Reaching Heaven in Two Minutes or Less

Everything in this prayer is hinged to the proposition that God is your Father.

If you don't get that right, the rest of the prayer doesn't matter, which means then that we can't begin to expect God's attention until we've come to him for his redemption. In other words, you can't call him Father, we know from the Bible, unless you call his Son your Savior. Because if his Son is not your Redeemer, then God is not your Father.

Have you ever been asked questions like, what makes Christianity unique, or what makes it different from any other religion? Well, the answer is found in the first two words of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray in Luke 11, our Father. No other religion can claim such an intimate, personal communication between God and the worshiper. No other religion calls God their Father. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen begins looking at that prayer.

You're going to learn to change your perspective and reorient your life in a message called Reaching Heaven in Two Minutes or Less. On November 19, 1863, this country was reeling from civil war. When the military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was going to be dedicated, two men were invited to speak at that dedication, and press agents in fact arrived from around the world to witness this. One of the invited speakers was Edward Everett, a renowned statesman whose career had included serving as a senator, the governor of Massachusetts, the secretary of state, and the president of Harvard University.

He was considered one of the most brilliant orators of his generation. And when he stood to speak there at the field of Gettysburg, he held the audience spellbound as he delivered a speech that was just under two hours long. He was interrupted periodically by cheering and applause. But when he finished and the ovation settled, it was time for the second speaker, the president of the United States. A gaunt, weary president walked to the podium and he adjusted his steel-framed glasses and then proceeded quietly to deliver a speech that took two minutes. In fact, when he sat down, a member of the Philadelphia press corps leaned over and said, is that all?

And he said, that's all. The newspapers around the country and overseas printed Edward Everett's speech on the front pages of their newspapers, and they vilified Lincoln. The Harrisburg Patriot called Lincoln's address silly. The New York World accused Lincoln of, quote, gross ignorance and willful misstatement. The Chicago Times wrote, the cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads these dishwatery utterances. The London Times wrote, and I quote, the ceremony at Gettysburg was rendered ludicrous by the words of that poor President Lincoln. Today, centuries later, none of us know one word from Edward Everett's speech. But we are aware of Lincoln's, which became a national treasure.

I found it interesting that unknown to the public at large, sometime later Lincoln received a handwritten note from Edward Everett, and it read, I wish that I could flatter myself to have come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes. We began last Lord's Day to unpack this inspired instruction manual on prayer and the shocking news that you can effectively reach heaven in less than two minutes. Now in the days of Christ, we learned as we sort of set up this study that the disciples had grown up in a world that sounded more like the London Times and the New York World. They lived in a world where everything really they knew about prayer was wrong.

Whether they had picked it up from the world of Judaism or the secular world of Rome and its pantheon, they had been ingrained to believe that these several misconceptions, and I don't have time to repeat it, but I'll quickly just at least lay them out. First, the misconception that the more you repeated your prayer, the more likely God would answer. Secondly, the longer you prayed, the more likely God would pay attention.

And then thirdly, the more details you gave God, the more likely he would know how to respond. Now Jesus Christ clearly and unapologetically said to his disciples that's how unbelievers think. That's how the pagans pray.

That's how the circus of religion puts on a show. So when it came to knowing how to pray, the disciples were starting from scratch and no wonder they asked the Lord then as we arrive here at chapter 11 in verse 1, Lord, teach us, you're going to have to teach us how to pray. In fact, if you go back to that passage in Luke's Gospel, the disciples made their request to what Greek students understand as the aorist imperative.

There's this sense of urgency. You could render it, Lord, teach us now. Teach us now how to pray. Notice one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. Now evidently here from verse 1, the Lord's disciples were aware that the prophet John had been teaching his disciples genuine, transparent prayer. So now it's time for Jesus to pull over as it were and teach his disciples and us and this one will be recorded because none of John's prayers were. What's it like?

What's it look like? What's it sound like to pray? Now keep in mind as we begin our study of the text of this prayer that this is not the Lord's prayer. This is the disciples prayer. In fact, the Lord would never pray some of this prayer.

He would never ask for forgiveness of sin. This prayer is a pattern for you and me as his disciples. This is genuine praying. This is a pattern for how to reach heaven, how to communicate with the heart of God in less than 35 words. Now I've broken this prayer down for our study into seven principles of prayer.

Now the first principle could be stated like this. Genuine prayer recognizes our divine audience. Notice how the prayer begins in verse 2. Father, stop.

Stop. That is shocking to their ears. This is a shocking introduction to prayer. Father, Pater in Greek, Abba in Aramaic, Padre in Spanish, my two years of Spanish coming through for me at this moment, Baba in simplified Chinese, Vata in German.

