I can pray 10/27 and 28

This week's message was performed by two youth in each service. The skit can be found at
http://www.dramatix.org/archive/Walk/lords_prayer.html

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Blessings
Terry

I would like to pray… but I have several excellent excuses. 10/21/18

I would like to pray… but I have several excellent excuses.

10/21/18

James Moore’s book many years ago, Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned: But I Have Several Excellent Excuses. When I started thinking about all the excuses we have for not praying, that book immediately came to mind. Who among us has not said, “Lord, I wanted to pray, but I have several excellent excuses.” I doubt that our excuses seem so excellent to God.

I don’t even have to outside of my own life to make a list of excuses because I think I have personally used every excuse in the book.

•             I don’t have time

•             My mind keeps wondering

•             I’m too tired or I keep falling asleep

•             I’m so busy, I’ll get to you tomorrow Lord.

•             You know God, this is NCIS night

•             If I spend time with you I’ll be neglecting my family. You wouldn’t want that would you God?

I’ll bet you have used the same excuses… and maybe you have been even more creative with your excuses. Well, excuses are like Armpits. Everyone has one or two, but none of them are very pretty.

It seems to me that having an excuse is the first step to falling into temptation “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from Evil” is the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer in this series.

Unfortunately, the temptation to not pray is only one of the temptations we face every day, and it might not seem like the most important. On the other hand, our prayer relationship with God is the greatest tool we have against other temptations. So sliding into the temptation to not pray may be the beginning of an avalanche of giving in to all kinds of temptation.

There has been some discussion lately about the best way to express this line of the Lord’s Prayer. The problem is that praying “lead us not into temptation” makes it sound like God is in the business of throwing banana peels in front of us to trick us into sin. James is very clear about this in the first chapter

 No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.”

The Pope took a lot of heat for suggesting that “lead us not into temptation is a poor translation He is wrong in saying it is a bad translation because the Greek word translated as “temptation” can be correctly translated either “temptation” or “testing.”

The Pope, however, has a point that our modern ears do not hear what is intended.

 The Bible teaches that God would NEVER “lead us to temptation.” While the traditional language which we inherited from the Anglican church and the Catholic church before it, is not wrong, perhaps the 1988 Ecumenical version which you find as number 894 in our hymnal helps us to understand a little better “Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil”

  I also find the message Bible helpful here with it says “Keep us safe from ourselves and the devil.”

It is not God who leads us to temptation, but we need God to protect us from temptation, or if you prefer, protect us from ourselves.

With that cleared up, what is temptation then? James does a nice job defining it.

•             One is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it;

•             then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin,

•             and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. 

•             You see, temptation starts within us. It starts with our desire looking for an excuse.

•             When an opportunity presents itself, we use our excuse and satisfy our desire.

•             And when our desire (or will) overcomes God’s will, sin is fully grown.

 There is a very famous psychological test called the marshmallow test developed in the 60s’  A marshmallow is placed in front of a young child and they are told if they can leave the marshmallow alone 15 minutes they can have a second marshmallow. Then the adults leave the room. This study in self-control and temptation has been used to predict all kinds of things including academic and career success. The interesting thing is watching the kids resisting temptation, or in some cases not resisting!

The marshmallow is not evil by any means. No one is trying to trick them. The temptation comes from inside of them.

I don’t know about you, but it seems like I have a marshmallow sitting in front of me all the time. No one has to lead me to temptation. I can find it all by myself thank you very much!

Think about your greatest temptation:

•             Is it cheating on the important test? Or using someone else’s words in a term paper?

•             Is it lying about where you spent some of the family’s money last weekend?

•             Is it keeping your eyes from wandering to something you want, like someone who is not your spouse? Or that sports car? Of the new video game?

•             Is your marshmallow in the bottom of a bottle?

•             Is your marshmallow the pictures or videos on a computer screen?

•             Do you scarf down the marshmallow called not telling the whole truth on your taxes?

•             Do you make comments and judgments about others or groups of people based on the color of their skin or immigration status?

•             Or maybe your temptation is lying about cleaning your room or who started the fight?

We all face temptations. The important thing to know is that they do not come to us from a trickster God. They come from our broken and weakened hearts. So, as the Message says, we pray “Our father…Keep us safe from ourselves.”

There is also, however, real and present evil in the world. Sometimes it is in the form on a single person, but my experience is that it is more often a mob mentality.

•             Gang mentality racism or homophobia.

•             Greed that is willing to do anything to anyone in order to get to the top.

•             Fear that breeds hatred that comes out as contempt for certain groups of individuals.

•             Blind intolerance of anyone or anything different from your selected “normal”

We are not unfamiliar with mass shootings, terrorism, xenophobia, megalomania, genocide, and chemical weapons.

So we pray, "Keep us safe from ourselves and keep us safe from evil."

OK, That is all background so we understand the prayer.

The subject of the series is barriers to prayer.

We have talked about

•             I want to pray… but I don’t know how

•             I want to pray … but why

•             I want to pray… but there are no answers

•             I want to pray… but I don’t have anything important to pray about

•             I want to pray … but I am not good enough

•             Today I want to pray… but I have several excellent excuses.

