Shameless Prayer

0:00 well hello everyone this is my final sermon for you all here at first press church I am so honored thank you for the blessing of getting to serve you here at first press as many of you have you heard my sermons before I really like participation I know you're not here but I still want you to participate at home or wherever you might be watching today's sermon for you it might be writing an amen in the YouTube thread it might be saying are you with me and you you say I'm with you and if you're at home and it's not too late at night maybe you can be shouting amen hallelujah so that your neighbors know that church can be fun are you with me all right well my hope for the sermon this morning and this day is to encourage you to pray in this time of social distancing feeling isolated from others and there's tons of stress and worry going around I know it's times like these where we don't know what's going to happen next where it's hard to feel a reason to pray or it's hard to have the energy to pray or sometimes people think maybe I'm not good enough to pray maybe I'm not holy enough maybe I don't know the right religious words or whatever it might be today I want to offer you that this sermon is an example that you should be praying no matter what and to see what I'm talking about let's look at the title of this sermon today which is shameless prayer we're going to be looking at Luke chapter 11 verses 1 to 13 we had the passage read before I'd encourage you to get out your Bible get out your Bible app or whatever you're going to be using to follow along because I'll be reading certain sections let me start with introducing and defining shame shame is defined as a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the realization of you doing something wrong or acting in a foolish way and I think a lot about being an adult is learning that you shouldn't do shameful things that you should behave certain ways and one major thing is you don't want to do something that makes you look silly or make someone else look silly we don't really live in a highly shame-based culture but there are certain things we learn that we shouldn't do because we don't want to create the feeling of pain of humiliation or shame well let me start off with a funny story and please feel free to laugh many moons ago I worked for a website company at this company I produced a lot of videos for all of our clients one client was a motivational Christian speaker this motivational Christian speaker he actually had no arms and no legs and at this point I had never met him in person I was just always editing videos on a screen he was just always on a screen to me and again he had no arms and no legs well one day my boss came to me is that hey we're gonna go meet this person Nick the person with no arms and no legs and he made it extremely clear he said Brian please don't do anything to embarrass the company and I said come on boss I'm not gonna do anything wrong don't worry about it the day of the meeting finally came we walked into the office my boss is next to me we both walk up to Nick a person with no arms and no arms and no legs and what do I do you guessed it I reach out to shake hands that aren't there feel free to laugh it was so shameful it was it was embarrassing my boss was embarrassed he was just looking at me like and I felt ashamed I mean it was embarrassing well for today I want us to look at Jesus's words about prayer and about shame and I want us to see how Jesus is teaching people that we shouldn't worry about something being shameful even when it comes to prayer now this may not make sense but it's important to think about when it comes to prayer and I'll explain more in a second but let's start with reading verses 1 through 4 out of chapter 11 in Luke says this he was praying in a certain place and after he had finished one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray 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 and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us and do not bring us to the time of trial the first point I want to start and point out is this start with the father the disciples asked Jesus Jesus teach us to pray we're talking about becoming like Jesus and Jesus prayed he wants to teach people to pray and Jesus starts the prayer with father hallowed be your name I think we should start considering shameless prayer you have to remember who you are talking to we need to recognize God being hallowed means God the father is holy holy means God is set apart from us in many ways and I want you to think about that for a second the holy father the holy father wants to hear from us and wants to connect with you and me so we as people who pray we need to hold this interesting thing intention and that's this the father is holy and we are not but yet Jesus says to come to the father God the father who is apart from all imperfection a being who has no shame but we who have things that are imperfect and and we have things to be ashamed of but Jesus invites us to start with remembering who we are talking to Jesus starts with a gentle reminder of the sort of being that God is holy and inviting and this is where shame embarrassment should at the same time be acknowledged but also obliterated prayer with the father is a time where you recognize you are in the presence of holy perfection prayer with the father is a time where you realize you didn't do anything to deserve the perfect father's presence prayer towards the father is remembering you are not perfect and that is okay with God can I get an amen and friends it's okay with God because God's perfection overrides our imperfection and with that you need to think of it like this when when some of you pray and I know when I pray at times I get worried I get up in my head and I and I all I can say to you in those moments is stop worrying stop worrying that you won't do the right thing stop worrying that you're going to say something stupid in your prayer stop worrying that you're going to do something stupid like put your hand out to somebody who has no hands we must remember this it's because of God's grace revealed and provided to us through Jesus through Jesus in his body and his blood that we are ushered into God's presence it's because of Jesus that you can come and pray to the father and are experiencing that holiness are you with me amen now some of you you have a hard time considering this sort of prayer and believing this because I think you're not really in the trusting confident relationship you think you are with Jesus and I think of it sort of like this dating versus marriage dating has a level of commitment there's no doubt about it but it's not the same sort of commitment like when you are married marriage is essentially a commitment for life in dating you can dump the person really any time now it's hard to break up there's no doubt about that but it's a whole different thing to get divorced and it's because divorce and marriage is a whole other commitment level are you with me on that well I think some of the reasons you have a hard time praying to Jesus as I'm suggesting is because you're just dating Jesus Jesus is great Jesus will go on dates with you Jesus is good with that Jesus if you will is a gentle dater but Jesus wants you to know that he's down for more than dating Jesus wants to commit to you Jesus committed to you so much so that he died for you and Jesus sacrificed himself so you would realize that Jesus is serious about the commitment that he has for you that Jesus is all in when it comes to commitment and here's the point when you realize this commitment Jesus has for you when you get married to Jesus you'll be in a new level of intimacy and commitment commitment that says you can talk you can share openly you can pray in a way that's not fearful and why?

