Top 10 Prayers of the New Testament #8

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Speaker 1: Top ten New Testament prayer number eight the Lord's prayer? So what the Lord? Further? Number eight not even top five? A isn't that irreverence? I mean you probably memorized that as a little child or shortly after you became a Christian. It's Jesus's words, after all. It's the answer to the question how should we pray? Yep, very very familiar, but after decades of studying itst context. It's genius, isn't in the words? It's why Jesus answered how should we pray? And this is his answer. And I think we've misunderstood. It's brilliant. I think it's better than we think. So yeah, track with me, all right. Welcome to Gospel R and podcast and doctor Bill Senor YouTube channel. I'm your host, Doctor Bill Senor. We're free wherever you get podcasts and of course on YouTube as well. Please subscribe if you're watching it on YouTube down below. One of the fastest ways you can help us grows by leaving your comments below. Thank you sincerely. Also, thanks for making it Gospel and Podcasts one of the top ten percent in the world. Thank you for listening every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love for the unlovable, loved, the unlovely, the unworthy, the unlikely, and the hurting, and that's all of us und given day if we were just a little bit honest. So I'm going through my list of the top ten prayers of the New Testament. We're at number eight. I did my top ten prayers of the Old Testament last summer. Was a big hit. Lots of dialogue, lots of disagreement. It's not a reverend, it's actually just what we do. It's a lot of fun and it helps us get into them and study them and learn how to pray better from people, real people who have really prayed. And as I said about the Old Testament rankings, they're all favors of God. This list represents my highly subjective assessment, and go ahead and disagree. I love that. Let me know what you think, Bill at gospeldesh app dot com or if you're on YouTube, leave a comment below, one way or another. Each is a powerful testimony of how real people really pray. And as I mentioned, the top five are from the lips of Jesus himself, clearly worthy of study, and at least one of them, I think will surprise you. Welcome to the top ten prayers of the New Testament. I want to get right into it. After this brief word from our sponsors, we'll be right back. Top ten Prayer number eight, the Lord's Prayer Matthew six nine to thirteen. So the context is it's a parody of righteousness. Addicts in my historical fiction that Ramona I Matthew, who is now on the mission field some three decades after Jesus's resurrection, is trying to explain to his next gen what Jesus was trying to teach the disciples when they asked him how should we pray? And here is an adapted section for the book. Oh my, says Matthew. This section reflects the absolute genius of the rabona Ee. He is a rabbinical scholar and was not above using such teaching techniques to make his point, though, as is often the case, if you were not there, you might miss the subtleties from his body language and facial expressions. I will try to clarify and elaborate. Jesus is teaching the way of righteousness doers, and we all understand, for we all tend to be of this bent. I like it to an addiction righteousness. Doers are addicted to recognition and praise whenever and wherever they can find it. It will jump through hoops, even shameful, absurd and laughable hoops, for even one slight compliment, one glance of approval, one pat on the head, even by strangers. The crowd got the master's joke. They even got the subtle nuance. For instance, Jesus, when you do mercy for those in need, temple prescribed or not, you don't need a parade. That's for foolish pretenders. I remember how the crowd chuckled at this. They got it. He went on, There was no place for that anywhere. And what does your reputation with other pretenders really gain you? Tragically little, So when you give alms, sh don't even let your other hand know. Jesus held up one hand and hid the other behind his cloak as he said this, and a broad smile erupted on his face. He wasn't trying to condemn us or shame us again. We could only chuckle at even the idea that your one hand could fool the other. It was funny in the same way, Jesus continued, When you pray, don't be a pretender. Pretenders love to feel admiration from other pretenders. No place for that anywhere, Not now. This is how you should pray, Jesus said. But what he implied and didn't say, is but you won't. You don't. As he began, he looked to the sky with hands out stretched and pretended to be a righteous pharisee, loudly praying in the public square. He emphasized every word. Everyone got the message. He wasn't commanding an ideal prayer. He was critiquing our hearts. Oh ahbah, he said so piously, in a deep, reverberating voice. Thy name is the only one worthy of honor, not mine. I long for Thy rule and will to be done in my life to the same degree it is understood and obeyed in the heavens, no matter what, no matter if I respectfully disagree. To be sure, this is how we should pray, if we meant it. But is that how we pray? Matthew asked. Don't we most often come into the presence of the celestial throne hoping that God will hear our ideas and exceed them. So God, I know that you have so many things to do. But I have an idea that will benefit us both. Check it out. I know you will agree that I'm right. The good news is that it hallows both of our names. Matthew continues. Jesus is humorously suggesting that while we should submit to God's lead, we don't. We lack such faith. We scirm under his lead. We regularly question whether he is in control or if he truly cares. Jesus continues, give us this day our daily bread. The Rabonie intentionally emphasize the word daily. I mean, can we be honest? We humans hate depending upon anyone, any institution, any authority. We start very young, when we are taking our very first steps. We heard our parents encouragingly say, look, he's got this. Come on, you can do this on your own. And when we did, they cheered us and thank God in the heavens that we had done this on our own. It's a lesson that we learned all too well. Matthew continues. Jesus knows that we hate praying this. We would much rather pray for full storehouses of grain or multiple wells overflowing with fresh water. We would prefer security. In the form of gold coins hidden away just in case of emergency or theft. So we should say this prayer. We should be at rest in God's been affection. We should trust him as our gracious provider. We should really mean, I'm satisfied to depend