June 29, 2014
Stetson Memorial United Methodist
Church
Sermon
Series on “All My Day: A Summer of Prayer”
Sermon
2 of series-
“Adoration”
Psalm 105:1-6 Common
English Bible
Exodus 15:1-3
The Living Bible
Psalm 89:1-18
The Message Bible
“All My
Adoration. . . !”
Let us pray. . . (pray for God’s
illumination. . . )
A reading from the book of Exodus,
chapter 15, verses 1-3. . . listen for a word from God to you and me the people
of God. . .
15 Then Moses and the
people of Israel sang this song to the Lord:
I will sing to the
Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
He has thrown both
horse and rider into the sea.
2 The Lord is my
strength, my song, and my salvation.
He is my God, and I
will praise him.
He is my father’s God—I
will exalt him.
3 The Lord is a
warrior—
Yes, Jehovah is his
name.
Adoration:
ad·o·ra·tion [ad-uh-rey-shuhn] noun
1.
the act of paying honor, as to a divine being; worship.
2.
reverent homage.
3.
fervent and devoted love.
adoration (ˌædəˈreɪʃən)
— n
1. deep love or esteem
2. the act of worshipping
I
love reading the Psalms. They help me in my times of trouble because they
remind me of God’s goodness and mercy even through those rough spots in life. One
of my favorites is Psalm 105 verses 1-6. It reads:
Psalm 105
105 Give thanks to the
Lord;
call upon his name;
make his deeds known to all people!
2 Sing to God;
sing praises to the Lord;
dwell on all his wondrous works!
3 Give praise to God’s
holy name!
Let the hearts rejoice of all those seeking
the Lord!
4 Pursue the Lord and
his strength;
seek his face always!
5 Remember the wondrous
works he has done,
all his marvelous works, and the justice he
declared—
6 you who are the offspring of Abraham, his
servant,
and the children of Jacob, his chosen
ones.
I
love how it talks about God and how awesome He is. It is right to give God the
praise for all He has done. . . is doing or will ever do in our lives. But. . .
I have a question for each of us. How many times do we begin our prayer time in
adoration to God? Do we take time to address God for who He is and what He has
done in our lives or do we just get right down to the “nitty gritty” of why we
are there? Do we stop and think of how wonderfully awesome our God is or do we
just skip that part and get right to our request from Him?
I
have found in my own prayer time that when I take the time to stop and thank
God for who He is my whole prayer time is transformed. I feel that connection
with God because I have brought to mind who He is. I feel even stronger that my
prayer will be answered because I have reminded myself of how God has answered
in the past. It is at these times when I feel am sitting at His feet having a
personal conversation with Him. . . a heart to heart so to speak. . . from my
heart to His. . .
So
how do we approach the throne of grace in such a way? For what or how do we
really pray so that we can build a closer relationship with God. We want to
have that “living-room conversation” with God. This summer, we are going to try
and do just that. We have begun learning about prayer and what it is and how to
pray. We have all had those times when we have gone to God and not known what
to say. . . what to pray for. My hope is that our Summer Sermon Series “All My Days: A Summer of Prayer” will
help us do just that. . . learn a way of prayer that will bring us closer to
the maker of all we survey. But we are going to do it in a very tangible way.
This
morning you were all given a set of prayer beads that Jessica, Ray and myself
have made. Now the tradition of using a string of beads or rope knots is an
ancient tradition as well as being a ritual action shared by many faith
traditions around the globe. The common connection is the ability to give structure
to personal prayer devotion. It offers a way to remind and revisit various
areas of focus and concern. Repeated rituals can be powerful as they help shape
our habits. This summer, we are invited to pray “All My Days” and to make a
habit of prayer wherever you are. Each Sunday in worship we will focus on one
of the steps of the prayer beads but you are encouraged to pray these
categories all summer long. Now I want you to bring your beads with you to
church as we spend the summer sitting at the feet of God spending time in
prayer.
Last
week Ms. Sally started us off by explaining what prayer is. . . it is a
conversation between the created and the Creator. This week I would like to
talk about a little thing. . . OK a BIG
thing. . . called adoration. Now I have given you the definition of
adoration at the beginning of my sermon this morning.
After
reading the definition I really had to rethink how I use this word. For
instance. . . “I really adore these shoes. . . they fit just right. . . they
are my favorites” or “I adore how much you care for me Ray. . . ”. . . “ I
adore my cat Fiona”. . . adoration of things and people in my life. Now I
“love” people and things but do I really “adore” them. . . do I really show
“adoration” to them and if I do. . . am replacing God as I do it? Do I worship
my things...my cat. . . or my husband?
Do I look to these things instead of God? Well my cat seems to think so but my answer
to that is no. But. . . I need to think
more about how I use this word and what I really mean when I use it.
Prayer.
. . it begins with adoration of God. Our God is so awesome how could we not
want to spend time thanking Him and adoring Him? As we begin with adoration our
whole perspective is changed. As a matter of fact, we can give God adoration
any time, not just during prayer time and it will change our perspective on
life. Case in point. . . ”My life is so filled with pain and anguish, how can I
keep going on?” . . . “God. . . thank
you that you are so awesome and powerful and that you are always with me. Even
in the desert parts you are there. Thank you for helping me to get up out of
bed today and move about. I trust that you will get me through whatever I need
today by Your grace and mercy. . . ” “My life is so tough, I never have the
money I need to do what I want. . . ” “Thank you God for how You provide what I
need and some of my wants. I know that I have been in this spot before with low
funds and I look forward with expectation for how you will help me through
this. You are so wonderful and loving to Your children making sure we never go
without.” Makes a difference doesn’t it?! As we begin to rethink our lives we
begin to see the blessings all around us. Adoration. . . it makes a life good.
. .
Let
us pray. . . pray in adoration of who God
is. . .
Amen
June 29, 2014
Psalm 105:1-6 Common English Bible
Exodus 15:1-3 The Living Bible
Psalm 89:1-18 The Message Bible
Closing Hymn – “As the Deer”
Sermon 2 of “All My Days: A Summer of Prayer”
Summer
Sermon Series on Prayer
children’s message by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and sermon, “All My Adoration. . . !”
by Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon
blog
meditation
blog
“God’s
Whisper” blog
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
June 29,
2014
&
Matthew 6:5-14
“Jesus Teaches About
Prayer” (NCV)
(including Lord’s Prayer)
Romans 12:12
Ephesians 6:11-18
Sermon 1 of “All My Days: A Summer of Prayer”
Summer Sermon Series on Prayer
children’s message by Ray
Foss
-
God fills in the
words we pray
based on Upper Room Daily
Devotional for June 9, 2014
Romans
8:26 (NRSV)
Romans
8:22-27
Upper
Room Daily Devotional
“Guided
by the Spirit”
by
Milly Ibanda
for
March and April 2014
-
spontaneous
prayer, wait for God’s answer
(based on Shanequa’s
prayer for a puppy July 21, 2006)
opening and welcome by
Pastor Ruth Foss
and sermon, “Stop, Look and Listen”
by Sally Drew
Stetson
Memorial United Methodist Church
June
22, 2014
All of my
poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. All rights reserved.
Contact me at
Ray
Foss for usage. See all 32,640+ of my poems at
www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com
Poetry Where You Live.
