How You Pray

If I was to ask for a show of hands as to how many folks here pray I would suspect that virtually everyone would raise their hands.   If I was to ask how many folks believe their prayers would be answered hopefully the same number would raise their hands.  I mean really, if we don’t believe that our prayers will be answered then why pray? 

Some do it because it’s expected, others because it gives them something to do, others are just hedging their bets.  I had a friend in high school who wore a cross and a Star of David on a chain. He wasn’t a Christian or a Jew but he said he was trying to cover all the bases.

The bible teaches that not only should we pray but we should expect answers to our prayers, that is we should be surprised when our prayers aren’t answered.  Not when they are.   

Last week we looked at this same passage from the book of Matthew and dug a little deeper into what Jesus meant when he told the apostles “When you pray” and we discovered that he laid out some ways for us not to pray and some ways for us to pray.

And we can boil it down to say that our prayers are meant to be a conversation.   A conversation between our heart and the heart of God.  And that won’t happen if we are just reciting words without thinking about what we are saying, or if we are praying for the benefit of human ears. 

And then Jesus said When you pray, pray like this. . . and he gives us a template for our prayers.  And remember it is easy to fall into the trap where the Lord’s prayer becomes the very thing that Jesus was warning us about.  Just words, babbling and vain repetition. 

So, let’s dig a little deeper into the Lord’s prayer and see what it can teach us about prayer.

Last week I introduced you to a 14^th century preacher by the name of Meister Eckhart, a member of the Dominican order who died while answering to the inquisition in Avignon France around 1328  after being accused of heresy by Pope John XXII

And Eckhart wrote “Good and earnest prayer is a golden ladder which reaches up to heaven, and by which man ascends to God.”

 And that is where Jesus begins by leading us up this golden ladder to heaven.

Matthew 6:9  Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.   So, first of all Prayer Looks Upward    Jesus begins by telling us who we are to pray to.  And this establishes the premise of our relationship.  This concept of God being our personal father wasn’t a common Jewish expression.  In the Old Testament, we see the concept of Father used in reference to God and the collective people of Israel, but here Jesus is telling us that God wants to be our Father and he wants us to be his children.

And that might be tough for you to accept if your experience with your father wasn’t a great one.  But, we can’t let our concept of our earthly fathers colour the words of Christ.  Because he was speaking from his concept of father, a loving, affirming, protecting father.

And the Father’s name is to be seen as a hallowed name, a holy name.  We can’t blaspheme his name one minute and then call on his name in prayer the next minute.   And I’ve spoken about this before.  Keeping his name holy means that we don’t trivialize it by using it as a curse or as an exclamation.  

Remember the name of God shouldn’t be used unless you are talking about him or to him.  And using the shortcut OMG is trivializing the name of a Holy God.

And after we establish who we are praying to we need to establish where He is in our lives, Jesus continues:  Matthew 6:10  May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Prayer Looks Outward

The Kingdom of Heaven was very much on the heart of Jesus.  And the Kingdom exists where His will is done.  

The question is what are we praying for?  The people that Jesus was talking to would have had a very definite view of the Kingdom of God.  To them it was going to be an actual physical place where the Roman oppressors were going to be overthrown and all good Jews were going to live in some form of political Utopia.  This may not have been what Jesus had in mind when he spoke of the Kingdom of God. 

Remember the very first line that he spoke in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5:3 “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. That wouldn’t seem to be indicative of a political kingdom but the fact that Jesus spoke often about the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven would indicate that it was something in the forefront of his thoughts. 

The Gospel of Mark was said to be the first written account of Christ’s ministry and the very first words that it records of Jesus are found in Mark 1:15 “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” 

And in Luke 4:43 But he (Jesus) replied, “I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent.” So it would appear that the need to preach about the Kingdom of God was a priority for Jesus almost to the point of being an obligation.

It’s always important to remember that Jesus was a Jew.  And as a Jew he thought like a Jew, he reasoned like a Jew and he taught like a Jew and in this instance, he uses a very Jewish literary device called parallelism.  And what that does is to make a statement and then it clarifies the statement by restating it.  That is, it repeats it a different way.  It would be like saying “It’s a great day out there.  It’s hot and sunny.”  Two statements “It’s a great day out there” is the first one, the second statement clarifies the first one “It’s hot and sunny”

One of the most famous Psalms is the 23rd Psalm, and it begins with a parallelism, Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd . . .  I shall not want.  David actually uses this device quite a few different times.  Psalm 44:1 O God, we have heard it with our own ears . . . our ancestors have told us of all you did in their day, in days long ago:   Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength . . . always ready to help in times of trouble.

