Potted or Planted: Prayer Practice

So I'm Russ, one of the pastors here. So glad you're with us. And if you are new to us, if you've just walked in here today, let me say, if you've not heard it already, we're really glad you're here. And we want you to know that you are welcome to get to know us. We are open to you.

One simple thing for you to do that all you need to do, there's an info desk out there across from the coffee bar. Just walk up and say hi. And those folks would love to introduce themselves to you and let you know a little more about who we are. So, so glad you're here. Let's start with some good news.

Just some big good news about who God is first. He's big. The word is transcendent, right? Simply think of this, that our God is a God who could create the cosmos in a word, right? Big more good news.

Not only that he's here. He is right where you are. He is right here with us. The Word is imminent. He's here.

More than that good news, he wants you to know him and he wants to know you. And certainly that means know him here, but it means experientially. What do I mean by that? I mean when you lay on a beach and you stretch out and those rays of sun hit you, you know the sun, you experience the sun. You are interacting with the sun.

God is big and he is here and he wants a life with you and interactive, knowing and being known, loving and being loved with God. Jesus prayed for this for us, his followers. He said this, this is in John 17, that this is eternal life. That's his word. It's a word for a dynamic life, a life filled with meaning, purpose, belonging in her wholeness and freedom, both now and forever.

And he says, this is eternal life. That they know you. He's praying God, that they know you, the one true God and me. King Jesus, whom you have sent, one of his earliest followers prayed this as well for us. He said, this is Paul.

He says, I'm asking that the God of our Lord and King Jesus Christ, he calls him the Glorious Father, may give you. This is the followers of Jesus like you and I give you what? The spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better experientially, interactively. This is essential for us as we think about and practice prayer. We learned last week that prayer aligns things to the sovereign will of God.

Today I just want to give a couple of handles to understand what we mean when we say the will of God, what does God want? A couple of handles for that. We're going to talk a little bit about how we can pray in all sorts of ways, but then we're going to spend our time and we're going to pray together. And so the prayer that Jesus gives us is this. This, then he says, is how you should pray.

He says, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Before we get to a couple of handles about what God wants, let's pause for a moment on Jesus teaching us to pray. Pray. This.

Here's the challenge. This prayer does not come naturally. The natural prayer is, hey, my name be hallowed, my kingdom come, my will be done. How do we change? Jesus says, practice prayer like this because he knows that practice forms and shapes us.

Spiritual practice. But this is true in any kind of practice. There's a Hall of Fame basketball player from the 1980s, some of you were alive back then, named Larry Bird. Famously, he took 200 to 500 shots a day in practice. Why did he do that?

Because he wanted to be the kind of player who could hit the shot in the game. He had an almost 89% lifetime free throw percentage. It's unbelievable. 200 to 500 shots a day. You see, he practiced his way into becoming the kind of person you.

He wanted to be the kind of person where it would come naturally to hit that shot. And Jesus says, practice prayer. If you want to be the kind of person who effortlessly wants what God wants, sees as God sees, does what God would do if you were him. Practice, practice. And so we've been teaching through this, things like confession and hospitality and interacting with God through scripture and through prayer.

We practice those things so that we become the kind of people who want to do those things naturally, easily. Muscle memory. See, praying your kingdom come helps us become the kind of people who actually want God's kingdom to come. So, handles, what do we mean when we say God's kingdom? See, we are interacting with kingdoms all the time.

We just don't think of them that way. A kingdom is me arranging the things that I want. I arrange things the way I want them, right? Simply. You can think about your home probably is arranged in some way the way you want it.

But I don't know. A couple of decades ago, I went to a pastor's conference in Las Vegas. Do you know how hard it is to convince people when you're like, where you going? Vegas pastor's conference. That's where I'm going.

First time I walked into a casino and there were things I noticed. It is dark in there. No windows. It's like a maze, right? And it's bright lights, it's loud.

All of that is arranged according to somebody's will. It is a kingdom. It is arranged the way they want it, right? And you think, well, I don't gamble. That's good.

Do you go on social media at all? You have Facebook, see your grandkids, Are you on Instagram or TikTok? Where they are, you know, feeding you things like likes and new content, and they are feeding you. Your algorithm is feeding you things that don't allow you to consider new perspectives and things that really draw out or hit some strong emotional response. That's all a kingdom.

It is designed, arranged according to someone's will. Or Kroger. You ever wonder why all the staples, the thing you need, are around the outside of the store walking you right by the Little Debbies?

Because it's arranged according to somebody's will. It is a kingdom. We're around them all the time. And often we surrender or align ourselves to those kingdoms. So what do we mean when we say we've got a father who has a kingdom?

