March 20, 2022 Sunday Worship Service (Roy)
Steve wanted to let us know that he's taking Amy home.
No, he wanted to remind us that there is no elders meeting this afternoon. Remember, the elders meetings are a business meeting and anyone is invited to go to find out what's going on or to ask questions or to keep tabs on us. That's you're more than welcome to do that.
We have been talking about The Sermon on the Mount. For quite a while now since the beginning of January and we are only up to chapter 6, but we're also studying in the Bible class. So we may get the chapter 7 there. So we were making some progress, but I'm going to slow it down just a little bit. And we're talking about prayer today and I feel that this is a momentous. Topic. And I think it's one that we all struggle with the most. And that is keeping a consistent prayer life. And so I'm going to spend the next two, three, four weeks. Don't know how long I'm going to go. But at least three weeks talking about prayer and so we're going to be talkin about Lord, teach us to pray and the Lord was going to teach his disciples. How to pray, but before we do. Let's go to God In Prayer together.
Are loving and righteous father. We are grateful to be here this morning. We're thankful for the good and Divine Providence that has allowed us to come here this morning. Father was thankful for the opportunity to worship you in spirit and Truth. We thank you that as a family of God, we get to do this together. And father were so thankful for.
This time that we can come to you in prayer. We know that. You are the great. God, The Great. I Am. The creator of Heaven and Earth. And yet, you are mindful of us. And yet, you desire. To hear from each of us. If I were thankful for the Avenue of Prayer. That we can lay on you. Our burdens, our desires. Our needs. And even our wants. It's rather grateful that you hear us. father, we also pray that as we think about your word this morning, we come to the realization that were in Perfect People. But we're thankful that we have a perfect savior. I thought it was thankful that we have a perfect message. Switch to live by. We pray. Father that. Each of us will take it upon ourselves. The Divine responsibility given to us to continue, living by that word by that message, and not reliving that. We also can share that message and teach others about Jesus. The teacher others about His church, his body. and father, even to think, and to teach about The afterlife. All those things are taught in your power forward. Father. Help us to share him all the prey, all these things through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Inner 1985. the greatest football team that I ever witness played in the Super Bowl in 19 1885 Chicago Bears, and if you remember, if you're old enough, some of us all our That Mike Ditka was the head coach. And Jim McMahon was the quarterback and they had this big old fella who played defensive tackle. His name was William Perry the called him William without Refrigerator Perry cuz he was as big as a refrigerator and he ate just as it. So, my kitchen one time. This story is told by the team, chaplain at the time, Cassius. And a Tom tells a story about Mike Ditka who was given the chapel talk on this particular day. And so he before he began giving the chapel talk and motivating, the team returned to William Perry the refrigerator and asked him if he would lead the team in the Lord's Prayer, following his comments and Jim McMahon had who was the quarterback at leaned over the shoulder of Tom Cassius was telling the story and he says, I bet you $50. He doesn't know the Lord's Prayer. And Tom Caster says, I took the BET even though it was during a time of worship. I took the $50 back. So after Ditka was done talking and motivating the team, he nodded his head to the fridge in the fridge was in just kind of nervous mouth. And he said, now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep But it got better, because Nick man leaned over and gave us the $50 and he said, I didn't know you knew the Lord Prayer.
