Class Lesson October 28, 2018

THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE

In the last few years, a new word has entered our vocabulary: selfie. The word refers to taking a picture of yourself with a cellphone, and the word fits our culture perfectly. We have become a “selfie” culture, catering to a self-centered life.

We can experience positive benefits when we’re self-reliant and independent, but that’s quite different from being self-centered and narcissistic. Parents know how strong-willed toddlers can be when demanding their own way—even when what they want may be the worst thing for them. Unfortunately, too many of us never grew out of that phase; like toddlers, our “selfie” culture demands life on its own terms and tends to forget God’s rule.

The “selfie life” is the enemy of spiritual growth. As believers who want to develop a prayer life, we have to surrender our will to find God’s will. We must reject the seeming appeal of a “selfie life,” and when we do, we gain so much more.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Matthew 6:10

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

Jesus came representing a kingdom totally unlike the political powers so familiar to us. Every aspect of our politics is scrutinized hour by hour to determine the popularity of our leaders and the percentage of constituents who agree with specific policies. But God’s kingdom doesn’t operate by popularity polls. God isn’t running for office. He is the King.

Naturally then, in His Model Prayer, Jesus calls us to focus on His kingdom and His will. In one sense, the kingdom of God and will of God sum up everything that relates to prayer. Consider two aspects of prayer:

1. Those who lack power offer their prayers to the One who has all power. It is an appeal to God who rules His kingdom.

2. Prayer is often a plea for God to make some kind of change. We want God to heal the sick. We want Him to save the lost. We want God to hold the guilty accountable. We certainly want Him to forgive our own sins. In other words, we are constantly praying for Him to change something.

When we pray for His kingdom to come and His will to be done, we are intentionally surrendering our desires and self-interests to the powerful kingdom of God and to His plans. It is impossible to pray deeply until we surrender to the lordship of Christ and the rule of God.

We struggle with letting go of our own will, don’t we? When a friend of mine was a child, he went with his father to a store where he spotted brightly-colored bicycle handlebar streamers. He could easily imagine how cool he would look to the other kids in the neighborhood with those long, bright streamers flowing from the handlebars of his bike. The only obstacle was his father. When my friend tried to convince his dad how necessary those cool, new streamers were, his father was having none of it. The answer was a resounding no.

That’s when things got ugly. My friend began to cry loudly and created an embarrassing scene in the local store where his family often shopped. The drive home wasn’t pleasant. My friend sulked in silence; worried about what he might face when he got home. But when they arrived, his dad opened the trunk and pulled out a brand-new bike! My friend was stubbornly demanding handlebar streamers for an old bicycle when his father had already planned to give him a brand-new one.

We always benefit when we surrender our will to the will of our loving Father. His will surpasses ours in every way. God knows what we need, and He knows what is best.

James 4:6-10

6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Jesus taught us to pray with God’s kingdom upmost in mind. Yet we cannot focus on God’s kingdom when we’re focused on our own “kingdoms.” We must surrender to God as King—as Lord—and that calls for humility. When we humble ourselves under His lordship, we keep our prayers in alignment with the larger purposes of God.

Pride has no place in our prayers. In fact, pride is the polar opposite of prayer, because prayer is humble dependence on God. Pride is the enemy of the kind of prayer God wants from us. In fact, James warned us pride invites the opposition of God.

Living under Christ’s lordship with a desire for His will begins and ends with humbling ourselves before Him. How do we do this?

• Submit to God. Humility begins with surrender. Surrender is not defeat, but acknowledging that God is God—and we are not. We gladly submit our lives to Christ who knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us deeply despite that knowledge!

• Resist the devil. We are to stop resisting God, and instead, resist Satan. Satan’s quest is to convince us our ways and plans are better, but a life in Christ is always better.

• Come near to God. When we “come near to God,” He comes near to us. Surrendering our lives to His kingdom and will, therefore, is actually a matter of relationship rather than mere religious duty.

• Confess. Turning to God means turning from sin. “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubleminded.” James expounded on the call to live pure and forgiven before God in verse 9: “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.” In other words, be serious about your sin. Culture treats sin lightly, but the believer is to live humbly before God with a repentant heart that weeps over sin.

James 4:13-17

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen

tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

As we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we also are to pray for His will to be done. We focus on His will—His plans—not our own. I heard long ago, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” Obviously, that doesn’t mean God wants to crush our hopes and dreams, but His plans are always better for us. God knows the future. Unfortunately, we often forget that simple truth.