Let me give you a different metaphor for this. Imagine a young couple about to have their first child. They find out they're pregnant and they look at their home and they realize this place is so dangerous. I mean, it was nice and comfortable before, but now it's terrifying, right? Because they're sharp, cornered furniture and there are chemicals in cabinets where a child could reach them.

And so what do they do? They start to rearrange their home, right? So all the hard stuff comes out. Soft things come in. You put child safety locks on cabinets so you as an adult can't open them.

You take a room that had a nice purpose for you at one point. You did things in there and it was your space. But now you move all that stuff out and you buy furniture you can't use and you buy books you would never buy for yourself. And you rearrange all of this. Why?

Really, three things to protect, provide for and delight over your children.

First, handle Genesis 1 and 2. Eden, what is God doing? God is arranging a world in which our world for us, in which he can protect us, provide for us, and delight over us. A life where we are free and easy with him strolling in the cool of the day. A life where we are open to one another, deeply trusting, where we can be naked but not ashamed no betrayal, no rejection.

A life of deep purpose, where we're participating with God, with this world that is pregnant with possibilities, to take the raw materials and continue to create with Him. And no shame, no guilt, no regret. What does God want? God wants that life for everybody, everywhere. It is how he's arranged because he's our Father and this is his kingdom.

So what we know is that, well, things don't look like that now, right? Things are not the way they're supposed to be. Because we broke those relationships, we broke that world by wanting to be like him, to decide what's good and evil. And here's where kingdom comes again in the story. Cause when Jesus shows up, the summary of all of his teaching is this.

And we can read it in Matthew, we can read it all over. From that time on, Jesus began to preach this. Repent. What does that mean? Rearrange.

Rearrange your life. Why rearrange your life for the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God has come near. That's not time, that's space. God is here. His kingdom has broken into our world in Jesus.

Second handle. Imagine for a moment a woman shows up at your door this week. And you immediately recognize her as somebody who has a reputation for being smart, compassionate, competent, trustworthy. And she looks at you and she says, hey, I am pouring all of my resources, my life into curing cancer. I'm gonna wipe it out, eliminate cancer completely.

And she shows you the work they've been doing, and you see that, and you realize that plan is real and it's actually possible. And then she looks at you and says, I'm here because I want you to join me. That who you are, your skills and your abilities, I need those. I need you to make this happen. And I've devoted my life to this cause, and I'm asking you to do the same.

And the outcome is settled. This is going to happen. And you can be a part of that victory. Will you join me? How hard would that be to say no?

Jesus says, repentance. The kingdom of heaven has come. What he is saying and the continual invitation is he's saying, devote yourself to my mission. Join me in wanting what I want. My will be done.

God's kingdom come. His will be done. Join me in this and help me bring a reign of love to the world to set things right. And I will conquer everything that afflicts the world. Cancer?

Yes. Disease, yes. Sin, suffering, injustice, poverty, death. I am going to defeat it. Come and join me in this so that you can experience the Father's healing love and saving grace, and that it can be open to anybody and everybody and take your place beside me, sharing in my work.

He would say, share in my sufferings. But the outcome is certain. You can count on it. What does God want? To set things right.

To reconcile and restore all things. What he wants is so good, we'd be crazy to not want it. That's what he's offering. So we can just do the Christian stuff, right? We can go to church, we can do our devotions and still be surrendered to all these other competing kingdoms.

Or we can pray. Your kingdom come, your will be done. God, I want what you want for the world, not what I want. And as we pray and practice prayer, we become the kind of people who want more and more of what he wants for everybody, everywhere. So how.

How do we pray like this? Jesus says, seek first the kingdom. I don't think he says, hey, you got to go hunt for it. I think he's saying, look around. It is breaking into your life everywhere.

That means the potential for his kingdom to come is in any moment you're in. And therefore every part of your life is an opportunity to talk to him about it. So do this with me. Take a breath. Just one deep, slow breath.

And that breath is an opportunity to say, father, you're here. Another slow, deep breath.

Another opportunity to say, father, I'm yours. It's prayer. As you move through your day, something makes you say, wow. That's a prayer of adoration. Something makes you say, ah, thank you.

That's a prayer of thanksgiving. Something makes you say, oh, sorry. That's a prayer of confession.

Something makes you say, help. That's a prayer of petition. Or if you're like, help him. That's a prayer of intercession. Or if you just say here, It's a prayer of surrender.

Yielding your kingdom come, not mine. Your will be done. Every moment is an opportunity to participate and interact with the God who wants to interact with you, to experience each other and to enjoy each other every moment. What does that look like? All kinds of things.

It looks like silence. Being quiet with God intentionally. I have friends. That looks like creating art. I have others that it's writing prayers or journaling.

