TEXT:
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. If being a person of love (towards our God, neighbor and ourselves) is the greatest commandment, how do we become people of love?
2. What are some personal obstacles in your life that keep you from being a person of prayer? Remember, there is no shame in Christ. Only a calling to deeper communion with Him.
3. What does it mean for the Kingdom of God to come to earth as it is in heaven?
4. Are there any daily or weekly practices you currently have that bring you into communion with God?
SERMON MANUSCRIPT:
If there’s anything I want to offer to you today it is first and foremost an invitation to follow the way of Jesus through living a life of prayer. Specifically a life of prayer that causes contemplation and thoughtfulness and self reflection. What I mean by that is what the ancients called the interior life or the interior way. It is what Jesus calls in this passage “shutting the door and praying to your father in secret” or what he says in Matthew 6 to “consider the Lillies of the field” and to “look at the birds of the air”. The life of prayer to which Jesus is calling us is one that makes space in our lives to meditate on the goodness of God, the redemption of our souls through His son, the beauty of His creation and all therein and all good things of this life. It is what Paul calls in the new testament “setting our minds on things that are above.”
Now, creating this space in your life is really just the means to an end. The goal of living a life full of prayer and contemplation is not to just say that you’ve done it. In fact, Jesus speaks to that in this very passage. The hypocrite praying on the street corner for all to see has “received his reward”. By that he means that he has received what he desired most - man’s attention. But in all that he did not receive the very gift of God which is a transformed, contrite and loving heart - one that is oriented towards God and His will.
The scribes and pharisees in Mark 12 ask Jesus “what is the greatest commandment?” Jesus responds by saying “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your Heart, soul mind and strength” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love is the end goal of the christian life. The metric in which we measure our walk with Jesus. To become a person of love in Christ is one of the primary reasons we come to church, gather together, pray for one another, set up meal trains, do outreach, attend small groups - all of these practices we participate in together are there to, 1. Show the world that we love God and one another and 2. To help slowly form us into the image of Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit through what James calls being “doers of the word”.
The efficacy of this kind of life of prayer is described by St. Matthew the poor, an Egyptian, coptic monk - “The transcendent gifts of the Christian life are manifold (or many). Some are general, like the new second birth, redemption for the forgiveness of sins, justification by grace, sanctification by the blood of Christ. Others are personal like the gift of love, humility, piety, the glowing of spirit in constant intimacy with the Lord, and so forth… By prayer, the effect of Christ’s nature becomes manifest in us. By prayer, the power of his death and life appears in our works and behavior. By prayer, the sweet savor of Christ is scented in our words and thoughts. It is even scented in our quietude and silence as well”
The obstacles to living this kind of life come from our three enemies that we see in Scripture - This is laid out in Ephesians for us by Paul, and by the temptation of Jesus in the desert - which are: The World, the flesh and the devil.
The world often tells us through our culture that we do not have the time to live this kind of life. There is this great conspiracy that we are just too busy to, as Paul says “pray without ceasing”. For most of us - that is simply not true. For some of us, it may be. But I want to remind you that in order to live the life of Jesus, you have to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus. Jesus - who was literally God - made space in his life to pray and contemplate and teach others about the love of the Father. Is there margin in your life to do this?
Our flesh tells us that we have to come before God with grand words and like Jesus said in our passage “Empty phrases” in order to impress him. That feeling of shame that we carry when we begin to pray that if we confess our sins to him He will punish us or be cruel to us. That is our flesh telling us that we are not fully loved by God.
The devil and the often subtle ways he schemes by sowing seeds of envy or pride or deceit into our minds. Distracting us with whatever means he and his demons can think of.
It just seems so often like all too much to be able to actually live the life of prayerfulness that we so long and desire as christians to live. Do you feel that longing? That desire for spiritual depth and transformation is given to us by the Spirit of God Himself.
So you may be asking - How is it possible that we can even begin to live a life like this?
Jesus in His perfect wisdom gave us a beautiful framework for this life. One that is simple enough to repeat verbatim for when we don’t have the words to express our needs. And one that lets us shape our entire prayer life around.
If you haven’t guessed already what that framework is - it is this very prayer, The Lord’s Prayer. And I want to say that by no means is this the exhausted explanation of the Lord’s prayer. We could spend probably the next year poking and prodding at this passage to uncover its beauty. The word of God is living and active so there are what I will say about this prayer is what I believe pertains to living this life of prayer that I just talked about.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name…”
The question in the ancient world was not “Is God real?” There had been no age of enlightenment that caused people to try and rationalize everything with science and logic. There was no post modernism pulling them into living a secular lifestyle where God has no place. No, they never asked “Is God real?” Every ancient civilization worshipped some sort of god. I’m sure if you asked the Israelites at the time of exodus if God was real they would have laughed at you. Of course He’s real, we’re literally following a pillar of fire through the desert and some dude just dropped dead because he touched the ark of the covenant. The question instead in the ancient world was this - “Can we Know God?”