I just looked it up and it's very interesting to me. Father in English, no matter what language you speak, this is really the most simple way to start off yet so profound if not surprising. See, this is new. God was referred to as Father seven times in the entire Old Testament. But each of those times it was always a national recognition not a personal communication. The ministry of Jesus is going to give us that kind of intimate access into heaven on a personal level. The world of Judaism, the world of paganism. In fact, they knew nothing of this kind of intimate, transparent, open, familial, paternal communion. In fact, during the days of Christ, the Greek and Roman gods were touchy. They were sensitive. They were easily offended. If you didn't begin your prayer to them in the right way, they'd, you know, send thunder and lightning, just fry you for not getting it right. So there was a timidity.

There was no invitation. There was fear. There can be reverence without fear. But here we begin to address the true and living God with a simple, stunning invitation to transparent communion with God. But the word Father is not only an invitation, it's a qualifier. Everything in this prayer is hinged to the proposition that God is your Father.

If you don't get that right, the rest of the prayer doesn't matter. Which means then that we can't begin to expect God's attention until we've come to him for his redemption. In other words, you can't call him Father, we know from the Bible, unless you call his son your Savior. Because if his son is not your Redeemer, God is not your Father.

So don't miss this. The entire matter of prayer in this pattern, in fact, the entire issue of prayer is based on a personal relationship with God. You have to be one of his children. He has to become your Father.

How does that happen? When his son becomes your Savior. That's how. Jesus said in John 14, 6, no one comes to the Father except through me. That's not just a reference on getting into heaven.

That's actually, which is its primary application of that context. But in a broader context, it's actually telling as it relates to prayer. You can't get through to the Father except through Jesus, who is the only mediator between God and man, 1 Timothy 2, verse 5.

So let me put it this way. You can't get into heaven without God the Son, and you can't get in touch with heaven without God the Son. But when God the Son becomes your personal Savior, God the Father becomes your personal Father. The Bible says it this way in John 1, 12, but to all who did receive him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. The Bible also says, see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. Imagine that kind of love that has welcomed us by means of Christ into his family, and he loves to call us his children.

Galatians 3, 26 says, for you are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. So praying is effectively claiming the right as a family member to have an audience with God as your Father. Now if you go over to Matthew's account, Jesus added the addendum to Father by adding to our understanding of our divine audience.

And I do want to reference it, though I think it's two different occasions, not the same. Over in Matthew's account, Jesus adds, our Father in heaven, or as we might have memorized it, our Father who art in heaven. I love the way the little boy got it wrong, but kind of got it right when he said, our Father who does art in heaven.

It's true theory, this marvelous art in the heavens. The Lord is emphasizing the fact that his disciples need to get the right address. And that address, by the way, is critically important because there happens to be a Father representing the family members of heaven, and a Father who represents the family members of hell. And they both happen to be in the practice of answering their children's prayers. Jesus stunned the Pharisees.

They were leading this three-ringed circus of religious practices, all for the praise of mankind. They were immigrants. They cared nothing about God. And Jesus pulled off their religious mask, exposed their costumes, made of fig leaves. They were pretending they were right with God.

They weren't too happy about it. And at one point, they had this rather contentious conversation with Jesus recorded in John's Gospel. In chapter eight, they said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality. In other words, the religious leaders were attempting to discredit the testimony of Jesus by bringing up this ongoing accusation, which never did go away, that since Mary was single when she conceived, he was the result of her sin. Of course, they denied any testimony of the virgin birth, and so they threw this at the Lord.

We weren't born as a result of sexual immorality. We have one Father, they go on to say, we know who our Father is. You don't know who your Father is, probably, they say.

We do. Our Father is God. Jesus said to them, well, if God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I'm here. But you are of your Father, the devil, and your will is to do your Father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth, because there's no truth in him. Can you imagine telling the religious leaders of your day that their Father is the devil? They thought they belonged to the Father of Heaven. Jesus says, in reality, you belong to the Father of Hell, which means many of the prayers they thought God was answering were answered by Satan. Does Satan really answer the prayers of his people? Does he answer their prayers to deceive them into believing that they belong to God?

Absolutely. He's doing it to this day. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to. When I get too close with the convicting truth of the gospel, they'll tell me some prayer they believe God answered, and they're right with God. I remember hearing a man talk not too long ago, he didn't believe in Christ. He talked about being out at a lake one day where he was overwhelmed with warmth. He was overwhelmed with love.

