Teach me to pray luke 11:1-4

Lord teach me to pray Luke 11:1-4

Prayer, it’s one of the pat answers to every problem. Yet how many times are people taught how to pray. Jacob has been trying hard in his chemistry class, the big test is tomorrow and he needs to get a good grade. He wants to ask God for help but how? How do you start and when do you stop? Do you say hello God, this is Jacob, then wait for a beep or something? When you’re done do you just hang up on God?

One of the elders in a church I served prayed in King James, another elder prayed and it was like poetry so beautiful and eloquent. I wonder who taught them to pray. I find more people are like Jacob. Does God hear me, or have I really lost it and I am just talking to myself?

1.      Teach us to pray

a.      Found only in Matthew and here in Luke.

b.      Never referred to again

c.       If you start it out congregations will finish it

d.      Start it in a nursing home and people who have forgotten everything else will finish it.

e.      Not meant to be recited, it is meant to be an outline.

f.        Focus on vs 1 “Lord, teach us to pray”

2.      Teaching others how to pray

a.      Take time to explain prayer, what it is and what it’s not.

b.      It is not running down a shopping list

c.       It is like talking to a friend.

d.      There are time to speak and times to listen

e.      Lead them in prayer then let them pray

f.        Do I stand, kneel or sit in a chair?

g.      Do I fold my hand and whisper or raise my hands and shout?

3.      Study the prayers in the Bible

a.      John 17

b.      Psalm 108:1-6

c.       Psalm 109:1-5

d.      Psalm 28:1-9

e.      Psalm 23

f.        1 chr 4:10

g.      Mark 14:32-37

There are no magic words that get God’s attention. There is no format that is needed. Just share your heart and mind with God like you would a close friend and know He hears you.

Teach them to pray.

Meditation, Joshua 1:8&9

 We live in a world that values responding more than thinking. Social media, video games, and smart phones push information at us in an alarming rate. Our natural response when things are thrown at us is to catch them, to respond. We value action movie heroes and sports figures who can make split second decisions under pressure. In our scripture today we find that God tells Joshua to take time to think, time to meditate on God’s word.

Joshua is told to take time throughout the day and night to think about God’s Word and be careful to live according to all that is written in it. Then he is given the promise of prosperity and success. The word meditate is used directly about 20 times in the Psalms. We find people in the Bible meditating from Abraham, the prophets like Daniel, the apostle John who described it as being in the Spirit, and even Jesus made a regular habit of going off alone.

Meditation gets a bad rap because when you use the word meditate we think of people trying to empty their mind. We conger up visions of people sitting cross-legged on a mountain top chanting ummmm.

The meditation we find in the Bible is not emptying your mind but filling your mind. Filling your mind with God’s word and reflecting on it. This time of meditation has a purpose, “that we would be careful to do according to all that is written in it. “

For Bob the most valuable parts of his day was the drive to and from work. At the start of his trip he listened to Greg Lorrie on the radio then shut it off and used the rest of the drive to think. Before the day came upon him with all its pressures, he had some time to think about God’s Word. On the way home was a time to reflect and decompress, 45 minutes to think about how God wanted him to handle things.

 

1.      The push to respond

a.      Heroes

b.      Information push

c.       Natural to catch

2.      Joshua is told to meditate

a.      Ideas of meditation

b.      Biblical meditation

c.       20 times in Psalms

d.      Abraham, prophets like Daniel

e.      Jesus went to quit places

f.        John and Peter describe times of being the Spirit

3.      Meditation

a.      Bob

b.      In your reading and in your study take time to reflect

c.       What is this about? What can I do with it?

4.      James 1:19-27 for 7 minutes.

5.      14 minutes a day

a.      7 minutes to read

b.      7 minutes to reflect

6.      God’s promise

a.      To Joshua

b.      To you

The challenge: 14 minutes a day for God. You will be amazed how it could change your life.

2 Timothy 2:14&15 How to Study Your Bible

2 Timothy 2:14&15  How to Study Your Bible.

We have been looking at how to pass on your faith to others through Discipleship. Last week we talked about the importance of reading your Bible. This week I want talk about how to study your Bible. 2 Tim 2:14&15 “rightly handling the word of truth”  When we are reading what happens when a scripture strikes us? When we are part of a weekly Bible study how do we prepare? When spending time with your Barnabas or your Timothy you will want to take time to study together.

