Sunday, August 23, 2020

Kingdom Living Series - Part 2 PRAY

Pray like this….  Matthew 6:9a

--- The Word of God for us, the People of God ---

The basic principle of God’s Kingdom on earth is: 

Everybody at peace with everybody else; already now – but not yet.

By this statement we mean that Jesus brought God’s Kingdom to earth when he was born in Bethlehem, so the kingdom is already now in effect (or should be at least in our hearts).  But it is not yet.  You can see this easily because the world is a dangerous and unhappy place.  The world is quite NOT at peace.

Last week we started with believe, which, by definition, is being humble towards God.  Jesus used the term poor in spirit; this is the essence of faith, believing.   Today we move further along in what will be a 7-week progression of learning how to live in the Kingdom of God (now, even if it isn’t complete yet). 

The Sermon on the Mount takes us to prayer, which deepens our faith and makes us seasoned, or mature followers of Christ.  The Bible word for that is telios, functioning appropriately for the way God created us.  It doesn’t mean sinless, because we still have a fallen nature; it does mean holy, in the sense that we are growing in love more like our Master.

God’s plan for our praying

God’s plan and purpose for prayer is to help us develop an honest and deep relationship with God, so we’ll hear God’s voice, draw up close to Him, and be blessed by walking daily with God.  We learn that in the second chapter of Genesis, where God said about his newly created Adam, it isn’t good for him to be alone.[1]   We see that deep desire for relationship in the Apostle Paul’s letter to Philippi:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death  Philippians 3:10

This is my desire as well.  I am a person of prayer…already now; but not yet.  By this I mean I share this burning desire in my innermost parts to know Christ.  That part of the Kingdom reigns in me, but it is far from complete.  I am not nearly as functional (telios/mature) as I want to be.

In all, prayer has been the one connecting thread in every aspect of my life which has kept me (at various times) from leaving the faith, destroying the most important relationships in my life, or just plain going insane!  Prayer, which keeps me close to God…also keeps me; it changes me.

So what I want to share with you this morning is the model of the kind of prayer that has changed me profoundly over the course of my life.  This “way” of praying is easily remembered by the short acronym “ACTS”.  The four letters stand for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. 

I found this was a model seen in many of the Old Testament prophets and leaders’ way of praying.  Nehemiah was one like that, and I’d like us to turn to his prayers to explore the way we can pray like Kingdom people.  Nehemiah was part of the captive Israelite nation.  He was cup bearer to the king, and God picked him to lead the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple.  In preparing to enter the greatest task of his life, with great risk of life and limb, Nehemiah hit his knees and opened his heart to God…an ACTS kind of prayer.

A

 doration

O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands,  Nehemiah 1:5

We begin our prayers with adoration.  By adoring we mean recognizing who God is and responding accordingly.  Nehemiah addresses God as great and awesome, the God who keeps covenant.  To “adore” God is to respond to the covenant, the agreement God offers.  In Nehemiah’s day that meant obedience to the Law, the first 5 books of the Bible. 

Our covenant as Christians has its’ foundation in that law, but it’s fulfillment in the New Covenant, purchased and sealed with the blood of Jesus on Calvary’s hill. 

Nehemiah started his prayer with adoration.  One of the reasons you don’t hear much of that anymore is because 21st century culture teaches us to adore ourselves.  It is a good practice, if you’re going to pray honestly, respectfully, and meaningfully to Almighty God, to stop often and check to see who is sitting in the throne of your heart.  Is it you…or God?  If it’s you, it won’t be God you’re adoring; it’s impossible to recognize the sovereignty of God when you’re having someone else on the throne.

And this leads naturally into the second movement in this symphony of prayer…

C

onfession

…listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.  Nehemiah 1:6-7

Nehemiah’s confession isn’t popular today.  Today, if anything’s gone wrong, it’s always somebody else’s fault.  Most often we hear excuses, not confession!

·       If a CEO sells his company down the tubes, he leaves with 38 million in golden parachute separation funds.

·       If a high-profile preacher lives a scandalous life of sexual sins, he thumbs his nose at his denomination and is back on the air in no time at all.

·       If a president lies, he has merely “mis-spoken” himself and doesn’t skip a beat.

By contrast, Nehemiah, born into the captivity, a thousand miles from Jerusalem, never having set foot in the holy city, includes himself and his family in the guilt of national sins of Israel.  Wow….really?  Yes, really; Nehemiah is wise enough to know that, had he been there, he also would have sinned.  Nehemiah knew his own heart just like you and I know our hearts.  We need prayers of confession….regularly!

In the text Nehemiah prays that we have sinned terribly.  Literally, the word means “offended”.  He is admitting the actions of God’s children are offensive to Heaven.  Beloved, that is what confession is about.  It’s recognizing our sins do, indeed, offend holy God.

Once you’ve adored God in prayer, confessed your sins to Him, then comes…

T

hanksgiving

“Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations.  But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’  “The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants.  Nehemiah 1:8-10

It’s one thing to say “thank you” for a gift you really like; it’s quite another to say “bless you” for hauling us out to the woodshed.  Yet, that is exactly what Nehemiah has in mind here.  Basically, he is rehearsing the fact that God said, you sin, and I’ll whip your butt.  I’ll hunt you down, and I’ll bring you back, and we can do it all over again.  Nehemiah’s response is that was our rescue; Thank you, Lord.

