0:11

Luke eleven

0:13

verses one through four.

0:16

One day Jesus was praying in a certain

0:18

place. When

0:19

he finished, one of his disciples said to him,

0:22

Lord, teach us to pray, just

0:24

as John taught his disciples. Jesus

0:27

said to them, when you pray, say,

0:30

father,

0:31

hallowed be your name, your

0:33

kingdom come,

0:35

Give us each day our daily

0:37

bread.

0:39

Forgive us our sins. For

0:41

we also forgive everyone who sends

0:43

against us. and lead us not

0:45

into temptation. This

0:47

is the word of the Lord.

0:50

Well, it is an unmitigated joy

0:53

to be back with you. Hey, Bridgetown.

0:56

It's so nice to be here. Hello,

0:58

all your people watching online and your

1:00

pajamas.

1:02

the

1:03

And it is just thrilling

1:06

actually to come in and see what God

1:08

is doing in this community, in

1:10

this city. I

1:12

don't know. I suppose when you go around your

1:14

daily life, you don't get out of bed in the morning

1:16

and go, wow, another day of miracles. But

1:19

I get to, you know, come in from time

1:21

to time. I was with you last at the end of

1:23

February. And I can

1:26

see what God has done

1:28

in your midst. There's increase

1:32

of joy There's a freedom.

1:34

There's a moving of the spirit that I

1:36

see building in your midst. God's

1:39

bringing ministries in

1:41

raising up ministries. We just had

1:43

the twenty fourseven USA

1:46

national conference here and

1:48

you guys did the most brilliant job

1:50

hosting it and serving the church

1:52

in the nation. Tim Mackie

1:55

did an off the charts.

1:57

talk. It was anointed, one of

1:59

the most unaudited talks I have ever heard.

2:02

Just after speaking here last time,

2:05

I was in Oklahoma City,

2:08

and I arranged to have a

2:10

meal with my friend,

2:13

Brian Russell, because he's

2:15

in Oklahoma City. And

2:18

in a very conspiratorial way over

2:20

dinner, he said, I'm leaving you

2:22

version. You know, I'm like, no.

2:24

This is like the pope, but even the Catholic church.

2:27

You know? Why? He said, I don't

2:29

know. We just spill the holy spirit, told us to

2:31

move to Portland, Oregon. We've been

2:33

stalking this church there called

2:35

Bridgetown during COVID. Unlike

2:38

that's amazing. and

2:40

I I phoned Ty. I said, do

2:43

do you know that Brian Russell

2:45

is moving to your church? She's like, no.

2:47

And so And and so

2:49

there's a sense God's gathering people

2:52

in this place at this time. He's raising

2:54

people up. You are ministering

2:57

and and and you know,

2:59

practicing the way the

3:01

way that that is spread. I mean, it's just

3:03

amazing what God is doing. in your

3:06

midst. And I just wanna come in from outside

3:08

and say hallelujah and good job,

3:10

and I know it's not always easy, but

3:12

God is with you.

3:14

And if you're new here, this is a good place to

3:16

be. Okay?

3:20

They're not perfect. which

3:22

means you'll fit right in.

3:24

So and

3:27

and this

3:32

message today is,

3:35

I think, the fifth in

3:37

your Vision twenty twenty two series

3:39

exploring the house of prayer

3:41

motif, which is one of the most,

3:43

it's not just a bit of the bible, it's one of the most

3:45

important. It's an all foregone schools at the moment,

3:47

something's in all four gospels. You have to take it particularly

3:49

seriously. And Jesus

3:54

takes the house of prayer Motive from is

3:56

the book of Isaiah chapter fifty six,

3:58

and it is the thing he is so passionate

4:01

about that he cleanses the temple. This

4:04

is the scripture that explains that

4:07

moment of his life and

4:09

and the synoptic gospels say

4:11

that the the house of prayer

4:14

the cleansing of the temple was one of the last

4:16

things Jesus did before he got crucified.

4:18

You could almost say it was the event the

4:20

tipping point that got him crucified. The

4:22

apostle John John

4:24

and his gospel takes

4:26

the story and puts it at the start

4:29

as one of the first things that Jesus did because

4:31

when you John was basically like

4:33

making movies, they just didn't have

4:35

movies yet. he's very, very

4:37

visual. I mean, conservative

4:39

evangelicals will say it happened twice.

4:42

Jesus cleansed the temple at

4:44

the start and the end of his ministry.

4:46

That makes this an incredibly important

4:48

moment. But equally, if John

4:50

was taking it and saying, what's the story

4:52

that will explain everything else

4:54

about Jesus in his ministry. It's

4:56

this moment, the cleansing of the temple.

4:58

And when Jesus explains it, he says

5:00

my father's house shall be a house.

5:03

of prayer, but you've made it at

5:05

Dana Roberts. And so in

5:07

this vision series, Tyler has done

5:09

the most brilliant job of setting

5:11

out First of all, two sessions

5:13

on the House of the Law. And

5:15

then there's been two sessions on prayer,

5:17

being a House of prayer,

5:19

one on praying

5:22

without ceasing. And then last

5:24

time, as he's begun to set out

5:26

these simple, accessible, doable,

5:29

practices that can enable

5:31

us to take Sunday and

5:33

outwork it on Monday morning. He

5:36

he unpacked this beautiful

5:39

invitation to pause each

5:41

day. Sorry. Pause each day.

5:44

If you need translation at any point, just put

5:46

your hand up and I'll give it. But

5:49

to pause every day and

5:51

pray at at midday, for

5:54

the lost, for those who don't

5:56

yet know Jesus. And he talked

5:58

last week about your

6:00

DL Moody's persistence and prayer

6:02

for the lost. And

6:04

so I I'm now gonna speak this

6:06

morning about another the practices that

6:09

we're encouraging you to adopt as

6:11

you seek to be

6:13

shaped as a follower of Jesus,

6:15

an apprentice of Jesus. And that

6:17

is to pray

6:20

the Lord's prayer, the our father

6:22

that we we we are studying today

6:24

at the start of each day, whenever that

6:26

is for you.

