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[0:00] And a warm welcome to the service this morning, those who are in the church and those who are still watching online. It's good for us to come together and to worship God this morning.

[0:11] Those who are visiting with us, we've got a couple of visitors and it's good to have you with us and we give you a warm welcome. So intimations, just to remind you that the service this evening will be at six o'clock, both in here, the in-person service and it'll be broadcast online as well.

[0:33] And we'll just have a very short message that I'll take myself and then hand over to Farraher McLeod, who's sharing a word of testimony. We've been having testimonies once a month over the last wee while and Farraher will be sharing testimony tonight.

[0:48] So be encouraged to come along or to tune in to that meeting this evening. And then in the course of the week, the prayer meeting on Wednesday at half past seven on Zoom.

[0:59] YF, I think, will be tonight at half past seven on Zoom. And there'll be the children's clubs. They've restarted, so we have Jam and Connect on Friday and we have the little fishes, the babies on Tuesday.

[1:16] So be encouraged to either come or to be praying for these meetings. These, I think, are all the intimations.

[1:27] So let's sing now to God's praise. And we sing from Psalm 121. Psalm 121, a familiar psalm that encourages us to lift our eyes to see the God who made us and who saved us and who cares for us.

[1:46] I to the hills will lift mine eyes. From whence doth come mine aid? My safety cometh from the Lord, who heaven and earth hath made. So let's stand and sing to God's praise.

[2:01] I to the hills will lift mine eyes.

[2:12] From whence doth come mine aid? My safety cometh from the Lord, who heaven and earth hath made.

[2:35] Thy foot till not let slide, nor will he slumber that thee keeps.

[2:51] Behold he that keeps Israel. He slumbers not, nor sleeps.

[3:07] The Lord thee keeps the Lord thy shade. On thy right hand doth stay.

[3:24] The moon by night thee shall not smite, nor yet the sun by day.

[3:40] The Lord shall keep thy soul. He shall preserve thee from all earth.

[3:56] Henceforth thy going out and in. God keep forever will.

[4:12] Let's unite our hearts in prayer.

[4:27] Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank you that on this day, this your day, we are able to gather in your presence.

[4:45] We are able to come together in this way. Something that we took for granted for a long time and then came to cherish after so long apart. We thank you, Lord, that we are able to come together as we were in the habit of doing.

[5:02] We thank you that we are able to unite our voices and to unite our hearts as we worship you with our voices. And as we cry out to you from our hearts in prayer.

[5:13] And we thank you that we have the promise, Lord God, that you are with us. We think as we often do about the words of Jesus, who said, where even two or three gathered together in his name, he is with us.

[5:28] And so, Lord, we pray that you would enable us to believe, to trust your word, that you are with us in the power of the Holy Spirit.

[5:39] And we pray, Lord, that as we read your word and as we sing and as we meditate upon what you are saying to us through the scriptures, we pray that there may be that hush and that sense of your presence amongst us.

[5:57] We pray that the Holy Spirit himself would inhabit the praises of your people and guide us in prayer, spoken and unspoken, taking even the sighs and the murmurs and the groans that come from deep within us, the things that we cannot find words for.

[6:19] And we thank you, Lord, that we are promised that they are carried to the throne of grace. So, Lord, we bow in your presence and we ask that you would enable us to come to know more of who you are in this hour.

[6:38] We know, Lord, that our greatest need is to know God, not to have more money and not to have a fleeting this worldly security, but our greatest need is to come to know God, the one who is life, the one who gives life, the one who is able to keep our souls from here and forevermore.

[7:12] And so, Lord, we pray that you would draw us to yourself. We pray that you would give us that fresh realization of the fact that we are sinners who should not stand in your presence in our own name or on the basis of the lives that we live.

[7:34] But enable us to remember, as we did last Lord's Day, that we are sinners who trust in a great Savior, Jesus, who lived and died and rose so that we can be saved.

[7:53] We pray for anyone here this morning who who is not yet saved. Or anyone who watches at a distance, perhaps hoping that they will be unseen, who has not yet reached for the salvation that is offered in Christ.

[8:15] And we pray that even this morning, there may be someone, there may be some, who will hear that call of Jesus to come to him and find the rest that he promises.

[8:29] And, Lord, that they would come. Lord, that each of us would come. Either to find that salvation that's offered or to find that grace that is all sufficient for the events and the circumstances and the experiences of this life.

