Luke 11: 1-13, Do You Think the World Revolves Around You?

Luke’s Model Prayer as the Cure for Narcissism

Luke chapter 11, be reading from verses 1 to 13, hear the word of the Lord. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.

And 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 who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation.

And he said to them, which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him, and he will answer from within.

Do not bother me, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he asks.

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent, or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. We'll have a lame joke. Lame joke. How many narcissists does it take to change a light bulb? Just one, but he has to wait for the whole world to revolve around him.

I told you it was lame, but it makes the point. You might be familiar with the term narcissist, since I've used it from time to time. It's become more common, the term has, it seems to me, over the last couple of decades, probably because we've been raising more and more narcissists.

Narcissist is someone who suffers from narcissism. That doesn't help you a lot, does it? But it's from the old Greek myth of a mythological character named Narcissus, who saw his reflection in the water and thought he was so good looking, he fell in love with himself and couldn't stop staring at himself.

So a narcissist is someone who only sees himself. Just the way he looks at the world, that's all, himself is all he thinks about. Narcissists are people who think they're the only ones who matter. One psychologist said, here's, others exist to meet their needs or may as well not exist at all.

A narcissist, so a narcissistic personality, it's a psychological category, quote, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements. In other words, he's the kid who wants to start for the basketball team before proving he can play, who wants to lead the band, even if he or she won't practice.

You know, he thinks he or she's the greatest musician in the world, even if, you know, won't put much time into getting better, expects to get a job he or she is unqualified for simply by demanding it, expects maybe, maybe to lead the church for no other reason than he's demands to.

In other words, a narcissist thinks the world revolves around him. Do you think the world revolves around you? Monty Wilson, this pastor, writes that our churches are catering to this attitude rather than challenging it.

He writes, quote, modern American Christianity is filled with the spirit of narcissism. We are in love with ourselves and evaluate churches, ministers, and truth claims based on how they make us feel about ourself.

If the truth, if the church makes me feel wanted, it is a good church. If the minister makes me feel good about myself, he is a terrific guy. If the proffered truth supports my self-esteem, it is thereby verified.

So today, churches are judged to be successful first on how they make us feel. And then we really know it's successful if it is able to draw in more people who also feel good about themselves. And we provide those people with something they want.

And so they come and they keep coming right up until something else provides them with what they want better. And that they should be willing to put off that yearning to wonder for the sake of commitment to others.

Remember, narcissists don't see others. That's nearly unthinkable today. To give you an example, think of the words that we use for what we're doing right now. We call this, we normally call it a church service.

That's the term most people use. That's fine as long as you understand who is being served. You know, but if we're in a restaurant and we talk about the service, who's being served there? You know, we say the place has good service or maybe the other place has lousy service.

And what we mean is how they serve us, right? They don't think, it's not about how much money is making for serving the owners. How courteous and prompt they are. How often they come to check if your drinks need refilling or there's something else you need.

A restaurant service is all about us, about me. And so, is that what a church's service is about? Well, those who focus on what's called church growth, church growth experts, that the church success then is measured purely by numbers would say, yes, it's about serving the people's needs, their felt needs.

What do they think they need?

Give them that. The problem with that is the people who think they, if they core their being, they think the world revolves around them. They constantly need serving. Everything else makes them feel good.

They judge everything by whether it serves them and whether it revolves around them. That's the narcissistic personality. A person like that is exactly the opposite of the kind of person we're supposed to be.

Right? Supposed to, we're supposed to create, we're supposed to create disciples of Jesus. A disciple is someone whose life revolves around the one they're a disciple of, Jesus. So, a church that creates people, you know, who are narcissists like that, or even if just encourages people to stay like that, is a failure as a church, no matter how many people they have.

So, do you think the world revolves around you? Of course, almost every Christian, really almost every semi-decent person knows better than to say, yes, I do. I think it revolves around me. Uh, but we know what people really think, what their heart really revolves around by what they do.

You know, actions speak louder and truer than words. So, how we approach God, look at how we approach God. The creator of the world, right? The one who created the world that narcissists think revolve around them.

How we approach God reveals whether we think the world revolves around us. We all probably begin our Christian lives, and the truth is what they call narcissism is probably just human nature, you know, left to itself.

You allow a selfish little kid to grow up unchallenged, you'll probably grow up to be a narcissist. That's the way kind of we all are. And we begin our Christian, I'll probably begin our Christian lives somewhat narcissistically, self-centeredly.

This God we think revolves around, He's doing great things for me. And this passage, though, we just read, this passage is the cure for that. And we see that here in three parts, because it's about how we approach God.

