Established in God's Love: Talking with God

Good Morning once again…I know this series has been a bit repetitive to what we have studied over the last few months but I feel compelled to remind you that we all need a good relationship with God and the best way to do that is to remind ourselves of how we go about creating the relationship from our perspective to begin with. This is the third week in our series on being established in God’s love and this week, we are going to spend some time looking over the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples to pray. Before I get too far though…you will notice that there is space in your bulletins this morning…if you desire and want to look back at this time of reflection later, that might be a really good place to jot some notes for yourself…just saying...

This prayer, often referred to as the Lord’s Prayer, is one that we recite every Sunday and one that I know we have looked at a couple time but I want us to study it this morning, which I don’t think we have done much of in the past. And if we have, this is not an invitation to check out on our time because as we move one week closer to the time of waiting called Advent, it is extremely important for us to not only be preparing our homes by decorating, and yes I witnessed someone laying out all their blow up decorations in their front yards on Friday, but also to prepare our relationship with God for the coming of the newborn King.

I want to remind you as well that everything we have been talking about involves relationships. Mostly our relationship to each other but today we are going to focus our attention on our relationship with God…so, here I come…are you ready?

The Lord’s Prayer: What do we know about it?

Let’s take a few moments to do some background…this is an easy one because we all quote this scripture verbatim, every single Sunday…I invite you to open your Bibles if you have them with you to Matthew 6:9-13. As we look at this passage this morning, I am hoping to breeze through some background and then break it down with the understanding at the end that we are going to know what God expects from us in our prayers, sound like a plan?

Ok, well, that’s what we are doing any way…so let’s dig in a bit

Who, Where, & When?

Who? - Jesus, Disciples, Crowds

Where? - Along the Sea of Galilee, part of the longer portion of the Beatitudes

When? - Very early in Jesus’ ministry but at a time when large crowds of people have begun following him

Now that gives us a physical location, who is hearing this teaching, and a bit about when it might be happening. So let’s tear the prayer apart a bit and see what we think and feel about the Aspects of the Prayer.

Aspects of the Lord’s Prayer

What I am hoping is that through this time this morning that we might be able to apply this prayer a little more closely to our own prayer lives…so the first piece I want to cover is this idea that Jesus is teaching here. He is standing or sitting on the side of a hilly seashore, we believe that he is giving a long teaching on how we should live our lives. He starts this teaching with telling those gathered about who will be blessed in this world, that the Beatitudes that many of us are familiar with and they happen in Matthew’s Gospel at the beginning of the 5th Chapter. After the typical Beatitudes, Jesus begins teaching about how we are going to be the ones to carry his message into the world (Salt & Light), he talks a little bit about the Commandments, and a little bit about reaching out to those who need help (the least of these). Once he completes this piece, he dives into what it means to be in relationship with God and how that relationship is strengthened only through the use of prayer.

So let me ask you a question…I want each of you to think about the strongest relationship you have with someone else. Everyone got somebody in mind? Now, what is it about that relationship that makes it strong?

Answers should reflect that the key to that relationship involves communication and not just talking but proper communication…our relationship with God is exactly the same way. If we do not have good communication with God, is there really any way that we will ever be able to hear God’s voice?

Now that we have established that we are created in God’s love, that our relationship with God relies upon being able to hear God’s voice, and that our relationship to God must be in order to hear God’s voice, we need to be open to communication to and from God, let’s dig into the prayer...

A recognition of God as Lord of our lives

It is really important to spend some time digging into this prayer. And the very first phrase that Jesus taught us to recite speaks to this…look in your Bibles at Matthew 6:9…or up here on the screen

Matthew 6:9 CEV

You should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, help us to honor your name.

What does this very first verse say to you?

For the majority of us, this phrase needs to be part of our daily prayers. It does not always have to sound like this but it is really important to recognize that God, in heaven, is to be praised and worshiped and loved for all that God gives us each day, right? So this first phrase speaks a lot about giving God glory and praise…Jesus is essentially saying, “God, you are the one to be honored and praised”…Jesus then teaches us that we are to turn ourselves over to God’s will...

A desire for God’s perfect will to be done

As you read this next verse, I want you to think about your very own lives…what does this next phrase say to you?

Matthew 6:10 CEV

Come and set up your kingdom, so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven.

Listen, this is really about our giving ourselves over to God. I get it, it’s hard to trust and believe that God will make all things come on earth that is in heaven. I mean we all have this vision that heaven is a place of perfection and life here on earth will probably never be like that but does that mean that we stop trying to show others the vision we have of heaven? There is enough negativity that holds us back in this life. What I think Jesus was trying to get us to realize is that we don’t have the answers to solve the world’s problems, but that if we truly revere God, then we should be working like we really believe that God can make that happen. If we stop trying, how on Earth is anything going to get better? Even closer to home, if we stop trying to teach and show people that there is a place where they can feel love and be accepted, how on Earth are we ever going to get others to join us on our mission in this world? Think about it...

Up to this point, is there anything in this prayer that talks about providing our self-serving needs? Humans are selfish by nature, you can walk into any corporate headquarters and sit for a few seconds and realize that we are more interested in having our way rather than God’s…our relationship with God is about what we can do for God, not the other way around.

Asking for physical provision

There is however, one small piece that talks about our needs and it is only about our needs…that comes next...

Matthew 6:11 CEV

Give us our food for today.

So what do you think Jesus means by this statement?

Exactly, it is about making sure that we can survive this world…it is not about that fishing boat or yacht we would like to be living on or having everything that our hearts desire. This is about making sure our bodies are capable of doing the work that God calls us into…with me to this point because we are going to start moving quickly through the next few pieces...

Asking for forgiveness

The next piece asks for something that we need but it is not physical, emotional, or psychological but rather a spiritual need...

Matthew 6:12 CEV

Forgive us for doing wrong, as we forgive others.

I know I have brought this up before but it is really important to see this…Jesus tells us to pray for forgiveness only to the extent that we have forgiven others. Again, it is about relationships. In another part of the gospels, Jesus talks about how we will be seen in heaven and it has a lot to do with this. If we act and respond as if there is no forgiveness in our hearts for others, then how can we say that we have any relationships at all?

This leads us to the last piece of the prayer…told you we were going to breeze through these...

Asking for spiritual protection

When we talk about our spiritual lives, there is only one thing left to mention...

Matthew 6:13 CEV

Keep us from being tempted and protect us from evil.

I know I have spent a lot of time on this piece lately and I am not going to spend much time on it this morning, just know that if Jesus felt we needed to hear it…it must be pretty important to resist temptation and that comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms...

Wrapping it all up...

So, this leads me to one final important rhetorical question…is there anywhere in here where Jesus says, pray for yourself this way?

Prayer is about creating an open relationship with God. Does this mean that we should not pray for those who need our prayers, nope, we should…that’s all part of the kingdom come piece. The thing I want us to really get out of this discussion this morning is that Jesus told his disciples and all those who were gathered around him...

Matthew 6:9 NIV

“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

Let us pray…Gracious and loving God, remind us as many times as it takes that we need to be open to you and your loving embrace and when we get it, help us to remember that you are in control, you provide our every need, and it is our duty to come to you in prayer, not the other way around. Amen.