"The Prayer
of Jesus" part 1
Our Father in Heaven
by
Greg Hanson
Sunrise Wesleyan Church
October 18, 2009
Memory Verse:
Matthew 6:9 (NLT)
“Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.”
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VISUAL – NEW CREDIT CARD WITH CHIP REQUIRING CODE
Does
anyone recognize this? Yes, it’s a credit card… one of those things
most of us use way too often. Well, this particular card is one of
those new ones with a chip inside it, so that when I use it, I have to
enter a code into the reader. Kind of like how Debit Cards work.
Of
course, my problem is remembering yet another code. How many codes do
we have to have in this world? When I get to pick my own code, I’m
pretty good at remembering it. I have a bit of a system, so I know what
code to use if it has to be 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, or 10 letters or numbers,
and what to use if it has to be a combination.
But this credit
card is one of those things where they assign you a code, sent to you
in a separate envelope. So of course, I have to do exactly what I’m not
supposed to do, and keep that code nearby in case I can’t remember it.
This
morning we’re starting a brand new series on prayer, and I think a lot
of us think that prayer works much like this credit card works. We
think that if we really want something, all we have to do is use the
right words in the right combination at the right time, and God will
have no choice but to give us what we want.
Or we think of it as
a vending machine… we put the right combination of coins in, press the
right buttons, and we’ll get what we want.
And so we turn prayer
into some sort of formula… we develop our prayer rituals… and we think
we have to stick to them if we’re going to pray correctly.
Right
now with Nate, at every meal time we use one of those old formula
prayers. There are actually a variety of them out there, but the one
we’re using with Nate is the same one I used when I was a kid… “God is
great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. Amen.”
And
while I believe those kinds of prayers do have value, I’m also fully
aware that those kinds of prayers are really entrance level. They’re
superficial prayers, and if we become satisfied with that as being all
there is to our prayer lives, then we’re really missing out. Because
prayer is meant to be so much more than that.
As Nate grows and
as he establishes his own relationship with God, he’s going to learn to
pray much more personal prayers than that. He’s going to leave those
formulaic ritualistic prayers behind, and he’s going to explore the
depths of communing with God. And least, that’s my hope for him.
Because
prayer is not meant to be a religious duty to fulfill, it’s not meant
to be a way to get what we want… it’s meant to be a heart to heart with
God. It’s meant to be a means for us to get to know God. It’s meant for
us to spend time with Him and allow Him to speak into our lives.
“No words make prayer. Only a heart reaching out to God is prayer.”
~ Carroll Johnson Shewmake
And you and I need to be reaching out to God in prayer each and every
day.
Deuteronomy 8:3 (NLT)
…People do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that
comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Notice
it doesn’t say, “every word that comes from the pages of the Bible”,
although those are important. But “from the mouth of the Lord”. And the
way that God has chosen to speak into our lives is through prayer.
Prayer is our lifeline. If you want to survive and thrive as a
Christ-follower, you need to be praying. If we as a Church want to grow
and make a difference in our city and beyond, we need to be praying.
I
read some quotes from some of the great Christian leaders of the past
couple centuries about the importance of prayer… let me share a few of
them with you.
“The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the
greatest contribution to world evangelization in history!”
~ Andrew Murray
South African church leader
“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.”
~ Charles Spurgeon
“The
one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears
nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless
religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles
when we pray.”
~ Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932)
Methodist preacher and college president in England
We
need to be people of prayer. For ourselves, for our church, for our
world… we need to be people of prayer. At our Dreams & Dessert
a
few weeks ago, we talked about how prayer needs to be a focus for us
this year, as individuals and as a Church. As Jesus emphasized…
Luke 19:46 (NLT)
“The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer’…”
One
of the quotes I read just read talked about “prayerless religion” and
how there isn’t any power in that kind of religion. Isn’t it amazing
how many good, religious things can distract us and pull us away from
what’s really important? It’s amazing how involved we can become in so
many different things that we ignore the basics.
