If you're following along in the scriptures today,
you might want to turn to Matthew chapter
6.
And if you're looking at your cell phone,
I'll assume that you're reading your Bible.
Moving through chapter 6 of the Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus addresses three practices of Christian
community.
Almsgiving, which we spoke about the last couple
of weeks, prayer, and fasting.
Jesus assumes that all Christian communities will practice
these disciplines and wants to address both disorders
and pure ways of engagement.
So verse 5 begins, when you pray.
And that phrase is, throughout this passage, is
repeated three times.
It's a beautiful thing.
It's a privilege, right?
We can hear the good news in these
words today.
But Jesus is giving a warning.
He says, when you pray, do not be
like the hypocrites.
So he's going to deal with the hypocrites,
which are typically the Jewish community of whom
he's a part.
And then he's going to deal with the
pagans.
So he covers everybody.
Of course, hypocrisy is universal.
Don't be like the hypocrites, for they love
to pray.
They love to pray, dot, dot, dot, to
be seen by others.
That's the gist of the prayer, is to
be seen by others.
Get a life, right?
Get a life.
Such attention is their reward.
That's all they get.
The impulse to be seen exposes a blurred
vision of oneself and one's God.
We have a blurred vision of who we
are and who God is.
For sure, this prayer originates from a deep
need, a deep need, which is fulfilled by
the approval of others.
The father's love, his approval, acceptance alone is
not in view.
So Jesus wants to draw us alone with
the father.
He says, but when you pray the second
time here, 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, your father will reward you.
Can you imagine?
And then it says, and when you pray,
do not keep on babbling like pagans.
They think they will be heard because, OK,
here's the key of their view of God.
They think God can be manipulated.
They think they will be heard because of
their many words.
Do not be like them, for your heavenly
father knows what you need before you ask.
Your heavenly father knows what you need before
you ask.
And so Jesus is saying that prayer is
fundamentally communication between a safe, secure, fully loved
and accepted child and the heavenly father.
You say again, Jesus is saying that prayer
is fundamentally communication, fellowship between a safe, secure,
fully loved and accepted child.
And her heavenly father.
And so if we know the father already
knows what we need beforehand, why should we
ask?
I mean, why prayer?
He already knows.
He cares.
What's the heart of prayer then?
What is the heart of prayer?
What is the heart behind the asking?
Unlike the many pagan gods who might be
manipulated and appeased by impressive words, the father's
love is perfect and complete without them.
He longs for us.
Jesus is trying to show us in his
relationship with his father.
He longs for us.
He loves us deeply.
He would ask that we would come and
ask him what he already knows.
Isn't that amazing?
Because he just wants to be with us.
Now, there are many other reasons for prayer,
but I think fundamentally God loves our company
through Jesus Christ, his son.
Through Jesus Christ, we've been made sons and
daughters and been restored to the father's favor.
Reconcile to the father.
It's a beautiful thing.
That's the gospel.
And our own sense of need may not
be what we actually need.
Anyway, often I'm caught up in petitions that
really aren't the point.
Apart from all the many sources of anxiety,
which often populate my prayer, perhaps the true
need is to simply be in his presence.
Shut the door and just be there.
Wordless, speechless.
You know, when a couple gets to that
place, when they really love each other and
they trusted each other for a long time,
they really don't have to say a lot.
They can just sit there and just sort
of know and rest in the love of
the other.
It's a beautiful thing just to be in
the presence of love, trust, security.
Prayer is closing the door on all of
our distractions.
He says, close the door, close the door.
That's a big phrase.
Close the door.
You walk out of here today and you
start getting distracted or anxious or fearful or
whatever it may be.
Close the door.
The chapter ends with addressing our distorted way
of striving through life.
Anxious.
Fearful of lack.
What shall we eat?
What shall we drink?
What shall we wear for the pagans?
Here they are again.
Those poor pagans for the pagans run after
these things.
Who are the pagans?
Those who are hooked in the bondage of
sin and death and have no sense of
being loved by the one true heavenly father.
Even heretical attempts at distorting God's heavenly fatherhood
as mere misogynistic patriarchy.
He repeats, your heavenly father knows that you
need them.
He says it again right there.
Your heavenly father knows that you need them.
The mission of Jesus was to show us
the father.
Heavenly patriarchy brings freedom to the captives, but
seek first his kingdom, the father's kingdom.
Seek first his kingdom, says Jesus, and his
righteousness.
And all these things will be given to
you as well.
It doesn't say don't seek all those things.
