HOPE IN THIS WORLD - PART 1

Text: Joshua 1:9 (NKJV) “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Today, we are going to pause in our study of the Sermon on the Mount, and consider the “elephant in the room” at this time. The panic and fear over the pandemic Corona Virus 19. Does the Bible provide any hope? Can we as His Children provide hope in this time? Well, the better question might be – if we can’t find hope in the Bible or give it to the world around, who will? Whether you believe this is a real issue or you think it is overblown, we need to be the calm voice in the tumult around us. So, today, and over the next few days (we will think about Spring tomorrow and return to this study on Friday), let us see how to have and be Hope in the World at this time.

Right now you may feel this in one of the darkest times of your life, but God knows what is coming. He will use these experiences to bring things out of you that cannot come any other way. Remember, in the midst of the storm – God is still in control. Even when we might feel unable, with God we can be the calm and peace to those around us.

Paul encourages us in Romans 5:1-5 (CSB) that we are a people of HOPE. Listen to God’s Word – “Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Emphasis added).

The circumstances around us can be frightening. They can be discouraging. They can be confusing. We may be overwhelmed.

However, as Children of God, He wants us to Trust Him.

He wants us to have courage, faith, and HOPE.

So, how can we have hope when everything looks hopeless?

In the midst of suffering, we can rejoice because these challenges cause us to do three very important things. We should be doing these daily, but we tend to forget.

So, let us consider these important parts of being His in the midst of suffering. Friday, we will consider Relying on God’s Presence. Saturday, Relying on God’s Provision. And on Sunday, Relying on God’s Power.

This didn’t start in a day, nor will the fear and panic stop in a day. As His Ambassadors to this world, we are being called about being the voice of reason, peace, and calmness.

Join me in daily praying for God to intervene in this situation and bring out His purpose and plan for us and mankind.

WHERE IS YOUR FAITH TODAY?

Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV) - “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. ¹For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

As we dissect this model, we can see nine points that Jesus gives up. We will look at these points over the next few days and seek to absorb the impact of what opens up to us. The nine points are:

1.     Faith (6:9b)

2.     Worship (6:9c)

3.     Expectation (6:10a)

4.     Submission (6:10b)

5.     Petition (6:11)

6.     Confession (6:12a)

7.     Compassion (6:12b)

8.     Dependence (6:13a)

9.     Acknowledgment (6:13b)

So, we will start with verse 9. We have already stated yesterday what the opening phrase “In this manner…” means. So let’s look at the first phrase of the model says.

Jesus is here stating that the basis of our prayer should be settled in Faith – (6:9b) “Our Father in Heaven.” We need to understand that when we come into the presence of Almighty God, we must come believing in whom we are speaking. Faith is only as good as the object of our faith. Too many of us place our faith in faith itself, and not the proper object – God. We say we have faith. Faith in what? Where is our faith grounded? In our words? In our belief system? We know that the scripture tells us “For you are saved by grace through faith…” – faith in what? Faith must be grounded in God, and Him alone. Pause a moment and think, where is my faith placed? What I grounding my faith in?

Tomorrow, we will finish verse nine with the second point Jesus gives us. Today, work on focusing your faith in the right direction, and the right person.

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¹ Many of the older manuscripts  omit this last phrase of the prayer. I am including it because of the popularity of the way we say the prayer.

AN OUTLINE FOR A DISCIPLE TO PRAY

Matthew 6: 9 (CSB) - “Therefore, you should pray like this…”

We started with Jesus teaching about the Essentials in Prayer. We saw the prayers God Rejects. These are boastful and babbling. We discovered the prayers God Receives. These prayers are sincere and simple. Now, we are looking at the Elements of Prayer as Jesus describes them.

We has come to be called the Lord’s Prayer. In true honesty, the real Lord’s Prayer is given in John 17. This prayer is a model that Jesus gave to His disciples on how to pray. It might be called an outline we can follow.

We find this also given in Luke 11:1-4 (CSB). Let’s see what that passage says –

“He was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.” He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say, Father, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us.  And do not bring us into temptation.”

Notice it says that this takes place as He was praying. The disciples had witnessed the power of His time with God in prayer. That leads them to make the request, “Lord, teach us to pray…”

So, coming back to our verse today, we see in Matthew 6:9a – We can read in the NKJV “In this manner….” In the CSB at the top of this devotion, we read, “you should pray like this…” The Scriptures make it clear that this is NOT a liturgical prayer. It is NOT a rote prayer. It is NOT a prayer of any special powers. This is an outline, a model for us to use in coming to God.

