Sermon 08-14-11 "Our Father"

We have devoted ourselves to prayer this summer. From May through August. Praying the Psalms. Prayer meetings. Praying for our church’s mission. Seeking God on “his own terms,” not placing him under our conditions and restrictions. We now bring this season of prayer to a close. This of course does not mean a conclusion to our praying. Today we consider the ongoing rhythm of prayer. Varying from the routine, we structure our whole service today around Jesus’ prayer given to his disciples (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4).

“That we may know what and how to pray, Jesus has taught us both the way and the words.”

- Martin Luther on the Lord’s

- Prayer, Large Catechism

“Let this be understood above all: the power of prayer is not in us, that we speak. It is in God, that he listens! It is his hearing that causes a true connection.”

- Walter Wangerin, Whole Prayer

“We humans, somewhere along the way, seem to have picked up the bad habit of trying to get life on our terms, without all the bother of God . . . Worse, the word has gotten around in recent years that ‘spirituality’ itself might be a way of getting a more intense life without having to deal with God . . . But true spirituality is a passion for life and a willingness to risk identity and security in following Jesus, no matter what.”

- Eugene Peterson

New sermon posted at reliantchurch.org

Off the Sidewalk (part 4)

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."   -Romans 8:15

The disciples approached Jesus and asked “Teach us to pray.” Prayer is a learned exercise, taught in the school of the Holy Spirit. So how do we pray? We start by saying ‘Our Father.’ The word ‘Father’ shows us that prayer is positional. God is our Father and we are his children. Unless we understand our position, we aren’t going to be able to pray in a way that grows us.

To call God ‘Father’ means we’re assuming we’re his heir. This is more radical and offensive then we probably first realize. If you’re working for someone, you get income as a wage. But if you’re a child, you get all the wealth without even working. This is the difference between the Gospel and religion. If you’re a Christian, God honors you as if you’ve done everything Jesus has done. If you’re a Christian, it means not that you’re trying to get blessings, it means you’re an heir and you’re already in! God treats you as if you are everything Jesus was. This is the difference between the Gospel and religion. In religion we hope that if we live a good life we’ll put God in our debt and he has to bless us. The Gospel says Jesus lived the life we should have lived, died the death we should have died, and when I simply say Father accept me because of what Jesus has done, at that moment we receive the spirit of sonship. We’re an adopted child. We just want God.

Always start every prayer knowing your position.

(Part 4 of 6 in the series "Off the Sidewalk." Adapted from Tim Keller's sermon "Praying in the Spirit.")

Off the Sidewalk (part 3)

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."   -Romans 8:15

‘Spirituality’ has been making a sort of come-back in our culture today. This isn’t necessarily good. There’s a world of difference between egocentric (man-centered) spirituality and theocentric (God-centered) spirituality. Egocentric spirituality uses things like prayer as a consumer tool. Egocentric spirituality primarily asks ‘What do I get?’ It’s basically a form of karma, where if you do good things you get good things. Theocentric spirituality, on the other hand, revolves around God. It doesn’t primarily seek to ‘get things’ but rather to get God himself that we might bring glory to his name.

The theocentric or Christian teaching of prayer is much more realistic than the egocentric or ‘consumeristic’ teaching of prayer. Romans 8:15  says that “by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” By him we cry. Cry almost always means a person is in distress. In this verse we see that the Christian life will have times of suffering and distress. Christian spirituality is extremely realistic. The Bible never says Christians will have it easier than anyone else, rather the Christian life is full of weakness. In other words, the Spirit saves us through our weakness, not from our weakness.

Everyone is going to experience bad things. The real question is where do we turn in the midst of these bad things. The Spirit gets us to look toward and turn to the Father, toward Abba in our weakness… then we grow. If in our times of weakness and suffering we pray/cry towards the Father as an adopted child, then there will be a deepening of wisdom, development of beauty of heart, and a spiritual clarity. But if we turn away from our Father towards counterfeit gods, we’ll live in denial and shrink under suffering and weakness. Prayer is not a consumer tool, it’s a refiners fire. This is amazing encouragement! When the Spirit comes into our lives, it’s like being born. All the groaning and crying is for a purpose. Our weakness will grow us, out of infancy and into maturity.

(Part 3 of 6 in the series "Off the Sidewalk." Adapted from Tim Keller's sermon "Praying in the Spirit.")

Off the Sidewalk (part 2)

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."   -Romans 8:15

Prayer can seem intimidating. We know we should pray, but sometimes we don’t quite know how to pray. We can’t find the right words. Or we can’t find the right time. We might get distracted. We might lose our focus. And this can easily lead to discouragement. God can seem distant. We can feel left on the sidewalk.

But prayer isn’t primarily a technique. Prayer is primarily a relationship, and this relationship is primal. In the Romans verse above, we see that we have received the Spirit of sonship, and by this Spirit we cry “Abba, Father.” Often times we hear ‘abba’ translated as ‘daddy.’ But it’s actually best translated as ‘dadda.’ An 8 year old doesn’t say ‘abba,’ an infant says ‘abba.’ It’s primal and instinctive, the earliest form of language. While an 8 year old calculates, “I want daddy to do this or that,” when an infant cries ‘dadda,’ he just wants dadda, he wants to be brought into the nearness of his presence, into his arms.

Seen through the lens of faith, when you become a Christian you receive the Holy Spirit, and one of the first things that happens is that there is a new kind of language towards God you didn’t have before. Before you could have a language of duty. Prayer could be mechanical—you might have the instinct to pray when you’re in trouble, but when the trouble is gone the instinct to pray disappears. With the Holy Spirit, the language of prayer expresses a desire for God himself (not just for God’s things), for his nearness, to be lifted off the sidewalk and brought into his presence.

