“What’s In A Name?”

Sunday, October 8, 2006

Matthew 6:5-14, Lord’s Prayer Series

Introduction: “Can Prayer Save America?”- (President Lincoln praying for America)- A visitor to the White House during the days of the Civil War said, “I had been spending 3 weeks at the White House with Mr. Lincoln as his guest. One night, it was just after the battle of Bull Run, I was restless and could not sleep. It was coming near to the dawn of the day when I heard low tones proceeding from a private room where the President slept. The door was partly open. Instinctively I walked in, and there I saw a sight which I shall never forget. It was the President kneeling before an open bible. The light was turned low in the room. His back was toward me. His tones were sorrowful as he prayed: “O Thou God, that heard Solomon in the night when he prayed and cried for wisdom, hear me! I cannot lead this people; I cannot guide the affairs of this nation without Thy help. I am poor and weak and sinful. O God, Thou didst hear Solomon when he cried for wisdom—hear me and save this nation!” God heard President Lincoln, and answered.

Can prayer save our nation? Yes. Prayer is powerful. And when the disciples asked Jesus about prayer, Jesus shared with them what we now know as “The Lord’s Prayer.” Now we might assume that everybody knows the Lord’s Prayer, or at least every Christian does, but this is not necessarily true. In fact, the trend in churches these days is to print the Lord’s Prayer in the bulletin so that people can join in, just in case someone doesn’t know it. This trend reminds us that there are many that don’t know the Lord’s Prayer by memory.

EX. “Minister Hunting in South Dakota”- There is a story of a minister who was hunting in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He spent the entire day hunting, and didn’t start going back to his car until it was almost dark. Because of the darkness he became disoriented and got lost. In desperation he decided to fire his shotgun toward the sky hoping that someone would hear the shot and find him. No sooner had he fired the shot when a South Dakota game warden appeared with the intention of arresting him for hunting after sundown. The minister pleaded for mercy; after all he hadn’t intended to get lost, and he wasn’t really hunting after dark. The game warden smiled, knowing that the minister was only about 100 feet from the road where his car was parked. “I’ll tell you what,” said the game warden, “you say you’re a minister, so if you can say the Lord’s Prayer to me, then I will let you go.” The minister at this point was so nervous that he couldn’t think at al, and he began to pray the first thing that came to his mind: “God is great, God is good, now we thank Him for our food. Amen.” The game warden looked at the minister for a moment and then said, “Okay, you can go.”

This story reminds us that there is a lot about the Lord’s prayer that we take for granted; that all people know the Lord’s Prayer, and that they understand its meaning. Even though we say the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday, doesn’t mean we understand all that we are saying. So over the next 5 weeks we are going to break down the Lord’s Prayer so that we can really understand this important prayer that Jesus gave to the disciples and to us!

I. The Importance of the Lord’s Prayer- (Matthew 6:9)

a. Great Spiritual leaders- We should celebrate that the Lord’s prayer is so

central to our lives as Christians. One of the earliest leaders in the Christian church, a man named Tertullian, remarked about the Lord’s Prayer: “The Lord’s Prayer is the epitome of the entire gospel.” Archbishop William Temple said: “The Lord’s Prayer is the one prayer you would want to offer if you truly loved God with all your heart.” Martin Luther, the great reformer, who set the church free, back in the sixteenth century, wrote: “The Lord’s Prayer is the highest, noblest, and best prayer. All other prayers shall be suspect that do not have or contain the content and meaning of this prayer.” St. Augustine, one of the most important thinkers in the development of western Christianity said: “If you were to go over all the words of Holy Prayers, you would find nothing, according to my way of thinking, which is not already contained and included in the Lord’s Prayer.” And finally, Athanasius, another highly respected early church leader said: “The words of this prayer, have conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fires, produced strength out of weakness, and put foreign armies to flight.”

