Hey, friend. Welcome to another episode of
the Sunday Sit Down, our podcast where we discuss the theme
really from our message on Sunday, including jumping back
into the text a little bit. And it gives us an opportunity
to have some conversation about things that maybe we didn't
cover during the sermon or questions that rose out of the
sermon. And so we received a few
questions this week, which we're going to tackle and we want to
take that opportunity just to plug really quickly.
You can always send us questions, questions at
Cortright church.org. And we would love to love to
tackle some of the questions that you're wrestling through.
Really at the end of the day, we hope that between the sermon and
these podcast episodes, you are feeling encouraged and equipped
and even a little bit challenged to have your own conversations
and voice your own questions. So, you know, to your people or
and or in an e-mail to us. We'd love to do that.
But I thought this morning what I wanted to do, and recognizing
that it's probably not the morning by the time you're
listening to this, I wanted to plug three books that are, I
think, helpful in different ways.
If you are wrestling through the similar question that I began
the sermon with on Sunday, which was, you know, I don't know that
I actually know how to pray or at least pray in the way that I
want to or feel called to or see demonstrated in Scripture.
Or maybe like, you know, somebody who's like, they just,
they pray every single day and you admire that in this person.
Usually those people are elderly.
Like we've got some just phenomenal, what the church has
called over its many, many years, prayer warriors, like
people who just are committed to faithfully pray, man.
Like we've got some fantastic people who who are so, so, so
committed to that. Maybe you're looking at somebody
you're like, I don't know how to pray like that.
Or maybe you see Jesus, you're like, I'm not sure how to pray
like that. Or maybe prayer is new to you
and you're wrestling out. I don't actually know what to
say when I sit down to pray. So three books really quickly,
Pete Gregg's book called How to Pray, and hopefully we'll maybe
be able to drop some links in. If you're watching this on
YouTube, we can put some links into these books, How to Pray, a
simple guide for normal people. It's great for wrestling through
prayer and prayer in its various forms from a very just down to
earth, real honest perspective. So yeah, How to Pray by Pete
Gregg is great. In a similar vein on Talking
with God by Adam Webber, the subtitle is this of this book is
What to Say When You Don't Know How to Pray.
And again, just very good, biblically grounded, simple, and
I mean that in the most complementary way approach to
prayer, like how can you just simply start praying?
These are two great books in that vein.
And I always keep extra of these books kicking around in my
office. So if you don't know how to find
them or can't find them, come find me and I'd be happy to give
you a copy. Third book is a little bit
longer, Philip Yancey's book on prayer called Prayer.
So subtitle here is Does it make any difference?
So we wrestled that question out a little bit on Sunday and the
tension of what that might look like for you to influence God
with your prayers. Does prayer influence God?
Or does prayer at the end of the day influence me and my own?
Being and Barts the. Contrast.
These were the two, Yeah, these are the two people.
And Yancy wrestles that out in long form in this book.
Again, just a really good book to prayer.
So yeah, if you're looking for something a little longer and
more in depth and deeper kind of into this subtitle question,
Does it make a difference? Yancey's book on prayer, if
you're looking for more primer, get you going, start you down
the right path, maybe start cultivating some prayer habits.
Adam Webber and Pete Gregg are two great places to start so.
That's great. That's great.
Yeah. So this passage is, you know,
it's Jesus giving us a model of sorts for prayer, but it also
deals with some like heavy theology of prayer in some ways,
right, which you couldn't get to all of it.
It's it's a fairly lengthy passage.
And to give everything its weight, we would have been
there. We were already there while.
Already long. It's already.
Too long. That's OK.
We it was all great. It was great.
It was a great service. It was, it was, but it was,
yeah, you couldn't get to everything right.
And so there are some parts of this passage that do have a fair
amount of like, tension in them. You know, I mean, you
highlighted this tension of, of, you know, yeah, Kierkegaard and
Bart of like whether God is, you know, whether we are influencing
God in prayer or whether God is influencing, influencing us in
prayer, right. But there is another part of
this passage that feels a bit like almost, almost out of
place. And this was one question that
came in, which I think is this is the sort of place that we get
to, like, talk about it. And it's where Jesus calls us
all evil. Great.
We're starting in the deep. End that's that's that for me is
like most pressing, you know, felt it felt it acutely as as I
was sitting there like, Hey, no matter how many times I read
that, it always feels jarring. So, so just just to kind of
recap what what Jesus is saying. Jesus is using all these
examples he's talking about like, you know how?