9:55 because Jesus is not going to break up with you he's not going to break up with you because you messed up because you sinned no Jesus wants to hear from you he wants to help you he wants to have you share those things that feel embarrassing that feel shameful the question is will you trust Jesus to be your committed lover? will you let his committed love for you have you and hold you in prayer in good prayer in bad prayer in shameful prayer in whatever else it might be friends shameless prayer starts with the father who accepts us just as we are and Jesus shows us how that's possible are you with me?

10:48 okay with that foundation of starting with the father who knows that we have things to be shameful of that we're not perfect but Jesus provides us the way it's on to my second point and that's being a person who can pray shamelessly let's read Luke chapter 11 verses 5 through 8 and Jesus said to them suppose one of you has a friend and you go to him at midnight and say to him friend lend me three loaves of bread for a friend of mine has arrived and I have nothing to set before him and he answers from within don't bother me the door has already been locked and my children are with me in bed I cannot get up and give you anything I tell you even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs what I find so interesting about this little parable that Jesus shares and to his disciples is Jesus just said here this is how you're supposed to pray this is how you're supposed to see yourselves with the father and holiness and then Jesus essentially gives the parable that you're supposed to be really bold and shameless in your prayers in different translations at the end of verse 8 it says this of his persistence because of his persistence another translation it says because of your shameless audacity another translation says because of your shameless persistence because of your nagging persistence the word implies that you're going to be shameless without regard to time of day with the person with the person you're talking to with whoever you might be creating a problem for it doesn't matter and I think for today we need to recognize how this parable that Jesus gives illustrates that when you pray you shouldn't be worried about if it's good manners or being proper in your prayer Jesus seems to highlight how this person in the parable is basically waking up a whole neighborhood he doesn't care if he's disturbing his neighbors his family his friends this person is unashamed of their actions this person is in need this person will do whatever it takes to get the supplies that he needs for his unexpected neighbor I just find it so interesting and as I thought of this I think Jesus is sort of telling the disciples I just taught you to pray I taught you how the father is perfect and holy and he wants to be with you even though you are not perfect and holy and then Jesus tells us this story I think to remind us that when it comes to prayer with God it's not about good manners it's not about good manners or bad manners because good manners are bad manners to the father good manners are bad manners to the father you might be wondering well why is that bad manners because it assumes that you you could do something to have the father listen to you it assumes that you don't really need anything you're just pretending or that you're having good manners to show others look at what a good person of prayer I am or let me show you how to pray properly quietly reserved holy and self-righteously with holiness but here's the question if all those good manners were the point why would Jesus tell this sort of parable as I said to begin with shame shame shame in many ways is a learned thing as we grow up we learn there are good ways to do something and bad ways to do something shameful ways for example my son Bradford man he is just so shameless and repetitive when it comes to his request he will ask and ask something like dad can I watch tv and this will evolve and go on for a long time and I'll start with saying no please go do something else instead but he doesn't give up he comes back and he says he gives me the puppy dog like please can I watch tv or when that doesn't work he'll come back and he'll bargain he'll say dad I haven't had tv in this much time and I'll say nope nope nope or he'll come back and he'll guilt me he'll say dad do you remember when you raised your voice at me and I go yeah okay good one but I say no no no or he'll want to trade he'll say dad but what if I give you this in exchange for letting me watch tv think about it but I go no no no now if I'm honest it starts off cute it gets kind of frustrating and then I become numb to it but when I stop and I think about what my son's doing as behavior I think about wow what a shameless little child and I like it and then I reward him for it not like immediately but I do reward him for it and then I think about my own relationship with God friends my son as my child is without shame before me I don't shame him for asking and asking and asking and I sort of envy a life where you can come and ask your father with the freedom of being shameless before your father are you with me you must understand being shameless in prayer with the father means that you are completely free free because you are forgiven and you realize it would actually be shameful to act any other way that's why it would be bad manners and I think that's just so fascinating as I think about how Jesus teaches them to pray and as adults I think Jesus is telling you and I he's saying here be like you were before you were a child before you learned about shame Jesus is offering us to be shameless in our prayers before our heavenly father I hope you're with me on that now you might be thinking I like how this sounds it sounds nice pastor bryant but is it okay is it christian and I think I think so I think it's okay and I think it's good but more importantly I would suggest there's examples in the bible where especially in the psalms where people are talking shame shamefully to god to the holy god for example in psalm 102 psalm 102 i'm going to read it in the message version verses 1 and 2 102 verses 1 and 2 it goes like this get ready god listen listen to my prayer listen to the pain in my cries don't turn your back on me just when i need you so desperately pay attention this is a cry for help and hurry this can't wait did you hear that person in psalm 102 talking