Prayer Jesus' Way

Scripture and Sermon – September 10th, 2023

Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:5-15

“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. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But 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.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today 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 the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Sermon: “Praying Jesus’ Way” – Borden

Introduction

An American Christian author and speaker named Skye Jethani was once invited to speak at a large trade show put on by suppliers of equipment like stage lighting, sound systems, fog machines, and other big theatrical products. They told him they wanted a talk about “The Future Of Ministry” and to discuss trends and research related to young adults and how churches can engage them better.

As part of Jethani’s talk he mentioned a survey where younger people had been asked “What has most helped you grow in your faith?” And the top answer from the respondents was “prayer.”

As he tells the story there was an audible gasp in the room when he told them this. Sensing their surprise he want off script a little and asked the ministry leaders in the room “Do you know what’s great about prayer? It’s very affordable.”

This got a laugh from the crowd, but the conference director was very unhappy, because he had been hoping for a presentation that would help vendors sell equipment to create “bigger and better” church experiences. Skye Jethani says he hasn’t been invited back to speak at that conference. This story comes out of his book “What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer?”, which supplied a few other nuggets for today’s message as well.

I’m sure there will always be a place for “bigger and better” church experiences, but one of the changes I see happening in the western church is that upcoming generations aren’t as impressed by this kind of thing, or by the massive expense required to do it. Instead there is a growing desire for guidance in pursuing a simpler and more authentic spiritual life the other six-and-a-half days of the week.

How can you sustain and grow your faith in this fast-paced and demanding world? What kinds of things should a person do in order to deepen a true relationship with God? These are questions that matter to upcoming generations. They’re the right questions to be asking, and fog machines aren’t a very important part of the answer, certainly not compared to prayer.

Here at Faith Baptist we’re entering the fall with some plans to try to encourage three priorities set out in our Mission Edge Church vision statement: connecting to God, each other, and our community. For the next few Sundays there will be an emphasis on some of the simple and powerful practices that can help us connect to God.

My focus today is exploring two important things we can learn from Jesus about prayer. If you struggle with prayer because you can’t seem to remember to make time for it, or don’t know what to say, or don’t feel like you’re worthy to ask God for things, or don’t feel like your prayers are getting results, today I want to say that you’re not alone in this, and that this struggle might come from not praying Jesus’ way. Changing how you understand and practice prayer could make a world of difference in your life and journey of faith.

The two thing I think we could stand to learn, or remind ourselves of today, are these:

1) That prayer has more to do with who we’re praying to than how we pray, and 2) that prayer is more about communion more than communication.

Our Father

So, I’ll start with the importance of how we understand the God we pray to.

Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. That’s notable, because it’s not like these devout Jewish men hadn’t already been taught to pray. They prayed multiple times a day, and listened to the prayers of their priests and teachers regularly. But they saw that Jesus prayed differently.

Religious leaders in Jesus’ day normally prayed by reciting formal prayers in Hebrew. Jesus prayed in the more common dialect – Aramaic – and His prayers used more casual and intimate language. They certainly didn’t lack respect for God, but Jesus prayed in a much more personal way.

What we often call “The Lord’s Prayer”, which was read as part of the passage from Matthew 6, shows this from the beginning, by starting with “Our Father.”

Jesus used the word “Abba”, which in that time and in Hebrew families still today is the word children often use to speak to their fathers the way we would use “daddy” in English. It’s a term of intimacy and warmth. The difference is that “daddy” isn’t normally used except by young children, whereas “Abba” continues to be used as a term of respect and obedience by older and even adult children.

Some people prefer to call “The Lord’s Prayer” the “Our Father” prayer because of how important this beginning is. When Jesus said “here is how you should pray: “Our Father”… that was a huge deal. Who you understand God to be is fundamental to how you pray.

If you see God as some impersonal power in the universe you might just recite the same ritual prayers, hoping you’ve done enough to stay on God’s good side.

And if you see God as some kind of cosmic vending machine then your prayers will sound like bargaining sessions – God here’s what I’m willing to do if you’ll give me this thing I want.