As followers of Christ. We are called to. Make followers of Christ. And so the Bible tells us therefore go and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the father Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them. And so it's a shame that we have given to us by our Lord Church of Christ and really all churches that claim the Lord. And that is to grow to make and roll Disciples of Christ. And the growing ass that comes through, teaching. It comes through experience. Certainly comes through those forms of learning. But I consider being a follower of Christ, the idea of following kind of implies there steps to be taken. And so there are steps that involve being a servant of Christ that we're just serve. Each other were to serve others. And then there is the, the step of giving giving giving of ourselves, both to God to ours, to one another into our community. And of course, probably the most important one. And that is the one that we need to begin with. And that is, we need to take the step of Prayer. Understanding that this is a significant item of work that Jesus has given to each of us that we are to pray. Pray without ceasing, the Bible tells us. And so we find ourselves struggling with that, you know, where or when we were in a tight Jam. We pray when we're not feeling good or when someone's close to death, we pray. But Jesus said, Pray without ceasing don't stop praying. Continue praying in the good times and it in the bed, but you keep on praying. And if you look at the prayer life of Jesus Christ, you get to see that it was his custom to get up very early in the morning. And what did he do? He begin his day in prayer. Sometimes he had a a nice spot there in the garden. He would go and pray in the garden. That was his custom. And of course, with the Jews that would play at least three times a day. All right. So now I'm stopped praying, continue praying, morning, noon and night, is the idea that Jesus would pray. And so, as Christians were to do the same thing. It would be good for us if we could just set times for ourselves away from others. It going honey area of Darkness, as the Bible talks about, to go into our closet. You don't have to literally going to get away to be by yourself, and to spend time with the Lord in prayer. Just talking to the father. Just letting your heart on unfold to the father. Letting him know your thoughts. Letting him know your desires, letting him know, your hurts letting him know your weaknesses. Course, the Bible also says that he knows what we need even before we ask it. So he knows everything about us. He knows everything that's in our minds, what we're thinking. So it's a good thing to let. Tell him he knows it already, but he wants us to admit it admit what you need that? Meant that you're weak and he wants us to talk as a child to a father. After all, he is our father and that's what Jesus was teaching his disciples. And Luke chapter 11. We find that Jesus had been teaching and preaching, and they heard Jesus, pray. They heard a friend now. I want you to understand that these disciples, who were Jews had been praying all their lives.
But they wanted to learn how Jesus prayed and so we're going to be taking your looking at that this morning. But before Jesus taught them how to pray, he talked to him, how not to pray. That's all going to. Look at a few of these things. He says, first of all do not pray to be seen by men. Go out of your way to make a public spectacle of yourself to draw attention to yourself, to be seen by others as a congregation. We gather together and we have what we have done this morning in our prayers. The prayers that come from each of the gentleman, that's saying those prayers comes from there. It's not about show. It's not about to do. They look in front of you or how I look in front of you, but it is about how we look and how we conduct ourselves in the presence of God. It's all God wants us to pray but he wants us to do it in humility. Homeless homeless of heart mine and we approach him in that manner to offer up our petitions. And so one of the things that was prone to happen with the Pharisees was their hypocrisy. Finger hypocrisy, they would go out of their way to be seen by others. And so that would stand on the street corners and they lift up their hands like this. And they say thank you for being with me. Thank you. That I'm not one of them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, and they don't make a show of it. Jesus was probably pointing at them when he said don't do this to be seen by men. Don't do what they do. They're hypocrites. Then he goes on to say, Do not pray. Zhang babbling sprayer as they might say, but it's really not.