These Psalms were making use of parallelism to teach and that is what Jesus is doing in this verse, listen to what he says, May your Kingdom come soon. That’s the first statement the next statement then clarifies the first statement May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  When does God’s Kingdom come? When His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. 

It’s interesting to note that in different places in the New Testament Jesus uses the term Kingdom of Heaven in the past, present and future tenses. Something that happened, was happening and would happen.

The Kingdom of God comes when his will is being done.  So, the very essence of the Kingdom of God is to obey the will of God.  This Kingdom has nothing to do with nations and countries instead it is something which happens in the heart of each one of us.  That’s called Holiness.

You ever struggle with the term “holiness?”  The best definition of holiness that I ever heard came from Mother Theresa.

Mother Theresa said, “Holiness can be summed up in one word, obedience.”  And let’s go back to Meister Eckhart who wrote   "Love God, and do as you like, say the Free Spirits. Yes; but as long as you like anything contrary to God's will, you do not love Him."

The kingdom of God is a personal responsibility because obedience happens with my heart and my will and my thought life.  The most important thing in the world is to obey God and the most important words that we can speak are, “Your will be done”  But only if we mean them. 

Two things you can be assured of as a Christian when you say “Your will be done”. 

1. You Can Be Sure God Knows What He’s Doing  Have you ever taken something to an expert?  You know to have it repaired or altered or built?  What do you tell, “Do what you have to do”, “Do whatever you think is best.”  Why do you say those things?  Because you know that supposedly they know more about the subject then you do or you wouldn’t be using them.

Do you know what really frustrates a professional or an expert?  It’s when someone who doesn't know what they are talking about tries to tell the pro how to do it.  You know when the guy takes his car to the garage and tells the mechanic what’s wrong and how to fix it.  I’m sure more than one mechanic has wanted to say, “Hey if you know so much why’d you bring it to me?”  God knows what needs to be done and he knows how it needs to be done.

2) You Can Be Sure God Loves You.  As you read through the Gospels you realize that Jesus was praying to a Father whom he knew loved him, period.  There was no doubt at all.  And God loves us   We don’t serve a cruel God who plays games with us.  Thomas Hardy finished his novel “Tess” with these words, “The President of the Immortal had finished his sport with Tess.” That’s the way some people see God, some cosmic chess player who gets his chuckles out of losing a pawn. 

We serve a God whose greatest attribute is love.  John was one of Jesus’ closest friends and he wrote in 1 John 4:16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 

Next month is Easter and nobody can look at the cross and see the sacrifice God made for us and not see his love. 

When we are sure of the love of God then we can find it easier to say, “Your will be done”.  You notice that I said easier and not easy, because by our very nature it’s difficult to give control to somebody else.  And when we surrender that control, we have the option of doing it begrudgingly or willingly.

And now Jesus goes from the spiritual, the will of God to the physical.  Once we have established who we are praying to, and align ourselves with His will, Jesus reminds us that we are dependent on God for all that we have.

And it’s here we discover that Prayer Looks Inward  Contrary to popular opinion it’s not selfish to pray for ourselves.  As a matter of fact, the remainder of the Lord’s prayers deal with what we need.

And so Jesus tells us to pray,   Matthew 6:11  Give us today the food we need

Prayer Deals with Our Today

Now this would appear to be the simplest part of the Lord’s prayer.  Well, let me tell you that nothing is so simple that it can’t be complicated by a theologian.  Someone once said, “A theologian takes the simple things and makes them difficult, it’s up to a preacher to take the difficult things and make them simple again” 

1) Some say that bread is to be identified with the last supper and so we are asking to be able to celebrate the sacrament of communion on a daily basis.

2) Others say that this actually refers to spiritual food, that is the word of God, the Bible.  And so, these people would maintain that this is actually a request for spiritual feeding.

3) Then there are those who tell us that the bread is a reference back to Jesus who called himself the bread of life in John 6:33-35.  And so the prayer is “Lord let me feast on your presence daily.

Now in keeping with all of those eminent scholar’s theories let me share with you my theory, now hang on because it’s deep.  I think that what Jesus meant by “Give us today the food we need” was “Give us today the food we need”.  I think it was just a request for God to provide the things that we need on a daily basis.  Deep, huh?

When I first went to West Africa in 2007 I saw first-hand what is meant by subsistence farming.  The people in the villages grow and raise what they need to survive, and it is a daily existence. 

And up until the last century subsistence farming was a reality in most of the world, and for most of history the prayer to provide daily bread was a meaningful prayer.   And it is still a reality in many parts of rural Africa and Asia. 

Today perhaps we need to change the wording, Presbyterian minister J. Vernon McGee wrote

 “I don't think that a Sunday morning crowd should get up and pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" when they have a roast in the oven at home -- they already have their meal. It is a very meaningful prayer for those who are hungry, but a well-fed Sunday morning congregation ought not to pray this because for them it is vain repetition.”