Let me just read it. Where am I going here?
So this is in Luke 11 and he's talking about examples of like
friends. If you show up, you know your
friends are in the middle of the night because they need bread.
But yeah, you're gonna give him bread.
And then he says if there is there anyone among you, if your
child asks for a fish, we'll instead give him a snake.
Or if the child asks for an egg will give a scorpion.
And then Jesus says, if you then who are evil know how to good
gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father
give the gifts I give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.
And it it dawns on me that, you know, that language in
particular can feel, Yeah. It can feel almost like
confrontational, almost, almost offensive.
And yet when I think about it, I'm like, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm
evil sometimes, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I so I think,
I think there's a I think this lands different for different
people, right. So just so some people might be
listening. Oh, actually, I don't really
have a problem thinking about myself as evil.
Like I know that I wrestle that out every day.
I feel it and like I know I'm prone, right?
Was saying to him, right. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord taken seal
it right. So, you know, I think for for
centuries, for generations, for longer than that, human beings
have wrestled out their own inclination toward sin, right.
With the Bible called sin toward brokenness, toward the little
pieces of death inside of life. Right.
We know, I know, like there are ways that I hurt those I love.
And there are ways that that, you know, those I love hurt me.
And even just to put it into that kind of framework, we go,
yeah, OK, I I know that kind of experience.
I'll go, OK. So just to recognize some people
might be really feeling it like, what are you talking about?
Like you're calling us evil. And then other people like,
yeah, no, that checks out. I get it.
And I don't think that those two people are in different
categories. Like some are not evil.
And so like, whoa, it's like, what are you?
But I do think that it's, it sounds like this sweeping
statement of like you who are evil, this declaration of like
you who are only evil or you who are evil all the time, or you
who are like categorically evil or you who are defined by like.
And and I go, OK, like there are some theological things to
wrestle out that we probably won't do today around sin and.
Total depravity. Sure.
Yeah, yeah. We've been hinting at that one
for a long time. But I read a quote and I dug it
up while we were talking this morning, and I thought it would
be helpful just to read. And so this is from Cyril of
Alexandria and Church father, early, Yeah, early church
father. So he says this.
When Jesus says you who are evil, he means you whose mind is
capable of being influenced by evil and not uniformly inclined
to good, like the God of all. And so I think it's helpful for
us just to take a step back and say, I really like that quote
because it touches on, um, not the general state of the person,
right? But we're saying is no, like you
whose mind is influenced and capable of being influenced by
evil, even you know how to do what is good.
And I think that's the piece that, you know, if we get so
stuck on the you who are evil, we miss like what Jesus is doing
with the entire like word, like experiment or thought
experiment, which is to say, you know, so he says, what father
among you, if a son asks for a fish, will instead give not the
fish, but a serpent, right. So he said the the right answer
to that. Jesus is expecting us to say,
yeah, of course not. Yeah, I wouldn't like, would
never do. That would not be a very good
father. Right.
Like and, and even like even in my worst parenting moments, like
sure, like I'm not going to do that.
How much more? OHK, OK, yeah, how much even I
know how to do this. So what Jesus wants us to to say
is, yeah, OK, of course God is gonna do more than what I can
do. Absolutely.
My heart is, you know, bent toward what is evil is is prone
to being influenced by what is not good, even just to say like
my heart is prone to being influenced by what's selfish.
Yes. So take away evil for a second
and just say selfish. I can be selfish, sure.
I can be influenced by my own thoughts and desires and wants
and and think, Oh yeah, OK. I'm, I, I can see myself being
selfish. Even I in my selfishness is not
going to do what is detrimental to the kid, like to my kid in
this moment. I'm going to do what's good.
So what Jesus wants us saying is, oh, yeah, OK, even I know
how to do that. Of course God knows how to do
more because God is good by definition.
God is good in his like totality, right?
God is not prone or bent or influenced by what is evil like
by what is wrong or bad. God is not malevolent.
God is not prone to being tempted in that direction.
What a lot of the early church fathers also want to want us to
see here and we didn't again, not not on Sunday.
Where we going to go down this rabbit trail?
But Jesus, at the at the beginning of his ministry and at
the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, is himself tempted by
Satan in the wilderness. And he's tempted.
Interestingly, Matthew uses stone and bread, Ian Matthews
rendition of this and Jesus is tempted to take a stone and turn
it into bread and Jesus resists that temptation.