[8:50] So help us, Lord, to come to you and to meet with you and to see more of who you are this morning. Give us hearts that are tuned to sing your praise.

[9:03] Work in our minds, we pray, that we would have all the distractions of this world, the worries of this world that choke spiritual things. We've asked that they would be all swept away.

[9:17] And that in this hour, we would be able to say and know that you are God and that you are with us. We pray for others, Lord, who may once have walked close with you and who now are distant.

[9:34] And as we so often sing, we are prone to wander, Lord. We feel it. Prone to leave the God that we love. But we thank you that you take hold of us, Lord Jesus.

[9:49] You take hold of us, Father, and you do not allow anyone or anything to snatch us from your hand. You may allow us to wander for a period, but we thank you that you draw us back.

[10:02] And for any who may be distant, we pray that even today they would be drawn to you. And Lord, for others who have no sense of sin, who have no knowledge of Christ, who have no interest in spiritual things, we pray for them.

[10:23] And we look down on no one, Lord, because we know that the work of awakening a soul is your work. And we were in that place with no thought of God until you came to us.

[10:36] And so we pray for some that may come to our minds now who are transfixed on this world. And we ask that you would awaken their souls.

[10:47] We pray for those, Lord, who are in need this morning. We are all in need, but we think of those who are grieving, some who remember the anniversary of loved ones who have gone from time into eternity.

[11:05] And we ask, Lord, that you would comfort all who mourn, that they would know your peace. We pray for those who are sick, even some who were en route to church this morning and became sick on the way.

[11:20] And we ask, Lord, that you would minister to them. You are the God who is able to lay hands of healing on those who are sick. And so as we think of them, we pray for them and bring them to you.

[11:33] We pray for a nation, our nation, Lord, we acknowledge that we are far from you. We pray that you would give to us that gift of repentance and a willing spirit, that we would turn back to the Lord who promises that he will receive once more those who return to him.

[11:53] And we pray for those that you have allowed to be in leadership over us. We pray for them as you have told us to. And ask, Lord, that they would receive wisdom from heaven and the humility to seek that wisdom.

[12:09] And we pray for a world that is troubled in so many different ways. So much strife, so much turmoil, so much inequality, so much unrest.

[12:22] And we sometimes watch reports that seem so far removed from us. But we thank you, Lord, that we can bring people and situations and those loved by us, but far from us.

[12:37] We thank you that we can bring them to you in prayer. And we do that even now. So hear our prayers, Lord, and lead us and guide us in the power of your spirit.

[12:49] Enable us to worship you. And we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Boys and girls, there's not too many of you here this morning, so I'm hoping that those who are here will speak to me.

[13:07] Cameron, it's good to see you back for the first time in a while. Now, I thought I would show you this. Just there's something to look at, first of all.

[13:18] Can anyone tell me, what are these things? Miriam? They're headphones. So what do you do with these things? You plug them into your phone and you can put them in your ears and you can listen to music.

[13:34] That's right. So the music comes out of the bits here. But there's a little bit in this headphones and it's just there. So if I had the headphones in, which are a little bit just here.

[13:47] Can anyone tell me, what's that little bit there for? Katie? It's not a speaker. I think I know what you're trying to say. It's the same as this, isn't it?

[14:01] It's a microphone. So you can be driving along in the car like I was yesterday. I was driving along in the car and I thought, I need to speak to Mary about something.

[14:11] So I put the things in and I plugged it into the phone and I went to go with the microphone. Hello? Hello? Mary? Hello? And I could hear her fine, but she could hear nothing from me because this little thing was broken.

[14:32] So I can listen to music with this, but it's a bit funny. But the microphone bit here seems to be broken, which is not so good. Now, why am I telling you that?

[14:46] I'm telling you that because sometimes when we're praying, sometimes when we're praying, we might wonder, is God really hearing me?

[15:04] When I was on the phone to Mary yesterday, I was speaking, hello? Hello? Are you hearing me? Hello? And she was hearing nothing. And sometimes when we're praying, we might actually wonder, is God hearing my prayers?

[15:21] What do you think? Is he? Is he hearing our prayers? Let me hear you. Yes or no?

[15:35] Is he hearing our prayers? Yes, Katie. He's hearing our prayers. And how many of our prayers does he hear? Do you think he hears, maybe just one every now and again, or do you think he hears all our prayers when we pray?

[15:52] He hears all of them. That's right. He hears all of our prayers. I was speaking to a man this week, and he lives up beside me.