It's repetitious words, vain words. Like he says like the Heathen and a heathen were well known for their prayers, to their gods and they would take a word like tree tree represented, something and tree would be the award. They would use in their prayer and it would be the only word used in their prayer. So it'd be like, oh, Mighty Isis, or whoever the almighty Isis tree. Tree, tree, tree tree, tree tree structure. There's no desires. Nothing. It's just up a repetitious babbling. And so, that's what he saying. Some people think it means the repetitious prayer. Well, Jesus prayed on several occasions for the same thing. Was he repeated himself? I was talking about Zayn were vain babblings, the repetitious that the heathens were guilty of doing. It's not at all uncommon for us as we have done this past month to pray for Ukraine. A brother might get up and start praying and ask God to be with those in the Ukraine. A little bit later, another brother, Mike it up and my say, the same thing. Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that because it's a prayer coming from a different person is asking those things and humility and there's nothing wrong with repeating. Something that is on people's hearts and people's minds. So, these are the things that we are not to do when we pray and let you know. I know that as a Young Man, When I was in my teenage years and I was called on to, to pray. I was always worried how I would sound to the folks. But I will soon realize that the folks don't matter. It's that folk up there that matters. He's I'm I'm praying to him not to you. And I know that sometimes even as public speakers we all make mistakes and sometimes and sometimes they're funny and sometimes it's okay. If you left, we make a mistake because we're laughing on the inside too. But if we're worried about that the parks, not in it. It's about making sure that were just giving the words from a heart to God. Let It Roll. You're going to make the mistake and there's nothing wrong with making mistakes and as as we think about how not to pray. He says do not pray like this. You ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures, you know where we're good at that? We all admit that the first thing that we pray about to God is ourselves. Now we ask God to give us stuff. And up. So that we can do things with that stuff. Write in Jane the same. Listen, that's asking a miss. We'll talk a little bit more about that as we go through our our study. But James says because you asked miss that, you may spend it on your pleasures. A lot of times people who are praying to God or praying that one of their competitors might go broke that one of their competitors suffer, something in a physical way, all because they want to get ahead all because their business comes before anything else. It's so they pray against others rather than for others. And this is the type of stuff that happens when people ask a miss. And as we consider the prayer that would be looking at for the next several weeks. The model prayer. It's not the Lord's Prayer, The Lord's Prayer, but we don't call every prayer that the Lord pray, the Lord's Prayer. But he did, pray a lot and there's a lot of prayers and he's recorded. So it's not the Lord's prayer about the model for Christy prayer of example. The example of how to pray. So, an example of how to pray, Hank model prayer. I like to highlight the word, hence, because I like the word, hence.
All right. I don't know if you can see that. I try to make it as big as I could without making too many pages, but I want us to read this together and as we read together, I want to say it together. I want you to say it together, cuz cuz next week when we come back. I'm going to have you say it without it, having any words up there. You're going to have to memorize his prayer. Am I call each of you? Each person. One at a time that stand up. I will not do that. Alright, let's begin. Our Father in heaven. Hallowed Be Your Name, Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us, right? Well, that's not what this translation says, and forgive us our debts. As we forgive our debtors and do not lead us into temptation. But Deliver Us from the evil. One for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. And so, that last sentence that's in green, is not in the original manuscripts, but they are there and some manuscripts, and saw this included. Either way. It means the same thing. I'm so fine here. This prayer, this model prayer, this prayer of example, and it's something that we need to consider because we need to learn how to pray. We need to learn how to undo the things that we were perhaps regarding praying to God. Just like the way the disciples had learned to pray. Now. They see Jesus as the perfect example praying before them a prayer and manner of which they have not seen or heard before. So Jesus is giving them a lesson and how to pray even though they have been praying for so many years.
Fast. We think about praying, we think about the idea that What is prayer? So this again is a prayer of that is a model and this model prayer is in a certain direction. It has a certain reference to it and it has an emphasis. So when we pray, we need to understand that there are things we need to consider the direction. We're praying to the father. Our Father Who Art in Heaven, who is in heaven going by the old King James language, but Our Father Who Art in Heaven, Jesus is not saying that the father is only in heaven. God is on the present, be anywhere, but he surely dwells in heaven. And the point that Jesus is making, is that he is in heaven. He is above.
He's above all authority because he is Authority and has Authority as so we pray to him and to no one else. So no one else. He's the one that's responsible for answering prayers. No one else. And remember, this is Jesus praying, by the way. Notice what Jesus did not say.
