1.
In the name
of Jesus. Amen. At the end of this service, we will have
reached a significant point in our journey through Lent. Since there are Six
Chief Parts of Christian Doctrine in the catechism, when we’ve completed the
third Chief Part, we’ll be halfway through our Lenten series. In the Ancient
Church, the catechism consisted just of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed,
and the Lord’s Prayer. But, in the Middle Ages many other elements had been
added to various catechisms. It was Luther who returned to the basic three and
then included what was necessary to know about Baptism, Confession and
Forgiveness, and the Lord’s Supper. Today we’ll discuss the Lord’s Prayer, and
when we finish with it, we’ll have covered the full content of the ancient
catechisms. The truth is we’ll never
really be finished with the Lord’s Prayer, because, as Luther says, in it we
have enough for a whole lifetime of prayer.
Our heavenly Father gives us reason to make prayer our whole lifetime. Our
brief look at the Lord’s Prayer tonight can give us a start in understanding
how Our Father Gives Us Every Good Reason
to Pray.
2.
How did your
day go? How did you occupy your time? Some of you went to work. Others went to
school. Some of you were home handling tasks you set as top priority. Everyone
has duties and responsibilities. One of your duties and responsibilities today was
to pray. How often did you pray today? It’s our duty to pray. God has commanded
it. In fact, the Epistle says it so well:
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess
5:17). And as Jesus introduces our text from Matthew’s Gospel, he says, “And when
you pray” (Mt 6:5). Notice, it’s not “if”; it’s “when.” Our lives are to be
lives of prayer. How well did you do on that?
3.
I was raised
in a Christian family. I was taught to pray before meals. I do that pretty
well. I also was taught to pray after I eat. Sometimes I’m not so good at that.
Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve been so hungry that you ate
without prayer? Is that okay? Is prayer optional, that is, it’s good if you
remember, but it’s okay if you don’t?
4.
What would
Daniel say about that? Did Daniel have this attitude about prayer? No, he didn’t.
Jealous leaders plotted against him. They convinced the king to pass a law that
couldn’t be changed and required prayer only to the king for 30 days. Prayer
offered to the true God wasn’t banned forever, just for 30 days. It was
Daniel’s custom to pray 3 times a day. I believe if I had been Daniel, I may
have said, “I can give up prayer for 30
days. No big deal. After all, prayer is optional.” Some Christians may
think this, but not Daniel. Daniel knew it was his duty to pray. In spite of
the consequences, Daniel prayed. Daniel
agreed with what Peter and John would tell the Sanhedrin centuries later: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts
5:29). He understood it was his duty to pray. Daniel was thrown into the lions’
den. A stone covered the entrance. Daniel may have believed he was going into
his tomb. It may have been that Daniel trusted that God would take him into heaven
at the mouths of these lions. But I’m reminded of another tomb with a stone
rolled in front of it. It served God’s plan that when the stone was rolled
away, Daniel was alive!—there—just as Jesus was alive! Daniel knew it was his
duty to pray regardless of the consequences.
5.
Someone may
say, “Well, that’s not right. I shouldn’t pray because God commanded me. God isn’t
forcing me to pray. I should just be praying out of my heart. What do you mean,
God commanded prayer?” When we come to God with our little complaints,
problems, and ideas, how do we know God will listen to us? One way I know is
because God has told me, “Come. Got any problems? Come! I want you to come.
Pray without ceasing.” God tells you to pray so that if you have any doubt that
He wants to hear your prayer, simply open the Bible and read that, yes, God has
told me to come and pray. His command gives us confidence rather than a burden.
6.
Luther makes
this interesting comment regarding prayer, “Babbling
and bawling . . . [is] not prayer” (LC III 7). There’s a certain form to prayer
and a certain discipline of things we need to do. For example, bowing your head
and folding your hands are appropriate to teach our children. But this isn’t
what makes prayer. Some may think that if they put more energy into a prayer,
God will listen to them better. Or, if I bawl and cry out to God, then he will
listen. There was a competition between the prophets of Baal and Elijah (1 Ki
18:16–46). Each was to build an altar and pray for God to accept the sacrifice.
The prophets of Baal had the most sincere prayers ever. They walked around the altar, bawled, and
cried out. They even cut themselves to show they were sincere. But there was no
answer because they prayed to a false god. The effectiveness of prayer isn’t
from the energy we put into it. It’s from the person who hears our prayer, God.
Elijah prayed to God, and God heard. And God sent down a consuming fire on the
altar. Although the altar was drenched with water, the fire consumed everything
there because God answered prayer.