1.      Pray

2.      Read it twice

a.      Once slowly by itself.

b.      Second in context, before and after.

3.      Look for words

a.      Words you don’t know or are unsure of.

b.      Logic words, therefore, if, and, but, will, must, not…

c.       Where are subject words used elsewhere in the Bible.

d.      Concordance, subject index, cross references.

4.      Now look at the notes

a.      Study Bible Notes

b.      Bible Study Book

c.       Commentary

5.      Write down what it says or means

a.      In your own words.

b.      What would it mean to the org readers?

c.       What does it mean to us today?

d.      What does it tell us to do?

6.      Pray

James 1:19-26 “Hearing and Reading”

James 1:19-26  “Hearing and Reading”

We have talked about our need to be deliberate in passing on our faith. We have talked about the need to have a Barnabas and the need to have a Timothy. I gave you a challenge of getting together with one person for coffee and discussion. I also talked about how important the Bible is to our life. Today I want to talk about how to help your Timothy make the Bible their reference point for life.

In the passage we read today James talks about looking into the word like intently looking into a mirror. It is reading Gods’ Word in a way that is focused and with a purpose in mind. So we should have an intentional time of reading the Bible. A time that is intentional in that it is planned for each day. And Intentional in that it is with the intent of doing what it says.

When you are training your Timothy challenge him or her to read their Bible every day. When you meet with them take time to read together God’s Word and then reflect on it. Take as little as 7 minutes each day.

2 Timothy 3:16 says All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for ….

(Repeat 3 times.)

Psalm 119:106

Now we memorized two verses.

Why every day?
Have you ever heard a song in the morning and cannot get it out of your head? What if we replace that song with a Bible passage? All through the day it will be there for you to think on and get understanding and focus from.

When I taught guitar I always stressed the you end your daily practice by doing the song right, because I know that our mind will repeat that last time. For good or for bad it does it.

Also you have no hope of following Gods’ word if you have not read it.

(Please get out your Bible and turn to Matthew 5. I am setting 7 minutes of our time today to read Matthew 5,6, and 7. We will all make different amounts of progress. But we will all accomplish the same thing. So read with the intent of finding what God desires for you to know and do.

Read your Bible with your Barnabas and your Timothy. Challenge them to read it just 7 minutes a day. Read it with the intent of doing what it says. Look for what you can apply to your life. Then put what you have learned into action.

Your challenge for this we is to read your Bible every day for 7 minutes each day. Also continue to meet with the person you have met with for coffee the last two weeks and now include 7 minutes of reading the Bible together.

Psalm 119:106 The Bible is our base.

Psalm 119:106  The Bible is our base.

We have been looking at the command to “God and Make Disciples” from Matthew 28:19&20.
We have talked about everyone’s need for a Barnabas to teach them how to live their faith. And we saw how we need to have a Timothy, to whom we are passing on what we have learned.

Today we will look at the base for everything we teach, the Bible.

Every building needs a cornerstone. It may be an actual stone or it may be just a reference point. Using strings and measuring sticks, or lasers tape measures, we lay out the rest of the building in relation to that point, that cornerstone.

When building our life in Jesus we need a reference point, a cornerstone to work from. This is why I talk so much about what the Bible says. Without the reference point of God’s word we would be lost.

Psalm 119:106 “Thy work is a lamp”
In a world of darkness God’s word is a light to guide where we step. As well as directing us down the road.

We have all had the experience of walking down a stairs and missing a step, or bumping into a piece of furniture in the middle of the night.

Joshua 1:8 This book of the law”
The Bible holds the keys to having a prosperous and successful life in Christ. Not worldly success but spiritual success. A life in Christ that works every day.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God… Complete and equipped
In God’s word we find wholeness and the tools we need to not only build our life but the lives of others.

Acts 6:2-4 give up preaching to serve tables…devote to prayer and ministry of the Word.

Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching

The Bible is important because with it we know the truth of what we are passing on to someone else.

The Bible helps us avoid false teaching and spiritual fads.

As we work with our Barnabas and Timothy we need to use the Bible as our base, our cornerstone. Make sure what we are learning and teaching is from the Bible.