So when the disciples come to Jesus in Luke’s account of this prayer - they ask him “Lord teach us how to pray”
We can look at that and think “Oh wow those silly disciples had spent all this time with Jesus and still didn’t know how to pray” That could be true, except that these were first century Jews. These men had been praying the Jewish prayer rhythms their entire lives. They were also fishermen and tax collectors and men who needed to know the law well in order to do their jobs legally. That had read the psalms and in a sense, they “knew how to pray.” But they saw in Jesus an intimacy with the father that they had never seen before.
Through christ we see the great chasm between us and the father is bridged through His life, death and resurrection. Through Christ we can come to the Lord at the beginning of this prayer and proclaim “Abba, Father”. A father that has good intentions towards us. That does not “deal harshly with us as we deserve” (Psalm 103) but instead is “tender and compassionate to those who fear Him.” Listen to what Paul says about this kind of access to the Father through Christ in Romans 8:15-17.
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
The beginning of this prayer gives us permission to confidently come before the Lord, who deserves all the glory and honor, and allows us to call him “Abba, Father.”
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”
Luke 17:20-21 20 Being asked by the Pharisees uwhen the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God vis not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor wwill they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
One of my favorite parts about this verse is that right before this word from Jesus, Luke juxtaposes it with a story of how Jesus cleanses and welcomes a samaritan leper. So imagine yourself as a pharisee, a keeper of the law and someone who has been long awaiting the messiah to come and retake the political structure of Jerusalem to hand it back over to you. You’ve been waiting for this messiah to overthrow your greatest enemy. The roman empire. And suddenly, the man who claims to be the messiah is telling you that in His kingdom, he is the king of lepers, and the poor, and tax collectors, and men and women of little social status. Albeit there were of course also men and women of great social status and those who were probably revered by society, yet they lowered and humbled themselves to come serve along side these sinners and nobodies? It sounds foolish right? But the ways of God are foolish to man.
This is what heaven looks like. When you pray this portion of the lord’s prayer you are inviting the spirit of God to make you aware of the Kingdom that is in the midst of you. Where love and justice and peace prevail. Where there is no partiality shown in social class or status, or race or gender. You are also interceding on behalf of those you pray this prayer for. “God let your kingdom and your will be the reality that invades this person’s life.”
I was talking with a friend of mine and I had originally planned to use the phrase that “heaven is upside down” in comparing the kingdom of heaven to the kingdom of the world. Before I even said that, Almost unprompted she said “I can’t stand when people say “heaven is upside down. It’s really right side up!” And she’s so right. The kingdom of earth - the one of injustice and cruelty and hatred is not the one God intended for us to live in. His world was, as he said, “good.” So when we ask this of God - that his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven - we are pointing back to eden. Back to the time where man was in full communion with God. Where sin did not separate our relationship with him. We are also pointing forward to the new creation where all will be made well and Christ will reign for eternity and we will spend eternity with one another eating at the table together and laughing and hugging our friends and clinking our glasses as we experience God in all His fullness because sin will no longer separate any of us. Sin will no longer cause strife in our relationships with one another. Sin will no longer affect our bodies. And we will spend eternity living in the wonderful love of the father. And you know what’s really beautiful? Eternal life starts now. This prayer gives us the permission to ask the lord for glimpses of that life right now. For healing to come to the sick, for relationships to be restored, for love and laughter and fun to be had while we worship our creator. This bold prayer invites us into the abundant life of the Kingdom of God.
As I was writing this in my garage I looked over to my right and I have a lyric poster of one of my favorite songs called “Kingfisher” by Andy Squyres. A kingfisher is a small, but beautiful bird. And in. Andy’s attempt to paint a picture of heaven he says, “When I get where I’m going, guns are hammered into plows. Promises we made to war turn into broken vows… I go out walking on the mountain where the thunder rolls. I smell the rain of heaven coming to the earth below. I see a kingfisher ascending to his rightful throne. The meek inheriting a city they can call their own. So Blessed are the meek. Those who say “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
“Give us this day our daily bread…”
We are formed by what we do, not by what we know. We do what we know, so our knowledge of the Word is important, but it is not the information itself that changes us. - once again - we want to be DOERS of the word not Just hearers. So, the act of coming to God daily with this petition for him to provide for us slowly, but surely forms us into the image of Christ.