Why do I take the time to mention all these quotes from great spiritual leaders? It is because in the midst of the power and grandeur of this prayer, many do not hold fast to its importance. Many people and churches no longer ever regularly recite it anymore. Many have forgotten that this prayer came to us from Jesus as the prime example of how to pray. So if we are open to understanding the wonderful gift of this prayer, and if we use this prayer as a pattern and model for prayer, it will help us to be strengthened in our relationship with God and one another, and it will help us to grow to maturity in Christ. But to do this we have to understand and accept the authority this prayer has for us, since it comes to us from our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

b. A personal prayer- Let’s look now at the prayer, starting with the opening

words. It opens with these wonderful words: “Our Father…” In this opening salutation, Jesus wants us to understand that we should call to God in a very personal way; we should know God in a very personal way. The word “Father” is the Aramaic word “Abba.” This word is very personal and intimate, because it can be translated as “daddy.”

In our culture today, one of the first words a baby speaks is the word “daddy.” In Jesus’ time and culture, that word was “abba.” This was a society in which the father was expected to be the spiritual leader of the entire household; a society in which the father provided for the majority of the needs of the family; a society where a family’s identi-fication in the community was established primarily through the father.

When Jesus used this word “abba,” father, His purpose was to establish, to clarify, and then to invite each one of us to celebrate the wonderful relationship God wants to have with each one of us./ Now this was a very new way of praying./ This was not how the religious people of that time were accustomed to praying./ One Christian writer remarking about this new kind of intimacy said: “What an incredible revolution Jesus started when He used this word ‘abba’ to describe our relationship with God.”/ For a community whose prayers had always reflected great distance between themselves and God, Jesus introduced to them the immediacy, and thus the intimacy of a caring God.

God is no longer to be thought of as someone who cannot be reached. God is to be thought of as a loving parent./ EX. If my children kept their distance from me and didn’t talk to me on a personal level because they thought of me as a distant hierarchical figure, then I would be greatly distressed, because I know that I would miss out on that special relationship I could have with my children. It is the same with God. God created us, and loves us, and wants to have a special relationship with us. Jesus tells us straight out that this relationship is to be intimate and special like you should have with a loving earthly father.

II. The Focus of the Lord’s Prayer- (Matthew 6:8-9, 16:26)

a. Overcoming Selfishness- But along with using such a personal name as

“Abba” to help us understand the personalness of God and of this prayer, this opening “Our Father” also seeks to help us understand the focus we are to have in our prayers. The focus is to be on God. Just as Jesus offered His prayers to the Father, so He tells us to direct our prayers to the Father. Our prayers are to be to the Father, through the Son (that’s why we close prayers “in Jesus’ name”), so to the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And in praying this way, we are reminded that the focus is not on ourselves, but on the God to whom we are praying, and seeking, and relying on.

Illustration- (Peanuts)- “Selfishness,” Amusing Grace, p. 328, #1120- One day Lucy and Linus had a chicken wishbone and were going to pull it. Lucy explained to Linus that whoever got the bigger half would get their wish to come true, but they had to wish out loud. Lucy went first: “I wish for 4 new sweaters, a new bike, a new pair of skates, a new dress, and $100.00.” Then Linus spoke his wish: “I wish for a long life for all of my friends, I wish for world peace, and I wish for great advancements in medical research.” At this Lucy took the wishbone from Linus and threw it away saying: “Linus, that’s the trouble with you. You’re always spoiling everything.”

Too often our prayers are like Lucy’s, wishing for all the selfish things we hope would come true in our lives. Our lives are infected with selfishness. And if the Lord’s Prayer tells us anything about ourselves, it tells us that in every culture, selfishness is one of the most common bonds we share with everyone. We are concerned with the question: “What’s in it for me?” And Jesus tells us that it isn’t about us, it is about God and our relationship to God and our relationship with God.