He did not say. Are Jesus, Who Art in Heaven? He did not say pray to me. He said our father. Who Art in Heaven, yes, Jesus Is God. Yes. The holy spirit is God, and the father is God, but they have different roles different functions and Jesus. While being 100% God and 100% man gave us a direction toward heaven and to the father to his authority to his authority and to do so in reverence, but as we consider the idea of to the father There was a documentary, some years ago, somewhere in the mid-90s about D-Day. And they were interviewing, a lot of the guys who were still living at the time who took part storming, the beaches of Normandy and World War II. And I asked a bunch of fellows who got off those those boats and landed on the beaches and ran and if you remember, Steven seen the movie Saving Private Ryan, you might get an idea of what took place that day. A lot of guys were killed. A lot of guys were instantly killed the moment that gate opened where they had a store run to the beach. The journeys Rock in the towers firing on down and there were killing them. That's where the bodies were piling up in the water and Aziz. Guys were jumping over the bodies to try to get to the beach and to try to find some shelter. They were interviewing those guys. And all of those guys in unison said, I didn't think we had a had a chance to win. We're going to lose. That's from their perspective. Now the interview, the pilots who flew the the planes above and who did the bombing? And I asked all those guys and what they saw was we're going to win or we're going to win. And that's the idea with prayer, you know, we look at prayer and we look at the things in our lives. And we see them from our perspective. But God has another view. That's why he's in heaven or not. And he knows all knows what we need before we ask. And so there's some things in life that we might pray for that. We don't get. That's because God has a view that we don't have, God knows what's best for you. He knows what's best for me. And so this is the type of prayer that were talking about looking up to the father. So again, prayer teaches us that God is our great, father. It's interesting to understand that the word father has describing God is really found in the New Testament only. You could read your Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and you'll go back and you'll find father being used. But it's always the father of the Jews. Father of Israel. Or some figurative father, but it's never used individually as in your father or as Jesus would say, my father work on the plural aspect of our father. That's how it's used in the New Testament. See there's this transition from this sort of like an informal relationship with a Creator to a more or two more informal relationship to our father. And that's the idea that we need to have. When we think about God. Unfortunately, some of us had poor father's and so we might have a different understanding of the word father. But none the less. We had a great father in God, the father. And that's what Jesus is really pointing out here. He's saying, you can come to him not because of what you've done. Oh, don't don't don't misunderstand. You don't go to God because of what you've done, whether good or bad. You going to cry because you have access to the father and you have access to the father, because you are a child of God. And as a child and as your father, he wants to hear from his children. That's where we petition or Dad. If you will, we say, I messed up. I need to help me now. That's a prayer. That's not a miss. You're asking for Spiritual help. Spiritual guidance spiritual strength, to do the things that God desire of us out of a great father. We're taking one of relationship. We're taking one. Who cares for you. We're thinking about one sent. His only begotten son to die for you. That's how much he cares for you and who are you?
You are a spirit. What all of us she was she on the outside. We see flesh. We see this tent, this building of Flesh that houses our spirit. That's you. That's me, and that's spirit is going to live some place in eternity. It will not die, whether one goes to hell or one goes to heaven. That's Spirit remains. so, This Spirit needs to let God know, let the father know who you are and what you're all About To Boldly, for the father. Like a child does to his dad? Now. There's also this idea of respect for God and although he's our fathers, a story of a gentleman who said, who was the preacher in this one particular church, and this creature is always wear a suit for preaching. That's what he did. All right, and then once he retired or came in and he wasn't so far, all he was more in for a ruined dress casually, like some of you.
And so the old preacher got mad at that and he kept saying, you know, this, this is just unacceptable. We can't have a preacher before the people dressed, like the people we need to dress up a little bit because you were leader and so he met with the young preacher. And he asked the young man. He said, would you dressed that way if you were going to meet the president? Any said I would dress this way if the president was my dad.
