“Getting an A+ in Jesus School of
Prayer: Asking” #4a
Reinbeck UMC
Reinbeck Presbyterian
July 19, 2015
I have a confession to make. I have been a
professing and practicing Christian for most 40 years. Ordained for 25 years. I
have pastored 7 churches containing hundreds of souls, and lead a big youth
ministry. I have prayed countless prayers; beside hospital beds, death beds, in
neonatal intensive care units, in nursing homes, in homes, in classes, at
meetings, at meals, and from various pulpits like this one.
Yet I have to admit that for most of
those years I had a totally incorrect understanding of prayer. I was working
under the assumption that prayer started with my reaching out to God. That it
was my job to dial up God’s 1-800 prayer hot line. Like many people, I had an
image in my head of God waiting by the phone for me to call.
It was a revolutionary revelation when
I realized that I had it backwards. I am not the initiator of the call… God is.
Prayer starts with God and it is our job to answer the prayer line.
• When
I feel the urge to pray, it is not my idea, but God’s prodding.
• When
we cry out in desperation, it is not our helplessness that moves us, but God’s
ever-present hopefulness ringing in our hearts.
• When
your heart bubbles over with thankful praise at the sight of a beautiful
sunset, or a newborn baby, it is God reaching out and calling you to prayer.
What a relief! What a weight is lifted
from our shoulders when we realize that prayer was really God’s idea long
before it was ours. Before you ever close your eyes and fold your hands, God is
already listening to you. Prayer is a privilege given to us by a loving
heavenly father who is always more ready to hear than we are to pray. Prayer
starts with God.
So, that’s where the Lord’s prayer
starts… Not with us, but with God. When Jesus started teaching lessons in
Jesus’ School of Prayer, he started with God.
“OUR FATHER or Abba“is about God’s intimate
name, “
”WHICH ART IN HEAVEN” is all about God‘s
awesome holiness, and
“THY KINGDOM COME THY WILL BE DONE” is all
about God’s glorious plan for creation. We as disciples must accept God’s plan
as our plan, and thereby become citizens of the kingdom.
Then, almost half way through the
Lord’s Prayer, we come to today’s passage and the attention turns to us.
“Give us this day our daily bread”
Let me point out a few things:
First, Jesus doesn’t teach us to pray, “DON’T
WORRY GOD I HAVE THE DAILY BREAD UNDER CONTROL.” But he starts with the request
for God to GIVE.
This goes directly against our human
instinct. We like to feel like we are pretty independent, and in control. The
Deuteronomy passage is written for folks just like us. “ When you have eaten
your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and
flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that
you have is multiplied” Isn’t that us?
We live in safe comfortable houses, most of us have plenty of food, (at least
compared to other places in the world), we may have savings, and pension funds,
some have 2 houses, or a camper, or a boat, or a 500” plasma TV… BUT… but the
passage says do not forget where it all came from.
It says, “do not forget the Lord your
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15
who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with
poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16
and fed you in the wilderness with manna … Do not say to yourself, “My power
and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” 18 But remember the
Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may
confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.”
You see even when prayer is about us,
it is really about God. Every bone in our bodies wants to be in control and
trust our own efforts. But this passage reminds us that although we may plant
the grain, it is God who makes it grow. We may own the cows, but it God that
created them for us. We may cash the paycheck, but it is God who allows us to
awaken each morning to go to work.
The story of Job reminds us that we can
lose everything in the blink of an eye, in the random twisting of a tornado, or
the ravages of cancer.
Prayer is trusting in God for today,
every day.
Matthew 6 reminds us, “Look at the
birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
In the Aramaic, this phrase “Daily
bread” is not limited to a food product with flour and yeast. It is a more
general term, which means all that we need to sustain life today. Food,
clothing, homes, jobs, health, relationships … everything we need is wrapped up
in the phrase “daily bread.”
God promises that he will provide all
we need if we trust in him in prayer.
The priest at an orphanage in England
writes that one morning when the orphanage had no money and no food. The
children were standing waiting for breakfast and he had no idea what he was
going to do.
He decided to pray in faith, “Lord
thank you for this food we are about to eat and those who will provide it.
AMEN”
As soon as he opened his eyes, the town
baker stood at the door. He said, I don’t know why, but I woke up early today
and just thought you might enjoy some fresh bread, so I baked enough for
everyone.
A few minutes later, the milk wagon was
rolling by and they heard a knock on the door. A wheel had broken and he would
have to have it repaired before he could go any further. The driver said, by
time I get it fixed, the milk would be spoiled. Can you use it?
Coincidence?… hardly.
I do believe that there are sometimes
simple coincidences, but I don’t believe the prodding of the baker or the
generosity of the milkman were coincidence. The simple truth is prayer works,
and God provides.
God never fails to give what we need if
we admit that WE CAN’T DO IT OURSELVES and prayerfully trust in him.