Even the 12
apostles faced this conflict in their own schedules. They were leading
the early church, and they were having all these demands and
expectations placed upon them. In particular, there were some widows
who were going hungry and a rift began to develop between the
Greek-speaking believers and the Hebrew-speaking believers, and
pressure was put on the 12 apostles to step in and take over the food
distribution program. Take a look at what they did…
Acts 6:2-4 (NLT)
So
the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We
apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a
food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected
and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this
responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and
teaching the word.”
The Apostles themselves faced the struggle
of meeting demands and living up to expectations, while still
committing themselves to what they were primarily called to do… pray
and preach.
Now, I am called to preach. You probably aren’t. But
we are all called to pray. So what is it in your life that infringes on
your prayer time and prevents you from really connecting with God? What
are the demands and expectations and distraction that spring up like
weeds and choke the life out of your prayer time? And what’s it going
to take for you to get rid of those weeds?
On the banners on
the side walls, you see three words that help define who we are as a
Church… Connecting, Equipping, Empowering. Well, prayer is all about
connecting with God… and through this series I want to equip and
empower you to do just that.
So what we’re going to do is, over
the next four weeks we’re going to work our way through the model
prayer that Jesus gave us. We call it the “Our Father” or “The Lord’s
Prayer”. And for many of you, you would have memorized this prayer as a
child.
In fact, even in leading into this prayer, Jesus gave
some warnings about how we are not to treat prayer. So before we get to
the prayer itself, let me highlight three warnings that Jesus gives us
here.
Three
Warnings about Prayer:
1.
Do not use prayer to show off.
Matthew 6:5 (NLT)
“When
you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on
street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I
tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.”
For
the religious people Jesus was talking about, praying in public was a
status thing for them. It was a way for them to show others just how
holy there were. So everyday at noon, they’d head down to the corner of
Grafton and University and start praying out loud for everyone to hear,
with the idea that people would see them and think, “Wow, look at them
praying. And they’re using all these flowery words. They must really be
spiritual people.”
Now, Jesus wasn’t against praying in public.
In fact, Jesus Himself prayed in public. But for the people He was
talking about, whenever they prayed in public it was just an ego thing
for them. Just a way for them to show off and feed their pride. It
wasn’t about connecting with God; it was about impressing other people.
Some
of you may be patting yourself on the back right now because you never
pray in public. But let me ask, why don’t you pray in public? Is it
because you’re afraid of what others will think? Because that’s just a
different symptom of the same problem. You still see prayer as a
performance for other people. But prayer is not meant to be a means of
showing off. Prayer is meant to connect with God.
But in this
case, Jesus was specifically talking about people who were praying in
public for the applause and admiration they could receive. And He said
this was a problem, and then proposed this solution…
Matthew 6:6 (NLT)
“But
when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray
to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will
reward you.”
Actually, if you go through this chapter, there are
a few times that Jesus says to do things in secret. Why? To make sure
your motivation is right. He says, “When you pray, do it in secret so
the only one who knows that you’re praying is God. They you can be sure
you’re not doing it to show off.” And He goes on to add a few other
things. He says, “When you give to the needy, when you fast, when you
do something nice for someone else… watch your motives. Are you just
doing it to show off? Then do it in secret. Don’t boast about it, don’t
brag about it, don’t take out a full page ad in the newspaper. Let God
be the only one who knows and let God be the one to reward you for it.
2.
Don’t pray as a religious ritual.
Listen to what Jesus said…
Matthew 6:7 (NLT)
“When
you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They
think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again
and again.”
The people Jesus is talking about… what are they
trying to do? They’re trying to manipulate God. They think that if they
say the same words over and over again then God will have to do
whatever you say.
It’s actually a very popular practice. There
are a lot of people today who talk about the Law of Attraction and the
power of positive thinking. They talk about visualizing what you want
and it will become a reality. There’s the health and wealth Gospel and
there’s the name it and claim it theology and there’s a whole movement
based on books and videos like The Secret. I know one guy who’s into
all those things. Every time I see him, he’s reading another book about
the power of the mind and of visualizing what you want to happen. And
right now, he sweeps floors for a living. Which is a fine job, but if
you’re going to be able to visualize your reality, don’t you think
you’d be doing something else?
