The God Who Listens (Part 2)

Every year, the United States Postal service receives more than 8 million letters written to Santa that are full of kids Christmas wishes. Things from new bikes, to video games, to horses, to new shoes, and new pets. The requests are as varied as you could imagine, With lists as long as you could imagine, And as wildly extravagant as you could never imagine.

For instance, one little boy wrote Santa with quite the extravagant request - saying: “Dear, Santa: I wanted to tell you I am fine. I don’t know but if you can could you possibly make it so I can turn into a Dragon PLLLLLEEEAAAAAASSSEEEE! Or… a pet Dragon - either one will do. Though, I would like it if you can make me turn into a dragon P.S. have a happy Valtins Day.”

In one Christmas letter, a boy wrote asking for quite the the long list of presents, saying: “Dear Santa, For Christmas, I want walkie talkies. I would also like a police car, tickets, guns, and all the stuff police offers have. Also, a real police car. I also want a play phone and a play computer. Also a play camera cause I don’t know where mine is. I also want ALL the dinosaur stuff! (I like the way this boys thinks!) Also socks and underwear and my sister wants all the same things I want. P. S. I need some medicine for my cough.”

Another boy wrote Santa realizing that sometimes Santa doesn’t deliver, and so he decided to let Santa know he meant business - he wrote. “Dear Santa: You had better bring my pony this year, or there WILL be consequences!”

And another boy wrote Santa upset when Santa hadn’t delivered the presents he requested, saying: “Dear Santa I am writing this on the day after Christmas, and I am very sad. I only received 1 of the 2 presents I asked for. Since you ate my cookies, I will assume that my missing gift was a mistake. I will give you 1 week to fix this.”

Ya know - When it comes to prayer, how often do our prayers resemble a six-year-old’s letters to Santa? When we pray, do we approach God like He’s a cosmic Santa Clause who exists to satisfy our wishes and make all of our dreams come true? To give us everything our heart desires: cough medicine to take care of our cold, or a new pony, I mean car to replace the one that we have, but doesn’t look quite as shiny as the ones parked next to it. And, do we ever find ourselves like little Jeremy, writing to God in anger and frustration because He didn’t give you what we asked for?

I think it’s clear here that for all of us the answer here is yes. For we often tend to approach God in our prayers as if He’s the Genie in Aladdin. And after all, why should’t we? I mean, Jesus does say to ask God to give our daily bread! That new car, new job, or medical treatment is a form of daily bread - right? And if we aren’t supposed to pray to God like this, then what on earth are we supposed to pray to Him for? Well, in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus answers that very question, saying:

Matthew 6:9-10 (KJV 1900) Pray like this: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, on earth as it is in heaven

Our passage this morning is the Lord’s prayer, and in it, Jesus - the Son of God - teaches us HOW to pray. Which means that there is a right way and wrong way to pray. Jesus doesn’t say: “The most important thing about prayer is THAT you pray, not what you pray,” does He? No - He provides us a model for how to pray.

And do you know what’s remarkable about it? What it doesn’t begin with. What doesn’t it begin with? Look at the text: It doesn’t begin with a requests for ponies, bikes, or new phones does it? No, it doesn't.

What does prayer begin with?

Prayer begins with worship.

In Fact, I’ll go one step further to say that not only does prayer begin with worship, but the essence of prayer itself is worship! And so the question we must ask then is, “how can our prayers be worship?” Or, “how do we worship God in prayer?”

We Worship God in prayer by approaching Him as our:

1. Father
2. Majesty
3. Lord

1. Father

Look with me in your Bibles at verses 7 through 9 of Matthew chapter 6: 7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father who art in heaven.”

If you notice what Jesus is doing here, He is contrasting two ways to approach God: A Right way and a wrong way.

What’s the wrong way? As a babbling pagan who is simply reciting your prayers over and over as if they are magic words to get your requested outcome. And the word here for empty phases, or babbling as the King James Version has, is a word that means to stammer. The idea here is that prayer is being used as sort of currency exchange to get God to do what we want Him to do.

It’s like this: “God I will bring my prayer requests to you for 2 hours everyday, and if I do, I expect you to deliver… OR ELSE!” And so obviously, if we approach prayer this way, then that’s not worship is it? No, it’s approaching God as a vendor who has the commodities we need, who demands prayer as the payment for said goods.