This reality affects our prayer life. When we pray, we need to keep a light grip on our plans for the future, because not a second of it is promised to us. Even so, James was not calling us to live in faithless uncertainty, but rather, to pray and plan with faithful humility. 

Confident self-assurance is never the key to answered prayer. Our confidence needs to rest in God and His will. God will not refuse the prayer for His kingdom to override our self-interest. When we pray for His will to be accomplished, we can expect His blessing.

Just as we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we are to pray for God’s will to be done—nothing less and nothing else. We surrender our lives and our plans to Christ. This goes back to drawing near to God. If we feel far away from God’s purpose, we must seek Him with all our heart. This does not mean we request that He support and endorse our goals; nor do we petition God for an overview of His plans. We discover His plans only after we have aligned with His heart.

LIVE IT OUT

How will the truths of this passage affect your prayer life? Choose one of the following applications:

• Evaluate. Evaluate the things you pray for. Consider if you are more focused on what you want or what God wants.

• Surrender. Ask God to reveal areas of your life that you have not surrendered to Him.

• Fast. One day a week, add fasting to your prayer life to help you focus on God and break the power of “self.”

As believers we must surrender our will to find God’s will. Unlike the empty promise of a “selfie life,” putting God’s kingdom and His will first will lead us to spiritual maturity.

Hope to see you on Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan


Teacher Notes:

The Lord’s Prayer should be understood as an example, a pattern, of how to pray. It gives us the “ingredients” that should go into prayer. Here is how it breaks down. The phrase “Our Father in heaven” indicates that God is not only majestic and holy, but also personal and loving. The first line goes on to say, “hallowed be Your name” – this is a statement of praise and a commitment to hallow, or honor God’s holy name. we can honor God’s name by being careful to use it respectfully. If we use God’s name lightly, we aren’t remembering God’s holiness.

Today we will see how Jesus wants us to approach our Father in heaven with every request or need: Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus wants us to approach prayer with humble submission to the will of God – He wants us to SURRENDER!

What ideas or images come to mind when you hear the word “surrender”?

• cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority.
• to give oneself up into the power of another: yield.
• To surrender in spirituality and religion means that a believer completely gives up his own will and subjects his thoughts, ideas, and deeds to the will and teachings of a higher power. ... Surrender is willful acceptance and yielding to a dominating force and their will.

In the last few years, a new word has entered our vocabulary: selfie. The word refers to taking a picture of yourself with a cellphone, and the word fits our culture perfectly. We have become a “selfie” culture, catering to a self-centered life. 

The “selfie life” is the enemy of spiritual growth. 

• As believers who want to develop a prayer life, we have to surrender our will to find God’s will. We must reject the seeming appeal of a “selfie life,” and when we do, we gain so much more.

I. Pray with a heart of surrender and submission to the Lord. 

Matthew 6:10 

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

What does it mean for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven? 

• The phrase “Your kingdom come” is a reference to God’s spiritual reign. God’s kingdom was announced in the covenant with Abraham (8:11; Luke 13:28), is present in Christ’s reign in a believer’s heart (Luke 17:21), and will be complete when all evil is destroyed and God establishes the new heaven and earth (Rev. 21:1). 
• Truly praying to the Lord will include an attitude of surrender and submission. Pray that God’s name be exalted, His rule be established, and His purpose be accomplished here and now to the same degree and the same intensity as it is in heaven. Praying for His Lordship.

What does it mean to pray for Your will be done?

• When we pray, “Your will be done” we are not resigning ourselves to fate, but praying that God’s perfect purpose will be accomplished in this world as well as the next. 

What keeps us from surrendering our will to God’s will?

• Surrender is not something that is easy. It is not hard to say that we are willing to surrender when it doesn’t cost us anything, but true surrender can be painful. True surrender is not subject to our rationale, nor is it true surrender unless it is complete and exhaustive. It means saying to God not only “Your will be done” but also “not my will”.

Lesson: Prayer is often a plea for God to make some kind of change. We want God to heal the sick. We want Him to save the lost. We want God to hold the guilty accountable. We certainly want Him to forgive our own sins. In other words, we are constantly praying for Him to change something. When we pray for His kingdom to come and His will to be done, we are intentionally surrendering our desires and self-interests to the powerful kingdom of God and to His plans. It is impossible to pray deeply until we surrender to the lordship of Christ and the rule of God. We always benefit when we surrender our will to the will of our loving Father. His will surpasses ours in every way. God knows what we need, and He knows what is best.

