The Rhythm of Prayer (Week 1): God's Character (Luke 11:1-4)

Throughout our series, The Rhythm of Prayer, we will delve into the transformative experience of prayer, focusing on the Lord’s Prayer to cultivate greater intentionality, intimacy, and illumination, seeking a rejuvenated prayer discipline that sustains spiritual renewal and challenges traditional, duty-bound approaches.

In Week 1, Pastor Jeff McLain looked at Luke 11:1-4, and how the Lord's Prayer begins with a focus on God's Character. Prayers become more effective when we deliberately focus on and reflect worshipfully upon God's Character, fostering intimacy with God's ways and leading to a transformative impact on our hearts, characters, outlook, choices, and actions.

Who we are together.
River Corner Church is a growing church community of everyday people who gather to worship God, follow Jesus, and journey through life together.

What we practice together.
Our small church community is uniquely caring, simple, laid-back, and intergenerational. As a church, we want to be a welcoming, safe, and healing community for those who are seeking, hurting, or need a place to belong. Our practices are contemplative (reflective) charismatic (Spirit-driven), conversational, and informative. The times we share together are intentional and intimate, and a mix between modern and traditional. We want to be a place in which love and honor are lived out, where humility is central, and where hospitality is woven into the threads of our community. There is room at the table.

When we gather together.
River Corner Church gathers weekly on Sunday mornings at 10:00 AM to worship and experience God, study the scriptures, journey through life together, and partner with the Holy Spirit. We meet in a simple worship meeting house at 524 River Corner Road in Conestoga, Pennsylvania. You are welcome as you are, just be yourself. There are other times that we hold small groups, events, and more.

Our Pastoral Leader.
Jeff McLain has served as our pastoral leader since April 2022. He is currently a doctoral student at Fuller Seminary, where he also has earned two master's degrees - one in Theology and Ministry and another in Leadership. Jeff also holds a Graduate Certificate in Non-profit Management from City Vision University. In addition to serving River Corner Church, Jeff serves full-time as the Director of Pastoral Ministries at Water Street Mission. In addition to over 13 years of pastoral ministry, Jeff has enjoyed event promotion, leadership coaching, blogging, and podcasting. For over 17 years, Jeff has been happily married to Katie. Jeff, Katie, and their three wander-filled daughters are avid fans of road trips, baseball, boardwalks, beaches, and books.

Learn more about us at rivercornerchurch.com.

Transcript

Introduction

In 2010, author, pastor, and evangelist Francis Chan wrote a book for children called, “The Big Red Tractor.” 

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The story goes like this, “Once upon a time in a happy little village, a big red tractor lived in a cozy little shed. Each year when the snow started to melt, the villagers knew it was time to plow their fields. So every morning they’d go out to the little shed and wake up the big red tractor. They loved the powerful putt-putt, ka-boom noises he made. And they cheered because the big red tractor helped them with their hardest job: plowing the field. Everyone worked together to move the big red tractor through the field. Half the villagers pushed him, and the other half pulled him. He smiled cheerfully, glad to help, even though they never seemed to move him very far. The villagers worked very hard, and they always finished plowing the field just in time to plant delicious vegetables and sweet fruit before the rain came. The rain fell from the sky and watered the field. Then the sun came out and made the seeds grow. Finally, the villagers gathered all the food in large baskets. Everyone celebrated. Everyone shared. There was just enough food to feed the whole village. Then, one cold day, something amazing happened! Famer Dave was cleaning out his attic and discovered a book tucked inside an old chest. It explained how the big red tractor had been made, and it showed powerful things no one knew he could do. Farmer Dave stayed up all night reading the book. He couldn't wait to tell everyone what he had discovered! The next morning Farmer Dave gathered the villagers to tell them the good news: “The big red tractor can move on his own! If we fix him, he could plow the entire field in just one day!” But nobody believed him. “There’s no way that tractor can move on his own,” they said. “It sounds like a fairy tale!” They laughed at him and went back to their work. This made Farmer Dave very sad. But Farmer Dave didn’t stop believing what he had read. Every night, while the villagers were asleep, Farmer Dave stayed up late fixing the big red tractor. Finally, after many nights, Farmer Dave was done! He jumped onto the big red tractor and turned him on - putt-putt, ka-boom! He jumped in the driver’s seat and had so much fun that he plowed the whole field that very night! The next morning, the villagers woke up to a huge surprise! Their work was done for them! They would not have to spend many weeks pushing and pulling the big red tractor over fields of dirt. It’s a miracle. Who did this for us? Look over there! It was Farmer Dave sleeping on the big red tractor. The people shouted happily, “Farmer Dave was right! The tractor book is true!”