You remember the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal right? Up on Mount Carmel, which sounds like a delicious mountain, God’s prophet Elijah challenged the prophets of the false god Baal to a contest to see who’s God would answer them. And the contest worked like this: They each made an altar to their God, but they couldn't light it themselves. Instead, they would have to pray and ask their God to light the altar with fire from the sky - and whichever God did was the true God.

And so the pagan prophets of Baal went first and started crying out and dancing around the altar from morning till noon, but nothing happened. Over and over they babbled on and on asking Baal to answer their prayers. In which he doesn’t, cuz Baal isn’t God, Yahweh is. And so Elijah sits their with his spiritual gift of sarcasm and mocks them relentlessly, saying things like: “Oh, maybe Baal can’t hear you? Maybe you should shout louder?! Oh I know, maybe Baal is busy, or traveling! And then he goes just full savage troll and says that maybe Baal is relieving himself in the banyo.

And this obviously triggers the prophets of Baal, and so they go hardcore mode here and start shouting louder and cutting themselves trying to get their god to answer their prayers. But nothing happens.

So then Elijah builds his altar, digs a trench around it, and then has them dump 12 large jars of water on the wood to fill the trench. Then, with with the the Israelites and prophets of Baal all watching, he prays:

1 Kings 18:36-37 (ESV) “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

And upon this one worship-driven prayer request, fire fell from heaven and consumed not only the burnt offering and the wood, but the stones and all of the water in the trench, powerfully showing that Elijah’s God is the one true God who answers His people’s prayers.

And why does God answer our prayers? Is it because we keep babbling on and on: “Lord hear our prayer, Lord hear our prayer, please Lord hear our prayer” for hours and hours on end? Obviously not. And for the record, babbling the same lines over and over to God in song not only isn’t biblical, but that too doesn’t make our requests through song any more powerful. I don’t care how many smoke machines you have...

But here’s the point. God answers our prayers, not because we put in enough prayer-quarters in the machine. God answers our prayers for one reason - and it’s because He is our heavenly FATHER as Jesus points out here.

Do you realize how vastly different these approaches are? Because they are. For one is to approach God by our works and the other is to approach Him by grace - which is actually the ONLY way we can approach Him.

When it says that God is our Father, how did happen? Are we born this way? No. Does that happen when we pray enough? Go to church enough? Do more right things than wrong things? This way of approaching God is called religion. You ask hard enough You pray long enough And because you put the work in God owes you! But if this is how you approach God, then this is a contractual relationship, not a parental one. And do you see how’s that a massive difference!?

If your son or daughter comes to me, and says, “Pastor Zach, can I have $20 so I can buy that new toy I want?” I’m gonna be like, “Why are you asking me for that and not your parents?” Right? And if they keep asking me every 5 minutes when I see them, I’m just gonna get annoyed with them, and come have a discussion with you about your parenting.

But, what if Emily, Lewis, Ian, or Nora comes to me and asks me for that money? That’s an entirely different ball game, is it not? And why? Because my relationship to them is one of Father.

Ephesians 1:4-6 (ESV) In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

That verse tells that in Jesus Christ we have become sons and daughters of the living God How? Because something we did? No. That’s not how adoption works. A child is adopted not because of something they did, but because of something their adopted parents did, Which was adopt them. And so when it comes to our prayers to God, we MUST approach God as His adopted children, which is to say, we must approach Him by what verse 6 says: His GLORIOUS grace! Not our works so that no one may boast.

Do you believe that? Or do you think your relationship with God is conditionally based upon your performance? Because if you do, then not only are your prayers worthless, but so is your faith - for you’re not even a Christian at all then. For to be a Christian is to be one who has been adopted by the sheer glorious grace of our heavenly Father. And when you come to realize this, do you know where it leads you next? It leads to worshiping God in prayer for you see His wondrous Majesty. Which leads us to our second point.

We Worship God in prayer by approaching Him as our:

2. Majesty

As we saw two weeks ago from Nehemiah’s prayer, before we get to our requests at all, we begin with adoration. Which is to say, we begin with worship. Why? Because not only do we refer to God as our Father, but, as Jesus quickly points out, we refer to Him as our Father who is in Heaven. And why do we do that? Because we believe these twin truths. The imminence of God and the transcendence of God. And if you don’t know what those attributes of God are, well, we got a class going on right now that covers just that, which will be continuing next Sunday (shameless plug). But for now, the short version is this. God is both near to us (or imminent) and completely OTHERLY than us (or transcendent).

