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THE LORD’S PRAYER: A PRACTICAL GUIDE

THE LORD’S PRAYER: A PRACTICAL GUIDE And Other Devotional Addresses to Encourage and Motivate You to Pray to the God of the Bible

THE PRAYING THROUGH THE BIBLE SERIES Volume 11

DANIEL WHYTE III

The Lord’s Prayer: A Practical Guide: And Other Devotional Addresses to Encourage and Motivate You to Pray to the God of the Bible (The Praying Through the Bible Series: Volume 11)

by Daniel Whyte III Cover Design by Atinad Designs. Š Copyright 2015 TORCH LEGACY PUBLICATIONS First Printing, 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except for brief quotations included in a review of the book. ________________________________________________________________________ All Bible quotations in this volume are from the King James Version of the Bible.

The name TORCH LEGACY PUBLICATIONS and its logo are registered as a trademark in the U.S. patent office.

Printed in the U.S.A.

Acknowledgements For the Glory of God, and to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us how to pray; And to the memory of E.M. Bounds who God used to motivate me to pray.

To my favorite prayer partners: my wife, Meriqua, and my children: Danni, Daniel IV, Danita, Danae, Daniqua, Danyel Ezekiel, and Danyelle Elizabeth; And especially to my oldest son, Daniel Whyte IV, whom I have had the privilege of training in the ministry ever since he was a little boy when he said he wanted to be a preacher. He assisted me by doing most of the research for the messages included in this book.

And to all people around the world who want to be encouraged to pray more effectively and see God answer their prayers and bless their lives for His glory. —Daniel Whyte III

Contents Introduction 1. 10 Prayer Principles of the Lord Jesus Christ (Part 7) 2. 10 Prayer Principles of the Lord Jesus Christ (Part 8) 3. The Lord’s Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 1) 4. The Lord's Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 2) 5. The Lord's Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 3) 6. The Lord's Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 4) 7. The Lord's Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 5) 8. The Lord's Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 6) 9. Praying for Lost Souls Like Jesus Did (Part 1) 10. Praying for Lost Souls Like Jesus Did (Part 2) 11. Praying for Lost Souls Like Jesus Did (Part 3) 12. The Power of Praying Alone (Part 1)

Introduction “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

—Luke 18:1 “All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.”

—Martin Luther I am convinced that most people do not need to learn how to pray; they need to Just Pray! Prayer is like any other important discipline in the Christian life. If you don’t do it, you won’t reap the benefits and blessings that God wants you to have. If you want to reap the benefits and blessings of prayer, then you need to simply Just Pray! This is what The Praying Through the Bible Series of devotional messages is all about: exploring each of the over 500 verses and passages in Scripture concerning prayer, from Genesis to Revelation, so that you can be encouraged and motivated to pray to the God of the Bible.

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The Praying Through the Bible Series began after the Lord led me to put together a little devotional book titled, The Prayer Motivator, which was followed later by the Prayer Motivator Devotional Bible. The Lord leading me to do The Prayer Motivator Devotional Bible was a complete surprise because I had never dreamed of doing a themed Bible in my life. In this Bible, we highlighted each of the over 500 verses and passages on prayer in the Bible.

Following the publication of that project, the Lord led me to begin preaching a series of messages on each of those passages on prayer. To my knowledge, preaching solely on every passage concerning prayer in the Bible had not been done before. By the grace of God, this series of messages— each of which was preached on a Wednesday night to a live audience—has been a blessing to thousands as I have shared brief, devotional principles from God’s Word concerning the matter of prayer. (In most cases, the preached version of each of these messages is quite different from what is given in this series of books — and probably better. If you want to listen to any of the messages in this series, you can do so online at www.prayingthroughthebible.com.)

This is a series that every Christian can read and benefit from. This series will inspire, encourage, and motivate you to pray daily and throughout the day so that you can receive the benefits and blessings of a prayerful life. Prayer to God has been the center and highlight of my life ever since God used a series of books by E.M. Bounds to open my eyes to the importance and power of prayer. In spite of myself, God has been very good to me and to my family in many ways, but the

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thing that stands out the most to me are the thousands of answers to prayer over the past thirty years of full-time ministry and twenty-seven years of marriage with a family of nine. I want you to experience the same benefits and blessings of a prayerful life.

If you are a pastor, please feel free to use these short, devotional messages in your mid-week prayer services. You do not need to contact us to ask for permission; that is what these messages are for. We know of pastors who have taken these messages and adapted them for their congregation, so please feel free to add to and take away from them as God leads you for the needs of your people, and I am sure that you will do a better job than I have done.

These messages are not deep, theological expositions; other men of God who are scholars of the Word have already done that. These are simple, devotional messages that are designed to actually get people to just pray to the God of the Bible in faith believing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord led me to put them together with the assistance of my son who is an undergraduate student and still in training.

Most pastors can take the little effort that we have put forth here and make these messages far better.

Additionally, if you are a pastor, I want to encourage you to consider the following things: 1. If you have a weekly prayer meeting at your church, actually make it about prayer—pray and preach a short message on prayer to encourage the people to pray for

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you, for the church, for themselves, and for souls to be saved. This series can provide the basis for those short messages.

2. If you do not have a mid-week prayer meeting at your church, I encourage you to start one. In my humble opinion, it is a shame that most churches do not take the mid-week prayer meeting seriously anymore. Some churches have abandoned the prayer meeting altogether.

Christianity Today told the story of East Indian evangelist K. P. Yohannan who visited America and attended a well-known megachurch one Sunday morning. Over 3,000 people were at the church services that morning, where it was announced that the mid-week prayer meeting would be held in a chapel on the church campus. Yohannan was fired up by what he had experienced, and determined to attend the prayer meeting as well. However, when he arrived for the prayer meeting a few days later, he was shocked to find that the chapel—which had a capacity of 500—was entirely empty. He sat down and waited for a few minutes and eventually seven people arrived. They sat down and made small talk. About forty-five minutes later, one of the leaders of the church walked in, prayed, and gave a brief Bible study.

The article goes on to say: "In all his travels here, Yohannan saw the same pattern repeated over and over again in hundreds of midweek prayer meetings. Almost

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anything happens but prayer. There are announcements, singing, homilies, and a few prayers offered, but usually only by the leader—and that's in the churches that actually have prayer meetings in their schedules. Many more make no pretense even to have a church prayer meeting. There seems to be time for everything else— to study, to fellowship, to preach, but not to pray."

It appears that many pastors and churches have forgotten that the church was born at a prayer meeting in an “upper room.” Pastor, make sure that your church makes time to pray.

3. Consider establishing daily prayer meeting times at your church and throughout your congregation around the city. For example, put someone in charge of holding a prayer meeting at five or six in the morning, twelve o' clock noon, and seven in the evening. Encourage your people to come to the church to pray together as much as possible. I know of a church that has a beautiful prayer room where the door faces a side street. The church members have a key so they can go in to pray at any time. You might recall that Jesus Christ said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer."

4. Encourage your church members to pray without ceasing whether they feel like it or not. One way they can do this is by whispering a prayer for themselves, praying for someone else, and quoting a verse from Scripture at the top of every hour. If you pray a short prayer (based on the model prayer of our Lord in

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Scripture), this will only take about one minute every hour.

Down through the years, as I have preached in prayer meetings and revival meetings across the U.S. and around the world, I have had pastors to admit to me privately that they are not as strong in prayer as they would like to be and as they should be. The truth of the matter is, we all have our different gifts and callings, and just because a pastor does not emphasize prayer does not mean that he is not spiritual.

