Sermon Tone Analysis

Series Review

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Example of rote repitition: J crew: Thank you....hearings it constantly, enthusiastic waning, supervisor encouraging, sensitivity towards customers service, less so towards telemarketing

Habit of saying again

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Sermon Introduction

J crew

Thank you....hearings it constantly, enthusiastic waning, supervisor encouraging, sensitivity towards customers service, less so towards telemarketing

first visit to a UMC: fellowship meal afterwards; woman praying quietly, we can’t hear you; she wasn’t talking to you.

prayer is talking with God: we can do that;

Forgiveness is hard

I preached last week about that part of the Lord’s Prayer: give us our daily bread; that’s probably the easist part of the prayer; this morning is the most difficult: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

I preached last week about that part of the Lord’s Prayer: give us our daily bread; that’s probably the easist part of the prayer; this morning is the most difficult: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

When I was in high school I had a great pentecostal youth leader

pentecostal youth leader

how did i end up methodist

he was a dry teacher (groan when he got up to teach) but we were drawn to him because he was a deeply spiritual man; his greatest contribution to that youth group and to me as a youth was how he taught us to pray; he would gather us around him, teach us Scripture, listen to us talk about our days, and he would teach us how to pray; not tell us what to pray, but tell us how; here are things to ask for, not ask for; here are ways we can and can’t address God;

sometimes he would use the Lord’s Prayer.

sometimes he would use the Lord’s Prayer.

He would take us through it one phrase at a time; he was doing that with a group of us when someone paused at that part of the prayer: what’s wrong?

I can’t say that.

God knows I don’t mean it.

Angry at bullies at school.

Angry at his dad.

I can accept God’s forgiveness, but I can’t give it.

Not to those people.

Forgiveness is a barrier to prayer.

explain debts;

Forgive us God.

(Forgive me for losing my temper.

Forgive me for not being generous when you gave me the opportunity.

Forgive me for my sinful thoughts).

Forgive me, God, of these debts.

You know, like the way I forgive other people.

Forgive us God.

And then we give God an example.

You know, God.

Like the way we forgive other people.

Forgive us God.

(Forgive me for losing my temper.

Forgive me for not being generous when you gave me the opportunity.

Forgive me for my sinful thoughts).

Forgive me, God, of these debts.

You know, like the way I forgive other people.

If forgiveness is absent in our lives, then our prayers will be ineffective.

Dry.

Boring.

Superficial.

We need forgiveness, and we need to be forgiving.

Yet Jesus says if we can’t give it we can’t receive it.

Purpose of the sermon: How to remove this barrier?

The purpose of this sermon is to give us pause when pray this part of the prayer.

Seriously pause when we ask God for forgiveness.

There is a condition for receiving forgiveness, and we may not like it.

There are many reasons why we can get stuck in prayer: boring; distracted; frustrated; lack of discipline; apathy; anger with God; Maybe we can get stuck in prayer if we can’t forgive others.

The purpose of this sermon is to give us pause when pray this part of the prayer.

Seriously pause when we ask God for forgiveness.

There is a condition for receiving forgiveness, and we may not like it.

There are many reasons why we can get stuck in prayer: boring; distracted; frustrated; lack of discipline; apathy; anger with God; Maybe we can get stuck in prayer if we can’t forgive others.

The deeper question:

, why is it so difficult to give the thing we are asking God for in our prayers?

Why can’t we forgive?

The story of the unmerciful servant can help us answer that question.

There was a reason why Jesus tells this story of the unmerciful servant.

context for parable: 1) how to deal with sin in the church when [not if] it happens, 2) how many times to we have to forgive someone

how to deal with - parents setting rules “just in case?”

A plan for household discipline is not a contingency plan; we are born in sin, we live in a sinful world

Ever avoid someone in the fellowship hall.

sit on the opposite of the sanctuary;

It was a response to a question from the Disciple Peter:

There was a reason why Jesus tells this story of the unmerciful servant.

It was a response to a question from the Disciple Peter:

Do the math: that’s alot.

the church is a place that requires perpetual forgiveness: 2 unpleasant realities of life that are assumed in the Scriptures: we will be sinned against; and we have to keep forgiving.

context for parable: 1) how to deal with sin in the church when [not if] it happens, 2) how many times to we have to forgive someone

how to deal with - parents setting rules “just in case?”

A plan for household discipline is not a contingency plan; we are born in sin, we live in a sinful world

Ever avoid someone in the fellowship hall.

sit on the opposite of the sanctuary;

When we pray for forgiveness, we do so with the assumption that we have forgiven others.

Why forgiveness is so hard.

It is hard to forgive, and its hard to be forgiven.

Barriers to forgiveness.

The first has to do with...

Denying Guilt

unhealthy shame

It’s hard to forgive when there is no guilt or shame or regret by the person whom we need to forgive.

It’s hard to receive forgiveness when we deny our own guilt.

When we pray asking God to forgive us, do we do that with a certain dgree of sorrow and shame, or are we in denial?

We live in denial all the time.

Just ask someone, “Would you like to know the ingredients in that food you’re eating.”

“I don’t want to know.

Don’t ruin it for me.”

Type in “hotdog ingredients” on the internet when you get home.

We don’t want to know.

But we live in denial in more important ways.

Our health - should we see a doctor?

Our financial situation - I’m not saving.

Our relationships - are things deteriorating?

The world: too many problems to think about.