United Church of God
Sermon Transcript — January 5, 2008
It always brings a special thought to me every time I come back to Cincinnati because this is where I grew up, not in Cincinnati, but in Louisville. So as we were coming up the river on the flight coming in a few days ago, I looked down and we were coming east across the Ohio River and I noticed a power plant in Madison, Indiana, right next to Hanover College, where my wife and I met and were married as we graduated. So, it's always a pleasure to be back in this area and, then, when I set foot on the earth of Kentucky again, I am reminded that many of my relatives are buried there awaiting the second resurrection. So, this has a very special place in my family history and, of course, in my thoughts.
What would it be like, or would it have been like, to have been a disciple of Jesus Christ? To walk the earth with Him, to spend time with Him for that three years or three and one-half years, whatever period of time you would have been granted, and had the opportunity to listen to Him, to talk with Him, and to ask Him questions?
Now, what questions would you have asked Him? Would you have asked Him the question about Him being the Messiah? Perhaps. Would you have asked Him the question about when the Kingdom would come and be established and what would be your part in that Kingdom? Quite likely; that was a prominent question in the thoughts of the disciples, they asked that question many times.
Well, what I would like to do in the split sermon this morning is look at a particular question that the disciples asked Him, that I think has a great deal of relevance to us. All the questions they asked Him have relevance to us, but I think this is a very interesting question.
One of the disciples was observing Christ one day, it's recorded in Luke 11, and he was watching Christ. Christ was off away from them, He was praying and, as He came back to the group, this disciple went up to Him and asked Him a question. He asked Him, "Teach us how to pray." "Teach us how to pray."
Now I find that very interesting, when we consider the environment in which the disciples were living in the area of Judah, Jerusalem, Galilee, it was replete with very religious individuals. Well, had not this disciple ever prayed before? Had this disciple not seen someone praying? Perhaps a scribe or a Pharisee, as they were walking toward the synagogue, or maybe walking toward the Temple in Jerusalem; had they not actually seen people in the synagogues or in the Temple in Jerusalem actually offering up prayers? Had they not had read to them the story in their oral history, which was recorded in the scrolls of the Old Testament, the magnificent prayer that was offered by Solomon when he dedicated the Temple of God? Had they not seen; had they not heard?
He then continues: "Teach us, just as John taught his disciples." That presents an additional perplexing question, but two, at least two of the disciples of Christ, were also disciples of John the Baptist. We see that in the first couple of chapters of the book of John. It appears that two of the disciples of John were with John right after Christ was baptized and, so, they were disciples of John.
They had heard how to pray, because John had taught his disciples how to pray; yet, the disciple went to Christ and said, "Teach us how to pray." What had he noticed? What was different about Jesus Christ and His prayers from what they had observed in the Temple? What was unlike the prayers of the Pharisees? What about the differences that they observed between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ? What was behind the thinking that generated this question?
Could it have been that they were attracted by the confidence with which Jesus Christ prayed? We remember the story of Mary and Martha, how their brother Lazarus had died and had been in the grave for four days and they had called for Christ and He had finally come with His disciples and He stood before the tomb of Lazarus and He said, "Take away the stone," and they took the stone away, and He said, "Father, I thank You that You always hear me." "And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I say this, that they may believe that You sent Me." And "He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!'" A voice of confidence; a voice of certainty; perhaps they were attracted by the power in His prayer.
We all recall the story of the father who had brought his young son who was possessed of a demon, who would fall into the fire, who would throw himself into the fire and into the water. Well, this father had gone to the disciples and asked the disciples to cast out that demon, but he came to Jesus, and Jesus called the boy. The boy came forward and Christ rebuked the demon and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, why is this possible for You to do this and us not to do this? What's here? What is the difference? And Christ responded: "Because of your unbelief…this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
Well, Jesus Christ had a certain power that was demonstrably different from the power that the disciples had. Perhaps the most compelling example that it had not yet happened when the question was posed, but could contribute to why a question like this would be asked.