Pastors are the general practitioners of the church. They are multi-gifted individuals and have the ability to manage and oversee many different ministries and outreaches at the same time, whereas an evangelist is focused on two to three things: evangelism, prayer, and revival. His job is to encourage pastors and the saints to do the work of an evangelist and to evangelize, to pray, to confess and repent of sins so that they can be used by God to see souls saved and brought into the Kingdom. The pastor is not more spiritual than the evangelist; the evangelist is not more spiritual than the pastor.

We just have different callings, gifts, and purposes as it pertains to the church. The evangelist needs the pastor and the pastor needs the evangelist. Even though my calling is to be an evangelist, the truth of the matter is, without my pastor and my pastor friends counseling, advising, and fellowshipping with me on a regular basis, there is no way I would be where I am in my ministry. I thank God for my pastor friends. When there is a family crisis, nobody can outdo a great pastor as far as ministering to that situation. On the other hand, when it comes to taking more territory for God's kingdom through evangelism, and the spiritual warfare involved in doing that,

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no one can do it better than a godly evangelist. So, we need one another in the body of Christ, and we need to get back to recognizing that. We are not enemies, we are brothers serving the same Lord and King.

It is my prayer that this series will inspire all of God's people to pray daily and throughout each day so that you can receive the benefits and blessings of a prayerful life. This series was put together to inspire action on your part. It is designed to motivate you to pray based upon the Word of God by faith in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If I can just encourage you to pray in faith believing, I believe all sorts of wonderful things will begin to happen to you, in you, and for you, your family, and whatever God has called you to do.

The simple purpose of this series is to encourage and motivate you to get off the ball regarding prayer, and take the little faith you may have and Just Pray to the God of the Bible in the name of Jesus Christ! The Praying Through the Bible Series is designed to help you get over spiritual inertia, your sinful flesh, the devil and his demons, doubt and unbelief, your busy life and the world, so that you can hit “pray dirt” and God will do the rest. Just open your mouth and start praying to the God of the Bible. JUST PRAY! and watch God do things beyond your wildest imaginations.

—Daniel Whyte III Dallas, Texas

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1 10 Prayer Principles of the Lord Jesus Christ (Part 7) TEXT: Matthew 6:1-8 1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

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7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Back in 1974, a group of scientists directed a message into the heavens. These scientists had hypothesized that as many as fifty million civilizations may exist somewhere in space, and they believed that some of them may have found methods to improve life and control the time of death.

In November of 1974, these scientists, using special technology, beamed a message to a cluster of stars on the outer edge of our galaxy. If that signal were picked up by alien technology, the scientists estimated that it would take forty-eight thousand years for an answer to come back.

To some today, those efforts might seem futile and destined for failure. Yet those scientists were serious about their efforts — they really believed that one day Earth might receive an answer back from some other intelligent life in the universe. That leads us to wonder why we as Christians, who do have contact with “another world,” Heaven, sometimes act as if we don’t believe in the power of prayer. Every child of God has the ability to get in touch, not with other creatures, but with the Creator Himself.

Through prayer, we have immedi-ate access to the One who stretched out the galaxies of the universe. He hears us the instant we pray and answers according to His will.

In the last Praying Through the Bible book (Volume 10), we have looked at the following six principles that Jesus

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taught regarding prayer.: 1. Prayer should be a regular, everyday activity.

2. Prayer ought not to be done for the purpose of being seen by others.

3. Those who pray in a hypocritical manner — that is to be seen by men — will get their reward: they will be heard by men, and receive their praise from men, but they will not have their prayers answered by God. 4. Most prayer ought to be carried out faithfully in private before God alone.

5. Those who pray in secret before God will be heard by God and rewarded openly.

6. We should not use vain repetition in our prayers.

Today, let’s look at the next principle which is that we ought to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and omniscience in our prayers. Verse 8 of our passage reads, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

Of course, this begs the question: if God already knows what we need, why pray?

Well, first, Jesus shares this with us to remind us of God’s sovereignty. Nothing we do or say comes as a surprise to God. He already knows what we need to live our lives.

When we pray, we ought not to assume that we are informing God of what is going on in our lives. As David said in Psalm 139, “O lord… Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.“

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In fact, God knows our needs better than we know them.

He is sovereign and omniscient. In the matter of prayer, this brings us to only one conclusion: when we pray, we are praying not for God’s sake, but for our sake. When we pray, we express our total dependence on Him for our needs and our wants. It is an act of humility for us to surrender to God and let Him know that we acknowledge His sovereignty in our lives.

Ray Pritchard explains it this way. He said, “Picture a father watching his four-year-old daughter trying to put together a puzzle. She tries and tries but she just can’t get the pieces in the right place. Her father watches with great interest but he doesn’t interfere. Finally, she comes over and crawls in his lap and says, ‘Daddy, would you help me put my puzzle together?’ He smiles and bends down and together they begin to pick up each piece. One by one they put the puzzle together. Now why didn’t the father help his daughter earlier? For one thing, she didn’t ask for his help.

For another, he wanted her to try on her own. And most of all, he wanted her to ask him for his help. When she did, he was honored and gladly helped her finish the puzzle. Is this not a picture of how our Heavenly Father deals with his children? Although he longs to come to our aid, often he waits until we specifically ask him. Sometimes he wants us to come to the end of our own pitiful resources before he intervenes. When we cry out in despair, he is honored as we express our complete dependence upon him. Every prayer is the cry of a child saying, ‘Help, Father, I can’t do this by myself.’…God doesn’t need our prayers, but we need to pray. We pray in order to express our complete dependence on our Heavenly Father. We pray to build our faith. We pray because he is God and we are not.”

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When we realize that God already knows our needs and yet we go to Him and ask for them anyway, we submit ourselves to God’s divine plan for carrying out His will in the universe. We cease trying to do things our way and make room for God to do things His way. Even though He knows what we are going to pray for before we come to Him, He has ordained that prayer is the way by which we get what we need and want.

Praying to God in light of His omniscience and sovereignty also helps us to examine our requests in the light of His will. Because God already knows the deepest desires of our hearts, we can re-evaluate our wishes and truly see if they are in alignment with God’s will. Thus, we can begin to pray more effectively and we will be more careful stewards of provisions from God which He supplies in answer to our prayers.

It is often said that prayer changes things. That is true. But prayer does not change God or God’s will. The main change brought about by prayer is a change in us. Through prayer to a sovereign, omniscient God who already knows our needs, we grow in humility and faith, and we become better prepared for the changes that will be brought about in our circumstances and the course of events in our lives and the lives of others.

In closing, allow me to share with you this poem titled “My Father Knows” by Sarepta Henry: I know my heavenly Father knows The storms that would my way oppose; But He can drive the clouds away,

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And turn the darkness into day.

I know my heavenly Father knows The balm I need to soothe my woes; And with His touch of love divine He heals this wounded heart of mine.

I know my heavenly Father knows How frail I am to meet my foes; But He my cause will ever defend, Uphold and keep me to the end.

I know my heavenly Father knows The hour my journey here will close; And may that hour, O faithful Guide, Find me safe and sheltered by Thy side.