But this request doesn’t just deal with our next meal, It’s About All of Our Physical Needs.  Jesus didn’t just come preaching, he came healing as well.  And he took the time out to feed people, and provide for their thirst.  Do you remember what the Bible said when Jesus saw that the people he was teaching were hungry?  It said that he was filled with compassion.  Why? Because they were hungry.  Not only was Jesus concerned about the hunger of the people he did something about it, he fed them.

But Jesus didn’t just teach us to pray about our present needs, he also taught us to pray Matthew 6:12   Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

It’s here we discover that Prayer Deals with Our Yesterdays What we have done. What we did last week, last year and 30 seconds ago.  When I was in Bible College I heard a preacher say that we need to keep short accounts, and that is still good advice. 

When you blow it ask for forgiveness and when somebody blows it with you forgive them.  It is is just that simple.  We can complicate it but saying “yeah but you don’t understand what I’ve done or you don’t understand what they’ve done.”   But Jesus was very plain here when he taught us to simply pray: Matthew 6:12   Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.  And he finishes that thought with a period and not a comma.   If you’ve ever prayed this have you ever stopped to listen to what you are saying?  You are asking God to forgive you in exactly the same way that you forgive people who have done you wrong, no more no less. 

Many people have the same concept of God as the German poet Heinrich Heine.  Heine was on his death bed and his priest told him that God could forgive his sins to which the poet responded “Of course God will forgive me; that’s His job.”  Well according to this particular portion of scripture, he doesn’t have to.

This one concept was so important that Christ not only mentioned it in the Lord’s prayer he went back to comment on it.  He literally uses three times more words to define what he said then he used to say it.

When you get to this part in the Lord’s prayer you are in effect saying, “Lord if there is someone whom I haven’t forgiven then don’t forgive me.” Ouch!  Forgiveness is tough.  There is no doubt about it and you may have been hurt by someone in ways that I can’t comprehend, but if you want to be forgiven then you need to forgive.

 You’ll remember perhaps the Guptill principle of spiritual growth that says that “Everyone grows in their spiritual life to their own personal point of disobedience.” Well the addendum is “You will never grow in your spiritual walk beyond your unforgiveness.”

Let’s keep going with the personal requests, Jesus teaches us to pray,  Matthew 6:13  And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

You see where we are going right?  The first request dealt with our present, the second dealt with our past, what we’ve done.  Here Jesus tells us that Prayer Deals with Our Tomorrows, our future.  We are asking for help in what we will do.   

Too often when we think of the word temptation we think sin.  And if that is reality then we are confronted with one of two problems.  The first being how can we come to grips with a God who would lead us into sin.  You say don’t be silly preacher, God wouldn’t lead you into sin.  Then that leaves the second problem if temptation is sin and God wouldn’t lead us into sin why for would Jesus put this request in the prayer.

The easiest way to clear this up is to find a biblical definition of temptation.  At the very beginning of Christ’s ministry an incident happened I’ll let Matthew tell you about it, Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.  You see what happened here.  Jesus was tempted by the Devil but it was the Spirit that led him to that point.

In 1 Corinthians 10:13 . . .  He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. So now we have God allowing temptation.  Now the problem here is that the word temptation is being misused.  Somewhere along the line we have given the word temptation an evil twist, we have taken temptation to the next step and made it sin.

What it actually means is to be tested, to be proved, to be strengthened.  That’s why the very best steel is called tempered steel.  It’s the same root word.  And so what Jesus is teaching us to pray is this, “Don’t let me be tested by more than I can endure.”

Matthew 6:13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.  You notice that the request is “not deliver us from evil”, but “deliver us from the evil one.”  Evil is not an impersonal force which surrounds the world, instead it emanates from one person.  And that person is Satan.  his very name means the adversary, and in the Greek that is the one who pleads a case against someone.  He is in name and fact the accuser. 

Satan is real he is not a joke, he's not some dude in long red underwear with a pitchfork and horns, he is real.  Satan is personal and his weapon is temptation.  And like all enemies he won't attack until he finds a niche in your armour.

And do you really want God to keep you from temptation or is your prayer more like Augustine’s was early in his life when he prayed “Make me good but not yet”  

Maybe you’re not even in the place where your prayers can be answered because you’ve never actually established a relationship with God, He’s not your father. 

If that’s the case He’s only a prayer away.  As the worship team comes to lead us in one more song I would encourage you to take a good look at your spiritual condition.  If you need to start that relationship with God it’s as easy as praying Lord I’m sorry for all I’ve done to displease you.  Please forgive me and make me a new creation.  It’s that easy, and if you do that this morning we’d love to know about it.

