A Prayer of Connection

Introduction to Me – SLIDE 1

My name is SPC Jeremy Pletz, I am the base Religious Affairs Specialist and I am a part of TF Badger from Ohio back in the States. Back home I work for a company called Proctor and Gamble, P&G for short where I design Charmin toilet paper. So yes, I make a living on giving you a smooth experience on the toilet.

Outside of work I am engaged, I will be marrying my fiancé Bailey in November, I don’t have any kids but I am the oldest of 6 kids so that has to count for something. I lead in a ministry back home called YoungLife, is anyone familiar with YoungLife? It is a ministry geared towards meeting students where they are at and bringing them the love and truth of the Gospel. We have a ton of fun and get to witness a ton of life change in our students and their families.

Introduction to this Series

We have the opportunity over the next couple of weeks to dive into what is commonly known as the Lord’s prayer, if you were raised in the church, especially any sort of denominational church, then you might be familiar with this prayer. It is found in Matthew 6:9-13 SLIDE 2

Matthew 6:9–13 NIV

9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Is that familiar to anyone here? Does it make you want to get on your knees bedside and pray? Well we don’t have any beds here, but lets talk to Him in prayer.

Context – SLIDE 3

Before we hone in on exactly what we are looking at here, lets take a step back to paint the picture of what is going on. Understanding the entire historical context and setting of a scene from 2000 years ago is a daunting task, but answering two simple questions always paints a good picture and is a good place to start: who is talking and who are they talking to?

Who is talking? Jesus.

• Cool, we got the first step taken care of. You are officially a historian! Now the importance of this speaker being Jesus, is exactly that: this is Jesus! Nobody understands God better than the man who is God in the flesh. When we see the words in red, we ought to sit up in our seats and lean in.

The next question takes a little more work, but not much.

• The Lord’s Prayer is recorded twice in the Gospels, once in Matthew and once in Luke. In Matthew’s Gospel we hear about how Jesus is giving the sermon on the mount to his disciples with an onlooking crowd when he decides to instruct his disciples on how to pray. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray in response to them asking to be taught how to pray.

• Given both situations, we can know that Jesus surely taught his disciples. That is the audience for the Lord’s prayer. While all the disciples had different stories before becoming disciples, the one thing they all had in common was that they were raised Jewish. Which means, these guys knew how to pray and they knew what prayer was, so why does Jesus see it as important to teach them and why do the disciples see it as important to be taught again?

To recap, Jesus is teaching people who know how to pray, how to pray. This might seem silly or redundant at first, but I think the message here is straightforward: there is a deeper understanding of what it means to pray. That is one of our challenges for this series, to gather around Jesus as his disciples and say, “teach us how to pray and how to understand prayer deeply”

A Prayer of Connection – SLIDE 4

Now that we have the context in our minds and that challenge on our hearts, lets dive into the first verse of this prayer: Matthew 6:9

Matthew 6:9 (NIV)

9“ ‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

The overarching theme for this section of the prayer is how this prayer is a prayer of connection.

God is in Heaven – SLIDE 5

We see that the prayer begins with a proper sight alignment for where we direct our prayers to. When we pray we are directly connecting to a transcendent God in Heaven. It is important that we do not overlook the gravity of what that means. Scripture tells us we do not fully know everything there is to know about Heaven, but we do know from Scripture we can believe to be true about Heaven.

• If God is in Heaven, it means he is dwelling in perfection over all of creation

• If God is in Heaven, it means that he is sitting on a throne (more importantly it means that only God is on that throne)

• If God is on the throne of Heaven, it means that He is the final and ultimate authority over creation

If we know all this to be true, then what Jesus is telling us, is that when we pray we have a direct line to He who is in throne room of heaven, seated over all of creation for all of eternity.

In fact, Revelation 5:8 tells us that the prayers of all of God’s people fill Heaven’s throne room like the burning of incense. SLIDE 6 Therefore, it is not only for us to delight in our prayers making it to Heaven, but the delight is God’s to fill Heaven’s throne room with the prayers that connect Him directly to us.

If God did not delight in our prayers do you think He would want them in His throne room? Would He want something that He did not delight in to fill the air of the throne room that is the epitome of His glory? Absolutely not! He would want them to be in some closet somewhere so that He could be out of sight and out of mind. Can we just take a second to show gratitude that God would take such delight in our feeble and broken prayers?

For some of us, this might bring up a bitter and confusing feeling. How could God delight in my prayers of suffering? If that is you, hang on to that question. If you haven’t yet, talk to God about it. I think there are some potential answers we can find in the Bible, but there is many times when the level of logic will not match up to the level of pain that you are in. I get it. It is not supposed to be this way. But it is my hope that when we look at what else this prayer says about God, you may be able to find some comfort in His presence.

