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CHRISTIANITY: ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE
1. Prayer
For some people, nothing intimidates them like Christianity. For whatever reason, things about faith in Christ come at them like Latin terms in a biology textbook. Maybe it’s partly because the people who carry this faith have often come across as superior, or condescending… makes the whole thing seem undoable, over their heads, or unnecessarily complicated.
Jesus hated it when religious people made faith seem like rocket science. With a stinging rebuke one time he said:
Matt 23:4 You “crush people with impossible religious demands and never lift a finger to help ease the burden.”
Well if you’ve ever felt that way this new series to launch our fall ministry season is trying to get through all that with one simple idea:
Christianity is not rocket science.
The Bible says,
Deut 30:11-14 [look, this God life] “Its not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven… it’s not beyond the sea… No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.”
The Christian life is not too difficult for you. You are one choice, one word of faith away from it, from getting it, from it getting you! So, if you commit to come to all these sessions, with an open heart and mind, here’s what will happen:
I will preach and that faith will rise up in you, and what seemed like rocket science will turn out to be very near you… and you will never be the same.
But even if you’re a Christian here today, my guess is that there are still parts of the faith that intimidate you. And this series will hopefully take the cookies and put them on the lower shelf. There’ll be insights and application you can take home with you that will be the adventure of your life!
Some of you are thinking, “seriously, “adventure”? This is Christianity we’re talking about, right? - not a jungle safari.” Well let me give you a taste of the things we’ll be discovering in the next few weeks:
• We’re going to talk about how to pray from the Master and learn about unanswered prayer (Extended today) …
• We’re going to talk about your purpose in connecting and glorifying God, and seeing love and joy blossom between you and your Creator.
• We’re going to talk about expanding relation with God through relationship with his people (E Groups – these maps check out after service)
• We’re going to get into how service to God’s purposes will bring purpose to you instead of going through the motions at work or home or play…
• We’re going discuss the mechanics of generosity, how you can be consistent at it and be changed by it and change the world as far away as Malawi.
You see? Adventure. This month you might get launched into an adventure from which I hope you will never recover….
LEARN FROM THE MASTER
So today we start with what may seem to some the most undoable thing of all: PRAYER. Contrast how you currently feel about prayer with this: a life of connectedness to a God where ANYTHING can happen!
So, how?
The business axiom is, if you want to know something, ask an expert. Same with prayer. That’s what Jesus disciples did in Luke 11. On that day, they just finished observing Jesus praying. And this is Jesus, OK, the Son of God. Imagine his prayer life!
They looked at that just said to themselves,
“you know, we are total pikers at prayer.” Piker: someone who doesn’t something in a small way.
So they come up to him and say,
Luke 11:1: Master, will you teach us to pray?
Now I want to ask this: DO WE DO THAT? Some of you have been standing on the outside of Christian maturity for a long time. But here is the truth about you:
you want to have these areas open up to you but you are not willing to ask and learn from the Expert. So how much do you really want to learn how the life changing power of prayer?
I was playing golf a few years ago on a busy day, so my brother-in-law and I were partnered with another guy all by himself. So with this stranger watching me, I start making side comments on the first tee:
“Whoa, I haven’t golfed in forever! I’m so out of practice. I haven’t golfed since the Bush administration – the first one…”
Rule #1: when golfing with a stranger: Make excuses to lower their expectations. That way, when you hit the worm burner 25 feet, instead of scoffing, they treat you pity – like you have cancer:
“oh… I’m sorry. But that’s pretty good for you. We’re praying for you.”
Rule #2: beware the guy who makes no excuses*.
This guy says nothing, just calmly steps up WHACK! Crushes the ball 260 yards down the pipe. So, I say to myself, Great, I’m going to now have 4 hours of anguish exposing my lame golf game before this stranger. Undressing on the ladies tee would be less embarrassing. You just know he’s looking at all your quirks and bad habits and just laughing to himself.
So after 9 holes, my score is what his will be after 18. But worse than that, I get confirmation that he HAS been looking at my game. I know this because he decides to break the code of silence and offer me some advice.
“Listen, he says, “I notice that your drives are all going right…” (Noticed that, did ya?) He sort of shakes his head and says, “…and I notice you don’t have an interlocking grip”.
I say: “I’ve tried the interlocking grip, and I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel good”. And he says:
listen, I’ve been there, I know what you’re saying, but you have no choice. If you want to get better at golf, you have to do this. You have to get used to it, because the way things are, you can only improve so much.
