Transcript

The Model Prayer-Part Two

Matthew 6:9-10
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Pastor Randy Smith

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I can remember hearing about the occasion when a time management expert was speaking to a group of business students. To drive home his point, he used an illustration.

He pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes."

Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. Then he smiled and asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered.

"Good!" he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted.

Once again he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?"

One eager student raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!" "No," the speaker replied, "That's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

I continue where we left off last week. What are your priorities? What are the "big rocks" in your life? We live in the busiest generation the world has ever known. There is so much competing for our time, but the tyranny of the urgent and the whim of the moment often monopolize our schedules. The "water" and "sand" of life are usually taken care of. But when our lives are filled with the trivial and less important, room for the "big rocks" will definitely be squeezed out.

I am convinced that one of the biggest reasons the things of God are given so little attention among Christians today is because they are given such a low grade on our list of priorities. When our schedules are filled to the max, there is no way we have either the time or the energy to start inserting "big rocks" into our daily routine.

The solution is to have our priorities in order. The solution is to make a covenant with our God and our spouses and our children that our homes will revolve around the things of the Lord. That church activities and individual and family devotions and personal ministry responsibilities and hospitality and evangelistic interaction with unbelievers is our priority. That God will not get the leftovers, but that our schedules will reflect the fact that He is Lord of our lives and that He receives the "first place" which He not only desires but also demands (Col. 1:18). Let's remember that if we don't put the "big rocks" in first, we will never find room to squeeze them into our schedules later.

Prayer is definitely something we must prioritize in our lives. Prayer is a "big rock." And as I mentioned last week, the Lord's Prayer recorded in Matthew 6 is simply an outline given to us by Jesus to help us keep in our prayers the "big rocks," the proper priorities.

Think about you own personal prayer life. Do you come to God as "our Father who is in heaven," as we learned about last week? Do you realize that He is not just "your" Father, but that He is also "our" Father? Do the needs of His spiritual family receive the same attention as your own personal needs? Do you understand the Fatherhood of God? Have you experienced His intimate love? Do you believe that He wants to bless you, though often in a way deeper than your feelings dictate? Do you trust His goodness? And do you also understand that your Father is "in heaven?" Do you realize He is transcendent? Do you approach Him with respect and awe understanding that you are entering the presence of unspeakable majesty? Rightly understanding "our Father-who is in heaven" breeds total confidence in our prayers. For we have a Father who condescends to listen to our every need with affection and a God who rules in heaven with all wisdom and power.

As we move from the Recipient of the prayer now to the requests of the prayer, think once again about your own prayer life and the topic of priorities. When you come before God in prayer do you approach Him with the correct priorities? I would not deny that He pays attention to our smallest requests, but does our prayer life ever rise above these shallow petitions that are often selfish and trite? On the other hand, is our prayer life structured with depth and richness whereby God is honored and much is accomplished during the precious time we spend with Him?

So after mentioning the Recipient of the prayer in verse 9, Jesus Christ in this model prayer begins to inform us of six worthy petitions. We will cover the first three today. Remarkably, from the get-go you need to observe that each one of them has to do with God's glory. Beloved, this teaches us it is important that we align ourselves with God from the start. Priorities!

If the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart (Mt. 12:34), naturally when the heart is filled with God the first words out of our mouth should be praise for our awesome Creator and a burning desire to see Him glorified. For the man or woman after God's own heart, God's majesty is obviously more important than any of their earthly concerns. Such people will pray to God as God and not Santa Claus. And such people will prioritize God's desires and not their own. Actually, when filled with the Spirit, God's desires will be their own.

Let's examine the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer.

1. THE REQUESTS OF THE PRAYER-Part One

His Name Hallowed

We already learned about God transcending us in heaven, therefore it is only natural that the first petition deals with hallowing God's name. Now, what exactly does that mean?

Well, back in Semitic thought, a person's name stood for all that composed the identity of that individual. For example, when God chose to make Himself known, the names He selected for Himself revealed specific aspects about His character.