II. Humbly surrender to the Lordship of Christ. 

James 4:6-10

“But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

What does it mean for us to humble ourselves?

• “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.” – CS Lewis

Why is humility essential to our prayer?

• Prayer is humble dependence on God.
• Pride has no place in our prayers. In fact, pride is the polar opposite of prayer, because prayer is humble dependence on God. Pride is the enemy of the kind of prayer God wants from us. In fact, James warned us pride invites the opposition of God.

Points: God’s grace helps us overcome our weaknesses and the attitudes that create conflict with others. All other relationships in our lives will be positively affected by submitting ourselves unto the Lord. A truly repentant person will have a broken spirit before the Lord. God accepts repentant persons, restores them to usefulness, and moves them to seek reconciliation with others.

Living under Christ’s lordship with a desire for His will begins and ends with humbling ourselves before Him. 

III. Humbly surrender your plans to God’s plans. 

James 4:13-17

“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

One of my favorite books is A Man Called Peter, by Catherine Marshall. It’s the life story of her late husband, Peter Marshall, who served as pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, and later became chaplain of the U.S. Senate. She told how her husband was invited to preach at the baccalaureate service for the December graduating class of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He had prepared a sermon, but during the week before the service he had a strange feeling that he should preach on a different topic. He couldn’t escape the feeling, and on Sunday morning he shared it with the chaplain at the Academy. The chaplain encouraged him to go with his instinct if it was that strong. Dr. Marshall took his text from James 4:14: Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. The date was December 7, 1941. As Dr. Marshall drove back to Washington that day, he heard the news on the radio about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He knew then why God had led him to change his sermon. Many of the men in the graduating class that day soon went to war, and many of them did not return home. 

• Most of us remember where we were on September 11, 2001. We had no idea that a major calamity was going to happen that day. Some 3000 other people had plans that day, too, but they never returned home. It was a grim reminder that only God knows the future. It makes you realize your life is in God’s hands. Your time on earth is temporary. 
• I remember what my Dad told me on my 21st birthday: “You think these first 21 years have gone by slowly, but you’ll be surprised at how fast the next 21 years go by.” That was 30 years ago, and he was absolutely correct! 

None of us know what the future holds. We can make plans, but we never truly know whether we’ll have another day on earth. That’s why James warned his readers against presumption. Some TV preachers give the impression that God is our servant, and He is obliged to do what we demand. Scripture teaches quite the opposite. We are His servants, and we must pray not with presumptuous arrogance, but in humble submission to His sovereign will.

What can we do this week to place our plans for the future in God’s hands?

• Even though we recognize the frailty and uncertainty of life, as believers we still can live with confidence and complete trust in God. We are to include God in all our planning and allow His will to shape what we do. As Christians, we not only are to avoid doing evil, we are also to determine to do the good.

Should our only prayer be, Your will be done?

• Just as we pray for God’s kingdom to come, we are to pray for God’s will to be done—nothing less and nothing else. We surrender our lives and our plans to Christ. 

LIVE IT OUT

Sadly, many Christians don’t reach a point of complete reliance on the Lord. Pride, discouragement, and distraction can ruin our focus and perseverance. Paul reminds us to fix our eyes on the goal of maturity in Christ (Phil. 3:14). Learning to die to self is painful, but ironically, it’s the only true way to life.

Total Surrender – Billy Graham

The 12th chapter of Romans says: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (verses 1, 2).

It says be transformed; be changed. That’s what we need today. Among young and old alike, we need a change—a spiritual change, a moral change. God calls on all of us to make a total surrender to His Son Jesus Christ. If you want a change in your life, if you want forgiveness and peace and joy that you’ve never known before, God demands total surrender. He becomes the Lord and the ruler of your life.

• We are surrendering all the time. When we fly in an airplane and we sit down in the seat, and we’re surrendering to that plane. Nothing we can do about it.
• If we’ve been operated on before, we didn’t negotiate with the doctors. As they took the knives out and put the anesthetic in, we put our full trust in those doctors that they were going to do the right thing.

God said, “I know the plans I have for you, … plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV). That’s what God says. He’s not here to condemn you. He’s here to bless you and love you and take you into His arms and say, “I forgive you. I’ll change your life. And when you die, you will go to Heaven.”

That’s what God is saying, if you will surrender totally and completely. But you can’t hold anything back.