[16:04] I better not tell you his name because I think he said to me, don't say my name. Because when he said, when he was speaking to me, I said, you have just given me a children's talk. He says, oh, don't say my name then.

[16:14] But he lives not far from me, and he's got a few sheep. And we were chatting away a few, and he says, you know this, he says, when I go to sleep at night, I never close the window.

[16:28] I always leave the window wide open. I said, you always leave the window wide open? I said, why do you always leave the window wide open? He says, because if any of the sheep get into trouble when it's nighttime and get stuck in a bog or get stuck in a burn, they'll, meh, and I'll be able to hear their cry.

[16:47] And it'll wake me up and I'll go and, I'll go and save them. And I thought, there's a good children's talk. Because, that's like God, isn't it?

[17:01] He always hears our prayers. And you know what we sang in that psalm, just a minute ago? The man I was telling you about, he says, I need to leave the window open because when I'm snoring, when I'm sleeping, if I, if the sheep makes enough noise, then I'll hear, I'll wake up and I'll go and rescue it.

[17:20] Does God sleep? Does God sleep? That's right. Lois, I can see you in the door there. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't sleep.

[17:33] It says, he slumbers not. Slumbering is what some people do in church when it gets to a bit too long in the sermon. And I start to see the heads of people towards the back.

[17:44] They're at the back wall and the heads start to go and they bob around a bit and they start to slumber. But God, he doesn't slumber. He doesn't sleep.

[17:57] He's always awake. And when we pray to him, he always hears our prayers and he'll always help us. How do we get our sins forgiven?

[18:11] How can we have everlasting life? How can we be sure that we're safe in this world because God is with us and we're safe forever because God even is able to take us through death?

[18:25] How can we know we've got a place in heaven? What do we have to do? Well, the Bible tells us all we have to do is call upon the name of the Lord.

[18:38] Pray. And he hears and he saves. So, boys and girls and big boys and girls, let's be people who remember God.

[18:51] He never slumbers. He never sleeps. He never has a broken connection. He always hears us and he always answers and saves us when we pray.

[19:04] So, let's pray just now. Lord God, we thank you for the fact that you've given us prayer. We thank you that not only have you given us the Bible where we hear you speak, but you've given us prayer.

[19:20] And you've told us that when we pray in faith, believing that you're hearing us, and when we pray in Jesus' name, you hear and you answer our prayers.

[19:32] We thank you that even though we know we are sinners in our hearts, we thank you that we can find salvation. We can be saved. We can have our sins forgiven and our hearts washed.

[19:46] We can be given everlasting life when we simply cry out to the Lord in prayer and say, save me. So, we pray that all the boys and girls and all the older ones as well, we pray that we would be saying from our hearts if we've never said it before, save me.

[20:07] And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, boys and girls, for listening. We're going to sing now about that and we're going to sing from Mission Praise 746.

[20:22] 746 in Mission Praise. The words are there on the screen as well for those in the church. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear.

[20:33] What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. So, we'll stand to sing in just a moment. what a friend we have in Jesus.

[20:55] All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

[21:13] Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

[21:35] Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged.

[21:52] Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden?

[22:24] comfort with a load of care? Precious Savior, still a refuge.

[22:36] Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?

[22:47] Take it to the Lord and pray in prayer. In his arms he'll take and shield thee.

[22:57] Thou will find us always there. boys, you can head now through to Sunday school.

[23:24] And we can turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 11, please. Luke chapter 11.

[23:45] And we'll read from verse verse 1 to verse 13. This is God's word.

[23:57] One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.

[24:09] He said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread.

[24:20] forgive us our sins for we also forgive anyone, everyone who sins against us and lead us not into temptation.

[24:32] Then he said to them, suppose one of you has a friend and he goes to him at midnight and says, friend, lend me three loaves of bread because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him.

[24:47] Then the one inside answers, don't bother me. The door is already locked. My children are in bed with me. I can't get up and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he's his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

[25:09] So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.

[25:26] Which of you, fathers, if your son asks for a fish will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

[25:49] Amen. And may God bless that reading of his word to us. We'll sing again now to God's praise and we'll sing from hymn 122.

[26:01] The words again on the screen, a hymn by Charles Wesley. Come Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire, let us thine influence prove, source of the old prophetic fire, fountain of life and love.

[26:16] Come Holy Ghost, for moved by thee the prophets wrote and spoke, unlock the truth, thyself the key, and seal the sacred book. And so on.