So we're also supposed to be wrestling that piece out, like
with this comparison, to see Jesus as in his ability to
resist temptation, being shifting into this role of the
one who is good and perfect and knows how to give good gifts and
knows how to give in this, in Luke's version of the gift of
the Holy Spirit. And how much more is God going
to do? Yeah.
So. So Luke wants us to see
anything. Matthew wants us to see early
church fathers writers want us to see that, that even those of
us who are prone toward temptation, who are influenced
by evil, who are prone to do what is selfish, prone to act on
our own, you know, inclinations, even we know how to do this.
Jesus resists temptation. Jesus shows us in that moment
like the heart of God, who is able to perfectly resist the
things that we're not able to resist.
How much more is that God going to do the good and right
generous thing for His children when even we know how to do it?
Yeah. So like that's the piece.
But yeah. Why does he call us evil?
I honestly, I don't, I think it hits us differently than it
probably would have hit initially.
I think this is something the, the idea that human beings are,
uh. Intrinsically.
Good. Inherently good.
Yeah, more modern is a modern concept.
Yeah. And so I think it does.
I think it does kind of buck at our sensibilities.
And so it's very easy for someone to, to experience this,
this feeling of like they feel indignant when they when they
hear that because there is this trend toward well, no, no, I'm
mostly good with a little bit of bad, right?
I think that. And so that's a attention to
wrestle out. So that if, if that's, if that's
my reaction, if that's, if that's your reaction, say, OK,
what's what's going on there? If I'm indignant when I read
that, what, what's what's going on for me in there?
Like there's some good soul searching to do.
And, and I and I think that's where like helpful framing when
you talk about, you know, just even, yeah, like are you ever
selfish? Selfish can sometimes be evil.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I also think we like we've,
we've kind of maybe in some ways, like mystified evil.
Like it's this mysterious thing. Yeah.
But we've also made it really kind of Hollywood and like over
the top or. Like, like an evil villain.
Yeah, well, I'm not that. Exactly.
I'm not that evil and right like it's it's, it is a term.
It's a it's a theological term in many ways used to describe
the brokenness of humanity. That is, is sort of the self
perpetuating brokenness that is wholly other, like other than
God and and apart from, distinct from, separated from.
And and so, yeah, I think, you know, even just to say like
we're in October and like you start to see Halloween
decorations going up and, you know, you start down that rabbit
trail of like, yeah, we just, we caricaturized, maybe evil and we
go, well, that's not me. Like, I'm not that, but I, I, I
think, yeah, if, if someone's wrestling it out, it's good.
Like, it's good. I'd say it's good to wrestle
that out and allow yourself to feel that tension and
uncertainty in question wonder. And really, Yeah, I think it
gives you an opportunity to really ask, why am I reacting
this way? Yeah, right.
What is it? Yeah.
Well, and so I think that there's two extreme reactions
that one could have is that one of very feeling of it feeling
indignant and and kind of almost self-righteous about it.
The other end could be to be sort of like some people might
have an inclination to get very sort of like wallow in, in
feelings of, of, you know, like, yeah, I am a, I'm a major, I am
a major screw up. I, you know, like, and I and I
think that the, the one tension I've always had with something
like total depravity is this this tension of hey, I am made
in the image of God. I am, I contain multitudes.
I I, I am this weird mixture of good and bad.
Yeah. And it's a challenge sometimes
to see ourselves rightly both, both from either I am too good
or I am too evil, right. And and it, I think both of
those things ultimately just missed the point of what Jesus
is trying to say. So, so it's like, hey, we all,
we all mess up. Like the Bible is clear.
We all, we all mess up and, and Jesus is saying, hey, even you
who sometimes mess up, you're gonna do the right thing in this
scenario. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I think that's a good point, right?
Because just like you can shrug off the, you know, Jesus saying,
well, you're evil. Yeah, I know that you can.
You can equally. Yeah, you can.
You can shrug off the flip side of it, which is, oh, but
there's, you know, there's there's forgiveness and life on
the other side of it, like you're not condemned in your sin
and brokenness and to nothing. And there's growth and there's
sanctification and there's all these things that this constant
refining that God is doing in our lives.
And and yet we are not yet perfect, nor will we be.
Yeah, yeah. Not on this side of eternity.
Hmm, great. So evil.
We've solved it. Sure.
Yeah, yeah. No, I, I do recognize that I
think that's, you know, each time you're confronted with
these passages, it's going to it's, it's, it's a, you have to
remind yourself and, and kind of go into each time because it,
it, it guaranteed I'll read this a year from now and still kind
of feel hit with like, whoa, that's intense.