1. First, surrender your mind. Now, when you surrender your mind to God, it means not only what we think but how we think. Some think that when you come to Christ, you have to leave your mind behind. Our faith is not irrational. Jesus will stand the inspection of any scientist, mathematician or intellectual in the world. I read that by the time you reach college age you will have seen more than 200,000 television commercials. Can you believe that? Congress debated what influence advertising was having on children’s behavior. The average 21-year-old has seen 10,000 hours of violent programs. No wonder we have shooting in our schools. Our minds get saturated with violence or swearing or sex or whatever it is. A survey found that 77 percent of all allusions to sex on network television involve sex outside of marriage, and that cheapens love. The Bible says, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new” (Ephesians 4:22, 23, NIV). You can be made new. You see, your mind is more than a computer. In a computer, the programs don’t get stronger the more you use them, but it’s not true with what you see and hear. What is repeated is reinforced in our minds. What we remember influences what we do. The Bible says, “For as [a person thinks] in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). What do you think in your heart? What are you really like down inside? Television also creates a problem or a dilemma and then in 30 minutes neatly resolves the problem, and the viewer enjoys a feeling of release. But that’s not the way it is in real life. In real life, our problems won’t go away rapidly. We’re conditioned to want things immediately, right now: “I want gratification now. I want my way now.” The Bible says, “Whatsoever things are true and honest and just and pure and lovely, think on these things” (Cf. Philippians 4:8). Is that what you think about? Good things? Or do you think about things you know are not right? The Bible says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind”—your mind—“is stayed on You” (Isaiah 26:3). Get your mind on Christ every day, all day long, because the devil is fighting for your soul. There are two forces at work inside of you. One is satanic, and one is God. Don’t let the devil corrupt your mind. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5), the Bible says.

2. Second, surrender your body. One of the great debates today is who owns the body. Doctors, lawyers, clergy, judges and juries debate the moral, ethical and legal sides of this issue. And the questions surrounding suicide and euthanasia and abortion center on the issues of who owns and controls your body. Who controls your body? The Bible says if you’re a Christian, your body does not belong to you. It belongs to God. And the Bible also says that it’s God’s temple. Your body is God’s temple, and He dwells in you if you really know Christ (see 1 Corinthians 3:16). Well, you say, “Billy, what do you think about sex?” I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for sex, and you wouldn’t be either. God created sex. He made us sexual human beings, men and women. The scholar Eugene Kennedy wrote that sex is being used for a whole host of reasons for which it was never intended. And that’s true. There’s no such thing as free sex or free love. There’s a price tag of broken relationships and broken hearts and broken bodies and broken families. God created us as sexual beings. But from the beginning, God planned that the full expression of sex is to be within marriage. What about you? If you have made a mistake in this area, you can ask God to forgive you and change you and give you power to resist temptation. He’ll do it. The Bible says, “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers … will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, NIV). In other words, you can’t go to Heaven unless you get it cleared up. And the only way to get it cleared up is at the cross where the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses from all sin. Jesus said, “[You] must be born again” (John 3:7). You can start all over with a new life. He’ll forgive all the past and give you power for the future. Your heart can be changed. It’s changed through prayer. It’s changed by reading the Bible. It’s changed by listening to the Holy Spirit. Everybody is tempted. The devil tempts everybody, every one of us. I’ve been tempted hundreds of times; so, have you. Temptation is not sin. It’s when you yield to temptation that it becomes sin. Christ died to give you a new heart and a new desire.

3. Third, surrender your will. Before Jesus healed or helped people, He would normally say, “Will you? Are you willing?” And I’m asking you, will you surrender to Christ? Will you let Christ dominate your life and be the Lord of your life? Will you? That’s the question He asks. The Scripture says, “Whosoever will, let him come” (see Revelation 22:17). You say, “Lord, I will receive you into my heart tonight. Forgive me of my past, the things that I’ve done wrong. I want You to give me a new direction in my life. I want You to fill up this empty place in my life.” Have you ever surrendered yourself unconditionally to Christ? Have you ever given Him your mind and your body and your will? When you come to Christ, that’s just the beginning because you must live for Him. And in living for Him, that means that the dominant feature of your life will be love. Whatever the color of someone’s skin, you love them. You go out of your way to be friends with people of another race. That’s how you love.

What does it mean to surrender to God?

This world is a battleground. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:17-19), the world God created has been in conflict with Him (Romans 8:20-22). Satan is called the "god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), and due to Adam's sin, we are born on his team (Romans 5:12). 

When we reach the age when we can make moral choices, we must choose whether to follow our own sinful inclinations or to seek God (see Joshua 24:15). God promises that when we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). When we find Him, we have a choice to make: do we continue following our own inclinations, or do we surrender to His will?

