Pray This Way | 3/15/26
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Think about a time when you felt like you were "pouring from an empty cup"; what does it look like for you to practically refill your spiritual well so you have enough to offer others?
We often focus on the literal "letter of the law," but where in your life is the Spirit inviting you to practice a faith that goes deeper than just following the surface-level rules?
When you think about the concept of "location" in prayer, is your focus usually on finding a physical quiet space, or can you find that "secret place" within your own heart even when things are loud around you?
As you look at the world around you today, where do you find yourself most desperately longing for God’s kingdom to "break in" and make things right?
What is the specific "daily bread"—perhaps a need for patience, strength, or literal provision—that you find yourself needing from God just to make it through the next 24 hours?
If prayer is less about the "mechanics" of using the right words and more about a simple connection, how does that take the pressure off of your personal conversations with God?
Transcript:
What a gift and what a privilege it is to be in your midst this morning.
You've heard it said that you can't pour from an empty cup. It's a phrase that I have been told many, many, many times, and I'm sure that you've heard it quite a few times yourself as well. It's a reminder that if we aren't caring for ourselves, then what we have to offer everyone else will eventually run out.
You know, we've learned a lot together at the feet of Jesus on that hilltop by the sea over the last several weeks. We've been reminded over and over again that if we are going to follow in the way of Christ, it requires something of us. We are called to reflect this beloved community and the world as salt and light. We are challenged to practice our faith in a way that extends beyond the surface-level, letter-of-the-law. And Christ reminds us that to love God and to love our neighbors includes the ones that we identify as enemies. This is hard work we have been called to. These are tasks that invite us to pour out of our spiritual resources, our wells of spiritual strength.
Jesus knows that we need practices to help us fill our spiritual wells back up. And so, in this next part of the Sermon on the Mount, he turns his attention toward three spiritual practices that have historically helped the people of God remain connected to God as the source of life. The first is almsgiving, or the practice of giving offerings. The second is fasting, and the third is prayer. Jesus weaves these three practices together by once again answering the question: How? How do his followers go about filling their souls, restoring and rejuvenating their spirits so that they might continue to be a blessing to the world around them? To help us identify the thread that Jesus is holding these practices together with, we are going to look at the one that is probably most familiar to us: the practice of prayer.
Here is what Jesus says in Matthew chapter six about prayer:
And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. When you are praying, do not heap up empty praises as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask. Pray then, in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.
Friends, this is the Word of God for us, the people of God. And we say, thanks be to God. Will you pray with me? Gracious and loving God, we give you thanks that you are a God who is always present and always ready to hear us as we pray to you. We ask now that by your Spirit you would open up our hearts and our minds that we might listen fully to what it is you have to say to us this day. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Location, location, location. The realtors among us know that this is one of the most important features to consider when you are buying or selling a home. When you're looking for a new place to live, many of us like to factor in proximity to our workplaces, to the best schools in the town, and the closeness to all of the happenings in the town. The city center. When you are going to a Gator sporting event, and I got to go to one recently, to a gymnastics event. Every time I go down to that area where all the sporting events happen, I'm always a little bit envious of those houses that can rent out their yards for parking to get a little extra money. But then, after the event, I'm reminded why the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence, because I'm really happy to be driving away from all of the chaos and back toward my home on the outskirts of town.
Location is also really important when you're considering opening a new business. Who are the target customers? Where would you have the best visual access to the road? And location was really important when Trinity was considering a move to this property. Would this place give our community the opportunity to grow and flourish? I'd say that it did. And, you know, it seems like location is also important when considering prayer. At least that's how it appears when Jesus holds up these two main examples for our consideration.
Don't pray like those hypocrites do—the ones that are in wide open spaces, in all of the places: the churches, the synagogues, the street corners, the marketplaces, the schools, those who litter those public places with godly words. We've seen these people, right? The ones with the bullhorns and the pamphlets and the signs with the word "hell" much bigger than the word "God" or "love," if that word is even present. Instead, Jesus says, pray this way: Find yourself a quiet, secret place where it's just you and God. No noise, no distractions, just peace and quiet.
Y'all, have you met my children? My house is loud, and it's boisterous and full of life and chaos, and I cannot remember the last time that peace and quiet described any part of my existence. And I bet that even if you don't have two little boys running around playing Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers, that peace and quiet prayer time is something that's really hard to come by in your life, too. Or maybe that time only happens in the early parts of the morning, before the regular rhythms of the day begin to sweep you away.
The world that we live in is fast-paced, and it's designed for continued productivity. It is not designed for quiet, still time with God. And yet, participating in a regular habit of prayer is part of what it means to be following in the way of Christ. So much so that in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, he encourages them to pray continually. It's the shortest verse in the Bible: two words, "pray continually". But how are we supposed to do that? If praying in the way of Christ is all about location, location, location, how are we supposed to do that if proper prayer is only done in the secret, hid away place?
In this description of prayer, Jesus isn't necessarily talking about the importance of physical location. Instead, I believe he might be talking about the location of our heart. Where is our attention? Where is our focus? Where are our motives? He says, "Don't pray like the ones who are in public only to be seen by others, because their focus is not on God, but on the appearance of being pious and holy.” Their attention is on the people who are around them, and their motives are based on self-centered wants and needs.