6:29

And let

6:32

me just say a couple of things.

6:35

If you're really interested in this House of

6:37

Prayer, motif

6:40

and you're trying to get your head around it. I wrote

6:42

a whole book called Dirty Glory that's exploring

6:45

some of these seams in greater depth.

6:48

And this,

6:51

you all know, I'm sure you've already got your copies,

6:53

but Tyler's book praying like

6:55

monks, living like fools that just came out. It's

6:57

just a master class, a brilliant

7:00

practical, inspirational teaching

7:02

on prayer, so to get a hold

7:04

of those. When

7:06

Sami and I first got married, we

7:09

were able to participate in

7:12

leading this guy to Jesus. who

7:16

was very broke his life was very

7:18

broken, and he was he

7:20

was addicted to a lot of drugs. And

7:23

then we began to try and sort of help

7:25

him to get free of

7:28

the drugs, but also of some

7:32

of the strongholds in his life and he

7:34

he moved in with us. Sometimes

7:37

you just can't meet with someone once or twice

7:39

a week and give them program, you just have to

7:41

share your life with people. And

7:43

so he moved in with us, and

7:45

we were on this journey. And then after a

7:47

few months, the news came through that his father

7:49

had died. And

7:52

so, Paul went back to visit

7:56

his stepmother and obviously to attend

7:58

the funeral. And

8:01

he his father had

8:03

been a mechanic you know,

8:05

not a wealthy man, but

8:07

he went back to the home that his father

8:09

had been sharing with his stepmother. And

8:11

she said, Paul, would you like something to remember

8:13

your dad? by. And

8:16

so he obviously said, yeah, I'd love that.

8:18

She said, why don't you just go upstairs and

8:20

you can choose anything that you want?

8:22

Just, you know, remember. So he

8:24

went up, he thought for what? He I I

8:26

think this is beautiful. He decided he

8:28

would choose a sweater. And

8:31

every time he wore this sweater, he

8:34

felt close to

8:36

his father. And whenever

8:38

I saw him wearing it, I'd be like, I

8:40

knew he was kind of having a moment. It was

8:42

like, oh, poor. nice to see wearing this

8:44

sweater, you know. And I didn't wanna

8:46

I wanna break it to him that it didn't

8:48

suit him in any way at all.

8:50

It was too small for me kind of as a phenomenon.

8:52

It just wasn't a good look. But you don't I mean,

8:55

I'm a pastor. I'm like

8:57

unbelievably sensitive to people's

8:59

needs. So

9:02

and then

9:04

his stepmother decided she wanted to come

9:06

down and visit. And Paul said, hey,

9:08

I've had a a great idea, man. Shall I

9:10

put on the sweater? And we're like,

9:13

oh, that'd be really nice. He

9:15

goes upstairs to get the sweater

9:17

on. and she's sitting down in the living room,

9:19

drinking tea because it's literally all

9:21

we know how to do when we're in socially

9:23

awkward environments in England. And

9:26

then Paul comes in wearing the sweater.

9:28

She takes one look at him. This

9:30

is absolutely true. She takes one look at him. He

9:32

goes, Paul. What are

9:34

you doing wearing my sweater?

9:38

I've been looking for that for weeks.

9:42

that

9:43

it idiots

9:44

had gone

9:46

to the wrong closet. And

9:48

all this time he's like having

9:50

this moment feeling really intimate and

9:52

close to his dad and he's

9:54

just wearing a woman sweater.

9:59

We live a lot of our lives like

10:02

that. We use all kinds of

10:04

things. to give

10:06

us a false sense of

10:08

closeness and intimacy with

10:10

our father in heaven.

10:14

We we can live a bit vicarious space,

10:16

you know. Other people's stories.

10:19

We outsource our prayer

10:21

life. We by

10:23

Christian products. We engage

10:25

with, you know, the whole kind of

10:27

machination of Christendom and

10:30

something within us feels lonely.

10:33

And I think the spirit of the

10:35

Lord steps into that and says, when do

10:37

we just cut out the middle man and

10:39

just talk.

10:41

Just be in the

10:43

same room together. And the

10:45

practices that we are

10:47

encouraging you to step into are

10:49

ways of cutting

10:51

out all of the confusion and

10:53

the noise and coming back to the

10:55

essence, the core of what it means to be a

10:57

follower of Jesus. The spirit of

10:59

God is seeking

11:01

to remove distractions from

11:03

some of our lives. bringing us

11:05

to this place of true intimacy that's

11:08

not about religious sentimentality, not

11:11

about vicarious faith,

11:13

but is about first principles. And

11:18

I'm not just saying this using the

11:20

sort of vaguely funny story about

11:23

Paul, this is deeply

11:25

embedded in church history because

11:27

the earliest written instruct actions

11:29

that we have outside the bible

11:32

for how the church was to conduct

11:34

itself, called the

11:36

dedicate, instructs

11:39

the early church to

11:41

pray the Lord's prayer

11:43

three times a day.

11:45

And this is almost certainly

11:47

because The

11:49

Temple Pro meetings were nine

11:51

AM. I think there was three PM

11:53

and dusk. And

11:57

we know that the

11:59

the in in the old testament

12:01

and to this day, the people of Israel

12:03

pray the Shamar. but here are

12:05

Israel three times a day. So it's pretty

12:07

logical that this outpouring

12:09

the spirit upon jee

12:12

Jews who've come to believe that Jesus

12:14

Christ is is the son of

12:16

God, is the Messiah. that

12:19

that they would take the Shamar

12:21

prayer time. They've been doing

12:23

it since they were kids and pray the

12:25

prayer that Jesus given them to do.

