message notes

Elements: A Guide to Prayer 01.27.08 • Gee Sprague, Lead Pastor Matthew 6:9-13 Watch Video of This Message • Back to Listing

• Making it Simple

  • Remembering the old days when long distance calling was so difficult and expensive.
  • When I was in elementary school, only my Dad was allowed to make the long distance calls.
  • Sunday nights we called the out-of-town grandparents, no direct dialing, all calls were operated assisted, no calling card numbers, no area codes to remember, just Ma Bell and Me.
  • High school days, area codes became the norm, long distance rates dropped, the Dad rule wasn’t enforced as heavily, but long distance was still pretty simple, keep it short...,
  • College was a lot of experimenting with long distance, you would call home and ask for yourself or Elvis, so your parents could call you back direct and get the new and improved cheaper rates.
  • In the years since college, the world of long distance has really changed, though calling was still pretty expensive and required calling cards, personal 800 numbers. Sometimes the amount of digits it takes just to phone home, probably would have kept ET a prisoner of earth.
  • When we were traveling, it wasn’t odd for me do deal with 4 different long distance carriers, one for home, one for Cross and Crown, one from the local church, and one personal calling card.
  • 1998 was the first time we traveled to the Hillsong Conference in Sydney, I felt very out of touch.
  • Hannah stayed with her grandparents and it was very difficult and fairly expensive to call her or to check in the office.
  • When we went in 2006, Marcus Stouffer gave us a phone card that he had bought while Monica Walden was in discipleship training with Youth With a Mission in Perth, Australia. We circulated the nubmer among the people who might need to talk with us.
  • We bought a card for about 20 bucks that allowed us to call home with about 400 minutes.
  • Though still a little expensive, we could call each other and back home on our mobiles.
  • The total cost of the cards and the mobile service were about the same as the 3-4 short calls we made in 1998.
  • Jim Young’s daughter Meg, has just left for the Youth With a Mission base in Durban, South Africa.
  • The are using Skype, and through their computers will be able to talk and see each other via the internet.

  Prayer can be taught!

  • Unfortunately, most people approach prayer much like long distance. It seems to be difficult, too complicated, to expensive.
  • I have some Good News for you. Prayer is not that difficult.
  • Believe it or not, it can be taught.
  • Luke 11:1-4 (NRSV) He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." {2} He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. {3} Give us each day our daily bread. {4} And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."

  Misconceptions about Prayer.

  • On another occasion, Jesus is talking about the hypocrisy and self piety of religion: Matthew 6:1-8 (NRSV) "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. {2} "So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. {3} But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, {4} so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. {5} "And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. {6} But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. {7} "When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. {8} Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
  • Public prayer is not the best indicator of a person’s relationship with Jesus.
  • The greatest misconception about prayer is that those who do it publicly and eloquently have the deepest relationship with Jesus Christ.
  • I actually feel very uncomfortable praying out loud.
  • I am not that eloquent, but my goal is to be real and conversational.
  • Occasionally I get asked to do opening prayers or closing prayers for events, I never get asked back.
  • I think First Coast Women’s Services asked me back for their banquet.
  • One thing I don’t get is when people change the way their voice sounds when they pray, from the way they have a regular conversation.
  • It’s like there is a separate God language that you have to have a Berlitz course for
  • The other thing about prayer, is that: We all pray differently.
  • Each of our song leaders prays differently, our pastors pray differently, but there are some common elements that are necessary for prayer, and they can be learned and are easily put into practice.
  • Matthew 6:9-13 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10 'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 'Give us this day our daily bread. 12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.'