Surrender is a battle term. It implies giving up all rights to the conqueror. When an opposing army surrenders, they lay down their arms, and the winners take control from then on. Surrendering to God works the same way. God has a plan for our lives, and surrendering to Him means we set aside our own plans and eagerly seek His. The good news is that God’s plan for us is always in our best interest (Jeremiah 29:11), unlike our own plans that often lead to destruction (Proverbs 14:12). Our Lord is a wise and beneficent victor; He conquers us to bless us.

The more areas of our lives we surrender to Him, the more room there is for the filling of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we exhibit traits of His character (Galatians 5:22). The more we surrender to God, the more our old self-worshiping nature is replaced with one that resembles Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Romans 6:13 says that God demands that we surrender the totality of our selves; He wants the whole, not a part: “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.” Jesus said that His followers must deny themselves (Mark 8:34)—another call to surrender. The goal of the Christian life can be summed up by Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Such a life of surrender is pleasing to God, results in the greatest human fulfillment, and will reap ultimate rewards in heaven (Luke 6:22-23). 

Class Lesson October 21, 2018

THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE

We associate one name with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln: John Wilkes Booth. Most people have forgotten Booth had co-conspirators, but one American family can’t forget. The descendants of Dr. Samuel Mudd are still attempting to clear their family name.

After Booth shot the president, he jumped from the balcony to the stage and broke his leg. He escaped and made it to Dr. Mudd’s farm in Maryland. Dr. Mudd set his leg and allowed Booth to rest. When Mudd learned of the assassination the next day, he alerted the authorities. Unfortunately, Dr. Mudd became a suspect. He was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison. President Andrew Johnson later pardoned him, but a question lingered—was Dr. Mudd innocent?

Samuel Mudd’s descendants believe his name (and theirs) has never been cleared. In fact, our language now has a phrase for someone who is unpopular or questionable: “His name is mud (Mudd).”

Our names are important to us. Without question, one name above all others deserves honor: the name of God. Jesus taught us to honor the name of God when we pray.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Matthew 6:9b 

hallowed be your name, ... 

Psalm 96:1-3

1 Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

Some forms of prayer are easier than others. For example, most of us find it easy to ask for our own needs to be met or to pray for the safety of our kids, but not everyone feels as confident when it comes to offering praise. A church member sheepishly confided to me that praise was the most difficult part of prayer for her. I’m sure she was relieved when I agreed! Unfortunately, praise doesn’t always come easy.

In the Model Prayer, Jesus directs us to place praise at the beginning of our time with God. Jesus could have said much more about the subject, but He chose only one core value of praise: honoring the name of God. These words serve as a model for all future praise.

When Jesus taught us to praise, He did so by exalting God whose name is honored as holy. We are not praying God’s name will be made holy. Instead, our prayers are to acknowledge His name is already holy.

Once we recognize what praise is and begin to practice it, praising God begins to flow more freely. Psalm 96 is a good example of a declaration of praise that exalts God’s name. We exalt His name in three ways.

1. Sing a new song. In the opening verses, we see the exuberance of the psalmist as he praised the Lord. What do I mean by exuberance? The psalmist urged us to “Sing to the LORD a new song.” This is a call for “all the earth” to praise.

2. Praise His name. Praising God entails more than singing. We also “praise his name.” The word “praise” is related to the Hebrew word for kneeling, and not surprisingly, it can be translated as bless, salute, or adore. We also read in the Bible that God blesses His people, which imply bestowing His favor and benefits. We, in turn, bless God because of His greatness, power, and love. We praise and honor His name.

3. Proclaim His salvation. One of the great things God does is reach down and brings us back into a right relationship with Him. He saves us! We honor Him as we declare “his marvelous deeds among all peoples.”

Psalm 96:4-6

4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

It doesn’t take many news shows, violent images of terrorism, or stories about injustice to feel discouraged. Discouragement can lead to a sense of being overwhelmed by the problems surrounding all of us. Fortunately, God has given us a way to remain hopeful despite the bad news everywhere. The path to a healthier soul is praise. Praising God not only honors Him, it lifts our spirits too. When we focus on the One who is greater than all, we gain the right perspective and we lose our discouragement.

• Praise the greatness of God. The psalmist knew God is greater than any of the false gods since they are mere idols, so he focused his praise on the greatness of God. People made these other gods, “but the LORD made the heavens.” How can there be any comparison between the two?