12:27

So this invitation to

12:29

pause at the start of each day and pray the Lord's

12:31

proud want you to understand. This is

12:33

not like a gimmick You know, we

12:35

got this cool pastor in

12:37

skinny jeans who's got this new idea and

12:39

he's gonna roll it out and it's not

12:41

this is stepping into prime or

12:43

Christianity. Okay? This

12:45

is this is removing the

12:47

weird, you know, fake sweaters

12:49

and just doing something that has

12:51

always been at the core

12:53

of Christian discipleship.

12:56

And as you probably know, in

12:58

the original aramaic language,

13:01

The Lord's prayer is thirty one

13:03

words long. It's super

13:05

short. And I

13:07

find this startling It

13:09

rhymes. Jesus wrote a

13:11

poem. I I didn't know this. I

13:13

haven't read this in any book, but I a friend

13:15

who is a bishop, bishop,

13:17

Graham Tomlin. And he was

13:19

listening to a very very old tradition, having

13:22

their service in

13:24

the holy land, and they still speak ancient

13:26

arameic. And as they prayed the

13:28

Lord's praise, like, oh

13:30

my goodness, it

13:32

arrived. Jesus wrote something

13:34

that would be easily memorable.

13:38

And Justin

13:40

Welby's archbishop Canbury says this about

13:42

it. The Lord's prayer is simple enough to be

13:44

memorized by small children

13:46

and yet profound enough.

13:49

to sustain a whole lifetime

13:51

of exploration in prayer.

13:53

And so and

13:55

so the disciples

13:57

come to Jesus.

14:00

He's been in a certain place.

14:02

Place is important in developing our

14:04

prayer lives. and

14:06

they they've realized that we're gonna step into his

14:09

rabbinic ministry. The key to everything

14:11

is to learn how to pray. They

14:13

never asked him teachers to preach.

14:16

he teaches to evangelism. It's

14:19

like the prayer. That's the thing. He comes back

14:21

from his prayer times moving in more

14:23

power. He comes from his prayer times. That's where

14:25

he's getting his wisdom from. And if we're ever

14:27

gonna go out and have our

14:29

own rabbinic schools in his tradition, we're

14:31

gonna have to learn how to be really

14:33

sharp and he seems to get it from his Brad times

14:35

and we're gonna have to do these miracles and we're

14:37

not very good at those and it seems to be that he

14:39

gets more power when he's been off brain.

14:41

So they want prayer, but

14:44

they say something very interesting. They don't just say

14:46

Lord give us some tips on prayer.

14:48

They say, little teachers to pray as John

14:50

has taught his disciples. And

14:53

this is because we're

14:55

pretty sure that the rabbinic schools

14:57

of that time had

14:59

a prayer that was like a statement

15:02

of faith. It was a

15:04

critical positioning prayer.

15:06

It wasn't just a prayer. It

15:09

was an encapsulation of

15:11

their core theology and their

15:13

distinctive insights. So

15:15

the kind of saying to Jesus, not

15:18

trying to teach you how to be the messiah and all that

15:20

stuff, you know. But really, we're supposed

15:22

to have a prayer by now. like,

15:26

anything and he and Jesus

15:28

gives them this beautiful,

15:30

rhyming prayer

15:32

and says this is what I'm all about.

15:34

Now this is important because

15:38

when we decide we're gonna pray

15:40

the Lord's prayer regularly. Some people and you might

15:42

have heard this say, oh, it's vain repetition.

15:44

But I wanna be really clear about

15:46

this. Firstly, when you pray the Lord's

15:48

prayer, you are

15:51

doing something very ancient. Secondly,

15:53

this is the Jesus

15:55

creed. Before we talk

15:57

about the nicene creed,

16:00

which is, you know, fourth century convened

16:03

by an emperor who'd

16:05

probably faked his own conversion, and that's another

16:07

story for another time. If

16:09

you really want to get to the essence

16:12

of the korogmaer of of the good

16:14

news of Jesus, of the theology

16:16

of Jesus, it's in the Lord's

16:18

prayer. Who here just

16:20

thinks? That's only thirty one words.

16:22

Hallelujah. Children

16:26

can understand it. Hallelujah.

16:30

Most of our problem with God is he's

16:33

more relational than we expect him

16:35

to be, less authoritarian

16:37

than we expect him to be and way

16:39

simpler than we think he should be. And

16:41

so when we pray the Lord's prayer, we

16:43

are speaking the

16:45

creed of Jesus. And then

16:47

notice also that Lord's prayer

16:49

is plural. It's

16:52

we, us, our. It's

16:54

not me, myself, and

16:56

I. if it

16:58

had been written in the western world,

17:00

you know, and someone else had done it,

17:02

then it would be all about the individual

17:04

relationship with God. but

17:06

Jesus is talking about

17:08

the family of God. And so when we pray

17:10

this prayer, we are standing in solidarity.

17:13

I I find this so

17:16

beautiful with one

17:18

another. So, you know, you're about

17:20

your day. in the middle of the week, but

17:22

you're you're doing this in

17:24

solidarity with other members of Bridgetown. But

17:26

you're also doing it in

17:28

communion with the worldwide body

17:30

of Christ. You know, I I don't

17:32

know if this is news to anyone, but there's two

17:34

billion of us. and

17:37

we're not perfect, but we are

17:39

the world's biggest worldwide

17:42

cross cultural, most

17:45

diverse conspiracy we get together

17:47

to fight injustice, to love

17:50

people, to bring out the colors in the

17:52

world, to build family, to

17:54

be true to our promises, It's

17:56

kind of a cool thing and we're part

17:58

of it and we get to stand in solidarity,

18:01

praying this prayer that and it's

18:03

not just wide. It's deep. It

18:05

goes back two thousand years.

