Pray! – Part 2 – Prayers worth praying
Sermon by Greg MacRobbie – Sunday, November 14, 2021
Jesus teaches us what we ought to be asking for when we pray. We tend to mostly ask God to protect us and give us what we want. But Jesus invites us to pray for much different things.
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SERIES THEME
Learning to pray like Jesus
THIS WEEK’S MAIN IDEA
Jesus teaches us what we ought to be asking for when we pray. Although many are inclined to spend most of our time asking God to protect us from harm and give us what we want, whether for ourselves, or for those we are about, Jesus invites us to pray for much different things. After helping us focus on how we ought to pray, Jesus invites us to pray for provision of basic necessities, pardon for sin in the same way we pardon others, and protection from both internal and external evil influences.
SCRIPTURE
Luke 11:3-4; Matthew 6:11-15; Luke 12:16-21; Romans 12:18; James 1:14-15; Ephesians 2:1-3
CONNECT
Play ‘two truths and a tale’. Everyone come up with two obscure truths about yourself or your experiences, then make up a third that you think you can fool the rest of the group into thinking is true. Take turns sharing your two truths and a tale, and see how many people you can fool. The person who has the most people fooled wins (you might have to figure out a prize!)
EXPLORE
- What are the first words or phrases that come to your mind when you hear the word, ‘prayer’? Why do you think these thoughts or impressions rise up first in you? What do you most commonly ask God for when you pray?
- Read Luke 11:1-4 and Matthew 6:9-15. In these familiar verses, Jesus invites us to pray for three things. The first is for provision, not of anything we want to ask for – the luxuries of life, but for the basic necessities of life for as long as He wants us to live. What does this tell you about what we ought to be content with?
- Greg mentioned that if we already have more than ‘our daily bread’, we need to decide what we do with the surplus. He mentioned that the Bible teaching on this can be summarized as gratitude, gut-check (am I letting what I receive come between me and Jesus?), and generosity. How much of a connection have you made between the request for our daily bread and our calling to be grateful and generous?
- Read Luke 12:16-21. How do you balance generosity in contributing to building the kingdom, with your concerns about preparing for retirement, a holiday, or even a rainy day?
- The second prayer request Jesus invites us to make is for pardon, ‘forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us”. How do you feel about the second part of that request? How does it influence your relationships today?
- The third prayer request God invites us to make is for protection, no in the typical sense of ‘keep us safe on the roads’, or ‘don’t let anything bad happen to us’, but protection from our own inclination toward yielding to temptation, and protection for the lure of evil around us. How aware are you of the spiritual battle we live in? How does it affect your likelihood of praying this way?
- Is there anything you want to change about your prayer life right now as a result of what Jesus teaches us here?
STRETCH
What is God calling you to do? What will you do about it this week?