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2 10 Prayer Principles of the Lord Jesus Christ (Part 8) TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13 9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The seven principles or instructions that Jesus gave regarding prayer in Matthew 6:1-8, came in the midst of a message regarding hypocrisy in doing good deeds and in fasting. Those principles lay the groundwork for the next thing Jesus shares — and that is what is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer.”

So, first Jesus taught by instruction, and now He is teaching by example — by actually showing us what to do.

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Strictly speaking, this prayer should actually be called “The Disciples’ Prayer,” as it was not a prayer Jesus himself prayed. For example, Jesus Christ would have no need to ask for forgiveness of sins in His own prayers. He said that for our sakes.

Today, let’s look at the value of this prayer as a model prayer. Jesus Christ said, “after this manner therefore pray ye.” The word “manner” means pattern or guide. Jesus is laying out the framework of prayer for the Christian. We can look at this prayer as a structure upon which we can build our own prayers. There is nothing wrong with praying this prayer as you see fit, however it was not intended to be a prayer that we recite ritualistically. Nor is it intended to be the only prayer that we pray.

Charles Spurgeon said, “It seems to me that Christ gave [the Lord’s Prayer] as a model, whereby we are to fashion all our prayers, and I think we may use it to edification, and with great sincerity and earnestness, at certain times and seasons.”

There are two components to the value of this prayer as a model for all our other prayers.

The size or length of the prayer.

Jesus did not give us a long prayer to pray nor did He give us a series of statements to repeat over and over again. It only takes a minute to prayer the Lord’s prayer itself. The length of this prayer is in keeping with Jesus’ instructions in previous verses to not use vain repetitions or mindless utterings in our prayers. Brother Lawrence 26

wrote about the value of praying short prayers, and one of the benefits to praying short prayers is that it keeps our minds from wandering to other topics.

The second component of the Lord’s prayer is the structure of the prayer.

When we look closely, we see a pattern in how Jesus organizes the model prayer.

First, we are to praise and recognize God. “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

Second, we are to put God’s will before ours. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

Third, we are to ask for our daily needs. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Fourth, we are to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness of sin. “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Fifth, we are to ask God to deliver us from temptation and sin. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Sixth, we praise and recognize God’s glory once again.

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

All of our prayers can be modeled around this basic, six27

point pattern. At times, it may appear to be too simplistic, but it is not. D.A. Carson said, “The words of Christ, like the works of God, are inexhaustible. Their depth is concealed beneath an apparent simplicity which the child and the savage can understand. But as we gaze upon them and try to fathom all their meaning, they open as the skies above us do when we look steadily into their blue chambers, or as the sea at our feet does when we bend over to pierce its clear obscure. The poorest and weakest learns from them the lesson of divine love and a mighty helper; the reverent, loving contemplation of the profoundest souls, and the experience of all the ages discern ever new depths in them and feel that much remains unlearned. This is especially true about the Lord’s Prayer. We teach it to our children, and its divine simplicity becomes their lisping tongues and little folded hands. But the more we ponder it, and try to make it the model of our prayers, the more wonderful does its fulness of meaning appear, the more hard does it become to pray ‘after this manner.’ There is everything in it: the loftiest revelation of God in His relations to us and in His purposes with the world; the setting forth of all our relations to Him, to His purposes, and to one another; the grandest vision of the future for mankind; the care for the smallest wants of each day.

When Jesus says, “in this manner therefore pray ye,” He is speaking in the present imperative tense. This is a command calling for us to make prayer the habit of our lives. Prayer is not to be an occasional occurrence in our lives, but a lifestyle. It is sometimes a difficult task, but by following the example of Jesus Christ, we can be successful and consistent in our prayer life.

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3 The Lord’s Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 1) TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13 Let's look at the first part of this prayer in order that we might learn to pray better and be more effective in our prayer life.

In our prayers, we ought to praise and recognize God. Jesus says, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” When we acknowledge God as our Father, we are acknowledging Him as our “nourisher, protector, upholder.” That is what the Greek word for Father used here means – “nourisher, protector, upholder”.

Jesus draws us to notice what one writer called “the Godcenteredness of prayer and indeed of all of life.” Many of us struggle with selfishness. It is easy to think that prayer is all about what God can do for us and what we can get from God. But prayer is an act of humility to God and a demonstration of childlike trust in God. Just as a young child depends on his parents for the supply of his every need, we ought to depend on God for the supply of our every need. J.I. Packer said, “If you want to judge how 29

well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.” When we acknowledge God as our Father in our prayers, we are not only admitting that He is the One whom we are looking to for the answer of our prayers, but we are making the decision to put the things that concern God first. In our prayers, we ought to put His will and His purposes before any of our own temporal concerns. His name is hallowed — set apart, holy, and sanctified — above us and above everything and everyone else in the universe. No one is more important than He is. That is what it means to acknowledge God as our Father in Heaven whose name is holy.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

But, even as we recognize God’s holiness in our prayers, this does not mean He is distant or removed from us. He is still “our Father who art in Heaven.” Just as a Father is eager and willing to provide for the needs and desires of his children, God is eager and willing to provide for our needs and desires as well. It is simply His nature as a Father. Ray Stedman said, “Someone has pointed out that this word father answers all the philosophical questions about the nature of God. A father is a person, therefore God is not a blind force behind the inscrutable

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machinery of the universe. A father is able to hear, and God is not simply an impersonal being, aloof from all our troubles and our problems. And above all, a father is predisposed by his love and relationship to give a careful, attentive ear to what his child says. This is the way God is. From a father, a child can surely expect a reply. God is interested in what we have to say. A father, therefore, may be expected to reply to us.”

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

What is our responsibility to our Father in Heaven? Our responsibility is to hallow or sanctify His name in every part of our life. It is not enough to acknowledge Him as holy with our mouths if we do not acknowledge Him as holy with our lives. Part of acknowledging Him as holy with our lives is obeying His commands and representing Him in a worthy manner on the Earth.

One of the reasons why our prayers are ineffective is because we go into prayer with unconfessed sin in our lives, and we expect God to still bless us. But if God is truly our Father, then just as an earthly father will not reward bad behavior in his children, likewise our Heavenly Father cannot and will not bless us if we are disobedient. We hallow God’s name not only by verbal affirmation, but by obeying the biblical command, “Be ye holy for I am holy.”

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

So, there is a two-pronged application to our praise, worship, and acknowledgement of God in our prayers.

First, we acknowledge Him for who He is as our Father.

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When we acknowledge Him as Father, we are saying that we are totally dependent on Him for our needs and that we are trusting in Him to supply our needs. In addition to that, we acknowledge Him as a holy God who will not overlook evil conduct and who demands that we live holy lives as His children. If we live holy lives, we can be confident in prayer, knowing that our Heavenly Father is pleased with us and truly wants to hear and answer our prayers.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

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4 The Lord’s Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 2) TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13 We can see the six parts of the Lord's Prayer as building blocks to a productive and effective prayer life. We learned about the first building block — the foundation or cornerstone, if you will. That foundation is us acknowledging God as a Father who is willing to hear and answer our prayers. It is also acknowledging that God is holy, and like a good father, he will not reward sin and evil.

Now, let's look at the second building block of this prayer which is signalled by Jesus’ words, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in Heaven.” The word “kingdom” refers to the reign of God in Heaven and in Earth. His reign relates to His supreme and sovereign control over all things in the universe.

When Jesus Christ came to Earth, His arrival was a signal of two important events. The first being God’s reign in the hearts, minds, and souls of men — the spiritual kingdom;

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and the second being God’s reign over the Earth and His defeat of Satan — the physical kingdom. When Jesus Christ preached that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, at that time, He was referring to the spiritual kingdom.