18:08

If

18:08

Augustus

18:09

and Augustus turned up.

18:12

and and and as you're having your breakfast and you're trying

18:14

I'm gonna try and do that Lord's prayer

18:17

thing. There's a whole bunch of things you say and do

18:19

here, be like, what's that about?

18:21

you'd be like, oh, this is this is essential if you're

18:23

gonna be a, you know, a modern charismatic

18:26

Christianist. I don't even know what you're talking about, but

18:28

you start praying the Lord's prayer. He goes,

18:30

Bingo, and to stand. I

18:32

recognize heart of my heart, bone of

18:34

bone my bone. So this is

18:36

a beautiful thing.

18:40

Now, I this

18:42

afternoon, Brian and I have had Brian Heazy

18:44

and I have the most beautiful time

18:46

here. We've loved love love love

18:48

being here in Portland with you, love being

18:50

at the twenty four seven conference.

18:55

privileged to be with you now. Looking forward to

18:57

being with some of

18:59

the children just after

19:01

this. but then we're getting on an airplane

19:04

back to England and

19:06

then I am going getting on

19:08

a ferry because I'm

19:10

going on holiday with my family to France, tomorrow.

19:15

Yeah. And and and it's a

19:17

night ferry. And I've I've taken

19:19

this ferry before. It's really

19:21

good. What happens is you

19:23

get on the ferry. you

19:25

go and find your cabin. And then you go up

19:27

to the restaurant and there is the

19:30

best buffet you have ever

19:32

seen in your life. It's

19:34

not like you know, just a little It's

19:37

like unbelievable amounts of

19:39

food of every variety you

19:42

can imagine in deep fried

19:44

dodo, you know, obscure

19:46

cheeses from Guatemala. It's

19:48

all there. Fruit, it's unbelievable.

19:52

I'm so excited about this

19:54

buffet. I've

19:55

actually just realized, did

19:57

I get more passionate about the food than

19:59

it is about Jesus?

20:04

Okay. Notes herself. If I do

20:06

this message again, try and be

20:08

more excited about Jesus than

20:10

cheese. I'm really fortunate.

20:14

And frankly, the only

20:16

thing is sadder than someone saying,

20:18

I don't think I'm gonna bother with

20:20

the buffet. I'm just gonna take

20:22

a sandwich. Would be

20:25

someone saying, I'm gonna go to the buffet, but I'm

20:27

I'm only going to eat that

20:29

one thing. I'd be like, this

20:32

is a missed opportunity

20:35

This is also an enneagram thing by the way.

20:38

I I wanna I wanna

20:40

try a bit of everything. And the

20:42

Lord's prayer and this is kind

20:44

of where what we got unpack

20:46

now in this message is a

20:48

buffet. It is a

20:50

taster menu of

20:52

not just what we believe,

20:54

but how to connect

20:56

with God in prayer. And what

20:58

this means is that there will be some

21:00

warnings when you just pray it. By

21:02

the way, when you pray something,

21:05

some people think when you say something if you

21:07

don't feel it, it's fake. That's not

21:09

true. Right? Sometimes

21:11

you'll feel it, sometimes you won't.

21:13

That'll be more to do with the weather and

21:15

your hormones and caffeine than it is

21:17

to do with the holy spirit.

21:19

If it's true, it's true. And

21:22

so we don't just

21:24

pray it though because it's true. We

21:27

also will

21:29

sometimes pause

21:31

and explore different lines

21:33

of it. So some days, it'll, you know, get

21:35

through in thirty seconds. But other days, you

21:37

may stop and say, Actually, this

21:40

is taking me somewhere and I wanna go

21:42

deeper on this kind of press. I wanna tool

21:44

you up. I wanna equip you

21:47

for that together. And so

21:49

just take a look at

21:51

this. You see in the

21:53

Lord's prayer, first of all,

21:55

Jesus gives us So

21:57

start with adoration. Our father

21:59

in heaven hallowed be your name.

22:01

And then he and then he moves into

22:03

session. Your kingdom come. Your

22:05

will be done. then it's petition.

22:08

Give us this day our daily bread. The difference

22:10

between petition and intercession. Partition

22:12

is just asking for yourself.

22:14

Intercession is asking for other people.

22:16

And then it moves

22:18

from there into confession. Forgive

22:21

us our sins as we forgive those

22:23

who sin against us.

22:25

And then spiritual warfare,

22:28

contending in prayer,

22:30

deliver us from

22:32

evil or the evil ones. So let's just

22:34

look at those together. First of all,

22:36

hallowed be your

22:39

name. Jesus says, begin

22:41

your prayer time. with

22:43

aberration, with worship.

22:48

This is so important because

22:50

otherwise we come to

22:52

prayer, it's like you're on Amazon, you filled your

22:54

shopping cart with all your knees, and

22:56

you just ram the shopping

22:58

cart into the shins of the

23:00

father. That's prayer. Like need

23:02

this, and I want it to live it

23:04

now, you know.

23:07

And Jesus, stop

23:10

just admire and

23:13

resenter upon the goodness

23:16

of God. We're

23:18

living at such a distracted

23:21

time, and this is a

23:23

moment of re centering

23:25

on the presence of

23:27

God. And we live at a time where

23:29

there's such anxiety and this

23:31

is a moment where day by day we say

23:33

no at the heart of all reality is

23:36

goodness. is love

23:38

is a father in heaven.

23:40

And it's a moment as

23:42

well because we can all live with such

23:45

hubris that says, I am not the

23:47

center of the universe. He

23:50

is I orbit him and

23:52

not the other way around.

