THE PURPOSE FOR PRAYER

Matthew 6:9-13

INTRODUCTION


Within the gospels Jesus gives over one hundred examples, teachings and exhortations about prayer.

Our text is found in Matthew 6:9-13 and the title of my message is, "Principles for Prayer".

Here in this passage we find Christ's greatest teaching on prayer.

Many today refer to this as the "Lord's Prayer" or "Model Prayer", it is also referred to as the "Disciple's Prayer" or the "Beginner's Prayer".

Because there is no mention of this prayer being used or even mentioned in the book of Acts or the Epistles we can safely assume that the Lord gave it as an outline or pattern and not for his churches to simply copy or repeat repetitiously.

If you will notice in verse 9 Jesus did not say, "pray these precise words", but rather he said, "pray then in this way" and thereby was giving us certain principles for us to follow in our own prayer life.

Studying the lord's prayer is something like what Isaac Newton once said: "Here I stand on the edge of an ocean of truth. I have picked up a few grains of sand, but the whole ocean lies beyond me, unknown".

The first sermon I preached more than 11 years ago was on the Lord's Prayer.

Since that time I have studied, read and preached it many times and have never ceased to find something different that I didn't see before.

The reason for this prayer according to Luke's account in chapter 11:1 is because one of the Lord's disciples asked Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples".

As children of God there is always room for us to learn more about prayer and learn how to pray more effectively.

As children of God, prayer should be a vital part of our lives.

If it is not a vital part of your life, I want to encourage you this morning to discover the importance of prayer for your life, the way God intended for us to pray to him and the purpose of prayer.

Here in The Lord’s Prayer we find nine statements that give us three purposes for prayer.