OPENING SLIDE Today is the second Sunday of a six week sermon series called, Delighting in the Divine.

This series is about prayer. The Aim is for us as individuals and as a community to go deeper in our prayer life. When this series is concluded on October 13th I hope that all of us will have taken steps or even leaps towards having a deeper prayer life. I started last Sunday by giving an overview of prayer. I shared some of the story of my own prayer life. When I graduated from college I wanted to change the world, but I never would have envisioned that prayer would be such a large part of that. I shared how God moved me from not knowing how to pray to where I am today. I also taught you that to pray means we intentionally abide in God. Jesus said that he is the vine and we as his followers are the branches. When we abide in God we intentionally connect to the vinethis deep source of spiritual strength. I closed by challenging folks to be prayer partners during the series. I was blown away when I found out that 28 people last Sunday signed up to have a prayer partner. Wow! Yay, God! Were going to commission the prayer partners today during the Friendship Time. You can still sign up to have a prayer partner. Well be sharing all sorts of resources on prayer during this series. One resource is the brochure that is in the bulletin. This week I wrote a devotion on the Lords Prayerthe best prayer that has ever been shared. On the back is a listing of prayer requests from the people at Chain of Lakes. In the middle is a place where you can take notes. I believe God might say something to you in this sermon. Let me briefly tell you about next week sermon. During worship Im doing an open mike sermon. I want to respond to the hardest and most difficult questions you can develop about prayer. Im going to encourage you to ask those questions during the sermon. Im not going to

know the questions in advance. This week think about the hardest question you have about prayer and then ask that question next Sunday. To grow in prayer as a congregation we want to share our prayer stories with each other. Let me share a story from this week. Ive worked really hard the last month at Chain of Lakes 60 to 65 hours a week. On Thursday morning I was dragging. It was hard to get out of bed. As I was lying in bed I decided that I would pray like I taught you in worship last week. I took a shower, made some coffee, went to my prayer table. Im going to abide in God. For 15 minutes I prayed, Lord help me abide in you, and then I would be silent. Ideas and thoughts would come to me, and I would pray about them. At the end of 15 minutes I felt ready to face another day. We can do that. Lets try right now. Today were going to look at the best prayer ever shared the Lords Prayer. Its a model prayer. We can find a version of the Lords Prayer in two places in the gospelsin Matthew and Luke. Youll read about both of them in your devotion this week. In Lukes telling of the story the disciples came up to Jesus and said, teach us how to pray. Jesus taught them by sharing the Lords Prayer. In Matthew the Lords Prayer is part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus taught his disciples that they neednt share empty words in their prayers. God knows what we need. In prayer we share our hearts with God. Jesus then shared what we know as the Lords prayer. Lets say them slowly just as if we are praying to God. SLIDE 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 debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. Matthew 6:9-13 One question I frequently get asked about the Lords Prayer is why do some churches say debts and other churches say trespasses. Which ones do which? SLIDE Presbyterian and other Reformed churches use debts in the Lords Prayer: Catholics, Anglicans and Methodists use trespasses in the Lords Prayer: Why? Let me share some history. SLIDE The first English translation of the Bible was done by a man named John

Wycliffe. He translated the Bible from Latin to English. The first edition was done in 1384 and the last was done in 1395. When he translated Matthew 6:12 he used the English word, debts. Lets fast forward 300 years to the 17th century. Who here has heard of the King James Bible? Who has a King James Bible at their home. SLIDE Here is a picture of King James. King James ordered a new translation of the

Bible. The translators of the King James version followed the Wycliffe wording in Matthew 6:12 If you have a King James Bible look up Matthew 6:12 Youll find the word debts. Presbyterian and other Reformed churches tended to follow the King James version. So we use debts. Why do some people use trespasses?. In 1526 a man by the name of William Tyndale did an English translation of the Bible. SLIDE Here is his picture. When he translated Matthew 6:12 he used the word,

trespass. When the Church of England wrote the first Book of Common Prayer they used

William Tyndales translation of the Bible. When you see the Lords Prayer in the Book of Common prayer youll see the word trespasses. So Episcopals and Methodists use trespasses. Whats the difference between a debt and trespass. Both debts and trespasses describe our sins SLIDE Debtsomething that we owe Trespassgoing to a place where we shouldnt be When we sin we create a debt that we owe to God. I know of some churches who have people hammer nails into a cross on Good Friday to represent how we ourselves crucify Jesus every time we sin. God has given us the gift of life and teaches us how to enjoy life to the fullest, but we ignore God. When we sin we owe something to God. Its our debt. When we pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors we are asking God to wipe the slate clean. Anyone here have credit card debt? Forgiveness is like receiving a text from the credit card company saying that our debt is wiped clean. Anyone here owe the bank any money? Forgiveness is like having the bank E-mail us to say that we no longer owe anything. Just as our debts have been wiped clean, we are called to forgive the debts that others owe us. We are called to be forgiving people. Im guessing some of us know others who have a hard time forgiving. This person has a whole list of resentments they have stashed away. Those resentments are most likely legitimatethe person has been hurt or slighted. But the person cant let go of the debts that others owe them. Carrying these debts is a huge load. There is a tremendous weight to carrying resentments. Is that person us? Do we carry resentments? Do we remember the debts that others owe us.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. God wants us to forgive. Trespasses has a slightly different nuance. Weve all seen this sign? SLIDE No trespassing. When we trespass we travel into an area we shouldnt be. Addicts know this. An alcoholic knows that he or she shouldnt treaspass in a bar. If we struggle with pornography we know we shouldnt trespass at certain web sites or use certain magazines. Sometimes we trespass into other peoples relationships when we shouldnt. If two people are having a conflict we might wade in to share our opinion. We do it when the two havent even asked us for help. Even if others are struggling in relationship, were not called to fix them. We arent called to trespass in that place unless we are asked. Let me teach you how the Lords Prayer can help us in our own prayer life. I want to share with you the acronym, PPL. Say that with me, PPL. The first P stands for Praise. The Lords Prayer starts out with Praise. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. This line is a prayer of praise. When we pray the the first thing we do is address God. Our Father. Jesus would frequently called God Abba. It was a term of intimacy. Abba, father, daddy. This week Im going to be away in Florida at a church conference. Ill be in worship next Sunday. I remember many times when I was away and I would call home. Hannah would come on the line and say, Hi daddy! That just melts my heart When we say, Our Father, I think that melts Gods hearts. God is so interested in us.