But lets be honest, in the Christian life there are still times when we don’t feel like we desire God. There are seasons when we don’t feel the joy of God’s presence but instead experience the concrete realities of suffering. God seems distant, and we feel alone. But in these times we shouldn’t speak of the way (suffering) as if it were the goal (joy in God’s presence). Otherwise we’re bound to lose what C. S. Lewis refers to as our joy in total dependence: “For this tangled absurdity of a Need… Grace substitutes a full, childlike and delighted acceptance of our Need, a joy in total dependence. We become ‘jolly beggars.’” And as ‘jolly beggars,’ we are no longer slaves to fear, but are sons and daughters who can cry out—“Abba, Father”—Knowing that he hears us. Knowing that he loves us.         

(Part 2 of 6 in the series "Off the Sidewalk." Adapted from Tim Keller's sermon "Praying in the Spirit.")

Off the Sidewalk (part 1)

You’re walking down the street. You can see your breath. A few paces ahead, through a curtain of falling snow, there emerges the image of a father walking alongside his son. The father reaches down, picks up his son, embraces him, hugs him, whispers “I love you.”

You wonder, “When is the son more a son? On the sidewalk? Or in the father’s arms?” You replay the image in your head. Over and over. There’s been no change in status. In both cases the son is still the son, the father still the father. But there has been a change in the experience of the status. The son is loved by the father when he’s on the sidewalk, but the son experiences the love of the father when he’s lifted off the sidewalk and brought into his daddy’s arms.

Change the scene. You’re the child, God’s the father. Do you feel like you’re on the sidewalk? Do you know your status (as a loved child of God), but wish you could experience your status? Do you wish God would lift you off the sidewalk and bring you into his arms?

 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."   -Romans 8:15

(Part 1 of 6 in our series "Off the Sidewalk." Adapted from Tim Keller's sermon "Praying in the Spirit.")

Theology :: Prayer

• What is prayer?—“Communication with God”
• Is prayer a means of grace? (a way by which God delivers the Gospel to me) No. Prayer is not a means of grace. It’s a right response by the Christian who has received God’s grace. Prayer is really our activity. In prayer the Holy Spirit does comfort us but often because he is delivering the Word to us.
• So why do we pray? God wants us to. He desires a relationship with us. He promises to hear and answer our prayers because we have fellowship with God in Jesus and the Spirit intercedes on our behalf.
• But does God change his mind? If not then why should we pray? We are told to pray as if everything depends on our prayer. We pray that God's will would heed our will, but the best thing is that God’s-will would be accomplished.
• The best prayer is “bend my will to yours.” We should pray with full-confidence knowing that God hears and God answers. We should pray continually. If God doesn’t answer with our desired outcome he had a different plan. A good example of this is to look at King David, he pleaded with intensity for the life of his child, but once the child died he got up and moved on. If there’s a chance pray like crazy, once God’s will is revealed line yourself up with God’s will.
• Does God answer every prayer of the Christian? Yes. He might say no but he answers.
• Does God promise to answer the prayer of non-Christians? No. God could in his mercy but there’s no promise of this because it's not in and through Jesus.

(adapted from a lecture by Prof. Joel Biermann, Concordia Seminary)

Luther on Meditation and Prayer

I want to point out to you a correct way of studying theology, for I have had practice in that…. This is the way taught by holy King David (and doubtlessly used also by all the patriarchs and prophets) in the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm. There you will find three rules, amply presented in the whole Psalm. They are Oratio [prayer], Meditatio [meditation], Tentatio [temptation].


Firstly, you should know that the Holy Scriptures constitute a book which turns the wisdom of all other books into foolishness, because not one teaches about eternal life except this one alone. Therefore you should straightway despair of your own reason and understanding. With them you will not attain eternal life, but, on the contrary, your presumptuousness will plunge you and others with you out of heaven (as happened to Lucifer) into the abyss of hell. But kneel down in your little room [Matt. 6:6] and pray to God with real humility and earnestness, that he through his dear Son may give you his Holy Spirit, who will enlighten you, lead you, and give you understanding.


Thus you see how David keeps praying in the above-mentioned Psalm [119], Teach me, Lord, instruct me, lead me, show me,” and many more words like these. Although he will knew and daily heard and read the text of Moses and other books besides, still he wants to lay hold of the real teacher of the Scriptures himself, so that he may not seize upon them pell-mell with his reason and become his own teacher. For such practice gives rise to factious spirits who allow themselves to nurture the delusion that the Scriptures are subject to them and can be easily grasped with their reason, as if they were the tales of Markolf or Aesop’s Fables, for which no Holy Spirit and no prayers are needed.


Secondly, you should meditate, that is, not only in your heart, but also externally, [by repeating the written words externally and rubbing them (like a herb for its flavor)], reading and rereading them with diligent attention and reflection, so that you may see what the Holy Spirit means by them….


Thus you see in this same Psalm [119] how David constantly boasts that he will talk, meditate, speak, sing, hear, read, by day and night and always, about nothing except God’s Word and commandments. For God will not give you his Spirit without the external Word; so take your cue from that. His command to write, preach, read, hear, sing, speak, etc., outwardly was not given in vain.


Thirdly, there is tentatio, Anfechtung [“an attack” or “an assault”]. This is the touchstone which teaches you not only to know and understand, but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how loely, how mighty, how comforting God’s Word is, wisdom beyond all wisdom.


Thus you see how David, in the Psalm mentioned, complaines so often about all kinds of enemies, arrogant princes or tyrants, false spirits and factions, whom he must tolerate because he meditates, that is, because he is occupied with God’s Word (as has been said) in all manner of ways. For as soon as God’s Word takes root and grows in you, the devil will harry you, and will make a real doctor [of theology] of you, and by his assaults will teach you to seek and love God’s Word.

-Martin Luther