God had come down to man to repair the rift that sin had caused. In so doing, He began to rule and reign in men’s hearts through the Holy Spirit. At first, John the Baptist and even the disciples did not understand this. They were looking for the physical, political kingdom of God to be manifested on Earth. However, Jesus Christ had come to first establish the spiritual kingdom of God. In this spiritual kingdom, people’s sins are forgiven and washed away, they are made new creatures in Christ,and they begin to live as followers of Christ in a hostile world.

What does this mean for us when we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done”? This means that our first request for the Kingdom of God ought to be for the establishing of God’s rule in our hearts. When we pray, we ought to enthrone God in our hearts. We ought to let Him be front and center and let Him have His way in our lives.

We cannot pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” without truly desiring that God’s will be done in our hearts first. Oftentimes, we are busy trying to build our own little kingdoms here on Earth that we don’t care about God’s kingdom being built up and God’s will being done. Some people are proud of the material possessions they have, and they spend their lives pursuing money and the means to get more stuff. God is not king in their lives — self and money are on the throne of their hearts. Even in their prayers, they are only concerned about themselves and what they can get from God.

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If we are truly to follow the model prayer, we must not pray in a way that puts our own needs and desires first. We must pray in a way that seeks the extension of God’s kingdom and the accomplishment of God’s will on earth.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Let not your prayers be all concerning your own sins, your own wants, your own imperfections, and your own trials, but let them climb the starry ladder and get up to Christ Himself. Then, as you draw nigh to the blood-sprinkled mercy seat, offer this prayer continually, ‘Lord, extend the kingdom of Your dear Son.’ Such a petition, fervently presented, will elevate the spirit of all your devotions.”

Now, as I mentioned earlier, there is another meaning to this prayer for God’s kingdom to come and will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. The first meaning is for the here and now — in our hearts and in our everyday lives.

The second meaning involves our hope for the future.

What is this hope? This hope is the coming physical rule and reign of God in the Earth. As Christians, we ought to be looking forward to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

When we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we are expressing our desire to see the physical kingdom of God established on Earth.

J.C. Ryle said that when we pray this prayer, “we mean chiefly the kingdom of glory which one day will be set up when Jesus comes the second time. This is the time when sin, sorrow and Satan will be driven out of the world. It is the time when the Jews will be converted, and the full number of the Gentiles will come in, and a time that is to be desired more than anything. It therefore fills a foremost place in the Lord’s Prayer.”

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Whether or not we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” is a reflection of the desire of our hearts. Do we truly desire that God’s kingdom be established in our hearts and lives? Are we earnestly looking forward to the coming rule and reign of Christ in the earth?

If that is truly our desire, we can begin demonstrating it by being obedient to God’s will. Whatever God tells us to do in response to our prayers, we ought to do it. When we pray, “thy will be done,” we are surrendering our will to God like Jesus Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We are acknowledging Him as Lord of our lives and demonstrating our commitment to His will by doing what He says.

Prayer to God empowers us to be obedient in a world that often blatantly rejects God’s sovereignty. If God is not ruling and reigning in our hearts, we can easily be led to disobey God and go along with the world.

The story is told of a prisoner named Ivan who endured the horrors of a Soviet prison camp. One day he was praying with his eyes closed when a fellow prisoner noticed him and said with ridicule, “Prayers won’t help you get out of here any faster.” Opening his eyes, Ivan answered, “I do not pray to get out of prison but to do the will of God.” Ladies and gentlemen, when we pray, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” we are not praying that we would avoid all the troubles of this world, we are praying that we might know what God’s will is and that we might receive the power of the Holy Spirit to do

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our part in carrying out that will on Earth and in our day-today lives. In this sense, prayer is not just a way to get what we want, but the way to be and to do what God wants. As Robert Law once said, “Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in heaven, but for getting God’s will done on earth.”

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5 The Lord’s Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 3) TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13 We are going to look at the third building block in which Jesus Christ teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Now, if we are honest, we will admit that in our flesh, most of us do not naturally like this prayer. We do not want to have to look to God — or to anyone else for that matter — for our daily bread. We want to be able to look in our refrigerator, or in our deep freezer, or at least in our bank accounts and know that we will have food and other necessities for the next few days, weeks, and months.

And, sometimes, God will give us the luxury of that blessing.

But why doesn’t God do that for all of us? Why doesn’t He give us provisions or the assurance of provisions for an extended amount of time? If you recall, He didn’t do that for the Israelites in the wilderness. God sent manna down each morning, and the Israelites were to go out and gather

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just what they needed for that day. On Friday, God sent down enough for two days (because the next day was the Sabbath) and the Israelites were to go out and gather what they needed just for two days. What was God doing? God was teaching the Israelites that they needed to trust Him and depend on Him for everything.

God wants to teach us that today as well. That is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Even though we may not like having to depend on God for our needs, the fact of the matter is we are already dependent on God for our very lives. Every breath we take is a gift from God. At any moment in this world, disaster can strike, and we can end up dead or seriously injured. D.L. Moody said, “A man can no more take a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough today to last him for the next six months; nor can he inhale sufficient air into his lungs with one breath to sustain life for a week to come.

We are permitted to draw upon God’s store of grace from day to day as we need it!”

Jesus’ words were especially poignant for the poorer people of that day and time. Historians tell us that many of them were day laborers who were paid each day for the work they did. These workers would then go to the market, and most of the time, they would be able to buy just enough food for that day. The next day, they would have to get up and go to work again in order to be paid. They did not have the luxury of saving up a bunch of money or food.

Knowing that we are dependent on God should help us grow closer to Him and increase our loyalty and faithfulness to him.

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We see a great example of dependence on God in the animal kingdom. Most animals do not store up food for themselves. Birds don’t have stockpiles of worms and berries in their nests. Lions don’t have dead antelopes and gazelles stored up in a freezer somewhere. They wake up each day just knowing that their Creator has provided the food they need for that day. Later on in this same chapter, Jesus Christ says, “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”

When was the last time you prayed for your daily bread?

Some of us think that prayer is a high and lofty matter. We are alright with praying to “our Father who art in Heaven” and praying “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” But we often neglect to pray for the “little things” — like our daily bread. What happens when we fail to pray about these things? Ray Stedman writes that we begin to “take these things for granted, and gradually we succumb to the quite foolish delusion that we actually can provide these necessities ourselves. We become possessed with the incredible vanity that our wisdom and our abilities have really made these things possible, that we can supply these things quite apart from God. And when we begin to think that way, we find pride swells within us and a kind of blindness settles upon us, a blindness which darkens our spiritual insight.”

Dear friend, don’t take your daily bread for granted. Don’t take the simple things, the small things, the seemingly insignificant things of life for granted. Pray about everything. Thank God for everything. The fact that we must

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ask God for our daily bread — our basic, everyday needs ought not to discourage us. Rather, it ought to encourage us to pray because we know that we serve a God who cares about and who wants to provide for even the so called small things of life.

In closing, Joy Rice Martin, the daughter of the great evangelist and writer John R. Rice, wrote a beautiful song titled “Pray About Everything” many years ago. Allow me to share it with you now.

Once I was burdened, with many a care, Problems too hard for my weak soul to bear, Then in God’s Word came a message so clear, Pray about everything!

