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Last Sunday we prayed for the families whose children had committed/attempted suicide and had a healing service with the anointing of oil. This past week another tragedy has happened to this community of Clark County as Northwestern High School Junior Nicholas Cole Jonathan “Nick” Haney was killed in a motorcycle wreck on Sunday April 27th. As I have reflected on what all has occurred in this community in the past year, several thoughts have come to my mind. First, the church is not a building. The church is the people who come together in times of joy and tragedy. People, crying with both the tears of happiness and tears of sadness. The church is a body of believers who walk together as one in faith. The front page of the Thursday May 1, 2008 Springfield News Sun reads: Let us pray at special events. Mornings, noon and evening gatherings to mark Day of Prayer. “Three events will mark locally the National Day of Prayer today, May 1. A breakfast will be at 7a.m. at the Courtyard by Marriott and will cost $10. Another event will be held at noon on the City Hall Plaza. A dinner will be served at 6p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church and donations of $6 for adults and $3 for children are requested. The dinner event was added last year to give more people an opportunity to participate during the evening. All three are events are open to the public and will include prayer on seven topics- business, media, education, government, military, families and the church. Volunteers from at least 22 churches began reading aloud the Bible on Sunday afternoon at City Hall Plaza and the marathon reading should wrap up this morning, about 90 hours later. Those who know me well know that my favorite professional football team is the Green Bay Packers and yes, I do own a Green Bay Packers Cheese head! I share this with you for the story has it that Reggie White who is an ordained minister was offered a 17 million dollar contract to play as a defensive end for the Packers. Before signing the contract Reggie stated that he would look to God to tell him to play. The Breen Bay Packers coach Mike Holmgren confessed that knowing Reggie was praying what to do, he left a message on Reggie’s answering machine that said, “Reggie, this is God. Go to Green Bay.” For some, prayer is a struggle and Jesus own disciples who had been with Him for months still had no clue as they asked Jesus in Luke 11:1-13, “Teach us to pray ….” And Mother Teresa answered when asked how to pray, “If you want to pray better, you must pray more.” True prayer comes from within, from the longing of the heart. A woman named Judy Morford expressed this well: “My own prayer life has been through many changes over the years. As a young mother, I had a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a one-year-old, and I found the only time I could really pray was literally in the middle of the night. If I woke up then, I would pray. As the kids grew older, I began getting up at 4:30 in the morning to pray. I still don’t have ideal conditions for regular prayer. As a mother of three teenagers and working full time, I sometimes get too tired to pray. But most days I’m able to work in some time for quiet prayer. Because of my changing schedule over the years, I’ve asked myself, Just what does God expect of me in my prayer life? The answer I have come up with is that God wants a love relationship. God doesn’t want a hired servant; God wants a bride. A true love; which will always find a way. It may not always be the same way, or the prescribed way, but it will be a way that reflects love. That’s what God wants from me. I believe the only true mistake is when we stop praying and the way to pray is best described in Matthew 18: 1-5, the way to heaven is to be childlike in your faith. The way to pray is not by using technical terms or big words but to pray as a child would pray. “Hello daddy, I love you. God bless my momma, my daddy, my brother, my gold fish,” Our Scripture lesson this morning, John 17:1-19, is often referred to as the “real” Lord’s Prayer. It is one that Jesus prays for his friends, his apostles. Jesus is about to depart from them, and He reviews everything He taught them and answers all their questions. Now keep in mind, Jesus was not only a ‘thank you’ Jesus, as He thanked His Father for the blessings of this world, Jesus was also a man of prayer. And we find in John 16:29-33, that Jesus tells His disciples the hour is coming and He will no longer be with them but His Father shall be with them and in this, they may have peace for Jesus has overcome the world. III OF VI Open your Bible to John 17:1-19. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour hast come glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee, since thou hast given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom thou has given him. And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest to me to do; and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made. I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them to me, and they have kept thy word. Now they know that everything that thou hast given me is from thee; for I have given them the words which thou has given me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom thou has given me, for they are thine; all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me, I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, (Perdition: the loss of the soul) that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world. I do not pray that thou shouldst take them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them in the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may also be consecrated in truth.” Please open your United Methodist Hymnal to page 15: The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God It is right to give our thanks and praise. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith. Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. All honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God) now and for ever. Amen. On the night of Jesus’ betrayal as He sat in the Upper Room with His disciples, Jesus took the bread, blessed it giving thanks, broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body broken for you. Eat this often in remembrance of me. After supper Jesus took the cup, gave thanks, blessed it and said, This is my blood of the New Covenant shed for the forgiveness of the sins of many. Drink this often in remembrance of me. The table of the Last Supper has been set and all who believe in Jesus Christ, as their Lord and Savior are welcome. The Table of the Lord is not denominational but symbolic of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ body and blood. Come all and receive. The question has been asked, Prayer, Does it make a difference? Anyone who knows me knows I, John Walter Mock, not only believe that prayer makes a difference. I believe in the power of prayer to change lives and in God’s will, not our will, God’s will to be done. I believe in Jesus’ prayer is an example for all of us for Jesus prayed for Himself, for His disciples and for all, Luke 17: 20-26 “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me in thy love for me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hast not known thee, but I have known thee; and these thou hast sent me, I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Did you notice in Luke 17:1-26, whom Jesus prayed for? Himself, Jesus’ disciples and last, you and I that we may know the love of God in our lives. I do not know where you are in your life right now but in my life the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 17:1-26, offers peace and comfort to me in my life as the words of In The Garden for I know irrelevant of what is going on in the world, in my life, I am not alone. What I am saying to you from my heart and soul is loneliness is a choice irrelevant of where one may be in their life. I can chose to be lonely or even in being physically isolated and alone by illness, by discipline, I can make the choice to feel God’s presence through prayer. For through prayer one can feel unity through the presence of the Holy Spirit in their life. Like the article in the Springfield News-Sun on the National Day of Prayer Thursday May 1, 2008, we can pray morning, noon and night and all are welcomed. Unlike the article in the Springfield News-Sun on the National Day of Prayer Thursday May 1, 2008, we can pray openly about more than seven items to God and there is no cost for participating. The cost? Jesus Christ at Calvary paid the cost in full. I support you in reaching out for a hand near you as we enter into prayer so that we may be in unity with God. Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand, I am tired, I am weak, I am worn; through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light” Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. When my way grows drear, precious Lord, linger near, when my life is almost gone, hear my cry, hear my call, hold my hand lest I fall: Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. When the darkness appears and the night draws near, and the day is past and gone, at the river I stand, guide my feet, hold my hand: Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. Amen |
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