So. So, and we're going to get to
it, but I think it is also important to say that the
outcome of all of these thought experiments after the prayer is
God's gift of the Holy Spirit, which is like the to use your,
your, your word, which is a great theological term, like the
sanctifying agent of of God. Like it.
It is God's Holy Spirit that in Christian language dwells within
us and forms us and shapes us more into the image of Christ.
So the IT would what I wouldn't want someone to do just to kind
of finish that thought is and by reading that first half 13 say,
well, if you who are evil know how to give good gifts, alright,
like we can get caught there. How much more will the heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.
So in a sense, what Jesus is saying.
Is yes, even you who are evil know how to give what is right
and good in these moments. How much more is God going to
give you? The very thing that will
actually affect, cure you of your propensity toward evil.
So it's it's the solution. It's the antidote to his own
harsh, sort of, Yeah, starting point.
OK. So let's get into that a little
bit then. I feel like that's a good, good
segue. Good job.
So, so one of the questions I had as, as I was hearing, so
this is my question. When we're working all this
stuff out and, and Jesus is talking about, you know, ask and
it will be given search and you will find knock and the door
will be open for you. And you talked about that idea
of how it's actually like this is a constant state of being
that, that, you know, keep on asking, keep on searching, keep
on, keep on finding, keep on knocking all like all that kind
of thing, right. And so that's, that's a helpful
way to frame it, But there is still a tension that exists for,
for the person who is working through something difficult
there. They want, you know, they, they
want a relationship to be healed or a physical healing or
whatever else, right? They're they're looking for a
specific answer to a specific prayer.
And there is a tension within, you know, this idea.
OK, so at the very end he says, you know, you just said, how
much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask him, implying that the ultimate gift here is the
whole experience, which is true. But how do you stop this from
becoming sort of a, you know, answered prayer?
Are the friends we made along the way kind of situation like
like in that it just gets boiled down to, well, we just get the
gift of the Holy Spirit and that'll make you feel better
when you don't get what you asked for, right?
Like there is some, there is something really, really
significant there where where you could sort of over hyper
spiritualize and just say, well, you know, just you'll receive
the Holy Spirit and that'll be enough.
Yeah. So I don't want to dismiss the
fact that, yeah, it might be you receive the Holy Spirit and that
is enough. 100% and I've, and I've been there where like, you
know, you're in a, you're in a hard situation and you just
received this overwhelming sense of, of peace and, and clarity
and you're like, this is a gift from, from the God, from, from
God, from the Holy Spirit. Yeah, absolutely.
And and so This is why I I love the line from Nicky Gumbel,
who's quoting someone, right? And I think we were John Wimber.
Thank you. You were trying to find that out
this week, right? We're all we're talking about it
and trying to find the actual thing.
But his line is, and I think the line from John Wimber is also
raises questions, but that his line is, you know, when we we
when we don't pray for anybody's healing, nobody was healed.
When we didn't pray for their healing, nobody was healed.
But when we did pray, some were healed.
Not all, but some. Hmm.
And so that's like, I think that's the hard, maybe the
hardest thing in prayer to really wrestle out is the fact
that sometimes we pray and people are healed and sometimes
we pray and they're not healed. But I, I love the outcome.
So he says. So we're going to pray, Yeah.
So we're going to do the thing. We're going to commit to it
because sometimes it happens. And I think that in those
sometime moments when God does heal, it's by the power of the
Holy Spirit. So I, I think that's maybe in
part what guards against this. Yeah.
Like, how do you just hyper? Like, how do you avoid hyper
spiritualizing? Wow.
It's just the Holy Spirit. Well, it's not just the Spirit
because it's the Holy Spirit who's going to do the healing.
Yeah. It's the Holy Spirit is going to
do the restoring of the relationship.
It's the Holy Spirit is going to do the work inside of you.
So the Holy Spirit is going to cure the illness.
It's like it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that those
things will happen. So I think that, you know, when
we read this, like, how much more will the Heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
It's not in this safe, easy, simple, you know, Jesus is just
my kind of best friend when I need him.
Make you know happy, whatever it like.
This is a powerful promise. This is So what what Luke is
moving us toward is this is the same spirit that raised Jesus
from the dead. So when Jesus dies and is put in
the ground and the stone is rolled in front, and his
followers go away sad and confused and angry and, you
know, not sure what's happening next.