Instead, prayer should be a quiet work of the soul where our attention is on God and God alone, where our motives are offered up to the one who can transform our will to mirror the divine will, where our hearts and our spirits might be filled—not necessarily from the solitude we experience, but by the connection that we have with the God who is present with us. That spirit of the living God that fills us with every breath, with life. If Jesus' command isn't about physical location, but rather the posture of our beings, then prayer can happen anywhere, at any time.
Clarence Jordan, author of The Cotton Patch Gospel and author of the book Sermon on the Mount, where he talks about this particular moment of Jesus' ministry, says it this way: “You can be alone with the Father even when other people are around you. Your heart can signal quiet messages of prayer to the Father even while you ride a bus, while you are at work, or while you're in school.” Friends, any place is a great place for prayer because it's not about location at all. It's about that deep soul connection between you and the one who created you.
So, Jesus offers us then a rubric, a simple prayer to follow if words are hard to string together in any given moment, or if we simply don't know what to pray, or maybe how to pray. Because once again, for Jesus, prayer is not about mechanics. It's not about location. It's about connection with God. So Jesus offers us a prayer that has been maybe the most commonly said prayer throughout time. It's known as the Lord's Prayer. Did that sound familiar as I was reading it to you? Many of us in this room can recite this prayer by heart, and if we haven't said it in a while, it comes naturally as you do so.
And here at Trinity, we say it every single Sunday. But have you ever thought about what the posture of your own heart was as you recite the prayer? I have to tell you, as a confession, when I lead the prayer up here, sometimes my heart is not in that prayerful posture. It's focused on making sure I remember the word “and” in the “and lead us not into temptation”—because I always forget it. And so that's where my mind is. Where is yours? Are we concerned with making sure we have the right words or appearing like we know all the words? When was the last time we actually paid attention to what the words were saying to us, and how those words impact our daily life?
Because if we were to pay attention, we'd notice that this prayer is one that helps us attend to our heart's posture. By its very nature, it is a prayer that invokes a spirit of humility grounded in the presence of God. John Killinger, in his book Beginning Prayer, said of the Lord's Prayer: "If we never uttered another prayer in our lifetimes, but could repeat this one every day with complete sincerity and fervent attention, it would totally alter our existence".
Up until very recently, the only times I ever prayed the Lord's Prayer was in a context like this within a worship service. But just a few weeks ago, I had an experience that completely changed my life in so many different ways, including my understanding of prayer. I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C., to participate in the General Board of Church and Society's event, "A Faithful Resistance: A Social Action for Immigrant Justice". And as I was there, we began the day with worship at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church. And then after worship, 2,000 of us left Capitol Hill UMC and made the walk to the Capitol building, which was just under a mile long.
But as they sent us out from worship and onto the streets, the leaders situated that walk in a context of prayer. And so following that, I began each step by thinking about and praying for our immigrant neighbors. And it was a really great idea, and it was profound for about 30 steps. And then I ran out of things to pray and think about. And so as I was walking, I decided to start praying the Lord's Prayer because I knew it by heart. I didn't have to think about it. It was right there with me.
And so as I was walking and as I was stepping, I was saying, "Our Father, who art in heaven". And I don't think there will ever be the right words to describe what it felt like to see this image as I prayed, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". Or as I prayed, "Forgive us this day, as we forgive those who trespass against us," as I walked by the Supreme Court building of the United States. This experience totally changed my perspective on what it means to pray.
No, location isn't essential at all, but I believe location can change everything. Because what if prayer didn't just happen in that quiet room, hidden in the secret places, tucked away from the world and what was happening around us? What if prayer did actually happen on the streets, in the classroom, and the boardroom, and the exam rooms, and the weight room? Not out loud for everyone else to hear, but in that quiet space in our soul, between our heart and our mind—that space where the Holy Spirit resides and can meet us right where we are. How would that change our perspective?
How would that change the prayer that we have recited a million times? How would it take new shape and have a renewed impact on our lives? Because we believe that every time we utter a prayer to God, every time we invoke the spirit, Christ is there with us. And because of that, we are transformed. So why wouldn't Christ show up in the places that we live our lives as we offer our hearts? Maybe our lives, our spirits, might be filled in ways we couldn't yet imagine.
As we close this time of message together, I invite us into a prayerful posture. I'm going to read for us a different version of the Lord's Prayer, and after every phrase, I'll pause and ask a question for you to answer in the quiet spaces of your heart, trusting that the spirit of the living God meets you there. Will you pray with me?
Our Father, who is in heaven, uphold the holiness of your name. Bring in your kingdom so that your will is done on earth as it is done in heaven.
Where are you longing for the kingdom to break in on earth as it is in heaven?
Give us the bread we need for today.
What is the bread that you need from God to make it through today?
Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you.
Where have you wronged God and need forgiveness?
Just as we also forgive those who have wronged us.
Who has wronged you that you need to forgive?
And don't lead us into temptation.
What temptation do you need God's help with?
But rescue us from the evil one.
(Say this part with me) For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
