Where to Start | Prayer 101 (Ep. 1)

Hey, I'm Kyle, one of the teaching pastors here at Crossroads, and today we're going to talk about prayer. I'm going to teach you how to pray. That's what this entire series is all about. The reason we're doing this series is because prayer can feel intimidating, confusing, and boring. The question is, is it any of those things? Well, in my experience, yes, it has been those things, but it doesn't have to be. I can remember various points in my life where I had heard about prayer, and it sounded like there was this formula, and if I just hit the formula correctly, God would give me whatever I wanted. Has prayer ever felt like that to you? Other times in my life, prayer has felt like this thing that I had no idea how to do. I would pray, I would ask God for things, and I wouldn't see any results at all in my life, and I was left to wonder, am I doing it wrong? Today, we're going to start this series in a place that I think makes the most sense. It's how Jesus taught all of us to pray. See, when he came around, the same confusion that exists around prayer today was present then. People had all kinds of different ideas about how to pray. Some people said the key to prayer is to pray a lot of words. Just keep on talking and talking and talking, and if you'll say enough words repeated over and over again in the same pattern, God will hear you. Other people said, no, no, no, that's not the key to prayer. The key to prayer is to use the right, big, spiritual words, the kind of words that God likes. If you can know those words and you can pray to him, then he'll hear your prayers. Other people said, no, no, no, those are both wrong. The way for God to hear your prayers is to be a spiritual person. In fact, only the spiritual elites are able to pray to God.

Nobody else can. Normal, average people don't even try. Just go to the spiritual person and have them pray for you. So Jesus comes on the scene and he says, hey, everybody get around me, get around me. I'm going to tell you how to pray. And he gave them this simple prayer. It's known as the Lord's Prayer, but it's not how Jesus introduced it. He didn't say, now I shall tell you the Lord's Prayer. No, he said, hey, listen, come here. I'm going to teach you how to pray. It's simple, it's easy, and it is incredibly life-giving. If you want to follow along, this prayer is found in Matthew 6, verses 9-13. Jesus says these words. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. May your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive those who sin against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. This prayer is powerful. This prayer is actually the prayer that I personally pray every single morning when I wake up. It's the very first words I say to God, and generally speaking, the very first words that I say to anybody in the entire day. I've been praying this prayer day after day after day for about 20 years. You might be like, how in the world does that work for you? It's because of this. I have found amazing layers and depths and meaning and, get this, simple handholds for conversation with God in each of these lines. I'm going to unpack each of them for you. The thing to understand about this prayer is that each idea or phrase in here unpacks a conversation that you can have every single day with God.

I'm going to propose to you that Jesus didn't make a single mistake in this prayer. Not a single word is accidental, and not a single idea is out of order. So it's important that you understand each idea and go in order. That's where the life comes from. So we're going to start with the very first phrase on here, which is, our Father in heaven. Now a lot of times when you pray to God, you can start off with like, how do I even start? What do I say to you? Do I call you Jesus? Do I call you Lord? Or do people say, God, what do you do? Well, if you ask Jesus how to address God, he says, our Father. Now notice a couple things here. First, there's a comfort in waking up every day and talking to your dad, your good dad who loves you, who is for you, who knows you, who watched over you and protected you while you sleep. It's amazing to consider right out of the gate every day that God is your Father. Second, notice this. This doesn't say, my Father. It's not a singular word, it's our Father. Why would that be the case? Why would you just plant the plural right here? I think it's because God wants us to start from the very beginning of our day, understanding that we are His children. We are not alone. When we are part of the family of God, there is a family. See, God, if you look at him in the Bible, doesn't want us to live life alone in any way, shape, or form. He doesn't want our day to be lived alone. And so right out of the gate,

the very first word he puts is our. For me, I think about that. And I think about the people in my life, our father. As I pray those words, I picture my family, Sarah, Benjamin, Eli, Gracie. I picture my friends, people like Greg and Matt and Devette. I picture my work teammates, people like Esther and Donnie and Greg. And I say, God, would you be our father today? Thank you for being such an amazing dad. Now in heaven, for me, that makes me think about his power in his place. There are circumstances in your life, in your day, that are frustrating, that are full of problems because the world is full of problems. We have a dad who exists above and beyond all of that. You can start off every day by talking to our father in heaven. There's amazing comfort and belonging in that phrase for you. Now, the second phrase is hallowed be your name. Now, this is probably not a word that you use every day in your life. If you do, congratulations, I don't say hallowed very often. And so I had to look up what this word means. And it means this. It means above everything else, may your name be declared holy. That's what's in the original meaning