Like the power that raises Jesus from the dead is the power of
the Holy Spirit. And that's the power that Jesus
promises God, who is generous will give to those who ask.
So that Holy Spirit, it's not going to feel like it might not
feel it might not feel good in the moment like it might.
It is probably going to lead to some conviction.
It's probably going to lead to some difficult conversations,
right? Like it's it's not just like God
isn't Jesus. I don't think is is not just
promising. Well, if you ask, then you'll
have this like warm, fuzzy, happy experience of the Holy
Spirit. When the Holy Spirit descends on
the 1st disciples, they're terrified, yes.
Like there's fear involved and then very real practical things
start happening. And so I think, again, that
doesn't resolve the tension of sometimes your prayers are
answered in the way that you ask for them to be answered, and
sometimes they're not. And what's true about both of
those scenarios is God gives the presence of the Holy Spirit, God
gives us followers, Holy Spirit. And sometimes that is going to
be in powerful fear driving inspiring moments of very
physical real healings or very real practically answered
prayers. And, and sometimes it's going to
be in ways that we can't expect or don't expect or can't imagine
when we're asking the thing, you know, neither are less like,
right? One is not less powerful.
Yeah. 1 is not less an experience of the Holy Spirit.
Um, but it doesn't necessarily make it easier.
Now I will say the thing that we didn't get into is why God might
not answer some of our prayers. Right.
Do you want to get into that? So yeah, I, like, I think it
might be helpful just to say, like, God's not gonna answer
prayers that go against his will, and God isn't going to
answer prayers that are inherently wrong.
Like, bad for you. And so I think some of the
tension that I need to wrestle out in my own life is, you know,
if I'm asking for God to do something out of a selfish
desire, selfish ambition, like that is probably not going to be
answered. In fact, I would say that prayer
ought not be answered. Like I don't think that is gonna
be answered in the way it is because.
It's just gonna reinforce that selfishness.
More exactly, absolutely, absolutely.
So I remember like the very worst prayer that I prayed as a
kid and I remember this like so clearly was I, I was going over
like we were going over to my cousin's house and like we were
both really into yoyos at the time.
And so he's like, don't forget your yo-yo, whatever you do,
don't forget your yoyo because we'll spend the whole time
yoyoing. And what did I do?
I forgot, I forgot the yoyo. And so I remember praying like
this, like this child's brain of mine was like, I'm going to ask
God for a yoyo so that I don't look like an idiot.
And as I was so upset with myself, right?
It's like, how could I forget this thing?
Well, that's not a surprise because I remember it's like
God, if you make this yoyo appear in my hand like I
remember was called, it's got like a fireball yoyo and like
God's not gonna answer that prayer 10 times out of 10
because that's a selfish prayer. It's also a stupid prayer, but
like it is, it is what I what I want people to see is not the
simplicity like child. What I want people is like
that's a selfish prayer. That's so that I don't look
stupid. That's so that for me is not
that is not going to help anybody.
That's not like a your Kingdom come God.
Like, you know, I'm a yoyo missionary to a culture and
community that knows all, like who invented the yoyo and I need
to learn how to speak language, which might be a little bit
closer to maybe being answered, but it's a it's a selfish.
So we still like I. We still pray selfish prayers.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that are that like yo-yo
prayer of like God, would you do this so that I experience or
look like or don't look like or am something and I go like
that's a selfish prayer. That's if it's only gonna
benefit me. There are pairs that do benefit
me, but that's a selfish prayer. And I think that God's not going
to answer those kinds of prayers because it is not it's, it's not
for your good, it's not for your benefit, it's not for your
formation. It is not going to draw that.
In no way is that thing going to draw me closer to God.
And there's like some interesting in between prayers
that are like this tension. I remember like in, in high
school, it was like if I was relatively prepared for like an
exam, but maybe not as prepared as I could or should have been.
Yeah. And it's like you're, you know,
I remember like on the way to the exam, I'm praying, I'm
praying for God to like supernaturally impart all the
things that fill the gaps that I knowledge gaps that I'm not
going to have for this exam and all the things.
Right. And there's like something we're
like, I've done a little bit of the work, maybe not all the work
I should have done. And, and I'm like, OK, God, can
you, can you step in here a little bit, please?
Give me clear like, and I think that there's like something
about that that's like, God, would you give me clarity of
thought? Would you?
Would you call my nerves so that I can remember all the things
that I can remember? Right?
Like there's, there's good in that, but also some stuff that's
like, well. Yeah.
So here's here's what I don't want people to hear.
