We Must Model Our Prayer Life After Jesus Christ Sermon.

Title: We Must Model Our Prayer Life After Jesus Christ Sermon.

Speaker: Michael Kusi.

Purpose: New Covenant Youth Bible Study.

Passage: Matthew 6:5-19.

Date: 1/28/22.

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????Introduction

Jesus spoke to the people on the mountain about prayer. In John, one of his disciples also asked him about prayer and Jesus prayed the same words. So Jesus’ admonitions about prayers are true no matter what someone’s position is in life. God intends for all of us to pray and to fervently pray. There was criticism about legislative prayer to open the sessions of Congress. The president replied, I don’t know of a place where prayer is more appropriate than in Washington D.C.

At 9:57 pm on?D-Day, June 6, 1944,?FDR sat in front of a microphone in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House waiting to begin a national radio address.

Earlier in the day the President had held a press conference in the Oval Office for over 180 reporters. While providing few details on the invasion, Roosevelt expressed confidence about its success. Now he wanted to speak directly with the public.

FDR’s address took the form of a prayer. He had composed it during the weekend before the invasion, with assistance from his daughter, Anna, and her husband, John Boettiger. The text was released in advance so Americans could recite it with him. Roosevelt’s “D-Day Prayer” struck a powerful chord with the nation. Printed copies were distributed and displayed widely throughout the remainder of the war.

One of the Greek words for pray is proseuchomai which means to come face to face with God. That same verse is repeated throughout God’s instructions. God was face to face with us when he breathed on Adam the breath of life and mankind became a living soul. But after the fall of man, things became different. God said that no one can see His face and live. Moses really wanted to see God face to face and have the relationship that God had with Adam.

Moses wrote the Book of Genesis so he was well acquainted with the close relationship that God had with Adam and he wished to replicate it. But Moses, with all of his righteousness, was unable to. God told Moses that he would hide him in the crevice of a rock and that God would pass by, but he would only be able to see God’s back. Moses could not see God’s face, or speak to God while he was passing by, but he could only see God’s back. But Moses was given the revelation by God and announced that God would raise up a prophet like him from among the brethren. This prophet and anointed one is Jesus. Jesus said that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Jesus came to say that when you are on that mountain with God, you can talk to God freely and without hesitation, because God has made a way.

?Jesus is calling us to do what Moses yearned for and could not do, what Adam was able to do in the beginning, which is to talk to God face to face and to call God Father. The mountain that Moses was on that he received revelation did not promote this unlimited access to God, but Jesus promoted access to God on his mountain. We must stand upon the Rock of Ages and not upon a foundation that does not promote access to God. We must not pray like those who do not know God, but we must be mindful of the place we are in when we pray, and we must pray with the right attitude.

A Pentecostal man and a Methodist man were arguing and the Pentecostal man said, Look, I can go to my pastor and say I don’t like the way he prays in this church. The Methodist man said, I could do that too. The Pentecostal man said, ”Really?” The Methodist said, I can go to my pastor and say I agree with you that I don’t like the way that Pentecostal pastor is praying in his church!?God is calling us to pray no matter what our religious denomination is, because we are all one with Christ.

Body

Jesus begins with the words, when you pray you shall. Shall is covenant word, a command. It is a contract that binds people who are a party to what is said. God uses shall as a prompt to pray in a particular way because this is the way in which he is to be approached. Another word that is used is must. It is not an option but it is a teaching that has to be done.

The Bible presupposes that the church will pray. Jesus tells the church how they should pray and how they should not pray because the church will pray. It does not say if the church would pray because there is no other option. It does not make prayer into an accidental behavior that we find ourselves doing. Every person who is on his or her knees in prayer is there on purpose. Every person who turned his face to the wall did a very deliberate act to submit himself to God and speak to God.

Jesus said that we should not be as the hypocrites who love to be in the streets.

They are not in the streets evangelizing. ?They are not in the streets calling attention to Christ. They are in the streets because it is like their internet, like their social media, like their television platform to reach people. They want to reach people for themselves and not for Christ. They are in the corners that they may be seen. The most important part is that they may be seen. They long to be acknowledged by others. If other people approve then they are happy, if other people do not approve then they take measures to make sure that they are noticed. They are the type to post something for the likes and only for the likes, without having any oil in their lives. They will never say anything in terms of the gospel that is remotely controversial, for fear of offending their followers. This can be taken to be any public place.

Christ said that they have received their reward. They will not be heard by God, because they were fully acknowledged by man. ?You see, Christ said that the world will hate the church because it hates Christ. So if the world loves the activities of a particular person, it is because they do not hold the world accountable and they are like the world.

At a Wednesday evening church meeting a very wealthy man rose to give his testimony. "I'm a millionaire," he said, "and I attribute it all to the rich blessings of God in my life. I can still remember the turning point in my faith, like it was yesterday: I had just earned my first dollar and I went to a church meeting that night. The speaker was a missionary who told about his work. I knew that I only had a dollar bill and had to either give it all to God's work or nothing at all. So at that moment I decided to give my whole dollar to God. I believe that God blessed that decision, and that is why I am a rich man today." As he finished it was clear that everyone had been moved by this man's story. But, as he took his seat, a little old lady sitting in the same pew leaned over and said: "Wonderful story! I dare you to do it again!"

Prayer is not an option but a mandate for all believers. The word pray is also in a present and a future tense. We must pray now and we must continue praying. We cannot dwell on the prayer life that we had in the past, or that time before when we prayed for a particular thing and it came to past. We must not just have prayer moments we must have a prayer life.

We are not free to pray to God anyway we want to. We must pray in accordance in God’s will and God’s purpose. We must pray through the name of Jesus Christ our Great Intercessor. In this sense, we are not free to go into the throne-room of the Holy of Holies with a cavalier attitude. God has always and will always demand reverence. We cannot confuse the access that we have to God, which was bought by the blood of Jesus, with having a reckless attitude towards God that does not value him. Otherwise it would be using grace as a license to sin in our communication with God. We can appreciate the access we have because of Jesus while also appreciating the magnitude of speaking with the Most High God.

Christ teaches us the correct way to pray. The first instinct of prayer must be not to run into the streets, but to enter into the closet. It must be purposeful. We did not wake up in the closet, but we went there with a righteous attitude. The closet means that we would go into a room or a hallway. The closet also implies lack of comfort. Prayers must be made that challenge, both in terms of the physical space and of the words of the prayers itself.

?A Christian should not just pray in camp meetings, or in revivals or in church. A Christian must have his own independent prayer life.?When King Hezekiah went to pray, he turned his face to the wall so that he could not be seen. His tears and anguish could not be seen because it was a private conversation with God. A lot of the prayer life of a Christian is private with God.?Yes, a lot of it is public, but much of the prayer life of a Christian is intimacy with the Redeemer. Even the public prayer life of a Christian is dependent on the private prayer life of that particular Christian.

Christ said that the Christian should shut the door. Even if it is inside of the house, the door should be shut. If the closet is open and people see us and we want to show off, it would defeat the purpose. ?Christ also said to Pray to the Father who is in secret and the Father who is in secret will reward you openly. Even if you don’t see the reward at first, the reward is coming.

A person was in front of a parishioner coming out of church one day, and the preacher was standing at the door as he always is to shake hands. He grabbed the friend by the hand and pulled him aside. The Pastor said to him, "You need to join the Army of the Lord!" The friend replied, "I'm already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor." Pastor questioned, "How come I don't see you except at Christmas and Easter?" He whispered back, "I'm in the secret service."

Christ warned that you should not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, because they think they will be heard. People use words and phrases that sound good because they want to hear themselves, not because they want to be heard by God. They want to repeat phrases by their favorite pastors, evangelists, and apostles who do have a relationship with God because they think that it sounds good. It is not good to be a copycat when it comes to pray, for the sake of putting on a display rather than seeking deep intimacy with God. We are not praying to inform God, we are praying out of a sense of humility.

?????Your Father knows what things you have need of. God knows what we need before we spoke, indeed he knew what we needed before the foundations of the Earth. But he wants to hear what you need come from your mouth to the throne-room of God. ?

A man broke into a house one night, his goal was to take something small and valuable. While he was searching through the stuff he heard a small voice "Jesus is watching you." He stopped for a moment and said to himself "This must be a voice from my old sunday school." So he continued searching, about 5 minutes later he heard the voice again "Jesus is watching you." He turned his flashlight to the direction and he saw a parrot. He said to the parrot "What is your name?" The parrot replied "Moses" The robber then said "What kind of silly people would name there parrot Moses?" The parrot looked up and said "The same people who named the pitbull jesus!"

Faith without speaking is a closed blessing. Speaking without faith is idolatry, with the worst God of all at the center, you. Trying to pretend to be perfect so that you don’t need prayer, is like dressing up in a suit to get surgery. Some people think that they can pray at home instead of going to church, but they don’t know whether it is the Pentecostal Church or the church on tv that they are staying home from. So they end up not going to either and their faith suffers, because they are not expressing their faith to God. Jesus said that he is streams of Living Water, that bubbles up to refresh whoever would come to him.

Expression is more than speaking, expression is also acting. David said that he was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. We must express our gratitude that God is on the throne, by going to our place of prayer and lifting up both hands to heaven. There are people in this land and in different lands whose outcomes depend on our expression to God.

What happens when we don’t have our encounter with God at first? Do we despair, do we give up? God forbid! Now is the time to hold on with two hands say with prayers to the heavens, I want my encounter! I want my meeting with God that was bought by the bloodshed by my Redeemer! God you promised me you will never leave me or forsake me. And then Jesus comes.

When we are in trouble, and Jesus comes to have an encounter with us, we tell Jesus to take the wheel, but instead he puts it in park. And we are mad. We kick the car, beg God to move, and nothing happens. We cry out that there is a green light and other cars are passing up by. Then Jesus tells us to look down, and the car is in drive. Jesus says that we are in the driver’s seat for a purpose, and it is our time to move.

After Christ told us how not to pray, he tells us how to pray. He says that we should speak like this Notice that Christ does not say whether or not prayer should be done with eyes closed, or eyes opened, whether the hands should be open or closed or whether the person should be standing or kneeling. The posture of the body is secondary to the posture of the heart.

Jesus starts with Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name.Praise and Worship. We must begin by praising the name of Christ and adoring his name. We must worship the great and dreadful God who keeps covenant to them that love him and that keeps his commandments. You see, God can do everything, but he does not worship himself. That worship is reserved for the angels in heaven and for mankind on earth. Mankind was created to worship God as the creation who is most like God

Christ continues with Thy kingdom come, they will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

This is a prayer of Faith. Christ is very concerned with the kingdom of God and the will of God. The will of God has to made manifest on earth as it is made in heaven. God created earth to be a reflection of heaven and God sent Christ to earth to bring earth into alignment with the will and the kingdom of God.

Christ states to give us this day our daily bread. This is a prayer of supplication. This is a personal request from God. Some people have expectation, but they don’t know if God will answer their prayers. Doubt begins to set in, when God does not answer their prayers right away. Some people don’t even know if their prayers are effective. Its like getting a take-home exam, but you forgot where you lived. God said that healing is the children’s bread. So every bread that is needed we will request it every day at the beginning of our start, and not at night when it is too late.

Jesus prayed that we should forgive us our debts As we forgive our debtors. ?God says that forgiveness is conditional on people being forgiving of their neighbors. This shows that relationships with people are very important. There is no such thing as bearing grudges in the Kingdom of God. Bearing grudges is a sign of unforgiveness. Oftentimes, people cutting other people out of their lives is a sign of unforgiveness. The message is clear. If someone wants to be forgiven, they have to forgive, because God will forgive them the same way that they have forgiven others. People think that they deserve God’s forgiveness, but they don’t think that they should fully forgive others and that is wrong. Partial forgiveness is unforgiveness. There is either total forgiveness or no forgiveness at all.

Christ said that people should not be led us not into temptation This is a prayer of Intercession. Christ is praying that people cannot be led into temptation. But as God cannot be tempted, he cannot be led into temptation. He will allow temptation to happen, just as he did with Jesus in the wilderness, but he would never allow more temptation than what we can bear. Mankind should never say that they are being tempted by God, because God is not in the tempting business, he is in the deliverance business.