Remember the time in the garden in the final hours that He was with His disciples after the Passover? He had gone off and prayed three times. He had sweat blood three times. He had asked His Father three times, "Cannot this cup be taken away from Me?"
Finally, the answer was clear to Him and from that moment on He demonstrated that from His prayers He had become focused and He was focused on completing what He and His Father had decided that He would do. So after praying those three times and receiving the focus, He came out, after saying, "Your will be done...Rise let us go, see my betrayer is at hand."
Was it focus, power, or confidence that they observed in Christ in His prayers that caused them to ask Him to teach them? The Scriptures don't give us an answer. Luke merely records the event, their request and does not analyze and penetrate into the reasoning behind their request, but continues to describe how Jesus Christ responded.
We know this is a model prayer. It's given in two sets of Scriptures in the New Testament, in the book of Luke and in the book of Matthew. We call it the Model Prayer. In this we see that Jesus Christ taught His disciples an attitude about prayer, things to pray about, we call it, scholars call it, a Model Prayer.
Well, we know that this is not a prayer that we're supposed to chant, repeat endlessly; although, on a number of occasions, it has been put to a very beautiful song which, perhaps, many of us can bring to our mind's eye, as we read over the Scriptures in Matthew 6:9-13.
All very familiar - we've read them scores of times, perhaps hundreds of times, but Jesus Christ was answering the question: How should we pray?
And so, what I would like to do in the split sermon this morning is to look at the Model Prayer from that perspective. The perspective of Jesus Christ answering the question of His disciples: How should we pray? I believe that within the context and the instruction that He gave His disciples Jesus Christ has laid out a way to combine our daily prayer, our study, and our reflection upon the very Word of God - how to bring all three of these together in a very powerful way.
Please work with me for a moment as we study this. We're going to make a column down the left-hand side of your notes. The very first thing I would ask you to write there and, as you probably have your Bibles open to Matthew 6, you will see these words highlighted as we look through the prayer.
At the very top of all this, put the word praise. And then, right under the word praise write the word thanks and under the word thanks, write the word kingdom and under kingdom write the word will and following will, write the word daily and beneath daily write the word forgiveness and under forgiveness, write the word leadership.
What Jesus Christ has shown us, as we are His modern disciples, is that these are topics, topics that we are to be prepared to discuss with our Heavenly Father when we come into His presence to pray. See, this is a topical list; these are thoughts that we can reflect on as we are beginning to pray. How to approach God in prayer; what He wants to hear from us; how He wants our communication to be with Him; what topics would He suggest that we include? Well, praise, thanks, kingdom, will, daily, forgiveness and leadership.
Now we have this list. It need not be in a binder or in a notebook, it could be on the back of a bill, the back of an envelope, because it's a list that we prepare for today, each of these seven words. And so, there, laying beside us, as we have our daily Bible study and as we are reading the Bible that day in the manner we have chosen, by whatever process we have selected the Scriptures for that daily reading, as we are reading that, perhaps something will come to our mind that relates to one of these seven topics. I am confident that at least one, perhaps two things, in our regular study for that day will appear and the suggestion is that we write that right next to that word, just a couple of sentences or part of a sentence, that would help us remember what God had just spoken to us in the words that we have read.
Then, in most cases, there will be holes in our list, the right column of our page and, so then, we pause for a moment and say, if there is nothing yet in the praise row, we think for a moment. What could I add to praise God today?
Some people have a regular habit of reading through the Psalms through a sequence. They read the Psalms constantly, one Psalm a day. Well, someone that is using that approach or is reading the Psalms regularly would add to the praise, how "The heavens declare the glory of God." Others might write praises to God for His law.
You've got a third writing clue because they, at that moment, are walking "in the shadow of death" or a loved one is; they thank God that He is with them and with their loved one.
Perhaps there was an experience you had the previous day, going back to the flight in, and then the next day thinking about what I had observed in the seat next to me on the flight in, was a family of five, Mom and Dad and two rambunctious little boys and an absolutely precious little girl. Within twenty minutes of the flight, they were all asleep and there's nothing quite as beautiful as a young child, I think the boys were three and two and the little girl was one, and you go before God and say, thank you for children. Thank you, praising you for the children you have shown us.
