A primary teaching in the Lord’s Prayer is that prayer is us connecting and communing with God. Its pretty amazing when you stop to think about it . . . we get to talk with and share life with the creator God of the Universe. The Old Testament, beginning with the fall of man in Genesis 3, reveals God’s plan of how sinful humans can have relationship with a Holy God. Humans could not come to God on our own, and because of His Holiness, God would not come to man as He did before sin entered humanity. During the life of Moses God provided a temporary way for this to happen through the temple. The temple is an earthly representation of what heaven is like, most notably as the place where God dwells. In a very tangible way, the temple was a place on earth where heavenly things were done, which centered around communion with the God of heaven.

In the Lord’s Prayer when Jesus said, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” we hear language that draws our attention to what was temporarily accomplished in the Old Testament Temple: Sinful humans could have communion with the Holy God of the Universe. To pray for God’s will to be on earth as it is in heaven is to fully engage in communion with God so that His kingdom will be seen here on earth. Ultimately, the Kingdom of God will be fulfilled in the age to come. However, scripture is clear that we can experience elements of that Kingdom while we are here on earth. So, When You Pray, Seek Heaven on Earth. 

Praying Over the News

During this church wide series on prayer, I have come to realize that most of us struggle with how to process and respond to troubling world events. Watching the news only makes the anxiety level grow. Have you ever thought about praying over the news? Let me introduce you to a great tool that helps us look at the news from a Biblical, Godly worldview, then to pray over those events for God’s glory through them. It’s called the Pour Over. It’s free, it comes out 3 times a week and you can either read it or listen to the podcast. There are versions to do with kids as well as other resources. If the news is troubling for you, give the Pour Over a try . . .

Announcement – We will never send you a request through a text message asking you to donate to the church. This week people from our church have received text messages that look like they are from Pastor Andrew, asking for gift cards. We will never do that.

Sunday, we continue our journey through the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. Our Community Groups are doing studies in conjunction with my message from “The Prayer Course”. You can watch those videos through our Right Now Media account – you can access that through the button in our church newsletter / bulletin.

This week we will look at “Give us each day our daily bread” – Petition. In our community groups this week we learned that our prayers need to be relational not transactional. Prayer primarily needs to be coming to God in relationship for the purpose of strengthening that relationship. But, just as in a parent child relationship, our relationship with the Father includes asking him to do things for us. We call that “petition.” It is clear from the Lord’s prayer that God wants us to come to him with any and all needs we have. 

After the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11:5-13 Jesus tells a parable about an impertinent man who shamelessly wakes his neighbor up in the middle of the night to ask for some bread. He doesn’t just ask once, he asks repeatedly until he gets what he needs. On Sunday we will look at that parable as an illustration of how he should think of coming to God with our petitions. Included in Jesus teaching with the parable is the famous admonition for us to ask, seek and knock as part of an effective prayer life. The tense of those verbs is present tense which makes them a continuous practice. Petitioning is something we are to do continuously as part of a healthy prayer life. Join me this Sunday as we continue through the Lord’s Prayer.

This Sunday we start a 4-week church wide emphasis on prayer based on the Lord’s Prayer as found in Matthew 6:5-13. We are breaking the Lord’s Prayer into eight small sections where I will preach on one section on Sunday, followed by our Community Group Studies that week. We will repeat that pattern for 4 weeks. In our Community Groups we will use the Video based material “The Prayer Course” on Right Now Media. If you don’t have Right Now Media, you create an account for free through a link in our church newsletter every week. If you are not in a Community Group this is a good time to join one, even if it’s just for these 4 weeks.
Jesus begins his teaching in the Lord’s Prayer with the phrase, “When you pray . . .” Jesus assumes all people will pray at some time and in some way. But do they pray as God intended for them to pray? Join us for this important series on prayer as we discover what it means to pray the way God intended us to pray.