I have others that are really good at reflecting and praying internally in their mind without saying a word. I pray out loud. I don't think if it doesn't come out of my mouth.

Postures.

Postures are prayer. Sometimes being on our knees, it's a prayer of surrender, open hands. It's to receive Face up. It's to adore.

It can happen so many different ways. We could practice this a lifetime and never get to the end. End of the day prayers. Beautiful. Father, when did I feel close to you today?

When did I feel far? Simple. What I want for us to practice today is one simple way to pray. And it's praying scripture. We taught on scripture two weeks ago.

Last week we've introduced prayer, and now we're down to practice. And we're bringing those two things together. This among so many things, this scripture, the Bible is revelatory. It is revealing who God is to us. This is an invitation from him to know him and to interact with him, inviting us to not just know him, but know what his dreams and desires are.

His kingdom. And praying helps us align to this. Jesus prayed Scripture in one of the most difficult moments of his life. As he's hanging on the cross and suffocating to death and a slow, painful, torturous death. He prays, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

That is Psalm 22.

He had prayed in an interactive scripture at such a level that when he needed words, they came from Scripture. It is finished, he says. Also from the cross, again from the psalms.

And one big benefit of praying Scripture, this is that God's kingdom is most of the time unseen. It's counterintuitive to the way that we see the world works. We think it works this way, and his kingdom works differently, but it is the one we can count on. His kingdom is the foundation of the universe. So when we pray Scripture, we're praying our way into something we can count on.

God's kingdom is the realest real there is, and it's unseen by us. And so praying Scripture shapes us in light of who he is and what he wants. And there are lots of ways to pray Scripture. Some people pray through the Psalms and just pray a psalm a day, or you can meditate on scripture. That's simply.

And it's a thing we actually do often in communities here. Sometimes for me, this is two or three times a week where I sit with people and we read a passage and we say, what does it tell us about who God is? What does it tell us? Tell us about us humans? What does it tell us about what he wants?

And then we pray all that back to God and notice something from that and then say, I'm going to go act on this. We're meditating on scripture. We're memorizing passages. You can do that. There are two passages that I've Been praying almost daily for the last five years now.

I need to tell you I am not a kind of person that prayer comes naturally for. I don't do quiet introspective well. There's a lot going on in here for me. I will tell people I have 14 clowns in my mind trying to get my attention all the time. And you laugh, thinking that can't be true.

Ask some of my closest friends. And they're like, oh, yeah. But it's really been. I've been following Jesus 40 years. It's been the last 10 that I've really learned to pray.

And these two passages have become rails for me in prayer. One of those is the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. The other, and the one we're going to pray today is Psalm 23. You may know it, you may have heard it, but beginning to pray this every day and this becoming and informing the prayer.

All I'm doing and all that you need to do is, as you pray through it, respond to what comes to mind as you walk through the Scripture. So what I want you to do is get your Bible out. You may have brought one with you like this. Probably many of you, you use a Bible that's on your phone. I want it in your hands so you can pull that thing out.

You're good. I trust that you're not, you know, checking your DMs or whatever, that you've got this in your hand and open up your app and go to Psalm 23. Because when you do this tomorrow. Do you like how I said that? When you do this tomorrow, you'll do it just the same.

With that out in front of you, you don't have to have it memorized. You've just got it right there in front of you. Here's what we're going to do. I'm just going to pray Psalm 23 in the way that I pray it, and then I'm going to prompt you and walk you through talking to God through Psalm 23 right now.

So as you get there, Psalm 23.

So when I started doing this, I just read the passage and started to get it into mind. And eventually now it just kind of has become a thing that I can do. Father, you're my shepherd today.

You're my shepherd, and that means you're caring for me. In fact, you're my shepherd, and that means I lack nothing right now. And I'll be honest, I feel like I lack a lot of things. And in truth, I probably do. But what's real is that I have you.

You're my shepherd. There is nothing I have to have more than you. You are taking care of me completely. I am like a sheep laying down in green pastures. Because sheep eat in green pastures and that means I'm full.

I'm like a full bellied sheep stretched out, relaxing in the green grass. This is what's true, Father, right now, that you give me so much of what I need that my thirst is sated and I'm walking beside quiet waters. This is how you care for me, Father. You're restoring my soul. My soul is every part of me.

My mind, my heart, my body, my will. And there's a day where you're going to put all this back together. But you are restoring me and everything right now. That there are ways that I'm newer and newer every day. You're restoring my soul, Father.

You lead me down the right paths like you are doing that right now. I'm not asking you to lead me. I'm trusting you as my shepherd, knowing that you will and that you are right now. And if there's a day coming when I can look and give you credit, when I can look and say, look how my father, who's a shepherd, brought me down this right path for your name's sake. And there are dark valleys, valleys of death.

