Say it Right - Getting our conversations right with God.

“Red Letter Living” – Living lives by the words of Jesus

Say it Right – Getting our conversations right with God.

Matt 6:5-14

Here we are, last week I spoke about the importance of living lives that are true to the words of Christ. That these few words of Christ written in the New Testament are the hinge of history and it is in these words that much of the reason for living is found. We started to look at the words of Jesus calling us to be the salt of the earth; that we needed to make a difference in the world that we live. We saw that we needed to bring Preservative, Purity and flavour to the world. How do we do this? One think I have noticed is; we talk a lot!

A husband looking through the paper came upon a study that said women use more words than men.

Excited to prove to his wife that he had been right all along when he accused her of talking too much, he showed her the study results. It read "Men use about 15,000 words per day, but women use 30,000".

The wife thought for a while, then finally she said to her husband "It's because we have to repeat everything we say."

The husband said "What?"

We have all heard about studies that find that Women say more words a day than men. Now from what I could find this is not great science. The numbers seem to vary from 50000 to 9000 they are all over the place. The reality though is that we know it to be true that females speak more than men and it is not a good or bad thing it is life! It is just something that you need to deal with and get over. Women your guy will not talk as much as you would like, men, your lady will talk, she needs to, so we all get over it and listen! Listen to what is said and what is not! The truth is that none of us are free of speech and most of us don’t think about what we say! Whilst we are so busy not thinking about what we are saying we are just as busy not thinking about listening. If we could narrow it down to 15000 words a day I would doubt that we hear half of them any way!

What is interesting though is that we talk heaps put pray less! What is absolutely staggering is that when we do pray we think just as little about those words! And we hear much less in these times as well.

The red letter living that we are going to look at tonight is from Matthew 6:5 -14. Here again following on from the beatitudes (Those Beautiful attitudes) the disciples ask Jesus how should be pray! They have seen Jesus in prayer and they ask how they should do it?

This is Matthew 6:5 -14 from the Message.

5"And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

6"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

7-13"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:
   Our Father in heaven,
   Reveal who you are.
   Set the world right;
   Do what's best— as above, so below.
   Keep us alive with three square meals.
   Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
   Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
   You're in charge!
   You can do anything you want!
   You're ablaze in beauty!
      Yes. Yes. Yes.

What does your prayer life look like? Where and when do you pray? Who are your prayers meant to be heard by? How much time do you spend on the phone and in other conversations every day? How does this compare to the time in prayer? (It will not be one to one, but there should be a good dose of prayer) Now these are not just challenges for you. These are challenges I have been walking through for some time now. I have not made it; I am not a prayer warrior who has a passionate and highly successful prayer life. My prayer life is one that I have to work at; it naturally dwindles if not kept as a focus. BUT, I am working at it; it is constantly a burden on me to be better connected to the creator God of the universe! So we are in it together!

From this passage prayer is much, more than just asking God for stuff!

I was listening to Tony Campollo on one of his Pod Casts. He told the story of his son, who walked into the lounge and announced that he, was going to bed to pray, and did any one want anything.

For many people this is their understanding of prayer, this might well be your understanding too. Do you just find yourself taking to God a shopping list? Is God merely your genie? God longs for more than that. God has so much more to say into your life through prayer than “Yes, as you request” God is longing to return into relationship, as we read in Genesis; as he walks in the garden with Adam and Eve. What does prayer look like from Jesus point of view?

So let’s step through the red letters of Jesus and see what he was calling the disciples prayer life to be like.

5"And when you come before God

Well first off Jesus expects us to come! You can’t have a prayer life without taking time to pray! Now it does not have to be hours at a time. This may come as your prayer life grows, but don’t say I will pray for two hours first off as your learn how. That is like saying I want to take up running so head out on a marathon on your first day! You will most likely fail and fall by the way side. Make it achievable. Set out for 10 mins or 15 mins. But do it, make a time!

, don't turn that into a theatrical production either.

Now it is not a production. Often Church can make you think that the best prayers are those who pray up front and are eloquent and creative in the imagery that they use. My experience is that these are not always the best prayers! The best are at home early in the morning sitting quietly before God, the man at home late at night, standing quietly beside the bed of his child as he prays thanking God for grace, love, and sacrifice. The best prayers are those who lay quietly alone pouring their hearts out to God. It is not about volume or the size of the audience. Prayer is about just one, and that person is God, and him alone! Jesus goes on:

6"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God.