in the original language. May your name be declared above and beyond, more holy than everything else. When I pray this prayer every morning, I think about my life. And I think about all the stuff I'm going to do, all the things that I could be about, all the things that I could choose to elevate in my day. I could choose to elevate my opinion. I could choose to elevate my own name. I could choose to leave a conversation and make it my goal that at the end of that conversation, they think more highly of me. From the very beginning in this prayer, Jesus says, no, no, no, no. Ask God that today through your life, his name would be raised up. His name would be praised. His name would be declared holy, not yours. There's a freedom in that saying, God, I want my day to be about you in the goodness of your name. Would you make that possible for me today, God? Your name be raised up through my life. Now, if you have things in your calendar where that might be a challenge for you, or you think about conversations that might happen in your day, this is a chance to talk to God about them. That's the phrase, Hallowed be your name.

Now, the next one is similar. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does this section mean? Well, if you look in scripture, you'll see that Jesus talked a lot about God's kingdom. He was all about God's kingdom. And he actually said, when he shows up in the scene, one of the first things he says is the kingdom has come. Here it is, I'm here. The God's kingdom has come. What does this phrase mean? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Well, if you look at the words of Jesus, Jesus was constantly talking about this kingdom of God. Back when he showed up, he told people, it's here right now. The kingdom has come, here it is, I'm walking around. When he was crucified, I put a sign on the top of the cross that said, the king of the Jews. Now in the Bible, Jesus kept talking about his kingdom. They'd ask him, where is this kingdom? Where is it? And again, and again, and again, he pointed out the difference between human kingdoms and his kingdom. He said two things about his kingdom. One, it's eternal.

It's lasting forever. It's unlike any other kingdom in the world that they all perish, they all end. Your kingdom included, by the way, whatever kingdom you're building, his is eternal. And two, his kingdom is internal. It comes inside, see? And so when I pray this prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, the very first thing I think about is, God, would your kingdom come inside of me? There are places in my heart that are not under you. There are places where I still make the decisions in my life. I still react the way that I wanna react in the moment. And would you take all those places, God, and would you put them under your authority because you're the good king? Everything you touch gets better. Grab more of my life. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, this earth, as it is in heaven. Then I'll go through the other people closest to me. Think about my wife, think about my kids, and I'll pray the same prayer. God, would your kingdom come inside of Sarah? Would your kingdom come inside of Benjamin? Would your kingdom come inside of Eli, inside of Gracie? I'll think about people at work who I'm close to. Think about friends.

God, would your kingdom come, would your will be done, not mine? See, I walk into every situation with my own will, my own ambitions, the only things that I want done. But God has a will, and I want to be about his will every single day. Every day, Jesus says to ask God for bread. If you're someone who suffers from food insecurities, this is a very real and personal prayer for you every day. God, I don't know where my food's gonna come from. Will you give me the food and the nourishment that I need for my day? If you're like me, you haven't had to wonder where food will come from most days, and it'd be tempting to just skip past this phrase. Well, this is an assumption, God. I actually don't need this from you. So why would Jesus put this in here? Well, I think this means more than just bread. See, in scripture, bread is often associated with not just flour and salt and water and whatever else goes into bread. It's associated with the very word of God. This first shows up in Deuteronomy 8, verse three, when God says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We know that Jesus knew that scripture because he actually repeated it when he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness

in Matthew 4. Here's something else to think about. Jesus was known as the Word of God. That's in John 1. And Jesus often referred to himself as the bread of life. You put those pieces together, and it's really clear. Bread is the word of God. And so when I pray this prayer every single day, I say, God, give me, give my family, give my friends, give us today our daily word from you. God, I wanna recognize that today I will not be able to survive on just bread. I need your word today to guide me, to direct me. Would you give it to me? Tell me what you want from my day. God, I'm about to read in scripture. Would you make something come alive, some phrase, some word to direct me? It's the nourishment that I need. See, friends, if you're stressed out, you're not stressed. You're starving. If you're anxious, you're not anxious, you're hungry. We need the word of God to survive. And every single day, right in this prayer, is a reminder to ask him for it. God, give me today my daily word from you. Now, I do also think that this means bread. There is something very obvious and tied to food here. And so my second prayer, I pray, in relationship to this phrase is,

