The sermon for July 31, "Christ Is Your Life," is based on God's Word for us in Colossians 3:1-11.

“Praying Boldly” 

Luke 11:1-13

July 24, 2022

Today’s sermon is based on the Lord’s Prayer and Martin Luther’s paraphrase of the prayer in his hymn, “Our Father, Who from Heaven Above.” The hymn verses and petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are interspersed throughout the sermon.

“Our Father, who art in heaven …”

Our Father, who from heav’n above
Bids all of us to live in love
    As members of one family
    And pray to You in unity,
Teach us no thoughtless words to say
But from our inmost hearts to pray.

“Lord, teach us to pray," the disciples asked. We don’t have a natural gift for prayer! We need to learn how to speak with Our Father in heaven. Simply speaking from the heart in prayer is good, but if all we ever do is pray “what’s in our hearts,” our conversation with Our Father will be incomplete. God wants us to learn to pray according to what concerns His heart – that’s why it’s so important that our prayers are inspired by His Word to us!

God is my personal Father, your personal Father – He wants us to come to Him freely and openly. He wants to hear about our lives and our concerns and our thanksgivings, but He also wants us to be concerned for all of His other children and to pray for their needs as well. (He is My Father and Your Father, but He is also our Father.)

He invites us to come before Him regularly and confidently – Corrie Ten Boom once said that “Prayer is to be our steering wheel—not our spare tire …”

Jesus even invites us to pray “impudently.” That’s the word Jesus uses in Luke 11:8, when He describes the man who will help his friend, not simply because of their friendship, but because of his friend’s impudence. (This is the only time in the Bible where this word is used.) To be impudent is to be audacious, persistent, and unashamedly bold. Because Jesus has opened the Way to Our Father, like Jesus, we can come before Him in prayer with unashamed boldness!

One of my favorite Scripture verses about prayer is Hebrews 4:16, which says, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We can pray confidently because God is our loving Father and because our Brother, Jesus, has walked in our shoes and sympathizes with our human weaknesses and needs!

There’s still more assurance for us in the opening line of the Lord’s Prayer. We pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Jesus’ point is not Our Father’s distance from us (as if He’s somewhere far, far away), but the fact that our Father reigns over all things from heaven – both in time and eternity, both the good and the bad. Our Father in Heaven is the only Person who has the power to hear and respond to the prayers of all who speak to Him in faith.

Your name be hallowed. Help us, Lord,
In purity to keep Your Word,
    That to the glory of Your name
    We walk before You free from blame.
Let no false teaching us pervert;
All poor deluded souls convert.

Your kingdom come. Guard Your domain
And Your eternal righteous reign.
    The Holy Ghost enrich our day
    With gifts attendant on our way.
Break Satan’s pow’r, defeat his rage;
Preserve Your Church from age to age.

Your gracious will on earth be done
As it is done before Your throne,
    That patiently we may obey
    Throughout our lives all that You say.
Curb flesh and blood and ev’ry ill
That sets itself against Your will.

“Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …”

As we pray about God’s Name and God’s Kingdom and God’s Will, Jesus is teaching us to pray for eternal gifts:

When we pray, “Hallowed be thy Name,” we’re asking Our Father to help us live out His Word and to glorify His holy name. In other words, we don’t want to just do lip service to hallowing God’s name, but then then live in such a way that we un-hallow or tarnish God’s good name …

When we pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” we pray that Our Father would reign as King of our hearts and lives, & help us to believe! As a struggling man once begged Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!”, we pray that God’s kingdom continues to come to us as His Spirit grants and sustains our faith and leads us to live according to it.

And when we pray, “Thy will be done,” we’re asking, “Father, teach me to distinguish Your will from mine!”  We needthe Lord to teach us this. Left to ourselves, we’re just going to pray that we get things our way, in our time, on our terms!

So how do you know you’re praying according to God’s will? Search the Scriptures for the topic you’re praying about – what does God have to say about it? What does He promise? What are His goals for your life and for this world? (Maybe those things should be at the top of our prayer lists …)

Give us this day our daily bread,
And let us all be clothed and fed.
    Save us from hardship, war, and strife;
    In plague and famine, spare our life,
That we in honest peace may live,
To care and greed no entrance give.