I am not saying don't pray selfish prayers.
Right. Like, I'm not saying like that
kid, however old I was, I don't have, I don't remember how old I
was. But I'm not saying I'm not
saying to that, you know, 8 year old Grant.
Don't, don't. Yeah.
Don't pray that prayer. You're evil.
But in that prayer like that, there's a reason why it's stuck
out to me. And there's a reason why like
I've I've prayed I don't know how many prayers since then and
I remember many of them and I don't remember probably most of
them. But I actually really like that
prayer because in like 8 year old grants brain, it was the
right thing to turn to God and I had to wrestle that out.
Now that prayer was answered and it's a good thing that prayer
was answered and it's the right thing that prayer was an answer
because that's what happened. I believe that much about God
like that. This is like that's true, But I
actually don't regret praying that prayer.
Yeah, because I think that it is You're you are being shaped,
right? You you become shaped and formed
by the prayers that you pray and by the way that you allow God to
answer them or not answer them in God's will and wisdom.
And how you wrestle that out becomes more of who you are,
right. So, you know, 8 year old Grant
had to wrestle out the disappointment then like, well,
God didn't do this. What does that say?
What do I need to learn in that? And like, that's just such a
silly example. But you know, this is I think
what I'm not what I'm not what I don't want people to hear is
don't pray the selfish person like, well, Pastor Grant told me
to not pray selfish. No, pray the prayer David prayed
some like bold and audacious and at times like selfish prayers,
and they got recorded in the Bible, right?
So, you know, if you feel guilty or wrestle with your own
prayers, but God can't handle this, go read the Psalms.
Yeah, if you're like, oh God, like God can't handle this like
evil or or wrong thought that I'm wrestling out.
Absolutely God can. And prayer is the best place for
you to wrestle that out and to name it and to be confronted
with with by God in it and to allow God to forgive and shape
and form and like carve out and like David was called and I'm
getting preaching now, so I'll stop in a second.
David was called a man after God's own heart and he was a
murderer. He was probably, depending on
how you read it, a rapist. And he and his prayers were
recorded in the Bible, all of it on display.
Yeah. And what prayer does for David
is convict and confront him in his own sin and brokenness in in
like the awfulness of it. And in many of his prayers, you
see that happen, like here's all of like all of his prayers to to
basically destroy his enemies, which then turn into yet God,
you're gracious with me. Yet when I'm in it, like when
I'm the enemy, Hmm. And you see David begin to be
formed and shaped as he praised these things out so.
That's good. Speak all of the prayers to God,
just don't be surprised when the yoyo doesn't appear and and
allow God to teach you in that moment.
So God's going to say no when it goes against his will or when it
is inherently wrong, when it is from those broken places.
That doesn't mean that they're bad prayers, It just means that
the answer is no. Any prayer before God is good
and necessary. So God's going to say no.
God is also going to say yes, right?
And God's, we know God's gonna say yes when it is in line with
his will, when it is for your good, when is for others good.
I think especially when it is for the good of others.
As you're praying, God is also going to going to leave us in
this, to use an antiquated Catholic term, limbo weighting.
Or is that a Catholic? Term, yes.
OK, yeah, yeah. Like Limbo, Yeah.
Limbo was part of part of the Catholic.
Yeah, yeah, it was not, but it wasn't quite purgatory.
It was awaiting. It was like a not sure.
Anyways, I don't remember which Pope closed Limbo, but there was
a declaration anyways. Rabbit trail, however, yeah.
So this Limbo, this waiting, this uncertain this.
Yeah, in between of yes and no where we're going to have to
wait. And you know, that's actually
probably the hardest, you know, I think realistically, like for
many, most people, the maybe not yet keep on asking, that's the
hardest prep. And so the the unresolved
prayers are often the hardest. The thing that I would encourage
people to do in the in limbo is to write down their prayers
because I think that often what happens is we we pray a prayer.
We don't, from our perspective, get an answer.
It's not yes, not no. It's not clear, it's not
resolved. The thing isn't done.
The thing isn't healed. The person's not saved.
You know, think about like the faithful parent or grandparent
who's praying for their kid. I would encourage everybody to
everybody to write their prayers down.
