Living the Dream
12/03/2006 - Praying to the Father
"Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Guide me through the long, dark night and wake me with the morning light. Bless mommy and daddy, grand mom and grand pop, Kenny and everybody in the whole world. In Jesus name. Amen."
Did anybody ever hear that prayer before? Did any of you grow up praying "Now I lay me down to sleep?" I did. That was my first experience with prayer. For many years as a kid I can remember my mother coming into my bedroom at night, sitting down on the bed and reciting that prayer with me before I drifted off to sleep.
Now I realize there are many different versions of that prayer. One goes like this, "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Anybody here have the guts to pray that growing up? I didn't. I wasn't ready to die in my sleep and I was afraid that if I suggested it God might take me up on it!
Then, of course, there's the one that goes, "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If he hollers let him go, eeny, menny, minny, mo!" That's the one I pray now!
But my first experience with prayer was "now I lay me down to sleep." And for a long time I thought it was like some kind of magic formula that you said every night to guarantee God's blessing. And I got pretty good at rattling it off without even thinking about what I was saying.
But eventually I outgrew "now I lay me down to sleep" and some where along the line I discovered that prayer was not meant to be a magic formula or a memorized nursery rhyme or something that you just rattled off mindlessly. Instead, prayer was meant to be a real conversation that you could have with the living God. God wants us to talk to him, person to person, and tell him what's on our minds the way we would confide in a good friend or in a spouse or in a loving parent.
Now, to be honest with you, I can't imagine living my life without prayer, without a running dialogue with God. But I still feel like I have a long way to go in my prayer life and a lot of learning to do. I know prayer is powerful. I've seen it many times. But so much about prayer still remains a mystery to me.
This week while we were praying together in the office we confessed that there is so much we don't understand about prayer and its power. We were praying through a list of needs here at Valley View and sometimes when we do that we wonder if we don't mention a name does that mean God isn't going to work in that person's life. After all, he knows our needs even before we voice them. And at other times we wonder if we're praying the right things for people because often we seem to pray that everything goes well in their lives, but maybe God doesn't want everything to go well all the time. Maybe the trial they're experiencing is meant to be God's way of drawing them closer to himself. And that wouldn't happen if everything went well. So instead of taking the trial away, whatever it is, we pray that they would experience God's presence in it.
The Bible tells us a lot about prayer, but there's still a lot about prayer that remains a mystery. Yet, prayer is one of those spiritual disciplines, one those practices that keeps us closely connected to our heavenly Father if it's done with the right motive. Spiritual practice for a believer, like physical practice for an athlete, brings transformation to our lives.
This morning we climb back up the mountain with Jesus in our series called Living the Dream with a teaching I've called "Praying to the Father." If you have a Bible turn with me to Matthew 6:5.
Now remember Jesus has been telling the crowd on the hill that their righteousness had to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law if they were to have any hope of entering the kingdom of God. And that bold statement by Jesus could have sent everybody to the exits. It certainly would have offended the Pharisees who couldn't imagine anyone being more religious than they were. And it had the potential to deflate everyone else in the crowd who already felt intimidated by the religious professionals.
But as we've seen, Jesus is not talking about religion at all. He's not talking about adding a list of do's and don'ts to our life, a bunch of rules and rituals to keep, and more hoops to jump through. The Pharisees already had plenty of those. Instead, he's talking about righteousness that's comes from the inside out, giving his followers a new heart that expresses itself through love. And he's been showing us how agape love get expressed when we're angry and when we're tempted by lust and when we make promises and commitments and even when we're confronted by our enemies. Love is what changes the world.
And now he applies that love to the spiritual disciplines that he calls "acts of righteousness" and warns us to be careful not to perform them for the applause of the crowd, but for an audience of One. These are the habits that he wants his followers to practice so that God can do his work in and through our lives. But he wants us to practice them with the right motives. He wants us to be whole persons. And part of being a whole person is living a life on the outside that matches up with what's going on in the inside.
Last week Jesus talked about giving. This week he addresses prayer. And next week he'll discuss fasting. These were three spiritual disciplines that the crowd would have been well acquainted with and the Pharisees had abused every one.
They had turned these disciplines into media events to parade their own righteousness in front of others. And so when they gave to the poor they made sure the cameras were rolling so that everyone would see how generous they were.
I was reminded of that again this week watching a special edition of 20/20 on Wednesday night called "Giving in America" and seeing how some of the super rich are competing against each other these days to see who can be higher on the list of the most generous people in America. It's amazing how we all have the capacity to take good things and make them self-serving. And the Pharisees did the same thing with prayer.