upon You for all things. I no longer feel the need to store up things to make sure I am secure. We should, but we won't. We don't. Here's Jesus again, forgive me to the degree that I have forgiven others for Why would you forgive me if I don't forgive others. Surely if I don't forgive, you will not forgive me. That's only reasonable Matthew six twelve to fifteen. Here's Matthew. No sane person wants to limit the Father's forgiveness to just the low bar of how much he or she forgives others, And God forbid. I will speak for myself. I desperately need God to forgive my sense far more than the paltry amount that I have forgotten the crimes of others against me. Praise God that he will not affirmatively answer such a foolish prayer. Despite our pushing back, so many have even memorized this prayer and used it in the same way that our people often use the shemah. I understand it on the surface. The Rabona I did say that we are to pray this way, and so then surely we please him if we do it exactly and word for word. But this is hardly the spirit in which it was taught. Ruben, one of Matthew's missionaries, uses the analogy that I have used before in this document of an infant in her mother's loving and carrying arms. They lock eyes, The mother smiles, and the infant smiles and cous The mother smiles and coups and smiles again, the infant response. It's an intimate, primal dance laced with love, security, and joy. The mother feels honored and appreciated the infant. Likewise, it's sort of a prayer language. And imagine if that infant was given them miraculous ability to speak and said, wrote by memory repeatedly, mother, who is above me? You are? Mother? I am not. I will never question your authority. I am okay with feeding from your breast on your schedule. I will not cry when I am hungry. Care for me as much as I care for others, it's absurd. Would the mother feel loved and adored by such a prayer? No, hardly. She felt loved and adored before the miraculous the ability to speak. She was honored by the attunement she experienced with her beloved child. Not some memorized words. I do not even remember the rabona ever praying to his Abbah and repetitive memorized words. He never used that prayer. There was a real joy in the relationship. There was intimacy and security. He didn't need to tell the father repeatedly that he desired to do as well. He did it. He was grateful, he was filled with joy, He was transparent. There was a wonderful and enviable dance going on in the garden. Shortly before his arrest, he urginently went before his father and did so, complaining, speaking of the coming torture, abandonment, and crucifixion. My father, if it's possible, may this cut be taken from me? But then, my father, may yor will be done. See, one would think, based upon how this so called lord's prayers being used religiously in so many circles, that our Lord missed the bet He should have said my father who art in heaven, hallow'd be thy name, and so on. So how are we and to pray? First, pray to God for the spirit of the Rabonai to make you secure in the knowledge and feeling of the height that with the Lincoln depth of his love for you as you are, love that can never change. Then say what you desire, enter that dance in gratefulness and joy. That's from the rabona I. So anyway, to close this thought, I have thought that there was only one prayer that I would unhesitatingly label legitimately as the Lord's prayer. If you must memorize one and repeat it and get it into your gut and heart, I'm going to suggest it should be this one. And it encompasses more than the Lord's prayer even does. In my opinion. Here it is my father. If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me? Yet not as I will, but as you will. Just the last section, Not as I will, but you will Matthew twenty six thirty nine. Well, Jesus was not commanding ideal words something to memorize. He's critiquing our hearts. We come to Heaven's thrown pitching our ideas, expecting God to hallow us. So one, hallowed be your name, You will be done piously. Your name alone is worthy, not mine. I long for your rule or will in my life, no matter if I disagree with you. We should, but we don't. We pitch mutual hallowing God. My idea hallows both. Daily. Bread emphasizes daily. We hate that parents cheer first steps. You've got this on your own. We learn too well, and we prefer storehouses overflowing wells, golds, dashes, savings, insurance. Daily means I'm satisfied depending upon you. You know. We should pray that, But we don't forgive us as we forgive. Nobody wants God's forgiveness capped by our paltry forgiveness. We need oceans more than we've granted trickles and praise God. He ignores that foolish limit Matthew six's fourteen to fifteen notwithstanding, So what is this prayer to tell us about God? God exposes our hearts with humor, no condemnation, just loving mirror. God desires intimate dependence. God's will trumps ours. God forgives beyond our formula. God prioritizes relationship over wrote prayers and attunement dance, not a memorized script. What does this prayer say about us? We crave control and praise. We hate daily to pivots. We limit God by our metrics. We miss Jesus's satire. We need spirit before words. Jesus never prayed rotely ever, and we do. We do so as I did in the other Top ten prayers. I want to do a short Lord's prayer, Like I said, I think this is preferable. And here it is, and ask the spirit to make you in sync with this. And here it is, My father, if possible, take this cup, not my will but yours be done there it is first pray for the Raboni spirit to secure you in God's unchanging love, and then speak desires, enter the dance. So what's next? I'm going to let you know after a brief word from our sponsors. So what's next? Top ten prayer number seven is poignant, as full of unimaginable faith and so very human. Mary the mother of Jesus, could have said a lot of things which she was told that she was going to give birth to the Messiah. What she said was remarkable and so relevant to us today, as we study prayer enjoy FYI am finishing up a book that will include all twenty top prayers, old and new sometime later this year. Tentative title good Enough Prayer Email only Bill at gospeldeshapp dot com and you want to know exactly when it's going to be released. Great for devotions or groups. Discussion questions include this one and Jesus parodies the Pharisee to expose righteousness, addiction, where do you see yourself? Craving phrase and control and prayer meaning pitching ideas of God expecting agreement. How does recognizing the satire for you from performance? We'll see you next time. Take heart, child of God