It says seek first his kingdom.
A lot of times we read that as
Jesus being a bit irresponsible with real life.
No, he's saying live a prioritized life.
Prioritize all of these things under God's reign.
First of all, seek God, then attend in
communion with him to the issues of life.
That's how you do it.
He makes it very simple.
And so he knows you need them.
But do we know that we need him
far more than we need those things?
That's the big question for us always.
We have to slow down.
The only time you're going to really get
in touch with that is to go in
your closet, shut the door and realize, wow,
look what I've been missing.
Perspective in the presence of the Lord.
Perspective comes.
We're insane without the presence of God.
We were dead in our trespasses and sins,
right?
Deadly insane apart from the presence of God.
I like that Psalm 76, I believe, or
Psalm 78.
You know, I was like a brute beast.
I'm just pulling this out of my memory,
so forgive me.
But I was like a brute beast for
you.
Why do the unrighteous prosper?
The psalmist asks.
And he says, and then I came into
the house of the Lord and I realized
therein.
Perspective changes when we seek first the kingdom
of God.
Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow
will worry about itself.
I love that phrase.
The anxiety of the future.
It worries about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
That's Jesus saying that.
And so Jesus is saying prioritize your life
or your life will be disordered and filled
with anxiety.
If you do not seek first the kingdom
and his righteousness, you will be anxious.
Jesus is not saying never plan or think
about the future.
He's not saying that.
Short and long term planning is essential.
We know this.
He's saying take no anxious thought about tomorrow.
He's saying don't let anxiety influence your decision
making.
And how do you get rid of anxiety
when it builds up in all of us
on a daily basis, really?
It's coming at you.
We all know this.
We feel it.
We fight it.
And it's the fight of faith really is
come into silence and solitude with God.
And get rid of the anxiety.
That's the only way to get rid of
it.
Jesus is saying seek first his kingdom and
all these things will come and let's fall
into place.
So in light of knowing that we are
beloved children of a loving father who already
knows our true need.
Reconciliation actually with God in one another humanity.
He says that we should pray like this.
And I'm going to just cover one line
of the words prayer today.
Our father.
Prayer in secret is never alone.
Because he's our father.
Bonhoeffer says this in life together.
And there's a chapter in life together.
If you don't read anything out of that,
if you can get a hold of the
day alone, that chapter.
I reread it a couple of times this
week and I just thought, wow, what a
spiritual master.
Wow.
This is like reading the church fathers.
Bonhoeffer says this.
Let him who cannot be alone beware of
community because you will use the community in
place of the one true God.
Let him who cannot be alone beware of
community.
Any comments on that?
Get a couple of paragraphs there.
I want you to go get the books.
Let him who is not in community beware
of being alone.
There is no isolated spirituality, but there is
no community without communion with the father.
So there is no true Christian community without
Christian community.
Those who make up Christian community being involved
in their own sense of silence and solitude
and shutting the door.
Because when you come out and pass through
that door into this into community and into
the world, you're going to be a new
person.
It's like some people take a shower once
a year, whether they need it or not.
Right.
It's kind of like prayer life for certain
people.
Right.
I pray once a year whether I need
it or not.
But man, that kind of spirituality stinks.
It really does.
There's an odor about that.
And that's why daily we have the daily
rhythms of prayer going in.
It's coming under the fount of grace and
being cleansed and clean through confession.
And thus, silence and solitude is the soil
condition for receiving the word implanted.
Silence and solitude, getting to that place.
And I'm not talking about unreasonable time here.
I'm talking maybe grab 10 minutes, 15 minutes
or more.
But encounter the word implanted.
Encounter the word implanted.
And that's not an emotional experience.
You don't have to feel anything to encounter
the word implanted.
Your emotions should never validate your prayer life.
Read the Psalms again.
And so we are going through sacred space.
It's a little book that teaches us to
take a small passage of Scripture out of
the Gospels, basically.
And before we read that, it takes us
through a preparatory time.
The first is the presence of God.
So you shut the door and you begin
to breathe the presence of God.
It's like breathing heavenly air.
And you just breathe that in and then
you realize, yeah, thank you.
I'm not in the presence of my anxiety
now.
I'm in the presence of God.
Oh, it's such a difference, isn't it?
Yeah.
And then it takes you through a few
other short little exercises just to center yourself
so that when you read over the word,
you can receive the word implanted.
Rather than just reading it, zipping it, closing
it, and didn't get anything out of it,
right?
You ever had devotions like that?