Anyway, when this kind of
practice is applied to prayer… when you just repeat your prayers over
and over again as a kind of magical incantation… it’s basically just
our attempt to manipulate God and force Him to do our bidding.
So Jesus criticized people who used vain repetition in their prayers as
a way to manipulate God.
Now,
there is a difference between being repetitive and being persistent.
Jesus criticized people who were repetitive… But He encourages us to be
persistent. Sometimes you need to be persistent and patient in your
prayer. But that’s very different from the kind of praying Jesus was
referring to in Matthew 6. The people Jesus was talking about were
using repetition to impress God and force His hand with their many
words.
3.
Don’t think of prayer as a way to inform God of what you need.
How
many people think that prayer is a way to tell God what they need so He
will provide it for them? Isn’t that the way we treat prayer? But
listen to what Jesus said…
Matthew 6:8 (NLT)
“…Your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”
So
what’s the point of praying?!? If God already knows what you need, then
why bother? Perhaps because prayer isn’t about letting God know what
you need? Oh, I think that’s part of prayer… you can ask God to provide
for your needs. But I think that’s really a small part of what prayer
is meant to be, and not the dominant thing we treat it as.
So
hopefully, as we go through this series, you’ll recognize why Jesus
issued these warnings and instead move toward what prayer is really
meant to be. So let’s talk about this prayer that Jesus gave us.
Now,
I’ve already talked about how there is no formula for prayer. There is
no ritualistic prayer that you have to say in order to really pray. And
so I don’t believe that Jesus gave this prayer as a prayer that we have
to recite together regularly. I think He gave it as a model or an
example of what prayer can and should be like.
So while we don’t
have to always use the exact same words as He did – which you wouldn’t
be able to do anyway unless you learn Aramaic – I think there are
underlying principles that we can learn from this model prayer and that
we can use in our own prayers.
And so we’re going to examine just the first part of that prayer this
morning…
Matthew 6:9 (NLT)
“Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.”
If you have it memorized, you probably know this part as “Our Father
which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.”
Jesus
teaches us…
A.
The intimacy of personal prayer
Jesus
introduced something brand new here. A revolutionary concept… praying
to God as “Father”. There were a few times… not many, but a few times…
in the Old Testament were God was described as a Father. But that was
always in reference to Him being the source of all creation. It wasn’t
a relational term, it was a positional term.
“Jesus set the
pattern for prayer as a continuous mode of friendship. The Old
Testament contains many beautiful and magnificent prayers, usually led
by a king or prophet… Some scholars suggest that Jesus virtually
invented private prayer. No one in the Old Testament directly addressed
God as ‘Father’ whereas Jesus did 170 times.”
~ Philip Yancey
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
So along comes Jesus, and He instructs us to pray “Our Father”. How
dare He refer to God with such intimacy?
And this wasn’t the only time you see this in the New Testament. In the
passage we looked at earlier this morning, Paul wrote…
Galatians 4:6 (NLT)
…We are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our
hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
Romans 8:15 (NLT)
…You received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now
we call him, “Abba, Father.”
There’s that term again: “Abba, Father.”
Now, what comes to mind when you hear that word, “Abba”?
AUDIO – PLAY SEGMENT OF “DANCING QUEEN”
Okay, just so you know, for the band ABBA, that name was just an
acronym of the people in the band…
Anni-Frid Lyngstad
Björn Ulvaeus
Benny Andersson
Agnetha Fältskog
But
when Paul used the term, “Abba”, He wasn’t referring to them. No, the
Aramaic term “Abba” is the rough equivalent to our terms “Papa” or
“Daddy”, and it would have been the first word that many children
learned to say. It was a term of intimacy and endearment, while at the
same time being respectful.
So Jesus teaches us to address God
as our Father, and not as some distant God or Lord. And Paul goes a bit
further using the intimate term a child would use for their Daddy.
I
remember the first time I heard Nate say “Dada.” What a thrill that
was. About a month ago, he started calling me “Mommy”, which wasn’t so
thrilling. A little bit of a gender-recognition issue here. So every
time he calls me “Mommy”, I immediately correct him and say, “Daddy.”
So what do you think happened this past week? He started calling me
“Mommy-Daddy”. I guess that’s progress.
