Sermons
“When you pray,” Jesus begins as he teaches about prayer. Jesus assumes we will pray—that prayer will be a part of our daily life. But many of us find prayer to be a difficult discipline. We get distracted, or feel too busy, or don’t know where to start. How do we break through these barriers?
First we have to recognize what prayer is and what prayer is for. Then we can begin to press into prayer.
Most of us don’t think about evil very often—even less about Satan. He is neither a pleasant nor popular topic of conversation. Which makes him all the more effective.
Jesus teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” How does Satan work in the world, and how can we resist him?
“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” Jesus teaches us to pray.
Forgiveness is one of the hardest spiritual practices, yet God nevertheless calls us to forgive one another as he has forgiven us. What is the true nature of forgiveness? Why is it so hard? And how is it possible to forgive, even when it is so difficult?
“Give us this day our daily bread,” Jesus teaches us to pray. In ancient cultures, when workers got paid at the end of each day, and when life was more day-to-day, this was easier to understand. But today we buy groceries for the week, get paid every two weeks, pay our rent every month, and our taxes once/year. How do we know if we’re praying for daily bread or annual bread? What’s the difference between responsibility and excess? And does God really care about something as insignificant as my next meal?
Everyone has a source of authority – something or someone whose word we accept as truth. For some of us it’s God; for others a philosophy or political cause; for still others it’s ourselves. But we all submit to something or someone.
When Jesus teaches us to pray, “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” he challenges us to identify who our authority is, and he urges us to commit our whole self—head, heart, and hands—to that cause.
Everyone worships something. Who or what do you worship?
Jesus teaches us to begin our prayers, “Hallowed be thy name.” He’s not only teaching us how to pray, but he’s teaching us how to live.
What does it look like to worship (or hallow) God in every part of our lives?
As Jesus teaches what real spirituality looks like, he teaches us to pray. “Don’t pray like the pagans,” he warns us.
How do pagans pray? What kind of prayers are we supposed to avoid?
And how do we pray?