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The story goes on, and though Francis Chan meant it to be a reflection of the power of reading the scriptures, I think it can also apply to our practice of prayer. While most of us maintain a dedicated practice of prayer, integrating it into our daily lives and experiencing moments of peace, our approach is often marked by duty, effort, and fluctuating consistency. In contrast, sometimes there are those around us who view prayer as more than an obligation – for them, it's a dynamic conversation or a chance for otherworldly encounters. Their perspective brings a unique dimension of intentionality, intimacy, and illumination to their spiritual journeys, making prayer an exciting and transformative experience rather than a mere task for them. Sometimes we are amazed at the prayer lives of others, and sometimes we just excuse them away as fanciful and maybe even counterfeit. Though I think prayer is not always otherworldly, I think our practice of prayer should be expectant, it should have otherworldly experiences at times.

In Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard said that he believed that “the greatest need of collective humanity - is the renovation of our heart.” He goes on to say “That spiritual place within us [our heart], from which our outlook, choices, and actions come from, has been formed by a world away from God.” As a result, he stated, “Now it must be transformed.” Prayer is a spiritual discipline that when utilized and experienced and enacted properly not only creates a greater experience with God, but it also renovates our heart.

This morning we start our new series, "The Rhythm of Prayer.”  Our series will explore what it means to develop a more extensive and effective discipline of prayer. Through the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus has gifted us with a practice of prayer that is important to our spiritual formation.

Through the rhythm of this very important prayer, we are renewed and reminded about God the Father’s character, kingdom, provision, forgiveness, guidance, and protection. We will explore each line of the Lord’s Prayer to uncover what the Lord’s Prayer can teach us about these aspects of the Spirit-filled life. The hope is that we can cultivate new insights to foster a greater sense of intentionality, intimacy, and illumination in our experience of prayer. 

Prayer is meant to be a transformative experience, not a traditional or formulaic obligation. The Lord’s Prayer is meant to be a relational encounter with the living and good God that encourages us and reprioritizes and reshapes our outlook, choices, actions, and faith. Throughout this series, I hope we find a rejuvenated prayer discipline that sustains a sense of renewal in our spiritual journeys and challenges any duty-bound sense of prayer and sporadic spiritual nourishment in our walks with Jesus.

I hope you will find yourself praying and reflecting on the Lord’s Prayer throughout our series and as “we delve into the transformative experience of prayer, focusing on the Lord’s Prayer to cultivate greater intentionality, intimacy, and illumination, seeking a rejuvenated prayer discipline that sustains spiritual renewal and challenges traditional, duty-bound approaches.”

Scripture Passage

This morning we will be reading from Luke 11:1-4. I invite you to follow along as I read from Luke 11:1-4. I will be reading from the New International Version. As you follow along, I invite you to look at this passage with fresh eyes. Allow this story that may be familiar to you, to captivate you in new ways. Luke 11:1-4 reads like this.

“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.”

He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘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.’”

During Jesus' time, prayer held significant cultural and religious importance. The Jewish people, including Jesus, were deeply rooted in a tradition of prayer outlined in the Hebrew Scriptures. Prayer was incorporated into synagogue worship, temple rituals, and holiday celebrations, but personal prayers were integral aspects of Jewish religious life. You prayed when you woke up, when you ate, when you went to bed. Even more, in the Jewish community of faith, there were three fixed times for prayer that were observed. Prayer had communal and individual aspects. The act of prayer involved not only verbal communication but also physical postures, such as standing, kneeling, or prostration.

As a Rabbinical leader and devout Jewish believer, Jesus participated in these prayer traditions that were deeply woven into the fabric of Jewish life, incorporating both communal and individual expressions. Though Jesus upheld something traditional and formulaic, he also prayed in a way that modeled something different. He had a certain intimacy and authority in the way that he prayed that stood out to his followers. That is what stood out to his followers. There was something about the way Jesus prayed, that his followers noticed. This is why they ask Jesus to teach them to pray. At the core, they realized this time away in prayer was an important part of Jesus’ ministry and what made him different.

