Practing the Way: Prayer Part 1
Practicing the Way • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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What do I believe God wants us to know? We are praying to our Father, staring with Him, praying for His Name to be praise, for his will to be done, and His Kingdom do come
Why? We all long to connect to our Father and for our Father’s will, kingdom to be done, and His name to be praised
What do I believe God wants us to do? Pray to our Father starting with Him
Why? It bases our prayers in our relationship with God and a foundation for His will and kingdom to be done
ME/WE
Today, we engage in a spiritual practice that transcends belief, one that every human being has experienced, regardless of whether you are a believer, a skeptic, or even an atheist. This practice is deeply ingrained in our lives—so much so that 50% of Americans engage in it daily, yet it remains something many of us grapple with deeply.
For some of us it is like those METAL WIRE PUZZLES
There are days you get it and it is not PROBLEM
Other times it is a struggle
Other times you need someone else help
Which sometimes helps and others times it does not
ANYBODY KNOW WHAT SPIRITUAL PRACTICE I AM TALKING ABOUT? PRAYER
There are times we totally nail this practice and it is a praise Jesus, Hallijuah moment! WE FEEL GOOD
There other times we struggle, sometimes painfully struggle
There are others times as John Netwon the great hymn writer who wrote “Amazing Grace” says “the buzzing of a fly in the room is an overmatch for [my strength] to practice this Spiritua
THE QUESTION IS HOW DO WE OVERCOME THIS, HOW ARE WE TO PRAY? IS IT ALWAYS JUST TO BE A STRUGGLE?
DOES JESUS SAY THAT IS JUST THE WAY IT IS
WHAT IS SO AMAZING ABOUT JESUS IS THAT HE TEACHES US HOW TO PRAY.
In the heart of the Sermon of the Mount Jesus tells us how to pray
In Jewish teaching custom…the begining of sermon was important and the end was important but the MIDDLE was most important.
What is fascinating to me is that in all of Jesus teachings the only Spiritual Practice he teaches us how to do is PRAY
He doesn’t say this HOW you
Service
Heal
Teach/preach
WE SEE THIS IS LONGING OF THE HUMAN HEART SO MUCH SO THE DISCIPLES WHO ONE OF HIS DISCIPLES ASK THIS QUESTION…maybe too embaraased (we think we should know) to say because maybe he should have know….no dumb questions with our Abba
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
WE ARE ASKIGN THE SAME THING GOD: TEACH US HOW TO PRAYER
WE are going to dive into how to pray today part 1 of learning how to prayer
Let’s start with Matt 6 first to discover two ways not to pray…THINGS YOU HAVE WITNESSED PEOPLE DOING AND CALLING IT PRAYER…I want to say that’s not prayer…I want you to learn how to not prayer there are people who think they know how …Jesus starts here.
“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.
Jesus says when you PRAY it is not about PEFORMANCE…it’s about connection.
Great sovereign God of the universe who is ruler over all and in all who is omnipresence, ominscience, and omnipotent
IN SMALL GROUPS or on STAGE
THEY HAVE RECEIVED THEIR REWARD
FROM HUMANS
REWARD CAN BE NEGATIVE
We see this expounded more in Luke 18
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Rightous and unrighteous…we know how this story is going to go
THE PHARISEE WAS ABOUT HIMSELF, THE TAX COLLECTOR PRAYER WAS ABOUT GOD
Jesus says, pray in secret….does this mean we always need to go in secret???? No, there are public prayers
Be he is saying many of our prayer is about you and connection to your ABBA
What did we see Jesus doing Jesus withdrew to pray for hours at times
Spending time with Abba
HOW OFTEN DO WE GET ALONE WITH ABBA?
It is not about performance it is about connection
Another way not to pray
“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.
battalogeō: to utter many, and especially useless and purposeless, words
Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 6
repetition was used to pester the gods so they would grant someone’s request.
GIVE ME, GIVE ME, GIVE ME, GIVE ME
And then Jesus says, vs 8 YOUR FATHER KNOWS WHAT YOU NEED BEFORE YOU ASK HIM
Your Father already knows…(I sometimes know what my kids need before they ask). sometimes He freely gives without asking and other times He says just ask…not in babbling like maybe my kids will do to me or we have done to our parents.
We are not genies or pagan gods.