23:55

Take a look

23:59

at this picture. This this is

24:01

some is a great

24:04

Renaissance masterpiece painted

24:07

by a painting called Lipi, l i

24:09

double p i, Italian. And

24:11

this is the version

24:14

Mary holding the baby Jesus with

24:16

since Dominic and Jerome, kneeling at

24:18

her feet. and it hangs in the

24:20

national gallery in London. And

24:23

the art critics sort of agree

24:26

that although it's a

24:28

masterpiece, I mean, just look at the gold

24:30

frame, it's not his absolute

24:32

best piece of work. because

24:34

the perspective is a bit weird. It looks a

24:36

bit like that hill is going to tumble over

24:38

Mary's shoulder into into into the

24:40

marble floor of the National Gallery.

24:42

But I mean, look, it's Italian

24:45

Renaissance masterpiece. You can't just put it in

24:47

your in your restroom. You know, you've got

24:49

to put it in a gallery. But Anyway,

24:51

one day, this quite

24:53

well known art critic called Robert

24:55

Cummings was standing in the National Gallery

24:58

looking at Lipsey's peace.

25:01

And as he looked at the

25:03

painting, he suddenly

25:04

had an epiphany. The

25:06

most

25:06

obvious thing actually

25:08

You can see it from the frame. This

25:12

was not painted

25:14

to hang in an art

25:16

gallery. it was painted as an

25:19

altarpiece to

25:20

sit on an alter that

25:22

people would kneel in

25:24

front of. And so rather

25:26

self self consciously, the proud art

25:28

critic who had been standing back

25:30

and analyzing and assessing and

25:33

critique king the painting, melt

25:36

down in a crowded art

25:39

gallery in front of

25:41

a less than perfect masterpiece with

25:44

tourists thinking what is he doing?

25:46

And he said, as he knelt down

25:49

between Saint Dominic and Saint

25:51

Jerome and looked

25:53

up at the Lord Jesus Christ

25:55

on the lap of Mary. He

25:57

said, everything suddenly

25:59

morphed into perfect perspective.

26:03

All those years

26:05

The proud art critics,

26:08

judging it

26:09

is all out of perspective,

26:13

We're missing the blindly obvious.

26:16

Change your posture.

26:19

Change the position from

26:21

which you assess reality and

26:23

things will come into

26:26

perspective.

26:26

back Life

26:28

will not have proper

26:31

perspective until

26:33

you learn to kneel regularly.

26:36

And you'll come out of your prayer

26:38

time and many times nothing will

26:40

have changed outwardly. Your bank

26:43

account is still not exactly a

26:45

cause of great joy. and

26:47

your kids are still being a

26:49

pain in various parts of your anatomy.

26:54

But your relationship with

26:56

those things has changed because you remembered that

26:58

the heart of all reality is a

27:01

good, loving, holy

27:04

father. Sometimes as

27:06

you pray the Lord's prayer each morning,

27:08

it'll just be that our father in heaven, a hallelujah,

27:11

but other times

27:13

your pause. and your

27:15

worship. And you'll give thanks. You

27:17

can't your blessings. You might read a Psalm

27:19

or you might put on a

27:22

worship track. But

27:23

then Jesus continues, our

27:25

following heaven hell of your name, your

27:28

kingdom come. This

27:31

is intercession.

27:33

This is standing in the

27:35

gap. It is pulling

27:37

God's rule and reign. God's word

27:39

and his purpose. us into reality

27:42

in Portland as in heaven,

27:44

in your street, in your school, in

27:46

your workplace, as in heaven.

27:49

And Tyler did a brilliant

27:52

job of unpacking that, looking at

27:54

Elijah in his

27:56

contest with the prophets of baal,

27:58

on Mount Carmel last

28:01

week. We must

28:03

be absolutely clear that prayer

28:05

is partnership with God.

28:08

Some people say to me why I don't really know why I

28:10

need to pray if God's all loving, all

28:12

knowing, and all powerful. Why don't

28:14

you just do whatever is needed at any

28:16

given difference can my

28:18

prayers make. But

28:22

actually, I believe scripture completely

28:24

clear that there are things that will not

28:26

happen unless you pray for them.

28:28

There are things that will only

28:31

happen. in your family, your

28:33

workplace, your street. When

28:35

you and I learned to grab

28:37

hold of the purpose of God, because

28:39

Jesus says, we need to pray, let your kingdom come and

28:41

let you will be done because it's not automatic.

28:44

Otherwise, it's just a waste of time.

28:46

The Nobel Peace winner Desmond Tutu,

28:48

archbishop Desmond Tutu says for

28:50

whatever reason, since humankind

28:54

kinds showed up on the scene.

28:56

God does nothing without

28:58

a human partner. There's

29:02

lots of bits of the bible that I could

29:04

use to demonstrate this, but let's

29:06

just look at Isaiah chapter thirty seven

29:08

and thirty eight. So

29:10

Isaiah thirty seven

29:12

verse

29:12

twenty one, God says a really

29:15

interesting thing to King has has

29:17

a kire. says,

29:18

because you

29:21

prayed,

29:21

here is what I'm

29:22

gonna do. Do you do you hear

29:24

that? Because you prayed, and

29:27

then he's going to overcome Synacorib,

29:29

the enemy. But God is

29:32

angry with Hezekiah.

29:35

And so we read in Isaiah thirty eight

29:37

verse one, he he

29:40

says he says to Hasikai, you're gonna

29:42

die imminently. And

29:44

then it's so interesting. That's verse one.

29:46

And verse two says Hezekiah

29:49

turned his face to

29:51

the wall. and

29:54

prayed and cried with a

29:56

bitter cry. Now

29:58

I mean, this isn't nice praying.