He is Elohim - The God who creates and preserves. He is Adonai - The God who is Lord over all. He is Jehovah-Rohi - The God who is our shepherd. He is Jehovah-Shammah - The God who is present. He is Jehovah-Rapha-The God who heals. He is Jehovah-Jireh - The God who provides. He is Jehovah-Shalom - The God who is peace. He is El-Shaddai - Mighty God.

In reference to God's name, one of the saints of yesteryear said, "This petition condemns much more than profane language. Whenever we introduce the Divine name in our speech uselessly and triflingly-when we employ it to turn a sentence, or give emphasis to a statement, or point to an anecdote-when we make the Divine Word the subject-matter of jokes, punning on solemn truths of Revelation, and quoting Scripture with ludicrous adaptations to provoke mirth. And even when we take this great name on our lips in worship without any endeavor to feel the homage it demands, we violate the spirit of this prayer" (Newman Hall, Meditations on the Lord's Prayer).

Since God's name represents all that He is, may we never take the name spoken by the angels only with the utmost reverence ever in a way that is cavalier or in vain.

The other word in this petition is "hallowed." To hallow something is to pronounce or declare it holy. Though we often use this word to describe moral purity, it primarily means to separate something from the ordinary. In other words, it means to sanctify something, to set something apart.

"Holy" is the biblical word used most frequently to describe our Lord. According to Isaiah 6:3, He is the God who is "holy, holy, holy." In Revelation 4:8 we read, "And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come." God is set apart. God is distinct from His creation. God alone deserves all worship and praise. That is why in 1 Samuel 2:2, Hannah rightly prayed, "There is no one holy like the LORD, indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God."

So when we put it all together, our prayer for God's name to be hallowed is not a prayer for God to make Himself more holy. He is already "majestic in (perfect) holiness" (Ex. 15:11). Rather, it is a prayer that desires all the world would recognize God for who He is and ascribe to Him the proper reverence that He deserves.

This is a prayer that starts first in our own hearts as we come to understand and appreciate and adore God's holiness. It is a prayer for ourselves that God use us to glorify His name and show the world how great He is through our lives. That He would break us over our dull hearts and sinful living. That He would ignite a life in us that is sold out for furthering the greatness of His reputation. Then it is a prayer that our homes and our church reflect God's holiness (as we are commanded in 1 Peter 1:16) so all the world, through us, will begin to appreciate the awesome splendor of the living God.

According to Jesus, this is the first request. For the Christian, our greatest desire should be to hallow God's name through our personal words and actions. And after we seek to do this in our own lives, that we would desire to see it in the lives of others.

Come to think about it, isn't this desire only a preparation for living in our future home? Other petitions will end with our earthly existence, but this one will continue when we join the multitude of angels and redeemed saints of heaven in our unending hallelujah chorus of hallowing God's name.

His Kingdom Come

In addition to praying that God's name be hallowed, the second petition mentioned by Jesus is to pray, "Your kingdom come." Of the six petitions, this one often brings forth the most confusion.

First question: I thought God's kingdom came with the coming of Christ. The first public words out of our Savior's mouth were, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt. 4:17; cf. Lk. 17:21). So if the kingdom has arrived with Jesus, why do we still need to pray it come?

The answer is because although God has one kingdom, He has decreed to allow it to come in two installments. The first installment came with the coming of Christ. He has destroyed the works of the devil and made salvation possible. The kingdom of God starts small, like a mustard seed (Mt. 13:31). And people presently enter the kingdom of God by receiving Christ and allowing Him to reign in their hearts. So in one sense the kingdom is fully here, but yet in another it is not fully consummated. This world is still the playground of Satan and God's royal reign is far from being acknowledged. But the Bible promises the day when Jesus will return when at the "name of Jesus every knee will bow…and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:9-10; cf. Rev. 11:15). Then God's kingdom will be fully established.

So the next question: How do we bring the consummation of God's kingdom?

The answer is we don't. It is something that God must bring forth. Money, strong churches, the right political leader are all ineffective to bring forth God's kingdom. Only God can bring forth His kingdom and that is why we are called to pray for Him to do exactly that. The present aspect of His kingdom comes when people repent and submit to His lordship. When they are "rescued…from the domain of darkness, and transferred…to the kingdom of His beloved Son" (Col. 1:13). People are brought in as God changes hearts through our faithful proclamation of the gospel. All this requires prayer. And then the kingdom will be fully realized when God sends forth His Son the second time to establish His universal reign. That is why we are called to pray "Maranatha" (1 Cor. 16:22) or "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20).