And it's to correct our tendency that we think we approach Him our way. We see it in three parts. First, we approach God guardedly, no, not guardedly, excuse me, guidedly. It's an unusual word, guidedly, maybe guardedly sometimes too, yeah?

But that's not a point today. Guidedly, second, shamelessly, and third, confidently. First, we see how this passage and their culture were so different than what we expect. I mean, you read that first verse, because think how, look at it.

It shows how twisted we are by the narcissistic, me-centered culture. Would we even ask that request that it begins in the first verse? The plea, the request that begins this passage, teach us to pray.

Would it even occur to us to ask that? Today, we wouldn't even think, I don't think most Christians, most people would even think to, you know, think, ask for guidance for prayer. We think we know it already, don't we?

And we think whatever we pray to God, God is just, you know, He's just so great and lovely and terrific that God's going to accept us. Now, here, Jesus is praying. That's kind of what's going on. He prays a lot.

And one of the disciples asks an incredible request after he's finished praying, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. You think of that, teaching people to pray then was part of John, now Jesus.

Now, the expectation of many today, though, I mean, I don't know if I've ever heard anyone ask, teach me to pray. Because the expectation of many people today is that prayer is just innate. It's not learned or guided or trained.

It just kind of flows out of your heart. There's no teaching or preparation necessary to do it. We find this in church services today. So much, we just probably take it for granted, take it for granted that people can be asked to pray without any notice or forethought or planning or preparation, you know.

You know, if we were greeting the President of the United States, you would probably think, you'd assume you knew he's coming. You would probably plan what you're going to say in preparation. But, you know, God, whatever we say off the top of our head is fine with us.

We're fine with him, right? Indeed, many people today, not only they not think to approach God guidedly, they find it shocking. They just think something's fundamentally wrong with the very idea of preparing a prayer or even preparing for prayer.

The idea of being, that you need to be guided to approach God is just like foreign to us today because we're so narcissistic. The assumption is though what comes off the top of my head or just flows out of my heart spontaneously must be so great and so precious.

God is bound to accept it. Now, I'm not saying the opposite. I'm not saying it's always wrong to pray extravagant prayers. It's not. I do often, I always pray one at the end of my sermon. I probably will at the end of the sermon.

But these days, we are so full of ourselves that we never even consider that prayer is something we need to be trained in, to be guided in. But it is. That's why for us, for the pastoral prayer, I use the psalm to guide me in that prayer.

I need guidance to pray in the right way. And we have a book of Psalms. It's inspired. Let that help as well as the Lord's Prayer here. And what we see here in the Lord's Prayer, this model prayer is to approach God like he is God.

Like the world revolves around him rather than us. To go from our narcissistic, natural selves to that, to what we see here, to that God-centered. That takes guidance. You're not going to do it spontaneously off the top of your head, just letting it flow.

We're so arrogant today. We don't think we need guidance. That just means we need it all the more. We need to be guided to pray to the father. And this model prayer begins with a simple father. It's, you know, it's not an eruption of religious sounding, lofty adjectives, like some theologians might think it should be, you know, omnipotent, omniscient, infinite, omnipresent, sovereign, who is thrown above the cherubim.

You know, it doesn't begin like that, does it? We pray simply, father. So he is to us our father. It means he's related to us. We're related to him. That means he's a person. He's not just a force. I remember a liberal professor in college being, you know, convocation.

And the liberal professor, for some reason, was asked to begin it in prayer. And he begins, oh, great spirit. Thought, what, are you going to have a powwow? And we're going to go dance around the totem pole next?

What's going on with us? But, you know, he is here, affectionately, father. Now, if he's the father, what does that make us? Makes us the children. That's our place in this family. And a family is related by love.

Members of a family are cherished for who they are, not just for their usefulness. You know, this one plays music, we'll keep him. And this one gives a lot of money, we'll keep him. This one helps paint the room back there, we'll keep him.

But this one, these few, they don't do anything, we'll get rid of them.

No.

If they serve me, they might as well not exist. That's the narcissist's point of view. Narcissists are users. They use you, they use even God to get what they want. But here, he's the father. He's not a force that we just use to get what we want.

We're the children, and the family is good for us, but it doesn't revolve around us. To the father, we come asking. So, you know, don't get the impression from all this, he's so lofty, he's so far beyond us, and we're so small, and, you know, we're just worms in his eye, that it's almost like narcissistic to even ask him for anything.

No, he is here. Sure, he's the lord of the universe. But he is here, not so high above us that he doesn't care to listen to our, you know, our pitiful little requests. He doesn't care about me. No, he is our father, after all, and he wants to hear.

