Pray Like This (Luke 11:1-13)
Teach Us to Pray (Lk. 11:1)
1 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1)
Luke often draws our attention to the fact that Jesus is a praying man. Prayer isn’t just emphasized in the Gospel of Luke, but also in Luke’s second volume—the Book of Acts. When Luke tells us that Jesus was in a certain place praying, he highlights a vital truth: just as Jesus depended on the Father for what He needed, we too must pray, relying on God for the things that concern our lives.
Most of us are familiar with Paul’s encouragement to the church at Thessalonica.
17 pray without ceasing, (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
But as we observe here in Luke 11, there comes a time where we are to get off our knees and get on with the work God has called and equipped us to do. There came a point at which Jesus stopped praying and got back to working.
I once knew a person who needed a job, and they had been spending a lot of time in prayer for God to open a door and lead them to the right place. When I asked them about how things were going in the job hunt, this person replied by saying that they were trusting God. They had been praying and waiting on the Lord. I said, that’s good, but have you filled out any applications? Have you had any job interviews? The answer was no. So again, you should definitely pray, but just as Jesus did, there’s a point at which you get off your knees and move on to the things God has called you to do. Don’t use prayer as an excuse for sloth or avoidance.
I remember, in 1997, I overheard a guy praying like I had never witnessed anyone pray before. I was impressed and inspired. When he finished, I did exactly what the disciples did when Jesus finished praying—I asked him to tutor me.
This one disciple may have been impressed as well. So, when Jesus had finished praying, His disciple, who should’ve probably been praying also, asked the Lord to teach them how to pray.
David Garland sees the disciples asking for a “distinctive prayer”, something that would set them apart from other disciples. A code language perhaps. A secret knock reserved only for club members. Whether that is the case or not, as Garland writes,
What will make them distinctive...is not the content of their prayer but praying as often and intensely as Jesus does and living out the petitions they make.[1]
So, today we are going to take a look at a well known passage of scripture from Luke 11—The Model Prayer.
When You Pray (Lk. 11:2-4)
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.” (Luke 11:2–4)
“When you pray” is stated as an expectation and not a suggestion. For the followers of Jesus, prayer is not optional. We must pray and as E.M. Bounds so accurately states:
Nothing is well done without prayer for the simple reason that it leaves God out of the account.[2]
Jesus’ response to this disciple has influenced many more disciples from that time until now. What Jesus tells this guy are the very same words we speak each and every Sunday right here. If you don’t know how to pray, this is a model worth following. You can pray these words verbatim if you are new to the Christian faith, but understand this, Jesus wasn’t giving His disciples a script to recite; He was giving them a pattern to build upon. You need to find your own language that fits into the mold of Jesus’ model prayer.
David Garland is spot on in his assessment of Jesus’ instructions.
Jesus intends the model prayer to function like a tuning fork by which the disciples can measure if they are in the right pitch.[3]
This example of prayer that Jesus shares can be broken down into three major sections. To borrow a phrase from the Big Book of AA we may refer to God as Higher Power, Higher Provider, and Higher Protector.
Let’s look at each description.
Higher Power: God is Source and Sovereign of our entire existence.
He is Father. What a word to describe the Creator of all things. Sadly, for many people this brings up an image or memory of abuse or absenteeism. But listen, God is not nearly as bad as your earthly fathers have been to you. I often pray that my own kids will not view God negatively because of my poor example of what a father is. But then there are those of you who have had great dads. Your fathers have loved you well. I want to caution you against shoving God into that box as well. God has been far better to you than the best earthly dads combined. As Father, God is compassionate, comforting, and correcting. God as the paternal and providential Power over our lives.
He is in heaven. Not literally. This is just a way of saying that He stands above and over us all. I’ve heard it stated before that “He is as far above man as man is above the ant.” But folks, as vast a distance as that is for the ant, as wide a chasm that is for the most minute microbe to cross—God is higher still! He is from everlasting to everlasting (Ps. 90). The heavens are His throne and the earth His footstool (Isa. 66:1). His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isa. 55:8-9). That alone sets Him apart as unique in every possible way. Which is why Jesus also said,
His Name is Holy. The word holy means to be set apart. To be in a class of His own.
A.W. Tozer eloquently stated,
We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible, and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine.[4]
Speaking for Himself, Yahweh says through the prophet Isaiah,
25 “To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing. (Isaiah 40:25–26)
The prophets have charged us, rightly, with the crime of profaning Yahweh’s holy Name. The church's lack of respect for the holiness of God has led to the unbelieving world treating His name as some common thing. But don’t think for a moment that He’s going to let us get away with it.
23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. (Ezekiel 36:23; see also: Lev. 22:32; Isa. 5:16; 29:23; Ezekiel 20:41)
5 Who is like the Lord our God, Who dwells on high, (Psalm 113:5)
9 Holy and awesome is His name. (Psalm 111:9)
Higher Provider. He is the supplier of all we need.
