--- 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.
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.
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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! 7 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…
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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…
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.
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.
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©
