Understanding the Values of the Vineyard:
Prayer
1 April 2012
I’ve embarked on a series of teachings to underscore as well as
UNDERSTAND the spiritual “principles, standards (and) qualities considered
worthwhile (and) desirable” at Vineyard Church in Bowling Green.
Those are the values we embrace and attempt to live out as a community of
God’s new covenant people.
They represent who we are, what we do, and how we do what we do!
They are the “DNA” of the Vineyard (and, as I’ve said, they really are the
“amino acids” that, in my opinion, comprise any healthy, Kingdom-oriented
group of Jesus’ people)!
Over the last two months, we’ve looked at worship, the passionate pursuit
of God, being outwardly focused (or being a “missional” people) and, last
week, being Spirit-led and “naturally supernatural”.
This morning I want to look (briefly!) at the important value of prayer.
(Let’s do that, in fact – pray…)
Tom Wright says:
References to Jesus’ own practice of private prayer are scattered throughout
the Gospels and clearly reflect an awareness … that this kind of private
prayer – not simply formulaic petitions, but wrestling with God over real issues
and questions – formed the undercurrent of his life and public work.
Paul tells the Thessalonian Christian, simply and succinctly:
Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
So prayer is essential.
It was essential for Messiah Jesus, the witnesses to his resurrection (the
apostles), the churches they began, and every generation of talmidim (Jesus’
“life students”) since!
But here is the zillion dollar question – How?!
How do we “pray without ceasing”?
And, what form does that take?
Let me suggest the beginning of some answers to those questions.
First of all, prayer is a conversation with God – it is simply dialoguing with
God!
What is going on right now – me teaching you – is really not much of a
dialogue, is it?
It’s more of a monologue!
I’m talking and you guys are – to one degree or another – listening.
Oh, there may be some input from you once in a while, but by and large this
is more of a lecture than a conversation.
Unfortunately, the lecture route is often the path we take in our prayer life.
We talk, we expect God to listen.
We ask our questions, we expect God to respond.
We rattle off our list of demands and petitions, we expect God to answer
them.
May I suggest that this approach is totally foreign to what Jesus and his early
followers did when they prayed!
A verse that has always been foundational in the Vineyard offers us a glimpse
into the way prayer should look, John 5:19…
One of the questions I’ve encountered over the years from cessationists
(people that believe signs and wonders ceased in the 1st century after the
scriptures were codified) is, “Well, if the gift of healing is still operational
today, why don’t you go clear out the hospital?”
In this example from John, we see Jesus at a place where there were a
multitude of sick people.
Didn’t he have the power to heal all of them?
How did Jesus know who to pray for in this “hospital” for sick and diseased
people?
Because he “knew” what the Father was doing through his continuous
communion and dialogue with Abba!!
A lot of our prayer life should consist in listening to God, not just pouring out
our list of petitions, demands, intercessions or even gratefulness!
In other words, we need to shut up once in a while!
So prayer is conversation, it’s dialogue, it’s talking to Abba and listening to
him speak to us (and he won’t speak to us in a way that is contrary to or
inconsistent with his word-written, the scriptures. That’s why it’s important to
know this book and hide it in our hearts)!
We “pray without ceasing” by making this conversation with God an on-going
one throughout the day, the week, the month, the year!
I talk to God all the time!
Many times I’ve found myself having a conversation with God while I’m in
traffic. People in other cars must think I’m either loony or talking on a bluetooth!
I talk to God at work; I talk to God in the shower; I talk to God mowing the
yard; I talk to God working out; I talk to God when I turn off the light at night; I
talk to God when I get up in the morning… that, I believe, is what Paul means
when he says, “Pray without ceasing”!
It’s a lifestyle!
It’s a LIFE!
“Oh, then, Gary, you’re a mighty man of prayer, we take it!”
Not at all!
I could pray more; dialogue more; certainly, I could listen MUCH better! (I
still need to do better at discerning God’s voice from my own thoughts.)
So I haven’t “arrived” by any stretch of the imagination.
But I do speak with him a lot!
And I believe that this is what Paul is referring to in 1 Thessalonians when he
commands them to “Pray without ceasing”!
What should we be praying for – what should our prayers contain?
Well, Jesus gave us the model in Matthew 6:9-13 (read)…
I want to mention a few things pointed out in an article by NT Wright (“The
Lord’s Prayer as a Paradigm of Christian Prayer”) very quickly:
Father/Our Father
“…when the prayer given to (Jesus’) followers begins with ‘Father’… we must
understand that Jesus wants them to see themselves as sharing his own
characteristic spirituality – that is, his own intimate, familial approach to the
Creator. The idea of God’s fatherhood … was not … a novelty within
Judaism. But the centrality and particular emphasis that Jesus gave it
represents a new departure.”
I could spend 2 hours talking about this, but let me just ask you, is that the
way you see yourself, as Abba’s child (to use the title of Brennan Manning’s
awesome book)?!!