30:01

This is whaling before god

30:03

have mercy. It's

30:05

intercession. And then we

30:07

read in verse five the

30:10

most broadenry thing.

30:12

It says, God says, I have

30:14

heard your prayer and I

30:16

have seen your tears. and

30:19

god gives him another fifteen

30:20

years.

30:23

It looks suspiciously

30:25

as if Hezekiah's prayers have

30:28

somehow influenced the

30:31

will of God. That

30:33

is such a big theological question that

30:35

I'm so excited that Tyler Staten

30:37

is gonna address it systematically.

30:41

in a future teaching series.

30:44

If you're the only

30:47

Christian in your workplace, You

30:49

only Christian in your street. You only Christian in your family.

30:52

It's tough. But

30:54

I can tell you this. You are there as a

30:57

priest. You are the

30:59

only person who's gonna stand in that

31:01

place and pray, god

31:03

bring your kingdom here. What are you

31:05

wanting to say? What are you wanting

31:07

to do? now come,

31:09

let your kingdom

31:12

rain. Are you

31:13

still with

31:14

me? Turn

31:16

the person next to you and say your breath smells great

31:19

after coffee go.

31:28

Okay. Well, I told you

31:30

We're just we're just at that buffet like

31:32

grabbing stuff at the moment. So we've we've had a

31:34

bit of moderation and we've we've done a

31:36

bit of intercession and now

31:39

petition. Where are we gonna grab the bread rolls?

31:41

See who here loves her? Loves a warm

31:44

bread roll. Oh, yeah. But

31:46

the butter just anyway. Jesus

31:50

says, pray, give us this day

31:52

our daily bread.

31:54

I cannot think

31:56

of a better example to illustrate

31:58

this.

31:59

the

31:59

beautiful, personal, bringing

32:02

before the father and

32:05

needs and are once. than

32:07

the life of the great saint

32:10

George Mueller, the nineteenth century,

32:13

philanthropist and pastor who lived in

32:15

Bristol England. extraordinary

32:18

extraordinary man. If you

32:20

have heard of him before, you will know that he

32:23

started one hundred and seventeen schools.

32:26

He cared for

32:28

ten thousand and twenty

32:31

four orphans. and

32:33

he educated a hundred and

32:36

twenty thousand children.

32:39

That is remarkable. In

32:42

fact, he was accused by

32:45

the outraged Victorians

32:47

at the time of raising

32:49

the poor above their

32:52

station. Who longs for

32:54

pastors to be accused of that again?

32:57

Yeah?

33:00

Bridgetown Church, they're raising the

33:02

poor above their station. What's

33:04

even more remarkable is

33:07

that he never asked for money. He

33:09

personally believed, and it's different for different

33:11

people. Mueller believed that he shouldn't ask for

33:13

money. He should just bring all his needs

33:15

before the lord in prayer. And

33:18

so he did that. And it's

33:20

estimated that he raised around a hundred and

33:22

fifty million US dollars in

33:24

today's money. just through the power

33:26

of prayer. And

33:29

so there's one particular

33:32

occasion that's particularly relevant to

33:34

this, give us his daily bread

33:36

because he was he had

33:38

AAA great hall full

33:40

of orphans who were sitting down for their

33:42

breakfast. And what

33:44

George Mullen knew was there was literally

33:46

no food. There was zero food.

33:48

And so they're sitting there, all

33:51

these hungry kids. I mean, if you got one or two

33:53

or three hungry kids, you know what that's

33:55

like. He's got, I don't know,

33:57

a hundred. And

33:58

so he he thought, well, I guess we

33:59

stand up and say grace. So he

34:02

prayed for what we're about to

34:04

receive, made the

34:04

Lord make us truly thankful.

34:07

as he's praying, there's a knocking

34:10

at the door. He

34:12

opens the door and the

34:14

local baker is there with trays

34:18

of steaming

34:20

freshly baked bread. He said this.

34:22

God worked me at two o'clock this morning

34:24

and said, I need to bake bread of

34:27

the orphans. Here you go. I mean,

34:29

maybe it's a fluke, but maybe if

34:32

you think that's a fluke, you've

34:34

got more faith in the power of fruit than you have in a God who

34:36

loves us and gives us that daily bread,

34:38

especially if you're

34:40

an orphan. And then as the

34:42

kids are tucking into that warm

34:44

bread, there's another knock at the door and it's the

34:46

local milkman. This is back

34:48

in the days when, you

34:50

know, milk It was a milk cart, and he had

34:52

his big earns of milk out

34:54

to deliver them and the

34:56

axsaw on his

34:58

cart broke. outside the

35:00

orphanage, which meant he couldn't get

35:02

the milk to where it was supposed to go and it would

35:04

go off. And he said, have you got

35:06

any use for all these

35:08

earns of milk. So that day, they got their daily bread and fresh milk

35:12

alongside it. it He

35:14

promises to give you your daily bread. So tell him your

35:18

needs.

35:20

Sometimes, he'll give you Natella on

35:22

your bread.

35:24

Enjoy it, but don't lose your faith if sometimes it's

35:26

only bread. Tell me your needs.

35:28

Tell him your wants. He loves

35:31

to bless you. but the

35:33

needs is the bit that's promised. So let's bring our

35:35

petitions before the lord with a

35:38

grateful heart.

35:42

And then some people say, well, look,

35:44

why on earth do we need to ask God for

35:46

anything? It's

35:47

a good question. Let

35:49

me suggest three things very quickly.

