Northside Church - Sydney
MOVE Your Prayer Life Forward Week 2: …From Formula to Formation
He'll be listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well, his name was Robert, and he was a rather pious and judgmental sort of guy, the sort of guy that conservative churches sometimes attract, and this was a conservative church. It was the church that I've mentioned before, the one I spent my latter teenage years in, in Perth. I'm not going to mention the name of this church, it was a great church, but this guy, Robert, was new to a youth group, and he was fairly pretentious, and some of us found him quite difficult to handle. This was about his second week there, as I recall, and we used to, in those days, youth groups were very strong, and we had 40 to 60 young people would get together every week, and sometimes we'd go into prayer clusters, that's what I call little prayer clusters, and you'd meet across the large hall of this particular church in Perth. Well, this night I found myself in the same prayer cluster as Robert, and that was fine, except that what happened was that my mate, Kevin, rolled in late. Now, Kevin was, his mother used to call him, when his mother introduced him to people, she'd say, "This is my son, Kevin, he's a bit of a scruff," that was a word in a phrase in those days, and Kevin was a guy at long hair, used to wear little John Lennon glasses, I remember that, and big duffel coats in winter. Kevin was a legend, he was my mate, and we loved Kevin because he had contacts in the rock world. For those in my era, he knew little Stevie of the Easybeats, and that made him really cool, and we were young people going, "What the hell is that?" Easybeats were big, and he would get free passes sometimes when the groups would come to Perth, and, you know, Kevin was a cool guy. Here's the thing, Kevin, beyond the rough exterior, beyond this scruffy external appearance, Kevin loved God, and he was a very powerful member of that youth group, and was responsible for bringing many young people to Christ. Well, Rob, Robert, second week, okay, he sees Kevin come in late, so his opening prayer is, "Oh God, please, I don't know who that guy is who arrived late, but he sure looks like he needs you." And I pray that, yeah, absolutely. Now, what Robert didn't realize was that, in that same prayer cluster, was Kevin's very loyal, very defensive, older brother, Ian, and Ian launched into another prayer, "Oh, God, please help us not to be judgmental, help us to see people as you see people as you know." And this is the prayer dialogue happening. You know, we took that conversational prayer, well, this was very much a conversational prayer. And look, you know what? I've never forgotten that incident, and every time I read this parable, it reminds me of that moment that happened way back when I was in my late teenage years. Here we have a pious Pharisee and a penitent tax collector in the temple at the exact same time, and the Pharisee prays in a very holier-than-thou way, a very self-righteous manner, and immediately starts comparing himself with this guy who's over on the side, who's obviously having a very bad season of his life, and the Pharisee jumps onto that, and thanks God that he's not like him. Meanwhile, the tax collector is lurking in the shadows. He can barely lift his eyes, heaven would. And the Bible says he beats on his breath, breast, whatever that means. But you get a sense of desperation here, and he just cries out to God for mercy and to have pity on him. Like most of our Lord's parables, this parable was intended to shock people. It was intended to stir people up. It was intended to push them in terms of their current paradigm, to challenge their current paradigm. And friends, look, it would have done just that. It really would have. Especially when, as it's recorded in verse 14, Jesus says this, "I tell you, the tax collector and not the Pharisee was the one in the right with God when he went home." Now, you can only interpret that one way. Only the tax collectors prayer actually got through. The Pharisee just, he prayed, just didn't make it. That's a stunning revelation. Now, this would have shocked the heroes, the original heroes, because although we may have preconceived ideas about the Pharisees, mainly because of their ongoing conflict with Jesus, nevertheless, historical records show us that among the people they were a real respected group, highly respected, considered to be men who were very deeply committed to God. Now, it could be said that many of them had succeeded in fooling the masses, right? Because it took the penetrating divine scrutiny of Jesus to expose their hypocrisy, and he did that constantly. But on the surface at least as part of the religious system in those days, the Pharisees were quite respected. Of course, when it comes to the tax collectors, they were universally despised, as we know from the story of Zacchaeus and other references, the tax collectors, because of their blatant corruption, their rip-off tactics against their own people, the Jewish people. So why do we earth this? What would be a modern equivalent to all of this? It might be like we're a highly respected bishop in our city. And let's say a parliamentarian under suspicion of rotting the system with a possible union background. Does that sort of help to put it together? Let's just say that they both went up to the cathedral to pray at the same time. And Jesus would say that the prayers of the godly bishop just bounced off the ceiling, whereas the prayers of the parliamentarian went straight through. We will go, "Ooh, it'd be kind of like a bit shocked by that." Well, let's look at these two prayers and see what we can glean to assist us in our own prayer life. It seems like the Pharisee had two problems. And the first one had to do with connecting with God. Oh, I mean, he thought he was connecting. He thought that God would be thrilled to hear about how good and about how righteous he had been, how much better he was compared to some of these other people around him. But sadly, the Bible says he stood apart by himself and prayed. And if you check your Bible, it might have a little notation on the bottom of the page if it doesn't actually build it into the text, a little notation that says it hasn't been a good news Bible that says that this verse is rendered in many manuscripts this way. He stood up and prayed to himself. How sad is that praying to himself? Now periods of dry spirituality will do that to you. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's had seasons like that where your prayers just seem to bounce off the ceiling. Our attempts to connect with God seem quite futile. If you've experienced that, and I'm sure you have, then being encouraged, we're in good company. The Psalmist had similar experiences. Let me share with you a couple of them, like, for instance, Psalm 77 and the first few verses, the Psalmist writes. "I cry aloud to God. I cry aloud. He hears me. In terms of trouble, I pray to the Lord, but all night long I lift my hands in prayer. I can't find comfort. When I think of God, I sigh. When I meditate, I feel discouraged. Prayer is supposed to be uplifting. This guy feels discouraged. He keeps me awake all night. So I'm worried that I cannot speak. I think of days gone by and I remember years of long ago. I spend the night in deep thought. I meditate. And this is what I ask myself. Will the Lord always reject me? Will he never again be pleased with me? Wow. In the dark of night, prayer can hit you like that if you're really in a bad place. What about Psalm 35? Here's a guy who's got some problems with friends with certain friends. He says, "They accuse me, shouting, 'We saw what you did, but you, O Lord, you've seen this. So don't be silent. Don't keep yourself far away. Please yourself, O Lord, defend me. Rise up, my God. Plead my cause." What are you doing, Lord? I'm praying and nothing seems to be happening. Had those sort of times? Well, here's a guy who the Bible says, "Prayed with Himself." You know, and I think of prayers that maybe don't connect in quite the way they're intended. I think of the parliamentary prayer. As anybody know that prayer that they pray before every parliamentary session, they launch into the Lord's prayer, but the beginning of the parliamentary prayer is, "Almighty God, we humbly beseech thee to thou shayth, thou shayth, is there a way to impart, to thou shayth thy blessing upon this parliament, direct and prosper our deliberations to the advancement of thy glory." That's thy glory. And the true welfare of the people of Australia. And of course, then follows more often than not behaviors and attitudes that are about as far from God's will as you can get. Well in contrast, the text collector connected with God. And we'll get to Him in a moment. Meantime, the other problem with a Pharisee was in the area of comparison. He was comparing Himself with others. That's what He was doing. Rather than measure His life against the righteousness of God, He requires, and what He requires rather, the righteousness of God and what He requires, here's the Pharisee. He kind of lowered the bar dramatically and was prepared to do a rough comparison with those around Him, including a guy who was clearly in a bad place, clearly in a bad season of His life, but see the Pharisee failed to realize salvation being made right with God is not about being good, it's about a relationship of course. It's about the transformation of our hearts, we know that. So here's a guy who, to be fair, was the product of a religious system that had moved a long way from David Psalm 51, created me a clean, hard-o God and renewing me a right spirit. Wow, that reflected incredible spiritual maturity. Something had happened in the intervening centuries, and the Jewish faith had pretty much been reduced to a series of those and don'ts, responses to a very complex and difficult set of rules and regulations. Consequently, this man's prayer takes on the form of a kind of a self-assessment, a sort of moral report card that he presents to the great judge, what do you think of this? I'm doing pretty good. I mean, I'm a lot better than this guy, for a start. Well in contrast, the tax collector seems to exhibit traits which Jesus considers vital for an effective prayer life. He's the one, the only one in this duo who emerges as clearly gaining God's favor and forgiveness, and the striking, the most striking characteristic of his prayer is raw honesty. That's so abundantly clear. Verse 13, "God be merciful to me a sinner, have pity on me." It reminds me of a Christian comedian who was around in the 70s, a guy called Mike Wonke. Any Mike Wonke fans here? Oh Warren, bless you mate, yeah. Who else was that? Did I say Sam, excellent work, fantastic. We've got some wealth read and well-listened people here in the congregation. Mike Wonke, he was an ex-drug addict, ex-alcoholic, dramatically converted to Christianity, and he used to, in one of his little routines, he'd talk about the floweriness of some prayers, a bit like the parliamentary prayer, and he said, "I can't believe how people go, "Oh heavenly Father, we beseech thee in thy greatness that thou mightst." He said, "Look, when I was coming off a bender, coming out of a bad bout with crack cocaine alcohol, I'd go into my living room, fall on the floor prostrate and just go, "Help!" A bit of a contrast, just getting right to the heart of the matter. Raw honesty. There were a number of really honest prayers expressed to Jesus during the course of his ministry, Blind Bartimaeus for one. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me, and this is a time when the crowd is trying to push him back, you know, get rid of him, and he comes through with great honesty. The man with the dying son, remember he comes to Jesus, a little exchange, and then he makes this incredible honest statement, "I do have faith, but not enough. We have more." Wow. And then, of course, the dying thief on the cross, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. These are just a few of the honest prayers expressed to Jesus, and in each case, Jesus responds eagerly with great compassion. Something else about this tax collector, he had an acute awareness of his own inadequacy, his own sinfulness, his own guilt, there's no pretense here, there's no attempt to hide the gravity of his failure, rather there's tremendous vulnerability, amazing malleability, awesome surrender to God in the simple prayer of this man. And, of course, these are vital components, Jesus says it, these are vital components to affect the prayer and to a healthy and meaningful relationship with God through Jesus. Jesus believed this to be so, he believed this to be extremely important, to the point where he saw fit to tell this confronting story to the people of his day, but friends like a lot of the stories that Jesus told, we've got to be careful, we've got to get the wrong message. They were simple stories designed to make a point, and sometimes people make a lot out of the stories that were designed to really convey one point. So there's a bottom line to this story, there's a bottom line, so let me share this with you. The bottom line is this, in our prayers, that's what Jesus is saying, we must avoid confusing number one, boldness with arrogance. I mean, the Bible tells us to approach our heavenly Father with boldness, with confidence, with the absolute certainty of being heard. Let me remind you of Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19, look at this, Hebrews 10, 19, we have then my friends, complete freedom to go into the holy place by means of the death of Jesus. He opened up for us a new way, don't hesitate, we've got the freedom to go running into the Father's throne room, like the daughters of President Obama apparently run frequently into the Oval Office, you know, and who else gets that sort of access? Well, if you're a child of the President, you get that sort of access. But that's a far cry, it's a far cry from the self-opinionated, self-centered arrogance exhibited by the Pharisee, here's something else, we must avoid confusing petition with piety. In other words, we're meant to ask for things in prayer, of course, there are so many references to that, Bible makes that very clear, can I remind you of some of them, Matthew 7 verse 7, look at this, ask and you'll receive, seek and you'll find, knock in the door, be open to you, Philippians 4 and verse 6, Philippians 4, 6, don't worry about anything but in all your prayers, ask God for what you need, always asking Him with a thankful heart. And John 14 and verse 14, this is a powerful reference, John 14 verse 14, if you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it. Now we get unpacked, you know, what that means, asking in my name, there's the qualification, it's not like asking to win powerball and it's got to be in my name and we get unpacked out a lot. But you know what, nowhere, nowhere in any of these references is there an indication that by boasting about how good we are, about how righteous we are, will that make any difference at all to the outcome of the of the prayer? That's where the Pharisee got it wrong, he got it wrong big time, big time, no, it's a humble and penitent heart which God requires but even having said that we must avoid confusing humility with self-denigration. I sometimes talk to people in pastoral work who are convinced they have fallen to a point that is beyond God's grace and forgiveness. In extreme cases they are convinced that God is actually punishing them, that He's actually withholding answers to prayer because of how upset He is with them, because of their unworthiness. Now friends, to think this way is to negate the very core of the gospel and not one of us is beyond thinking like that under the right circumstances but that is to negate the very core of the gospel because our righteousness, our salvation, there's nothing to do with how good or bad we are, the Bible says in Romans 5, 8, it was why we were still sinners. God didn't wait for us to kind of improve and kind of tidy ourselves up a little bit before He sent Jesus, why will he get sinners? 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, 1 Peter 3 verse 18, "For Christ died for sins once and for all, for sins, a good man died on behalf of sinners in order to lead us to God." Nothing to do with our righteousness, all to do with His love and grace and compassion. Here's one final thing we need to avoid confusing. We must avoid confusing form with formation. I don't want to be too harsh on this Pharisee, but I kind of get the feeling He prayed this prayer before. I fast twice a week, I pay my tyres, I'm not an adulterer, I'm better than this guy and others like him. It's very pretentious, but it's a little bit too liturgical, a bit too predictable for my liking, a bit too ritualistic, not a lot of heart disclosure here is there. God is not so much interested in the form of our prayers as He is interested in the formation of our spiritual lives, and the formation of an ever deepening relationship with Him. He's not so much interested in form, He's interested in our formation. Our prayers are not meant to impress Him, they are meant to help us press into Him and draw on all the strength and the power and grace and forgiveness that's available through Him and through the Holy Spirit. Friends, it's a simple story. How does it grab you today? Simple, parable. All about prayer and the different forms of prayer. Somebody prayed or came forward for prayer in the last service, wanting to pray that their prayer life would move from form to formation. It's easy to get into a rut with our prayer lives, cover the same topics over and over again, all the time concealing the very heart of what's happening within us. He knows, he desperately wants us to disclose that, reveal that as part of the healing that He wants to bring. How's your prayer life? Does it need invigoration? Does it need to move from form to formation? Don't confuse self-denigration, I'm so worthy with humility, that's not the way it is, reflect on these points and step into a new experience of prayer with God this week. He wants that and it'll change your life, let's bow in prayer, shall we?