So what did I do? I shrug my shoulders and go back to my old grip. So there’s me, a golf beginner, a total piker at golf, shrugging off the advice of a golf expert. I proved in that moment that my interest in improving my golf game was strictly recreational. While I make excuses about my game, the truth is I really don’t want the advice of the experts – not if it means uncomfortable change.
The statistics tell us that almost 90% of Americans pray every day… but it’s not consistent, not authentic prayer, not a life changing prayer life. And we make excuses for this lame prayer life WHILE never consulting, or while flat out contradicting or shrugging off the advice and expertise of the prayer master, Jesus himself.
You see, just like that golfer, Jesus is looking at your prayer game, and my guess is that he’s got some suggestions. And it’s at that point you’re going to prove whether your interest in prayer is real, or strictly recreational. You can say all day, “it feels like Rocket Science. I can’t get it.” But if you’re shrugging off Jesus simple, straightforward advice on this… what you’re REALLY saying to God is:
“You know, that doesn’t FEEL good. I’m going ahead with my old way.”
And what is your old way? Let me guess, because I’ve struggled with all this too. Your way is a prayer life that consists of the following:
- arrow prayers when you’re trouble – God help NOW!
- Lame duck rote prayers you memorized as a kid * that you hope have some magical power.
- Distracted prayers where you don’t put two thots together without them being hijacked.
- Frustration and confusion over unanswered prayers, the silence of heaven to your needs…
- Haphazard prayers that exclusively focus on your three favorite subjects, me, myself and I (* not Rick).
Anyone struggle with any of that? If so, then maybe today is the day you join Jesus 12 disciples and say, Jesus… you’re the only perfect person to ever live*, teach us to pray. Break it down for us.” So he does. And we find it’s not Rocket Science.
In Matthew 6 Jesus prayer training boils down to three big ideas:
n Pray Privately,
n Pray Purposefully,
n Pray with a Plan.
1. PRAY PRIVATELY
Matt 6:5-8
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
It was not uncommon in Jewish life for people to stand and pray in synagogues and at certain times prayers would be offered in the streets. So first off, Jesus says, get this straight right now:
prayer is NOT a spectator sport.
True story: in the 1960’s LBJ held a late dinner meeting at the White House and the President asked Bill Moyers – his assistant and also a Baptist minister to say grace. So Moyers starts praying at the other end of the table, and almost immediately Johnson interrupted and bellowed,
“Speak up, Moyers, I can’t hear you.”
Whereupon, Moyers says in a quiet, even voice,
“I wasn’t speaking to you sir.”
Prayer is simple. It’s talking to God. It’s not about anyone else. This doesn’t mean is must NEVER be public or verbal (agreeing in prayer is important). It just means Jesus is saying beware of praying for the eyes and ears of people and not for God.
In fact, here an interesting spin on this passage:
- Sometimes, that fear we have of open prayer, although it looks like the opposite of the religious hypocrites that Jesus mentions, can actually be the SAME problem.
o Think about it: Jesus’ warning is that our prayers NOT be motivated by what people think of us. Well, many of us, won’t pray with our children at night, or initiate prayer with our spouse, or even with a friend in need, or in our Small Group, precisely BECAUSE of WHAT those PEOPLE WILL THINK.
Jesus is saying, any part of your prayer life motivated by what people think, the public parts or the private parts is polluted. How you avoid that, Jesus says, develop your prayer life in your “inner room”. Privacy clarifies WHO this is about.
But beyond that benefit to privacy, I think Jesus had another practical concern. Luke says that Jesus OFTEN went to what he calls a “private place” to pray. Often it was out into the hills, sometimes all night. Friends, even the Son of God, could not pray effectively with several things demanding his attention.
So why do you think you can? You pray, hurried, distracted, unfocused, preoccupied.
Jesus knows that if we try to fight distractions, distractions will win every time. Find your “inner room” and meet God there, regularly.
2. PRAY PURPOSEFULLY
But then Jesus second bit of advice is praying with a purpose. In other words, mean what you say and say what you mean:
Matt 6:7-8 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
So one problem addresses the religious people, this one addresses the irreligious people. But Pagan doesn’t mean “unspiritual”. Pagans are very spiritual people who don’t know the one true God. Jesus says their problem is BABBLING – lit.: “a stuttering word”. In other words they use meaningless repetition. They think that the more words they throw into the air, the more God hears.
There was a little boy who was kneeling by his bed with his mom to say his nighttime prayers. He began to shout to the top of his lungs,
“Dear God, I’ve been real good this year so please let me get a new bicycle for my birthday.”