35:51

Firstly, God's always seeking

35:54

relationship. If

35:56

he just automatically did everything for us like

35:58

he's just playing chess, there's

36:02

no relationship. Something

36:03

about asking is relational. Remember the woman

36:06

with the issue of blood who

36:08

touches the hem of his garment in the

36:10

crowd, and it says, sneight thing. The

36:12

power went out of him. She was

36:14

healed. He felt

36:15

her. And

36:16

he immediately needed to know

36:19

who touched me. because the miracle was kind of the easy

36:21

bit he wanted to give her a name and a

36:24

face. That's his heart

36:26

towards you.

36:28

not interested in just mindlessly, robotically providing a few

36:30

he wants to know you. And

36:33

we're invited to ask as

36:35

well because it's vulnerable when

36:38

we ask we admit need. Some of us find that hard,

36:40

and we extend trust.

36:43

And he wants us to ask as well

36:45

because it is intent

36:48

channel. It's so easy to be passive. Well, God, I guess God

36:50

will just do whatever. Remember,

36:53

bartimaeus. Blind bartimaeus. gets

36:57

to Jesus. And Jesus says, I, what do you want

36:59

me to do for you

37:01

then? And Baltimore

37:04

goes, door,

37:06

the

37:06

clue is in the name. I'm

37:08

blind. I'd like to be healed,

37:11

and Jesus goes, oh, okay,

37:13

and heals him. he

37:15

wants us to articulate our need. And

37:17

then we carry

37:20

on. Next bit of

37:22

the buffet. bit at a buffet forgive

37:24

us our sins. As we've given those sin against

37:26

us, I don't know about you, but at

37:29

least once a day. I

37:32

need to get before the father and go, I'm sorry.

37:34

I've screwed up my

37:37

thinking, my motives. Something I've

37:39

said, something I've done, I'm

37:42

so sorry. I

37:44

admit

37:46

it. And I I find the longer I go on in

37:48

faith, the less

37:51

holy I feel. I

37:54

hope it's because as we get close to

37:56

the light, the more aware we

37:58

become of the dirt, but it may

38:00

just be that I'm a complete mess. but

38:04

it's a good discipline

38:07

to regularly bring

38:10

yourself back to a

38:12

place of confession before the lord. And

38:14

finally, and finally deliver

38:17

us from the

38:20

evil one. Jesus, by the way, I mean, don't you find it

38:22

extraordinary that he ends his ultimate

38:24

prayer with the word evil?

38:26

It's like

38:28

that's why we've tacked on for line is the kingdom, the power of

38:30

the glory, which is a quote from the king David. because

38:32

we're like, you Jesus, just a

38:34

tip from us, you really cannot end

38:37

on that note. But Jesus was

38:40

extraordinarily conscious of the

38:42

spiritual battle that rages around

38:45

us all the time. It's

38:49

so important that if we are

38:51

to be his followers, we

38:54

truly embrace

38:56

a biblical cosmology that acknowledges

38:58

that there is evil

39:00

at loose in our

39:04

world.

39:06

Raise Jan, if you ever saw

39:08

the film silence of the

39:10

lambs? Wow. That's

39:13

very disturbed people.

39:16

I'm not advocate. I'm just yeah.

39:19

It's just a question. See,

39:22

you guys. There's this bit in

39:24

the horror movie. By the way,

39:26

watching horror movies is a bad thing to do.

39:28

But anyway,

39:31

there's a bit in the horror movie,

39:33

which I am now gonna quote, silence

39:35

the lambs, in which

39:38

Clara Starling who's a young FBI

39:40

trainee, asks the cannibalistic

39:42

serial murder, Hannibal Lecter,

39:45

play band, Anthony Hopkins. what

39:48

on earth happened to make him so twisted. And

39:51

he says this. Nothing happened

39:53

to me. Offices

39:56

darling. starving I

39:58

happened. You can't reduce me

40:00

to a set of influences. You have

40:03

given up good and

40:05

evil for behaviorism. officer

40:08

Starling. You have got everyone

40:10

in moral dignity pants.

40:12

Nothing is ever anyone's fault

40:14

anymore. Look at me. Can

40:17

you stand to say I'm

40:20

evil?

40:24

Writing about this Andrew

40:26

Delbanco in his book,

40:28

the death of Satan, how Americans

40:30

have lost their sense of

40:32

evil. It says modern people

40:34

cannot answer Hannibal

40:35

Lecter's question.

40:37

A gulf has opened up in our

40:39

culture between the visibility of evil and the

40:42

intellectual resources for coping with

40:44

it, he says. We have

40:46

jettisoned in the west the idea of cosmic

40:48

evil or transcendent evil

40:50

or supernatural evil. We don't

40:52

believe in it. In fact, We don't like to

40:54

use the word evil because it implies

40:56

moral absolutes and value judgments.

40:58

So we use

41:00

medical terms. We talk about dysfunction. We talk pathology.

41:02

We don't use moral terminology.

41:04

But he was writing a

41:06

while ago as the twentieth century has

41:10

gone on. It has got and to that

41:12

holocausts and ethnic cleansing

41:15

and serial killing

41:17

is just bad, psychological, and

41:20

sociological adjustment. Ephesians

41:23

chapter six says your

41:26

battle. My battle is not against flesh and

41:28

blood, but against principalities

41:30

and powers in high places. So

41:32

one of the reasons we need to

41:34

pray is because it is a

41:36

spiritual battle.

41:38

And so I'm gonna finish one We we

41:40

recently lost our much loved

41:43

family pet, a large

41:45

labradoodle called noodle. She

41:48

was the kindest thing you

41:50

have ever met. I don't she ever knowingly

41:52

was unkind to another living thing.

41:55

She kinda looked like a wolf, but she was

41:58

unbelievably sweet. She had big, shaggy

42:00

hair. We loved her dearly. She was the dog

42:02

the kids grew up with. And

42:04

when they were little, the kids also had

42:07

a hamster called

42:10

snuffles. and snuffles was like the houdini of hamsters.