What Jesus is asking for is focus. It is not about finding a space that is completely empty but a place that you can focus. A place that you are not tempted to make it a show. It is about finding a place that you can concentrate in.

This week as I was writing this message I was struggling to concentrate at my desk so went and sat in the food court up at Fountain Gate. Even though there were more people there and more noise I found a place I could concentrate. There the sermon flowed more smoothly!

This is the same for prayer, it is about finding a place that does not distract you or cause you to put on a show for some one else.

Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage.

This is where the power of prayer is! It is in simple honesty! The greatest prayers are those carried honestly to God. One of the greatest prayers I have ever heard uttered is this one.

“God you need to have a good hard look at yourself!”

Yes it was borne out of pain, it was said in the middle of absolute anguish but it was real, it was honesty!

The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

The greatest prayers are those that are from your journey with God not just your requests of him. When you do come to him with simple honesty, you enter a journey where the focus moves from you to God and then and only then can you experience more and more of his grace! The more you walk with God in prayer the more God is revealed to you!

7-13"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense.

It is important to note at this point that this passage is not talking about the wrongs of process. There is nothing wrong with using liturgies and prayer books! In fact these can be very valuable tools to enhance your prayer life. The problem comes when it is a formula! When if you do X you get Y! Prayer is not an equation, it is a conversation with the Creator of the world, one where we take our place at his feet and listen.

The great part of this is the next statement!

This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need.

All we need to do is sit at the creator’s feet and adore him! It is our father that we sit with! He knows better that we do what we want. He has only good for us!

Luke 11:11 -13 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.

SO what do we do with the following example that we have from Christ? The church has used it for centuries and it is said weekly in many churches. The common version is this from the 1928 prayer book and the version I learned growing up:

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

But just as a prayers can be a formula, so can they be repetitive. There is not point saying words that don’t carry meaning. To just repeat the Lord’s Prayer with out understanding is just as wrong. The prayer that Jesus prayed can have a great impact on our prayer life when we see the meaning behind the form and words. The message a modern version of the bible, written to try to speak into modern western society, changes the common version and uncovers meaning. If we use the themes of the Lord’s Prayer as a structure for our prayers we can see our prayer life take on the just what Christ told the disciples to do!

Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are.  

Start off your prayer asking God to be present, to reveal himself! Spend time focusing on who God is, keeping him in his right place.

Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below.  

Here we long for Christ to come. It is a call for his return. The early church, longed for the return of Christ. They believed that he was to return soon, in their lifetime! We have lost this a little, I guess 2000 odd (More odd for some than others) years can do that! If we pray the prayer of Jesus we will never forget this! More than that we will enter into a life that seeks Christ’s return!

Keep us alive with three square meals. 

This next bit is very significant. It is asking God not for your wishes, but for your needs only!

Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.  

From there the prayer centers on the crux of our faith, that we are forgiven! However, as we relate to Christ, we are going to be convicted about our sinfulness, so we need to regularly spend time remembering our forgiveness and asking for forgiveness.

The other aspect to the issue of forgiveness is that when we are in Christ we must forgive others who sin against us.

Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.  

When we are spending time in prayer we can not be unprepared for the battle. We need to include prayer for protection, not just from Satan but also from ourselves.

You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty!  Yes. Yes. Yes.

Finally we need to remember that God is in charge that he is the creator that he is the Lord of all! And that we need to be subject to him!

Some Practical things to do.

Now I will repeat these are not programs they are not the only way they are some ways.

Pray ACTS

Adoration

Confession

Thanks

Supplication

Pray Scripture

Pray the newspaper

Take the paper and let the articles sit before you. Don’t just rush through saying God bless that person; bring your judgment on that person! Condemn that person. Help the hawks to win, may Ponting make another 100! (Well as an Aussie male those would be the other way around, who read the paper from the front!)

Pray the Alphabet

Pray from A – Z focusing on the attributes of God.

A – Adorable

B – Big

C – Compassionate

Etc...

Pray short sentences

Prayer is not all about making long and windy speeches to God. Just say one sentence. Then move on, allow that sentence to build and inspire other thoughts. This is very helpful for group prayer! If you are praying for Mary, pray as a group for Mary. If one person starts off and says everything that there is to say about Mary what is there left for the rest. If the prayer goes for 5 mins I can assure you that a group of people with their eyes shut some will be asleep, some pondering their gold swing and others feverishly trying to think up the a prayer that could equal or top the one being prayed! I would venture that few are sitting there engaged in the prayer themselves.