:25):
Everything to God in Prayer, It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also download the free Turning
Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet, or search
in your app store for Turning Point ministries. To access
our content, visit Davidjeremiah dot org slash radio for details.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Prayer The
Great Adventure on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
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