I'm preaching to the choir because I need to do this more
because I think overtime, what writing them down allows you to
do is wrestle out that waiting period and rest out the emotions
that you feel in the waiting. And it also allows you to see
the ways in which God answers your prayers over a much longer
period of time than like I'm going to commit a week, I'm
going to pray and I'm going to fast for one week or for three
days or for a day, like a day. And you know, it's like the
flash in the pan. That's, you know, what do you do
when you're 3 months out and you've been praying the same
prayer three years out, you've been praying the same prayer and
it allows you to wrestle out what God is changing in you as
you pray the prayer. You see, like even the request
as she has changed over those three years.
Maybe the answer is still you're still waiting, but your prayers
look a lot different over those. So I think writing down your
prayers is is so important and I need to do it.
More and our, our brains can only remember so much as well,
right. And so like when we're able to
look back and sort of be like, Oh, I, I forgot, I forgot that
that's how I was what I was praying for and how I was
praying for that, I can see the natural evolution of how how
it's changed over over the past number of weeks or months or
years or whatever. Right.
So that's cool. Yeah.
Yep. Follow up question really
quickly, Yeah. Could you, were you able to do
some cool yoyo tricks? No, maybe not.
Walk a dog. I could do that.
You know, the pendulum could. You do that?
Yeah. Like that?
Yeah, I could do that. Not much else.
I don't think it was a very, it was a very short phase.
Yeah, that might have done away with it.
Maybe that was the answer to prayer.
Don't be obsessed with YOS. So I never was again now.
I have this, this is not a long story, I promise really quick.
I was walking down the street one time and I had a yoyo in my
hand and I was like, just like, you know, whatever.
And some some like person just yelled at me out of their
vehicle like some young adult as I was like probably 8 years old,
same kind of thing. And they're like yo-yo suck.
And here I am 30 plus years later, like just still shattered
by that individual who decided to yell at me from their vehicle
as I was walking down the street just minding my own business.
Maybe he prayed for a yoyo that never showed up.
Yeah. Alright, 111 final sort of area
to go with this sermon before we get too off track here.
So let's talk a little bit about the prayer itself and and the
Lord's Prayer. This is a truncated version of
the Lord's Prayer. That's, you know, I want to talk
a little bit about Jesus language and what makes this
because there are a lot of Jewish prayers that would have
similar language. What do you think it is about
this prayer in particular that makes it unique to to Jesus?
And perhaps, you know, Jesus is disciples as they were, you
know, asking for a prayer that was perhaps more unique to to
them as Jesus, his disciples compares to John's disciples,
right. So what is in this prayer that
makes it a little bit different? Yeah, so for starters, I'm not
an expert on Jewish prayer, which probably won't surprise
anybody listening to this podcast.
If you know us, if for some reason you don't know who we
are, awesome to have you listening.
But not a Jewish prayer expert disclaimer.
So you know there's mixed. From my understanding, there's
mixed review on exactly how much of this prayer would have been
familiar to the disciples already.
It's a prayer that wouldn't have been entirely unfamiliar.
And so I think that's like, this is not entirely 100% word for
word. Absolutely brand new words
spoken by Jesus that they've never heard before, like the
form, the flow. What is being prayed for is a
very Jewish prayer to pray for God's will, for God's Kingdom.
Like these things are not four and the one of the things that
sets it apart. And I've heard various people
use these two words. What what Jesus does that is
kind of to use air quotes and I'm using air quotes here like
scandalous in this is it is a prayer that has both familiarity
and formality to it. O Jewish prayers were steeped in
formality and reverence, and a good example of that is that
many of the Jewish prayers that were prayed began with the word
Adonai, which is what we would typically in English say or, or
begin with as Lord. So it is a title of reverence.
It is in some ways it's doing what Jesus says hallowed be your
name. It's hallowing the name of God.
It's it's it's making it wholly. It's enforcing its wholly, it's
putting God in God's right place and it's more important it's
putting yourself in in your own right place and apart from
distinct from God in His Holiness and me and my
unholiness. So add and I, but that's a form
of reverence. It's formal and it starts off
the prayer in a very formal way. Many of the prayers were prayed
with that at and I Lord as the opening word, Jesus starts with
ABBA, which was a term of familiarity for Father.
So it's not a formal term. It's not one of reverence.
It is not one. It's it is one.
Rather, it is a very intimate term, and we've taken that and
run completely off the Cliff with it just so far to unhelpful
ways. So it was scandalous in the way
Jesus prayed is that Jesus prayed with formality and
familiarity, and he challenges his disciples to pray with that
same formality. Still, he's saying, don't
abandon it. Instead, pray like the kid who
jumps up knowing that they're loved.