Last question: Why should I desire God's kingdom come?

For the same reason you should desire God's name to be hallowed. God is always king over nature and history. In that sense "His kingdom endures from generation to generation" (Dan. 4:34). Psalm 103:19, "The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all." But our hearts should be grieved over all the moral injustice in the world. The suffering of our brothers and sisters in Christ should drive us to our knees to pray that God bring relief through the return of Christ. Moreover, we want to see the kingdom come because we do not find this present world acceptable where God is mocked and His glory maligned and His righteousness not supreme. As we witness the rebellion against God, it should break our hearts.

So if we are this serious about desiring God's kingdom to come, we must "seek first His kingdom" (Mt. 6:33) and fully live out His present reign in our own hearts. We should be manifesting the kingdom traits we learned about in Matthew 5 (especially the Beatitudes, c.f. Mt. 5:3, 10). We should have a heart that is fully submitted to King Jesus. As the old hymn-writer, Frances Havergal (1836-1879) once penned, "Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne." If this isn't happening, either we will have no desire to pray for the coming of God's kingdom or we will pray for it with hypocrisy.

His Will Done

The final of the three petitions that deals with God's glory calls us to pray: "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

Once again, this describes the heart's desire of God's children. They, more than anything else, desire to see their heavenly Father glorified. And this desire in their hearts is naturally expressed in prayer in eager anticipation of its fulfillment. So when choosing between God's will or Satan's will, God's children find an attraction to the will of God and its accomplishment. So they pray for it!

In one sense, God's will is always accomplished. Theologians call this His secret or decreed will. Nothing ever happens in the universe that is outside of God's foreordained purposes. He is in absolute control. He is, Ephesians 1:11, "work(ing) all things after the counsel of His will." Never is He surprised or overcome by someone or something more powerful than Himself.

Yet in another sense, as we look around, it is clear that God's revealed or moral will is not being accomplished. Commands in the Word of God are being violated all around us, injustice is common and the submission, love and worship God receives is minimal. In this sense, we must pray, that God's will is done. For how can God's name be hallowed and His kingdom rule if His moral will is ignored? That neither honors His name nor exalts Him as King.

As the petition indicates, God's will is always accomplished in heaven. The angels always serve God with joyful praise (Psm. 103:19-21). It is our prayer that His will be accomplished with the same desire, delight and intensity here on earth. Obviously that will never happen until one comes to Christ for salvation and receives the Holy Spirit. And ultimately it will never happen until Christ returns and glorifies His people and establishes His kingdom. So that is why we are called in this petition to pray!

And again, when I do pray that His will be done, I am expressing a desire that it first be done in and through me. I am praying that I understand His will as it is recorded in the Bible. And I am praying, by His grace, that I am prepared to faithfully live according to it. As John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace, once prayed, "What Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, how Thou wilt."

As we consider these three petitions, as always, we must consider our Lord Jesus. The One who gave us this remarkable outline for prayer lived out in His life each of these petitions. He lived to glorify the name of the Father (Jn. 12:28). He repeatedly preached about the coming kingdom (Mt. 13, etc.). And when agonizing over the cross at Gethsemane He said, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will" (Mt. 26:39). Total submission to God. Total blessedness in His own life! As always, may He be the example we follow.

So I ask you, Grace Tabernacle, are our priorities in order? Have we carved out in our time a disciplined commitment for prayer? And when we do pray are we consumed with our little name and little empire and little will or are we consumed with God's name and God's kingdom and God's will? Do we really desire to see Him glorified in all these things as Jesus said we should?

If we really believe in the power of prayer, we will naturally ask God for that which we value the most. What is that in your own lives? According to the model prayer given to us by Jesus, citizens in God's kingdom and children of the heavenly Father should first and foremost prioritize God.

Think about your own heart and what fills it. Have you put the "big rocks" in first?