So, there are here five requests in this prayer, and each of them challenge our innate self-centeredness. This is like a gauntlet, you know, you go through. You go through this prayer, it will knock the narcissism out of you.

The first is, hallowed be your name. Hallowed means to sanctify, to set apart as holy, dedicated for special use. And so, the first thing we are to ask for is that God's name be set apart in the eyes of people, in my eyes especially, regarded as holy.

God's name is not just, you know, and that just challenges who we are right there, because we think, I, me, I'm holy, I'm the special one. No, we start out, God is that one, and may our hearts understand that.

God's name now is not just the sounds that we make to call him by, it's the revelation from him of who he is. He revealed himself at the burning bush to Moses as the I am that I am, the one who is dependent on.

He's just the I am, you know, what shall I, Moses asked, what shall I call you? Who are you? I am. He's not dependent on, he's not derived from, he's not based on anyone else. He is not the son of anyone.

You know, there's no race or family that begat him. There's no culture or nation that sort of made him up for their purposes. He's sort of their myth, like some other nations have mythological gods. He is altogether beyond and above us, and his name, I am, shows that.

So that truth, that revelation of who he is, is so special, you know, that he dedicated one of the Ten Commandments to protecting it. The third commandment, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

Don't use it just uselessly as you want to use it, casually or just for your own purposes. We are to seek the name of the Lord to be hallowed, which will, which it will be. By the way, we're told that elsewhere in the Bible, God's name will be hallowed eventually.

You know, eventually, either now or later, every knee will bow at the name of Jesus. Then it will be hallowed. Everybody, every tongue will confess, you know, then it will be hallowed. What we're praying for here is that more people bow now, that more people believe now, hallow his name.

So our first request to God is not that we look good, but that his name, the revelation of who he is, that he's given to people, that that looks good. And so in everything we pray for, we pray for this.

You know, we may pray to get rid of this sickness. Pray for this job that we want. We pray for this relationship we want to have, this church we want to grow. In any of those requests, we should be praying first that God's name be revered in that, you know, that whether we're healed or we have to learn that his grace is sufficient, that God's name is revered, that whether we get the job or whether we have to learn to make do with much less.

We pray that God's name be revered. But whether we have that relationship or we have to learn to be single and content, we pray that God's name be revered. That whether we grow big, you know, and respectable and can build buildings, or we have to stay small and edgy and sitting in thinly padded chairs in a gym.

Either way, we pray most of all that God's name be revered. Through all our desires, all the things that we long for, that we work for, maybe we desperately crave them, through them all, remember that God's name is to be hallowed.

So we ask him first, it's the first request, we ask him first that he would do that through us. And the second request is that his kingdom would come. This is, after all, in the gospels, this is the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus is spreading and that we believe.

It's the good news that God's rule has come on earth. But it's not completely here. There is still rebellion to his rule on earth. And our prayer is that his rule would overcome more and more of that rebellion, that he would rule over more and more of life.

Especially beginning first with our life. Now, the narcissistic personality craves rule, power, authority. Deep down, such people think they are God. They may not say it, but that's really what's at the core of who they are.

It goes all the way back to the fall. Satan tempted Adam and Eve, you shall become like God. That's the natural person is trying to be. They want to be in control. I mean, they want to use others to implement their own control.

And churches in our day have fallen victim often to such people, people who, you know, maybe throw their own weight around, who have to have their own way, who will make life, even ministry, miserable for anyone who dares challenge them.

For them, church becomes a place where they rule. You know, it's their kingdom come. The church is their little kingdom that they want to and they want other people in it to submit to their rule. But here we're told to pray to the father, your kingdom, not mine come.

Everything doesn't have to be done my way. We instead pray that the father be in control and use us to implement his control. So the gospel is the good news that God's rule is now here, that he can bring you into his rule.

Of course, it's only good news if you want to live under the father's rule. You know, if his rule is coming and you're a rebel, that's kind of, that's not so good. But the good news is, he can change what you want.

The third request is that the father give us our daily bread. You know, that just strikes many people as weird today. First, it seems like such a trivial thing to ask the, you know, the Lord God and ruler of the universe for.

And second, it seems we often, most of us just assume, you know, food today, I got that taken care of. Fridge is stocked. Even if it's not, I can go down to the local, you know, fast food place. I don't need to, I don't need to worry God with my food today.

I can take care of that myself. Thank you very much. How incompetent do you think I am? I can't feed myself. I got a job. I make the money. I put food on your table, put food on my own table. So proud of myself.

But here we're told to pray, give us what we need today to survive. Which assumes that we really can't handle that. Unless God lets us. Naturally, we hate admitting that we're needy. Certainly not that needy.