We, then, continue in our mind's eye to the topic of thanks and there are daily things that we may thank God for in personal lives, but going back to the thought of reading the Scripture and thanking God because of what we see in the Scripture - there are a number of us that are in the process of reading through the Bible, following a particular pattern, starting on January 1 of this year. The approach we are using is first to read the Gospels in harmony. Well, in the very beginning, the first couple of days of this reading, we read the story of John the Baptist, how God had worked it out perfectly, that John would be conceived six months before Christ would be conceived, that John would be born and be given his commission - his father was told by an angel - to be the messenger that takes forth the word of a Messiah that is coming, to proclaim the ministry of Jesus Christ and to be the one that would baptize Christ.
We look at that and we are astounded at it. We see the magnificence of what God has done and how He began the ministry of Jesus Christ by putting John there to proclaim the way and we thank God. We thank God for that and there are a myriad of things in our own personal lives that may find their way onto that list.
The Kingdom - we often think of the kingdom. We pray, "thy Kingdom come" every week, month, day, almost every hour, we look out, we see our brethren in Kenya, we see the news from Pakistan, we see 9/11, several years ago. We read the history of the world and the world cries out and its history, its current events and what we look forward to in the future and see on the horizon and say, "Thy Kingdom come."
Those thoughts come. We would add them to the column, as well, but we need not forget that we need to ask our Heavenly Father to prepare us for the Kingdom, because being prepared for the Kingdom includes doing the Kingdom things before it arrives.
As we read or as we recall this particular parable that Christ told His disciples in Matthew 24:45, we think about the Kingdom and we are reminded that there are those things that the servant who is anticipating the Kingdom would be doing; and so, we would include that in our thoughts at some point.
See what Christ said in verse 45 when He said:
verse 45 - "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?"
verse 46 - "Blessed is that servant - that's you and I - blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing."
Christ is the Master who is returning. We're the servant that is to be found "so doing." We have a responsibility given to us by Him to be faithful servants.
When we ask our Father, give me the spiritual food that my household needs today, how can I lead my household, how can I provide for my household with what it needs, as I anticipate the Kingdom? Our thoughts may run to the overwhelming Kingdom Scripture that tells us that we are to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." All that is embodied, as we think and reflect for a few moments, each day - what it means to talk with our Heavenly Father about the Kingdom.
God's will? We know we pray that His will be done. We want His plan to come to fruition. We look forward to the events that are in that plan, but there are many other "His will" Scriptures that we find in the New Testament; particularly in the New Testament. He tells us that He will provide for our daily needs.
Back in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 again, we see that described. It's not new, but very familiar indeed. When we're told to ask, to seek, to knock, that God will open before us, and Christ continues in 7:9
verse 9 - "For what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?"
verse 10 - "Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?"
verse 11 - "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"
And so, we see that it is God's will, His desire, to give us good things, and so we go before Him. We see in God's will that He has a large will that encompasses everyone on the earth. It is His desire, Peter writes, that none shall perish, that none will perish, that "all will come to repentance." That's God's will. We can thank Him for it. We can ask that His will be done and anticipate the day that it be done indeed.
Asking for needs is easy to do because we live in the world that we live in. We, first and foremost, see and recall the needs of those we know. There are scores that we don't know, but whose names are on lists that we receive and we keep and we're given monthly. We can't pray - time does not allow us to pray daily about all their needs - but we could have that list, if not present before us, certainly in our mind's eye, and remind God that He knows who is on the list. He knows who is sick, who is afflicted, who is walking in the "shadow of death" at that moment in their families.
Now, we can ask our Heavenly Father to fulfill our needs and the needs that we have because we always have them. Our personal needs would be within the context of our family, our work, the Church, whatever are the vistas of our life. Helping our children, our own loved ones may be dealing with a health emergency or a health crisis and, also, there are particular needs that we have that are described in a most interesting way by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:10.