[26:27] We stand to sing just a moment to God's praise. grace to the grace of the Lord, led us thine influence influence prove source of the old prophetic file fountain of life and love come Holy Ghost for moved by thee the prophet's wrote and spoke unlock the truth thyself the key unseal the sacred room expand thy wings celestial dove through door our name church night on our disordered spirits moon and let there now be light

[28:06] God through himself we then shall know if thou within us shine and sun with all thy saints below the depths of love divine let's pray just for a moment as we turn back to the passage heavenly father we we thank you for the word that we have read that we're about to to study we thank you lord for the prayer that we have sang and we would simply echo the words as we as we approach the text come holy ghost for moved by thee the prophets wrote and spoke unlock the truth thyself the key and seal the sacred book so enable us lord we pray to to know to understand to hear to speak to believe all that you have for us in your word today move amongst us we pray here move amongst the children as they as they think about the message of the gospel in simple terms in the class next door pray for the children at home as well who watch the lesson and we ask that you would work in their lives we pray for the churches around us lord whatever the gospel of jesus is preached in whatever denomination we pray lord that you would unlock the book of scripture and speak to your people we pray for the congregations that we're connected with even today those visiting with us who may have home congregations elsewhere we pray for your blessing upon them and we pray lord that you would meet with us and that you would speak to us now and we ask all this in jesus name amen if you could have your bibles open please now at luke chapter 11 and we'll consider the verses that we that we read or some of them anyway in the time that we have i want to begin by by asking the question what do you do when you come to a crisis point in life or what do you do when you come to a crossroads in life you're not sure which way to go where do you go with your questions and your concerns and your worries who do you go to we might phone a friend we might have a kind of a steady friend that we tend to default to when we come under pressure or when we're looking for wisdom we might run to a parent we might be people who bury our heads in the sand when we come to problem issues or we might be the kind of people who are on the other extreme and we kind of go into superman mode and we think whatever the problem is don't worry

[31:51] I can fix it I mean these are all the kind of responses that that we may have to trouble when it comes but they're not always the best responses so what should we do is maybe the better question to ask when we come to these pressure points in life and the answer to that question we have in the text before us Jesus teaches us to pray Jesus teaches us to pray it was a remarkable thing even yesterday I'm getting off script already so I'm watching the time but for those who are watching the football yesterday I wasn't watching it but I was in the car and listening to it on the radio but one minute the match is going fine the next minute this player

[32:52] Christian Erickson a fit very talented football player he just dropped and it looked like he died on the pitch and there was a big sense of mystery what's happened here as the sheets were put around him and the players gathered around him and kind of guarded him off the pitch and one of the interesting things is that when there was that period before we knew that he was recovering the social media platforms that he was on were absolutely flooded with people saying we're praying people who perhaps never gave God a thought from one end of the year to the rest and yet when crisis comes when it looks like life is hanging on a thread and something deep inside us says to us we know we need to pray and Jesus teaches us to pray so the first point that we come to this morning is we see in

[34:04] Jesus a life in prayer prayer in verse one we read that one day Jesus was praying in a certain place and in verse one we have a snapshot of what's happening in the present tense it's just one day it's a certain place it's a particular time and as the camera zooms in in Luke's gospel we see that Jesus was praying but this is not a one-off event in the life of Christ Luke tells us over and over and over again that Jesus was praying it's one of the clearest emphases in the book of Luke we see the importance of prayer Luke chapter 3 verse 21 at the beginning of Jesus ministry when he's baptized he was praying on heaven opened the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove the voice of the father was heard flick on to Luke chapter 5 and we're told that

[35:14] Jesus often withdrew Luke 5 15 Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed the crowds are desperate to get hold of him but Jesus knows he must often withdraw to lonely places and pray Luke chapter 6 verse 12 one of the key moments before Jesus chooses the 12 it says he went out to a mountainside to pray and he spent the night praying the whole night Luke chapter 9 verse 18 another key moment in the gospel just before Peter confesses faith faith in Jesus as the Christ as the Messiah we read that Jesus was praying in private Luke chapter 9 verses 28 and 29 we see that before and as Jesus was transfigured his body was transformed something of heaven broke through into the earth we read that