And, sadly, some people have an image of God as a harsh judge itching to dole out punishment, or a taskmaster who insists that they constantly work harder and do better. These ideas of God – often given to people when they were kids – shape, or misshape, our approach to prayer.

Jesus taught us to pray to God as a Father who is close and intimate, but who is also holy and glorious. “Our Father in heaven…” One who is great and mighty, but who is also full of compassion and love for His children.

And in Matthew 6, the “Our Father” prayer says something about how God is prepared to care for us as our heavenly Father. Providing for our needs. Forgiving us. Giving us strength to face life’s challenges and temptations.

But that’s not all we know about who God is that might help us in prayer.

In Luke 11, when Jesus was teaching about prayer, He said this:

5 “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

This is an easy teaching to misunderstand, because it makes it sound like the friend, who represents God here, doesn’t want to help but will eventually answer us if we annoy him enough.

But you need to know that, in that culture, to fail to meet the basic need of an unexpected visitor would bring shame on you – people would hear about it and it would seriously tarnish your reputation. The point is that God doesn’t respond based on how well we pray or how good or righteous we are, but because of who God is. If a human can be moved to do something they don’t want to do for the sake of their reputation then our heavenly Father will certainly respond, no matter how clumsily we come to Him, on account of who He is. That’s why Jesus continues the teaching by saying:

9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Jesus assures us that God hears and responds, and says that if human fathers – with all our flaws and sinfulness – are moved to give good gifts to their children, then how much more will our perfect Father in heaven respond to us?

I’ve been trying to get across that our view of who we’re praying to is actually more important that what we pray for. Our Father in heaven. He is near and cares for us. He hears and responds not because we earn His attention with our skillful prayers or good behavior, but because of God’s grace that causes Him to descend to our level and enter into relationship with us.

Communion Beyond Words

Relationship is an important word here. This is where I want to jump into the second aspect of prayer I think Jesus can teach us – that prayer Jesus’ way has more to do with communion than communication.

In Matthew 6 Jesus told His listeners not to babble in on prayer with many words because “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” It’s not that we shouldn’t ask – we’re encouraged to make requests of God in prayer – but we don’t have to spend a ton of time on those requests, as if we could convince God with more words or a better explanation of why we want or need something. God knows, because He knows us perfectly.

If I were trying to explain why I had a tough day to a perfect stranger, it might take me a while get them to understand why certain things had affected me in a particular way. If they don’t know me they might hear about my experience and not think it was a big deal, because maybe that wouldn’t have been important to them the way it was to me.

But if I come home and tell my wife, Amy, about a hard thing that’s happened it doesn’t take a long explanation – as soon as I tell her a bit about what happened she’ll understand why it affected me, because she knows me.

When you know someone well and trust them, you can be simple, direct, and honest in your communication. And you don’t even needs words at times – you can just be present with them.

Jesus prayed with words that were recorded for our benefit, and taught prayers like the “Our Father” to help us know some of the kinds of things we might say to God.

But we also see that Jesus’ prayers were often very short, simple, and to the point. And we see that Jesus regularly went out into the wilderness to pray – to be present to His Father. I see more communion than communication in the way Jesus approached our heavenly Father.

Prayer isn’t about trying to control God and get what we want, or get all the answers to the mysteries of life revealed to us. Prayer is not therapy or stress relief or mindfulness. Prayer is about… connecting to God. Communion.

There’s good news and there’s bad news about this. The bad news is that we can’t get away with just making prayer a ritual or religious task, which is much simpler. I think it’s good to memorize and recite the “Our Father” at times. I certainly use it in my prayer life. But there is an irony to the Church adopting it as something to recite regularly because that doesn’t seem to be what Jesus wanted when He taught it.

Jesus didn’t say “Here is what you should pray” He said “Here is how you should pray.” Jesus was trying to get His followers out of the habit of lifelessly reciting formal prayers and into the habit of approaching their heavenly Father in a way that was simple and personal.