I’ll admit this is one of my personal “favorite” barriers to prayer: the excuse. I am as guilty as any of you. It might sound like this:

•             Well, I am pretty crunched for time today, or its late tonight I’ll pray later.

•             I would pray but my attention keeps wondering and pretty quick I am making my grocery list. (or in my case I am writing the sermon)

•             I would pray but when I close my eyes I fall asleep

•             I would pray but I don’t know where to start.

•             I would pray but NCIS is on.

Let me just say, excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse. EXCUSE

O Lord, “Keep us safe from ourselves!

Lord, keep us safe from our excuses!

I’ll tell you. We have a bent to excuses. We have a bent to being tempted. Our hearts are bent toward caving into temptation. That is our sinful nature. And if we are honest sometimes we just don’t want to pray.

The truth is that any of the barriers to sin we have discussed in this series could be real barriers in and of themselves, but each can also be just an excuse.

Do you think God is likely to be happy with our lame excuses to not pray?

I don’ think so.

Jesus, however, gives us the answer in the Lord’s Prayer: “Our father… lead us not into temptation.” “Our father Save us from ourselves.” The truth is that prayer is the best answer to our resistance to pray.

 It is like physical conditioning. You go to the gym the first day and you can’t do much, but you wake up the next day with sore muscles. You can use the sore muscles as an excuse to not go back or you can use them as motivation to go work a little harder.

The same is true for prayer which is not unlike a cardio workout for the soul. You can let your excuses keep you away, or you can let them be a call to prayer. Pastor Rick Warren says, "Every temptation is an opportunity to do good." Every time we are tempted we stand at a fork in the road. It might be that the only route we want to see is the falling into temptation side of the fork… but there is that other fork that is harder to see… it is the fork of resisting temptation, saying no to temptation, saying no to our excuses. All it takes is one prayerful step toward that road and we are on our way to God.

 Bill Thrasher in A Journey to Victorious Praying goes one step further. He says if we are tempted we should pray for someone else who is tempted the same way. He says we should ask God to give us a “prayer burden “or a deep concern for someone else. If no one comes to mind, ask God for a name. And this works. When I am tempted to anger, for instance, praying for someone who might be angry with me, or maybe not even me… focuses the negative energy of the temptation on something positive. The poet and hymn writer William Cowper writes the lyrics, “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”

 One of the best answers to temptation is praying. The answer to any of our excuses is praying. Pull yourself together and pray. If you believe in the power of prayer as I do, you know that God can blow up any excuse you can make up. If you believe in the power of prayer like I do you know that God can move that mountain that you think is keeping you from praying if you just reach out to God. If you just let God. 

 With the exception of the doxology at the end, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” which is only recorded in some late manuscripts of Matthew and only shows up in the footnotes of study bibles. We have worked our way through the Lord’s Prayer. Along the way, I hope we have addressed your biggest barrier to prayer.

In addition, we have learned some things about us and God.

We have examined the three ways we need to know God: as the intimate heavenly father, as transcendent holy one, and as king in whose kingdom we seek to live.

We have also seen three things we need to know about ourselves: we are dependent on God’s Provision, pardon, and protection. In other words, we need God for even the smallest things, we need God’s forgiveness. We need God’s protection from temptation.

Take this prayer with you, my friends… and may it grow in you so that you can grow in Christ.

I want to pray but… I’m not good enough Carroll FUMC October 14, 2018

I want to pray but… I’m not good enough

Carroll FUMC

October 14, 2018

 Have you heard the saying, "Almost ain’t good enough"? (Pardon the grammar) I’m not sure where it originated... but in high school, if someone said, "well, I ALMOST made it" we would respond, "Well, almost ain’t good enough"

That is true in a lot of things. Almost getting the bronze medal doesn’t count for much. It just “isn’t good enough. “

Almost getting the job “isn’t good enough.

Almost getting the car stopped before hitting another car just is not good enough.”

In this season of political commercials we are reminded that a politician almost doing the right thing just should not be enough to get them reelected.

When you think about it, though...sometime almost IS good enough.

A baby almost walking elicits great praise. Sometimes almost is good enough.

If a child comes home from school with a spelling test with the score of 97%... they might say, "I ALMOST got them all right". and of course, we would be very happy with the almost perfect score. In that case, sometimes almost IS good enough.

The person who sets a goal to lose 50 pounds gets stuck at 30 pounds almost made their goal but most of us would celebrate their victory with them. Sometimes almost is great.

 Some people have the idea that they aren’t good enough. They think that God’s willingness to listen and ability to answer our prayers is dependent on our being good enough. They might say, “I don’t pray because I haven’t been to church for a long time,” “I feel like a hypocrite.” “I don’t have enough faith.” Or just plain,” God won’t answer my prayer. I’m not good enough.”

Perhaps you have felt that way yourself. Maybe you don’t say, “I’m not good enough” but maybe you have said:

“Who am I to ask God for anything? God knows what I am really like.”