Look at Matthew 6:5-6, And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Now Jesus is not saying that we can't ever pray in public or pray with other people. The New Testament is filled with examples of God's people praying together. No. Jesus is saying that we shouldn't pray to be seen by others, to impress others, to make ourselves look good. Prayer is not to be a show.
Many of the Pharisees had taken a wonderful thing like prayer and abused it. Their tradition required them to pray through a list of eighteen benedictions, each about a paragraph long, every single day. Same words. Same prayers. Everyday. In addition to that they were to recite the Great Shema found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 two times a day, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. On top of that they had three set times for prayer every day at 9 o'clock in the morning, 12 noon, and 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
The routine of their day was defined by prayer which isn't a bad thing unless it's your practice to make sure you're on the busiest street corner in Jerusalem when the clock strikes 9 and again at noon and again at 3 o'clock so that everyone can watch you pray and see how spiritual you are. And that's what some of them were doing.
And Jesus says, "You hypocrites! If that's the reward you want from prayer you got it. But don't expect anything from my Father in heaven."
Jesus, on the other hand, modeled just the opposite. He prayed at night or got up early when everyone else was sleeping or he slipped away from the crowd to be alone with his heavenly Father. And he wants us to do the same. He wants us to enjoy regular times alone with him when we've shut out the noise of the rest of the world just to be quiet with the one who loves us more than anyone else in the world. More than anything else solitude reminds me that I'm loved and that Jesus is with me no matter what is going in my life. It's tough for me to live out the kingdom dream without regular times of solitude and prayer.
That's why I love what Henri Nouwen says when he writes, "Solitude is being with God and God alone. Why is it so important that you are with God and God alone? It's important because it's the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you 'my beloved daughter,' 'my beloved son,' 'my beloved child.' To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being … Jesus listened to that voice all the time, and he was able to walk right through life."
"There are many other voices speaking loudly, 'Prove that you are the beloved.' 'Prove that you're worth something.' 'Prove that you have a contribution to make.' 'Do something relevant.' 'Be sure you make a name for yourself.' 'Grab some power so you have real influence.'"
"These voices are so strong in this world. These were the same voices that Jesus heard. But if you know that you are loved by God you can deal with an enormous amount of success as well as an enormous amount of failure without losing your identity, because your identity is that you are the beloved child of God."
I get reminded of that when I come here to worship. And I get reminded of that when I'm with God alone. In fact, realizing how much God loves us in the midst of our struggles is one of the best rewards of getting alone. Our fundamental identity is not what we do for a living or our role in life. Our fundamental identity is that we are a child that God is head over heels in love with.
Not only were the Pharisees praying to be seen, but they were just babbling away Jesus says. Look at verse 7, And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
In Jesus' day the pagan gods and goddesses were little more than glorified men and women. They spent their days eating and drinking, playing and partying, fighting and making love. And so to get their attention you had to repeat your prayers over and over again to get them out of bed or entice them away from the banquet table or try and catch them when they weren't busy. So the people chanted mindless incantations over and over again never sure that they were getting through to the god or goddess that they needed.
And Jesus says, "Stop! That's not how you pray. You don't need to get God's attention by repeating yourself over and over again. You don't need to bug him. In fact, he knows what you need even before you ask him. So let me tell you how to pray."
And at this point Jesus launches into what many have called "The Lord's Prayer," 57 simple words in the original Greek language, 52 in English, words that have been recited perhaps more often than any other words in human history. Yet, I don't believe that Jesus meant for them simply to be recited over and over again or else we'd fall into the same trap of the Pharisees mindlessly repeating a formula. Instead, I believe Jesus is giving us a pattern for prayer, the scaffolding that can help us all better converse with the God of the universe.
Look at verse 9, This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."14For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Jesus begins by addressing God as our Father. That was unheard of by the Jews in Jesus' day. To them God was Jehovah, King of the universe, the Most High God. They were afraid to even speak his name lest he strike them dead. But Jesus comes along and says, "When you pray I want you to come to God as a trusting child comes to an attentive father who loves you. You may not have had an earthly father that you could trust or approach or talk to, but your heavenly Father is different. Holy is his name. He is separate from every one else and loves you like no one else loves you." Prayer is not a magic formula or a ritual or a memorized speech. It's a child's tender conversation with their heavenly father.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is heaven. When we embrace the truth that God is our Father who loves us more than we can ever know that helps us submit ourselves to him because we know that he wants what's best for us and for this world. His concerns become our concerns. His passions become our passions. His dreams become our dreams. And his dream is for his kingdom to come to this earth and his will to be done down here as it is up there.