Ask of your Father, He loves to please, Unlock his treasure; He gives us the keys, Claiming this promise I dropped to my knees, Pray about everything.

Doubting and fretting can only bring shame, Worry and fear will dishonor His name, Go to your Saviour, His promise to claim, Pray about everything.

Riches in Jesus, abundant and free, Needs in our work, or whatever it be, Ours for the asking, This only his plea, Pray about everything.

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6 The Lord’s Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 4) TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13 Let's look at the fourth building block in which Jesus Christ teaches us to pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Charles Spurgeon said, “No prayer of mortal men could be complete without confession of sin.” Why? Because even though we are saved, even though we strive to do what is right, it is inevitable that we will sometimes act or think in a manner that is displeasing to God. When we think of “sin”, our minds focus on big, outward sins such as adultery, murder, lying, or stealing. But the Bible informs us that a lustful glance, the entertaining of impure thoughts, and not doing the good that we know to do is all offensive in God’s eyes. When we pray, if we are sensitive to God’s Spirit, we will confess each of those infractions as sins as well.

Evangelist Billy Graham once told the story of how one day he got sick and was taken to the hospital. He had preached in hundreds of crusades and events around the 43

world. He was getting on up in years, and as he lay in that hospital bed with pain wracking his body, he began to pray and ask God to just take him on home. He said that as he prayed, God began to remind him of some things that he had done wrong — some of what we would call “little things” that were offensive to God. And as he lay in the hospital, Billy Graham said that he confessed those things one by one and asked for God’s forgiveness.

Let’s look closely at the word “forgive” in this passage.

This word comes from a Greek word which means to send away or to set loose. It was a legal term which meant to free someone from a bond, to acquit, or to make exempt.

That is what God does for us when He forgives us. He sets us loose from our sin and the guilt of sin. The story is told of missionaries in northern Alaska who were translating the Bible into the language of the Eskimos.

They discovered that there was no word in their language that was equal to forgiveness. After much patient listening to the natives, however, they found a word that means, “?not being able to think about it anymore,” and that word was used throughout the translation to represent forgiveness. God’s promise to repentant sinners is, “?I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more?.”

However, as 1 John 1:9 says, “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.” Just as salvation is conditional on our acceptance of the gift offered through Jesus Christ, forgiveness is conditional on the confession of our sins. So, in prayer, we must confess our sins and ask God to forgive us of our sins.

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However, there is something we must do before we ask God to forgive us of our sins, and that is: forgive those who have sinned against us. We ought to pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The Greek word for debt means something that is owed — a spiritual or moral debt to God. In the parallel passage of the Lord’s Prayer found in Luke, a different word — hamartia — is used which clearly indicates that the prayer is talking about sin and not financial obligations.

We cannot go to God asking for forgiveness of our sins if we refuse to forgive those who have sinned against us.

“Well,” you say, “So-and-so has not come to me asking for forgiveness.” That is not the point. God didn’t wait for us to come to Him asking for salvation before He decided to send Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for sin. You ought to forgive freely because you have been freely forgiven by God. We are commanded in Ephesians 4:32 to ‘forgive one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.’

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

These phrases are dependent on each other. God will not forgive us if we do not forgive those who have sinned against us. John MacArthur said, “If we want to enjoy the benefits of God’s forgiveness toward us, we must be willing to forgive other believers, even those who repeatedly sin against us. Or we can express this final principle more directly, which is that God does not forgive those who do not forgive others.”

During one period of his life, the Methodist founder John Wesley was a missionary in the American colonies. He

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ministered in the area that would one day become the state of Georgia. There was a general by the name of Oglethorpe with whom Wesley had some dealings.

General Oglethorpe was a great military leader, but he had a reputation as a harsh and brutal man. One day he said to John Wesley, “I never forgive.” And Wesley replied, “Then, sir, I hope you never sin.”

Dear friend, we all have sinned against God and others.

The Bible makes that plain. And, our life experiences also make plain that others have sinned against us. There is a remedy for this undesirable part of the human condition — prayer to God and forgiveness of others. Let us be quick to forgive, quick to confess, and then quick to pray: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

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7 The Lord’s Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 5) TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13 Let's look at the fifth building block in which Jesus Christ teaches us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

This is a very practical prayer for our everyday lives. Every day we are faced with the temptation to do wrong. Every day, opportunities present themselves before us where we have to choose the path of good or evil. Unfortunately, sin and evil often appear pleasurable and desirable. When we are weak, worried, or stressed, the devil comes to us and makes tempting suggestions. He will make us think that if we give in, our problems will be solved and our life will be easy. He did it with Eve in the Garden. He did it with Jesus Christ in the wilderness. And he does it with each and every one of us today.

But, Jesus Christ gives us a prayer for times like these.

He tells us that we can ask of God, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Dr. W.A. Criswell stated, “This is a request for the intervention of God in 47

life’s moments of trial and temptation in such a manner that the ‘way of escape’ is made clear. The petition gives full recognition to the incredible deception and power of temptation and affirms that deliverance from the grasp of evil can come only from the Lord. ” Now, the phrasing of this request in our English Bibles makes it sound like God is responsible for our temptations.

However, when we look at the tense of the Greek in this verse, we find that what it is really saying is that our request ought to be that we not have to face temptation. In other words, our desire ought to be that we not even have to deal with the devil. However, the latter phrase — “but deliver us from evil” — acknowledges that it is possible that we will be tempted. In fact, it is a fact that we will be tempted. And, by asking God to deliver us from evil, we are saying, “Lord, although I would rather not be tempted, when I am tempted, please show me the way of escape and deliver me from it.”

Regarding this phrase, Spurgeon said: “The man who is really forgiven, is anxious not to offend again; the possession of justification leads to an anxious desire for sanctification. When we pray, ‘Forgive us our debts,’ that is justification. When we pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,’ that is sanctification in its negative and positive forms.”

So, as sanctified children of God, our desire should be to not have any part in the works of the devil — and that includes the possibility of the works of the devil as presented to us via temptation. However, if we are honest, we have to admit that we will face temptation. And since

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we face that possibility every day, our “backup request” is, “Lord, when I am faced with temptation, deliver me from it. Give me the grace and the power of your Holy Spirit to say ‘no.'” John MacArthur says that this prayer speaks “of a heart desire and inclination that cause a believer to want to avoid the danger and trouble sin creates. It is the expression of the redeemed soul that so despises and fears sin that it wants to escape all prospects of falling into it, choosing to avoid rather than having to defeat temptation.”

Another thing we must note about the word temptation is that it does not only represent the appeal of sin. The very same word used for temptation in the Lord’s Prayer is used elsewhere in the New Testament when the Bible speaks of trials or tests. For example, James 1:2-3 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” So, what do you do when you are facing a trial? Is it right for us to pray that God deliver us from our trials even though we know that trials often strengthen us, purify us, and help us learn valuable spiritual lessons?

When we are facing a trial, we ought to pray as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is alright to express your desire that you be delivered from the trial if possible.

But you must, at the same time, submit your will to God’s and leave everything in His hands. Jesus Christ prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” but He also prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt?.”

Whether you are facing a temptation from the devil or a

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test from God, you can always go to our Heavenly Father in prayer for deliverance. No matter how difficult it may seem to resist temptation, and no matter how difficult it may seem to endure a trial, if you lean on God through prayer, He promises to carry you through. The hymn “Yield Not to Temptation” expresses this timeless message: Yield not to temptation for yielding is sin; Each vict’ry will help you some other to win; Fight manfully onward, dark passions subdue; Look ever to Jesus — He’ll carry you through.