Yeah.
It can happen if we don't take the
time.
And that doesn't mean that a lot of
our devotions won't be dry.
Those are effective devotions.
A lot of people quit because they're dry.
That's when not to quit.
That's when to press in.
That's what Lent is trying to train us
in.
Now, in The Day Alone, Bonhoeffer covers three
things which are very similar to Sacred Space.
He has three little sections called Scripture, Meditation,
Prayer, and Intercession.
And you begin with Scripture, Meditation.
And that isn't like reading The Daily Office
necessarily.
That's public worship, hearing the word of God
in public prayer.
And it's a lot of reading and it's
a lot of Scripture.
That's not necessarily the best form of private
Scripture meditation, in my experience.
It's letting one little passage or one word
sometimes, or a sentence or a phrase, just
focusing in on that and letting the word
implanted grip your heart.
And you know when it happens.
And then you begin to pray, Our Father.
You begin to worship Him and describe your
needs.
And then, intercession, Bonhoeffer says, is so critical
for a Christian community that all of us,
not just the pastor, but all of us,
I'm going to send you a list of
names.
And I want you to get familiar with
everybody through prayer, praying for one another.
And just print it off or have it
some way pulled up on your cell phone
or whatever you use for your devotions.
And spend some time praying for, specifically, for
one another.
And then you say, I don't know what
to pray for.
That means you don't know your community.
Get to know your community.
Get to know their needs.
Get to know their struggles.
And let's be honest with one another about
those so that we can be prayed for,
right?
It's a beautiful thing.
And Bonhoeffer says that's the downfall of Christian
community when that's not happening.
We are supported by the prayers of one
another.
And you just read Paul again.
And throughout his letters, he's constantly saying, Pray
for me, pray for me.
The big apostle is saying, No, pray for
me because I'm praying for you.
And I would say, Pray for me and
I'll pray for you.
It's that reciprocal prayer.
Pray for one another.
Mutual, back and forth.
Now I'm going to end with a story
by D.L. Moody.
You may know this.
It's a really common story.
And it really gripped me as I was
thinking about intercession.
D.L. Moody was an incredible evangelist in
American history.
He had a list of a hundred of
his non-believing friends that he had written
down.
And he had a hundred non-believing friends.
It's amazing.
And every day he would pray for those
hundred people to come to know Christ.
And at his funeral, by the time he
died, 96 of them had come to Christ.
And by the end of his funeral, the
other four had come to Christ.
Isn't that amazing?
I just want to encourage you that your
prayers matter.
There's a lot of things that matter, but
your prayers matter.
And don't base your prayers on how you
feel and how effective they might be.
That's not for you to judge.
You have no ability to know that.
The times and the seasons are in the
Father's hands, you know.
There's just a lot of things that we
don't have to know.
Just be obedient.
Not begrudgingly obedient, but lovingly obedient.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Pray to him with gladness.
Knowing that he knows all of our needs
before we ask him.
That's our Heavenly Father, right?
The Father, all I can say is, and
I'm not in touch with what I'm about
to say as much as I want to
be.
I'm growing in this.
But the Father loves you more than you
can ever imagine.
And you've got to know that to come
to him.
You've got to know that and ask him,
I want to know that.
Because Paul's praying, I want to know you.
I want to know you in the fellowship
of your sufferings.
We need that cry coming from the basis
that I am loved.
More than I love myself, I am loved
by God.
And we create this beautiful friendship with the
Lord.
I don't call you slaves any longer, Jesus
said.
I call you friends.
Abraham was a friend of God.
And through Jesus Christ we can all be
friends.
Because he's reconciled us to the Father.
That's what's so beautiful about the gospel.
And I'm so thankful that Paul tells us
in Romans 8 that we don't know how
to pray.
Isn't that great?
I went up to it.
Prayer warriors know they don't know how to
pray.
I don't know how to pray.
But the Spirit prays and intercedes inside of
us with groanings too deep for words.
Prayer is the activity of the Holy Spirit.
Bringing us before the one mediator before God
and man.
The Lord Jesus Christ who is our great
high priest.
And all of our prayers go through him.
Whoever lives to make intercession for the saints.
It's a beautiful thing, isn't it?
So we don't have to know how to
pray.
We don't have to be good at it.
I'm not good at it.
I don't think we'll ever be good at
it.
We just need to do it.
But do it out of this basis of
knowing that our heavenly Father already knows.
And he loves to be with you.
In the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Let's stand together and we will recite the
Nicene Creed.