SERIES: Living through the Lord’s Prayer -- “Plunging Into God”

Matthew 6:9-10
(with thanks to john stott & timothy keller)

1. we’re looking at the Lord’s Prayer these days.

2. 2 Senators, 1 a Republican & 1 a Democrat, sat down to eat breakfast together. R to D – You Democrats are not religious. I bet you $20 that you cannot even say the 1st line of the Lord’s Prayer. The D replied – get out your $20. I not only know the 1st line of the Lord’s Prayer, I know the 2nd as well. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And the R said – I’m astounded, you win, here’s your $20!

3. the Lord’s Prayer is the richest source of prayer in the whole Bible. It lays out how Jesus wants us to pray – This, then, is how you should pray – with these words, for these things.

4. this morning I want to look at the 1st 2 verses of the Lord’s Prayer (9-10). Jesus teaches us to make God’s concerns our top priority in prayer.

God’s Fatherhood, name, kingdom, will
1. notice that the 1st half of the prayer is all about God – his Fatherhood, his name, his kingdom & his will. Our Father…hallowed be your name…your kingdom come...your will be done. The Father’s concerns are to be given top priority in our prayers.

2. there is nothing that we need more than to NOT look at ourselves. The 1st order of business when we pray is God’s business. This does not seem natural. By nature we are self-focused, self-centered, self-intoxicated.
3. a few months ago Hannah & I were at Powell’s Books in Portland. We were leaving the coffee shop, excitedly talking about books. All of a sudden I kicked something. I looked down & it was a crawling baby. And over to my right the baby’s father had his nose to a shelf of books, intently reading book titles, totally oblivious to his wandering child.

4. that experience for me is like a picture of prayer. That father should have been focused on his baby instead of on himself & a shelf-full of books. His baby was far more important. Lesson – when I pray I find it so easy to focus on myself rather THAN to focus on who is most important – God.

5. Jesus teaches us to plunge ourselves into God as we begin to pray. We are to think about him until our hearts are dazzled, awe-struck & consumed by his majesty.

God himself
1. our Father. Father is the language of relationship & intimacy. He’s a personal God. God of love & power. Fully revealed by his Son Jesus Christ.

2. he is our Father in heaven. He is infinite & transcendent. He is not bound by space & time. There is something/Someone more to this life than we can see. Heaven reaches down to earth.

6. his name is to be hallowed. God’s name refers to God himself as he is & as he has been revealed. God is holy. He is separate from all his creation. He is exalted over all that exists.

7. to hallow his name is to treat God as holy. To pray that God’s name, God himself, would be given honor in our lives, in the church, and in the world that he made.

8. your kingdom come. The kingdom of God is God’s rule, God’s reign. God is already reigning in absolute sovereignty over creation, history & his church. He is King.

9. when Jesus came he announced a new & special in-breaking of the kingdom of God that Mike Higgs spoke so eloquently of 2 weeks ago. Jesus proclaimed the salvation of the kingdom & all its blessing. He also announced the demands of submission to that kingdom.

10. to pray that God’s kingdom may come IS TO PRAY that God’s kingdom would grow & advance & invade our lives, our churches, our communities, our state, our country & our world in an ever-increasing manner.

11. your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God is infinite in knowledge, love & power. To resist God & his will is to be a fool. But to desire & do God’s will is to be wise.

12. to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven IS TO PRAY that our life on earth may come closer & closer to approximate God’s life in heaven.

Praying like a parrot
1. it’s so easy to pray this prayer like a parrot. To rattle it off – memorized, empty words without heart, desire, resolve.

2. we are constantly under the pressure of our self-centeredness. And the pressure of our secular, postmodern culture. It’s far too easy to be concerned about our own little name, our own little empire, our own silly little will.

3. Jesus reminds us in the Lord’s Prayer that our top priority is NOT our name, kingdom & will BUT God’s. John Stott – whether we can pray these petitions with integrity is a searching test of the reality & depth of our Christian profession.

Our Father
1. some of us have difficulty relating to God as our Father. The humanity, failures or absence of our earthly fathers get in the way. I have a story for you from someone in our congregation who has struggled with this. Listen –

For me, each time the word "Father" is used brings a sting. Father's Day is hard for me. Using Father God in a sentence does a little jolt to my soul. My father sexually abused me from my early childhood years to approx. l2 years of age. The silence, deceit and manipulation from a man, who to me represented values assigned to God the Father, was very confusing. This was particularly so since our home was a very, very religious one with strict rules. My father was a pastor. My earliest impression of God the Father...strict, strict, strict and if God didn't get you, the Communists would!