God, today, would you give me the nourishment that I need? In an America where I have access to all kinds of different food choices, and I can make healthy choices or bad choices, I also put that in there. God, help me make healthy choices that honor the body you've gifted me with today. The last thing I pray is another relationship to bread. See, one of the pivotal scenes in all of Scripture is at the end of his life, right before he's betrayed, right before he's tried, right before he's crucified, Jesus has what's known as the Last Supper with his disciples. They sit around a big table, and they've got bread, and they've got wine. And Jesus grabs the piece of bread, and he takes it, and he breaks it in half. And he says, this is my body broken for you. It's a powerful image of broken bread in Scripture. And broken bread represents grace. So every day when I pray this phrase, I say, God, would you give me today my daily broken bread? Give me the grace I need to make it through my day. I'm not gonna do everything perfect. I'm not gonna say everything perfect. I'm not gonna think everything perfect. I need your grace. I'm gonna need you to be broken bread for me today. And oh, by the way, will you help me be broken bread for every single person you send in my path? Would you help me give them the grace that they need

to break my life when necessary, to accommodate and to serve them? Give us today our daily bread. The next phrase mirrors this two-way relationship. It says, and forgive us our debts as we forgive those who sin against us. Now this phrase, I'm actually mashing together a few different translations. So some translations say, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Others say, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us. I chose to put both of these words in here because I think they communicate the full idea. Every day, there are people who will owe you something, an apology, maybe they even stole something and they need to give it back, they've offended you, they've taken something from you. There's somebody who will be in debt to you. What this phrase reminds me of is that every day, I'm also in debt. Every day, I've also sinned. What Jesus says to pray is, God, would you forgive me the way that I forgive other people? That is a terrifying prayer, isn't it? I don't know about you, but I'm not naturally great at forgiving. I'm pretty bad at it. Day after day, I'm telling you friends, 20 years of praying this prayer, it's burned in my head and in my heart that today, God, if I get offended, help me, this is the literal phrase I pray, help me forgive as quickly and as excitedly as you do. I want to be as quick and excited to forgive as you are, God, because I know you are excited when I say, God, will you forgive me? He goes, yes, yes, and it's immediate.

God, give me that heart. Help me be excited and quick to forgive. Parents, by the way, let me just put this in your brain. Do you know the people who offend you most every day? Chances are, they're your kids. I realized about a year ago that I needed to forgive my kids every day because I tell them to put their dish inside the dishwasher, and what they think that means is put the dish on top of the counter, kind of near the dishwasher. That's not what I say, right? Again, example after example, you probably have them in your house too. They offend me, and I realized I wasn't daily forgiving my kids. God pinged me on this. He said, hey, you want me to forgive you the way that you're forgiving your kids? I said, oh, no, I don't. Actually, let me work on that first, God. Let me forgive them. Scripture says that God's mercies are new every morning. When you start off your morning in a posture of forgiveness, in a posture of everybody starts fresh with me today. Lastly, is this phrase, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. There's this relationship. I can either fall to temptation, or I can be delivered from the evil one. The truth is, every single day, temptations will come your way. Every single day, temptations will come my way, and here's the thing, we don't know what they're going to be. We might be tempted to kind of bend the truth a little bit. We might be tempted to take some glory for ourselves. We might be tempted to not forgive somebody. We might be tempted to not need the word of God, to think that we'll just get through our day on our own.

There's a million different temptations. We don't know what's coming our way. We can walk into the day saying, God, would you deliver me from them? Don't lead me into them, but deliver me from the evil one. It was probably about three years ago, I was praying this prayer, and I realized that I'd actually been praying it wrong. I was praying, God, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil, and I left out this one, and I came back to this verse fresh one day, and the Bible, I was reading through the book of Matthew, I got to chapter six, and I saw this word one, and it stuck out to me. See, God doesn't say there is generally just stuff you're going to have to deal with. No, he reminds us in this prayer, there is an enemy out there who's targeting you, who wants to take you down. When I think about that, I don't picture a devil with a pitchfork coming after me or anything like that, but what I do sober-mindedly recognize is the world is not a neutral place. I don't walk out into the world and just do stuff, and there's no other outside force. No, there is a force who wants to destroy me. It's helpful every day to say, God, don't lead me into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one. This is the Lord's prayer. This is Jesus' prayer. If you walked up to him and you said, Jesus, can you teach me how to pray? This is what he'd show you and walk you through it. So if you want to go to a new place in prayer this week, I have a simple challenge for you. Every day for the next seven days, wake up and pray through this prayer. Warning, the first time you do it, you'll have to remember each of the words and the phrases and what does this one mean and where do I go with it? Don't get hung up on that, friends. It is okay. If you have one moment in this prayer that your heart and your mind transcends the words and think about your life and you talk to God about it, that's a win.

But I promise you this, if you can go seven days, at the end of those seven days, you will be more confident in prayer, you'll have had an encounter with God, and you'll have built a rhythm in your prayer life that you can build on. For more information, visit www.fema.org