We trust God to GIVE us this day our
daily bread
Second, Jesus didn’t teach, “GIVE ME THIS DAY
MY DAILY BREAD.” Prayer is not all about me. Prayer is not selfish. This is a
prayer for all of us, all of humanity, all of the world. This is a prayer that
we will be generous to our families, our neighbors, our church… and dare I say
even our enemies?
Too often, when we pray, we sound like
an opera singer warming up “ME, ME, ME, ME.” When in fact Jesus teaches us not
to pray me, me, me, to pray for US, OUR AND WE.
God is not our cosmic Santa Claus
bringing things because we are individually good boys or good girls. God places
us in relationship- families, churches, communities so that we can join our
voices and pray with and for all of God’s people. AND God places us in
relationship- families, churches, communities so that we can join our hands and
be part of the answer to the prayers of all God’s people.
LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN BECAUSE IT IS
CRITICAL… God places us in relationship- families, churches, communities so
that we can join our voices and pray with and for all of God’s people. AND God
places us in relationship- families, churches, communities so that we can join
our hands and be part of the answer to the prayers of all God’s people.
That is the foundation of intercessory
prayer, which is praying for others. The Lord’s Prayer doesn’t have a sentence
or paragraph praying for the sick, the dying, and the hurting, but it does
teach that our prayers are bigger than just Me. Me,. Me. Pray for others and
pray with others, even as we pray for ourselves because we are all in this
together. No person is an island. We need other people to pray for us and we
need to be praying for others. I need you to pray for me and you need me to
pray for you. Not me, me, me but US, OUR and WE.
“Give us this day our daily bread.
Third, Jesus didn’t teach, “GIVE US THIS DAY
THE BREAD WE NEED FOR TOMORROW.” In fact Jesus teaches, “Consider the lilies of
the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown
into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?31
Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or
‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things;
and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But
strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well.
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
Don’t worry about tomorrow… yea, right
easier said than done right? Don’t worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will
bring worries of its own. That real comforting Jesus! But then, I guess he was
trying to teach rather than comfort.
Prayer and worry are not the same
thing. I think that sometimes we get the two mixed up. We worry, and we think
we are praying but we are not. Worry is like praying to yourself. What am I
going to do? What will I do if? What will happen if… What will I do about…?
Prayer on the other hand goes back the
first point I made, Prayer is trusting in God’s good provision.
Philippians 4:6 says “Do not be anxious
about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Mark Twain quipped, “I've suffered a
great many catastrophes in my life. Most of which never happened.” They never happened but it didn’t stop him
from worrying.
I’ll admit I am a worrier. I’m getting
better, but I worry about tomorrow. But no matter how much I worry, when
tomorrow becomes today, God provides in spite of me. Just when I needed a job,
just when I needed a friend, just when I needed an extra few dollars, just when
I needed anything… if I can stop worrying long enough to pray, God gives what I
need today. One of the names for God in the Old Testament is Jehovah-jireh God
provides. And he does.
• Ask…
BECAUSE WE CAN NOT DO IT OURSELVES
• Ask
…BECAUSE IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT US
• Ask
…INSTEAD OF WORRY
• Ask…
BECAUSE WE CAN NOT DO IT OURSELVES
• Ask
…BECAUSE IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT US
• Ask
…INSTEAD OF WORRY
…practice what we learned today.
So I want you to ASK you to get up and
move right now. Get up and move so that you are sitting with someone you think
could be a prayer partner for 21 days. For some it might be a spouse. For
others it might be better not to be a spouse. For single folks just find
someone with whom you are comfortable.
Now take the papers that the ushers are
handing out, one to each pair of peope. Fold them in half and carefully rip
them in half so you each have one. Then answer the three questions. Then you
will give these to your partner.
What is one thing about your life for
which your partner could pray?
What is one thing in your family for
which your partner could pray?
What is one thing you are praying for
in our community or world in which your partner could join you?
Put your name and phone number on the
bottom, and give it to your partner.
Now...I will check when I leave. I
don’t want to see any of these lying around the church.
I want you to:
#1 promise your partner that you will
pray for the things they have put on the paper, and even more, but at least for
those three things for the next 21 days.
#2 Put it someplace safe- on your
refrigerator, in your Bible, on your pillow, somewhere that you will see it
every single day.
#3 Call or talk to your prayer partner
on the date that is on the bottom of your page. That’s why I had you tear one
sheet in half so you each have a different day. Call or talk to your partner to
say I have been praying for you, is there anything I should change on this list
or add to this list. Maybe there will be, maybe not, but the ulterior motive is
that you will have contact and it is a great reminder. If you partner doesn’t
call you might have to call them.
Get it? So go…
• Ask…
BECAUSE WE CAN NOT DO IT OURSELVES
• Ask
…BECAUSE IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT US
• Ask
…INSTEAD OF WORRY
AMEN
