Ask Seek Knock - Sermon on the MountSample

You may have heard of the ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ before, but did you know that it’s part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount? Jesus teaches His listeners that prayer isn’t about being seen to be holy and it’s not about using big words or praying for a long time to sound impressive. Jesus tells us that prayer is simple. He gives us an example of how to pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 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 also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

While ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ is a powerful prayer to learn and repeat often, Jesus didn’t say, “This is exactly WHAT you should pray”, He said, “This is HOW you should pray.” Jesus shows that we can pray to God ‘our Father’—that we are invited into the family of God. Jesus shows that we can pray about our physical and spiritual needs, for forgiveness and for help to forgive others, for protection, and we can pray for His will to be done.