When You Pray

When you Pray.

I love the positive thought that comes across in the statement that Jesus made to the disciples in the book of Matthew.  It is found in what we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus says three words that reflect his positive belief in the people who will call themselves by his name.

And those three words are “When You Pray”.  He didn’t say “If you pray” he said “When you pray”.  And that reality is that we all pray.  It has often been said “There are no atheists in foxholes.” And there are very few atheists in emergency rooms either.

I love the story of the two old guys talking after a really big storm went through and one said “That was a mighty awful storm, wasn’t it?”  To which his friend replied, “Yep, I bet God heard a lot of unfamiliar voices last night.”

I started this message on the cruise we were on last week and I was sitting outside the room of prayer on the ship.  And you are thinking “Do they have a chapel on the ship?”  Nope, they have a casino aboard the ship.  And I would imagine that God hears a lot of promises and is offered all kinds of partnerships in that room.

And so, Jesus began by telling us by telling us How Not to Pray

Apparently, simply praying isn’t enough.  Jesus doesn’t just say when you pray, he also says “When you pray, don’t. . .” Don’t what? 

Well first we are told in   Matthew 6:5  “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.”

You see, Sometimes We Pray for The Wrong Reasons   Apparently, and I can’t imagine it happening today, but apparently there were folks who prayed to impress other people.  It would seem that they prayed loud and they prayed eloquently, but it wasn’t how they prayed, it was why they prayed. 

Their words were more directed to the people around them then to God.  They wanted people to say or at least think, “My, they pray well”. 

I’m sure it an apocryphal story, but I will tell it anyway.  The story goes that many years ago that the pastor in one of our district churches was known for how long his pastoral prayers were and on one Sunday morning one of the professors from our bible college was in attendance in this man’s church and after the service when he greeted the pastor he whispered, “I’d recommend having your personal prayer time at home.”

I don’t know if it’s a true story but it is a great story.

The good news is that those folks get what they want, that is they get recognition for their prayers, the bad news is they might not get what they need and that is their prayers answered.

A few years back I was asked to bring the benediction, that is the closing prayer. at the CPA graduation Ceremony.  Another pastor was to pray the invocation, that is the opening prayer, and he prayed and prayed and prayed.  And finished by calling on the name of Jesus, Allah and Krishna. 

And seriously, first of all there wasn’t one person in that sweltering hot arena that day who had come to hear a 7-minute prayer.  And when he finished by calling on three separate traditions, I’m sure I wasn’t the only person there thinking “Come on, pick a team.” 

The only people who weren’t offended by that prayer were people who weren’t Christians, who weren’t Muslims and who weren’t Hindus.   And those were the folks who were alreay offended by the fact that there was prayer included in the graduation cermemony. 

The funny side of that story is that the graduation went forever, it was like 4 days long they had 12,000 graduates and 47 speakers, some of you were there and remember it.  Well maybe it wasn’t that long, but it sure seemed that long.  There were a lot of graduates and each speaker that day spoke eloquently and at length. 

And as we came closer to the closing I noticed people on the platform looking in the program where there was a benediction listed and giving me nervous looks, wondering how long and to whom I was going to pray.

And with great trepidation I stood up to the mic and this was my prayer, verbatim.  “Lord thank you for the graduates, keep them safe.  Amen.”    And as I turned to walk back to my seat the auditorium erupted in applause, which wasn’t my intent at all, I was hot and tired and wanted to go home and I was pretty sure that God felt the same way.

But listen up, when I’m asked to pray in public people will often tell me that I need to be sure to close my prayer with the words “In Jesus’ name”.  And I wonder if their main concern is to make a political statement, and if so then that is as wrong as the Pharisees praying on the street corner for all to see.

I often close my prayers with “In Jesus name”  but it is not formulaic and it is never to make a statement.

Matthew 6:7  “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.

Sometimes We Pray in The Wrong Manner 

There is nothing deep here, Jesus is just reminding us that prayer is a conversation, it is not a formula, it’s not a simply repeating phrases or prayers that you have memorized.  It is a conversation between you and God.

It is interesting, ironic and kind of sad that The Lord’s prayer has kind of become what Jesus was warning us about.

You know what I mean most of us can pray the Lord’s Prayer without even thinking about it and often we do.  As a matter of fact when the scripture was read earlier from the New Living Translation there were some of you who were thinking “Well that’s just not right.”

If you come from a protestant background you are probably familiar with it this way:

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come. 
Thy will be done in earth, 
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us. 
And lead us not into temptation, 
But deliver us from evil. 
For thine is the kingdom, 
The power, and the glory, 
For ever and ever. 
Amen.