The term father is a non-inclusive term. Presbyterians and many others have had disagreements over inclusive language. Many people dont like to use the term father because it denotes Gods gender. Gods character goes far beyond gender. Gender cant contain God. Some people only use Father in addressing God because they believe that is how God is addressed in the Bible. A rift has developed. I think its appropriate to address God as Father. Just as I think its appropriate to address God in many different ways. The key, as always, is balance. I want to encourage us to use many different terms to address God. We can look at the ways we address God. Do we get locked into one term or do we pray in a variety of ways. Let me show you how this can work. Psalm 103 is one of the most beautiful Psalms of the 150. I made a list of ways that God is described in Psalm 103. SLIDE Forgiver, healer, Redeemer, merciful, gracious, compassionate, everlasting, righteous, full of steadfast love. When we address God, we can use these adjectives. Forgiving God, healing God Hallowed be thy name. Hallowd is an old English word This is a term of praise. This is a way to start out our prayers. When we praise God we praise God for a quality of God. Praise is different than thanks as in thanks we give thanks for something that we have. In Priase we praise God for being God. A simple way to praise is to take these qualities and say, I praise you for ____. When we praise something happens to our own hearts. They are lifted up. Thats why we start our worship with praise. This is why I encourage people to come early to worship. Be ready to go at the start because you dont want to miss this time of praise.

When we pray if we dont know what to say, just say Yay, God! We use this here at Chain of Lakes. SLIDE Pwe address God and then we praise God Pwe share our petitions One of the petitions from the Lords Prayer is this give us this day our daily bread. This is a honest petition. Our petitions are most powerful when they reflect the honesty of our own hearts. When we pray God doesnt want us to share flowery words that dont mean anything to us. God wants our heartour honesty. If were concerned about a family member, pray for that. Lord, help this person. Jesus was critical of people who were praying because their prayers didnt mean anything to them. They were just words. Our prayers should not be just words. They need to mean something to us. They mean most when they reflect our heart. Sometimes we dont know what to pray. That happens often. If we dont know how to pray for something make that our prayer. Take the situation in Syria right now. I dont know how to pray for it. I dont know if I should pray for the Russian plan, or for the rebels to take over, or for the United States to stay out. Im always praying for peace, but that doesnt seem to be enough. When were unsure about a situation we can pray our uncertainty. Lord, Im unsure how to pray about this. Give me clarity in how to pray. God wants our honesty SLIDE Final part Llet go The last part of the Lords Prayer is called the doxology. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

This phrase isnt found when Jesus taught his followers the Lords Prayer. When the Lords Prayer was put together the doxology was added. The doxology is based on a prayer by David. David raised money for the building of the temple. People brought offerings to build the temple. He offered a prayer. We heard the reading today. SLIDE Then David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly, David said: blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, 1 Chronicles 29:10-11 Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever comes from this Scripture. I think a wonderful way to conclude our prayers is to say, Its all yours. This phrase comes from this prayer of Davids. In a month we are going to do our stewardship drive. In stewardship we recognize that God owns everything. Everything we have is a gift from God. You and I are called to manage what God gives to us. The Scriptures teaches about the tithe, so we get to keep 90 percent of what God has given to us. Why would we do that. Its all yours God Let me ask, whats most important to you. As you reflect on what is important to you, pray the doxology and then pray, Its all yours. For me whats most important is my familymy marriage and our daughter. This week I looked at Hannah and I prayed, For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Lord, Hannah is all yours. When I prayed that I experienced freedom. Ultimately Hannah belongs to god. Amy and I are her parents, but ultimately she doesnt belong to usshe belongs to God. Whats most important to you. Pray this week, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory foreverAmen. Its all yours.

If we pray this way, well experience freedom. We dont have to take ourselves so seriously; we dont have to grip life so tightly. We can let it go to God. God is good and loving and wants the best for us. When we let go we will live with less anxiety and more freedom. Try something this week. As you are lying in bed at the end of the day, pray, Lord, thank you for this day. Its all yours. PPL Praise/Petition/Let Go Lets pray the Lords Prayer