7.
Suppose you
call 911 and say, “I have a fire. I need
the firemen to come,” and the operator replies, “You don’t sound sincere enough. Put your heart into it. Really make me
believe.” That doesn’t make any sense. Or what if you call 911 and the
operator says, “OK, if you can call back
maybe 3 or 4 more times, then I’ll think about it.” No. Or how about this:
“I’m glad you called, but we will only
answer your request for firemen if you can get 100 of your closest friends to
call too.” Some think about prayer this way. But, it’s not the sincerity of
my 911 phone call that gets the help. It’s the sincerity of the fire department
that answers the call. Now, God wants us to pray from the heart, but God
answers prayer because He’s a good and gracious God.
8.
Do you ever
feel so unworthy that you think God doesn’t want to hear your prayer? He tells
you to call upon Him. There’s a reason He tells you this. The reason is the
cross. On the cross, when Jesus died for your sins and for mine, He made you
acceptable to God. He reconciled you to God.
This is why the 5th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses,” is so
important. If God were to look upon our sins, He could only deny our prayers.
But, because Jesus took away our sins on the cross, God doesn’t see our sins.
He only sees us as dear sons and daughters, as holy and worthy as the only
begotten Son who took our place and gave us His.
9.
Some years
ago, a pastor was at the hospital near the critical care unit. A woman standing
there saw him. She saw that he was wearing the collar of a clergyman, and she
grabbed him and said, “Come, please, pray
for my mom. She’s in the ICU.” The pastor went into the ICU, and he prayed
with her mom. When he was done, the woman said, “Oh, thank you so much, I know that really helped. I’ve tried to get
everyone in here. I’ve had a priest and a rabbi too.” She had the idea that
those of the clergy were closer to God, that God would hear a pastor’s prayer before
he would hear her prayer. How sad and untrue that is. God hears your prayer,
because Jesus is the one who gave you permission to say, “Our Father in heaven,” to pray to God, the Father Almighty, who
made heaven and earth.
10.
Luther says
this to one who doubts God will hear his prayer: “You should say, ‘My prayer is as precious, holy, and pleasing to God as
that of St. Paul or the most holy saints. This is the reason: I will gladly
grant that Paul is personally more holy, but . . . God does not consider prayer
because of the person, but because of His Word” (LC III 16). The Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us—Jesus Christ. Our Father promises to hear our
prayers because we are His dear children through Jesus and His cross. When children sing in church, it makes me
happy to see the smiles on their faces. But there’s a special joy in seeing the
faces of the fathers and mothers as their children sing. Parents have great joy
when children phone home. They rejoice because they love their children.
Because of your faith in Jesus, this is God’s attitude toward you when you
pray! “My children, who have been adopted
into my family through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, how wonderful it is that
you are now talking to me as dear children talk to their dear father.”
11.
This is
exactly what Luther is teaching us when he explains the first two words of the
Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father”: “With these words [Our Father] God tenderly
invites us to believe that He is our true father and that we are his true
children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear
children ask their dear Father.” We
should all form a daily habit of prayer. It would be good if we would learn
this from youth. It’s a great blessing to be raised in a family where parents
teach their children to pray—when they get up in the morning, when they go to
bed at night, before and after meals. Sometimes
our heavenly Father teaches us the habit of prayer. He may remind you to pray
by placing you on your back in a hospital bed so that you must look up to
heaven and remember Him in prayer. Sometimes He teaches you to pray by allowing
you to have difficulties, either in your family life or at work or with
finances. These are all opportunities to be reminded of the godly habit of
prayer.
12.
Luther says
this, “Whenever a godly Christian prays,
‘Dear Father, let Your will be done’ [Matthew 6:10], God speaks from on high and says, ‘Yes, dear child, it shall be so, in
spite of the devil and all the world’ ” (LC III 32). In spite of the devil
and all the world, God’s will is done for your ultimate blessing. One of the greatest examples of this is a
prayer I want you to remember throughout the Lenten season. On a hill far away
stood 3 crosses. From one cross a prayer came to Jesus’ ears: “Remember me when you come into your
kingdom” (Lk 23:42). God privileged that child of God to hear the answer to
his prayer immediately, “Today you will
be with me in Paradise” (23:43). As you offer your prayers to God, I hope
the answer to the prayer of the thief on the cross will ring out and echo in
your ears. God wants you to be with Him forever in paradise because of Jesus,
your Savior. In His name. Amen.
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