God is our Father – SLIDE 7

The second part of this prayer that we are going to be looking at here is that God is our Father. Proper alignment of our prayers is not just to a God who is clothed in glory, seated in the throne room of Heaven, but it is also to a God who is our Father. I may not need to point this out, but as much as this

Luke 15:11–24 NIV

SLIDE 8 Luke 15.11-13

Luke 15:11–13 NIV

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.

1. He loved the son enough to bless him and let him leave anyways

2. The Father was approachable

SLIDE 9-10 Luke 15.14-19

Luke 15:14–19 NIV

14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’

2. The Father was approachable - even in the midst of overwhelming shame

SLIDE 11 Luke 15:20-21

Luke 15:20–21 NIV

20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

3. The Father loved his son before a word ever left his mouth

SLIDE 12 Luke 15:22-24

Luke 15:22–24 NIV

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

4. The Father delights in the return of His son and cleans him up with a ring and robe

The story goes on but lets stop here and connect these observations to what Jesus tells us of our prayer to our Father – SLIDE 13

1. If God answers our prayers, it is on no merit of our own. It is simply because he is our Father and we are his children

2. The Father we pray to is approachable, He is approachable when we dwell in His house and is approachable when we return in shame from living outside of His house

3. The Father we pray to runs towards us in love, before a word ever leaves our mouth

4. Again, the Father that we pray to delights in the fact that we would connect with Him. SLIDE 14 Because of that delight, He meets us at our lowest point and cleans us up with a ring and robe

You might be thinking, Pletz where the heck is my ring and robe? Where is my party and feast? It feels like I have been here with the Father for a while now and I don’t even feel like I get a fraction of what you just described. If that is you or if that has been you, the good news is you are not alone in thinking that.

Let’s continue the story and see what else we can learn about this Father, Luke 15:25-32

Luke 15:25–32 NIV

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ 31 “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

Here is what we see about this Father, He is always with you and everything He has He is willing to give. Perhaps even, there is wisdom to be found in this Father. This Father knows that at the end of the day, cows and goats and rings and robes aren’t whats important. The Father tells us what matters most to Him, is that the connection with His children. If you are the older son of the story, the message the Father has for you today is to join Him in delighting and celebrating over the connection He has with His children - including you.

Tying together Verse 9

To recap the opening of this prayer, we see Jesus pointing out two of the most defining characteristics of God, He is our Father and our King of Heaven and Earth, His status is simple and His status is great. John Piper puts it this way:

“when Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:9 to pray, “Our Father in heaven,” he is telling us that the prayer-hearing God is majestic and merciful. He is high, and also dwells with the low. He is a king, and he is a father. He is holy, and he humbles himself. He is far above us, and ready to come to us. He has plans for the whole earth and for the universe, and wants us [His children] to care about these great plans and pray about them; and he has plans for your personal life at the most practical level and wants you to pray about that.”

Piper, J. (2014). Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). Desiring God.

That is the God we are praying to.

Elephant in the Room

Now that we know truly who we are praying to, the elephant in the room is, “what does it mean hallowed be your name?” Don’t worry we are not going to just skip over this part of the verse. In simple terms and even in some translations, we see that hallowed be your name is to say let your name be made holy. SLIDE 21

Now simply rephrasing the question is not answering the question, what does it really mean to hallow the name of God and make it holy?

I believe the answer to this question is found when we look at the prayer as a whole.

SLIDE 22 - There is 6 different prayers/requests made in the Lord’s prayer:

1. Let your name be hallowed/let your name be made Holy

2. Let your kingdom come

3. Let your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven

4. Give us our daily bread

5. Give us forgiveness of our sins as we forgive others

6. Give us deliverance from evil and temptation

When we look at it like this, we see a clear distinction between the first 3 and the second 3. The first three are all about God, his name being hallowed, his kingdom coming, and his will being done. The last three are all about how we serve the first 3. We hallow his name, bring His kingdom, and make Earth look like Heaven through receiving His daily bread, receiving His forgiveness, and receiving His deliverance.

If we look at this pattern of the latter part of the prayer serving the earlier part, then perhaps it is also that the last 5 are what serves the first request.

Closing - SLIDE 22

If the opening line of this prayer address who our prayer is to, then the first request is the clear purpose and response of what our prayer is for.

So lets give an answer to that elephant in the room, “what does it mean to hallow the name of God and to make it holy?”

Jesus came so that we would truly know our Father who is in Heaven. He not only taught us how to talk to our Father but Jesus showed us how to live for our Father, how to hallow the Father’s name. When I compare the life of our Lord Jesus to the prayer of our Lord Jesus it becomes unshakably clear that the purpose of our life and our prayer is for the hallowing of God’s name. His kingdom comes for THAT, His will is done for THAT, we are sustained for THAT, we are forgiven for THAT, temptation is escaped and we are delivered for THAT.

That is why we are doing this series, that is why Jesus felt the need to teach his disciples how to pray; so that we could have a better understanding of how to pray like Jesus and hallow the name of God

Please stand with me as we pray together.