Is really hardly a comeback for that, except to say this. We do need to offer God reverence in prayer. We do need to respect him. Remember the words Hallowed be thy name. That's not a statement of fact, that's a petition. Help us to you is the idea. Help us to honor you with our words and in our prayers where to give God the glory even in prayer. That's what Jesus is pointing at. There's more to prayer than just asking. God. Give me, give me, give me, give me, help me, help me, help me, help me. Jesus saying you got to you got to come to father. He's going to love you. He's going to care for you, but you got to give him respect and you've got to show him honor. Because that's who he is. It's certainly here. Has he desires that from us? And he certainly deserves that honor. We just began our service. Singing To God, Be The Glory. Even in our prayers, we give glory to God, we give glory to God in our lives and our actions, and what we say. And what we do, we go down to Harps. We give glory to God in the way we presented ourselves. We have husbands and wives will give glory to God. How we treat one another. Boyfriends and girlfriends, we honor God and give him the glory and how we treat one another and how we behave before. God. With one another. Those types of things that life is all of life is about showing God, honor by giving him glory by what we say. And what we do. So God is the father that we need to understand and he is a great, great father. With all things. With God, all things are possible. And so, here's another thing to consider now, Jesus did not say that whatever you ask God's going to give it to you. That's not what he said. He just said with all things With God, all things are possible that God can do what he wants to do. But he wants to do it in his own way and he wants you to come to him and his own way, not in your own way, but we're to approach. God, the way God has given us in the Bible to approach him and we can read about that. We can learn that we can make that application. There's a lot of people in this life that have no idea what God says about prayer because they have no idea what's in the Bible. But that's how you get to know God. It's, how you get to know him intimately. And it never ends. It never ends. And so in his Ephesian letter, Paul rides blessed, be the God, and father of our Lord. Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places in Christ in Christ. For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be. Holy. And Without Blame before him in love having predestined us to adoption as Sons by Jesus Christ to him. And he has done. So at the good pleasure of his will and glory and him, praise to his grace. Glory and praise to his grace because he's done all that. He's giving you and me every spiritual blessing. We are in Christ. He chose us before the foundation of the world. Where in Christ, the Bible tells us how to get into Jesus Christ. Be baptized into Crux, is what we're told. That's how you get into Christ and upon doing. So guess what? You are provided all every spiritual blessing there, possibly can be Can you say it again? Hey, man, you have that but then he says you're adopted. God has adopted each of us because of that. But what about being born again? How we're born again by the word by the spirit for born again, but we're born again. To be adopted. That's the point. God has adopted us, you know, you don't get accidentally pregnant. But you do will and do desire and want to adopt, and that's the point that Jesus making regarding God, he wants you. You're not an accident. He went out of his way to adopt you from all the people in the world. This is my child. I want you. That's the adoption, but there's going to be a process to that adoption. We have to come by, don't we? We have to come by that, we have to repent of our sins. We have to confess him as our Lord and savior. And then he says he that believes and is baptized shall be saved and put him on a baptism. And then once were there, we had every spiritual blessing. And with that, all things are possible. And so he grants us and tells us to come to the father, come to the front of his grace have boldly. Boli's.
He wants you to be square with him. Want you to talk, he wants to talk to you face-to-face, and he wants you, to be honest, and he wants you to be down right down the Middle With You.
Don't move.
You might as well just admit it and just let it go. Let him have it. Let him have it. And so notice sometimes we think, well, I don't know. I just don't know. James tells us pray, without doubting. You know, if you come boldly to the throne of grace, then you got to have the strength and stamina of your faith to say, he's going to do it. My God is going to do it because he's my father. And what father does not want to please his child. Notice in a piece of 3:20. Here's what Paul says, now to him, it was able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that. We ask or think. Wow. He can do it. He wants to do it. Pray to him. Prayer. Teaches us that to God. Be the glory to him. Be the glory in the church by Christ. Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Go to God, pray to him, give your heart to him, giving your heart to him begins today. Today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone of us. But he does say, salvation is today. Don't let it go. And what is he say? He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. Have you done that? How do you put on Jesus Christ in baptism? The Lord says soar through Paul. He says for you are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you has been baptized into Christ. Have put on Christ. You close yourself with Christ. Have you done that? If you haven't, you have that opportunity this morning to do. So, perhaps you've done that but you just haven't been faithful to Christ. You haven't been faithful to his word. And he says, you can start over. There's no problem. Child start over now. Just repent of your sins, come back and get you wrong, and you're coming back for good. If you're subject to That, Wonderful Life Giving imitation, why don't you come by say that's Together? We Stand and say,