WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.660 And let me ask you, who would be a greater authority? 00:00:06.759 --> 00:00:15.160 Who would know more about prayer and how to pray 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:20.500 and how to receive an answer to prayer than the 00:00:20.500 --> 00:00:26.760 Son of God? So just for a few minutes, I pray 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:30.629 that you'll just... empty your thinking of all 00:00:30.629 --> 00:00:32.909 of the books that you've ever read on prayer. 00:00:33.270 --> 00:00:36.509 And believe me when I tell you, literally thousands 00:00:36.509 --> 00:00:40.869 and thousands of volumes have been written on 00:00:40.869 --> 00:00:45.750 the subject of prayer. Thousands of sermons have 00:00:45.750 --> 00:00:51.670 been preached on prayer. And yet, when Jesus 00:00:51.670 --> 00:00:56.789 came to the place where he gave us... The pattern 00:00:56.789 --> 00:01:00.729 for prayer. In exactly the same way that if one 00:01:00.729 --> 00:01:06.510 was a cook and that one gave us a recipe for 00:01:06.510 --> 00:01:10.370 something. In exactly the same way Jesus gave 00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:16.150 us a recipe or a pattern for prayer, how to pray. 00:01:18.829 --> 00:01:25.049 And sit there just for a few minutes. Just completely 00:01:25.049 --> 00:01:29.750 empty your mind of all preconceived ideas, everything 00:01:29.750 --> 00:01:32.930 you've ever read, everything you've ever heard, 00:01:33.090 --> 00:01:39.530 and just like a little child, listen to the words, 00:01:39.549 --> 00:01:44.950 the teaching of Jesus. I'm going to say something 00:01:44.950 --> 00:01:51.430 right now. The Lord has constructed His prayer. 00:01:52.299 --> 00:01:58.379 with more skill than ever yet a lawyer has displayed 00:01:58.379 --> 00:02:05.400 in the casting of a deed. If you want to see 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:14.240 a masterpiece, behold the master's teaching in 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:19.099 this prayer. So simple a child can understand. 00:02:21.610 --> 00:02:26.789 Only a few words spoken. And really in comparison 00:02:26.789 --> 00:02:30.770 to the volumes that had been written. The many 00:02:30.770 --> 00:02:37.009 books that had been written. And alongside of 00:02:37.009 --> 00:02:42.150 that which Jesus spoke in giving us the pattern 00:02:42.150 --> 00:02:49.509 for prayer. It's amazing. And I repeat. The Lord 00:02:49.509 --> 00:02:55.020 has constructed. this prayer with more skill 00:02:55.020 --> 00:03:02.719 than any lawyer has displayed in the casting 00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:08.900 of a deed. We're coming now to that part of the 00:03:08.900 --> 00:03:16.939 prayer that he has taught us to pray in Forgive 00:03:16.939 --> 00:03:25.060 Us Our Trespasses. as we forgive them that trespass 00:03:25.060 --> 00:03:30.800 against us. And this clause is the turning point 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.780 of the prayer. It's right in the middle of the 00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:42.520 prayer. And right here, these words, this clause, 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:48.300 is the turning point of the entire prayer. Stop 00:03:48.300 --> 00:03:52.000 for just a few minutes. We're going to go back 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.419 for just a second, and I want you to notice something. 00:03:57.340 --> 00:04:01.020 Jesus has so arranged this marvelous pattern 00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:04.740 for prayer, and that's exactly what it is. It 00:04:04.740 --> 00:04:08.740 is not his prayer. We refer to it as the Lord's 00:04:08.740 --> 00:04:12.819 Prayer. Really, it isn't. It is the prayer that 00:04:12.819 --> 00:04:16.639 Jesus taught you and taught me to pray. And Jesus 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:19.339 has so arranged this marvelous pattern for prayer 00:04:20.540 --> 00:04:25.240 covers the entire ground of unfoldment of our 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:31.319 souls completely. It omits nothing that is essential 00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:34.720 for our salvation and to our Christian life. 