By Walter L. Surbrook
Text: "Lord. teach us to pray." -- Luke 11:1.
My text is a request. You will no doubt desire, long for, and yearn after many things in life that you will never receive. If you were to receive an answer to some of your requests, it would, perhaps, not be any special hindrance to you, and yet it would be no blessing. You will long for and seek after other things that you will never receive. If you were to receive an answer to some of your requests, it would, perhaps, prove to be the greatest hindrance in your life, and God, in mercy, does not grant your desire. If you always knew when you were desiring something that is not God's highest plan for you, you would cease; but it sometimes takes weeks, and even months, to he sure of God's best thought. But here is a request you are always safe to make, "Lord, teach us to pray."
You may be filled with ambition to tower a thousand leagues above your fellow-men, in the pursuits of this life, but no greater desire ought ever to fill your bosom than that which was expressed in the words of this disciple, "Lord, teach us to pray." This request was made by a disciple after he had heard, and perhaps had seen, Jesus in prayer. His heart was stirred. He caught a new glimpse of the possibilities of prayer. His soul was gripped by the passion and fire of the Lord. It so wrought upon him that he, no doubt, paced around anxiously waiting until Jesus was through; and, as soon as He had ceased praying, this disciple rushed right up into His presence with a soul that was stirred and said, "Lord, teach us to pray".
You will notice he did not say, "Teach us how to pray," but He said, "Teach us to pray." There is a vast difference in being taught how to pray and being taught TO pray. This disciple knew, as well as we know, that no matter who the individual is, if he gets in a close place, if he gets in a corner, he will not need to he taught how to pray. He will pray something, even if he does not pray any more than the sinner who went up to the temple with the Pharisee, who bowed his head in humility, smote himself on the breast and said, "God be merciful to me a sinner". This disciple did not ask to be taught how to pray; he asked to be taught to do the only thing in the world that will keep us spiritual, on fire, and in touch with God. An answer to this request will save us from dead formality, on the one hand, and fanaticism on the other.
Jesus now answered this disciple's request in two respects:
First, by example, for He prayed; and second, by precept, for He gave His disciples the prayer which has often been called the "Lord's prayer". But Dwight L. Moody stated that this is not the Lord's prayer, but the disciples' prayer. He further stated that the Lord's prayer is in the seventeenth chapter of John, where Jesus poured out his soul in that inimitable, incomparable, intercessory prayer for the sanctification of His people. Here his burden was, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." This is the Lord's prayer. But the prayer which Jesus gave to His disciples was intended for an illustration, or an example to follow; not that you always have to pray this prayer, but that it serves as a splendid model, or example, for Jesus said, "After this manner pray ye", etc.
Since this prayer has been given to the disciples, and we are disciples, it is as much for us as it was for them. Now that it is for us, let us examine the prayer a little. We may not touch the edges of what is contained in it but let us take a passing glance at it. First, we will notice the introductory words. Jesus said, "When ye pray, say, Our Father." Who has a right to address God as Father? No one but a son. But you are not a son when you are born into this world, neither are you a son when you are old enough to vote. No one has a right to address God as Father unless he is a son. If he is a son, it necessitates that he has been born into the family, and he is not born into the family of God until he is horn again. No sinner has a right to this prayer, no one but a son can say, "Our Father."
In order for one to be able to say, "Our Father," he must have experienced that radical, instantaneous new birth which Jesus pointed out to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John's Gospel. Nicodemus had been under the law and its teachings all his life. He seems to have gotten a little light on the new birth and came over to Jesus for further help. But it took Jesus quite a while to lead him, step by step, line upon line, out of Judaism and away from his legal thinking into a heartfelt experience in salvation. Nicodemus' soul was so dead that it was hard for him to comprehend spiritual things. He could not see how a man could be born again after he was old. But after talking to him for a considerable time Jesus used an illustration concerning the wind, which seems to have cleared Nicodemus up in spiritual things, and from that time on his only question was "How can these things be?"
In Jesus' reference to the blowing of the wind, He likened it to the birth of the Spirit. He showed Nicodemus that the wind blows and you do not see it; it may be blowing and you do not hear it. But how do you know the wind blows? You FEEL it! So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. You may not see anything when you are born again, you may not hear anything, but you will FEEL the birth of the Spirit. In spite of the fact that modernists, dead religionists, and backslidden preachers are trying to divorce feeling and emotionalism from religion, it is still there; and as long as a man keeps God in his life, he will have feeling in his religion. When one loses his religions feelings, that sweet, tender peace and joy that came to the soul in conversion, he is a backslider.
Let us now notice some characteristics of sonship:
I. RELATION OF A SON TO A FATHER. Being a son of God gives you that sweet, precious, tender feeling that a son holds toward a father. There is a great deal of preaching (and rightfully so) on the love of a mother being likened to the love of Jesus; but there is very little preaching on the relation of a son to a father. This is a phase of truth which is seldom preached; but when one becomes a son of God, it gives him a feeling of confidence, faith, dependability, and mutual interest. Every true son gratefully confides in his father and with great faith depends upon him.
II. A HOMELIKE FEELING. When I go to my mother's home I do not feel ill at ease, as if I were a stranger. I do not feel that I am an intruder. I neither ring the door-bell nor rap at the door, because I am a son. I walk right in and feel at home. Mother never has to say to me, "Walter, make yourself at home", for she knows I am at home. I feel at home and act as if I am at home! You could not do that in my mother's home, because you are not a son. Nobody else can enjoy the privileges of my home that I can enjoy because I am a son.
In a good many homes where I have been entertained in evangelistic work, my host has said to me, "Now, Brother Surbrook, we want you to feel perfectly at home." They showed me my room but insisted that I should not confine myself alone to that room. Pastors have said, "Here is my study;" housewives have said, "Come and sit in the parlor and enjoy the deep, overstuffed furniture." They have said to me, "If there is anything you want, please be free to mention it, for we want you to feel at home." I have appreciated this kindness and believed that they meant what they said, but I am an outsider; I am not a member of the family, I am not a son, so there are certain ethical bounds beyond which I dare not cross and be a Christian gentleman. There is a certain restraint because I am not a son; but in my mother's home, where I am a son, there is no restraint and I feel perfectly at ease. So it is with a son of God in the house of the Lord; he does not feel that be is a stranger. He may never have visited that church or congregation before, but if he is spiritual and the church is spiritual, he is not an intruder, but he feels perfectly at home because he is a member of the same family.