Christ said that God should deliver us from the evil one. This is a prayer of spiritual warfare. We must remember that God desires us to conquer all aspects of life including the schemes of the evil one. Christ was quite familiar with the schemes of the evil one, because the Devil had tried to kill him as a baby and tempted him in the wilderness. So Christ said that God, and only God could deliver us from the evil one, because only God has the power and authority to exercise against the Devil’s wickedness.

Christ concludes with thine is the kingdom, and the power and the Glory.This is a prayer of Thanksgiving. ?Christ mentions three aspects of God, which is his kingdom, power, and glory. This is also an encounter with God. ?Our encounter with God is a special occasion, when we meet God face to face and the answer to our expression and our expectation. We cant have an encounter if the Bible is nowhere to be found in us, because we are nowhere to be found in our Bibles. Some people say the Devil made me do it but it’s a special person who can say that God visited me. The Bible says that God’s glory he will share with no man.

A little boy wants a bike for Christmas really badly, but the kid is really bad and he knows it. He writes a letter to Jesus. "Dear Jesus, if I get a bike for Christmas, I'll be good for a whole week." He thinks about it, crosses out what he wrote, and says, "I can't be good for a whole week, I'll be good for five days." He crosses that out and writes, "I'll be good for four days." Then he thinks again and says, "Can't do that." He gets down to one day and says, "I can't even be good for a day." Then in frustration, goes in his mother's room and get the statue of?Mary, wraps it up in a blanket, puts it in a paper bag, throws it in the closet and says, "Dear Jesus, if I don't get a bike for Christmas, you'll never see your mother again!"

Expectation is to place a demand upon God by your expression. What is this expectation? It is particular to the person, but it is a priority that a person has in their lives, a need that has to be met that can only be met by God along. It is what you desire, and you know that God can touch down and get it done.?

This expectation can be expressed in many ways. Or they say to themselves out loud, and hope God hears, that they are too busy to go to church, they can go to church by watching sermons on Youtube and listening to gospel music. They even have the audacity to bargain with God by say that if we can watch our shows, we would make it up during the week. They don’t know how, but we are sure we can work that out later. They don’t even know why they are busy, all they know is that they are busy. And as a result of not having a prayer life they miss out on all of the wonderfulness of God.

Conclusion

???????????The victory we desire is not just received by physical effort. It requires a people of prayer to make it happen. When an awesome spirit sat upon the waters, it decreed that we would be breathed into by higher powers, not just spoken into existence. And that same breath we carry with us when we pray. When we look to the sky we realize that our inspiration is not only in us and around us but also above us. We know that we operate by truth, not by instinct. Therefore we have a higher calling, because we pray with the breath of the Most High on our tongues.And when we express our desires to the Most High, and have expectation that he will answer, we will have an encounter with the Almighty God.

God called us from our homes for a righteous purpose, and that purpose is to be a light that shines here as Christ shines upon the earth.?We shall be a spark to this church, a candle to our friends, and a light to our neighborhoods. And these lights shall culminate into a Godly fire that will illuminate this planet now and forevermore.

In order to become this light, we must first pray together for God’s favor upon us, and then know that he has given us the victory. We will pray together, and be rest assured that those prayers will be both listened to and answered by our righteous Father. When we worship, we lift up holy hands in prayer to that same Father who Christ called Abba. We know now as Christ knew then that He hears our cry. As Christ prayed when he was a man on earth, so too must we pray as God-fearing people in our Christian walk.

Prayer is our foundation. Prayer is our covering. Prayer is our everything. When we pray, we speak God’s will into existence both here and beyond. Let it be said of us, by people now and for years to come, “We were a blessing.” Let us not hide our light under a bushel, but may we place our fire on a lampstand for all to view and to follow Christ. You and I can raise our voices as one mouthpiece to share our concerns and to worship our Savior, Jesus Christ. This will be our legacy. Embrace this anointing. This is power. We still bow our heads: not out of fear of the unknown, but out of our faith in a knowable God who wants to commune with us in prayer. And when we do and see the face of God, miracles will happen!

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