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:41.160 If all that we had, if we had nor the part of 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:45.819 the Bible, if all on earth that we had was just 00:04:45.819 --> 00:04:50.699 these words, this prayer that Jesus taught, us 00:04:50.699 --> 00:04:56.079 to pray we would have all of the essentials for 00:04:56.079 --> 00:05:02.660 our salvation and to our christian life and yet 00:05:02.660 --> 00:05:09.220 this prayer is so compact that there's not a 00:05:09.220 --> 00:05:18.379 thought or a word too much every move fits into 00:05:18.379 --> 00:05:23.850 its place with perfect harmony and in perfect 00:05:23.850 --> 00:05:31.930 sequence. Again I repeat, the Lord has so constructed 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:38.170 this prayer. He has constructed it with more 00:05:38.170 --> 00:05:45.009 skill than any attorney, any lawyer has ever 00:05:45.009 --> 00:05:50.709 displayed in the casting of a deed. Anything 00:05:50.709 --> 00:05:55.850 more would have been too much. Anything less 00:05:55.850 --> 00:06:00.910 would have been incomplete. The whole thing is 00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:09.189 there. I'll prove what I've just said. He begins 00:06:09.189 --> 00:06:12.069 the prayer, and I hope that all of you who are 00:06:12.069 --> 00:06:14.170 listening to me this very moment have been following 00:06:14.170 --> 00:06:17.170 me in our heart -to -heart talk regarding this 00:06:17.170 --> 00:06:20.399 prayer. Because what I'm going to say today will 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:25.079 mean so much more to you if you have not missed 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:31.860 my previous talks. He begins the prayer with 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:38.540 the most beautiful words. Those first six words 00:06:38.540 --> 00:06:45.199 are the most beautiful words that could leave 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:53.439 human lips. Our Father, which art in heaven. 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:59.480 And the very first thing that reminds us of is 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:05.040 our relationship. He tells us right at the outset 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:15.839 what God is. Our Father. Remember something. 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:21.170 Not... Every human being can say, my father. 00:07:22.050 --> 00:07:27.029 There is no such thing as the brotherhood of 00:07:27.029 --> 00:07:34.069 all mankind. The one thing that all men have 00:07:34.069 --> 00:07:38.250 in common, and that is God as the mighty creator. 00:07:39.629 --> 00:07:47.829 That's one thing all of us have in common. He 00:07:47.829 --> 00:07:54.850 is every man's creator. But he does not become 00:07:54.850 --> 00:08:00.829 that one's father until that one has accepted 00:08:00.829 --> 00:08:06.750 Jesus Christ as their Savior in the forgiveness 00:08:06.750 --> 00:08:13.810 of their sins. Beloved, now are we the sons of 00:08:13.810 --> 00:08:17.860 God. But we do not become the sons of God until 00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:24.699 we have accepted His Son in the forgiveness of 00:08:24.699 --> 00:08:33.600 our sins. You have no right to continue the rest 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:38.940 of this prayer. The only prayer, if you are a 00:08:38.940 --> 00:08:43.460 sinner, if you've never been born again, If you 00:08:43.460 --> 00:08:48.019 know him only as a mighty creator, you cannot 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:50.460 claim his glorious promises for his children. 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:57.899 The only prayer that God is bound by his word, 00:08:57.940 --> 00:09:00.840 his promise to answer for you as an unregenerated 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:07.580 person is the prayer of forgiveness. And it's 00:09:07.580 --> 00:09:14.029 just like that. Right at the outset of this prayer, 00:09:14.230 --> 00:09:22.629 he tells us our relationship to the Father. He 00:09:22.629 --> 00:09:27.129 tells us what God is. And then he continues by 00:09:27.129 --> 00:09:31.250 telling us what man is. What's the next step? 00:09:32.830 --> 00:09:42.580 He tells us how we are to do our own work. Thy 00:09:42.580 --> 00:09:49.860 will be done here and now on earth as it is in 00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:54.480 heaven. You are important to God. You are personal 00:09:54.480 --> 00:10:00.679 to Him. He makes it very clear. As an individual, 00:10:00.940 --> 00:10:08.659 He has a perfect will for you in His perfect 00:10:08.659 --> 00:10:13.919 knowledge. He holds the blueprint to your life 