Shun evil companions, bad language disdain; God’s name hold in rev’rence, nor take it in vain; Be thoughtful and earnest, kind-hearted and true; Look ever to Jesus — He’ll carry you through.

To him that o’er-cometh God giveth a crown; Thru faith we will conquer tho often cast down He who is our Savior our strength will renew Look ever to Jesus — He’ll carry you through.

Ask the Savior to help you, comfort, strengthen and keep you; He is willing to aid you — He will carry you through.

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8 The Lord’s Prayer: A Practical Guide (Part 6) TEXT: Matthew 6:9-13 Let's look at the final building block in which Jesus Christ teaches us to pray, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

This final part of the Lord’s prayer tells us the underlying purpose of our prayers. Notice the word “for.” Why do we make all of the requests which we make in our prayers?

Why do we make each of the requests that are delineated in “the Lord’s prayer”? Ultimately, it ought to be for God’s kingdom, God’s power, and God’s glory.

J.C. Ryle said, “Thousands repeat these words daily as a form, but never consider what they are saying. They care nothing for the ‘glory,’ the ‘kingdom,’ or the ‘will’ of God: they have no sense of dependence, sinfulness, weakness, or danger; they have no love or charity towards their enemies. And yet they repeat the Lord’s Prayer! These things ought not to be so. May we resolve that, by God’s help, our hearts shall always go together with our lips!

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Happy is the person who can really call God ‘Father’ through Jesus Christ the Saviour, and can therefore say a heartfelt ‘Amen’ to all that the Lord’s Prayer contains.”

Why do we pray for the sake of God’s kingdom? The kingdom is God’s reign in the hearts of all those who have accepted Christ as Savior. When we pray for the purpose of the kingdom, we are expressing our desire for the kingdom to be built up and strengthened in our lives and in the lives of all believers. Furthermore, when we pray for God’s kingdom, we are also expressing our desire to see the second coming of Christ and the millennial period when the physical, political kingdom of God will be manifest on earth. While every prayer we pray may not mention these items specifically, our desire to see the enlargement of the spiritual kingdom of God through souls being saved and through the saved being strengthened, as well as our desire to see the physical kingdom of God being manifested on the Earth ought to be a driving force behind all our prayers.

Why do we pray for the sake of God’s power? The Greek word translated “power” is dunamis. It means strength, ability, or influence; power for performing miracles; or power and resources arising from numbers. We serve a God who is mighty and powerful. When the Bible speaks of Jesus’ “mighty works” — His miracles — this is the word that is used. When we pray, we ought to be looking for God’s power to be manifested in our lives and in the lives of those around us. There are many things that you can’t do on your own; there are situations in your life that you can’t seem to resolve on your own. Do you know what you need? You need God’s power. And prayer calls down

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the power of God. There is an old saying that used to be repeated a lot among Christians: “Little prayer, little power.

Much prayer, much power. No prayer, no power.”

Why do we pray for the sake of God’s glory? The Greek word translated “glory” is doxa from which we get our word doxology. This word means splendour, brightness, or majesty. Strong’s Lexicon states that it is ‘the kingly majesty which belongs to God as supreme ruler as well as the kingly majesty of the Messiah.’ All of the attributes of God — His omniscience, His omnipresence, His omnipotence — are a part of His glory. Everything that God has created — the earth, the sky, the sun, moon, and stars; people, plants, and animals; mountains, plains, and oceans — all of it is a part of His glory. Not only that, but everything God does — the miracles he performs, the prayers he answers, the sacrifice He made of His Son — is a part of His glory. When we pray, we are inviting God to act in our lives and on our behalf, not solely for ourselves, but for His glory. In fact, the very act of prayer is a way of glorifying God. John Piper said, “When we ask God for help, we know that he will give it for his name’s sake, not because we deserve it. His helping us highlights his riches. ‘God will supply every need according to his riches in glory.’ Jesus died to obtain all the help we need. So not just our praises, but also our petitions, become ways of glorifying God. They draw attention to his riches, not our rights.’

As John Newton wrote:

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You are coming to your King, Large petitions with you bring; For his grace and power are such None can ever ask too much.

As we begin and as we close our prayers, we ought to keep in mind that our ultimate focus ought not to be on our needs, wants, and desires, but on God’s kingdom, power, and glory. No request is too small for God. No petition is too insignificant. No prayer is not worth praying if you are praying for the sake of God’s kingdom, God’s power, and God’s glory.

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9 Praying for Lost Souls Like Jesus Did (Part 1) TEXT: Matthew 9:35-38 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

In recent years, Christian missions organizations have identified a part of the globe that they refer to as the 10/ 40 Window. According to the Christian Broadcasting Network, “The 10/40 Window is a rectangular-shaped area extending from West Africa to East Asia, from ten degrees north to forty degrees north of the equator. Often called ‘The Resistant Belt,’ this specific region, encompasses the majority of the world’s Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists 55

— billions of spiritually impoverished souls.” Two-thirds of the world’s population lives in this region made up of 67 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, and many of them have not heard the Gospel — not even one time.

Evangelism researchers have estimated that two million people search for God on the internet every day. It is true today, even as it was in Jesus’ day, that the harvest truly is plentiful, and I hope that you pray regularly for souls to be saved. However, let’s consider how we can tackle this issue even more effectively like Jesus did.

First, we see from our passage that we ought to be busy working for the salvation of lost souls. The Bible states, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” Jesus was busy. He was on the move — talking, teaching, preaching, and working for the salvation of lost souls.

The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that the area of Galilee in which Jesus preached was about 40 miles wide and 70 miles long. There were around 200 cities and villages in that region. In the smallest of the cities, there were about 15,000 people. If we extrapolate that number out, we can conclude that there were at least 3 million people in Galilee at that time. And, the Bible tells us that Jesus went into “all the cities and villages” to preach the Gospel.

Scholars tell us that there were also several religious sects

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in first century Palestine. We are familiar, of course, with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but there were also the Herodians, the Zealotes, the Essenes, and the Sicarii among others. Most of the religious leaders of that time did not engage in evangelism. They defined themselves by their separation from the people they considered unrighteous. Many of the leaders of these sects gathered their disciples about them, separated from the general population, and went to live in the wilderness or in mountainous regions where they kept to themselves, taught the followers they had, and waited for others to join them.

Jesus was different. He was, if you will, “a man of the people.” He did not wait for His disciples to come find Him. He went and called them. After that, He spent months teaching multitudes and teaching His disciples to do what He was doing. Jesus did not carry out His ministry like many churches do today — with a focus on keeping the sheep in the pen or keeping the fish in the aquarium. Jesus went out and got more sheep, and then He sent His disciples and 70 others out to do the same.

We should not just sit around and pray for more laborers to be sent into the harvest; we ought to be out bringing in the sheaves ourselves. Jesus did this despite the opposition He faced. All throughout the previous verses of chapter 9, Jesus was criticized by other religious leaders. First, they accused Him of blasphemy because He told a man that his sins were forgiven. Next, they criticized Him because He ate dinner with a bunch of tax collectors and other known sinners. After that, they criticized Him because His disciples didn’t fast like John’s

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disciples did. And, finally, they accused Him of being in league with demons because He was able to cast out demons. While Jesus was out trying to save sinners, He was being criticized and slandered by those who sat on their hands and did nothing at all.

