"DANGEROUS PRAYERS'

Rev. Juliet Schimpf By Rev. Juliet Schimpf     ___________________________ Broadcast Notes

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LINK to CFRA broadcast of Sunday, February 21^st, 201) 

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/40526/good_news_197_feb21.mp3

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I’d like to thank the sponsor of today’s broadcast, namely Thomas A. Pegg Plumbing and Heating. A special thank you for this organization who has made today’s show possible.

'Dangerous Prayers'

HOW SHOULD WE PRAY? (“DANGEROUS PRAYERS”)

• C.S.  Lewis:  “God isn’t so concerned about our happiness as he is our holiness.  His chief concern is that we grow up!”

1.    SEARCH ME—A Prayer of Transparency

2.    BREAK ME—A Prayer of Vulnerability

3.    SEND ME—A Prayer of Availability

1.    SEARCH ME---A Prayer of Transparency

Psalm 139:  ^23 “Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Notice that God has already “searched” David.

LOOK AT VERRSES 1-4  “¹ You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.  ² You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.³ You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  ⁴ Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.”

Notice that David gives God permission to “investigate” and “expose” him.

Psalm 139:23-24The Message (MSG)

^23-24 “Investigate my life, O God,
    find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
    get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
    then guide me on the road to eternal life.”

Re. Verse 23:  “Know my heart”--Martin Luther once said, "Grant that I may not pray with my mouth alone; help me that I may pray from depths of my heart."

Jeremiah 17: 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?”

Why is a truthful heart to important?

Matt. 6:21  “Where your heart is….there your treasure is also…”

Prov. 4:23  “Above all else, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life….”

Re. Verse 23 “know my anxious thoughts”—“What we fear the most reveals where we trust God the least!”

Re. Verse 24 “offensive ways”—Often we focus upon the offense of others.  But Matthew 7 states,  1“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”

2.    BREAK ME==a prayer of vulnerability

Matthew 5:3The Message (MSG)  ³ “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”

2 Cor. 12:  ^8”Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. ⁹ Each time he said,“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. ¹⁰ That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Jesus Christ was “broken” for us.  Are we willing to be “broken” for Him?

Luke 22:19 ►

“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

3.    SEND ME==a prayer of availability

There are three responses to God’s call:

1.    Jonah:  “Here I am, I’m not going…” [prompted to do something but didn’t do it]

[I was prompted to have lunch with lady on Sunday, but didn’t]

2.    Moses:  “Here I am, send someone else…” [who am I that I should go?  I’m not good enough or talented enough?  I’m not the right person]

3.    Isaiah:  “Here I am, send me….”

Isaiah 6:8  ^8”And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for ^cus?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Psalm 27:8  "My heart has heard you say, 'Come and talk with me'.  And my heart responds, 'Lord, I am coming.'”

Prayer:

God, we thank you. We thank you that you are a big God and no prayer can be too big for you, nothing is impossible for you. We ask that you would hear us when we pray.

I pray for the listeners today, that they would dare to pray big. That they would dare to ask you to search them, that they would dare to ask you to break them, so that their heart beats for what your heart beats.

And I pray for the listeners that they would dare that you would send them.

And for the listeners who know that you are calling, to send them, that they wouldn’t say, “here am I, send someone else ...here am I, I’m not going.”

That today would be the day, once and for all, that they would say, “Here am I, send me!”

Lord, just comfort and encourage our listeners today, to hear our prayers, and answer our thoughts, for our good and ultimate glory.

In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

Rev. Juliet Schimpf

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/40526/good_news_197_feb21.mp3

'HOW TO PRAY' (Part 1)

Rev. Canon George Sinclair

by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           

 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

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(Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, August 25th , 2013)

http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/15331/good_news_067_aug25.mp3

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Broadcast Notes:

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(Abridged notes covering discussion on Luke 10: 25-42)
 

‘How to Pray’  (Part 1)

(Please click on the audio link: http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/15331/good_news_067_aug25.mp3 for far greater detail.)

 

This week, we look at the only place in the Gospels where somebody asks Jesus to teach them to pray.  (Luke11: 1-4 )

Luke 11:1-4   [English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)]

The Lord's Prayer

11 Now Jesus^[a] was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ² And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
³ Give us each day our daily bread,^[b]
4 and forgive us our sins,
    for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

Footnotes:

1. Luke 11:1 Greek he
2. Luke 11:3 Or our bread for tomorrow

In prayer, can we address God by anything we want? What did Jesus say when he was asked? Jesus said, “When you pray, say ‘Father’.”

When talking of God abstractly, we speak of him in terms of our father/parent (Greek: ‘pater’). But, when addressing God directly and personally, the Greek word is “ab-ba” or “Father/Daddy”.

In adult terms, some may think it childish to say “Daddy”, but we are after all, “children of God, by adoption and grace”. (Reference, also: Romans8: 15-17.)

One way of treating the matter is to address God in public prayer as “Father” (in the personal sense), and in private prayer, use, “Dad” to intimately express recognition before God of one’s respectful/loving father-child relationship, of one’s belonging in a familial sense of service, trust and obedience.

Such intimacy in addressing God seems all the more proper in light of the fact that Jesus is telling us in this scripture that we are God’s children by adoption and grace. Jesus, on on his way to die on the Cross and to rise again, Jesus is pointing to the fact that through his death on the cross, and through his resurrection, God is providing the means through which I can become, and you can become, God’s child by adoption and grace.

Here’s the final take-away: Jesus, on His way to the Cross instructed us on how to pray, intimately to the living God, and to call Him “Father”… as, “Dad”.

That’s spectacular!

Let’s Pray:

Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for His death upon the Cross and His mighty resurrection. We thank you, Father, that by His death upon the Cross, on my behalf and on each person’s behalf, He has provided the means by which you can adopt us, by grace.

And so, Father, we ask that you grow in us a humble trusting knowledge of the greatness of Jesus to be the means by which we can become your child by adoption and grace, and that you help us to turn to Him in faith.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Rev. Canon George Sinclair

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

 http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/15331/good_news_067_aug25.mp3