• Praise the beauty of God. “Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” In the same way, he reminds us to seek the God who is surrounded by such beauty. Splendor is a Hebrew word embodying the concept of someone’s grand appearance. Translated “majesty,” “glory,” or even “honor,” at various places in the Old Testament, the word always describes something of great value. The psalmist was offering an invitation for us to look at God because He is filled with splendor and beauty. In a world of ugliness and broken things, God is splendid.

We pray to the God who is full of majesty, strength, and beauty. He is welcome relief for our weariness. The world is brutal; God is beautiful. The nations are merciless; God is majestic in His mercy. People are full of petty self-interest; God is full of splendor! Seeing God for who He is leads us to praise because no one else is like Him!

If we saw God as small, weak, or unpredictable, our prayers would also be weak. In fact, we probably wouldn’t pray at all. Why would we if God was neither great nor glorious? Fortunately, the psalmist directs us to think much differently about God when we pray. He is powerful and majestic; God is worthy of our honor. 

Psalm 96:7-9

7 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. 9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.

How do we respond to the greatness of God? We “ascribe”—we give—to Him the glory and strength His name deserves. We can’t make His name any more glorious or powerful, but we openly acknowledge He is full of glory and strength. He is worthy of worship. He is draped in holy splendor. His greatness should cause us to humble ourselves before Him. “Tremble before him, all the earth.”

As we acknowledge God’s glory, we also bring an offering as a way to honor Him. Consider these ways we are to bring an offering:

• An offering of praise. “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name” (Heb. 13:15).

• An offering of our possessions. “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops” (Prov. 3:9).

• An offering of our lives. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Rom. 12:1).

• An offering of our prayers. We tend to start our prayers with our needs, our concerns, and ourselves. The model Jesus gave us begins with the request that God’s name be honored, but the prayer for God to be honored doesn’t end there; we are to honor God’s name with every single request we make after that!

Even today visitors can see the original steps of the temple mount in Jerusalem, the last steps one used before entering the temple courts. These steps are deliberately irregular in size. The steps continue in a haphazard method to the top. They most likely were engineered to keep a person from rushing thoughtlessly into the presence of God. Staggered steps slowed the pace of a worshiper entering the temple courts, giving him time to reflect on the privilege of entering into God’s presence. In the same way, Jesus’ Model Prayer calls us to focus on God in praise as we begin to honor Him.

LIVE IT OUT

Praise elevates our own awareness of God as few other activities can do. For this reason—and because God deserves it—we should excel in the prayer of praise. Choose one of the following activities:

• Offer praise. Every day this week let a specific praise to God be your first words of the day. 

• List attributes. Make a list of every attribute of God you can think of. Take time this week to praise God using the entire list.

• Evaluate your requests. Write out your prayer requests and evaluate them on whether they are focused on God’s honor or simply on what you want. As needed, adjust the way you pray so you are seeking to honor Him.

How will you seek to honor God with your prayers? One name above all others deserves honor: the name of Jesus Christ. Honor Him through prayer and by sharing Him with others this week.

Hope to see you on Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan


Teacher Notes:

Introduction: Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth, wrote a book many years ago titled It’s My Turn. In that book, she told the story of her first encounter with Billy. She was a student at Wheaton College, and he had just transferred to Wheaton from the Florida Bible Institute. During a chapel service, Billy was called on to lead in prayer. Though he and Ruth had not yet been formally introduced, she was impressed by the earnestness and reverence of his prayer. She thought, “He knows who he’s talking to.” The Lord Jesus also knew who He was addressing when He prayed. Thus, He taught His disciples to begin their prayers with the words, “Hallowed be Thy name.” Certainly, we should carry our needs and requests to Him (Philippians 4:6), but at the same time we must remember that He is more than just a friend. He is the God of the universe, and He is worthy of our worship and our reverence.

It is very natural for us to call out to God when we need something. And God certainly invites us to come to Him with our requests and prayers. But do we ever consider what God wants? The first request of Jesus’ Model Prayer is a petition for God’s name to be honored as holy. We are to bring our requests to God and seek an answer that brings honor and glory to Him.

I. Prayer begins with a desire to honor God.

Matthew 6:9b hallowed be your name, ... 

Psalm 96:1-3 

Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.

How does acknowledging God’s name as holy make a difference when we pray?

What are some challenges you face in trying to keep your praying God-centered and God-honoring rather than self-focused?

There’s a Chinese proverb that states that a thousand miles begins with a single step. But in what direction do you take that first step? It matters how you begin.

Does it matter how you begin a prayer? 

· Yes, it does. 

· The first steps we take in prayer will affect the rest of our prayer. 