Which means, God isn’t “the big man up stairs.” For that is a completely pagan, non-transcendent way to refer to the One who is “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Or as Psalm 72 says: Psalm 72:18-19 (ESV) the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!

And as Romans 11 says:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Romans 11:33-36 ESV

Yes church, God is our Abba Father, but we must never forget He is the God who is to be worshiped with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire! Hebrews 12:28 (ESV) Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

In our culture, people tend to embrace of of these twin truths at the expense of the other. Don’t they? And while it’s true that God is our Father, that Jesus is a friend closer than a brother, our wonderful counselor, the truth remains that God is still our Lord, King, and Creator! And if you miss that, do you know what that does? It prevents you from appreciating the love of God. It prevents you from coming to really appreciate how glorious His grace is! Why? Here’s why:

Imagine a God who just forgives us for our sin. A God who winks at it and says: “Ahh you shouldn’t have done that, but it’s ok, just try not to again,” Is that a God who you would say cares a lot about justice or Holiness? Is that God who takes sin very seriously? Not at all.

But now imagine a God who solemnly swears, saying: “I will by no means spare the guilty,” A God who created an eternal place of judgment called hell for all those who violate His holy law. Who’s smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; upon which they have no rest day and night - as Revelation 14:11 says. Now, you may prefer the 1st God over the 2nd, but let me ask you, would you say this second God cares a lot about holiness and justice? Would you say this is a God who takes sin seriously?

But there’s another thing we can’t miss here: If God is simply a God of love who forgives everyone, how can you fully appreciate the grace and love of God? The answer is, you absolutely can’t. For until you come to see the Divine weight of God’s law and its demands for total and perfect justice, you cannot appreciate what God did to spare you from from it! And what did He do?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 ESV

Upon the cross, Jesus Christ took our sin and our guilt and absorbed the just wrath of God upon Himself. Though Jesus was the only begotten son of God, God the Father poured out the wrath we deserved upon Him. And why? So that we might be called the sons of God.

And recognizing this in our prayers, we begin our prayers as sons and daughters approaching our Father singing 1 John 3:1: “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!” And so we are to embrace the tension between the transcendence of God and the imminence of God, never once forgetting God’s glorious grace!

Do you see now why our prayers to our heavenly Father must always begin with praise and adoration? It’s because by the grace of God we have come to see the supreme worth of God! And so, once we see this we praise His glorious name, and then naturally our hearts desire that His glorious name would be HALLOWED!

What does that mean to be hallowed? To be hallowed means this: It means to be sanctified, or to be revered or kept holy. How does that happen? How is God’s name hallowed?

The Jewish people cared a lot about reverencing God’s name. For in Jewish thought, a name is not some random arbitrary designation. No, it conveys the nature and essence of the thing being named. It’s giving you information about that person. Which is why it’s a really good idea to study through all of the different names God gives Himself and their meaning, for they tell us about who God is. And so recognizing this, the Jewish people historically were very reverential towards God’s name. We don’t have time to go into all the ways they did this, but I can tell you this, they absolutely weren’t texting OMG to each other on their phones! And the reason wasn’t because they didn’t have phones back then, it’s because they hallowed precious God’s name!

To pray that God’s name be hallowed, is to pray as the Psalmist did:

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!

Psalm 57:5 ESV

And while this includes caring that God’s name be revered, it also includes carrying about God’s reputation, which means we care about how our behavior as His adopted children exalts His name on the earth. And so the question we must ask ourselves is does my life hallow God’s name? Am I thankful that God adopted me as Father? Is that thankfulness reflected in my life as I strive to hallow His name by living a life of Holiness by His power? Do I have zeal for God and to know Him better?

Or, is my theological zeal for His name merely a means of hallowing my own name? Tell me. Is it possible to use theology this way? To approach discussing God’s name as a intellectual chess match to hallow our own name instead of His? To merely show off or spiritually abuse others with our misplaced self-hallowing zeal? Look, zeal for God’s name and His revealed truth is not a bad thing, But, just as Moses took off his shoes when he approached God, so too should we take the shoes off our feet when we approach discussing the name of God with others.