And if your background is Catholic then you were probably taught to pray this way:

Our Father who art in Heaven, 
Hallowed be thy name; 
Thy kingdom come 
Thy will be done 
On earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread; 
And forgive us our trespasses 
As we forgive those who trespass against us; 
And lead us not into temptation, 
But deliver us from evil.

And while you are thinking they both come straight from scripture you’re not entirely correct, the Protestant version comes from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, the Catholic one comes from Catechism of The Roman Catholic Church

Here is how it reads in the King James Version of the bible, Matthew 6:9-13  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. 

It can also be found in the eleventh chapter of Luke’s gospel

Now just to shake you apple carts a little, back in 1993 Eugene Peterson, a pastor and writer published “The Message” which we are told is an idiomatic translation of the original languages of the Bible.  That is Peterson attempted to used contemporary North American idioms and slang to make the bible more readable.  I’m personally not a fan of the message, but that is a taste issue, nothing more.

But here is how the Lord’s prayer reads in the Message. Matthew 6:9-13  With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are.  Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below.  Keep us alive with three square meals.  Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.  Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.

However we read it or recite it we need to acknowledge that The Lord’s prayer is probably the best-known prayer for Christians. At least right up there with “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take.”  A little creepy, anybody else pray that as a kid, and then you’d do the God bless . . .

And the danger here is that the Lord’s prayer can become the very thing that we are warned about in Jesus previous words.  Because we go into auto pilot and if we aren’t thinking about the words we are praying then they are just vain repetition.

But not only does Jesus tell us how not to pray but he tells us how to pray.

Matthew 6:6  But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

 

We Need To Pray For The Right Reasons  I’m not sure Jesus was speaking about our location here as much as he was speaking about our attitude and our audience.

If we took this passage to heart there would be no public prayer or corporate prayer there would be no table grace, no benedictions or invocations at graduations, weddings or inaugurations. 

We wouldn’t begin our services in prayer, include a pastoral prayer or end our service in prayer.

But remember throughout the New Testament we see the early church praying together, in public.  Time and time again we read about the group coming together to pray. 

One of the first descriptions of the church tells us Acts 1:14  They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.

When Peter had been imprisoned for preaching in Jesus’ name and was rescued by the angel we pick up the story in  Acts 12:12  When he (Peter)  realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer.

But I think we need to keep in mind that when we pray, even in those public settings we need to be talking to God.

I went to Bible College with a guy, whom I will call Kirk, mainly because that was his name.  And when a bunch of us went out for a burger we never asked Kirk to say grace because if you asked Kirk to say grace, he made sure that he said grace, very loudly for everyone in the restaurant.

If I’m eating out and sitting with folks who I’m not sure what their faith or relationship with God is and our food arrives I don’t take it upon myself to pray out loud for everyone at the table.  I simply pause and silently thank God for the food and for my dinner companions.  

I’m not trying to make a statement, I just want to thank God for my food.

The questions that need to be asked of course are: The first is Who are we praying to? And the second is: Why are we praying? 

The answer to the first question should be God.  Sometimes it seems that we are concerned when we pray about what others will think of our prayers, but the reality is:  you’re not talking to them.

Understand we don’t pray to anyone other than God. That is why Jesus told us in Matthew 6:6  But when you pray, . . . pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

And we can usually find then answer to the second question “Why are we praying?” simply by listening to our prayers.  Are they just shopping lists?  Do we view God and prayer as some great cosmic vending machine?  You put in the right amount of prayer you say they right words and then you get what you are looking for.  You lose your job, the kids get sick, your teen rebels so you pray?

Or maybe you don’t have enough faith to view prayer as a vending machine instead it view it as a slot machine.  You put in the right amount of prayer you say they right words and then you pull the leaver and hope that you will get what you are looking for.

While I was on vacation I stumbled across a German Theologian from the 14^th century by the name of Meister Eckhart, ring a bell with anyone?  Probably not. 

Eckhart was a member of the Dominican Order of Preachers and a prolific and popular preacher and writer in the early 1300s.  I first discovered Eckhart in a novel I was reading so wrote down his name and dug a little deeper.

The Pope at the time saw Eckhart as a threat because of his popularity and had him accused of heresy.  Eckhart, who was 58 years old walked the 973 kms from Cologne Germany to Avignon France to defend himself against the inquisition.  I mean seriously, who would have expected the inquisition?

According to the authorities Eckhart recanted all his false teaching before he died during their interviews.  Seriously?  That was convenient.  And that has nothing to do with the message, but simply is the back story because I’m going to quote Eckhart a couple of times over the next few weeks.

Here’s the first one, Meister Eckhart, wrote “But many people want to look upon God with the eyes with which they look upon a cow; they want to love God the way they love a cow that you love because it gives you milk and cheese. This is how people behave who want to love God because of external wealth or inner comfort; but they do not love God properly: rather, they love their self interest.”   That could have been written in 2017. 