42:12

I have no idea. Its

42:14

ability to get out of its cage

42:18

was incredible. And

42:20

one of the many occasions, actually, I think the kids might have had

42:22

something to do with it, but that's another story. On

42:25

one occasion, snuffles had

42:27

escaped again and made its

42:29

way down the stairs to

42:32

where noodle was lying.

42:34

And I was kinda in the kitchen looking

42:36

down the hallway and there is this 6T5

42:39

pound wolf. And then there's this

42:42

tiny this tiny little

42:44

ball of fluff

42:46

called snuffles. who just

42:48

knew no fear. And

42:50

the

42:50

two are eyeballing one another.

42:53

And it's like too late. I'm just like,

42:55

I'm transfixed. I'm like, oh, I'm

42:57

not like I'm watching a natural history

43:00

program. So

43:02

noodle is looking

43:05

at snuffles. It's less than one mouthful. It's

43:07

not even an aperitif. And

43:10

snuffballs, fearless,

43:12

yet stupid. is staring

43:14

at the vast mountain of

43:16

wolf. And

43:18

then

43:18

the strangest thing happened, I am not

43:20

exaggerating. I watched noodle. and

43:23

there's no dignity in this. She rolled over on

43:25

her back and submitted in

43:28

front of

43:30

Snaffles. Don't

43:33

hurt me.

43:34

Can I suggest

43:36

that some of us

43:38

spend a lot of

43:42

our lives Although we are in Christ Jesus and he

43:44

that sinus is greater than he that's in the

43:46

world, and we've been raised up and we're seated

43:48

with Christ in

43:50

heavenly places. rolling

43:54

over and not understanding the

43:56

authority we have to

43:58

shape reality. by standing

43:59

on the Word of God, Ephesians six

44:02

stand stand stand

44:04

and by pulling in the rule and reign of

44:06

Christ to depose the

44:08

evil dictatorship that is wreaking

44:10

havoc all around us. I

44:12

wonder if part of this

44:14

praying of the Lord's prayer and

44:16

adopting these practices. Isn't just us trying to be a bit

44:19

holier, a bit more like Jesus? But

44:21

it's about us living life

44:23

in an opposite spirit.

44:26

Can I say to you that one of the things

44:28

I see in Portland

44:30

coming in from the outside

44:33

is something that

44:34

feels very familiar to me as a European.

44:36

There's a slightly post

44:39

Christian jaded sadness

44:42

and suspicion and cynicism amidst wonderful creativity

44:45

and beauty. And I wonder

44:47

if as the

44:48

people of God, we are

44:50

called to come against

44:52

that in the opposite spirit and

44:54

to be people who live with childish

44:57

wonder and with joy

44:59

and with hope in a hopeless culture that we

45:01

bring color. We build things instead of

45:04

destroying things. We kneel before the

45:06

painting instead of standing proud and

45:08

critiquing it.

45:10

We are people who have seen another realm and it is good and

45:12

it is beautiful and we're determined to

45:14

spend our lives pulling it

45:18

in. that sinners would be forgiven and the sick

45:20

would be healed and families

45:23

would be restored and the

45:25

great buffet of God's feast

45:28

will be laid out in front of us

45:30

for all who wish to

45:32

participate. Amen?

45:34

I

45:36

managed to get more excited about that than

45:40

the buffet.

45:42

So I hope those are some useful tools for you as

45:44

you pray the Lord's prayer. No criticism

45:47

at all if many days

45:49

you just pray it. and

45:51

that's it, thirty seconds. But there will

45:53

be days. Maybe on a day

45:55

off, when you linger

45:57

and you worship. Maybe you

45:59

don't

45:59

even do the rest of

46:02

it.

46:02

Or you move into intercession and

46:04

it is actually a deep

46:06

contending and there are tears.

46:08

like King Hezekiah. Days

46:11

when you're crying out to God for

46:14

provision because things are hard.

46:16

Days when confessing

46:18

your sins takes over

46:20

because there's a deep work of holiness

46:22

in your life

46:24

going on. and days

46:26

when you're called to engage in

46:28

spiritual warfare because you

46:32

carry authority in your family and your street and your workplace

46:34

walk tall. Everyone

46:36

just got

46:37

lucky, a follower of

46:39

Jesus Christ walked into

46:42

their room. So I

46:42

wonder if we could just stand together. And I I

46:44

just can't think of any other way to

46:47

end this than to

46:50

pray together. the prayer

46:52

that Jesus taught us, and I don't know how many

46:54

times we've all done

46:56

this. But perhaps today

46:58

we might have a

47:00

fresh thrilled at the thought that we are praying this

47:05

in solidarity with

47:08

the church going back two thousand years. And I should say that

47:11

the community guide this

47:14

week is gonna take this message

47:16

deeper. There's

47:18

gonna be space this week in your communities

47:20

to begin to unpack these

47:22

different practices and tools in

47:24

prayer and start to

47:26

put them into practice

47:28

with daily rhythms. And so

47:30

I'd really encourage you to make

47:33

the most of that. But

47:35

I know we all have different versions of

47:37

the Lord's prayer, but that's why

47:40

I'm putting the words on the screen and we'll

47:42

just pray it. this way together

47:44

now. So let's pray together the prayer

47:46

that Jesus taught us.

47:48

Our father in heaven

47:50

followed be your name. your

47:52

kingdom come, your will be done on

47:55

earth as it is in

47:57

heaven. Give us today

47:59

as daily bread and

48:02

forgive us our sins as we forgive

48:04

those who sin against us

48:07

and lead us not

48:10

into temptation but deliver

48:12

us from evil. For

48:14

the kingdom, the power,

48:16

and the glory are yours. now

48:19

and forever. Amen.