“Give us day by day our daily bread.”
When Jesus spoke those words, every Jew would’ve remembered the wilderness experience, manna falling from heaven, God testing their hearts, teaching them to depend on Him one day at a time. And He never failed. They never had too much. They never had too little. They had exactly what they needed.
But for many of us, especially here in America, daily dependence on the Lord feels foreign. We trust the stock market more than the Savior. We lean on our savings account more than our Shepherd. Our daily bread comes from Costco and Sams, not the Living Bread which came down from heaven (Jn. 6:51).
Agur the son of Jakeh shows us the right posture to have as he prays:
8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches— Feed me with the food allotted to me;
9 Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:8–9)
We learn from Abraham’s experience that Yahweh is a God we can depend on.
14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” (Genesis 22:14)
Because the Lord is Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, we look to Him:
2 as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the Lord our God, Until He has mercy on us. (Psalm 123:2)
What need are you carrying today that you haven’t placed in the hands of the God who provides? Bring it to Him today and trust Him to provide whatever you need.
However, not only does He provide for our physical and material needs, He also provides for our spiritual needs. “Forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”
Let’s clear something up before we move on. As it concerns our own forgiveness of sins, the Bible is emphatic that this wholly depends on God to perform. His grace has made this available to us. Our forgiveness or unforgiveness of others does not influence that one bit.
Through the prophet Micah we learn of the great joy that Yahweh experiences by forgiving our sins.
18 Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy.
19 He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18–19)
In Jesus’ model for prayer we are being called to a standard of holy living. It is to say, forgive because you have been forgiven. Not forgive so that you can be forgiven.
The Apostle Paul reminds us,
13 ...even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. (Colossians 3:13)
We love God because He first loved us and in like manner, we forgive others because God first forgave us.
Higher Protector. God is a reliable Defense against any attack.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Many translators and scholars use the words temptation and test interchangeably, but make no mistake, they are not the same. Temptations are from the evil one and they are designed to destroy you. Tests are from the Father and they are designed to develop you. Temptations will endanger you, but tests will improve you. And because they are not the same, James, the half-brother of our Lord, is helpful in informing us that we are not to blame God for our temptations in life.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. (James 1:13)
“Lead us not into temptation...” sounds more like a plea for God’s help than an admission of His guilt. God does not tempt us, and because this is true, Paul says,
13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
And Peter, who had been sifted like wheat (Lk. 22:31) because he did not take the way of escape that Christ had provided for him (Matt. 26:41), remembered,
9 the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations…(2 Peter 2:9)
There may come a time when you find yourself trapped by the sinful desires of your own heart, but the Lord has prayed for you and He has made a way out for you and it is crucial that you take the exit. Don’t play around with temptations. You can’t micro-dose your way into becoming immune to fleshly desires. The Bible says that we are to flee such things (see 1 Cor. 6:18; 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22).
So, when you pray, pray like this, “Father, have Your way and let heaven come to earth.”
Persistent in Prayer (Lk. 11:5-8)
To help them get a better understanding of what this looked like practically, Jesus painted them a picture.
5 And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
7 and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’?
8 I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. (Luke 11:5–8)
Let’s briefly talk about the necessity of intercession for a second. Intercessory prayer is when we ask God for something that somebody else needs.
Intercession is Abram negotiating with Yahweh to spare wicked Sodom (Gen. 18).
Intercession is Moses asking Yahweh to stand down when He wanted to wipe out His rebellious and idol worshipping people (Ex. 32; Psalm 106:23).
Intercession is the laboring of friends who are willing to carry your mat into the presence of the Lord (Lk. 5:17–26).
While in a prayer meeting, Tyler Staton’s wife Kirsten received a phone call from her dad saying that her brother, Van, was only minutes away from dying. He had a torn aorta which was gushing blood internally. The leading surgeon at Vanderbilt’s top heart hospital wasn’t sure if he’d even make it, but an emergency surgery was scheduled to do whatever they could to save his life. If the torn aorta didn’t kill him, there was a good chance that the surgery might. Tyler and Kirsten left immediately, hopped on a plane, and went straight to the bedside of her brother. Tyler recalls sitting next to Van with his head bowed, flooded with desperation and fear and just a glimmer of hope. He packaged all of that into the only thing he could do at the moment—he prayed.
By the grace of God, Van survived the surgery, becoming the only patient in the hospital’s history to ever survive that kind of open-heart surgery. But there was a moment while Van was in the operating room, with his chest open, where the surgical team had given up and informally declared that Van had died. They had searched for the torn aorta for five hours and came up empty-handed. That’s what the leading surgeon told the family as he fought back tears. At the same time that they were about to throw in the towel, a nursing student in the room was asking for bread for a friend. While that nurse was praying, that’s when the surgeon found the tear.[5]
Leonard Ravenhill, in his comparison of preaching and praying says that while
“preaching...affects men; prayer affects God. Preaching affects time; prayer affects eternity.”[6]
One of the many reasons why we pray is because we need the help. We pray because we lack the resources necessary to fill in the gaps of our lives. We pray simply because there are some things in this life that are just beyond our ability to manage, beyond our strength to move. And we pray because we serve a God who heals, a God who delivers, a God who provides, a God changes things, a God who comforts, and ultimately, a God who gives life.
