HoHum:
One blistering hot day when they had guests for dinner, Mother asked 4-year old Johnny to return thanks. “But I don’t know what to say!” the boy complained. “Oh, just say what you hear me say” his mother replied. Obediently the boy bowed his head and mumbled, “Oh Lord, why did I invite these people over on a hot day like this?” Who said prayer is boring?
WBTU:
Jesus wants us to pray cooperatively. Jesus says prayer is a cooperative venture, a partnership between us and God, in which we align with His mind before we speak our mind. Lauren Daigle’s song First- Before I bring my need I will bring my heart; Before I lift my cares, I will lift my arms; I wanna know You; I wanna find You; In every season, In every moment; Before I bring my need, I will bring my heart; And seek You, First
Pray can be a demanding but thrilling process if we think and say and do the following three things
Thesis: 3 petitions
For instances:
A. “I Guard Your Reputation,” “Hallowed be thy name”
It is possible that Jesus, in including this phrase in the prayer He taught His followers, was echoing the Kedushat HaShem, an ancient prayer that has been passed down through the centuries as the 3rd blessing of the Amidah, the daily blessings recited by observant Jews. Jews will say this: “You are holy, and your Name is holy, and your holy ones praise you every day. Blessed are you, Adonai, the God who is holy.” If so, Jesus changed these affirmations to a petition. He changes “You are holy, and your Name is holy,” to “May your Name be kept holy.” Implicit in the request is a commitment on the part of the person praying to guard God’s reputation and protect the integrity and holiness of God’s name. It is similar to a mother who sends her children off to school every morning with the admonition, “Remember who you are,” repeating the family name and making it clear that they are expected to bring honor, not shame, to that name. The 1992 movie A League of Their Own features Tom Hanks in the role of the drinking and carousing team manager Jimmy Dugan. When he takes over the team, he makes it clear that he is uninterested in anything other than fulfilling his contract and cashing his paycheck. He sleeps through games. He berates his players. But then the team starts to win, and he starts to care. Finally, when they make the playoffs, he decides to lead the team in a locker room prayer. “Lord,” he begins, “hallowed by Thy Name.” He then proceeds to ask for swift feet and mighty bats before thanking God for a waitress in South Bend who treated him with extra kindness. The scene shows that Jimmy Dugan had some knowledge of the Lord’s Prayer- he quoted, “Hallowed be Thy Name,” but the words were clearly meaningless to him, because profane actions cannot help to “hallow” God’s name. What does it mean to “hallow” God’s name? 3 things here:
1. Trusting God. Once, when God’s people were wandering in the Sinai wilderness (toward the end of the 40 years), they complained because of a lack of water. So God told Moses to speak to the face of a cliff where they had camped, promising that water would flow from the rock. Rather than speaking to the rock, however, Moses, in anger, struck it with his staff (like he did many years earlier). Water came out for the people but “the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:12). Believing God, trusting Him, and taking Him at His word “hallows” His name and upholds His reputation.
2. Obeying God. When God gave His commandments to His people, He told them, ““Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. Do not profane my holy name, for I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who made you holy” (Leviticus 22:31-32). In other words, a lifestyle of submission and obedience to God “hallows” His name- not a legalistic, Pharisaical attitude but a winsome, day by day pursuit of God and His ways.
3. Rejoicing in God. When David’s second attempt to return the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem was successful, he was so overcome with joy that he threw off his kingly robes and danced with abandon in the holy procession. His wife, Michal, however, was watching from a window. She berated her husband because, she said, “he exposed himself life a fool in the sight of the servant women of his officials!” But David answered: ““It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor”. (2 Samuel 6:20-21). Joy- in worship, in trial, in the details of daily life- honors God. When our lives exudes “the joy of the Lord,” (Nehemiah 8:10) God’s name is hallowed.
The red letter prayer life will not say, “May your reputation, name, person, and character be untarnished, uncontaminated” while living a selfish, profane life. It cannot say, “May nothing be done to debase or defame Your record,” while acting in unholy ways.
3rd commandment of the 10: “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name” Exodus 20:7
Romans 2:24: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
B. “I enlist in Your cause,” “Your Kingdom come”
What Is The Kingdom? LISTEN – if we are going to pray for the kingdom to come – it seems to me that it would be a good idea for us to know what it is…NOW - we don’t use the word "kingdom" very much these days, and when we do, we’re usually talking about a place, like the United Kingdom or the Magic Kingdom. AND - in each of these cases, a kingdom is a specific geographical place defined by its borders. SO – in English a kingdom primarily refers to a place.
But the emphasis of the Greek word for "kingdom" IS NOT on a place but rather on, the rule or reign of a king. In fact, some Bible translations, they translate the Greek phrase "kingdom of God" as the "reign of God" or the "rule of God" in order to bring out this idea.
Therefore when Jesus says “thy kingdom come , thy will be done” He is teaching us that the kingdom of God, is any place where God’s will is done? More than just understanding the Kingdom, when we pray this we say, “I enlist in Your cause. I adopt Your agenda.” Here I am, send me- Isaiah 6. Philip Keller said: “When I pray this, I am willing to relinquish the rule of my own life, to give up governing my own affairs, to abstain from making my own decisions in order to allow God, by His indwelling Spirit, to decide for me what I shall do.” When we pray “Thy Kingdom come,” we also need to keep in mind that the Kingdom is in us through the indwelling gift of the Spirit. When I pray this, I pray for mercy, grace and peace- in me and in those around me. When I pray, “May your kingdom come,” I pray for His kingdom to invade seeking souls and hungry hearts. I pray for love to conquer all. I pray for wars to end. I pray for the Church to be healthy, united and effective. The best way for God’s kingdom to expand is for more to become Christians. Presidential candidate John Kerry famously accepted his party’s nomination for the presidency of the USA by appearing onstage at the 2004 Democratic national Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, saluting, and saying, “I’m John Kerry and I’m reporting for duty.” Regardless of political persuasion, that is what a follower of Jesus Christ does when he or she prays, “May Your Kingdom come.” It means, “I enlist in Your cause. I adopt Your agenda. I am reporting for duty.”
C. “I Do What You Say,” “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
That last part, “On Earth as It Is In Heaven”- we often attach to this 3rd petition “Thy will be done.” Here is something I had not considered before, quite possibly Jesus intended that phrase to modify all 3 of the petitions taught this morning. In other words, He taught us to pray, “May Your name be kept holy on earth as it is in heaven.” “May Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, and may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s name is hallowed perfectly thoroughly by every inhabitant of heaven: “Holy, Holy, Holy,” they cry, “casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea” (Revelation 4:10). His kingdom is undisputed in heaven, where the Lamb who was slain receives all the “power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise,” (Revelation 5:12). The host of heaven does God’s will instantly, constantly, completely, and worshipfully. Implicit in the prayer for God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” is the praying soul’s own submission to God’s will. It makes no sense to pray for God’s will to be done everywhere but in me. “I will do what you say.” This petition is best illustrated for us on the night when Jesus was betrayed. Prayed 3 distinct prayers in Gethsemane and Matthew contains 2 of them: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). Jesus not only taught this but he lived it “to death- even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). This is a prayer that realistically speaking may lead to a Gethsemane or a Calvary. But it will also lead us to the throne, to “Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22). Hilary Scott had a miscarriage in 2015- knew pregnant in July and miscarriage in September. Just devastated and from that experience wrote these lyrics: I know you're good But this don't feel good right now And I know you think Of things I could never think about It's hard to count it all joy Distracted by the noise Just trying to make sense Of all your promises Sometimes I gotta stop Remember that you're God And I am not So Thy will be done
C.S. Lewis noted, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.’