When it comes to hallowing God’s name, the obvious question here from this text is: Do I worship God regularly through private prayer? Or do I have many words to say to God publically, but privately I am quickly distracted and find myself daydreaming.

Do you know why prayer is the hardest spiritual discipline? Because the essence of prayer is worship! And nothing reveals more WHAT we are truly worship than our private prayer life. For the truth is, until we come to delight in God as we ought, private prayer will always be a duty we struggle with instead of a delight!

Martin Lloyd-Jones writes this: “Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul” And ya know - he’s right. For the essence of prayer is worship. It is communion with God our Heavenly Father. And as Jesus says, “the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength!”

Until we come to see prayer as communion with God, instead of as religious activity to make us a better Christian, or to get God on the hook to give us what we want, our prayers will whispers instead of thunderous cracks in the throne room of almighty God. But that’s not the only thing we will miss out on, for we until we come to approach God as Father and see our prayers as worship, we will miss out on the peace that surpasses all understanding when God is our Father and Lord Which leads us to our final point.

We Worship God in prayer by approaching Him as our:

3. Lord

Verse 10 says: Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Do you want to know one easy way to tell if approaching God in prayer as Father? What happens when your prayers aren’t answered? Do you say: “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?” Do you say as Jesus prayed: “Not my will, but thy will be done”? Or, do you get upset with God and start giving Him 1 week ultimatums on delivering the pony you asked for? Do you say, “BUT GOD, I gave you the cookies! Why didn’t you uphold your end of the bargain!?” That’s how this relationship works! I put in the cosmic quarters, you dispense the goods! I prayed asking for that new job! I prayed asking you to heal me! I prayed asking you to save my family member from cancer, drugs, you name it, BUT YOU DIDN’T GOD!

Maybe you don’t get angry with God for unanswered prayers, maybe instead you get all depressed and feel guilty. Maybe you start thinking God’s unanswered prayers are punishment and that you deserve because you haven’t been a good enough person. But this too is to approach God not as Father, but contractually. See, with the first example, you get upset with God, because you have an over-inflated view of how good you’ve been, so you think God owes you, But with this last example, you get upset with yourself, because you have an under-inflated view of how bad you’ve been, because you are still trying to approach God by your own merit, and becoming disappointing when that doesn’t seem to net positive results with your prayers! But both of these responses are due to not approaching God as our gracious Father.

And so instead, we approach God as children of Grace who know that we have a good father who loves us and always does what is best for us. Do you believe that? Bare in mind, this is a God who knows what we need EVEN BEFORE we ask for it! A God who has numbered the hairs on our head. A God who is distressed by our distress as Isaiah tells us. Do you trust Him in the darkness, or only in the light when you can see where you are going?

This past week, Julie sent me a short article on the book of Malachi which speaks of God being like a refiner’s fire. And after reading Malachi, it got me thinking about the Lord’s prayer and praying: “Thy will be done,” instead of “my will be done.” And I was reading of how if you try to bend a piece of metal before it’s been heated up by the fire, it’s just going to break. BUT, if you heat it up, and weaken the metal, it becomes pliable and allows you to bend it and shape it.

So here’s the thing: In Romans chapter 8, God promises us that “All things work together for good for those who love Him.” And so my question for you is, “do you believe that?” Do you believe that when God has you pass through the fires of life it’s His way of molding you into the perfect image of His Son? Or, do you believe that there are some things that actually don’t work together for your good, and so you become angry or depressed when God doesn’t take those things out of your life? And if you’re struggling to think that way, there’s a really good reason for you why you shouldn't, and it’s this.

Why should we trust our heavenly father when we pass through the fires of life? Because Christ passed through the ultimate fire for us, so that we could endure and come out perfected on the other side. And when you see that kind of love, you realize that you already have everything you could ever need, regardless of poverty, sickness, suffering, or loss. For you have God as your Father, who loved you so much that He sent His one and only Son to suffering and die in your place, so that you can not only endure the trials of this life, but endure the day of God’s coming and enter His kingdom as an adopted son and daughter of the king!

Are you a child of the King? Do you worship and adore God and delight to share communion with Him? Do you trust in the Lord, even in hard times, and do you long for the day when His kingdom comes? I trust by His wondrous grace you do.

This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.