He was overwhelmed with this spiritual sense of peace. And even though he didn't believe anything about the gospel or Christ, he believed that all was well. Let me show you a group of people who even represent Jesus. They even go so far as to say they are doing what they're doing for him, who mesmerizes audiences and held people in the palm of their hand, and yet Jesus takes them to the final courtroom scene where he predicts what will happen. Over here in Matthew chapter 7, he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father, get this, who is in heaven. On that day, that is the day of judgment he's referring to, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them I never knew you. These individuals prophesied. They cast out demons. Imagine they had a reputation for having authority over the demon world, but the prince of demons was actually allowing them that show of authority to further deceive them. They performed, Jesus says, works of power, dunamis, can be translated miracles. They succeeded in performing miracles of all kinds. They may have held sway over thousands of people with their demonstrations of power, yet they were self-deceived children in Satan's family instead of God's family. I think that's interesting because Jesus tells them, I'm not going to deny your prophetic ministry. I'm not going to deny your miracle working power. The chilling fact is that Jesus doesn't deny that they even did it in his name. He just simply says, I don't know you. In other words, you were never a member of my family. You were simply part of the three ring circus. It was never for God's glory.

It was for your own. Jesus says genuine prayer is directed toward your father in heaven, so make sure you're related to the father of heaven. How can you be sure you are? Well, a hypocrite will never believe this kind of prayer. In fact, they're not going to be interested in praying this kind of prayer. They're never going to confess that they're sinners in need of forgiveness. They're not going to be interested in the will of God being done on earth.

They're not going to care about the agenda of God and his plan in his kingdom. They're certainly not going to pray to avoid temptation to sin. They can't wait to sin. They love to sin. They live to sin. They're not going to pray this.

Can you? When you pray, you're not going to reach heaven unless you have this opening phrase correct. Father in heaven. That leads me to the second principle, which is all we'll have time for today.

Here it is. Genuine prayer not only recognizes our divine audience, secondly genuine prayer reverences God's divine attributes. Now back to that opening phrase. Our father in heaven or who is in heaven. That isn't just about his address.

That's about his attributes. Listen to the way the psalmist exalts God as sovereign above creation. He writes in Psalm 33, the Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man from where he sits enthroned. He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.

He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. This is referencing his divine attributes. He is above all things. He is sovereign.

He is majestic. He's just. He's righteous. He's aware. He's all knowing. He's all powerful and on and on. We come into the presence of Almighty God, which means we'd all come into his presence to bend his will toward us, but to bend our will toward his.

He is on the throne and we are at his feet. And you can know that you have the right sense in prayer, even the right sense in worship when we come with that perspective into the presence as it were of God. One author writes these provocative words, visit a church on Sunday morning, almost any will do. And you'll likely find a congregation comfortably relating to a deity that fits nicely with its spiritual experience. You will not likely find much awe. The only sweaty palms will be those of the preacher unsure whether the sermon is going to go over.

The only shaking knees will be those of the soloist about to sing. Yet the New Testament warns us offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe for indeed our God is a consuming fire. He goes on to write, today the consuming fire has been turned into a candle with no heat, no blinding light, no power for purification. And that's because we prefer the illusion of a safer God.

So we have whittled him down to a manageable size. It may well be revealed that the worst sin of the church in this generation is the trivialization of God. And the way the church conducts its worship reveals the trivialization. Jesus is making it clear, genuine prayer elevates God, the Father, it sets the Father in his proper place and when you do that it's going to be a lot harder to pray to him as if he's a doting grandfather that can never say no, which I am, or a genie, you know, who lives to grant you your wishes.

No, God is on his throne. We ask for his will to be done on earth, not our will to be done in heaven. See, before we even finish the opening words of this model prayer, Jesus is teaching us to magnify and exalt the attributes of God.

And that's because genuine prayer does not trivialize God, it pays tribute to God. So as this prayer opens, understand it sort of invites you into the living room of the Father's house where you can talk openly and personally with God as your Father. But he's going to tell you to wipe your feet before you come in.

He's going to tell you how to stay clean. So here at the outset we're not only promised a reception by the Father, we're given this subtle implication of our responsibility before the Father. We're his children. We're invited. We're related.

He's given us his family name, the name of his son, Christian. What a privilege. What a responsibility.

Many times as a young person before I left the house for a date, I think I only had one before I met my wife just for the record here, but maybe some activity, maybe heading to a ball game or some other event. Just before I would go out the door, my mother would holler out those familiar words, don't forget your name. She could warn me in just a few words. Don't forget your name.

It's a warning. But it was also a sense of belonging. I belong to my father. He had given me his family name.

Be careful with that. Don't forget to whom you belong, Christian. He's your father.

He's given you his family name. So the pattern of prayer brings us to recognize our divine audience. It causes us to exalt and reverence his divine attributes. And with just these opening words, with Luke just one word, we are on our way to reaching to the very palace grounds of God the Father. And it only took a moment to say, Father in Heaven. Stephen called that message, Reaching Heaven in Two Minutes or Less. Stephen would like to add you to his texting list and send you occasional text messages. That number is 833-676-4051. And your message needs to just be the one word, wisdom. As soon as you send it, you'll be asked for your first name so that we know who you are and that's it. You'll be signed up and in the system. So text the word wisdom to 833-676-4051 today. And then join us next time for more wisdom for the hearts.