However, in this era, it was also common for disciples of rabbis to ask their teachers for instruction on prayer, or about prayers for special occasions. If you noticed in the text, they ask Jesus to teach them to pray, just as John the Baptist taught his followers to pray. They knew this about John because two of John’s disciples had now come to follow Jesus. Prayer was a very intentional and undistracted act and still should be today. For this reason, it was considered wrong and rude to interrupt someone when praying. This is why the passage says that the disciples waited until he finished. Most likely, as Jesus is praying, Jesus’ disciples are watching him and realizing something is special about the way he prays. Jesus is experiencing a communion with God the Father that was unusual to them. They ask Jesus about his prayer life and discipline as soon as he emerges from praying.

Today, Jewish believers still recite ritual prayers throughout the day. In the morning, as soon as they awake, they say "I offer thanks to you, living and eternal king, for you have mercifully restored my soul within me; your faithfulness is great." Some start this prayer by calling God, Hashem, King of the Universe. After they wash their hands, the first thing you do when waking up, they will recite a prayer that says, "Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us concerning the washing of hands.” Jewish prayers and practices were very similar in the time of Jesus. You addressed God as King and Our Heavenly Father. It was unusual to address God intimately or relationally such as “Abba,” which means daddy or papa. They believed prayer needed a great sense of awe and reverence in it. They also were careful what they called God the Father because God’s name was holy and they did not want to profane it.

In this passage, in a time of emphasized ritualistic practices of prayer, Jesus provides a glimpse into a more intentional, intimate, and illuminating practice of prayer. In these spaces, Jesus experienced something they wanted to experience. A little before this passage, in Luke 9:29, Luke remarks that as Jesus was praying "the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.” In Mark 9, Mark tells us that there was a point where Jesus encountered a demon, and was able to drive it out of an individual when the disciples could not, because Jesus was prayed up. In that story, Jesus remarks, "This kind can come out only by prayer.” Without a doubt, there was something different about the way Jesus prayed. It wasn’t a duty-bound exercise, it was an experience. The disciples watched Jesus in action, and Jesus spent much time in prayer. As author Michael Breen points out, “They recognized that Jesus’ Up [or upward] relationship with his Father through prayer was key to his fruitfulness in his ministry and relationships.” As a result, Breen points out, “There was something about the way their teacher went about prayer that was different and caused them to want to pray in the same way.”

Early on in my educational journey, I took some pre-theological work through the South African Theological Seminary. A quote they shared there was this, “Just as our bodies need regular meals, so our spirits need regular spiritual food. Yet many Christians think they can be spiritually healthy on one meal a week - at church on Sunday.” Prayer, even more than church, feeds our spiritual lives. Prayer is an important part of our journey. It may be one of the most sustaining aspects of our life as Jesus’ followers. Though we cannot pray in ways we have not been taught, we cannot lead where we have not been led. We emphasize many things in the life of a Jesus follower. Yet, there is one significant thing we can never spend too much time on, prayer. One of my favorite authors, Andrew Murray, makes the remark, “Jesus never taught His disciples how to preach, only how to pray.” This is why we must delve into the transformative experience of prayer, focusing on the Lord’s Prayer to cultivate greater intentionality, intimacy, and illumination, seeking a rejuvenated prayer discipline that sustains spiritual renewal and challenges traditional, duty-bound approaches.

Main Focus 

In this passage, there is so much that could be said. Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at the rhythm of the Lord’s prayer, analyzing each line. However, it could take months to properly study the theological depth, the historical aspects, and the practical simplicity of Jesus’ prayer. A Church of England Archbishop Justin Welby says, that the Lord’s Prayer “is simple enough to be memorized by small children, and yet profound enough to sustain a whole lifetime of prayer.” I love this quote because it communicates the richness of this model prayer. Through the rhythm of this very important prayer, we are renewed and reminded about God the Father’s character, kingdom, provision, forgiveness, guidance, and protection. This morning, we are just going to focus on the opening line and what it has to teach us about God’s Character, uncovering what this aspect of the Lord’s Prayer can teach us about the Spirit-filled life. 

In the first line, Jesus teaches them to pray, “‘Father, hallowed be your name.” You may have a footnote in your bible that says something like “Some manuscripts record Jesus, our Father in heaven.” This is probably more accurate for two reasons, first, this is how Matthew tells it in Matthew 6. Also, it more closely resembles the way Jews would pray. In this prayer, Jesus teaches them to authoritatively and boldly call out to God in an intimate way, but he still reminds them to pray in a way that though God can be intimately experienced and known, God is in reality removed from our own (heaven) and God should be met with awe and a reverent sense of worship because his name is hallowed, or holy. 