Methodist scholar and theologian Adam Clarke answered the question about why we pray when he wrote “Prayer is the most secret intercourse of the soul with God, and as it were the conversation of one heart with another. The world is too profane and treacherous to be of the secret.”   Prayer is the conversation of one heart with another.  It is the conversation between our heart and God’s heart. 

And then Jesus tells us that we not only need to pray for the right reasons he tells us Matthew 6:9  Pray like this: He’s telling us that  We Need to Pray in the Right Manner  

Jesus didn’t say “Pray this” he said, “Pray like this.”  What Jesus is giving us is a template or an example of a prayer not necessarily a prayer.  We aren’t told to pray this prayer every day at sunrise or at sunset and we aren’t told to pray this prayer every morning in school or to pray this prayer every Sunday in Church.

Instead Jesus is telling us that when we pray we need to be talking to God.  Remember, it’s not just babbling, it’s not supposed to be vain repetition, it’s supposed to be a conversation.

Through the bible we see people talking to God.  Sometimes those conversations are filled with praise.  Sometimes they are filled with frustration and confusion.  Sometimes we hear people make requests of God and sometimes we hear people thanking God. But regardless of the content of the conversation they are conversations. 

And conversations happen between people who have a relationship.  When Jesus said “When you pray, pray like this” he was talking to people he had a relationship with and a group who had a relationship with God.   William Barclay reminds us “The Lord's Prayer can only really be prayed when the man who prays it knows what he is saying, and he cannot know that until he has entered into discipleship.”

Jesus had a relationship with the Father and he was inviting the disciples to enjoy that same relationship.  You see, without a relationship with God these words are simply babbling or vain repetition. 

And you can’t maintain a relationship without communication and communication isn’t simply the same seventy words repeated over and over again.  That wouldn’t work in a friendship, it wouldn’t work in a marriage and it won’t work in our relationship with God.

And if we are going to maintain our relationship with God we are going to have to talk to Him, to communicate with him.

Have you ever been in a relationship where communication simply stops?  Maybe it is the “Silent Treatment” and you know the relationship is strained. 

Or maybe you’ve simply drifted away from the other person, there is nothing to talk about so you just stop talking. 

But when communication stops the relationship is in trouble. 

Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at prayer.  Next week we are going to dive into the Lord’s prayer and see how we can use it as a template for our prayers. 

But this week, over the next seven days I would challenge you to fit talking to God into your schedule.  Maybe before you go to bed, or perhaps when you first get up or on your drive into the city.

Many of us at Cornerstone have our phones set to remind us to pray for our church at 2:20 in the afternoon.  My phone also reminds me to pray for our denominational leaders at 8:30 in the morning.  Find time to talk with God, even if it’s just to check in and thank him for your day.

But this morning, let’s finish this part of our service by praying together as he taught us to pray. 

Soli Deo Gloria, Glory To God Alone

Soli Deo Gloria, Glory To God Alone

He was a man who couldn’t keep a job.   He was a church organist and composer and while he was a great organist the pieces that he composed himself were often considered too showy to be played in church, and so eventually the church would grumble and he would move on.  So glad churches today don’t grumble about music.

And he was no doubt forgotten by the churches he had worked for but certainly not forgotten by history.

His name was Johann Sebastian Bach, maybe you recognize it.  Once when the pastor of one church was relaying the concerns of the congregation Bach responded by saying:

"The main purpose of my music is to glorify God. Some people do this with music that is simple. I haven't chosen to use a simple style, but my music comes from my heart as a humble offering to God. This honours God no matter what musical style I use."

The main purpose of my music is to glorify God.  Can we say that about what we do?

Here is a sample of one of Bach’s compositions, and notice down here at the you’ll see Soli Deo Gloria - For the Glory of God Alone.

We are told when Bach began to write a new song that he wrote the initials JJ at the top of the page, which stood for “Jesu Juva” Latin for “Jesus Help Me” and when he finished the work he wrote For the Glory of God Alone.  

And he wasn’t alone, both Handel and Graupner signed their work with Soli Deo Gloria to signify that their music was produced for the sake of glorifying God.

This is our fifth and final week of our Old Foundation series and through the month of January we’ve been looking at the “Five Solas” of the Protestant Reformation.

Now for those who are thinking, “I wonder what a protestant reformation is?” Don’t feel bad, you probably are in the majority of folks.  Often people think that there has always been a broad range of Christians denominations, but not so.

For the first thousand years that the church existed there was really just “The Church”.  And that ended in 1054 with what was known as the “Great Schism”  and the church separated into the Catholic Church to the west and the Orthodox Church to the east.   And then for the next five hundred years there were two main Christian groups.

