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| God reminds us every day He is our Creator. |
Sermon Parkrose Nursing Home 15/07/12 by Geoff Thompson
The Lord’s Prayer Matthew 6:7-15
The Lord’s Prayer is one of the first and
sometimes the only thing most Christians learn to recite out loud.
We do so in Church
In Funerals and on special occasions.
I remember a friend telling me years ago
that she and her family were trapped in the middle of Cyclone Tracy in Darwin
and they were all very frightened and huddled in their bathroom as the cyclone
raged around them.
They were not practicing Christians and
probably at best lapsed Christians.
They were so scared that one of them
suggested they pray but they did not know where to start.
They stumbled through the Lord’s Prayer and
at the end one of them said “make sure you say amen on the end of it as it doesn’t
count if you don’t say amen!”
Regardless of their very little faith and
only praying because they were in danger they were spared from the cyclone.
I wonder how many gave thanks to God after
wards and whether that incident was enough to cause them to seek more of God.
Have you ever prayed in a situation like
that where you were extremely scared.
Sometimes we may not have enough time to
think to pray.
The following was one of those occasions.
Some years ago I was in Wallaroo staying in
a motel on the foreshore on a work trip.
I had been staying there with my boss and
we both had separate rooms.
We had been to visit my brother who was
school teaching in Port Pirie and got back about 11pm.
My boss had gone to bed and I was reclining
on the end of the bed watching the Don Lane show on a black and white tv
alongside the bed.
The tv was chained to the wall.
Suddenly there was a muffled explosion and
the tv was moving towards me then it slammed back against the wall.
I did not have time to pray.
The windows had all blown outwards and
flames were coming in and had caught alight to the curtains.
I realized I was airborne about a foot above
the bed in a reclining position.
All could do was focus on the doorknob and
I wanted to get out of there.
I was in underpants and a shirt and I don’t
think my feet touched the ground for about 30 yards.
Some men who were at a meeting in the dining
room of the Motel told me they saw a sheet of flame fly out from my room and I
came hurtling out afterwards.
One told me “You can thank God you are
alive.”
I said I already did.
A gas leak under the floor boards had
caught alight and exploded.
The Lord’s prayer is a prayer that Lord
Jesus taught the disciples as a model for how we are to pray.
It is an extremely effective prayer and
model for our prayers if we pray it and don’t just say it.
It is also a prayer in itself, a stand
alone prayer.
If we never prayed another prayer this
prayer would still draw us closer to God if we prayed it rather than said it.
First of all it opens with “Our Father who
is in Heaven.”
This reminds us who God is and our
relationship to Him.
We are His children.
It tells us He is in Heaven.
An eternal safe and Holy place.
“hallowed be thy name” reminds us He is
Holy.
Through prayer we are entering the Holy of
Holies.
“Thy Kingdom Come “ reminds us that He is
going to re establish His Kingdom on earth.
It gives us hope for the future when the
corrupt and evil world as we know it will be no more.
“Thy will be done.”
This reminds us that God is always wanting
that His will be foremost in the affairs of men.
It also reminds us that when we pray we
should be seeking His will in the matter and taking the time to work out what
His will should be in the situation troubling us.
We
can learn what is His will by reading the Bible.
“On earth as it is in Heaven.”
God’s will is 100% followed and obeyed in
Heaven.
He is also concerned about our earthly existence
and that which is to come.
Our prayers should be taking into account
the here and now and the future and prayed with this in mind.
It is also reminding us that we don’t have
to wait for heaven to enjoy the fullness of our salvation now.
In Ephesians 1 it
already tells us we are seated in Heavenly places.
“Give us this day our Daily Bread” This
reminds us we can pray for our physical needs and God wants to hear our
petitions.
We in our household ,have been reminded
recently how God can supply our needs and the needs of others as He chooses.
An older friend of ours is in the habit of
frequenting a couple of Adelaide Bakery outlets.
He is able through this connection to
collect many loaves of bread and associated products each day at no cost.
These are what are called “yesterdays
bread” which they are not allowed to keep for sale or they have a policy about
this.
Through our friend, who is really an angel
unawares, we are able to help many families each week with their daily bread.
We did not pray for this to happen but
often God is wanting to and does enter into, the affairs of Men, as Jesus is
praying constantly on our behalf in Heaven and alongside His Heavenly Father.
He does engineer circumstances.
It has given us contact with lots of people who we can share God’s love with.
“Forgive us our enemies as we forgive those
who trespass against us.”
This reminds us of the absolute necessity
to forgive our enemies however much we have been wronged.
Would we want God to forgive us the way we
forgive others?
“And lead us not into temptation but
deliver us from evil”
Often in the urgency of a moment we may not
have time to pray.
God is telling us to pray for protection in
advance.
Here is a prayer that I have in my Bible
that helps us to do that.
“for Thine is the Kingdom ,the Power and
the Glory, for ever and ever amen.
Yes indeed .
Prayer reminds us and brings us into the
Kingdom, the Power and the Glory for ever. t means we can have a relationship with our Heavenly Father.
And what about Amen?
That means :
amen |äˈmen, āˈmen|
exclam.
uttered
at the end of a prayer or hymn, meaning ‘so be it.’
• used to
express agreement or assent: amen to that!
noun
an
utterance of “amen.”
ORIGIN Old
English, from ecclesiastical Latin, from Greek amēn, from Hebrew ' āmēn ‘truth,
certainty,’
used adverbially as expression of agreement or consent, and adopted in the
Septuagint as a solemn expression of belief or affirmation.
Praying in agreement and authority with
each other and in line with God’s will is very important in seeing our prayers
answered.
Amen?
It will be appropriate I think after our
final Hymn and benediction to sing the 3 fold amen. Not just sing it but pray
it in agreeance with our message this
morning!
Matthew 6
King James Version (KJV)
6 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of
them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
2 Therefore when thou doest thine
alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say
unto you, They have their reward.
3 But when thou doest alms, let not
thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
4 That thine alms may be in secret:
and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say
unto you, They have their reward.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter
into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is
in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7 But when ye pray, use not vain
repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for
their much speaking.
8 Be not ye therefore like unto them:
for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9 After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we
forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever. Amen.
14 For if ye forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as
the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they
may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint
thine head, and wash thy face;
18 That thou appear not unto men to
fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in
secret, shall reward thee openly.
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through
and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also.
22 The light of the body is the eye: if
therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole
body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be
darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters: for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the
one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no
thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for
your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body
than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for
they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly
Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can
add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they
spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the
grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall
he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be
clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the
Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these
things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the
morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof.