That we depend on God for our food today. We want to admit how you can't even feed yourself today. Most people today think they have daily life taken care of. And only need to go to God, you know, for the really big stuff.

They'll take care of most of their life by themselves. You maybe go to God for the really out of control stuff. You maybe, you get diagnosed with an incurable disease. You pray for that. You know, God will take care of that if the doctor can't.

Maybe getting to heaven. Got to pray for that. That's the stuff. Thank you very much, God. I've been taken care of. They don't see how, they don't see how dependent they are. If you think the world revolves around you.

You think everything else is dependent on you. And you don't really depend on anybody. But here we're to pray against that very attitude. And so, you know, what we're doing right now as Christians. Once a week, we're making a statement.

That we're not, we're not even eventually responsible. Or capable of even bringing our, bringing about our own food. And so, we put aside. At least for right now. Our money making. Our business. Our whatever we do to get food on the table.

And we come together. To pray. It's part of what we do. Is to pray. And so, we are making right now. A declaration of dependence. That God, I depend on you. For my food. For my survival.

For everything.

Doesn't just come from my job. From my business. From wherever we get the checks from. From the government. And so, we dare say that the worship. That worship is more important than work. Because worship goes right to the ultimate source.

Of our work. Of our money. Of our bread. Here Jesus is telling us. That even if we, you know. Okay, we think we're so proud.

We work for our food.

Even if that's true. That work.

That food.

Is still given to us. As a gift. It's a gift from God. And we are to ask him to keep providing it. Every day. Now, what this requires is humility. So, we need the humility to be able to ask.

Give us each day.

The food we need.

We're not self-sufficient. The world doesn't revolve around me. I can't survive. In this world. Even, you know. Do I have a job? Or whatever.

Money.

That's all God's means. That he's, that's all God's gifts. He's given to me. I can't survive in this world. Without the father's grace. And so, we must humbly admit. We're that dependent on God. That's why we thank him.

You know, before every meal. I just didn't. I didn't provide this myself. With my job.

Or, you know.

My pension. Or whatever. The father provided this. Ultimately.

He's, he's. That this food.

He's, he's graciously decided to let me have. So, every day. Every meal. We confess that we aren't entitled to anything. If he graciously decides to share bread with us today. It's because he's gracious.

You know. Not because we're great. One thing he certainly doesn't owe us is forgiveness. And for that. We especially need to plead. The fourth request is. Forgive us our sins. For we ourselves. Forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And first thing you know. We admit that we've sinned. We've offended God. We've done. And said. And thought things. That we shouldn't. And worst of all.

Really.

What is the heart of sin.

We thought the world revolves around us. From that. Everything else comes. And so our sin is compared to.

To.

It's compared to others being indebted to us. And this suggests that our sins. Including our very sinful attitude. Of our self-centeredness. That creates a debt with God. Every time we do. Or say. Or think something.

Or just the very attitude. Fundamental attitude we have that.

You know.

The world revolves around me. It's out of line with. With God's perfect will. That it insults the very. The fact that actually the world revolves around him. That deepens our debt. In his accounting book.

So we withdraw a little. We go into the hole. Every time. Into the red.

With the Lord.

And so now. Now we need to dwell on this. Because this idea runs counter to the narcissistic tendency. So common today. Psychological. Psychologists describe narcissists. As people who assume. Even if they won't admit it.

That they are perfect. They might be no better than saying. You know. They're perfect.

But.

They're blind to their own faults. Others might owe them. They think. But they owe others nothing. Because everything that. Others give them is. Something they deserve. They will use all kinds of psychological tricks.

To avoid having to come face to face. With their own imperfections. And such people hate the kind of. You know. Preaching. That used to be favorably. But described as.

As searching.

Some of you even heard that phrase before. Describe preaching. Searching makes you own. Search your own hearts. Today preaching is supposed to.

You.

Inspire you to make you feel good about yourself. But searching. You make you realize that you're guilty. That you need to repent. You need to seek forgiveness. That you're in debt to God. Identify particular areas in your life.

That you need to change. You have a debt. That is so great. That you can't pay it. But here we are to come face to face. With the reality of our sin. And right in this model prayer. We are shown to remind ourselves.

That we've sinned. We've transgressed. We've broken God's law. And this very attitude that we have. That comes so naturally to us. That the world revolves around us. It's offensive. To the God who created the world.

So we violate his will. And we need forgiveness. We need forgiveness. In the same way that we give it. If we give it. If we are told that. That we will be forgiven of our sins. We are forgiven of our sins.

As we forgive. Notice this present tense. Right now we forgive. Why do we forgive?