Why would Nehemiah respond to God that way?  Because, in acknowledging God’s faithfulness to punish sin, it gives substance to our belief in God’s other promises…all those promises to care for us, love us, provide for us, and protect us.  And, to do all that, we must be under his wing.

Consider what God said about that through Moses’ successor, Joshua:

Today I call on heaven and earth as witnesses against you.  If you break my covenant, you will quickly disappear from the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.  You will live there only a short time; then you will be utterly destroyed.  For the Lord will scatter you among the nations, where only a few of you will survive.  There, in a foreign land, you will worship idols made from wood and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.  But from there you will search again for the Lord your God.  And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him.                Deuteronomy 4:26-29

How about that?  God was prepared to offer Israel forgiveness based upon his loving covenant.  Do you know what that tells you and me about God?  It says, loudly and clearly, that you CAN begin again.  You can come with adoration in your heart, and confession on your lips, and, with Thanksgiving flowing from your mind to God’s heart, you can KNOW God is willing to forgive and restore your life.

Our model is nearly complete:  Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and then…

S

 upplication

O Lord, please hear my prayer!  Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you.  Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me.  Put it into his heart to be kind to me.”  Nehemiah 1:11

There is always a decisive moment in life when talking or thinking becomes insufficient.  There is a moment in time when we must have the rubber of our faith meet the road of action.  In terms of praying and acting on those prayers the saying could be praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

There is a time when praying ends and doing begins.  That was the nature of the man Nehemiah, and all servant/prayer warriors.  Nehemiah committed himself to God and God’s Kingdom in his prayer, then he got up off his knees and forged ahead.

When is the last time you stepped-out in faith?  When’s the last time God put it in your heart to involve yourself in such a way that you knew if He didn’t come through, you were toast? 

My dear, beloved friends, brothers, and sisters, THAT is what supplication is all about.  THAT is what dependency on God in prayer is about. 

THAT is Kingdom-living prayer!

Now, perhaps the whole idea of this kind of prayer is somewhat scary.  After all, God is all-consuming, all-powerful, and all we have protecting us from that awesome being is our excuses…and we know they won’t fly any better than a block of granite.

Let’s let an old friend, C.S. Lewis, shed a little light on what the next step is for those of us who are timid about how to approach the throne.

In his book The Silver Chair C.S. Lewis draws an analogy with the story of a young girl named Jill.  She’s in the land of Narnia, and she’s thirsty.  At once she sees a magnificent stream…and a fearsome lion (Aslan, who represents the Lord Jesus):

If I run away, it’ll be after me in a moment, thought Jill.  And if I go on, I shall run straight into its mouth.  Anyway, she couldn’t have moved if she had tried, and she couldn’t take her eyes off it.  How long this lasted, she could not be sure; it seemed like hours.  And the thirst became so bad that she almost felt she would not mind being eaten by the lion if only she could be sure of getting a mouthful of water first….

Are you not thirsty? said the Lion.  I’m dying of thirst, said Jill.

Then drink, said the Lion.  May I – could I – would you mind going away while I do? said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl.  And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.  The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

Will you promise to do anything to me, if I do come? said Jill.

I make no promise, said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer. 

Do you eat girls? she said. 

I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms, said the Lion.  It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry.  It just said it.

I daren’t come and drink, said Jill.

Then you will die of thirst, said the Lion.

Oh dear! said Jill, coming another step nearer.  I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.

There is no other stream, said the Lion.  It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion – no one who had seen his stern face could do that – and her mind suddenly made itself up.

It was the worst thing she had ever had to do, but she went straight to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand.  It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted.  You didn’t need to drink much of it, for it quenched your thirst at once.  Before she tasted it she had been intending to make a dash away from the Lion the moment she had finished.  Now, she realized this would be on the whole the most dangerous thing of all.[2]

This stand-off is what we face when we come to the decision to put away the safe prayers to which we may have become accustomed, and choose to really pray.  This is the bottom line in real Kingdom prayer – we’re always making a choice to either run from God or towards God, but, ultimately, despite our fear, deep within our hearts and souls, we know that the prayer of running TO God will carry us one step closer for a drink of living water; and isn’t that what you REALLY want to do?

Our Prayer

Father God, here we are – again – with our eyes closed and our heads bowed.  And our souls conflicted.  We really do want to pray, be open, honest, and just let it all hang out for You to examine.  We know it will be worth it – the very best for our souls, if we just let go and trust that You will still be true to Your covenant, that you will honor Your Son’s blood, spilled for our saving.

Grant us courage to put the fear, and the need to control, and the flirtation with hiding our embarrassment aside.  Wash us, and we shall be whiter than snow; cleanse us and we shall be holy; purge us, and we will shine as your people.

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father. 

Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!

Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation  Matthew 10:24-39©



[1] Genesis 2:18

[2] C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, (Collier Books), pp.16-18

 

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