“I haven’t prayed for so long I can’t go to God now.”

“That seems so selfish… I can’t pray for that.

“I don’t know what to say… I don’t know those fancy words.”

My friends, if there is one message about which Jesus is very clear is that God’s love is not reserved for those who are perfect. I

•            t’s OK if you aren’t perfect.

•            It’s ok that you feel like your life has not been quite good enough.

•            It’s OK that God knows who you really are.

•            It is OK that you don’t know all the fancy words.

•            It’s Ok that you don’t quite know where to start. It really is OK.

Truthfully, if I waited until I was good enough to pray, I would never pray. pray. Actually, none of us would.

None of us, because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Did you hear that? ALL! Including me and including you.

“I ain’t good enough”

“You ain’t good enough.”

“All of us together ain’t good enough” … “BUT GOD"

Hear that? … BUT God.

But God

 1. We aren’t good enough

“But God, is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us” (Ephesians 2:4).

 2. We can’t live God’s way ourselves,

“BUT God will give you another Helper . . . I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:15–18).

  3. We are sinners “But God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

  4. We cannot live the Christian life by self-effort “but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

  Do you see that” But God.” WE aren’t good enough but God’s love is good enough that God accepts us anyway.

WE aren’t loving enough BUT GOD IS.

WE aren’t faithful enough BUT GOD IS.

WE don’t deserve forgiveness, BUT GOD IS.

  That is why the 5th phrase of the Lord’s Prayer is so important “Forgive us our trespasses… or sins.” Are we good enough? NO, But God is. Jesus invites us to pray that simple prayer, “forgive us our trespasses,” as a way of humbling ourselves before the grace of God.

It is not news to God that we need forgiving, it is not a condemnation of us, but it is a NOT SO SUBTLE reminder to us that prayer includes honestly humbling ourselves before God, confessing our sins, and asking forgiveness by the grace of Jesus Christ.

Notice where this phrase is located in the prayer that Jesus taught. It is not at the beginning of the prayer as though we have to be forgiven first. In fact it is almost at the end. But it is important. … important enough to include in the only prayer about which Jesu said, “When you pray, pray lie this…”

So you think you aren’t good enough... you’re right BUT God is plenty good enough.

There is one other thing here.

AS we receive grace and forgiveness we need to remember that no one else is good enough either, BUT God is. God is good enough to offer forgiveness to the whole world,

HOW ABOUT YOU?

  Are you forgiving others as god forgives you? Are you treating others with grace? Are you praying that you will treat them with grace? The fact that you are not good enough on your own is not a problem for God but be careful how you pray… “Forgive us our trespasses AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESSPASS AGIANST US.” Praying “forgive us our trespasses” humbles us before God, but praying “as we forgive those who trespass against us” is an acknowledgement that we can’t expect others to be “good enough” either. It is an acknowledgement that we are all in the same boat and if forgiveness is available to us, it is available to all; even those who hurt us. If forgiveness is available to all it is available to all …and it is not up to us to withhold it. WE must forgive if we want to be forgiven

Do you remember the story about the unjust servant in Matthew 18? It is on page 20 in your new testament if you want to look it up.

A man was taken before the king because he could not pay his debt. The king forgave him his large debt and set him free. On the way out of the palace the servant met a man who owed him 50 cents he loaned him for the pop machine. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded payment. The man begs for forgiveness and the servant will not forgive him so he has him thrown in jail.

Now the kicker… listen to this… The king calls the first servant back, takes back the forgiveness, and throws him in jail along with his friend. He takes back the forgiveness.

Now listen “Forgive us our trespasses AS WE FORGIVE those who trespass against us” AS WE FORGIVE!     We will only be forgiven to the same degree that we forgive others. To put it bluntly… if we don’t forgive others we can’t be forgiven. And to work the circle back around to the beginning of the sermon if we tell those who have harmed us that “almost ain't good enough,” I don’t forgive you. …, what do you suppose we will hear from God? Maybe something like ‘Then I can’t forgive you.”

This sentence of the Lord’s Prayer has been called the most dangerous prayer in history because we are asking Go to treat us the way we treat others. Or to put that in a scriptural context not only did Jesus teach “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” He also taught “Do unto others as you want GOD to do unto you.” Hearing that, does anyone suddenly have the urge to go forgive someone? If not, maybe you should because I dare say we all have someone about whom we still have hard feelings. Even though we may have forgiven, we many of us still have some bad feelings toward them… And as long as we imprison them in our unforgiveness or hard feelings, we are also imprisoning ourselves.

When it comes to forgiving completely, “Almost ain’t good enough”

We started out with we aren’t good enough BUT GOD says, “I love you and want you to come to me in prayer anyway.” So we pray with humility and we pray for grace in our treatment of others.

 Whether you think you are good enough or not, whether you are as forgiving as you should be; the bottom line is pray anyway. Because you may not be who you and God want you to be today, but prayer is the only way to open yourself up to the forming and transforming power of God. No matter where you are… just pray.