· In His Model Prayer, Jesus taught us to begin our prayers with Hallowed be your name. 

· This is the most important part of all our prayers.

· And it may also be the hardest part of the Model Prayer to understand.

What does it mean to hallow something?

· Hallowed comes from the same word from which we get holy. To hallow something means to make it holy or set it apart as holy. To hallow God’s name, then, means to set God’s name apart as holy.

How can I make God’s name any holier than it already is?

· “There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God” (1 Sam. 2:2).

· Hallowed be your name, is not a prayer that God’s name would be more holy, but that His name would be recognized and treated as holy. 

That’s why this request is the very first request in the Model Prayer. 

Everything else we ask in prayer should have as its foundation this thought: Is what I am asking for something that glorifies and honors God?

Think about it…

1. We pray, “Hallowed be your name,” before we pray, “Give us today our daily bread (or other things we need).” God’s name will not be honored and hallowed if we misuse the things He gives us. Why should God give us the things we ask for if we’re only going to use them in a way that does not honor Him? “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (Jas. 4:3).

2. We pray, “Hallowed be your name,” before we pray, “Forgive us our debts.” Am I asking for forgiveness simply because I don’t like feeling guilty? Or am I asking for forgiveness because I want to turn from doing what I know displeases Him? Even when we pray for forgiveness, we should be basing that request on a desire that God’s unique character and holiness would be obvious – and that it would be obvious in our lives!

· God’s honor and glory come first. God first, me second. If I make this request first, all my other requests will receive the answer I desire because I am asking for things that will honor Him.

[Matthew 6:9b] When we begin our prayer, Jesus instructed us to honor our Father. In this portion

of His Model Prayer, Jesus showed us how to acknowledge God as Father when we begin to talk

with Him. How we approach our Father makes more of a difference than we may realize at first. It’s tempting to start by telling God everything we need. When we do, our view of Him diminishes to the point we lose sight of the honor He deserves, and our view of ourselves inflates so that we nurture a bloated perspective of our needs and ourselves. Jesus taught us to approach God with a reverent awareness of His holy name. When we focus our attention on God’s name in prayer, we’re drawn to what His name means to us. When we reflect on the meaning of His holy name, the truth about His character, authority, wisdom, and power become more vivid to us. When we meditate on the holiness of His name, we’re moved to honor Him. We begin to grasp how He’s set apart from all His creation. The name of the Lord reminds us that He’s completely different from us. He’s altogether set apart. In other words, He’s holy.

[Psalm 96:1] This psalm offers us some keen insights into how to honor the Lord as holy when we pray. Applying each insight can render a noticeable difference in our prayer lives. Verse 1 prompts us to sit up and take notice of the Lord’s great name by praising Him. We are challenged to express the honor He deserves by singing to Him. God’s people sing a new song. It’s new in that it’s stirred by the fresh work He’s done in our lives. Our new song underscores His gracious ways among us and the incredible changes He has made in us. Along with His people, His creation—all the earth—has been directed to join in the new song of praise. The evidence of His remarkable work around the world and throughout the universe fuels our praise to Him.

[Verses 2-3] As we sing to the Lord, we’re directed to focus our complete attention solely on His wonderful name. When we fix our eyes on Him alone, the features of His perfect power, wisdom, and authority become sharper and clearer to us. When He comes into view in that way, we praise His name with renewed minds and sincere hearts. While we bless His name by singing to God, we also praise Him by talking openly and freely about Him. His salvation provides us with the words to our song and the content of our conversations. When we make His salvation through Christ a part of our daily discourse, we bless His name. Because God has saved us, glorifying Him always remains our primary passion. To glorify God implies that we cast the light on Him and call attention to the weight His name carries in our lives and in the world. When we declare His glory to others, we eagerly put the light on Him so they will turn to Him. We want to proclaim His name to every people group and every nation in the world.

II. God’s spender and majesty call us to honor Him.

Psalm 96:4-6

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and glory are in His sanctuary.

How can thinking about the nature and character of God affect your praying and help you to pray with a God-focus?

Our lesson says that praising God can lift us out of feelings of discouragement. 

· It doesn’t take many news shows, or stories of injustice to feel discouraged. Discouragement can lead to being overwhelmed by the problems surrounding us. But God has given us a way to remain hopeful despite the bad news everywhere. The path to a healthier soul is praise. Praising God not only honors Him, it lifts our spirits too. When we focus on the One who is greater than all, we gain the right perspective and we lose our discouragement.