In heaven there is no hate, there is no prejudice, there is no injustice, there is no poverty, there is no conflict, there is no war, there is no sickness, there is no evil, there is no darkness, only light and goodness and health and peace and justice and unity and love. And when we are about those things right here, right now we are helping to bring God's kingdom to this world so that his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. That's why we get on board with all kinds of kingdom causes around here. But sometimes those causes are so overwhelming to us that the most important thing we can do is pray. Prayer is a huge part of what it means to live out the dream of God. And sometimes our prayer is just one word, Maranatha, Aramaic for "come quickly Lord Jesus."
The first half of the Lord's Prayer is about God and his work. That's what's most important. But the second half is about us.
Give us today our daily bread. Our Father wants to hear our needs. He knows we have them even before we voice them. But in voicing them we acknowledge that he is the giver of all good things.
Is there anything too small to pray about? I don't think so.
I like how Rick Warren puts it, "If it's big enough to worry about, it's big enough to pray about." Don't be afraid to give God your list. My kids have given me their Christmas lists. It doesn't mean they're going to get it all. But it doesn't hurt to ask. Just make sure that ultimately it's God's will you want done, not your own.
About this phrase Tom Wright says, "If we are truly praying this prayer to God's honor, we can never simply pray for food for ourselves. We must pray for the needs of the whole world, where millions go hungry and starve. And if we truly pray about it we might also have to do something about it to become part of God's answer to our own prayers."
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Confession is how we keep our relationship with God fresh and alive. I know when there's an unresolved issue between me and one of my kids a wall goes up between us and it stays up until there's brokenness and confession and forgiveness. Jesus assumes that we'll need to ask our Father for forgiveness often. That's why he includes it in his pattern for prayer. God wants us to come clean with him and he wants us to forgive others with the same lavish grace with which he forgives us.
For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
That's the most disturbing part of this whole prayer. Jesus says God's forgiveness of us is conditioned upon our forgiveness of others. That's how serious God takes forgiveness. It's a big deal to him and it needs to be a big deal to us.
The story is told of Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived for many years in the South Sea Islands. And it was his practice to conduct family worship in the morning and always conclude with the Lord's Prayer. However, one morning while he was in the middle of the Lord's Prayer he got up from his knees and left the room. His wife followed him out thinking he was ill and said, "What's wrong?" "Only this," he said, "I am not fit to pray the Lord's Prayer today." He had to talk to someone first and make things right. That's the spirit behind what Jesus is saying.
He closes by saying and lead us not into temptation or testing, but deliver us from the evil one. And some versions add for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
No one knew more about spiritual warfare than Jesus. He went toe to toe with the evil one throughout his lifetime and he knew we would too. So it's good to pray for protection for ourselves and our families and our friends and for our church.
There will be times of testing in our lives, just like there were for Jesus. We can't follow a crucified Messiah and expect to be spared the darkness. We'll experience our share of it, but we can pray that God will protect us from the worst of it while we keep in mind that one day the evil one will be destroyed and all that will be left is God's kingdom and power and glory forever. So Jesus gives us the framework we all need to walk through life enjoying an ongoing dialogue with our heavenly Father.
Catholic priest and author Brennan Manning tells the story of a woman who came to his door one night and said, "Father Manning my dad is dying and I can't find a pastor or priest anywhere that will just spend ½ hour with him before he dies." And Manning said, "I will." And so he went to the man's home and walked into his room and saw the guy sick in bed with a wooden chair right next to the bed. Manning was going to sit in it, but the man motioned for him to come around to the other side. So he did and they talked for awhile and then the man said, "The reason I wanted to talk to a pastor or a priest is because I wanted to check something out. I've been a Christian for a long time, but I have never been a very effective prayer. So I talked to a friend about it and my friend suggested to me that I take an empty chair and sort of sit opposite the chair and pretend to have a conversation with the risen Jesus."
"So, Father Manning, I started doing that. I have this wooden chair right next to my bed and I talk to Jesus. Some times I talk to him for an hour. I tell him how I'm feeling. I tell him I'm worried about dying. I tell him I'm lonely. I tell him I'm scared. I talk to him sometimes two hours. And I just want to know before I die, is that okay?"
Manning said, "I think it delights the heart of God. I think you've captured what it means to really pray, to have conversations from the heart with the living Christ."
The man said, "Thank you very much."
They prayed and then he left. A couple of days later Brennan got a phone call from the daughter who said, "My dad died."
They talked about it for a little bit and just before the gal hung up she said, "Oh by the way, the strangest thing. When I walked in to my dad's room and found my father had died his head was lying on that empty chair beside his bed." That's the heart of prayer.