What does this mean for our prayer life, specifically for those times when we are praying for the salvation of lost souls. It means that we should put feet to our prayers. As Saint Augustine said, “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” We should not be praying, ‘Lord, send them’ into the mission field if we have not already gone into the mission field ourselves.

You might say, ‘Well, I don’t have the gift of evangelism.’

The truth of the matter is that you do not need the “gift” of evangelism to win souls. Yes, there are some people that God has specifically gifted with the ability to persuade people to accept Christ enmasse. And God is probably not calling you to be the next Billy Graham. But there are many ways you can be in the harvest fields influencing people to give their lives to Jesus Christ.

Look back at our passage for a moment. Not only was Jesus preaching the Gospel, but He was teaching people and healing people. There is something that you can do in the service of the Gospel. People today have an abundance of needs. You can be used by God to fulfill those needs as a way to open the door for the Gospel in their lives.

As you pray for the salvation of lost souls, and pray for

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others to go out into the harvest, make sure you pray about how you can be used by the Lord to see more souls saved, for as the old song says, “People need the Lord.�

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10 Praying for Lost Souls Like Jesus Did (Part 2) TEXT: Matthew 9:35-38 Another quality which we see in the life of Jesus is His compassion for others. The Bible says, “when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” Ask yourself, when you think about the sinful masses in our world, do you have compassion on them in your heart?

The word used for moved with compassion is the strongest word for pity in Greek. One commentator noted that “it describes the compassion which moves a man to the deepest depths of his being.” Charles Spurgeon states: “The original word is a very remarkable one. It is not found in classic Greek. It is not found in the Septuagint. The fact is, it was a word coined by the evangelists themselves.

They did not find one in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, and therefore they had to make one” to describe the compassion that Jesus Christ had in His heart for lost souls. According to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, this word originally referred to the 61

inner parts of a man — the heart, the liver, and the intestines. Jesus’ compassion was not a superficial, mindbased recognition of the needs of lost sinners, but a real, heart-felt conviction.

What kind of attitude do you have when you read the news or watch TV and are presented with sinful lifestyles? Do you become judgmental? Do you think of them as “those sinners” forgetting that you were once one and would still be one except for God’s grace? Do you avoid places where “sinners” hang out? Are you quick to condemn or quick to show compassion? Henry Ward Beecher said, “Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.”

In order to truly show compassion toward sinners, we must adopt the perspective of Jesus Christ. Jesus saw the lost multitudes as people who were weary and scattered, lost and wandering in the world with no one to guide them.

They were like ships being tossed at sea unable to get to shore because there is no lighthouse to guide them. And the lighthouses that did shine cast a false and deceptive light, leading those poor souls onto shores where they would be dashed upon the rocks.

This story is told of the great evangelist, D.L. Moody. He was a hell-fire and brimstone preacher, well-known for emphasizing the reality of eternal punishment for the sinner in his sermons. One week, however, he had to go out of town for a couple of days and he wouldn’t be able to preach at his church in Chicago on that Sunday, so he invited a guest preacher to take his place. When he got back home, he asked his wife how the services went. She told him that the services had gone well, and that several

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people got saved, but she said her husband would not have liked the preacher’s message. D.L. Moody said, “What do you mean I wouldn’t have liked his message?

He preached from the Bible, didn’t he?” His wife said, “Yes, he did. But I’m telling you, you wouldn’t have liked his message.” D.L. Moody decided he had to hear the guest preacher for himself, so he invited him back to preach the next week. As D.L. Moody sat in the audience, he listened as the guest preacher shared a message from John 3:16 emphasizing God’s love and compassion for sinners. The message moved D.L. Moody greatly, so much so that he made the decision to speak more of God’s love and compassion for sinners in his own sermons.

As we read through the gospels, we see that most of Jesus’ words of condemnation were reserved for the religious hypocrites who thought that their good works and righteous lifestyle made them better than everybody else. Often, these religious types looked down on those whom Jesus showed compassion to. It was the religious people who criticized Jesus for hanging out with, talking to, and eating dinner with prostitutes, tax collectors, drunkards, and others like them. However, as Jesus Christ said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He also said, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”

What is your perspective on the sick and lost people of today? People are being led astray by the false promise that money, love, success, education, or material things can save them. People are being led astray by the idea that they can better themselves. Many are being deceived

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by false religions and fraudulent religious teachers. As Christians, we ought not to look down on them but reach out to them.

If your heart lacks compassion for the lost, I encourage you to pray for a change of heart. Ask God to give you the kind of heart that He has for lost people — a heart that led Him to sacrifice His only Son in order to save us all.

In his letter to Timothy, Paul stated that prayers and intercession ought to “be made for all men” — not just the saved. In Romans 10:1, he cried out, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” Do you pity lost souls so much that you plead with God for their salvation? Instead of becoming angry at those who ridicule and persecute you for your faith, do you pray for their forgiveness as Jesus did and as Stephen did?

The Scottish preacher John Knox pleaded, “God, give me Scotland or I die.” The great evangelist George Whitefield prayed, “O Lord, give me souls or take my soul.” When confronted with false religious teachings, the Anglican missionary Henry Martyn cried out, ‘I cannot endure existence if Jesus is to be so dishonored.’ These men felt deeply in their hearts the plight of lost sinners. They had compassion toward them. Do you have the same? Do you pray for sinners? Do you pray for a compassionate heart?

In closing, consider these words from Puritan minister Richard Baxter: “Oh, if you have the hearts of Christians or of men in you, let them yearn towards your poor ignorant, ungodly neighbors. There is but a step betwixt

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them and death and hell. Many hundreds of diseases are waiting ready to seize on them, and if they die unregenerate, they are lost forever. Have you hearts of rock, that cannot pity men in such a case as this? If you believe not the Word of God, and the danger of sinners, why are you Christians yourselves? If you do believe it, why do you not bestir yourself to the helping of others?�

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11 Praying for Lost Souls Like Jesus Did (Part 3) TEXT: Matthew 9:35-38 Jesus Christ commands us to pray for laborers to enter the harvest of lost souls. He said, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

There are over seven billion people in the world today, and only a third claim to be Christians. That means there are at least 4.7 billion people who are heading to an eternity without God. A few weeks ago, a friend of our family invited my children to come to their property to pick pecans. They have several pecan trees growing on their property, and when we got there, she said that she had already picked 200 pounds worth of pecans. And, yet, there were still hundreds of pecans lying on the ground ready to be picked. That is a picture of the harvest of lost souls — a world overflowing with sinners ready to receive the message of the gospel.

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The only problem is there are not enough laborers willing to go into the harvest fields. What can we do to change that?

First of all, we must look at sinners as Jesus looks at them.

Jesus does not look at them as a lost cause, as hopeless and incapable of seeing the light. No, Jesus sees them as a harvest. He sees sinners as potential saints. How often do we look at someone and write them off thinking to ourselves that they will never get saved or that they are too far gone to listen to the gospel? Consider your own life and think about what would have happened if the person who led you to the Lord had looked at you and said, ‘That person will never accept Christ. I won’t even bother.’

What is your perspective on lost souls? Do you truly see them as a harvest? If you do, then you ought to be working to bring in the harvest. And since the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few, you should pray to the Lord of the harvest that He will send more laborers into His harvest.

