Laid Back Ping-Pong Prayer
(Matthew 6:7)
[Note: I did not get through this entire sermon in my 30 minute time slot, so a "part two" will follow]
1. Memorial Day is an interesting holiday.
2. Wikipedia tells us this about Memorial Day:
3. "Memorial Day is a United States Federal Holiday that is observed on the last Monday of May (observed in 2008 on May 26). It was formerly known as Decoration Day. This holiday commemorates U.S. men and women who have died in military service to their country. It began first to honor Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War. After World War I, it was expanded to include those who died in any war or military action. One of the longest standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911. It is also traditionally viewed as the beginning of summer by many, since many schools are dismissed around Memorial Day."
4. Memorial weekend, as you can see, is a mixed time; a time of remembering our war dead, a time for racing, and a time for picnics. It is not just one thing.
5. Prayer is the same way: it is a mixture, not just one thing.
6. Like most of you, when I pray, my mind wanders.
7. Sometimes I have a hard time making a distinction between praying and thinking.
8. I have concluded that prayer is often thinking with God. It is not just one process, but several processes.
9. Interesting, when it comes to what some call the "spiritual disciplines," many people ignore the book God gave us that is somewhat dedicated to that very issue. When you start building your convictions about devotional life around the sayings of Monks or mystics, you are implying that God’s Word is not sufficient in the spiritual realm.
Main Idea: Spiritual growth involves playing a sort of ping-pong with God, a casual back and forth exchange between God and the believer.
I. Prayer Can Become BORING and MEANINGLESS
Together prayer and Bible study are a powerful indication that we are trusting in God and not in ourselves. Jeremiah 17:5 reads, " This is what the LORD says: ’Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.’"
A. MATTHEW 6:7
B. The Lord’s Prayer is A Short Version of the AMIDAH (which had many seasonsal additions)
1. "Eighteen" — (shemoneh esreh) the central prayer in Jewish life and liturgy. It is also known as Amidah (Standing), because it is said standing; or simply Tefilah (Prayer), the prayer par excellence. The prayer originally consisted of eighteen benedictions, and thus the name "Eighteen." Its final version dates from about 90-100 A.D. when a nineteenth benediction was added. Every Jew is religiously obligated to pray the "Eighteen" daily; however, in times of emergency saying an abbreviated form of the prayer may fulfill this obligation.” Jerusalem Perspective http://www.jerusalemperspective.com/default.aspx?tabid=53
Rabbis typically presented a condensed version to their disciples for situations in which they did not have the time or could not pray then entire Amidah. The Lord’s Prayer seems to be such a condensation.
2. Here are the first three blessings of this prayer:
1. God of History
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.
Blessed art thou, O lord our God and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, the great mighty and revered God, the most high God, who bestows lovingkindness, and the Master of all things; who remembers the pious deeds of the patriarchs, and in love will bring a redeemer to their children’s children for your Name’s sake.
2. God of Nature
O King, Helper, Savior and Shield. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the Shield of Abraham.
You, O Lord, are mighty for ever, you revive the dead, You are mighty to save.
You sustain the living with lovingkindness, revive the dead with great mercy, support the falling, heal the sick, free the bound, and keep Your faith to them that sleep in the dust. who is like You, Lord of the mighty acts, and who resembles You, O King, who orders death and restores life, and causes salvation to spring forth?
Yes, You are faithful to revive the dead. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who revives the dead.
3. God who sanctifies.
We will sanctify Your Name in the world even as they sanctify it in the highest heavens, as it is written by the hand of Your prophet: And they call to one another and said,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts: The whole earth is full of His glory.
Those over against them say, Blessed...
Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place.
And in Your Holy Words it is written, saying
The Lord shall reign for ever, Your God O Zion, unto all generations. Praise Ye the Lord.
Unto all generations we will declare Your greatness, and to all eternity we will proclaim Your holiness, and Your praise, O our God, shall not depart from our mouth for ever, for Your are a great and holy God and King. Blessed art thou, O Lord the holy God.
3. Jesus summarized these first three blessings as "Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Your Name."
4. Still, even a long prayer can become boring if all we do is "recite." Listing the same prayer requests over and over can become boring or meaningless too.
5. When the Jews pray, they bob up and down, because the take the Psalm literally when it says, "all that is within me, praise the Lord."
6. Yet we know that the position of our body really doesn’t matter.
PRAYER’S BEST POSITION
Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate and effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background. One minister shared that he felt the key was in the hands. He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees. The third suggested that they both had it wrong--the only position worth its salt was to pray while stretched out flat on your face. By this time, the phone man couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He interjected, "I found that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground." [Source: Sermon Central, David Yarbrough]
Main Idea: Spiritual growth involves playing a sort of ping-pong with God, a casual back and forth exchange between God and the believer.
II. Prayer As A CASUAL Discussion With God is Lively
A. Prayer, Learning, Introspection, and Praise Are INTERCHANGED
1. Psalm 4 (let’s read and note)
2. Psalm 39 (let’s read and note)
B. We See GOD Ministering to the Soul
1. 2 Timothy 2:1-7
2. Note that the Scriptures provide the information, but God the understanding
3. I Thessalonians 4:9
C. Praise Breaking Forth During INSTRUCTION
Romans 11:33-36
Romans 11:33-36, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"
"Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Main Idea: Spiritual growth involves playing a sort of ping-pong with God, a casual back and forth exchange between God and the believer.
III. Although We Need UNIQUE Times, Compartmentalizing is Not God’s Way
A. Jewish HOLIDAYS
B. COMMUNION Services
C. Many COMMANDS Can Only Be Followed if INCORPORATED in life
1. I Thessalonians 5:16-17
2. Rather than have nice, neat compartments, our prayer life should like a confusing chart that branches off in all directions.
3. Public church services need a more clear-cut format; but our prayers lives do not.
CONCLUSION
1. Prayer is talking to God, thinking with God, responding to His Word, complaining to God, arguing with God, and blessing His Name in praise. It is confessing our sin, bringing our requests, sharing our opinions with Him, or rehearsing the past with Him.
2. Prayer is interchanging with God at the deepest level, and prayer is letting Him take the Word and making it hit home to us.
Footnote:
[The seminal idea for this sermon came from an article written by Charles Holman from the School of Divinity at Regent’s University for The Evangelical Theological Society, 2004]. Holman writes:
"It has been fairly exciting to me to locate a kind of ’spiritual formation’ process
within the way in which biblical truth is conveyed within Scripture. This is especially
evident in the poetic portions, most commonly found in many of the Psalms and in
portions of the Prophets. There is dialogue between Yahweh and His people that is
grounded in reflection on divine truth.
"… Something of the same rhetorical back and forth is in the Prophets. We may sample Isaiah and Jeremiah. Prayer comes at critical times, but is based on cognizance of
Yahweh’s acts and declaration of His will. Here there is again personal response to what
we call ’theology.’"