As is common in sexual abuse, I acted out, did some cutting, was a frequent runaway, and was hospitalized in a suicide attempt. I was insecure in myself and understandably so, insecure about God.

When I was in junior high my youth leader, who was one of the very, very few men I trusted, noticed the conflict but didn’t know what was causing it. BUT, he very wisely recognized my insecurities and reaffirmed to me many times the verse, "He that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out......"

That verse has been implanted in my heart and brain and I hold fast and tight onto it knowing that God will not leave me - never. God will not abuse me. He may allow circumstances to enter my life, but at that point, I have to make a decision about how I am going to respond, to either let them draw me closer to God or farther away from him. It was a conscious decision on my part that no matter what, I would remain faithful to God.
I have learned that forgiveness is the process of releasing the anger that had gripped my heart. I have learned to recognize the buzz words, the negative thinking and to immediately give them to God, one buzz word at a time, one negative thought at a time & not let them store up in my heart to create the intense bitterness that so easily results.

Six months ago I visited my father’s grave for the first time. I dried rose petals from my own yard and took them out of state to where his grave was and sprinkled them on his head stone. I asked God to release the last grip of anger. This act has changed my thoughts about God as my Father. Releasing the anger and giving him his own peace and peace to me.

2. we live in a wonderful/terrible world in which wonderful & terrible things happen to us. Even in the church. Even in Christian families. If any one here this morning is being abused, don’t stand for it. Tell someone who can help you. Don’t hide the secret any longer.

3. God in heaven did not look down & see somebody who was a good father and say, I want to be like them, I’m going to start calling myself Father. No. We learn our fathering from God; he doesn’t learn his from us. Our image of fathers needs to flow downward from the nature, person & work of God into our lives & circumstances.

4. the Lord of the universe loves you like a father. God is the Father we have all longed for. We are to measure our human fathers by the standard of our Heavenly Father & not the other way around.

5. 2 books – A Father for All Seasons by Bob Welch & To Own a Dragon: Reflections on Growing Up without a Father by Donald Miller.

As you go
1. Our Father in heaven
hallowed by your name
your kingdom come
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.

2. beginning today, when you pray, make God’s Fatherhood, name, kingdom & will your top priorities. There is nothing that we need more than to NOT look at ourselves.


Music i listened to while sermonizing – mark knopfler & emmylou harris; chris tomlin; charlie hall; david crowder band; coldplay

Books i read & studied while sermonizing – God’s big picture by vaughn roberts; the message of the sermon on the mount by john stott

“The Difference between Religion and the Gospel”

Acts 16:11-15; Ephesians 2:8-9

1. this past week I was listening to Issac Ropp & Big Suke on Prime Time driving home from work (sports talk radio). The topic of the hour was lying.

2. their bottom line – some lies can actually make life better (Big Suke – lies can make your marriage stronger); some lies are good; some lies are bad. Lies that upset them both – high profile baseball players lying about steroids.

3. within about 30 seconds it was obvious that they were setting their own standards for lying, for right & wrong.

4. every culture, every nation, every people recognize that there is good & evil in our world. Laws are passed, policies are created, regulations are established to ride herd on evil.

5. you do this, you get fired. Do this, you get 5 years in prison. Do this, you get grounded. Do this, I’ll divorce you. Do this, you’re on probation. Do this, you’ll be expelled from school. Do this, you’re sleeping on the couch.

6. the Bible has a name for this evil – sin. People universally believe in sin whether they call it that or not. Elaborate religious systems have been built to do battle with sin. Even atheists, people who don’t believe in God, believe in something like sin & are forced to confront it on their own terms.

the problem of sin
1. barbara brown taylor has written a fascinating little book entitled Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation.

2. according to taylor sin is our wrecked relationship with God, one another, and the whole created order. She quotes Simone Weil. ‘All sins are attempts to fill voids.’ Because we cannot stand the God-shaped hole inside of us, we try stuffing it full of all sorts of things, but only God my fill it.

3. sin is not just the breaking of divine rules (prohibitions against stealing, lying, adultery, murder, slander) but the making of good things into ultimate things – making something else more central to your significance, purpose, happiness than your relationship to God (Timothy Keller).

4. we stuff our God-shaped hole with a mixture of good & bad stuff – money, sex, power, success, recreation, career, family, ideology, toys, technology, friends, food, drink, drugs…you name it.

5. one form that sin takes is religion – I am going to be a good person and do good things.

the problem of religion
1. the problem of religion is self-salvation – I’m going to save myself through my personal virtue & good works –
® be a one-wife, one-husband spouse
® be there for my kids
® put my dirty dishes in the sink, better yet dishwasher
® hard worker at the office
® keep my yard mowed & car washed
® file a honest tax return
® cheer for America at the summer Olympics
® be a moderate drinker
® give money to the American Cancer Society
® going to join a church
® vote at every election
® try my best to keep my word
® recycle my paper, glass & plastic
® shop at local businesses
® be a generous tipper
2. religion says that God accepts me because of my efforts & virtue. I can earn God’s attention & favor.