That’s what is modelled in the “Our Father”. Father in heaven, help me do your will, please provide for my basic needs, forgive me for the things I’ve messed up, help me forgive people who’ve wronged me, and please give me the strength to resist temptation. Simple. Direct. And ready to be filled in with some honest examples of what you’re going through and where you’ve been going wrong.

So, the “bad” news about seeing prayer as communion with God is that you can’t simply rely on religiously reciting certain words often enough and somehow please God that way. But the good news is that you also don’t need to know what words to pray, and you often don’t need words at all.

Communication requires words. Communion doesn’t. Communion requires presence. It is enough, at times, to simply try to be aware that God is there, and to remember that you want to know and serve Him.

In 1stThessalonians 5:17 the Bible says “pray continually” or “pray without ceasing” in some translations. If that meant we were supposed to keep up a constant stream of conversation with God in our heads or out loud, I know I couldn’t do it. You’d go crazy trying. But I understand this instruction to mean that we should seek to live our lives with an ongoing awareness of God and openness to God.

Sometimes we mistakenly think that there are sacred times or activities and non-sacred ones. Church is a sacred time, so you praise and pray and learn about God. And maybe you try to carve out a special “quiet time” in the day to get our your Bible or devotional book and have prayer, putting a little sacred into your otherwise non-sacred day.

A quiet or devotional time is a great thing, but the whole concept of sacred and non-sacred times and places is wrong. God isn’t absent from your commute and work and errands and chores and conversations. There are no non-sacred times for an active follower of Jesus. So it’s helpful to think of prayer as a way of inviting God into all of these times, and seeking to be aware of how God is always at work.

One of the most respected teachers about prayer and spiritual practices of the last generation was Dallas Willard, who had this to say about how prayer fits into our lives:

Don’t seek to develop a prayer life – seek a praying life. A ‘prayer life’ is a segmented time for prayer. You’ll end up feeling guilty that you don’t spend more time in prayer. Eventually you’ll probably feel defeated and give up. A ‘praying life’ is a life that is saturated with prayerfulness – you seek to do all that you do with the Lord. – Dallas Willard

Conclusion

What Willard and other wise teachers are getting at, and what I think we see modeled by Jesus in the Gospels, is that prayer can be something that helps us go through all of life with an awareness of God’s presence with us. I wouldn’t personally put a “Jesus is my co-pilot” bumper sticker on my car but that is the right idea.

A vibrant spiritual life is one where I co-labour with God. Wake up in the morning and remember that God is with you. Invite Him into your day as you shower. Tell Him what you’re worried about facing as you walk out the door. Invite His wisdom and compassion before you make that awkward phone call or go into the tricky meeting. Remember the depth of God’s grace for you when someone annoys or wrongs you. Give thanks to God regularly for the His provision and the good you see Him doing around you.

You don’t have to stop and say “Dear God, thank you for the following…”, just notice what you have to be grateful for and direct that sense of gratitude to God. Your heavenly Father, who cherishes you, desires your good, and can be trusted

It used to be popular for Christians to say that our faith is “a relationship, not a religion.” There are a couple of flaws with that cliché, but it also contains a core of truth we should be careful not to lose. Being a Christian is not rooted in joining a religious or political tribe or adopting a certain set or moral values, but loving Jesus and giving our lives to Him in faithfulness. The way Jesus showed us how to live is in an ongoing relationship with God, not dead religious practices. Without prayer – prayer Jesus’ way – this is impossible.

Or, as Jesus said in Matthew 19: “With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” “Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

So why don’t we end in prayer:

Our heavenly Father, thank you for your love and care for us. Be with people feeling the stresses and strains of this week – teachers, parents, kids, and any who are sick or in pain, or feeling grief and loss. Help those who are struggling with basic necessities, and inspire us to be generous with all you’ve given us.

Forgive us for the ways we’ve fallen short, and help us to forgive people who have sinned against us. Give us strength for whatever we’ll face this week – help us to make wise choices and love as Jesus did. And now, in this quiet moment, hear these prayers that may be on some of our minds, or, should we chose to simply listen, be present to us. Amen.