This morning we get back to the Sermon on the Mount. We have been studying Jesus’ warning that we be careful that our worship is never done to get God to do something for us or to get men to think something about us. For an action to be worship it must be inspired by God and it must be fully for God. Worship is a setting of affection, it is a response of gratitude, it is tangible thanksgiving and so it can never have another motive or else it ceases to be worship. In our few weeks in chapter six we have attempted to define worship and we have seen giving as an act of worship and this morning we will move from giving to prayer. First and foremost we give because God is a giver; we pray because Jesus was a pray-er. Luke 11:1 says “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.’” Of all the things that the disciples saw Jesus do: cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the dead, teach the Scriptures, feed multitudes with a few loaves of bread, calm the wind and the waves, the only thing that they specifically asked Jesus to teach them was to pray. There was something about Jesus’ prayer life, not about His prayers, but about His prayer life, that was so moving, so engaging and so invested and so consistent that the disciples didn’t wait to be taught they asked to be taught. Notice that they didn’t ask to be taught how to pray but instead they asked to be taught to pray, there is a difference. I believe that the request was not nearly as much about form as it was about devotion, they were not asking to be taught what to pray but they wanted to be taught the weight of prayer, the importance of prayer, the love of prayer and the power of prayer. Prayer is not simply a discipline but it requires discipline. It is not only an action but it requires action. It is not just a conversation but it has to be viewed as a conversation. Prayer is the embodiment of a relationship with God, it is the vehicle that God has given to us to create and promote intimacy, it is the tool that gives way to power, the way in which we live in agreement with the Holy Spirit and the laboratory in which the truth of God’s Word is confirmed and cemented in our hearts and minds. Prayer is a gift, it is a blessing, it is many things but I believe that Jesus shows us here that prayer is, first and foremost, worship. If prayer is worship then that means that prayer must be initiated by God and done for the glory of God. Prayer is not our way of getting God to move, it is our opportunity to join with God in His movements. Prayer is where I give God my heart and receive His, it is where I learn His voice and yield to His Word, it is where I see Him in all of His beauty and choose to love Him because He has chosen to love me. The effectual fervent prayers of the righteous avail much not because they have learned the right words to say at the right time but because the righteous have made prayer worship and so they pray the will of God from the heart of God and so they don’t move Him they move with Him in prayer. I’m not sure how long we will be in this passage because you can spend months on the Lord’s Prayer alone, but I do know that we are going to begin with three topics: When we pray, why we pray and how we pray. This morning we will start with what appears to be simple, “when we pray”.