 Forgive our sins, Lord, we implore,
That they may trouble us no more;
    We, too, will gladly those forgive
    Who hurt us by the way they live.
Help us in our community
To serve each other willingly.

“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Have you ever caught yourself praying mostly for matters of “daily bread,” but forgetting other needs? “Daily bread” is just a shorthand way of saying “Everything we need.” It’s not just about having food on the table – although it includes that!

Martin Luther explained in his Small Catechism, “Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like …” We’re praying that God would grant us all the things that are necessary and beneficial to us, and not only to us, for also for our neighbors …

But what is our greatest need? At the heart of Jesus’ prayer is this petition: “Forgive us our trespasses.” Forgiveness is our greatest need, and it’s God’s greatest gift! God sent His Son for YOU for the sake of securing your forgiveness. Your forgiveness is as certain as the fact that Christ has Died for You, Christ is Risen for You, and Christ is Coming Again for You! Through Christ’s sacrifice, God grants you the forgiveness of ALL your sins. 

There’s one promise, though, that we make in the Lord’s Prayer:  that we will be forgiving people because we are forgiven people. Because our Lord has forgiven us far beyond what we could ever deserve, we won’t be stingy with choosing to forgive in our earthly relationships …

Lead not into temptation, Lord,
Where our grim foe and all his horde
    Would vex our souls on ev’ry hand.
    Help us resist, help us to stand
Firm in the faith, a mighty host,
Through comfort of the Holy Ghost.

From evil, Lord, deliver us;
The times and days are perilous.
    Redeem us from eternal death,
    And, when we yield our dying breath,
Console us, grant us calm release,
And take our souls to You in peace.

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil …”

What temptations do you need God’s grace to endure or overcome at this time?  God isn’t the source of our temptations. He will not steer us toward sin, but He IS here for us to help steer us away from it. So when we pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” we’re asking that the Lord would help us to not give in to our sinful inclinations. In place of those things that might lead us away from Him, we’re praying that the Lord would help us fill our lives and our time with things that are God-pleasing and good for our souls …

As the years go by for me, I think the final request of the Lord’s prayer means more and more to me: “Deliver us from evil.  As we hear about more tragic deaths, more illness, more division, and more troubles around our country and around the world, God’s people boldly plead, “Father, deliver us from all evil!”

The Truth is, only Jesus and His love can deliver the world from evil!  Well-meaning politicians, strong militaries, protective police forces, Good Samaritans in our midst – they can deliver us from some evils, some of the time. (And God has also given us voices to speak up against evil and oppression and persecution.) 

But Christ alone can ultimately deliver us from evil! And He has! His war with sin and Satan is already won – He declared it from the cross, “It is finished!”

For now, the battle still rages. And it will until this sinful world comes to a close. Every time we pray, “Deliver us from Evil,” we’re praying for Our Father’s final deliverance on the Last Day, the Day on which Jesus will make all things new, the Day on which Jesus will rescue God’s people from the Evil One, Satan, and from every form of evil that we or our neighbors face …

With what sins or temptations do you need help from your Father in heaven? What evils in the world are weighing on your mind? Take those things to Our Father in a moment of silent prayer …

“For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.”

The Early Church has added this conclusion to Jesus’ prayer, basing it on 1 Chronicles 29:11 in the Old Testament. It’s a final reminder that our Father in Heaven is the One who reigns over all creation for us! He has the Power to handle all our prayers! And He alone deserves all glory, both now and forever!

Amen, that is, so shall it be.
Make strong our faith in You, that we
    May doubt not but with trust believe
    That what we ask we shall receive.
Thus in Your name and at Your Word
We say, “Amen, O hear us, Lord!”

Hymn Text (sts. 1, 6, 8–9): Public domain
Hymn Text (sts. 2–5, 7): © 1980 Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110018755

The sermon for July 17 is based on Luke 10:38-42, Jesus' visit in the home of Martha and Mary.