Now, we may consider the question: Why should we pray for more workers to be sent into the harvest? Doesn’t God know workers need to be sent? Why doesn’t He just send them? Listen to what John Piper said on this matter: “Surely Jesus doesn’t mean to imply that God doesn’t know there is a shortage of reapers! And surely he doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care whether the harvest comes in! Why, then, are the farm hands told to beg the farmer to get more help? There is only one possible answer. God has willed that his miraculous work of harvesting be preceded by prayer. He loves to bless the world. But even

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more, he loves to bless the world in answer to prayer. It is God’s way before he does a great work to pour a Spirit of supplication upon his people so that they plead for the work.”

Jesus Christ gave us a command to pray for more laborers to be sent into the harvest field of the world. It is a command; not a suggestion, not a recommendation. It is similar to how God commands that we ask Him for our daily needs. He knows what we need, yet He still tells us to ask. We glorify Him and show our dependence on Him by asking. When we pray for more laborers to be sent into the harvest, we glorify Him and we acknowledge that He is the one who does the saving work — not our methods, our techniques, or our specially designed presentation of the Gospel. God is in control. He is the “Lord of the Harvest.”

Now, the word used to describe the action of sending laborers into the harvest is a very strong word. In Greek, it literally means that the laborers are to be pushed forward or thrust out into the harvest fields. It is the same word used to describe the casting out of a demon from a person.

As Spurgeon said, “It takes great power to drive a devil out, it will need equal power from God to drive a minister out to his work.” No matter how many classes on evangelism are taught in the church, nothing will make a faithful soul-winner like a God-given passion for the lost.

God must put that desire in the hearts of His people, and we ought to make that a consistent matter of prayer. We ought to pray not only for lost souls to be saved, but that the Lord would send the means by which they can be saved. And those means are simply more laborers being

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sent into the harvest field of the world.

In the harvest field now ripened There’s a work for all to do; Hark! the voice of God is calling, To the harvest calling you.

In the mad rush of the broad way, In the hurry and the strife, Tell of Jesus’ love and mercy, Give to them the Word of Life.

Does the place you’re called to labor Seem so small and little known?

It is great if God is in it, And He’ll not forget His own.

Are you laid aside from service, Body worn from toil and care?

You can still be in the battle, In the sacred place of prayer.

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12 The Power of Praying Alone (Part 1) TEXT: Matthew 14:22-27 22 And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.

23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

One of the negative things that Jesus emphasized in Matthew 6 was the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of His day. Not only in prayer, but in fasting and in giving to the poor, they liked to stand in public places to be seen by

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others as they did their good deeds. Jesus rebuked that kind of behavior and commanded us to go to our closets and pray to our Father in secret.

In the passage that we are looking at today, we see Jesus Christ practicing what He preached — getting alone with God and praying. His example is important for us to take heed to today because oftentimes, the only time we pray is when we are in church or when we are around other Christians. Many of us have not learned the habit of praying alone.

What are the benefits of praying alone?

First, we see from this passage that praying alone shows that you are serious about your prayer life. Directly preceding Jesus’ private time of prayer, we learn from Matthew chapter 14 that Jesus had just been informed that Herod had beheaded John the Baptist. The Bible tells us that after John’s disciples informed Jesus of this news, Jesus “departed thence by ship into a desert place apart.”

Perhaps Jesus was grieving John’s death. Perhaps, even then, he wanted to get alone so He could pray and commune with His Father in Heaven. You can imagine that maybe John’s beheading had brought to the forefront of Jesus’ mind the death that He would have to face shortly.

Whatever the case, Jesus was not able to get alone as He wanted to at that time because the Bible tells us that “when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.” The multitudes came looking for Jesus, and the next verse tells us that Jesus “saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them,

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and he healed their sick.” Jesus switched back to ministry mode in order to serve the people. He healed the sick.

He taught the people. And, as the evening wore on and the multitude got hungry, he worked the miracle of feeding the 5,000 from just five loaves and two fishes. Jesus had been trying to get alone, but He ended up surrounded by a multitude of hungry people — both physically and spiritually.

Finally, after a long day and evening of ministry, look at what Jesus did. The Bible tells us that “straightway [after feeding the people] Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.” After all that He had done that day, Jesus was determined to get alone so He could pray.

Allow me to pause and say here that over my thirty-five plus years in the ministry, one thing that I have noticed about many pastors who are gifted in various forms of ministry is that, unlike Jesus, they have a hard time praying, they struggle to pray, or they do not pray at all. I have had pastors to admit to me that they do not pray as they should. However, we see here in this passage that Jesus Christ — the Great Shepherd, the first pastor, if you will — took time to pray. It is not just about preaching and “doing ministry.” The power is in prayer. So, dear preacher, dear ministry leader, I want to encourage you to take time to get alone with God and pray.

Now, sometimes, you will have to set some other things

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aside in order to get alone with God. We notice two things Jesus did in this passage: first, He dismissed the crowd, and, second, He dismissed the disciples. The Bible tells us that “straightway He constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side.”

“Straightway” tells us that it was immediately after He fed the 5,000 that He dismissed the disciples. He was urgent about it; He didn’t waste time. Furthermore, the Bible uses the word “constrained” — a very strong word which means “to compel, to drive out, or to force.” It is as if Jesus had to rush the disciples away so He could be alone.

In order to be alone with God, you will have to set aside some other things — even some good things — that you ought to do. You may have to put your ministry work on pause. You may have to put your relationships with others on pause in order to tend to your relationship with the most important Person in the universe. If you are serious about prayer, you will do whatever is necessary to make sure you have that time alone with God. Here’s some advice from Pastor Rick Warren: “It doesn’t matter where you get alone with God. You just need to find a place. I happen to like outside. When my kids were growing up, I actually built a little Prayer Garden down on the slope behind my house where I could get away and pray and focus on God. You need to have a place that’s quiet, a place where you habitually go every time you meet with God. Make it special and specific.”

Oswald Chambers said, “Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to

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carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.�

How many times of secret prayer have you had in the past week or in the past month? How many times have you shut out everyone else and got alone with God? Yes, you should pray with others, but there is power in praying alone — just you and God together.

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The Sinner’s Prayer If you are reading this book and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your first prayer needs to be what we call the Sinner’s Prayer.

Please understand that you are a sinner and that you have broken God’s laws just as I have. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Please understand that because of our sins, we deserve eternal punishment in hell.

Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death...” This includes both physical death and spiritual death in hell.

That is the bad news.

The good news is found in John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your salvation today, please pray this simple prayer and mean it from your heart:

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Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you just trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, based upon the Word of God, you are now saved from Hell and you are on your way to Heaven.

Welcome to the family of God! Congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to www.GospelLightSociety.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door.”

Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

May God bless you as you begin your new life with Him.

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You can listen to Daniel Whyte III preaching any of the messages in this book online at www.PrayingThroughtheBible.com.

Tune in to The Prayer Motivator Devotional Broadcast/Podcast www.PrayerMotivatorDevotional.com and

The Prayer Motivator Minute www.PrayerMotivatorMinute.com These broadcasts/podcasts will inspire, encourage, and motivate you to pray every day so you can live your best life now.

Based on The Prayer Motivator book

by Daniel Whyte III. Both of these broadcasts are available on: iTunes Google Play (Android) Stitcher Radio BCNN Radio 7 Live365 Radio Gospel Light World Radio BlogTalkRadio.com Buzzsprout.com FeedBurner BlackBerry Podcasts and many other podcast outlets