The Lord's Prayer - His Praise Series

Bent into Shape – His Praise

4/15/18

Matthew 6:9

Sunday AM

I read a story of a pastor on a mission trip who was asked to speak w/ a group of national pastors at an outdoor pavilion. As fate would have it, as he began to speak, torrential rains began to fall, and the noise hitting the roof overhead was deafening. The pastor, wanting to show his spirituality, cried out, “In Jesus’ name, let the rains stop!” And it began to rain harder. So he called out a 2nd time, “In the name of Jehovah, make these rains cease!” About that time, not only did it rain harder, but thunder shook the pavilion – so the pastor said, “Let us give thanks to God for the rain!”

To say there’s a gross misunderstanding and abuse of prayer among people today would be an understatement – and we’re not the first generation to suffer from this malaise. As we learned last week, when the disciples approached Jesus to ask Him to teach them to pray, prayer had been so corrupted by rabbinic tradition that prayers like the Shema/Shemoneh ersay had become prescribed/ritualized – and the people had no idea how to have a personal communication w/ God.

Scary – many Christian traditions have done the same w/ the Lord’s Prayer as we’ve misunderstood the intent of this prayer by reciting it as rote instead of seeing it is a recipe for engaging w/ God. Jesus gave us this prayer to keep us from using vain repetition.

pray (proseuchomai) pro = facing toward – refers to one who seeks God’s face. euchomai = to utter aloud. Meaning prayer is face-to-face encounter w/ God.

Knowing this, when Jesus taught His disciple to pray – He was clear this prayer was be a pattern/model to connect w/ God but never to be a substitute. We’re to understand it and follow it to get face-to-face and bent into shape.

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 others. I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard b/c of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:9-13

Last week we launched into understanding this prayer by looking at the phrase – Our Father in Heaven… We saw how the sovereign Creator is our Abba.

Just to remind you, this was a radical invitation Jesus was issuing. Until this time, seldom did the Israelites view God as their Abba Father. In fact, it was just the opposite. He was the Creator who was to be feared/respected.

So Jesus was inviting us into our Abba’s presence yet reminding us that we must always keep a healthy tension b/w intimacy/awe, personal/powerful, meekness/majesty. We’re to never be afraid to enter into His presence, yet never forget in whose presence we’re entering.

Today we’re going to dig a little deeper into this prayer to look at the 1st priority of prayer – to hallow His name!

Our Abba in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name!

Question – What is the purpose of prayer? This might come as a surprise, but Jesus told His disciples the purpose of prayer is to glorify God’s name and to ask Him to accomplish His will on earth as it is in heaven – and in the process, we should be asking Him to align our lives w/ His will so we might participate in this endeavor.

Don’t believe me? Look at the 1st (3) phrases of this prayer. It begins w/ God’s interest – not ours! He tells us to pray for God’s name to be hallowed, His kingdom to come, and His will to be accomplished.

This means – we have no right to ask God for anything that might dishonor His name from being set apart as holy, no ambition for anything that might delay His kingdom from coming, and no desire for anything that might disturb/deter His will from occurring – NOTHING! In fact, it’s just the opposite. Jesus said our prayers should be centered on asking God to bring honor to His name, to usher in His kingdom, and to see that His will is accomplished – w/ or w/out us, but preferably in us and thru us.