Acts 16:1-5 Paul finds Timothy

Acts 16:1-5 Paul finds Timothy

Discipleship relationships are meant to naturialy move on. Each person grows and matures to a point where they need to share what they have with a new person. The natural inclination is to stay put. The disciples stayed in Jersualem until God drove them out. Paul and Barnabas stay together but God uses Mark to drive them apart so they can share what they know with a new person. This is part of the reason there are so many church splits. When a church fails to focus out and make new Christ Followers, God breaks them up. So Barnabas and Paul split, Barnabas takes Mark and Paul chooses Silas. But God had another person in mind for Paul, Timothy.

God intends for each of us to share what we know with a Timothy. God has used this way of working for a long time.

Elijah and Elisha 1 Kings 19:19-21  and 2 Kings 2:1-11
Jesus and James, John and Peter Matthew 4:18-22
Paul will send Timothy out on his own. Timothy is in Ephesus
Paul instructs Timothy to share what he knows. 2 Timothy 2:1&2

 

Share what God has given you.
Forgiveness
Grace
Compasion
Hope
Love
James 1:17 every good gift…

 

Believe what you have is useful
Believe what you have is needed
Believe what you have will be accepted.

You can not preach it or teach it in a quick class
It must be shared in time, through the context of life.
As you share you grow.

Home Work: meet with the person you went to have coffee with last week and this week pray together for God to lead you to your Timothy.

Somewhere in your circle is a Timothy, an Elisha. Will you take time this week and pray that God will show you your Timothy. 2 Timothy 2:1&2

Acts 9:26-31 “Building By Design”

Acts 9:26-31 “Building By Design”

A young man gets on a bus and heads to SanDiego CA. He arrives at marine boot camp where during the coming weeks he is yelled at, cursed at, put beyond his physical limits, and runs everywhere so he can wait in line when he gets there. Women get the same treatment in their boot camp. Every part of their life is planned to turn them from ordinary people and into marines.

Jesus took three years took 12 men and turned them into Apostles. They were an unlikely group of fishermen, tax collectors and young men. He would teach them, train then and guide them for 3 years. At the end of that time He died on a cross and trusted the spiritual life of the world to them.

How many of you here today would say that what Jesus did and taught was accidental and not planned? Everything Jesus did was planned even when it did not look like it. Johns 9:1-7

How do we become believers and Christ Followers? How do we learn to pray, read the Bible? Or carry out a ministry? Sadly most of what a Christian learns is by accident and not on purpose.

Matthew 28:19-20 “Go and Make….” God gave us a direct command to make disciples and teach. Our Session is developing a blue print for the ministry for our church. A plan for how we can deliberately accomplish God’s goal of making disciples. A plan for how we can build each person up to become Adult, mature, and ministering followers of Jesus.

Proverbs 27:17 As Iron sharpens Iron….

How do we do this? To get an answer we will start with the life of Paul.
a. extreme hate for the church
b. confronted by Jesus
c. becomes an evangelist
d. Builders of churches
e. the writer of much of our new testament

Paul had Barnabas.
a. Barnabas is the “son of encouragement”
b. Barnabas sticks up for Paul
c. Barnabas trains Paul
d. work, study, pray, reflect on life, and work together.

We all need a Barnabas
a. A person to teach us what it means to be a follower of Jesus
b. A person who will show us how to live and think like Jesus
c. a person who will encourage us to grow
d. A person who knows you
e. A person who teaches you to read your Bible, how to Pray, etc.

When I look out I see a group of people who should be Barnabas and very few Paul’s. But the truth is there are more of us that are in need of a Barnabas. So you will need to be Barnabas for each other.  Over the coming weeks I am going to teach you how to be a Jesus Follower and how to be a Barnabas for each other. I call it “Building by Design”

What I ask of you is going to take time every week. What I ask will take courage to get out of your comfort zone. Some of you will think you don’t need to do this because you’re to old. But I tell you our church needs you to do this. Someone else in our church needs you to do this. And You need you to do this.

The first step in doing this is to choose one other person in the church to go through this process with. Men with Men, Women with Women. Once you have decided who you will meet with take time this week and go out for coffee together and just talk. No Bible, No agenda, just coffee and a friendly conversation. What we do and learn in the coming weeks depends on you partnering with another person.

Don’t you need a Barnabas in your life? Someone who will believe in you even when others do not? Don’t you need someone to encourage you in your walk with Jesus instead of brining you down? If you’re going to have a vital Christian faith you need a Barnabas. Right now in your life there is someone that needs you to be a Barnabas for them.

Please don’t let your church down. Please don’t let me down. But most of all don’t let yourself down. Team up with one other person this week and be a Barnabas for each other.