In Luke 17: 7 – 10, we are told, “What if you own a servant who is working in the field or taking care of sheep? Would you say to him when he came in from his work “come and sit down to eat?’ No instead you would say, ‘Get my supper ready.  Dress yourself and care for me until I am through eating and drinking.  Then you can eat and drink.’  Does the servant get thanks for doing what he is told to do?  I'm sure he does not.  It is the same with you also when you do everything you have been told to do, you must say, we are not any special servants.  We have done only what we should have done.”
     I doubt there is anyone here who would interpret this to mean that we should do as Christ accused the scribes in his time of doing, that is, that we can interpret, however we wish, the rules laid down by the laws of Moses and the addenda as he gave us.  It would seem obvious to me that we should do our best to understand the things he taught us and then do as he said.  Or, to put it another way, let’s look at the wording of the above tenth verse as it appears in the King James version: “when you have done all those things which are commanded, you should say, ... ‘We have done that which was our duty to do.”  
     Given the above parable and its obvious meaning, let’s look at one of Christ's commands that was so very important it is repeated word for word in both Matthew and Luke:  “When you pray do not be as those who pretend to be someone they are not, they love to stand and pray in the places of worship or in the streets so people can see them.  For surely, I tell you, they have all the reward they are going to get.  When you pray, go into a room by yourself.  After you have shut the door pray to your father who is in secret.  Then your father who sees in secret shall reward you.  When you pray do not say the same thing to over and over again making long prayers like the people who do not know God.  They think they are heard because their prayers are long.  Do not be like them, your father knows what you need before you ask him. 
     Prey like this: Our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us are trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.  Amen”
     It seems to me that this strongly stated command of Christ's is commonly violated in two ways.  
     First, let’s look at those things he has told us for which we may pray.  
     The prayer He has outlined for us says that we should make sure that it is to God we are praying, that is,  “Our Father which are to heaven.”  
     Next, we are reminded to remember that it is the almighty God to whom we are praying, when we say, “hallowed to be thy name.” 
     And finally, we are reminded of the specific things for which we may pray: 

      The first is by far the most difficult to accept.  It is, “Thy will be done.”  I am reminded of probably the best example of this I have ever personally witnessed.  A lady I know suffered greatly from cancer and the chemotherapy she was given caused her bones to be very brittle.  One day she was making a bed and this activity caused her to break her back.  In this injured condition she was only able to lie in bed.  Her situation was made much worse when her movement in bed caused her to break her back in yet another place.  At this point the pain was so incredibly bad that she felt she simply could not bear it.  Further, the doctors told her that because of the other medications she was taking they could not give her extensive painkilling drugs.  Thereupon her Christian belief was so strong that all she could think to do was to put the problem in God’s hands.
      Please note, that she did not ask God to relieve her of her pain. She most certainly did not ask him to relieve her of her life. She remembered that in the garden of Gethsemane Christ was very disheartened thinking about the tribulation he was going to have to go through the next day and his prayer to God was, ‘Thy will, not my will be done.”  And on the cross when the pain from the nails through his hands and feet combined with the residual pain from the whip and other acts of physical abuse he suffered at the hands of the Romans became a unbearable, his prayer was, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”  In short, she remembered what He had said she should do in this situation through His example.  
     I am pleased to tell you that once she turned the problem over to God, the pain was taken away.  What is more, within a very short while her cancer went into complete remission and when I saw her far less than a year later she was able to bend over and pick up things from the floor as though she had never had a back problem.