You SHOULD!!!
Hallowed Be Your Name
“…the hallowing or sanctifying of God’s name is thoroughly consistent with
the sort of work that Jesus conceived himself to be undertaking.”
We are asking that God’s name – all that he is, all that he does, all that The
Name (Philippians 2:10) represents – would be set apart in our lives and
made real through our lives!
Your Kingdom Come
Ah, this phrase is near and dear to our hearts as Vineyard-ites! N.T. Wright
says, “…Jesus made this the central theme of his proclamation and … meant
by it that the long-awaited … rule of God, which involved the salvation of
Israel, the defeat of evil, and the return of YHWH himself to Zion, was now as
last happening… Where (the Messiah) was present, the kingdom was already
present. But there was, of course, still work to be done, redemption to be
won…
To pray ‘your kingdom come’ at Jesus’ bidding, therefore, meant to align
oneself with his kingdom movement and to seek God’s power in furthering its
ultimate fulfillment…”
I pray this all the time, “Come, Lord, your reign and rule! Let your power and
sovereignty and rule invade this situation!”
When the power of the age to come breaks into this present evil age, all kinds
of cool things happen: justice, healing, salvation, hope, deliverance, etc.!
Your Will Be Done
“The performance of God’s will … chimes in with the emphasis of Jesus at
several points in his recorded work.”
That is what we want in our own lives, in our families, our community of faith
here, our larger community, the nation and the world, isn’t it:
God’s reign and rule intervening into the present evil age and his will to be
accomplished!
Those petitions, in and of themselves, are awesome to voice!
Give Us Today Our Daily Bread
“(This is a) trustful prayer for God’s regular provision.”
But it also speaks to Jesus being a frequent participant “in the festival meals
of his day, where he celebrated the kingdom with all comers… the sharing of
food, both actually and symbolically, was a central feature of his life.”
The “table fellowship” Wright refers to here is something very important. To
share a meal with others was to make them welcome and accepted in one’s
life – that’s why Jesus got such a reaction when the religious leaders saw him
eating with “tax gatherers and sinners” (Luke 5:30)
So this petition isn’t just asking God to meet our day-by-day needs (though it
certainly includes that), it’s also asking that God would align us with Jesus’
own agenda and ministry which included the welcome to all people, no matter
their spiritual condition or manner of life!
Forgive Us Our Debts/Sins
Again, Wright sees this as an indication that the whole prayer is intended to
bind Jesus’ followers to “the agenda of his whole ministry”…
“Forgiveness, which is offered freely and without recourse to the temple
system, was another hallmark of Jesus’ work – indeed, so much so that it was
the cause of scandal (Mark 2:5-12). Furthermore, there is good reason to
think that Jesus regarded this free offer of forgiveness as a central part of his
inauguration of the new covenant, and that he saw the corresponding
obligation to mutual forgiveness as a necessary badge of membership.”
Obviously, we need to be forgiven as well as to offer forgiveness to others!
Lead Us Not into Temptation, but Deliver Us from the Evil One
“Jesus’ whole public career was marked by ‘trials’ of one sort or another…
“Here in the prayer of deliverance is…one of the clearest overtones in the
Lord’s Prayer: ‘Let me be as my Master.’ ‘You are those,’ says Jesus in Luke
22:28, ‘who have continued with me in my trials.’”
“’Lead us not into temptation’ (means) … ‘Do not let us be led into temptation
(from which we cannot escape).’ The fact that God has promised to be faithful
and to provide the way of escape does not mean, in the logic of New
Testament prayer, that one should not pray for it, but rather the reverse.”
(Emphasis added)
Although Jesus won the victory over “the evil one” through his death and
resurrection, a battle still remains to be fought until the consummation is
realized when “the Son of Man is revealed”!
Now, as people of the Kingdom; as Jesus’ life students (disciples); we
oppose the “principalities … powers … rulers of the darkness of this age …
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies” (Eph. 6:12)!
These are “tests/trials/tribulations” faced through the power of resurrection life
at work in us and through us – they are not, however, something any sane
disciple deliberately seeks out or enjoys!
So we don’t want to “put God to the test” (as the Israelites did in the Exodus),
neither do we want to face tests/trials from which we may not escape;
through this petition we are asking that God would enable us to remain faithful
even if we go through trials, temptations and tribulations brought on by
“the evil one”!
Quickly, and I have to close.
This “model prayer” is too often turned into a ritualistic, formulaic liturgical
thing that misses the point Jesus wanted to make:
Even as he wrestled with real issues, questions, temptations, trials and
tribulations in his life and public work, his followers (us) will ALSO face
issues, questions, temptations, trials and tribulations as they engage in
Kingdom ministry.
This prayer incorporates and embodies Jesus’ concerns, emphases and life
focus as he “did the stuff”!
It should do that for us as well!