This is why we are constantly invited to bring all of our needs into the presence of God.
Here are just a few passages to prove my point.
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)
Are you trying to shoulder the burdens of somebody else's life in your own wisdom and strength? Are you trying to face the troubles of your own life without God’s help? Have you succumbed to the darkness around you because you have been anxious about everything? Because you have prayed about nothing? Because you lack the gratitude necessary to appreciate all that the Lord has done on your behalf? Are you robbed of peace and can’t make heads or tails of your circumstances? Is your heart and mind an open target for the enemy’s attack?
Well, listen to what the Spirit says through Paul,
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7)
If you need prove that God hears us when we cry out to Him, just
Ask Ali and Hedie if God hears our prayers.
Ask Kim Lin and her fiancé Chris if God hears our prayers.
Ask Charlotte and Matt Stonecipher if the Lord won’t answer when you call. Matt was a hair’s breadth away from paralysis after breaking his neck a week ago, but the prayers of the righteous prevailed.
When you pray, pray like this: “Father, I trust You to supply all of my needs according to riches in Christ Jesus.”
Promised in Prayer (Lk. 11:9-13)
Not only are we to pray to the Father, but Jesus shows us that we are also to pray as a father!
9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:9–13)
Both Matthew and Luke share these words from Jesus about praying. But there is a key piece of information not included in Matthew’s record. And we need not miss this.
When you pray, Jesus says that you are to pray to the Father as a father or as a parent.
And Jesus contrasts our willingness, as sinful and broken people, to do good to our own children with the grace of God to those He has created and claimed as his own.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17)
Just a few verses earlier, Jesus said that we are to persist in prayer like a friend asking for bread in the middle of the night. He continues to emphasize this point by promising results if we do not relent. It’s important to stress that He does not promise we will get everything we are asking for, but He does promise that the Father will answer us. Especially when we ask for what the Father wants us to have.
In Matthew’s record we are only told to ask, seek, and knock, but in Luke’s account we are told what to ask, seek, and knock for—the Holy Spirit. Jesus is telling us that when we ASK for the Holy Spirit we will be given the Holy Spirit. When we SEEK the Holy Spirit we will find God’s Spirit, and when we KNOCK on the doors of heaven with our requests for the Holy Spirit that God will open up to us the wonders of knowing Him.
Why the Holy Spirit?
Because the Spirit leads us into all truth.
The Spirit brings comfort and counsels us.
The Spirit of God reminds us of the things Jesus said.
And because we don’t always know how or what to pray, the Holy Spirit will be our Spokesperson in the throne room of God praying on our behalf.
Compare this language of Father and promise in Luke 11 with what we read in Acts 1. The Spirit of God is called “the Promise of the Father.”
When the Spirit comes, He comes with power. Power to preach boldly, to speak new languages, to love deeply, to heal, to raise the dead, and to drive out demons.
And He gives this same power today, power to live holy, resist temptation, stand against the devil, break addiction, overcome anger and sexual sin.
By the Spirit’s power, those in darkness see God’s glory, and the veil over unbelieving hearts is torn away as they trust in Christ (2 Cor. 4:3–4).
While this same promise of Spirit and Power is fully available to the church today, sadly, as Matt Chandler said
“[Many Christians] don’t see, hear, or believe in the power of God because we have constructed lives for ourselves without Him.”[7]
Mary Healy adds,
“Everything can be explained by the laws of physics and biochemistry.” [8]
What would it benefit the church or the world, if the people of God, actually took God at His Word and trusted Him to fulfill His promise?
When you pray, pray like this, “Our Father in heaven, send your Spirit in power.”
Respond
Unfortunately, you cannot receive the Spirit until you have first received the Son.
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
The word CALLS is just another way to say PRAYS. But I get it, you might not know where to begin. Let me help you out by sharing the shortest prayer in the entire Bible. “Lord, save me!”
When your life is on the line you don’t have time for eloquence. You just shout whatever your need is. If you’re hungry, you just say, Food! If you’re thirsty, you just shout, Water! So we’re going to keep it simple today.
If you’re not a Christian, but you recognize that you are hungry and thirsty for the things of God, I just want you pray like Peter did when he was drowning, “Lord, save me!”
Maybe you are a Christian, but you desire to know the Promise of the Father, just pray, “Come Holy Spirit!”
David Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, p460
The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds, p724
David Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, p460
A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p104
Tyler Staton, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, pp91-93
Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries, p19
Matt Chandler at Convergence Conference in OKC, 2017
Mary Healy, Healing, p. 13
Tre Clark
Britton Christian Church
9/10/2026
