Sunday, January 14, 2018

sermon, "Lord... Teach Us To Pray", by Pastor Ruth Foss, Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church, Patten, ME, January 14, 2018



January 14, 2018
Stetson Memorial UMC
Sermon Series:
Lord…Teach Us To Pray
What are we really asking and praying for…?
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Luke 11:1-4 The Voice
(Matthew 6:9-13 King James)

Lord…Teach Us To Pray

The Lord be with you…
And also with you…
Let us pray…
Pray that the words spoken are not my own but God’s Words…

Please stand for the reading of the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 11, verses 1-4. Listen to and for the Word of God for the people of God…Jesus’ disciples…

Good morning. By a show of hands how many of you remember the first prayer you were ever taught? Give time to respond. What was it? Give time to answer.  I think the first one I remember is “Now I lay me down to sleep…I pray the Lord my soul to keep…If I die before I wake… I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I know…kind of morbid for a kid, right? Learning prayers is a great way for us to remember who God is and what God has done and is doing in our lives.

But sometimes…prayer can be so mindless and automatic that it loses all its true meaning. Some religions believe that you have to say certain prayers for certain things. But what can happen is that those prayers can become so repetitive that it becomes what we do instead of what we feel.  This can make our relationship with God seem very distant. There is no real intimacy with God…no closeness and warmth with Him.

There are prayers in the bible that others have prayed that can help us get through each day. The 23rd Psalm is one that we pray a lot. You here this one a lot at funerals. People are feeling vulnerable and want to know God is near. The prayer of Jabez is another one (it’s found in 1 Chronicles 4:10). In the middle of all this genealogy you have Jabez’s prayer… “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.” The one I use at the end of the service is one that Aaron prayed of God’s people after they had assembled to here God’s instructions…Numbers 6:24-26:
24 “‘“The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”’

But the one that I think is the most prayed if the one we call “The Lord’s Prayer”, the one He taught His First Disciples. We still pray it today every Sunday at the end of our prayer time. But have you ever really thought about what you are praying? Have you ever really thought about what you and I are truly asking from God? We recite it but have we grown numb at the beauty and affection it encases within itself? Jesus taught His disciples to pray this way because it was how He prayed. Remember, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray because they saw Him go away, many times, to sped time with God. They wanted the same relationship they saw Jesus have with their God.

Each part of the prayer has meaning. It is not a prayer of recitation but a prayer with and of purpose. It wasn’t just happenstance that the prayer is prayed in the order that it is prayed. Have you ever thought about Jesus’ prayer as many call it? I would like to propose something for us. We have a little of 5 weeks before Lent… I would like for us to look at Jesus’ prayer…the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s break it down together.

I would like for us to maybe recapture or maybe for the first time the meaning behind the words we pray. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a mindless drone just reciting the words. I want to be an intimate disciple praying, pleading, feeling each and every word, I speak to God. I think it would be a spiritual and spirit filled way to prepare for the Lenten Season of contemplation of the high, wide and never-ending love of God for His creation as God hung on a cross in the form of His Son…the babe in the manger we just celebrated.

The journey is going to be fun, contemplative and hard at times, but I think it is important as Jesus’ Followers to not just be drones but be living, breathing, brothers and sisters having a relational experience wit our Father, whom art in heaven.

Let us pray…pray about the journey to the heart of God we are about to take.

Amen, amen, and AMEN!



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January 14, 2018
protect us from evil
Luke 11:4c
(John) Wesley’s Notes on the Bible
Luke 11
11:1 Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples - The Jewish masters used to give their followers some short form of prayer, as a peculiar badge of their relation to them. This it is probable John the Baptist had done. And in this sense it seems to be that the disciples now asked Jesus, to teach them to pray. Accordingly he here repeats that form, which he had before given them in his sermon on the mount, and likewise enlarges on the same head, though still speaking the same things in substance. And this prayer uttered from the heart, and in its true and full meaning, is indeed the badge of a real Christian: for is not he such whose first and most ardent desire is the glory of God, and the happiness of man by the coming of his kingdom? Who asks for no more of this world than his daily bread, longing meantime for the bread that came down from heaven? And whose only desires for himself is forgiveness of sins, (as he heartily forgives others,) and sanctification.
11:2 When ye pray, say - And what he said to them is undoubtedly said to us also. We are therefore here directed, not only to imitate this in all our prayers, but to use this very form of prayer. Matthew 6:9-13.
11:4 Forgive us; for we forgive them - Not once, but continually. This does not denote the meritorious cause of our pardon; but the removal of that hindrance which otherwise would render it impossible.
&
January 14, 2018
starting with God
Luke 11:2b
“Father, hallowed be your name.” (NRSV)
edited January 14, 2018
praying daily – v2
January 14, 2018
praying daily
January 13, 2018
we breathe in His prayers
January 13, 2018
teach us, Lord Jesus
January 13, 2018
submit to Christ’s teaching
January 13, 2018
do you just mouth the words
January 13, 2018
in prayer, in trust, in submission
January 13, 2018
modeling prayer
January 14, 2018
Stetson Memorial UMC
Sermon Series:
Lord…Teach Us To Pray
What are we really asking and praying for…?
Luke 11:1-4 (The Voice)
“The Lord’s Prayer”
 Matthew 6:9-13 (King James Version)
“The Lord’s Prayer”
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (Complete Jewish Bible)
1 Chronicles 4:10
“Prayer of Jabez”
Number 6:24-26
and sermon “Lord Teach Us to Pray…”
text

video

by Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
“God’s Whisper” blog
Children’s Message

by Pastor Ruth Foss
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
January 14, 2018

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