[36:20] Jesus was praying and here we see Jesus he's praying and we fast forward on to Gethsemane as Jesus begins to feel the weight of our sins on his shoulder he's praying the sweat is falling like great drops of blood from his forehead and even on the cross in the agony of the crucifixion what is Jesus doing he's praying father forgive them they know not what they do so Jesus whole life and ministry on earth was saturated in prayer and even as we think about it just now Jesus in heaven he makes intercession he's in prayer he takes our prayers he perfects them brings them to the throne of grace he intercedes for us 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17 the apostle

[37:39] Paul says pray without ceasing all of life should be about prayer that doesn't mean that we should always be on our knees but it does mean that we should always everywhere be in the spirit of prayer and we see what that looks like up close as we look at the life of Jesus it's a life in prayer Paul Yonggi Cho says as air is the breath of life so prayer is the breath of faith as air is the breath of life prayer is the breath of faith Octavius Winslow a theologian of another era said prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul and the constancy of its beat is the test and measure of our spiritual life so prayer is not simply something that we do in the church building for a few minutes in the week and then we just get on with whatever else we're doing in our lives prayer is a way of life you know sometimes you can make a phone call and you speak to someone on the phone for a few minutes and you got hung up you got to put the phone down or you put it on the receiver at home and you spend five minutes doing something else and then you pick the phone back up to make another call you realise that although you've hung up the person on the other line hasn't hung up so the line is still open and you can hear them hoovering and you can hear them having a barney in the background or whatever is going on but the line is still open and you can't make a call out you know prayer is our line of communication with God and it should never be cut off so when we're driving in the car we can pray when we're working in the office or in the van or in the hospital ward or in the classroom we can pray when we're walking up the hill we can pray when we're sitting in a meeting when we're playing football on the pitch we can and we should pray so the first thing that we see is a life of prayer and we see that modeled in Jesus and if

[40:33] Jesus needed to pray how much more do you and I need to pray so a life of prayer second point is we see a lesson in prayer when he finished verse 1 one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples and so this lesson in prayer that Jesus gave it was a lesson that the disciples asked for it's not as if they were unwilling students in a locked class they came to Jesus and they said can you teach us please how do we pray and so Jesus teaches them and through them he teaches us how to pray and there's three things I want to note just from Jesus lesson in prayer and the first thing is is that prayer can be and prayer often very helpfully is spoken out so we'll see that prayer as

[41:46] Jesus teaches first thing is prayer is spoken out the second thing for those who like the structure is prayer as Jesus teaches it's in this occasion short spoken out short and the third thing is it's simple so these are the three elements of this lesson the first thing is Jesus he teaches them to pray in that audible spoken out way I mean it's highly likely that when Jesus prayed he prayed out loud and we have lots of occasions where we're given the words that he prayed out loud but we can assume here that he was praying out loud most commonly because how would the disciples know he was praying if they didn't hear him and if we go back through history we'll find that this was the custom until very recent times both in terms of praying and reading the bible it wasn't done silently it was spoken out now that's not to say this is a hard and fast rule that when we pray we must always speak out our prayers because when we're in a crowded room or when we're sitting in our office at our desk and we're struggling and we want help the best thing is probably not to speak out our prayers but to pray silently when you're praying for me when I'm making a mess of the sermon then the best thing to do is to pray silently and not all be speaking out the one time but I'll make even more of a mess of it sometimes it's best to pray silently and privately but very often when we're having our quiet time with God it perhaps shouldn't be as quiet as it is when we're in our homes when we're out for a walk and we're spending time with

[43:50] God sometimes it can be helpful for us to pray out loud sometimes to keep our minds where they should be it's best that we pray out loud speaking to someone a week or two back who was telling me about a member of their family who God was working in and they could see and they could hear that God was working in this person's life and how did they know that God was working in this person's life well the reason they knew was that every evening at a particular time this person would leave one room go off to his own room close the door read the Bible and pray and how did you know that he was praying I said because he prays out loud and everyone in the house knows that he's praying it's a witness to the whole household very often it can be both a help to the individual and a witness to everyone around them when we pray out loud lots of stories that can be told about children who have come to faith through hearing their parents praying for them out loud there's a character of days gone by that one of your old ministers

[45:20] Mr. McRae used to speak often of a man called Angus of the Hiltz and I think he was from Uig in Lewis and he was a man to use Mr.