Psalm 51 so famously says, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Beautiful passage. So incredibly important. God is concerned about the matter of the heart. He wants your heart to be oriented towards Him. But then the passage goes on— “Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.”
We get so caught up so often about making sure our heart is in the right place before we do something that we completely forget to do the very thing we were supposed to do with the broken and contrite heart. This daily prayer of petition for God to provide what we need, yes needs to come from a heart oriented towards God, but then it also literally needs to be said and confessed. And for some of us, myself included, there are some days where I come before the lord in petition for my needs and say as the man with the son with the unclean spirit said “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” Sometimes the worries of this life do overcome me for a moment. But by placing myself before God and asking for my needs to be met is the way that I fight back against my false belief in that moment that the world has overcome.
Richard foster, author of “Celebration of Disciplines” - one of the best modern day teachers on the spiritual disciplines says this, almost shockingly. “Spiritual disciplines can do nothing. They can only get us to the place where something can be done.” This discipline of petitioning for your daily bread places you at the feet of Christ as you profess that you, in your own strength and own power, cannot supply your own needs. And in that place is where the holy spirit begins to work on your heart.
“Forgives us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…”
I’d consider myself a man of practicality. I like to wear clothes that make practical sense. That’s why for two years I wore the same jacket every day because it practically held everything I needed in the right place. I want to drive a truck, because its practical. Even though I really love making pour over coffees, I’ve been wanting to get a normal coffee pot because its much more practical. To me, no other part of this prayer is more practical than this. Jesus, in His infinite wisdom knew that we would need something practical to grasp onto in our walk with Him and again, to me, nothing is more practical than the act of forgiveness. Listen even to Jesus himself. I actually love how cut and dry this seems. “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
How do we become people of forgiveness that God also forgives? Jesus’ answer is simple. Forgive. Harboring Unforgiveness in our hearts towards someone is a prison. It is most assuredly, not the way of Jesus. It’s incredibly clear. There is nothing squirley about this in scripture that could ever cause us to think that we should not release forgiveness to somebody. That however does not mean that is “easy” I say that in quotations because the yoke of Jesus is easy and light and his yoke calls us to forgive, But We do not have the capacity within ourselves to forgive. Only Christ through us can do that. So once again, I call you to put something into daily practice. The act of confessing our sins to God, transforms us into a people who then extend forgiveness to others. Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
So the question stands for all of us this morning - Is there unforgivness in our hearts? Only by the forgiveness of our own sins can we extend that forgiveness to others. We will have a moment in a minute to practice that together as we confess ours sin and ask the Lord to search our hearts for
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
What you do matters. What you choose to fill your time with matters. Do not let the world convince you into thinking that Christ did not die for your time and attention. Attention is the beginning of devotion. What we give our attention to directs who or what we are being formed by. Something is forming us into its image. Whether its the attention we give our politics, our jobs, our social status, our instagram lifestyles, or Christ himself, we are being formed. Asking the lord to keep us from evil and to lead us not into temptation then begs the question - if God is not tempting us and if he is delivering us from evil, where am I placing myself into temptation in my life? The countless hours we spend scrolling and scrolling on our phones, not paying attention to the person in front of us, watching hours of Netflix, spending unnecessarily long hours at work for the sake of production. These are not inherently bad things by all means, but when we place ourselves in these kinds of lifestyles are we leading ourselves into temptation? The temptation to forget God and the person in front of us when we’re scrolling, temptation to put work ahead of our spouse or our family where we have no time for them or even our God. The temptation to live a life of “ease and comfort” is always there. But that never brings us true rest. True rest comes from the yoke of Jesus. The yoke that gives us the freedom to put our phones down and to look up. The yoke that gives us permission to not have to live like the rest of the world. Temptation does not always look like that thing on the screen we should avoid clicking. In the subtlest of ways it creeps into our daily habits. It invades what we give our attention to. C.S Lewis in his book “The Screwtape letters” Which is a collection of letters from a senior demon written to his younger apprentice and nephew. In speaking of this kind of temptation that distracts our attention from the Lord, Screwtape tells his nephew: “Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.” Or in other words, as Corrie Ten Boom put it: “if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.
This is why, church. I pray that we become a people of prayer. A people who choose to discipline ourselves, in scripture’s terms, Consecrate ourselves to Him. This means that we have a deep inner longing to live holy and want to be changed into the image of Jesus. We do this by daily devoting ourselves to Him. Our relationship to Christ is in many ways much like a relationship with a spouse. We speak, then we listen. I tell my wife that I love her and she tells me she loves me. We do this every day. It does not get old or rote because I truly do love her and she truly does love me. Place yourself before the Lord with this prayer because we all know that you become like the person you spend the most time with.