     The next thing we are told that we can pray for is our daily bread.  Somehow I think this more has the meaning of the mammon that God gave the Jews in the desert following the exodus.  “Ask and it shall be given unto you,” does not mean that if you pray for $1 million tomorrow you will not get it simply because you asked God for it. It means that if you need God to give you strength, wisdom, or serenity to sustain you when His will has made things very difficult for you, you only have to ask Him for it.  Christ made it very clear several times that God knows what you need even before you do.  He also made it very clear that God loves each of us, His children, far more than any human parent could love a child and most certainly will provide for us those things which we need, not those things which we simply desire.
       Following this we are told that we may ask him to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  The word trespasses in the English of King James time has several more meanings than we give it today.  This means that we need to look to the original text from which the King James version was translated to find a more precise meaning.  All of the several Bible scholars with whom I've had the opportunity to speak state that a better word in today's American English would be the simple word sin.  That is we should ask Him to forgive our sins against Him as we forgive those who hurt, injure, or do us wrong.  (I don’t believe it is correct for us to say those whose sin against us as a sin can only be done against God not a human..)
      Most people would say He is asking a great deal.  I don’t believe this means that we should not even defend ourselves. I believe rather it relates to the simple statement God made, “Vengeance is mine.”  He made it very clear that we are not to take revenge but rather we should leave Ultimate Justice to Him.  After all, only He can possibly have known what was in the heart of him or her that we presume to have been a transgressor.  Think about that one!  The person who has injured us may have been acting out of revenge, religious duty, fear of what we might do to him or his, etc.  Leave revenge to God.
He has said we may ask God to, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” 
     Christ knew that until Armageddon, those who would do evil continually surround us. Does this mean that while we are sleeping some night Satan can come and carry us off to hell?  Only if you have accepted Satan as your leader. Which is to say, if he has succeed in seducing you to accept an unearned reward and are not under the Lord’s protection.  This MIGHT happen, for example, if you have not asked Christ to come into your spirit, have not done your best to follow Christ’s teachings, and have taken something that is not rightfully yours. Pay close attention to the third condition, taking what is not yours. Examples of such a theft include money, physical possessions, promotion in social or business position, or having forced someone to love you physically or emotionally.
      The desire to accept such rewards is something we must fight with ourselves almost continually.  But with God’s help we can stand up to such temptation.  And, it behooves us to pray continually for that help.  We then conclude each prayer by confirming to Him that we know that now, and forever, His is the Ultimate kingdom in which we wish to live, that He holds all of the power, and that in Him alone can we witness Glory.

 The second common violation of the command Christ gave in how to pray has to do with when we pray.  Let me repeat it and this time read it from the King James version:  

      When thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of man.  Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. 
      But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine closet, and when thou has shut thine door, pray to thy father which is in secret; and thy Father which is in secret shall reward thee openly. 
      But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as thy brother do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your father knows of what things ye have need before you ask Him

      It seems to me that this clearly says we should never prey out loud.  I can’t think of any reason one would want to prey out loud unless the reason were for someone else to hear the prayer.  Clearly He has said that if you pray for others to hear you had the reward of them thinking well of you but that such prayer is not one to which He will listen.  This does not mean that we shouldn’t teach our children how to pray but it certainly does mean that we should teach them properly.
      But you protest loudly, shouldn’t we give a prayer of Thanksgiving before each meal?  Of course you should. But if we are to follow his command it should be done quietly and then not such a manner that others will recognize we are making such a prayer.  Again, praying out loud can only be done so that man, not God, will hear us.  Does verbal prayer not put us in the position of hypocrites that pray out loud so that others will think well of them.
 I suspect that your next thought may be, “Isn’t this the same thing as a preacher leading a prayer in church?” This is a question I have asked a number of preachers and other men of God. Each time the response has been, Christ told us, “Whenever two or more are met in my name there am I also.”  Therefore, whatever prayer is being spoken and then listened to by everyone, He will hear also.  As we are all greatly different in our manner of speaking to God, is it possible that one man, speaking out loud, is speaking to God for all of us?  . . . Not too likely!  Is not what the preacher is really doing is delivering a mini sermon in the hope that the members of the congregation will want to ask God what he, the preacher, wants them to?  Further, when he thus labels the mini sermon, a prayer, isn’t he bearing false witness?  Why doesn’t he just tell his congregation what he is doing?  This would probably be much more effective.
       Well, you say isn’t praying one of the principal things we do in church?  Let me suggest another reason for attending church that is of great value.  A preacher I personally known, who has brought thousands of people to our Lord, once told me that it is very important to him to hear the testimony of others who have experienced God’s miracles and through that felt His glory and the presence of the Holy Ghost.  “Hearing of these experiences,” he said, “Is what I need to recharge my battery so that I continue to be able to do our Lord’s work.” 
       Is it just possible that the greatest good any of us get from going to church is meeting with our fellow Christians, hearing the testimonies of our friends and of our minister so that we may have our spiritual batteries recharged each week?  And further isn’t one of the greatest gifts our minister can give us is to teach is more of what Christ has anointed him teach?  For only by our knowledge of our Lord can we truly learn to love Him and be converted to wanting to follow in His footsteps.

      This brings us back to our starting point.  Our Lord has given us a great many thoughts and stories from which we may learn to follow Him.  If we would truly follow Him, we must read them over and over until they become a part of us.  However, as a starting point, we might summarize them as his instructions in the Lord's Prayer and the "11th" Commandment He gave us durring the Last Supper,  "I have come to bring to you a new Commandment --  That you should love one-an-other;  as I have loved you, you should love one-an-other.

 The choir sings:   [Love Lifted Me]