But when he does get it
right, I just love hearing my son call me Daddy. And I wonder if that’s
the same kind of thrill that our Heavenly Father experiences when we
come to Him with that same kind of intimacy.
In telling us to
pray “Our Father”, Jesus was teaching us that we can approach God with
a certain level of familiarity and intimacy. But at the same time, He
was teaching us something else. He was teaching us…
B.
The supremacy of God over all
So
Jesus was teaching us the intimacy we can have with God, and at the
same time the supremacy and transcendence of God over all creation. He
has no equal. He is the Father of all, the everlasting Father.
In fact, Jesus emphasized the supremacy of God this way…
Matthew 6:9 (NLT)
Our Father in Heaven, may your name be kept holy.
Where is our Father? In Heaven. In fact, He rules there. And His very
name is to be hallowed, or honoured, or holy.
You
know, it’s sad… and we’ve talked about this before… but it’s sad that
in our society today the names and the titles of God are treated as
anything but holy. I mean, even on T.V. these days, you can hear the
name of Jesus or the titles of God just tossed around as if they meant
nothing. And at the same time there are all kinds of other crude and
profane that aren’t allowed on T.V.
If I had to choose, I’d
choose the other words. I’d rather none of them be used, but I’d
especially want the names and titles for God to be treated with respect
and honour. I’d want His name to be kept holy.
Because He is
holy. He is the Almighty God, the Creator of All, the Alpha and the
Omega, the Beginning and the End, He’s the Great I Am, the Omnipotent
Father, He’s the awesome Lord, He’s the Victorious Warrior, the
Commanding King of Kings… and He deserves our respect.
Nate
calls me “Daddy”, and that’s great. There’s an intimacy in the
father-son relationship. But you know what else is there? There’s an
authority structure. Nate knows, or at least he’s learning, that I’m
the father. I love him and I want the best for him, but I’m the father.
If I tell him to do something, he’d better do it. He’d better listen to
me. He’d better show me respect. Not because I’m a tyrant, but because
I’m his father.
Our Heavenly Father loves us, and He wants the
best for us. But that doesn’t give us license to do whatever we want
and ignore how He has instructed us to live. He is the Father, we are
His children, and we’d better respect that relationship.
And the third thing that I believe Jesus is teaching us right in the
very first sentence of this prayer is…
C.
The attitude of submission we must possess
In
recognizing that God the Father is supreme over all, that includes us.
He is over us. His ways are higher than our ways. He thoughts are
greater than ours. So we must submit ourselves to Him and to His ways.
His agenda needs to be placed ahead of our own. His mission must take
precedence over ours.
In fact, look at the very word
“submission.” It means that we place our mission under His mission. You
get that, right? So prayer isn’t so much about getting God to rubber
stamp our mission; it’s about us getting on board with His mission. We
don’t bring God around to our way of thinking; prayer changes who we
are and brings us around to His way of thinking.
If we take a
sneak peek at the never verse… and we’re going to look at this verse
more next week… but if we take a quick look, we can see this kind of
submission in action. What does Jesus say?
Matthew 6:10 (NLT)
“May Your Kingdom come soon. May Your will be done on earth, as it is
in Heaven.”
It’s not about my kingdom or my will… it’s about His. It’s about me
submitting to Him and His ways.
“At
its core, prayer probes the depth of personal submission… It’s at the
heart of every prayer… Our relationship with God is so multi-faceted.
He refers to us His friends, as children, even as co-inheritors with
Jesus. But there’s also another aspect of our relationship in that God
also relates to us as Lord and as subjects.”
~ Dave Workman
So
there you have it… “Our Father in Heaven, may Your name be kept holy.”
True prayer… the kind of prayer that Jesus taught… starts with a
recognition of who God is and with our submission to Him. And we’ll
build on that over the next few weeks.
Now, to go along with
this series, I have something I want to hand out to you this morning.
This is a little booklet that is actually an excerpt from a bigger book
by Jim Cymbala. If you really want to explore what prayer is and what
it can be in your life, then pick up one of his books. They’re
excellent. But you can start with this little booklet.
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