Paul writes about who we are in Ephesians 2:10 and makes an interesting observation, as it relates to our daily needs. He says this in verse 10:
verse 10 - "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works," and then, Paul continues - and, this is the need that we have daily - "which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
There will be needs presented to us daily that we need to recognize that it is our responsibility to respond to.
Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? The first two that walked by didn't see the need that was placed before them. The final man, the Samaritan, saw the need and acted on it. I believe that's what Paul is describing here, in a big way and a small way, God places before us good works and then the challenge we have is to recognize that it is a good work that was set there for us to do each day, as part of our needs.
Of course, forgiveness is one that, not surprisingly, could take a good deal of time on a particular day because, perhaps, in the last 12 or 24 hours we have seen something in our life, a personal struggle that we thought, at one time, was subdued, only to realize the struggle goes on. Well, we talk with God about that; we ask Him to forgive us, and to give us the strength and the will to go forward and not continue in that sin.
At the same time, we recognize that there are those we need to forgive and there are some that we need to forgive who cannot yet repent. They may dead. They may be not capable of repenting just yet, but we can forgive them and not carry the burden any longer. We can forgive our national, our domestic, our international politicians for all that they do and the frustration that we see in the news and recognize that the time comes when they, too, will respond.
And finally, there is leadership. There is leadership, of course, at the national level, asking in our prayers that our Father would guide our national leaders, at the various levels, so that we in this nation, for example, would not have another 9/11; that they would not succumb to the underlying philosophy that is amoral, that is ungodly, that fills this world, that competes with the knowledge of God, the evil spirit that pervades our society. Our leaders need protection from that.
Of course, there is always the challenge, always has been and will be, of the challenge within the Church of God itself. Asking God to give us, collectively and individually, the ability to be an Ephesians 4 Church, to be truly unified as one, to be like our Heavenly Father and His Son. Leadership is needed in ourselves, in the congregations within the Church of God itself.
And in our own personal life, we need to lead ourselves away from the broad way and to recognize and see the narrow way that God has set before us and to lead ourselves.
Now, think what this effect this could have on your daily interaction with God. You want to pray, we want to pray, we know we're supposed to pray, yes. We also know that God speaks to us through His Word, that's right.
Christ shows us in this segment of the Sermon on the Mount how to listen to God speaking to us and to have that listening filter through a handful of topics that He wants us to talk to Him about when we come before Him in prayer, so that we can be led by Him.
I think, if we look at what Jesus Christ has given us here, we don't see prayer and study and meditation as an ethereal conversation. It is a living, daily, vibrant activity, that every Christian can have to strengthen His personal relationship with God and think of the power, think of the power, if everyone in the Church of God chose to read through the Bible once a year, every year, in whatever sequence, in whatever order you might choose to read the Scriptures, year by year.
One writer tells me it takes 12 to 15 minutes a day, every day, to read the Scriptures, to read the Bible in a year. (I didn't do the math, I trust the gentleman who wrote it.) What would happen? How would you go about it? There are uncountable numbers of ways to choose to read through the Bible in a year. I suspect, if you have one of the normal Bibles, The New King James, the one I have on the podium with me, in the very back of that book, there is a reading program that will take us, you and I, through the Scriptures in a year.
There are other programs that are written by various ministers, various authors that say, well, read the Bible in this way or that way or the other. My personal recommendation is: Find one and use it. I caution you not to use one with a commentary, just a list of Scriptures to read and make that our daily habit. And what we're going to have happen, in the course of a year, God is going to give us every word that He wants to speak to us from the Scriptures.
On the day that we read those particular Scriptures, Christ has given us a means of looking at those instructions, that advice, that history, to prompt us in several areas, and, then, we pray, as Christ, as He taught us.
Just think. What would happen, if every member of the Church of God read the Bible through every year and, as they read the Bible every year, they combined that reading with asking themselves these seven questions? What would be the power surge, the spiritual power surge that the Church of God would receive because we are listening and thinking about what our Heavenly Father is telling and then talking with Him about it, as we pray?
Jesus Christ taught us how to pray. He has given us the means of learning from our prayers. Now, we have but one choice. Let us do, as we have been taught.