The verse begins with Him saying “Therefore….” As I always say, when you have a “therefore” find out what the therefore is therefore. It is always a hinge that connects the previous statement(s) with what is to follow. He had already instructed them how NOT to pray (Boasting or Babbling) and how they should pray (Sincere and Simple). Then He follows by giving us an example from which to build our own times of prayer. We can take the “bare bones” and flesh it out to be a powerful time of communication with the Father.

So starting tomorrow, we will break this model, this outline down into bite-sized pieces to help us develop our time of prayer with the Father.

RECEIVED PRAYERS

Matthew 6: 5-8 (CSB) - “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.”

We spoke yesterday about the Prayers that God Rejects. Today, let us see what Jesus says about the Prayers that God Receives.

Jesus said that God rejects Boastful and Babbling Prayers, He says that our prayers are to be from our hearts (remember He is teaching us that it the motives and not the actions that God looks at).

Jesus says that we should pray from the heart, in private (verse 6). He spoke about going into a private room. He is not meaning that we have to have a literal private room set aside for prayer. He is stressing that Prayer is a matter of the heart – inner motives. When I lead the Pastoral Prayer at our church, I always tell people to be praying from their hearts as I lead vocally. I encourage them to pray about the people and needs that they are burdened with. To silently call out the names, the needs, the desires they have in their hearts. This is their private room, even in the midst of the congregation on Sunday.

This type of Prayer is marked by two elements. The first is Sincerity (6:6) – it is between you and God. You are not Talking to the world, you are talking to the Father. It is to be sincere – our word comes from two Latin words – sine and cere. These mean without wax. In olden days, people would make clay vessels and fire them in a kiln. During the firing process often a vessel would develop small cracks – thus making it second class. Sometimes, unscrupulous vendors would rub the vessels with wax, filling the cracks and not making them visible – so they could sell them as first-class vessels. When you placed the vessel in the sun, the wax would melt, and you would have a “knock-off.” So, shopkeepers would mark that their work was sine cere or without wax.

The second element Jesus gives us is the element of Simplicity (verse 7). We don’t need to have flowery words or great theological sounding words. We just need to get down to the nitty-gritty and tell the Lord what you have on your mind. Remember that Jesus said that, “your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.” (verse 8). Even though He knows what we need, He wants us to come and ask. Think about Peter when he stepped out of the boat to walk on the water. He begins to sink. When he looked at Jesus he doesn’t start a long, flowery, theological prayer – He would have drowned. Jesus knew what he needed, but Peter still prayed, “Lord, save me.”

Today’s devotion talks about essentials in Prayer

·      The Prayers God Rejects – Boasting and Babbling Prayers

·      The Prayers God Receives – Sincere and Simple

Our next devotion will continue the study with the Elements of Prayer in verses 9 – 15.

REJECTED PRAYERS

Matthew 6: 5-8 (CSB) - “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.”

Let us move into the second of the areas Jesus is discussing in the Sermon on the Mount – the area of praying. We will consider it in two parts – the Essentials in Prayer and the Elements in Prayer.

We will start the Essentials in Prayer. And in turn, we will look at this as Rejected Prayers and Received Prayers.

Consider first the Prayers that God Rejects.

Jesus teaches us that  God rejects Boastful Prayers (verse 5). In another place, Jesus gave a parable about the Pharisee and the Publican. This is a good example. You can read this in Luke 18: 9 – 14. Notice as you read how the Pharisee approaches God. I’ll wait while you read it.

Jesus then sums it up in verse 14. He comes back to the motive of the heart in this verse. To be seen of men. Jesus is not condemning public prayer – He is making sure that we know to whom we are praying. Ever heard a preacher preach a sermon in a prayer? Ever heard someone talk about things in the guise of a prayer? Jesus uses that distinction of hypocrite again.

Jesus then teaches that God rejects Babbling Prayers (verses 7 – 8). In the account of Elijah on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 18, we see this in the false prophets of Baal. The Greek word used here – battologéō – means to stammer, to repeat things over and over. The Gentile religions would have babbling prayers to their gods. The idea of many words to convince God can be seen as just trying to badger God. Jesus says that we do not need to try to twist the arm of God by many repetitions of useless words. Why? Because God knows before we ask.

So, why ask? Prayer is not to overcome God’s reluctance, to bless His people. Prayer is to prepare God’s person to walk in the will of God. Prayer helps us to clarify what we are wanting.

So, Jesus is helping us to see that God does not honor babbling, boastful prayers. He rejects them.

That brings us to the prayers that God receives. We will consider this tomorrow.