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:18.000 in his hand. Not every man and every woman is 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:22.039 living according to God's perfect will. Thousands 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:26.379 have never lived a day of their lives according 00:10:26.379 --> 00:10:32.940 to God's great blueprint because man is so constructed 00:10:32.940 --> 00:10:38.659 that man has a will of his own. You have a will 00:10:38.659 --> 00:10:41.139 separate and apart from the will of God, even 00:10:41.139 --> 00:10:45.159 as the Son of God had a will separate and apart 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:50.700 from the will of the Father. And before Jesus 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:54.159 could fulfill the perfect will of God, he had 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:58.059 to yield his will to the will of the Father. 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:05.139 That's the reason he prayed that marvelous prayer. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:12.279 Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:20.460 Father, I submit, I surrender my will, which 00:11:20.460 --> 00:11:25.539 is separate and apart from yours, to you, so 00:11:25.539 --> 00:11:34.259 that your perfect will can be carried out. God 00:11:34.259 --> 00:11:38.980 has a plan for you. that he has for no other 00:11:38.980 --> 00:11:48.000 person. No one else can do your work for you. 00:11:48.259 --> 00:11:52.159 And he never willed. He never in a thousand worlds 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:58.759 willed that any creature of his creation should 00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:03.950 ever live a defeated life. Never. Do you think 00:12:03.950 --> 00:12:05.789 that God ever willed that any man should be a 00:12:05.789 --> 00:12:10.190 drunkard? Do you think that God in his kinder 00:12:10.190 --> 00:12:19.090 mercy ever gave life to you that you might live 00:12:19.090 --> 00:12:27.330 the despicable, the defeated life that you are 00:12:27.330 --> 00:12:39.649 living? The answer is no. You have chose to live 00:12:39.649 --> 00:12:48.269 the life that you live. You have willed to live 00:12:48.269 --> 00:12:52.870 the life that you are now living, a life contrary 00:12:52.870 --> 00:12:57.830 to the will of God. That's why in this prayer, 00:12:57.909 --> 00:13:05.409 watch it, Jesus begins. By telling us what God 00:13:05.409 --> 00:13:14.629 is, then what man is, then how we are to do our 00:13:14.629 --> 00:13:23.129 own work. There is a plan. God does nothing promiscuously. 00:13:24.230 --> 00:13:29.309 Then he explains the way in which we're to receive 00:13:29.309 --> 00:13:36.059 our true nourishment. He knows that we're living 00:13:36.059 --> 00:13:39.779 in an old material world. That's the reason some 00:13:39.779 --> 00:13:45.139 people, you know, get so ethereal, so impractical 00:13:45.139 --> 00:13:49.659 when they come to living a Christian life. My 00:13:49.659 --> 00:13:58.500 friend, the Christian life is a life. It's living. 00:13:59.340 --> 00:14:02.980 It's the most practical thing in the world. God 00:14:02.980 --> 00:14:06.059 the Father is not only interested in the spiritual 00:14:06.059 --> 00:14:09.659 part of your life, He's even interested in your 00:14:09.659 --> 00:14:14.299 bread and butter. He wouldn't be a heavenly Father 00:14:14.299 --> 00:14:22.960 if He wasn't. And He goes all the way. He has 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:29.129 promised a daily rate. All the days of our life, 00:14:29.269 --> 00:14:37.190 so long as we shall live. Not only the bread 00:14:37.190 --> 00:14:40.649 and the butter. He knows that there would be 00:14:40.649 --> 00:14:45.490 days when there'd be sorrow. There'd be temptations. 00:14:45.529 --> 00:14:49.409 And always know, the cross will never be any 00:14:49.409 --> 00:14:57.679 greater than his grace. Know that. you surrender 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:07.019 your will to His will. That He would make it 00:15:07.019 --> 00:15:11.500 possible that all things would work together 00:15:11.500 --> 00:15:17.100 for your good and to His glory. And that with 00:15:17.100 --> 00:15:25.419 every day, with the beginning of every day, until... 