Throughout the First or Old Testament, especially in the story of Genesis, we learn that God and humanity struggle with a divide between them. God longs to be in restored relationship with the people and creation of God, but humanity continues to choose a sinful nature that keeps them at a distance from God. In this prayer, God is at a distance, but also close. God is holy, but also a friend. This tells us a lot about the Character of God, God the Father can be experienced intimately, Jesus gives God an intimate name, for an intimate God.  Jesus hopes that we will learn to experience God in the same way that Jesus experiences God in his times of prayer. Jesus knows that when we experience God the Father’s Character, not just intellectually know it, it changes part of who we are. Author and Missiologist Michael Breen remarks, “None of us will dispute that Jesus could legitimately start a conversation with the Almighty with such a familiar term. Yet, how often do we fail to remember that in this prayer Jesus is teaching that all believers have the same right of relationship he enjoys.” In this passage, we focus first on God’s character, a God who is close and yet uniquely different than us or anything we know. I love how Michael Breen remarks that in this aspect of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is teaching that it is at this point “Our spirits yearn for this God-likeness to be a reality in us so that God’s glory is revealed to others here on earth.”

We start the Lord’s Prayer by reflecting on what we know about the character of God through the scriptures and our experience with God’s Spirit. John the disciple of Jesus, learned at Jesus’ side that God is love. He remarks that if we know God, we know love, because "God is love.” God's love is endless, unwarranted, gracious, faithful, relational, personal, and self-sacrificing. Jesus also taught the crowds and his followers that God is good. Jesus describes God as a father who gives good gifts to his children. Not just some too, but in abundance. Jesus said, "How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.” God the Father is without evil, sin, or stingyness. God is generous, shows people the right way, and is ever-present. Jesus upholds the idea that God is holy.  Jesus taught us to be perfect as his father is perfect. This means God is set apart from our world, our ways, and our worldviews. In his life and ministry, Jesus declares that God is full of mercy. God is mercy. This means God is faithful, and pours his faithfulness out on others. Jesus was sent by God the Father as the ultimate way of mercy.  God desires that no one perish from their sin and brokenness. 

In the Lord’s Prayer, we begin by reminding ourselves of and renewing ourselves with the character of who God is. We approach God by remembering God’s Character, a character of love, goodness, holiness, and mercy that becomes part of the transformative experience of prayer. By focusing on God’s Character in the Lord’s Prayer, our prayer disciplines will cultivate a greater sense of intentionality, intimacy, and illumination. Our rejuvenated sense of our prayer discipline will sustain spiritual renewal and challenge traditional, duty-bound approaches.

When we first meet someone, we don’t know them. So, we begin to size them up. There is not much we know about their character. We usually greet them properly and with distance. When someone had to meet the Queen of England there were tons of rules to follow. All of the rules ensured people were greeting her properly and keeping their distance. The more you get to know someone, the more you know them, and the more you develop nicknames for them, even more, when you think of them, you think of their character. Jesus makes the point that God is holy and great, but he is not interested in distance like the Queen of England. Rather, God wants us to know him, experience him, and think of the character of God as we engage in prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer has a lot to teach us about God’s character. Learning the character of God as part of our prayer is a lot like the farmer finding the instructions in my opening story, it leads to a new way of living and going about our mission and work. In the way Jesus taught us to pray, we find a rhythm that starts with God’s Character.

Application

1. Our prayers experience greater effectiveness when we worshipfully reflect on God’s Character.
2. We should intentionally direct our prayers in a way that reminds us of God’s Character.
3. The more we reflect on God’s Character in our prayers, the more intimate we will become with the ways of God.
4. Like with prayer and the Spirit-filled life, the Spirit appears in prayer, God’s experience is meant to be experienced.
5. The more we focus on God’s character in our prayers, the more it will renovate our hearts and characters, renovating our outlook, choices, and actions.

These exact words of the Lord’s Prayer are not as important as the rhythm that appears in the Lord’s Prayer. I believe Jesus gave them a way of praying that was meant to be memorable and reproducible, but ultimately it was somethign they were to practice and be transformed by. First, we have learned that prayer needs to integrate a deep sense of who God is; God’s character. 

Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of the violent persecution of the Nazis, reminds us, “Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.” This week, I encourage you to spend extra time in prayer just worshipfully, intentionally, intimately, experientially, and transformatively reflecting on God’s Character.

Thank you for journeying through me at the beginning of this new sermon series. May God’s character become more central to your times of prayer. That is my hope for my prayer time as well. As Michael Breen remarks, in praying with this foundation at the start, “We pause to  acknowledge that God’s [character] is [fully] what we long to be.” Next week, we will look at how God’s Kingdom is an important aspect of our times of prayer.