[45:34] McRae's words he was a simple in his mind he was simple but spiritually he was a giant Angus of the Hills and the story was told to me even just a couple of weeks ago about the time that he came forward to take communion and the elders when they met him they knew him anyway and as he expressed the desire to take communion they thought perhaps it wasn't the best time it was quite simple and maybe he didn't understand so they encouraged them to go away this time and maybe come back later and so he did and immediately after he came forward to the session two girls came forward to the session and they expressed the desire to take communion and they received them and they said tell us how were you converted what happened what was used to bring you to faith and they said yeah well we can tell you what happened we were on the hill one day and we heard angus praying out loud under a bridge and when we heard him our hearts were touched and we were brought to faith and so they received the girls thankfully and once the door was closed they said what have we done and they pulled him straight back in and he was brought into the membership of the church and was a giant in spiritual things in the area he was praying under bridges he was praying in hills he was praying behind barns whatever he could get two minutes he was in prayer and it was spoken out prayer so sometimes it's best to speak out our prayers and Jesus

[47:23] I think an example here he gives us a lesson first of all his prayers were spoken out but the second thing that Jesus teaches in this lesson on prayer is that prayer can be and sometimes should be short and if you look at this model prayer that Jesus sets and it is a prayer for us it wasn't his prayer because Jesus would never pray forgive us our sins because he had no sin so this is a prayer that Jesus gave to the disciples he's given to us but if you look at the prayer in verses 7 well in verse 1 and in 2 and following we can see that the prayer Jesus sets is 34 words long it's short and although Luke doesn't tell us this Matthew tells us that Jesus said in this lesson on prayer this is

[48:26] Matthew 6 verses 7 and 8 and when you pray do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think they will be heard because of their many words do not be like them he teaches us to pray short now we know that there are exceptions to this there's occasions where Jesus prayed all night we've mentioned them already we can go to Psalms which are lengthy prayers so this teaching that Jesus gives it doesn't disqualify longer prayers but in giving his disciples this lesson number one in prayer he teaches them to pray a short prayer you know there are many Christians especially Christian men who won't come forward at communion time to profess faith because of fear that you're going to be asked to pray publicly and you won't be able to find a long enough prayer but one of the encouragements from this lesson that

[49:40] Jesus teaches is that you don't have to make a long prayer prayer can be short we have a children's prayer meeting on a Wednesday evening before the adults prayer meeting and it would do your heart good sometimes to look in the door of that and listen to their prayers can be a sentence long six or seven words but these are real sincere faithful prayers they're short you know Cameron was telling me about when he went forward and I think it was Mr.

[50:29] McCray again wasn't it who met you and he said one of the things you may struggle with is when you come to the prayer meeting you may struggle with the whole thing of public prayer he said but when it comes to that point don't worry about it supposing you just stand and say nothing there's a witness in that there's encouragement in that supposing you just have four or five words there's a blessing there prayer can be short it's a prayer here that's spoken out the second thing we see is that Jesus teaches his disciples on this occasion to pray a short prayer and the last thing and it's as far as we're going to get today is Jesus teaches them to pray simply there's a great simplicity about this prayer that there's something almost quite childlike about this prayer and that fits because the first word of the prayer is father so Jesus teaches the disciples to come to God in prayer like children to a father and the word there is that very tender it's that word that's hard to get a word for in the

[52:01] English it's kind of like dad but with a bit more reverence Jesus teaches us to come in prayer and say father he said to them verse 2 when you pray say father hallowed be your name your kingdom come Jesus he says here to them in this teaching prayer should always start with God because it's as we see God that we're encouraged to actually come forward and continue in prayer and as we see the wonder of who God is and his power and his majesty and his greatness our prayers swell our prayers are bigger than they would be if all we're looking at is the problem that's on our hearts as we think about who God is as our father then we're given this great encouragement to come to him and experience the welcome and the love and the acceptance of God as our father there's an intimacy there and as we look to God and as we see that he's the God whose name is hallowed who is holy there's a sense of wonder that fills our souls or should fill our souls because as we see ourselves we see we are sinners but as we realise that we can come and call this holy

[53:49] God our father there's a sense of reverence surely and there's a sense of awe that through Jesus this way has been opened up for grubby sinners like me to come into the presence of this majestic hallowed holy God and as we see that God is king he's the one who has a kingdom verse two then we realise that he's powerful he's sovereign he has things under control and when we sometimes are approaching God in prayer we feel in our lives like nothing is under control we feel like there's chaos we feel like everything is crashing in we feel like the burdens we're carrying are too heavy we feel like there's no one who can help but then as we look and lift our eyes to see God and we realise that he is the king of kings then there's such encouragement because we remember that he's able to meet our needs he has this under control there's nothing that we can ask him for that's beyond his reach so as we look to

[55:15] God we see him as our father we see him as the God who is holy we see him as the God who is king and who is able to supply our needs God and then very simply and logically Jesus says so ask him for your needs and in verse three he teaches us to pray for our material needs our daily bread give us each day our daily bread what does that mean?

