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“Intimate
Prayer”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Luke 11:1-13
“When
you pray, say: Father, hollowed be your name.”
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS, prayer is the most personal gift God is
giving us in Jesus Christ. When
it comes to looking at, and having belief systems within Christianity,
we often label the most important aspect of our faith as our salvation. Jesus is teaching us a very personal reason for God saving us
in Him. What has been
accomplished in Jesus Christ for us is our reformation in order to
become intimate with our heavenly Father.
Our thoughts about prayer create a big picture for us. In our worship we have an invocation prayer, a prayer of
confession, a prayer of illumination, prayers of the people, offertory
prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, and many times a prayer at the end of the
sermon. I just named 7
forms of prayer that we have during our time of worship.
And for those of you who come to Sunday school, we pray to begin
the lesson and to end it. So,
there are some of us who will have 9 forms of prayer, in our time
together here every Sunday.
Prayer is a constant issue in the life of a Christian. We have many questions about prayer. Feelings of inadequacy, guilt, even faithlessness foster real
questions about the nature of true prayer.
Is God really listening? Does
God actually care about me and my concerns?
Do my prayers ever leave the room?
Does prayer really matter or change things anyway?
What exactly is prayer? What
am I doing when I pray? If
God already knows everything, then why pray?
I had a parishioner ask me one time, “How I am to pray?”
In my own, personal life, one of the ways that I like to pray,
seeking to be real and intimate with God, is to reword certain Psalms
and pray them. A few
minutes ago, we read Psalm 85. If
I were going to reword the first few verses of this Psalm as one of my
own prayers, it might go like this: “Lord, thank you for showing me
that you have, many times, restored your people in churches through the
gospel. You forgive us, and
you send your blessings into our lives.
You are the God of salvation; restore us in your graceful and
merciful way. Amen.” That
is a way to pray in the same spirit that this Psalm was prayed.
In our passage, Jesus has just been seen praying.
Jesus at prayer is a frequent and very important image in the
gospel. At certain times he
prayed all night long. He
prayed at his baptism, before he chose his disciples, at the time of his
transfiguration, at the Garden of Gethsemane.
His last words on the cross were words of prayer.
I pray that we may learn from what he is teaching us today.
We are saved. That has been accomplished in Jesus Christ.
But, the main reason for our salvation was not simply so we could
be in heaven instead of in hell. Who
Jesus Christ is, what became of him, and what that has to do with us,
shows us that the main reason for our salvation, is for us to be
intimate with God. And that
is what we are to learn about prayer today.
In Luke’s passage, Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he
was finished, one of his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray.
We see Jesus presenting Luke’s version of what we call “The
Lord’s Prayer.” Then,
Jesus tells a parable about a friend who goes to another friend’s
house because a friend showed up at his house, and he had no food. In the third section, Jesus uses an illustration of how we
treat our children when they ask us for what they want or need, and how
much more the heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those ask
him.
Many books have been written on how to understand the prayer issue of
every aspect of the Lord’s Prayer.
Many theologians, when they write a book on prayer, present a
chapter in each phrase of the prayer.
The parable of the friends certainly encourages us to be
persistent in our prayers. Not,
because God will give what we ask for because we keep bugging him.
Prayer is learned through practice and experience.
Prayer is not simply a release of feelings to God; prayer is a
discipline to be ordered and practiced.
Still, there is even a deeper lesson Jesus is teachings us, than merely
how and when to pray. Jesus
is showing us what true prayer is all about.
In the first words of the prayer, Jesus used the name
“Father.” In the
parable he spoke of “friends.”
In telling us that when we ask, we will receive, when we seek, we
will find, and when we knock the door will be opened, encouraging us to
believe that God will send us the Holy Spirit, he used the illustration
of children.
Father, friends, and children. Jesus uses three of our favorite ideas of
personal intimate relationships.
The other day, I had lunch with a friend of mine in Rockwall.
He grew up in New York. And
he told me some of his upbringing story.
He never knew his father. He
and his 4 brothers and sisters were raised by his mother.
There were times in their lives when their income was so low that
they did not even have warm water in their house.
But, his mother gave of her whole life to raise those kids.
She took them to church. She
still lives in New York and he talks to her on the phone all week.
And his wonderful mother is praying, every day, for me.
We love our intimate personal relationships, with our family, with our
friends, with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
What is any better than being so close to someone, so in touch
with someone, that you are free to be exactly who you know yourself to
be? When we speak
about soul mates, that is language we use to describe our most intimate
personal relationships. And
we all want to grow in these ways, with our spouses, our parents, our
children, and our friends.
As a preacher, I love to make what I see as great and profound
statements of the gospel of Jesus Christ: God is closer to us than we
are to ourselves. God knows
as better than we know ourselves. God
comes to us and does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
God ambushes us with grace.
Today I want to tell you another one.
God is the most intimate
person in your life. And
that is ultimately what prayer is all about.
Being brought in faith in Jesus Christ, is not first and foremost about
God then rewarding us with prosperity and great health.
Yes, if it is God’s will, then God can at times bring those kinds of things to happen.
God can heal us. God can meet any kind of financial need in circumstances.
But, that is not what faith in Christ is all about.
And, as I said a little while ago, being a Christian is not even
first and foremost about being saved from the prospect of hell and given
the reward of eternal existence in heaven.
The very passion of Jesus’ life and ministry is to bring us into and
include us in the relationship, the intimate relationship that he has
with God the Father. That
is why the Son of God came to our world.
That is why he died on the cross.
That is why he was raised from the dead.
And that is why he returned to be with God the Father.
He did not do this for himself and his personal, intimate
relationship with God. He
does these things for us to know God with him, as he does.
That is why Jesus prayed all night long.
That is why Jesus prayed at the Garden of Gethsemane.
That is why Jesus prayed on the cross.
That is why Jesus prays for us right now, that we may know that
prayer is given to us because God is the most intimate person in our
lives, and it is in prayer that we enter into this intimacy.
Prayer is your gift of intimacy with God.
Let us pray…
Amen.
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