SHAPE UP – Prayer – Jon L. Cannon

Sermon Notes: 29 Jan 2023

Big Idea of the Series

This four-week series is designed to help Christ-followers see that God’s plan for us is to be transformed into the likeness of his Son Jesus Christ.

By focusing on four practices of Jesus, you will see that we can model our lives after Jesus and depend on who He is in order to become who God wants us to be.

Big Idea of this Sermon

Jesus’s instruction to his disciples about prayer has serious implications for how we are to set our minds on the things of Christ.

Application Point

As we grow more aware of Jesus in our lives, prayer will be the primary conduit used by the Holy Spirit to connect us. Therefore, we must commit to a consistent practice of prayer in our lives.

N.T. Wright says, “What you are in private is what you really are. Go into your inner room and talk to your father. You don’t have to make a song and dance about it, and indeed the fewer people that know you’re doing it the better. Nor do you have to go on mouthing pious phrases. You may find there are forms of words which help, as a framework or a starting-point; Jesus is about to give the disciples the framework he particularly recommends. But the point is to do business with God, one to one.”

(N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–15 [London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004], 56, Logos).

N.T. Wright explains that, “The pattern that Jesus gives is like scaffolding in a building project, which gives people a place to stand while they do the building work. What the Lord’s Prayer provides, here at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, is a framework.

Jesus doesn’t say you should always use identical words…it looks as though Jesus intended this sequence of thought to act more like the scaffolding than the whole building…”

Matthew 6:5-15 (nkjv)

5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on 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 do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

The Lord’s Prayer YouTube video series titled, “Prayer – The Ultimate Conversation.”

Jesus gave four instructions to guide us in our praying:

1. We must pray in secret before we pray in public.

Matthew 6:6 (nkjv)
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.