Like pray like the grandkid or the niece or the nephew who
knows that they can interrupt their their parent and from that
place of love approached them doesn't change the parent child
relationship at all. Like it the parent is still the
parent. Yeah, the child is still the
child, the niece, the nephew, the grandkid, like nothing is,
nothing's flipped in their relationship.
They just know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're safe to
approach this person. Jesus wants you to approach God
knowing that you're loved and you're safe and you're wanted.
And it's like this, hey, you are so important to God that you can
go and interrupt in order to like God cares about you to the
level of interrupt. And so Jesus disciples, I think,
saw that in the way that Jesus prayed.
They saw the familiarity that he approached God with, and that
would have been very different than many of the prayers that
they'd be familiar with. And yet Jesus doesn't abandon
the the formality piece. So he holds attention there.
That was, I think, in many ways scandalous to the disciples.
And so in some way, what I want us to hear is, yes, pray with
familiarity to God. It's this ABBA Father.
Interrupt. Know that you're loved.
Approach God boldly, audaciously.
Show up. Know that you're wanted, but I
think in many ways we've lost the formality of it.
Yeah, we could we could stand to reclaim a little bit of the the
reverence because there is this, there is this, you know, I have
these pictures of, you know, pictures in my mind of, you
know, Moses standing before holy ground and these other
significant moments where like you see the the awe and wonder
of God and we can't lose sight of that.
And, and it's this, it's this tension of the, the intimate
and, and God's transcendence and God's holiness that that's a,
that's a tightrope walk that I think we should wrestle with
rather than just leaning on one side or the other all the time,
Right. And, and I do think that there
are times when I, you know, one of the running jokes in kind of
modern evangelicalism is like people that are like praying
like daddy God. Probably don't do that.
I, I don't, yeah, I don't love it.
I don't, I don't love it. You know, it's, you know, like,
yeah, it's attention. I recognize, but I think
sometimes, yeah, we sway a little too far.
Yeah, yeah. So I think one of the best ways
to intentionally live in the tension is to to mix your prayer
life up between reading written prayers that you did not write
and just praying in. So it's more of like a free
flowing thought ritual or pabat or discipline, but in your in
your own prayers. I'm not saying like every single
time you have to have some of your own words and some of
somebody else's words are like, but I'm saying it's helpful to,
I think keep some of the formality even just to pray the
Lord's Prayer. Hmm.
And from that, pray your own prayers.
So if I were to like prescribe a like a pattern for people to
pray, if they're like, I don't even know, I'm not sure where to
start. I would say, and Christians do
this, we always end with the Lord's Prayer in church.
You know, very often, right, like historically, there'll be
like the pastor will pray this big long prayer using words that
none of us understand, myself included.
And then it's like, and now we pray the Lord's Prayer and I go,
let's flip that. We start, start with the Lord's
Prayer. Allow this prayer to shape all
of your thoughts and your prayers.
So I would say pray the Lord's Prayer and then sit in silence.
And you might only be able to do it for 10 seconds or 30 seconds
or a minute. You're you're gonna see it grow
as the more you know, the more you do it.
But I would say pray the Lord's Prayer slowly and then sit in
silence for at least that long again.
And that's just a simple way to do it.
And then begin to pray your own prayers.
Speak your own words. There is something about like,
you know, using, you know, and there's other, lots of other
prayer resources out there, you know, that are that go beyond
just the Lord's Prayer. But this this balance between
like, Hey, sometimes there are people that, that have written
out prayers that are going to give language that we have never
thought through before, right? That is been like, Oh my gosh,
I've never, I've never thought that way, right.
Like that is so helpful in my prayer life.
And that can feed into our like extemporaneous praying, you
know, like that there is this, you know, you might be reading
through like something even like the Book of Common Prayer or
something like that. And like I'm the man that is
that is now feeding into the way that I am.
I am praying those more personal prayers.
Yeah. So Lectio 365 is also a great
way to enter into that, right? Yeah, absolutely.
And then there's a whole lot of other prayer books that that I
could recommend another podcast. But that feels like a great
place to to close out hopefully some things to to wrestle out,
to chew on to, you know, to consider when we think about how
we pray the the theology of prayer and and even just like
with that word evil, noticing our reactions to Scripture and
kind of like naming them and just teasing that out for our
own lives. Yeah.
And and wrestling it out in prayer.
Yes, absolutely right. So, so we hope this has been
helpful and we hope this will lead to more conversations
between you and God and also others as well, whether it's
friends or family or people from the church here.
So I will catch you next time and have a great week.