Bethany Bullet - November 14, 2012
Jesus
told this parable:
10 “Two men
went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The
Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like
other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I
fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
13 “But the
tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but
beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
(Luke
18:9b-13)
This is NOT our text for today, but it will
help us get to the heart of the conversation that our Lord wants to have with
us.
Today we focus on our Parish Theme, “An
Invitation to a Holy Conversation” and we will hear that our heavenly Father
desires for His children to speak.
Human beings are good at patterns. Let me show you what I mean. I’ll start, you finish:
- Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the _________
- Twinkle Twinkle little star, how I wander ___________
- Little Miss Muffet sat on a _________________
- If you build it___________________
- Houston, we have ____________________
We might be good at patterns, but we are
bad at prayer. Just look at the Pharisee
in the text, that’s not our text.
When we pray there is no need to
impress. God is not impressed by our
fancy words or our fantastic vocabulary. He is not hearkening unto our cry
because our cries are so eloquent.
Our prayers are not to be a show or
spectacle. Prayer is a holy conversation between God and us. Our prayers are
not meant to be a show to others or to elevate our earthly position in the eyes
of others.
Prayer is a conversation. We have been
called to speak to God but remember that conversation is not a one-way
soliloquy or lone diatribe.
There is an old adage that you could
probably finish, “Children should be seen and __________________.”
This is not how it works in our
relationship with God. Our heavenly Father
wants to hear His children.
Left on our own, our prayers are weak at best
and downright terrible at worst. Our words do not give praise to God nor engage
Him in conversation. We are mired in
myopic miscommunication.
But our heavenly Father has given us a
pattern and even the words we can speak when it comes to prayer.
Our text today is the Gospel lesson found
in Matthew chapter 6, starting at verse 5, “And 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. 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 because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your
Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:5-8)
Here Jesus gives us some great advice when
we desire to speak to our heavenly Father.
Let’s use the word SPEAK as an acrostic this morning:
S - Seek a quiet place. All too often we are distracted by our
surroundings or tempted by our circumstance. Our prayers can be derailed when
we desire to be seen by others or to impress them. But there is some good advice to get away and
speak to God in private.
P - Pace
yourself. You don’t have to
babble on and on in your prayer. God doesn’t count the words, in fact a very
powerful prayer could be a simple as speaking the word HELP. Let your words be few and stop to listen to
how God may speak to you.
Our text continues, “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. 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)
E- Echo
the words of Jesus. Here is the
meat of the matter. In this prayer of
Jesus He gives us the pattern and the words to speak to God. In the Lord’s Prayer
Jesus provides us with the words of a well rounded prayer to use as a pathway
for continued conversation with our Father.
A - Add
your own requests. After we echo
the words of Jesus, feel free to add your own requests. Jesus gives us this prayer, puts us on the
same level as Himself (as children of God) so we can go to the Father. Paul
said it this way in Philippians 4, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by
prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
(Philippians 4:6)
Don’t know what to
say? Scripture gives us a powerful promise in Romans 8, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do
not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groans that words cannot express”
(Romans 8:26)
K - Keep
going. You have seen the pattern;
you have heard the words, now keep the habit of prayer going.
Put this into
practice and SPEAK
to God:
·
Seek a
quiet place
·
Pace
yourself
·
Echo the
words of Jesus
·
Add your
own requests
·
Keep
going
We have been invited into a holy
conversation with our heavenly Father who loves us and wants to hear us.
There is power in making yourself heard
we’re told. We have just elected a
president and both sides of the political isle have been telling the people
they need to be heard. Whether you are
elated in the outcome or feel upset by the electorate, we are still called to
pray.
But in prayer, unlike in politics the power
is not in the speaker, but in the hearer.
As we SPEAK
to God, He speaks His powerful Word to us.
So speak up and in so doing we will hear God speak to us:
Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen
today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.
Dear heavenly Father,
You speak to us through Your Word, messages
of the Law and the Gospel. We give thanks that You also let us speak to You.
Wherever and whenever possible let us speak to You and continue in the patterns
and the prayer You have given us. This we pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.
-Pastor Seth Moorman
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