to god that way they're basically screaming and telling god i need you to do something pay attention to me and my issues now now if you read the rest of the psalm you'll see that this person responds also in gratitude thanking god being grateful for the blessings god has given and some of you might be thinking well you read the message translation it's more dynamic it kind of takes you know some other considerations but I would suggest that if you go to the NRSV or the NIV you will still go check it out psalm 102 and the point is this really this person in psalm 102 they are not scared to say the wrong thing to god in their prayers and I don't think you should be scared either I believe that you will feel better that you are going to experience your forgiveness and you will know when you've gone too far I hope you're with me on that brief note as we come to a close here look at your bible in luke chapter 11 going to read the last portion of this verses 9 through 13 so I say to you ask and it will be given you search and you will find knock and the door will be opened for you for everyone who asks receives and whoever and everyone who searches finds and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened is there anyone among you who if your child asks for a fish will give a snake instead of a fish or if the child asks for an egg you will give a scorpion if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the heavenly father being shameless in your prayer does not guarantee that God's going to answer your prayer exactly how you express it but hear this I do think it will guarantee that you know that God is going to love you either way and you are going to know that God is listening to you again it will guarantee and you will know and experience God is listening and God is loving you in those look at verses 9 and 10 ask and receive knock and it will be open Jesus doesn't say that you're going to get exactly what you asked for nor that when you knock on that door and you open it it will be exactly what you expected but what can we expect then well I think you can expect that God is a good father and it's in God's character to be good remember in Genesis God created the world with goodness and beauty and good things and we see that reflected in who Jesus is so whatever it is you receive or you see as you open that door you will know it will be from a loving and good and holy father are you with me now the challenge still is it's hard to see these things especially when you really are shameless in your prayer and you are just going for something and you really want it for you or for someone else for example there's people who need to be healed from this terrible disease of COVID-19 there's people who are dying or there's people who are losing their jobs or you really need to keep your job because you don't want your mortgage to fall through or whatever it might be you really need the help and we see in shameless prayer there's a tension and the way I can think to illustrate this is from a country song by an artist Brad Paisley and his song titled No it goes like this on my fifth birthday I got so upset about the brand new bike that I didn't get I prayed my heart out and it didn't seem fair I told my grandpa I guess God doesn't care and grandpa just smiled and said my child make no mistake every prayer you pray gets answered even though sometimes the answer is no grandpa got older like grandpa's do health was failing and I guess I knew it would be best he was called on hold but selfishly I prayed God would keep him hanging on and when he passed away in my mind I heard him say make no mistake every prayer you pray gets answered even though sometimes the answer is no friends this country song touches on the reality and the tension that we can still come to God asking shamelessly hoping that our heavenly father is going to listen and going to provide in some way and I encourage you to recognize as you grow older not just in your age but in your maturity for the love of God that he has for you that you are going to experience God's love as you pray shamelessly to the father whether those shameless prayers are answered is not always the point because you know God is listening to you and loving you and providing for you in ways that you really need are you with me well let me come to a close here with just a couple ways to apply this the first one is this if you haven't already tell Jesus that you love him and that you trust him acknowledge that and then start praying and experiencing that trusted committed marriage relationship that I was talking about realize that Jesus is committed to you don't be scared to tell Jesus what you need and and don't forget Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you second ask God to teach you how to pray it's very simple but we sometimes forget that I remember somebody said you know you could ask God and he'll help you learn how to pray so friends maybe that's what you need to do ask God I need help should I go take a class should I go ask a friend should I go buy a book whatever it might be learn learn different ways to pray and third don't be ashamed to ask others for prayer so friends I'd ask you for your prayers moving on transitioning from serving here at this church my family and I are going on a new journey I'd appreciate your prayers and your blessings so thank you well friends I kind of left you hanging with that story about Nick and my embarrassing situation and what happened was after I stuck my hand out and embarrassed the situation embarrassed myself and created shame Nick this beautiful person he looks at me and he smiles at me and he already knew my name and he said Bryant come here I want to give you a hug and although Nick doesn't have arms he hugs you by using his chin to nestle over your shoulder so you'd come in and as he did that he totally overlooked the shameful embarrassing action that I did against him and brothers and sisters when you're praying and when you feel like you're being held back from your shameful thing or how you feel imperfect or you don't feel good enough recognize when you are praying to God the father he is embracing you and overlooking whatever it is you think that's holding you back from him brothers and sisters go and experience shameless prayer experience God overlooking the things that are holding you back experience the embrace of God's love for you in shameless prayer thank you and amen