Now?

Well because he's our father. And he's forgiven us. And you notice that. That's assumed. This is a disciple's prayer. This is not a sinner's prayer. To get you into the kingdom. This is a disciple's prayer.

To indicate your life now. And so that doesn't mean.

That.

That we earn his forgiveness. By first forgiving others. That's sort of the way in. And notice that it is. Forgive us our sins.

As we.

Ourselves.

Forgive.

It's not that. It's not as we ourselves.

Have forgiven.

Okay God.

I have forgiven.

These people for offending me. Now you owe me forgiveness. That's not the way it works. His forgiveness is prior. His forgiveness creates the environment. That enables us to forgive. If we truly experience. His forgiveness.

It softens our heart. To be able to forgive others. If we have opened our hands. To receive his gracious pardon.

We can't keep our fists.

Tightly clenched. Against others who have wronged us. If they're repentant. And they're seeking forgiveness. It's not that we earn God's forgiveness. By forgiving others. If that were the case. We wouldn't have to ask for forgiveness.

Would we? We would just claim it. Here though. In this prayer we're asking. Is that one of the surest signs. Of being forgiven. Is being forgiving. And the final request.

Is to lead us.

Not into temptation. Notice that assumption there. Lead us.

Is the assumption. Isn't it?

That every step we take. He is leading us. Whether into temptation. Or away from it. He is leading our life. Now be tempted. Is to be enticed to sin. To be tested. It could be either tempted or tested.

But tested is to be brought into trying times. And here we are to pray the father. That he would not put us. Under temptation. Or to the test. Now narcissists are supposed to. Be immune to self-doubt.

They don't question themselves. They know they're the best. And they hate to be thought of as. As needing testing.

Or.

Or improving.

Why do they need it?

They're above it.

They think.

You know they're going to pass.

You know the tryouts. So why bother putting them through the tryouts? You're testing them as an insult. Because it should be obvious. That they can make the team. They can be admitted to the university.

They are the smartest. They're the best. You know if you're going to make them. If you're going to insult them. By making them try out. Maybe they won't even try out. They'll show you. They're above it all.

But Christians should know.

Better.

Know the opposite.

They're not.

Above it. We're not above it.

We're below it.

You know we're so likely to fail the test. We're better off father.

Don't even try. Don't even test me please. I'm going to fail.

You know.

We're the opposite.

We need the father to graciously spare us. From the temptation.

Because if he doesn't.

And he doesn't. Give us the grace. To hold us through. We know what we're going to do.

We're going to fail.

We're going to fall. So spare us from it. So this is a humbling prayer. Making us confess our vulnerability. And exalting the father's sovereignty. Now he is sovereign. Over every step we take. Even into times of temptation.

He leads us either into it or away from it. He leads us. Wherever we go. Not that he tempts us.

You got to understand.

It's not saying. That he's tempted.

He.

God himself is tempting us. James says. That he tempts no one with evil. But he may lead us into a time of testing. The spirit himself. Led Jesus into the desert. That he may be.

Tempted.

By Satan. Okay.

And in the father.

The spirit could lead us. Into a time of temptation. He may allow Satan.

To tempt us.

He's not gonna do the tempting himself. But he may let Satan do it. So we should be fearful of our own weakness. That we pray he won't. He in the prayer. We confess that he is in control. Even of the temptations.

That's something isn't it?

Indeed.

With each of these requests. You think about it.

Each of them.

Assume the sovereignty of God.

It's the Lord.

That we asked to. Hallow his own name. Make us. So we will make it holy. Lord make me. So I can make your name holy. To extend his kingdom. To give us our bread. To forgive us. And here to not. Lead us into temptation.

God's in control of all of that. That's how we're guided. In prayer. And we need to first see our own. Need for guidance. And so approach God.

Guidedly.

Then shamelessly. In verses five to eight. Jesus tells the parable. What's called the parable. The persistent friend. No you all have friends.

Jesus is telling them.

You want a prayers like. You all have friends. That if you if you need something. You could go to them. Like here. A visitor arrived late at night. And he didn't have enough. He didn't have food ready.

So you go to your friend's house. You bang on the door. And say help a visitor just arrived. And I don't have anything to feed him. But your friend you know. And his family. They're all tucked in. It's late at night.

And he's thinking man. I rummage through the. Around the house looking for bread. Or go through the fridge. That will wake everybody up. So he just pulls the pillow over his ears. And says don't bother me.

But if you keep knocking. Even though he's not a very good. Courteous friend. Not the greatest friend in the world. But even if he's not. But because you're persistent. You're you're shamelessly persistent.