And then he said it again at the end of his prayer. His mom said, “Son, God’s not deaf; you don’t need to yell.” He said, “God’s not deaf, but Grandma is and she’s in the next room.
Friends, God’s not deaf. And he’s not open to manipulation. But he IS open to your heart felt requests. We’ll talk more about this in EXTENDED just HOW open he is.
But here’s what happens to us: We get caught up in prayer jargon. That’s a form of babbling. Christian prayer jargon can sound holy and pious, but it has no real meaning to you. Jesus says, don’t be like that. Mean what you say. If you don’t know the meaning, don’t say it. Be authentic in prayer.
Have you ever been afraid to pray with someone or even in private because you didn’t think your words were going to be “holy” enough for God? But friend, you’re not heard because your words are many or “proper”.
Why do you think Jesus reminds us that God already knows? Is it to get us to stop praying altogether? That can’t be, since Jesus is clearly encouraging prayer. So why remind us God knows? When he says,
- “Pray in private” he’s saying, God is watching EVERYWHERE. When he says,
- “Pray purposefully” he’s saying, God is watching EAGERLY.
You get it? You don’t have to pussy foot around with God! Just say it! Sometimes my oldest son has a hard time saying what he wants to ask or tell me. Because he wants to say it just perfectly or he doesn’t trust I’m going to “get it”. After the 5th um, or ah, I just want to tell him, “spit it out! I’m listening! You have my attention, I know where you’re going with this.”
Jesus is saying, this isn’t Rocket Science people:
shed in-authenticity and pray purposefully, with meaning.
Finally, Jesus the prayer expert tells us:
3. PRAY WITH A PLAN
This is where we come to what is famously called the Lord’s Prayer. Now isn’t this ironic. Jesus has just warned against meaningless repetition, against prayer babble where we say things we don’t mean. So what’s one of the first things the church does? We memorize this prayer that Jesus gives and turn it into meaningless repetition with no heart!
Allen Creek, you can be confident that Jesus didn’t give this prayer to become a magical incantation. No, the Lord’s prayer is not so much a prayer, but a prayer PLAN. It’s a prayer MODEL. If you look at this prayer as a model you realize that Jesus is saying, your prayers need to include these elements, they need to be well rounded prayers.
I go to the Y every week and you can know the workout regimen of people just by looking at them.
- I see some people and they look like someone took an air pump and inflated their skin to 40 psi. They’ve got no neck. Veins bulging from huge biceps. You can wash clothes on their stomachs... And the men are pretty buff too! Here’s the thing, these behemoths take a few laps on the track and they’re huffing and puffing.
- Then you’ve another guy on the track going 7 - 10 miles at a time. But by the looks of his upper body, his wife has to open the pickle jars, if you know what I mean.
o What a fitness expert will tell you is that there is imbalance in these people’s training plan.
Jesus the Prayer Expert knows that unless we have a prayer plan, we’re going to be prayer imbalanced. Chances are, without a plan,
- prayer will become one giant shopping list, or,
- my prayers will tend to become introspective, overly analytical, self absorbed diatribes.
- So to avoid this kind of prayer imbalance, let’s walk through Jesus prayer plan. This is HOW we should pray – not what, but HOW…
Matt 6:9-13
'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'
Now, I’m going to save a detail look at this for Extended. But you know what’s not Rocket Science about this prayer plan? It’s not all one thing. It doesn’t begin and end with what 99% of all our prayers are. Which is?
- Our shopping list,
- Our thots, Our wants, our, us, we, I, mine.
When Jesus gives us the prayer model in Matt 6… those pronouns don’t show up till halfway through. Because they don’t matter? No, they matter, and we’ll talk more about that in Extended. But other things matter more. Like?
- Your name
- Your Kingdom
- Your Will
Do you ever get Aligned in prayer? Or it your prayer life a long frustrating rant at the ceiling because its all about one thing, not balanced. You have no plan…
CONCLUSION
Now, friends, let me leave you with this question:
what would happen if you prayed every day, privately, purposefully, and with a plan?
- What if tomorrow morning, we all came to a private, scheduled meeting with God. And
- what we got real – no airs or pretensions? What if the first words to form were about Who God is…
- What if came hungry for God’s rule in this world and in our hearts?
Well I tell you what… I think we’d see:
- I think we might see some times of refreshing from God!
- Some deliverance from evil.
- Some daily bread,
- Some more kingdom come!
