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ATTN - SERMON SPICE - THE LORD’S PRAYER: HONESTLY
Ok, so you’ve probably never heard the Lord’s prayer quite like that before have you?
I think most of us have probably just quoted it or rattled it off without much thought to what we were saying, but have you ever thought about what that prayer requires?
It’s a pretty heavy requirement, actually.
When you understand what’s really being said, you might have a few objections of your own.
BACKGROUND
It’s a rather curious story, really.
One of the places you find this prayer in the New Testament occurs when Jesus’ disciples approach Him and ask Him . . .
“teach us to pray.”
Now, if it had been me, I’d of probably told them the typical “Pastoral” thing.
I’d have said, “You don’t need to be “taught” how to pray; just focus your mind, open your mouth and talk to God.
That’s what I’d have said.
But Jesus doesn’t hesitate.
He answers them by saying, “When you pray, pray like this.” That’s pretty amazing to think that the Creator the Universe, robed it failing flesh would take the time to tell us how we can best talk with God.
What’s even more incredible is that so many of His children, after He has taken the time to tell us how to pray, never even really comprehend the depths of the prayer that He gave us.
So our goal is to change all of that.
We want, over the next few weeks, to dig into this prayer He gave us and really come to understand it.
We’re going to do that phrase by phrase.
Today, we begin with what you might call, “the Invocation.”
Jesus tells us that, when we pray, we should begin by saying, “Our Father in Heaven.”
Now, we’ve heard that so often, that it goes right over our heads.
If you’d have said that to the average Jew of Jesus day, he would have thought that you were rather irreverent.
The term Jesus uses here is not in Hebrew nor in Greek.
It is in Aramaic.
He uses the term abba.
This was the “everyday language of the family.”
It was very familiar language.
To the Jewish mind, it was so familiar that it would have been considered disrespectful, yet Jesus didn’t hesitate to speak like a child would to its father: simply, inwardly, confidently.
And I don’t think that Jesus just stumbled upon the term.
For one thing, Jesus used that term a lot to talk to address His Father.
For another, I think He intended for you and I to be familiar with the Father as well.
It wasn’t that He wanted us to rob God’s respect, but to learn that, even though God was the Maker of the Universe, He was also the Father of His children and we could experience real intimacy with Him.
Now, when I use that term “intimacy,” you might wonder what I mean.
In fact, you might wonder how it is possible to have a close relationship with God at all.
After all, He’s a Spirit and we are flesh and blood.
He is infinite and we are limited.
He is sovereign and we just think we’re in control.
How can mortal man relate to the immortal, invisible God at all.
Well, there’s another passage of Scripture that so clearly describes the intimacy we are to have in prayer and, indeed, the means by which we can have that closeness with Father.
You find that description over in the book of Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 14.
There it says
14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need’
We enter the presence of God and get close to Him through what the Bible calls our “great High Priest,” Jesus Christ the Son of God.
You see, we really can have an intimate relationship with God Himself.
NEED
And some may be saying, “Well, that’s fine, Rusty, and maybe its important to you, but it’s really not that relevant to my life.
How is intimacy with God going to help me pay my light bill this month or keep me from losing it with my mouthy teenager who is extremely confident he knows absolutely everything?”
Well, let me ask you: Don’t you seek the kind of relationship with God that gives you real hope for the future?
Don’t you want to pray and feel like your prayers are getting higher than the ceiling?
Don’t you want to have a deep down, genuine connection with God? Wouldn’t you like to be so vitally connected to God that, when it comes time to die, you can face it with confidence?
I want you to listen today because experiencing intimacy with the Living God can bring you a genuine reality of His presence to your life.
Listen because you seek a genuine reality, but also listen too because you may be seeing the wrong reward.
Apart from experiencing intimacy with the Father, prayer is reduced to a cosmic coke machine.
You know, you put in a prayer wish, hit the button, and out pops what you asked for.
The truth is, that kind of praying actually does more to hinder intimacy with God rather than help it.
That’s why this message is so important.
Only intimacy with God can break you from pursuing the wrong reward when you pray.
And when it comes to this intimacy in prayer, there are really three truths you need to know about it.
In the first place, to experience intimate prayer with God you must believe that:
DIV 1: INTIMATE PRAYER IS POSSIBLE
EXP
It’s almost as if the writer of Hebrews anticipates our objection.
Intimacy in prayer with a God you can’t see, who’s never suffered physical pain nor lacked for anything might be hard.
You see, intimacy is based upon understanding.
I have a hard time getting close to someone who doesn’t “get” me.
But that’s just it.
Hebrews 4 makes it clear that Jesus does “get” me.
He gets me because of the reality of our shared experience.
V. 15 says that “he was in all points tempted as we are . .
.”
Hey, Jesus can relate: He’s been hungry; he’s been sleepy; he’s angry; he’s been sad.
He wept at funerals; laughed at jokes; enjoyed desserts; and celebrated at weddings.
Through it all, he was tried in all the many ways we are tried.
He has shared our experience.
And because He has shared our experience, He, v. 15 says, knows how to “sympathize” with our weaknesses.
That verb, sympathize was the same word used of the way a mother felt for her children or one brother felt for another.
But this sympathy went beyond just feeling sorry for someone else.
It also included the element of “active help.”
Since Jesus is called the “High Priest,” He doesn’t just feel compassion, He actually enters into our suffering and makes it His own.
You see, intimacy is possible because He shares our experience.
ILL -INTIMACY THROUGH SHARED EXPERIENCE
There’s a question mark in my mind after every Discovery Class.
(By the way, if you don’t know what the Discovery class is, it’s the class that allows you to discover more about Peace Church and whether or not you want to join our church family.)
That question mark is always there.
Know what I’m asking myself?
I’m asking, “which one of these people will really connect and be here five years from now serving God, and which will not be?”
You see, as much as I would like for everyone to “stick,” I know that some will not.
Now the reason I have a question mark is not because I am mystified about how to make sure new members hang around.
That answer is pretty clear.
The way that new members become old members is for them to discover intimacy within this body.
They have to really get connected.
And the question mark is not about how to get them connected . . .
not really.
You see, I know that the way that people really develop intimacy is through shared experience.
So I watch.
Here’s what I find: People who go through a Christmas theater or do a stint at summer camp usually stick.
Know why?
Because they “share an experience.”
And its not just any experience.
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