3. in contrast to religion, Timothy Keller speaks of grace (gospel) – in Christ I know I am accepted by grace not only despite my flaws, but because I was willing to admit them. The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me.

4. religion is what I do to earn God’s acceptance. Gospel is what Christ has done to earn me God’s acceptance.

5. now I’m ready to talk about the gospel (the good news of Jesus Christ) – I am accepted by God because of what Christ has done for me.

1 gospel story
Lydia (Acts 16:11-15)
1. Lydia is a good person. She prays. She worships God. She’s a successful business woman. But the God-shaped hole in her life is still empty of God. Religion wasn’t enough.

2. Paul shared the gospel. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. It’s at this point that she turned from religion to the gospel. It was no longer what she did to earn God’s favor. It was now what Jesus had done for her on the cross.

3. she was baptized as a sign of following Christ. The word baptize can mean dye like a cloth. She has been dipped into the grace, the salvation, the forgiveness of Christ & comes out a new person with a new outlook and a new destiny.

the difference-making grace (Ephesians 2:8-9)
1. for it is by grace that you have been saved. Grace – what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

2. and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Salvation is God’s gift. We can’t create our own salvation no matter how hard we try, no matter how good we might be.

3. not by works so that no man can boast. Religion is based on works, moral performance, human righteousness. The gospel is based on grace, Christ’s sacrifice, Christ’s righteousness imparted to us.

what now?
1. our hope lies in what the bible calls repentance – confessing both the things we have done wrong (cheating, lying) & the things we have turned to other than God to find significance. To repent is to change the way we live.

2. next we believe in Christ. We trust in Christ & Christ alone for our salvation. Not our works but his grace. We believe 1st in who Christ said he was (Son of God, Savior of the world), 2nd that we need salvation, 3rd that on the Cross he secured our salvation, 4th that he rose from the dead.

3. part of what this leads to is baptism. Baptism is a picture of salvation, of how Christ has cleansed us of all our sin – past, present, future.

4. under the water is a picture of death – we have died to our sin in Christ. Rise up out of the water is a picture of life – we have risen to new life in Christ. Our destiny has been altered. We love Christ & because we love him we now obey his commands.

5. lloyd walsh, kim leekwai, kaihlie Dunlop, tucker Neiffer, bailey Neiffer, logan Pentico & mackenzie Pentico
have all said “yes” to Jesus as their Savior. Today they
follow him in baptism before all of us, their family & friends.

6. the difference between religion and the gospel is Jesus. If you desire to give you life to Christ today for salvation please pray this prayer along with me – Father God, my heart’s most fundamental trust has not been in you but in my own competence and decency. This has only gotten me into trouble. As far as I know my own heart, today I give it to you, I transfer my trust to you, and ask that you would receive and accept me not for anything I have done but because of everything Christ has done for me. amen.



Music i listened to while sermonizing – brian doerksen, u2, chris tomlin; willie nelson;

Books i read & studied while sermonizing – the eyes of the heart by frederick buechner; the reason for God by timothy keller; the road by cormac mccarthy; speaking of sin by Barbara brown taylor;

SERIES: Living through the Lord’s Prayer-- “The Three Ways of Prayer”

Matthew 6:6-8

1. our mission statement reads – we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ who love God and love others. Make disciples comes from the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Love God and love others comes from the Great Commandment in Matthew 22:37-39.
2. make disciples involves at least 2 steps. 1st that of accepting Christ into your life as your Savior & Lord. 2nd that of learning what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
3. the 1st step, what I call saying “yes” to Jesus as your Savior, is about evangelism, witness, conversion. Our life of faith & following Christ begins here.
4. this year I’m praying that God would use us as a church to bring 10 people to say “yes” to Jesus as their Savior & Lord. I want you to pray along with me. I’m talking about children, youth & adults. I know of 1 high school student who said “yes” to Jesus at DYC. If you know of others, any one, please let me know.
5. prayer for God to use us to bring at least 10 people to himself this year….

ÌÌÌ

1. prayer is a common religious practice. TIME magazine recently featured an article on the Dali Lama. They showed a picture of him praying prostrate on the floor of his home in northern India as his day started.