Evil and death are real, Father. They are real. And I can think of right now things in my life and the ways that circumstantially, these last several years have been some of the deepest, darkest valleys of my life. And yet you are with me. And that means fear doesn't have to be here, that you can chase out my fear.

You do chase out my fear with your presence. Because you're with me. You're my shepherd. I lack nothing.

You comfort me. You've got a rod that protects me and you've got a staff that guides me.

Gosh, I can trust you even in the darkest and hardest places. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. And I know I've got enemies. We've all got some of the same enemies. Disease, death, all the things that are wrong in the world.

And yet you've defeated them. And we can have this feast. But I've also, I've got people who are in my way. So when I think of enemies, I think of just anybody who gets between me and what I want. And, Father, I have people like that.

But in the way of Jesus. How do I invite them to the feast that you've prepared with me. Show me how you anoint my head with oil. This is spa treatment. Picture a hot shower, warm towel.

It is spoiling. It is luxury. It is. Father, you just don't want me to eke by. You want to give me life to the full, brimming with meaning, purpose, belonging, inner wholeness and freedom.

And in fact, you pour in so much, I'm like a cup. And it overflows. And lately it's just blown my mind. That that's not wasteful, Father, that you're not wasting a thing because you've got an infinite supply to pour in into our lives. And it can pour out the people around us, the one sitting next to us right now.

Pour into my life, Father, Your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control, so that it pours out onto others.

You. Your goodness and mercy will follow me all of my days. It's a pursuit, like your love and mercy are pursuing me everywhere I go. Everywhere I go.

And I will dwell with you in the house, in your house forever. David wrote it that way because in his day, that was the house that he could go. Be in God's presence at the temple today. I am your temple. We are your temple.

You are in me. So, Father, I get to dwell with you, abide in you, do life in you every moment of every day, My good shepherd. Amen. That's the way I would pray it. Your turn for a few minutes again.

When I do this, I often start with that deep breath because I know about you. I'm always like, my brain's doing this, and just to pause and go.

And now in the quiet, you can say to him again, you're just acknowledging what's true. You can acknowledge to him in your mind, father, you're my shepherd. I lack nothing.

And you can think about all the things that you lack.

But then remember, God's unseen kingdom is the realest real that what's true underneath all of the things that you can't see beyond sometimes.

Pray it again. Father, you are my shepherd. I lack nothing.

I'm so full, you make me lie down in green pastures.

I'm just going to prompt. And as I prompt, you can pray. From those prompts.

You've given me the water of life. I thirst no more.

He says he wants to restore every part of you, your soul. What part of you right now are you aching to say, God, restore this part of my life?

Because it doesn't say he might restore your soul. It says he restores your soul.

What decisions are in front of you? What choices are you making today or in the coming months?

And then pray you direct my paths down the right ways.

You can thank him for all the ways that he's directed you down the right paths that brought you to today.

And you can trust him to do the same tomorrow.

What names would you give to your dark valley?

And now hold them up to your shepherd and say, father, with your presence, chase out any fear, because even though death and evil are real, I don't need to fear.

Thank him for being with you and comforting you.

What are the enemies?

In what ways has it been death, disease, mental illness, whatever it's been, what enemies are near that God can prepare a feast for you and you can enjoy who is in your way today? That Jesus says, love that person, love that enemy that you can pray for in this moment.

Right now, he's anointing your head with oil. Ask him to fill you up. Pour into me the power of your love, Holy Spirit, that it might pour out into the life of others.

You strolled in here today, Mercy, his mercy and his love were following you in. You can thank him for this.

And we get the invitation is to dwell with him, abide in him, to experience and enjoy a life, an interactive life with your shepherd who's protecting you, providing for you, and delighting over you as his beloved son, beloved daughter, in whom he is well pleased.

And all of this we can pray through our King Jesus that all of this we see his kingdom confirmed in Jesus in his life and his death and his resurrection.

So we're praying our way right into communion right now. And so if you picked up one of these, you can put that in your hand.

If you didn't get one and want one, raise your hand and folks make sure you get one.

I don't know if you've learned this trick. I push down, back up, hear a click. It makes things so much easier, right?

Together with our Father, whose kingdom, whose kingdom is a good and beautiful kingdom, the kingdom where all things get set right. Our King, Christ King Jesus made it possible through his body broken, let's take it and eat.

And as blood poured out, let's take it and drink.

Holy Father, you are our Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. You've given us today, everything we need, we'll trust you with tomorrow. Make us into a gracious, forgiving people as you have forgiven us.

Have us be a forgiving people. Lead us into your presence, not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. And yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. And we all said, amen.