[55:48] well you can get a PhD in what that means there's lots of scholars who spiritualize this out of all kind of recognition but I think what this means is it's very simply that we're able to ask God for our daily bread in our material, physical, day by day needs if we don't have food on our plates we can pray for it if we're worried our business is going down the tubes we can pray about that if it's been two weeks and the wind's been blowing and we haven't been able to get out fishing we can pray about that somebody asked me a few weeks back can you be praying about my business?

[56:35] because COVID's really hit us hard and I said yeah okay I'll be praying about that and then he stopped for a second and he says is it okay to pray about these sort of things? well Jesus says yes it is okay and in fact it's good it's essential that you pray about these things he teaches us to pray for our daily bread our material needs and then in verse 4 he teaches us to pray about our spiritual needs forgive us our sins forgive us our sins he teaches us to say for we also forgive everyone who sins against us and lead us not into temptation you're needy people says Jesus so pray about your spiritual needs and what's our greatest spiritual need?

[57:28] well the children would tell us to have our sins forgiven to have our hearts washed clean if we don't ask for forgiveness of sin we can't be saved and so Jesus teaches us to ask for that forgiveness and remember the timeline that Jesus is on here he's on his way to Jerusalem he can see the cross he's on his way to that place where the prayer that he is teaching us to pray will be answered he's on his way to the place where he would lay down his life so that our sins could be forgiven but they won't be forgiven until we ask for it so have you asked yet?

[58:40] is the question have we asked for the forgiveness of sin and saving grace that we are in desperate need of and only Jesus can give and if not what's stopping you now?

[59:07] asking and for those of us who are Christians for those of us who have had our sins forgiven for those of us who have received that grace of Jesus are we forgiving everyone who sins against us?

[59:30] not just the ones we like but everyone not just the ones who have said sorry but everyone not just the ones who have shown that they are repentant for the things they have done but are we forgiving everyone who sins against us and are we seeking to live lives where we do not give in to the temptation that Jesus teaches us to pray about but we seek to walk steady we seek to live lives which are holy these are spiritual needs and we cannot meet them in and of ourselves we have to come to God in prayer and ask so be encouraged to pray we'll leave it there today our heavenly father we thank you once more for your word we thank you for this gift of prayer and we thank you for the teaching on prayer that we receive from Jesus we thank you for the privilege of being able to call you our father through the finished work of Jesus your son we thank you lord that you are the God who is all powerful who is sovereign who is majestic the one who is able to meet us and supply all our needs and we thank you that as we thought about with the children even you you hear our prayers and you answer when we call in faith so forgive us our sins we pray as we confess them before you wash our hearts clean we pray and give to us our daily bread you know lord our struggles in the material sense we thank you that we can bring it all to you in prayer and enable us we pray to live lives which do not contradict the name that we profess to own but we pray that you would give us the grace that we need to be able to walk in your ways all the days of our lives and we pray all these things in Jesus name amen we'll sing to conclude hymn number 667 again the words are on the screen approach my soul the mercy seat where Jesus answers prayer and I think what we'll do is we'll we'll finish this there's a bit more in this sermon but an encouragement for us to come out on Wednesday evening we'll give this a bit more thought on Wednesday evening as we look at the parable and more promises that Jesus gives us about prayer meantime approach my soul the mercy seat where Jesus answers prayer where Jesus answered prayer

[63:22] Then humbly fall before his feet, for none can perish there.

[63:39] Thy promise is my only plea, with this I venture nigh.

[63:55] Thou callest burdened salts to Thee, and such, O Lord, am I.

[64:11] Burden be ye, O Lord of sin, by Satan sorely pressed.

[64:28] By war withered, and fierce within, I come to Thee for rest.

[64:45] Be Thou my shield and hiding place, that sheltered near Thy side.

[65:02] I may my fears accuse her face, and tell Him Thou hast died.

[65:17] O wondrous love, to bleed and die, to bear the cross and shame.

[65:32] That guilty sinner such as I might hear Thy gracious name.

[65:51] And I may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit, be with us all, both now and forevermore. Amen.