2. some people turn to prayer when they have nothing else to hold onto. Frederick Buechner writes in his most recent memoir – The Eyes of the Heart – about his younger brother Jamie dying of cancer. He never went to church except once in a while to hear me (preach), and he didn’t want a funeral, he told me, but when I suggested maybe cocktails and dinner for some of his old friends in the fall when everybody got back to the city, he said that sounded like a good idea. But he did ask me if I would write a prayer for him that he could use, and David (Buechner’s son-in-law) said that he had it there on the table beside him (when he died).

the prayer – Dear Lord, bring me through darkness into light. Bring me through pain into peace. Bring me through death into life. Be with me wherever I go, and with everyone I love. In Christ’s name I ask it. Amen.

3. Jesus prayed. And Jesus painstakingly taught his followers the importance of prayer and how to pray.

4. I’ve been trying to get into the Lord’s Prayer for 2 weeks & haven’t succeeded. I keep getting pulled in by his introductory comments in 6:5-8 – the 3 ways of prayer. The hypocrite, the pagan, the Christ-follower (last week).

The hypocrite (5)
1. the hypocrites in view here are the Pharisees. The keepers of the Law. They had lost sight of God & people in their zeal to dot every i & cross every t.

2. they prayed for the applause of an audience. Standing in the synagogue, standing on street corners. They prayed to be seen by others. Public religiosity.

3. their motive was impressing people NOT connecting with God. They used prayer as a means to amaze others, as a means to meet their selfish, inward need for significance.

4. their prayers were aimed horizontally rather than vertically.

5. do we ever pray this way? To be seen by (others). To impress others with our words, our heart, our knowledge, our compassion, our passion?

6. Jesus calls for God-centered prayer.

The pagan (7-8)
1. the pagan Christ has in mind would be non-Jewish people in Palestine who prayed to a pantheon of Roman & Greek gods.

2. do not keep on babbling…for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Babble is used only here in the entire New Testament. It refers to a mechanical manner of praying. The ritualistic repetition of prayer formulas used to gain God’s attention & to guarantee the success of the prayer.

3. prayer as the uttering of magical code words over & over again. Praying with the mouth but not the mind. Babble.

4. prayer that concentrates on words rather than upon God. The magic, the power, the effectiveness, the persuasion is found in the words themselves.

5. if I can just string together the right combination of rants & raves THEN God will be obligated to me. And I will get what I want. The gods are scattered before me to do my will. And I hold the right formula to unlock their powers.

6. do we ever pray like that? Let’s not fool ourselves. Do we ever fall into the trap of believing that if we just pray the right combination of words, reference the right verses, pray the right number of in Jesus’ name. If we just mention the blood of Christ. If we just name it & claim it. If we just stand on the right biblical promise. Do we ever search more for a God-be-impressed string of words in our prayers THAN we search for God?
7. the hypocrite aims for fortifying his self-esteem through trying to impress others in prayer AND misses God. The pagan aims to utter the correct words the exact number of times in prayer AND misses God. We can do the same if we’re not careful.

8. now to the 3rd way of prayer. The Christ way of prayer.

The Christ way of prayer (6:6&9)
1. but when you pray, go into your room, close the door. We pray by exclusion. Finding a quiet, private place to pray where we will not be disturbed.

2. and pray to your Father, who is unseen. We pray with awareness. Who is the God we pray to? He’s our Father. We come to him as his children.

3. then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. We pray with confidence. We delight our Father when we pray to him. We can be certain that he hears & welcomes our prayers.

4. now to drop down to 6:9, Our Father. This is the kind of God we pray to. He is personal. God is just as personal as we are. In fact, ever more so. Our personality derives from his personality.

5. we have to be careful that we don’t depersonalize God. He’s far more than just a – higher being, the absolute, the all in all, the ground of all being, the force behind the universe, the infinite one & so on.

6. no, the God we pray to is our Father. We approach him like children. We don’t try to impress him. We don’t try to manipulate him. We approach him in humble need & adoration.

memos to the almighty by billy sprague
1. 1 year after high school graduation…back surgery

2. spring 1979…lullaby

3. february 1980…severe bronchitis

4. next year…fall in love

5. fall 1983…should pain

6. spring 1987…breast cancer

7. saturday november 18, 1989…RosaLynn killed

8. july 1992, barcelona, spain…healing

9. saturday october 22, 1994…wedding

10. prayer is a bullentin board where I post memos to the Almighty…


Music i listened to while sermonizing – david crowder band; arvo part; bruce springsteen; joni mitchell; neil young; van morrison; u2

Books i read & studied while sermonizing – matthew 1-13, ancient Christian commentary; matthew by eugene boring; studies in the sermon on the mount by d. martyn lloyd-jones; the sermon on the mount by john stott; preaching the cross by mark dever; the road by cormac mccarthy;