Remember the prayer of our childhood: God is good, God is great. 

· This is the point here; the Lord is superior to anything and anyone; there is none like Him and never will be. The Lord makes Himself known in splendor, power, strength, and glorious beauty that are unmatched and unparalleled.

Lastly, let’s look at how we are to respond to the greatness of God.

III. Honor God through our acts of worship.

Psalm 96:7-9

Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth.

What are you offering to God as your worship to Him, as a way of giving Him the glory due His name?

What does it mean to ascribe to the Lord? 

· We “ascribe”—we give—to Him the glory and strength His name deserves. 

· We can’t make His name any more glorious or powerful, but we openly acknowledge He is full of glory and strength. He is worthy of worship. He is draped in holy splendor. 

· We respond to His greatness by humbling ourselves before Him. “Tremble before Him, all the earth.”

How can our prayers be offerings that honor God? 

· An offering of praise. 

· An offering of our possessions. 

· An offering of our lives.

· An offering of our prayers. 

We tend to start our prayers with our needs, our concerns, and ourselves. The model Jesus gave us begins with the request that God’s name be honored, but the prayer for God to be honored doesn’t end there; we are to honor God’s name with every single request we make after that!

Everything in our lives is to be an offering that honors the Lord.

[Verse 7] We honor the Lord by offering everything in our lives to Him. When we pray, honoring Him takes center stage. Ascribing involves placing the credit where it belongs. Thus, the psalmist instructed us to give God the credit for who He is and what He is doing in our lives and in our world. God’s people respond to His outstanding work by attributing the glory to Him for His achievement. We applaud Him by giving Him the credit He deserves. Of course, that’s what Jesus taught us as well. In His instruction on prayer, He showed us how to recognize God’s name as holy when we pray. For disciples, therefore, honoring His name as holy becomes our highest priority as we begin in our prayer time. Notice that the challenge to honor the Lord has been given to families instead of nations, tribes, or individuals. The picture painted by the term families brings to mind the unique relationships associated with being sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. We don’t come before His presence as individuals among a crowd of strangers who happen to be with us when we worship. We never want to engage in prayer with a selfish attitude that causes us to lose sight of others while we talk incessantly about our personal issues. Family members share life with each other. When we pray, we honor the Lord as spiritual siblings in Jesus Christ who value the intimate kinship we have with other believers.

[Verse 8] The psalmist repeated the challenge to give God the credit He deserves by glorifying His altogether peerless name. To honor the name of the Lord as holy, the psalmist instructed us to bring an offering to the Lord. Of course, God intends for us to offer something that honors His holy name. When we think about an acceptable offering, we find help in Romans 12:1-2. When we present ourselves as living sacrifices to God, we present Him the offering He deserves. When God’s people worshiped Him at the temple, they passed through the gate and then made their way into the temple courts. Entering His court served as an initial step in approaching Him in worship. For believers today, entering His court implies honoring His name as holy as we begin to pray.

[Verse 9] Like God’s people generations ago, we have been directed to keep the holy name of the Lord in mind when we pray. Accordingly, we present everything in our lives as a tribute of praise to His holy name. Even when we begin to talk with God about what we need, we do not lose sight of the honor that’s due His holy name. Honoring His name as holy has a way of refining the list of needs we bring to God in prayer. It also influences the way we see ourselves in His presence. Instead of treating God like He owes us something, we find ourselves trembling at the reality that we have come into the presence of Almighty God. At the same time, we enjoy the privilege of knowing God intimately as our Father.

LIVE IT OUT

In general, prayer is the act or practice of addressing God. People typically pray because they need something and believe God is able to intervene to provide for the need. The biblical perspective on prayer is much different. In prayer, we come into the presence of the Lord God of heaven and earth. We celebrate and honor Him for who He is. While we are invited to make our requests and petitions known to Him, they are not to be self-focused but God-honoring and God-centered. Our prayers are to be driven by a desire to honor Him, to bring to Him the glory He is due.

Psalm 9:10, "Those who know thy name put their trust in thee." The better we know the name of God, the more we will trust Him. And the more we trust Him, the more risks we will take for the sake of His glory. And the more risks we are willing to take for the sake of His glory, the bolder we will be in our witness, the less dependent we will be on material comforts, and the more readily we will volunteer for active duty on the frontier of life.

Conclusion: Here is the question regarding prayer. Is your concern in prayer how it makes you feel or how it might make God feel? 

The real question is, does God even feel as though we’ve talked to Him? 

When you keep that perspective, it will revolutionize your prayer life!