  Element One:_________________________________

  • How do you begin your prayers? Lord, God, Jesus
  • How does Jesus say we should pray!
  • Matthew 6:9-13 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.
  • It is clear that the first part of prayer is establishing a relationship with God as Father.
  • Matthew records Jesus giving a more communal, or corporate version of the prayer.
  • There is a group of us who have been praying at 7:30 a.m. every Sunday since our first service on April 14, 1996.
  • Recently, we have been closing our time of prayer by joining hands and praying this prayer together audibly.
  • When we celebrate the Lord’s supper, we often close the celebration with this prayer.
  • On a personal level, you wouldn’t pray Our Father.
  • Hannah never comes to me and says our father, could I have money for dinner and a movie.
  • First, she is an only child.
  • Secondly, she rarely calls me father, she calls me dad.
  • Like most teenagers, she usually just starts to push buttons on parents like we are ATMs.
  • Luke 11: {2} He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. ………….
  • I really believe a key element of prayer is establishing our relationship with God as Father.
  • Element One: Establish your relationship with God as Father.
  • The word for Father here is the Greek word Ράτερ – Pater.
  • It is the more formal version.
  • There is a Greek word Abba, which is less formal and similar to our affectionate word Daddy.
  • When Jesus was on the cross he cried out to God: Mark 14:36 (NRSV) He said, "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want."
  • Some people like to address God even as Daddy, or Papa God.
  • This is how Jesus prayed!
  • If you have been reading the Gospel according to John you have probably already noted that Jesus constantly refers to His Father
  • In 93 verses of John, Jesus refers to God as Father 114 times
  • Listen to how Jesus prayed in John 17: 17:1 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, ….5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed…… 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. …. 20 "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

  Our Father Figure

  • There are some hang ups that people have.
  • Statistically I run the risk of alienating about half the congregation.
  • Even if statistically I don’t lose half of you, there is a whole mindset that rejects any type of masculine attachment to their faith, and probably are about ready to report me to Cosmopolitan magazine as Neanderthal of the year.
  • And lastly, there are those who psychologically are about to enroll me into the Freud School of Re-Cycled Pastoral Counseling and are seriously questioning my ability to do theology in the 21 st century.
  • First let me plead my case before you write me off as totally incompetent.
  • We live in a time where masculine language has been modified to be more inclusive.
  • We no longer have mail men, we have mail carriers.
  • We no longer have stewardesses, but males are working on airlines, so we have flight attendants.
  • Now whether you are male or female, if you act in a production, you are an actor.
  • When we think of God as Father, it is a not a gender thing that is being promoted, but a relational thing.
  • Do you remember the Saturday Night Live, Coneheads? The mother and father were addressed as Parental Units.
  • There are also many negative images of father that have to be overcome.
  • Many people here never had a personal relationship with their father.
  • If they did, many still may not have had a daddy, but a cold impersonal, hard to please, stern distant father.
  • That is not the picture Jesus is painting.
  • I had a good relationship with my parents, I am not sure it was great. Even the greatest relationship you can ever imagine does not compare to the relationship that we are invited to enter with God.
  • God as Father, should be our standard, our model father, and every one of us, male and female should compare our love and ability to forgive to God’s and not vice versa.
  • 1 John 3:1 (NKJV) Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
  • Without thinking, I just said “Gee” that’s my name.
  • What you call God is largely an indication of how personal you are getting with Him.
  • If you call Him the great omnipotent creator of the universe, Lord of all, most holiest, reverent omnipresent un moved mover...Blah, Blah, Blah... those around you might be impressed by your eloquence, but I think that God might be listening to a bit of brown-nosing flattery.
  • Father is enough
  • How you address God in pray will be indicative of the kind of relationship you have with him.
  • Is it intimate or is it distant? Keep it Personal!

  God is Holy!

  • Jesus does give us one more important characteristic of God that is important to our relationship with Him.
  • Matthew 6:9-13 "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, HALLOWED be Thy name.
  • It is a word that is not commonly used in our American version of English.
  • The easiest definition is Holy. The father to whom Jesus is referring should be revered.
  • The classic picture of God is an old man, who looks more like Grandfather than a father.
  • Jesus was wise in telling us that God is Holy.
  • I was fortunate to know both of my grandfathers.
  • They were kind, loving men.
  • I don’t remember ever being disciplined by them.
  • Often times you hear people say it is much more fun being a Grandparent.
  • Get the picture. God is not our Heavenly Grandfather, He is our Father. He loves us unconditionally, but He isn’t senile. He knows where we are weak, he knows where we need help. He knows how to help us, if we will come into a relationship with Him.
  • Prayer is the way we communicate with God.
  • Communication builds the relationship.
  • Relationships require conversations.
  • Our conversations begin personally by addressing God in a personal way. Hallowed Father.

  Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul type story.

  • Little boy as he prayed the Lord’s Prayer, began: Our Father, Who art in Heaven, How’d you know my name.
  • Not quite the way Jesus taught us to pray, but the right message.
  • He knows our name. It is personal.

Watch Video of This Message • Back to Listing