That two-church model ended 500 years ago.

In 1517 a Catholic priest and theologian by the name of Martin Luther challenged the leadership of the Catholic church on a number of issues where he felt the church had drifted into error.

He didn’t get up one morning and think “By golly today is the day that I completely reshape what Christianity looks like.”

He was simply seeking to bring the Catholic church in line with the scriptures.  Instead he was ultimately excommunicated by the church and the Lutheran church was born, and since then there have been more Protestant churches started then you can shake the proverbial stick at.

But what Luther shared with the reformers who would come after him, men like Calivn and Zwingli was a common foundation, what are often referred to as the Five Solas.  And that is where we’ve been parked for the past five weeks.

Although these individual phrases have been used for centuries, it is not clear when they were first put together.   And they sound fancy but Sola is simply a Latin term which means one or only.

And so, in week one we looked at Solas Fide, or By Faith Alone, and this was the belief that it is faith that is the main component of our salvation.  That while faith will never ask more than that you believe, that it will never ask less.  And we have to believe that God can save us, through his grace.

Then we looked at Solas Scriptura, or in the Scripture Alone.  And that was the belief that the final authority for our Christian life is the Bible.  The reformers didn’t feel that the bible was the only authority for the believer but they believed that it was the only infallible authority and it would be by scripture that those other traditions and teachings would be measured.

In week three we took some time with Solus Christus, through Christ Alone and looked at the power that is available only through the name of Christ.  And that power that was there for the church in the book of Acts is the same power that was there for the reformers 500 years ago and the same power that is there for us today.

And that took us to Sola Gratia, by grace alone last week.  And that is belief that our salvation comes completely by the grace of God, that it is not dependent on anything we do, other than believe in and accepting that Grace.  Grace is simply the unmerited favour of God.  Or getting what we don’t deserve.

Which is why we are told in Ephesians 2:8-9  God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

And that brings us to the final Sola and that is Soli Deo Gloria, Glory To God Alone.

And in this teaching the reformers would remind us that every aspect of our Christian life is to bring glory to God alone.  It’s not about us, or about me, it’s about God.  
It really summarizes the other four Soli by pointing us toward God and what he has done for us.  The Grace of his Son, that we accept through faith.

There was also a reaction here on the part of the reformers to what they perceived as the unwarranted glorification of the church, the pope and other clergy.

So in the scripture that was read for us earlier we see these words Romans 11:36  For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

But what does that mean that everything is intended for his Glory?

And how do we give God the Glory, we can’t all be a Bach or a Handel giving God the glory with the music that we create.

Let’s go back to our scripture Romans 11:36  For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.


We Glorify God When we Acknowledge that All Things are From Him.  God is firstly the creator.

The bible tells us in Genesis 1:1  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And maybe you are sitting there thinking, “You don’t really believe that do you preacher?”  Yep, sure do.

Sometimes I’ll be in a conversation with someone and the topic of creation comes up and they will say something to the effect of how much faith it requires to believe in creation.  And then they will begin to educate me on how the world was really created.  

And then they let me know that they believe in the Big Bang Theory. There’s that word: “Theory”.   Do you know what the definition of a theory is?  Colins English Dictionary defines it this way.
1. a system of rules, procedures, and assumptions used to produce a result
2.  abstract knowledge or reasoning
3. a speculative or conjectural view or idea
4. an ideal or hypothetical situation (esp in the phrase in theory)

And the Big Bang theory is either number 3 or number 4.  And in case you are wondering it will give you 12 in Scrabble.

And then they begin to school me on how they believe that 4.5 billion years ago, out of nothing things just appeared, and from those things that appeared out of nothing our world was created and eventually we evolved from a single cell protoplasm to what we are today.

You understand that when people tell you they know how they world began and how life began they are not talking about facts they are talking about theories?

I can’t even get my head around the numbers they throw around.  And someone will say they have evidence that says the Dinosaurs went extinct 50 million years ago.   And that the world is almost 5 billion years old.

Seriously?  If this is 2016.  (Hold fingers apart 1 inch) then the distance from here to the back door is about 500 years.   If you look close you can see Martin Luther.

The birth of Christ happened somewhere in the upper parking lot.  1 million years would be 500 times greater than that, it would put you somewhere around the airport.

And 50 million years would be 50 times greater than that, which remember, this is 2016 and 50,000, 000 of these would put you in Montreal.  And now let’s multiply that my 90.  So if you kept going from Montreal around the world to Halifax that would be 1.5 billion years, so twice more around the world and you have in theory when the big bang happened.

