What does First B Jackson teach about how to pray?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on prayer starts with an honest question most people carry quietly: if God is going to do what He is going to do anyway, why pray at all? Pastor Brad has been upfront that there is no formula to make God act on our timeline, and that the real answer is better than a formula. The power of prayer, he has taught, is not that God can be persuaded to hand over what we want. It is that God gives us Himself, and that is the greatest thing He can give. Dependence on Him is the goal, which means the weakness we feel when we come to Him in prayer is not a problem to overcome but the whole point.
The church has spent real time in Luke 11, where Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer and then follows it immediately with a parable about a man knocking on a friend's door at midnight. Pastor Billy and Ray have both noted that the Greek word behind "shamelessness" in that passage appears only once in the entire New Testament, right there in Luke 11:8. It describes an unembarrassed boldness that keeps asking without being stopped by what others think. That quality, the teaching has made clear, is exactly what Jesus is commending. The Lord's Prayer itself sets up the right posture before any asking begins: the first petitions are entirely about God, hallowed be His name, His kingdom, His will, and only after those does the prayer turn to what we need.
Pastor Brad has also been honest about the gap between what prayer is meant to be and what it often looks like in practice. He has described his own rushed morning checklist and quick requests offered on the fly throughout the day, and said those are not wrong but they are snacks, not a meal. Jesus consistently withdrew to be alone with the Father, and the disciples were expected to do the same. On the question of unanswered prayer, the teaching offers a reframe rather than a dodge: God always gives us what we would ask for if we knew everything He knows and had His perspective. Praying in Jesus' name, meanwhile, is not a closing tagline. It means praying in keeping with who Jesus is in His entirety, what He came to do, what He cares about, and what He came to die for.
Taught from John 14:12-14 · Luke 11:5-13 · Matthew 6:1-18 · 2 Corinthians 12:9 · 1 John 1:9
The passage taught · 1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- May 31, 2026 Whatever You Ask in My Name Pastor Brad walks through John 14:13 to show that prayer is not a formula for getting what we want, but the means by which we draw near to God himself.
- March 5, 2023 Sunday, March 5, 2023 - 11am Traditional Service - God Gives Good Things To Those Who Love Him Pastor Ray teaches on Luke 11, showing how Jesus follows the Lord's Prayer with a call to shameless, persistent asking of a Father who gives generously.
- March 5, 2023 Shameless Persistence A friend asking a friend, a child asking a father: Pastor Billy walks through Luke 11:5-13 to show why persistent, shameless prayer is exactly what God invites.
- February 12, 2023 Hallowed Be Your Name A Wyoming pastor walks through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, exploring why motivation matters in giving, praying, and forgiving, and what it means to live under God's rule.
- January 28, 2017 Prayer on Fire #2 of 3 A visiting teacher leads First Baptist Jackson through the Lord's Prayer, forgiveness, and blessing, showing how prayer shapes a church from the inside out.