In Matthew 6:8, Jesus reminds us: “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”/ God knows our needs and wishes. The purpose of prayer is not to be focused on our selfish needs, but to trust God, and be with God, and seek God more deeply. In His travels, Jesus encountered people who only cared about themselves and their own needs. And so in His teaching the disciples about prayer, and in teaching us to pray, Jesus begins the prayer, and continues every petition in this prayer, by directing our focus and attention towards God. Jesus is showing us that we can’t really pray if our focus is wrong.

b. Overcoming self-reliance- And we see this in the whole of scripture as well.

The Bible is there to remind us that we can’t make it without God. In fact, we were not created to separate ourselves from God, but rather to be in close communion with God. If we spend our lives developing self-reliance from God, ultimately we are not going to make it. We may make it big on earth, according to the world’s terms, but we will lack real purpose and satisfaction in life. We will always have a void, a hole in our lives that won’t be filled, because that hole can only be filled with God’s Spirit. And in that day when heaven and earth as we know them pass away, and only heaven and hell exist, what will we do then? Jesus says it this way in Matthew 16:26- “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

EX. You might remember the 1958 movie “Damn Yankees.” The plot concerns a long suffering middle-aged fan of the Washington Senators baseball team, Joe Hardy, who sells his soul to the Devil to enable the Senators to win the American League pennant over the Yankees. He gets his wish for the Senators to finally win, but in the end realizes that the brief happiness he received was replaced with the realization that his life now belongs to the devil. How often do think that we know what we need, and go to God with it in prayer, only to later find out that’s not what we really need./ EX. Ruth Graham ,the wife of Billy Graham, spoke about how if God had answered her prayers as she wanted, she would have married the wrong man five times over before she met Billy.

As Jesus saw the building of too many miniature kingdoms on earth, kingdoms apart from any reliance on God, He did everything He saw fit to do to begin leading people back toward and into God’s kingdom. You see, God did not create any of us to go it alone, especially alone without God. God created each of us with the idea of companionship in mind. And this companionship should begin with God. Then the companionship we have with others should be based off of this relationship we have with God. The better our companionship with God, the better our companionship with others will be. That’s what this prayer does, it helps us to focus on God and our relationship with God.

Maya Angelou, the distinguished African-American poet from Arkansas, wrote these words in one of her works: “Lying last night thinking, how I could find myself a home,

where the water is not thirsty, and the bread loaf is not stone.

I came up with one thing, and I don’t believe I am wrong,

that nobody, I mean nobody, can make it all alone.”

We cannot make it all alone. Jesus knew this, and in teaching us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, and in starting the prayer this way “Abba—Father—Daddy,” He tells us that neither does God want any of us to seek to go it alone. God is a perfect Father; one who desires companionship with us, and reliance from us in Him.

Conclusion: Not too long ago there was some research completed on strong families. The article talked about this research and was entitled: “Strong Families Have a Lot in Common.” It was the result of interviews with more than 3,000 families across the United States and some around the world. The summary of the report described 6 characteristics common to all successfully functioning families. 1. Commitment- Strong families are dedicated to each other’s welfare and happiness, and they value their union with each other.

2. Appreciation- Rather than taking each other for granted, strong families go out of their way to make the others feel special.

3. Communication- Strong families spend lots of time talking together, and they keep the pathways open for sharing.

4. Time together- Strong families make intentional decisions to spend quality time together with each other, whether it is for holidays, chores, meals, vacations, or simply chatting at the end of a long day.

5. Spiritual wellness- In strong families, there is a genuine caring for each other that transcends each individual’s needs; they are committed to the well-being of an entity greater than each member.

6. Coping skills- Strong families are able to turn crises and turmoil into opportu-nities for growth. They don’t have fewer stresses in their lives, but they are able to keep them from destroying their lives. And one of the most important of these skills is prayer!

And for us to learn how to pray, we have to know why we are praying and who we are praying to.

What’s in a name? Well, if that name is God, then it is the most important of names. A name that we can rely on and to whom we can speak. We, in the name of God, belong to a family together. And if we are to be strong, we need to pray. And let us not forget in our prayers, that our focus is to be on God. If we do this, then God will take care of the rest. Amen.