Meeting With God In Prayer Series

Meeting with God in Prayer

Series: Meeting with God in Prayer

May 3, 2020

Big Idea: To help us capture the most essential principles and pattern for meeting with God in prayer. This includes what Jesus said about getting real and showing up...and then drawing broadly from the Lords Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13)…developing 4 parts that form the Acrostic for PRAY; being Praise, Restore, Ask, and Yield.

Intro

Well...I want to add my personal welcome to each of you....both to this time together...and to our home where we are located today.

As you can see, we’re moving our location for sharing God’s Word...to our homes.

It’s the place I was now able to visit my wife at her workplace...then one of our college children...then another...and finally our high school son...all within the span of 3 rooms and 5 minutes.

And though we’re in our different living spaces...we are all living in the midst of a pandemic... in which much of our common life ... our shared life...has been stopped.

If you’re anything like me... the “new normal” doesn’t feel very normal yet.

And the unsettledness and uncertainty is still hard.

But I also sense that there is something of a “time out” in our lives ...an opportunity to connect to what matters most.

I’ve noticed many of us have reached out and connected with people that we may not have connected with for a long time...but we realize how significant they are with the whole of our lives. When we aren’t just engaging whoever is currently physically at hand... we can find ourselves getting in touch with some deeper reference points in our lives.

We need to let that take us further... to the ultimate relationship... God.

This is what those closest to Jesus began to see in him.

On more than one occasion we are told how they arose in the morning and found he had gone to some place to meet with God the Father in prayer.

And they began to realize that all of what flowed from Jesus…flowed from this connection to the Father in heaven….it flowed from prayer.

So they asked him this [1]:

“Lord, teach us to pray.” – Luke 11:1

They had been taught to pray all their lives. The had learned the common prayers of their community. They likely stopped and gave thanks at every meal. But what they saw in Jesus was different...it wasn’t merely a form of religion ... it was a relationship.

And they realize that this relationship was unlike any other.

They had families... workmates...in fact some among them were brothers and some workmates... as good of friends as anyone could hope for.

And of course, in his earthly nature, Jesus too had family and friends.

But they realize that he was living out of a connection that transcended all other connections... a relationship that transcended all other relationships.

For he was meeting with God...the source of our existence.

The only one who can tell us who we are... that isn’t defined by what we do,

The only who has known us from before we took our breath... who can know us after our last.

The only one who is not bound by physical time and space... he is always here.

So they ask… Lord, teach US to pray. Teach us how to actually have a relationship with God.

And Jesus responds.

Matthew 6:5

"… when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

The first thing Jesus says is that we need to get real.

"…when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites…” - Matthew 6:5

Hypocrites…. the Greek work used, is that which reflects the actor.

The hypocrite is the actor ... who in those days wore a mask... and tried to convince an audience they were somebody other than who they really were. That is what the religious leaders were doing.

Matthew 6:5

"…when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.

Jesus isn’t challenging a place for public prayer per se, but rather the very essence of performing.

The formality of the Jewish religion included that of praying while standing with hands stretched out, palms opened and heads bowed, 3 times each day, at 9 a.m., Noon and 3 p.m., WHEREVER ONE WAS. [2]

It was easy for a man to be sure that they would find themselves at a busy part of the marketplace or the top step of the synagogue and there, offer lengthy and demonstrative prayers as a sign of piety.

Jesus makes clear the how much is defined by this one choice…whether to seek the approval of others or God.