It is not the persiant widow from Luke 18 it’s the impatient and wise child
NO matter how many times I say God give me a Ferria, it is not going to happen
He knows that’s not what I need
There are other far more important things I need
ASK, SEEK, KNOCK
Jesus says 2 WAYS not to prayer
Then Jesus says let me show you how to pray
This is template, an outline that we get to fill out, not something to pray Word for Word though it can be done that way but that is not it’s main focus
WHAT IS INTERESTING WE ARE GOING TO SEE IS THAT THE LORD’S PRAYER DOESN’T START THE WAY WE CAN OFTEN PRAY
Where do we often start our prayers? As Bryan Chapell says backwards
Huh? We can sometimes start off going right to God asking, not saying we can never do that
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Jesus starts with OUR ABBA…this is word of endearment
- Jesus doesn’t start off say our KING, our creator, our sustainer…though he could those are correct….nor with incorrect things like our BOSS, our genie
- Why would we even thing incorrectly??? because sometimes we do or have done
How so?
- ANYONE EVERY PRAY TO GOD, GOD GIVEN ME ____ BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN SO GOOD OR HAVE BEEN TO AFRIAD TO PRAY BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN SO BAD?
THAT IS AN EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYER PRAYER
WHAT YOU GET IS BASED ON WHAT YOU DO OR DON’T DO…IT IS NOT A FAMILY RELATIONSHIP BUT A BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP
JESUS SAYS DON’T PRAY THIS WAY…YOU ARE SON OR DAUGHTER OF GOD
KNOW WHO YOU ARE PRAYING TO
King and the Carrot
Once upon a time there was a king who ruled over everything in a land. One day there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. He took it to his king and said, “My lord, this is the greatest carrot I’ve ever grown or ever will grow; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” The king was touched and discerned the man’s heart, so as he turned to go, the king said, “Wait! You are clearly a good steward of the earth. I want to give a plot of land to you freely as a gift, so you can garden it all.” The gardener was amazed and delighted and went home rejoicing. But there was a nobleman at the king’s court who overheard all this, and he said, “My! If that is what you get for a carrot, what if you gave the king something better?” The next day the nobleman came before the king, and he was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low and said, “My lord, I breed horses, and this is the greatest horse I’ve ever bred or ever will; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” But the king discerned his heart and said, “Thank you,” and took the horse and simply dismissed him. The nobleman was perplexed, so the king said, “Let me explain. That gardener was giving me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse.”
KNOW WHO YOU ARE PRAYING AND THE FIRST THREE PRAYERS ARE ABOUT GOD
PRAY FOR GOD’S NAME TO BE HONORED AND PRAISED
How do we do that?
THROUGH PRAISE
start off praising Him for who He is
My dad who is Gracious, all sofficent, who remedemed me, provides for me
Personal, who has brought into my life an amazing wife, an amazing children, amazing children.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS?
OUR MINDS START TO LOOK UP AND NOT DOWN
OUR HEARTS START TO GET WARM
OUR PROBLEMS DON’T SEE THAT BIG ANYMORE
MOST PRAISE SONGS ARE PRAYING THE FIRST PART OF THE SONG
GOOD GOOD FATHER
MY ENCOURAGEMENT IS START YOUR PRAYER TIME IN WORSHIP AND OR THE PSALMS
We sometimes don’t come with PRAISE WE COME WITH REQUESETS
alright, now we can move to me? NO
These might solve your prayers
2. YOUR KINGDOM COME
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
YOUR KINGDOM COME, NOT MY KINGDOM, NOT OUR POLITICAL LEADERS KINGDOM
HIS KINGDOM
WHICH IS FULL OF GOODNESS
What does it mean to pray His kingdom?
We are praying for HEALING: emtionally, physically, spiritualy, relationally
We are praying for our political leaders
We are praying for liberty captives to be set free
We are praying for love to abound
We are praying for babies to stop being murdered in the womb
We are praying for the foreigner and immagrant to be whole, have shalom
We are praying for PEACE
Pray for God’s kingdom to come apart of your life
3. PRAYING FOR HIS WILL TO BE DONE
NOT MY WILL, our your will…His will….this means I need to submit my will to His will…which is always better.
He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Narrow and hard the path that leads to life
This doesn’t mean
I listen to a podcast by John Ortberg adn he is going through a series on our stories and one of the recent ones is about “Nobody gets the story they want, their will”
BUT how many times it is the story we don’t want the best story for you
You didn’t want to leave that job or sell that house or serve the Lord in ___ capcity but you do and it was the best thing for you