Glad to be with you on this Tuesday. It’s a blessing to be together in God’s word!
This week we’re continuing our series, “Prepare with Prayer”. The Scripture for this week is Luke 11:1-13. Our message is entitled, “Game On”.
On Tuesday we look closely at the text. We seek to identify individual ideas within a passage. We also try to discern, “Is there an underlying theme that guides this Scripture? Is there a core thought the text is developing? How does this main idea condition other supporting verses?”
Luke 11 begins with Jesus wrapping up his morning prayer time. The disciples notice how important prayer is to him and to his ministry. The pattern is: Jesus prays in the morning and then goes into the day to teach inspired truth, perform miracles bringing healing or deliverance, or love on folks in ways he draws them into his good news in droves.
As the disciples witness this pattern and power they ask Jesus, “Teach us to pray”. Teach us to pray so we can have results like that. Teach us to pray so we can rise from prayer and go into the world and participate in how God’s Kingdom is coming into the world with truth, power and love. Teach us to pray.
And so, Jesus does. He teaches them (and us) the most famous of all prayers, the prayer we pray every time we worship, “The Lord’s Prayer”.
As you look at the Lord’s Prayer, you can see it as six separate thoughts. God, You are our Father. Let Your Kingdom come and Your Will be done. Give us the provision we need for today. Forgive us our sin and help us forgive others. Deliver us from temptation and evil. God, Yours is the forever Kingdom. Amen.
Another way to look at the Lord’s Prayer, and the perspective of our message this week, is to organize the Lord’s Prayer around the main idea, “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Our sermon this week assumes this desire is at the “heart” of Jesus’ prayer.
If you organize the Lord’s Prayer around this core thought, the prayer unfolds like this: God, You are our great and mighty, loving and holy Father. God, we want your Will and Way of Love, being done in Heaven, to be done right here on earth in our lives today. Provide what we need to participate in Your Kingdom coming and Your Will being done. Reconcile and restore us to Yourself and to others (forgive us our sins and strengthen us to forgive others), because we know the coming of your Kingdom doesn’t happen by ourselves. Coming into harmony with one another is part of Your Kingdom coming. And deliver us from self-absorption, lesser loves, petty prayers, and anything else that draws us away from Your kingdom coming and Your will being done today. And as You’re doing that God, save us from any deeper evil that lies beneath our temptations. We desire Your Kingdom and Will today because Yours is the true and forever kingdom, the power and the glory, today and forever. Let’s get on with it! Amen! Game On!
It’s a different take on the Lord’s Prayer for sure!
And then the three following teachings: “The Friend at Midnight (a lesson on perseverance)”, “Ask, Seek and Knock (a lesson on assertiveness)”, and a “Parent’s Goodness (a lesson on God’s generosity in answering this prayer)” are not three random teachings. They are supportive teachings on the main theme, “Lord, let Your Kingdom come and your Will be done.”
These three teachings connect like this: When you aren’t sure what God’s Kingdom will is or how it is to be done today in your living, don’t let that stop you from praying the prayer – persevere! Continue to “Ask” and “Seek” and “Knock”. You will come to know and find. The ways of God’s Kingdom working will be opened to you. God in goodness and generosity will answer and provide, just as a parent provides good things for their child. God will be at work with the Holy Spirit to enable and empower the Kingdom to come and God’s Will to be done in and through you.
As you see, when you connect the entire passage with the core thought, “Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done”, that desire conditions how you read each of the verses. This normative thought shapes how the passage unfolds and the meaning it holds.
This is just one approach to this Scripture. There are many others. And you have your own. As you meditate on this Scripture make sure you write down your reflections. They are how God is leading you into deeper faith through this text and the truth it holds.
This passage includes lots of thoughts. So I’ll let you get to work! And I look forward to being with you tomorrow in the Pastor’s Workshop.
Prayer: Gracious God, thank You for this Scripture. Thank You for Your love for Your world, as Your love is revealed in Jesus. Thank you for how Jesus teaches us to pray Your Love for our lives and for our world – Your Kingdom come and Your Will be done. Lead us forward in this prayer today as we seek to live into this truth. This we ask in the name of the One who taught and lived this prayer, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen