For the last two weeks we have been attempting to change the paradigm of our persona.  We have been working on becoming celebrating harvesters. That is who we are.  That is what pleases Jesus.  That is how we are to live in this world.  We must daily think of ourselves as being in the world to share the joy of our faith on every occasion.  That is our purpose. But, it is a difficult mental shift to make.  So much of the world tells us to be selfish.  Look out for numero uno.  Buy this. Do that.  You will only be happy if.  Focus on your needs.  But that is not who we are.  We are here to serve the real numero uno.  We are here to be his.  And what he wants is for us to be celebrating harvesters.  Bam.  We need to adopt that persona.

Last week we saw two obstacles to becoming celebrating harvesters.  We consider everyone who God places in our lifeboats as neighbors.  “Who is my neighbor?” the lawyer asked.  Jesus answered, “All who you can help.”  We are to consider each person in our boat as neighbors.  But the biggest obstacle we face as harvesters is being too busy.  We cannot hear the nudgings of the Spirit if we are too busy.  We cannot respond to the nudgings of the Spirit if our docket is full.  It is hard to be joyous; it is hard to be at the feet of Jesus listening; it is hard to be used by God when we live life to the fullest.  We need margins in our everyday life in order to hear and respond to being harvesters.  My prayer is you are taking this section of Luke seriously; make the shift, adopt the persona, downsize your agendas, be there for God. God bless us to be celebrating harvesters!

As we continue in Luke we come to chapter 11.  The first 13 verses of this chapter is an interlude. We talked about faith.  Remember?  Faith exposed.  Faith built. Faith humbled.  Faith celebrated.  As we studied those lessons you got the feeling we were building toward something.  Then we found out what; faith precedes harvesting.  We must know our names are written in heaven, before we live like our names are written in heaven, before we will celebrate like our names are written in heaven.  Then we are harvesters.  Harvesting is based upon faith.  So, you continue to get this feeling that something is coming. 

Here is sneak peak a little further into Luke and it is bad news.  Satan is not going to allow you to celebrate your faith without opposition.  To change the metaphor from farming to war, when you go to war you are going to fight.  On the horizon, if we attempt to share our joyous faith we are going to be resisted by the enemy. 

So, before we get to the opposition part of faith there is a break in the action.  “There’s a break in the action!”  Guess what we are to do during this break in the action?  Anyone?  Pray!  We are praying as we “get ready to rumble.”  In this interlude Jesus shows us how to pray. 

Luke 11:1  One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."

Lord, teach us to pray.  Say it with me.  “Lord, teach us to pray.”  And so he does.  For the next 11 verses he teaches us to pray.  As I was working on this sermon I attempted, as I always do, to compress, filter, consolidate, or distill the scriptural material into a single point, the message. I like to think of a sermon as a single shot from a high powered rifle.  I want to make sure I kill one thing.  But this sermon is going to be a shotgun.  I may not kill anything but I am going to pepper you with buckshot.  This is going to be a buckshot sermon. The title of this morning’s sermon is, “A Bunch of Unrelated Random Thoughts About Prayer and Other Unrelated Thoughts From Jesus on Prayer Stuff.”  Put your running shoes on because we have over 20 main points to make this morning.  Ready?  Here comes the buckshot.

1. Prayer has a time

Luke 11:1  One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished…

Some people think of prayer as a parachute-they’re glad it’s there, but they hope they never have to use it. In prayer we rely on God; prayer is our steering wheel, not our spare tire! Those who don’t pray are trusting in their own, limited resources. Some people turn to God only when their fragile foundations are shaking, and they discover it is God who is doing the shaking.  We view prayer as having a regular time and a certain place.  It is a practice. It is a discipline to enroll in.  We pray in the interlude.

2. Prayer is a learned experience.

Luke 11:1-2  one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."  He said to them, "When you pray, say…”

There was a program on British television about the state of religious experience among children. It told about a young boy whose parents suffered a very serious accident. The boy told the police, "I wanted to pray but didn’t know any prayers."  Prayer is something we can learn.  It is something we can improve.  It is something even to practice.  Let’s learn how to pray. 

3. Jesus doesn’t discuss the posture of prayer.

In the Bible, people prayed kneeling, sitting, standing and laying face down. He doesn’t dictate the place of prayer.  We can pray anywhere. Remember we as Temple of the Spirit are the intersection of the two worlds.  And from that intersection we are able to contact God; anytime anywhere.  We can even pray while we are driving. Except in Santa Fe I think it might come under the No Cell Phone law. Is it OK to pray while driving?

4. Prayer is addressed to the Father.
Luke 11:2  "When you pray, say: "'Father…

There are many biblical metaphors Jesus could have chosen to teach prayer.  But the one he chose was Father.  The closest we can come to in our understanding of prayer is the relationship between father and child.  God has blessed me with a wonderful father and has given me wonderful kids.  I can understand what it means both ways.  Last Sunday on Father’s Day I talked to my dad.  We had a wonderful chat.  Then all of my kids, but one, called me and chatted.  Isn’t that a beautiful way to think of prayer?  Chatting with dad.  It is relationship. It is confidence.  It is knowing the other cares about you.  It honors you enough to want to talk.  Isn’t talking and listening a neat way to honor another?  We pray to our Father. 

5. Prayer is coming before a holy, all-powerful, hallowed God.

Luke 11:2  "'Father, hallowed be your name…”

Before we get to chummy with God, let’s not forget he is to be hallowed. Hallowed means holy.  But more than holy, it is powerful.  He is the creator.  He is sinless.  God is not only father but also the almighty.  Which is a good thing.  My dad is bigger than your dad because my dad is God.  Pretty cool.  We have a father who cares and is able. 

6. Prayer is praise.

There’s no "spiritual frosting" in the Lord’s Prayer. Have you noticed there isn’t any pompous, high-sounding phrases, no high church talk?  The words are simple, meaningful concepts. We simply begin with God’s glory, and then we bring up our needs. It’s been said, "When God is first, prayer makes sense." The Lord’s Prayer is God-centered, not me-centered. It highlights the primacy of God. 

Luke 11:2  "Father, hallowed be your name.”

7. Prayer is about aligning our will with God’s will.

Luke 11:2  "Your kingdom come.”

Prayer is advancing the will of God in our world. It is bringing the kingdom.  It is being harvesters.  Here is the connection.  Help me to be an agent of the advancement of the kingdom.  Now that is a prayer. Help me to make the paradigm shift to my new persona as celebrating harvester so your kingdom will come into more and more lives. Wow.  It is our prayer to be in line with God’s docket; with his agenda in the world.  This is good news.  There is an agenda in the world and we can be a part of it.  God can use us to bring the kingdom.  Let’s not leave this out of our prayers, “Your kingdom come through me.”

8. Prayer is for each day.

KJV Luke 11:3 Give us day by day our daily bread.

Isn’t that a powerful lesson?  Let’s pray for this day.  No worry about the future.  No concerns about next week, month, year.  It is knowing God is going to be there tomorrow. So, we are praying about today.  Give us day by day what we need today. 

9. Prayer is requests.

I don’t think we need too much help with this point.  We are ready to make our requests to God.  But that is okay.  Part of prayer is making requests of the compassionate almighty Father. 

10. Prayer is confession.

Luke 11:4  Forgive us our sins,

It is recognition of our lack of holiness and a constant request to be holy. It is specifically naming our sins and humbly asking forgiveness.

11. Prayer teaches us compassion.

Luke 11:4   Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

Prayer is a reminder for us to be compassionate.  To forgive others.  It is also concerned with our relationships with each other.  We must take our relationships before the Father for help.

12. Prayer is about aligning our will with God’s will.

Luke 11:4  And lead us not into temptation.

There is the element of leading.  We want to be lead by the will of God.  Lead us where you want us to go.  Help us to avoid the temptation of rejection and keep in step with your will.  It is about aligning our will with God’s will.

13. Prayer can be a communal thing.

Did you notice that all the pronouns about us in this prayer are plural? 

Luke 11:2-4  "'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.  Give us each day our daily bread.  Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. '"

It is the prayer of a community.  We are to consider ourselves as children of the same Father who are ushering his kingdom into the world as joint-harvesters, who ask for each day’s requirements, who are a forgiving community that needs guidance as a group.  We, as a church, can pray as one.  

Jesus kind of says amen and then continues teaching with a couple of analogies.

Luke 11:5-8  Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'  "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

This story leads me to a couple more random thoughts about prayer.

14. Prayer is all about boldness.
We can ask the outrageous.  We can wake God up in the middle of the night.  We should pray bold prayers.

15. Persistent prayer doesn’t offend God.
God is unlike some of our parents who get annoyed by begging.  God says be persistent.  Keep on asking.  I am not bothered by repeated asking.

16. We should pray even when it is inconvenient to God.

We should never start our prayers with, “God I hate to bother you, but…”  God’s prayer-line is open 24-7.  Call him anytime. 

Then Jesus adds more to his teaching which leads me to more observations.

Luke 11:9-10   "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

17. Prayer is constant.
Ask, seek, and knock are all present active imperatives.  Obviously, this means we are really, really supposed to do this all the time.  Keep on asking and keep on seeking and keep on banging on the door.  If you keep it up then you will get, find and let in. 

18. Prayer is all about faith.

Who keeps on banging on the door?  The one who knows someone is on the other side.  Who keeps looking?  The one who knows there is a treasure there somewhere?  Who keeps on asking?  The one who knows there is a good answer to be received.  Prayer is all about our faith!

19. Prayer is about aligning our will with God’s will.

Who are we asking for what? God for his will. Who are we looking for in our lives?  God in showing us the way.  Whose door are we wanting to enter?  God’s door to enter into his will.  Keep on asking, seeking and knocking and God will show you his will for your life! 

Jesus doesn’t even stop here and we are up to number 20.  He has another analogy, which comes full circle back to the Father idea.

Luke 11:11-13   "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?  Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven…”

20. Prayer is like asking a wise and kind dad for something.
God will not give us something that will be harmful even if we ask.  We sometimes struggle with how God answers our prayers and are often disappointed at his, “No’s.” But even in his “No’s” there are blessings. C.S. Lewis once confessed that he was grateful God hadn’t given him everything he wanted: "I don’t know where I’d be if I’d gotten all I asked for!"

We can ask for anything in full assurance he won’t let us be too stupid, too often. 

21. God is not a tyrant.
God doesn’t have some sick sense of humor.  He doesn’t say to the angels, “Watch this.  They wanted an egg. Here’s a scorpion.  They want to catch a fish. Bam there’s a snake.”  God is good.  God is kind.  God knows best. God is not some cosmic prankster. 

22. Prayer is about asking for the Holy Spirit.

Luke 11:13  “how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Wow. Do you mean it?  Is it true? Isn’t that what you want?  The gift of the Holy Spirit.  The gift of power.  The gift of guidance.  The gift of companionship.  God is loving he will give you the Spirit when you ask. 

Let me make one more observation, okay maybe two.

23. The Lord’s Prayer is demonstrated on the cross. 
When Jesus takes this interlude to teach the disciples how to pray he is on his way to Jerusalem and his destiny on the cross.  I think he has the cross on his mind as he prays.

-Father, hallowed be your name – The cross is to bring glory to the Father
-your kingdom come.  – The cross is what brings in he kingdom
-Give us each day our daily bread – Jesus bread is to do the will of God
-Forgive us our sins – The cross is all about forgiveness of sins
-for we also forgive everyone who sins against us – Jesus says these very words on the cross
-And lead us not into temptation – to avoid the cross

For Jesus this prayer is for him to do the will of God on the Cross.  For us this prayer is about…

24. Aligning our will with God’s will.

When we pray this prayer we are asking to go on a journey with Jesus to do the Lord’s will; to be his harvesters who are completely in step with the Sprit as we follow Jesus wherever he takes us.  

Do you feel like you’ve been buckshot? All that’s left to do is pray. Let’s do Luke’s version together.

“Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.  Give us each day our daily bread.  Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.”