Wow! And I’m left thinking “And people say it takes so much faith to believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
I think I’ll stick with Genesis 1:1, even Voltaire the Atheist said “The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker.”  And the watchmaker is God,

You are giving glory to God when you stand in awe of creation and realize that it came from the hand of God.  That creation is a part of intelligent design, that it didn’t just happen, it happened at the word of God.  In the New Testament we read John 1:1-3  In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He existed in the beginning with God.  God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.   And if you continue to read you discover that the word was Jesus.

And we Give God the Glory when we celebrate the words of 1 Corinthians 8:6  But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.

It was Sir Isaac Newton, the Scientist, remember the apple and gravity and the whole story, who said “This most beautiful system [The Universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”

Let’s go back to our scripture:  Romans 11:36  For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

We Glorify God When We Acknowledge that All Things are By Him

God didn’t just create the world and turn his back on it.  We are reminded over and over again about how fragile our world is.

And it’s true, we are told that if the world was much further from the sun it would be too cold to support life, much closer and it would be too hot to support life.  Tilt it even a degree on its axis and life on earth would be disrupted.

And yet it continues to be where it’s supposed to be and turn as it’s supposed to turn.  And when things go awry as they sometimes do we need to remind ourselves that God is there and God cares.

Jesus reminded those who followed him of that truth two thousand years ago when he said,  Matthew 10:29-31 Jesus asked “ What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.  And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.”

And sometimes people will try to take away God’s glory by pointing to the pain and problems of a broken world and saying “If God is so great then how come. . . ?”  And you can fill in the blank.  How come there are hungry children, or how come there is cancer, or how come marriage vows are betrayed?

And that has less to do with God and more to do with mankind and the choices that mankind makes.

The world can produce enough food to feel every man woman and child, we don’t have a supply problem we have a distribution problem.

And don’t you think if we didn’t have to spend billions and billions of dollars on defense that the money and genius behind finding and building better ways to kill people could ultimately be used to find and build better ways to heal people?     That cancer could be prevented or cured?  

And God’s plan wasn't that marriages would fail, his plan was that marriages would thrive, and when they don’t it’s because of sinful behavior.

As much as God wants the best for the world he created He won’t take away our free will.

But what would the world look like without the goodness of God and his people in it?

Romans 11:36  For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

We Glorify God When We Acknowledge that All Things are For Him   Over and over again in the New Testament the writers return to the theme that Christ Followers are new creations, that the old is gone and a new has come.

And with that new life comes the responsibility of new behavior.   And when our lives reflect Christ and his teachings it brings glory to God.  And on the other side, when someone who professes to follow Christ lives a life that is at odds with what Christ taught it takes glory away from God.

We all seen and heard the words “And they call themselves a Christian.”

In Romans we are told that everything is intended for his glory, that is expanded on in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians when he writes,  1 Corinthians 10:31  So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  Bach wrote his music for the glory of God, but what does that mean for us?  Most of us will never compose like Bach or Handel or write like Luther but does that mean that we can’t do what we do to the Glory of God?

Peter wrote in  1 Peter 4:10-11  God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.  Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

What you have, God gave you and he asks that you do what you do with all the strength and energy that he provides.

So if you teach, or sell, or protect or heal or repair or parent do it in such a way that at the end of the day you will have no problem signing your day SDG, To God alone the Glory.

And by the way that isn’t reflected in false humility.  Have you ever heard someone complimented for a sermon or a song and they’ve shrugged it off by saying, “Oh it was just God speaking or singing through me”? That doesn’t bring glory to God.  Doing your best and then simply smiling and saying thank you is a much better response.  

I have to admit there have been times when I’ve heard someone say “it was just God” that I’ve wanted to reply, “Oh really, I’ve heard him do better.”  But I don't’.  Regardless of what some might think there are times that I have a filter.

And so, tomorrow when you go to work can you go with the goal of not just earning a living but to bring glory to your God?

If you are a Christ Follower, then God expects that when people talk about your life and your livelihood that it will bring glory to Him.  And that is a choice.  A choice only you can make.

If you are a Christ Follower, then God expects that when people speak of your attitude and your words that your attitudes and words will bring glory to Him.  And that is also a choice, a choice that only you can make.

If you are a Christ Follower, then God expects that when people see how you trust Him in the face of whatever circumstances life may put in your way that your trust will bring glory to Him.  And that is a choice, a choice only you can make.

And each of those decisions will be rooted not in your own ability but only in the foundation that you have laid with the other solas.

That by Christ Alone you will live that life, that through Grace alone you will be able to live that life that you will accept that Grace by Faith alone and that ultimately you will not be guided by culture or the opinion of others but by scripture alone.

That like Paul at the end of the day and the end of our days we will be able to say.  Romans 11:36  For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.