00:15:25.929 --> 00:15:29.309 the clock strikes the midnight hour closing that 00:15:29.309 --> 00:15:37.909 day, that there would be a daily rate for every 00:15:37.909 --> 00:15:45.789 day of your life. He will give you a full allowance 00:15:45.789 --> 00:15:50.870 that would meet every need of your life for that 00:15:50.870 --> 00:15:58.629 day. Now... we come to something. Hold on. Remember 00:15:58.629 --> 00:16:00.769 what I told you when I began this little heart 00:16:00.769 --> 00:16:04.769 -to -heart talk today? That the Lord has constructed 00:16:04.769 --> 00:16:12.549 this prayer with more skill than any lawyer, 00:16:12.629 --> 00:16:19.149 any attorney has ever displayed in the casting 00:16:19.149 --> 00:16:26.120 of a deed. All is safe. You talk about an example 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:34.120 of psychology. You talk about skill. Do you want 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:40.639 to see perfect wisdom displayed in a pattern? 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:47.179 It's here. Up until now, he has said nothing 00:16:47.179 --> 00:16:53.870 about the forgiveness of sin. Not one word. Had 00:16:53.870 --> 00:16:57.950 he begun this prayer with sin, there'd be those 00:16:57.950 --> 00:17:00.830 who'd be scared stiff. And that's one thing. 00:17:00.909 --> 00:17:04.369 Let me remind you of something. The forgiveness 00:17:04.369 --> 00:17:12.809 of sin is the central problem of life. I repeat 00:17:12.809 --> 00:17:21.650 it. The forgiveness of sin is the central problem 00:17:21.650 --> 00:17:30.109 of... every man's life. That's right. It is, 00:17:30.130 --> 00:17:36.829 of course, rooted in selfishness. All men are 00:17:36.829 --> 00:17:42.210 selfish. Oh, some woman says right now, goody, 00:17:42.210 --> 00:17:44.710 goody, goody, goody. Now, when I use the word 00:17:44.710 --> 00:17:52.930 men, I mean all human beings. And women are just 00:17:52.930 --> 00:17:57.029 as selfish as men. I had to throw that in for 00:17:57.029 --> 00:18:00.750 good measure. Just in case someone listening 00:18:00.750 --> 00:18:02.809 in would throw it up to their husband tonight 00:18:02.809 --> 00:18:08.670 when he came home. You do. If you are a part 00:18:08.670 --> 00:18:17.390 of humanity. That's the truth. The forgiveness 00:18:17.390 --> 00:18:22.329 of sins. Listen. It's the major tragedy of human 00:18:22.329 --> 00:18:30.950 experience. And he leads us right to this subject 00:18:30.950 --> 00:18:40.390 of sin. But prior to it, he tells us of God as 00:18:40.390 --> 00:18:44.230 our Heavenly Father. Oh, and that's thrilling. 00:18:45.329 --> 00:18:51.099 He tells us that... The father has promised to 00:18:51.099 --> 00:18:54.819 take care of his children. Oh, what could be 00:18:54.819 --> 00:19:01.359 more wonderful? I was in a department store when, 00:19:01.460 --> 00:19:05.680 after I made my purchase, the clerk came very 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:08.079 close to me and said, Miss Grumman, I'm Roman 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:12.599 Catholic. And she said, would you please autograph 00:19:12.599 --> 00:19:14.839 something for me? And I said, of course I will. 00:19:16.650 --> 00:19:19.109 And then she came back in just a few minutes. 00:19:19.970 --> 00:19:23.170 She'd taken out of her purse something that was 00:19:23.170 --> 00:19:25.990 very precious to her. She said, you know, I belong 00:19:25.990 --> 00:19:30.329 to the Order of St. Francis. And she had her 00:19:30.329 --> 00:19:35.009 nice little card. She said, will you just autograph 00:19:35.009 --> 00:19:38.970 this for me? And I did. I knew how much it meant 00:19:38.970 --> 00:19:43.309 to her. And then after I had written my name 00:19:43.309 --> 00:19:46.319 on the card, I looked up in her eyes. were brimming 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:48.859 with tears, and she said, and she whispered it, 00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:54.240 she said, I get so discouraged, Miss Coleman. 00:19:55.400 --> 00:20:01.039 How can I overcome my discouragement? What can 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:06.720 I do? I said, listen, when discouragement comes, 00:20:07.019 --> 00:20:14.079 just look up and remember to whom you belong. 00:20:15.099 --> 00:20:22.059 That's all you do. Just look up and know that 00:20:22.059 --> 00:20:28.619 he is your heavenly father, your rich. And in 00:20:28.619 --> 00:20:35.599 the light of his love and his power, you can 00:20:35.599 --> 00:20:42.440 never be discouraged. In my next heart -to -heart 00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:47.019 talk, We're going to come face to face with the 00:20:47.019 --> 00:20:52.200 most important part of this prayer. The forgiveness 00:20:52.200 --> 00:20:54.200 of sin.