Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church

Sermons

Details: Written by David Hassan; Published: 11 March 2017

What are you like when it comes to speaking with strangers? Are you a natural extravert, so speaking to a stranger doesn’t phase you? Are you more of an introvert, and so you need a little time to warm up to speak with one? Like when you hear those words of Jesus about going and making disciples of all nations, how does that leave you feeling? Today we are asked, “When was the last time you were able to speak with someone directly about your hope in Jesus and how this person could also put their trust in him?” In Acts 8 we are addressed directly here with Philip, as he seeks to respond to a man who had a question on his lips, “How do we respond to the lost?” God’s heart is for the lost, as those who follow Christ the moment we cease to save and win the lost is the moment we cease to be Christians. The question is How do we make the love of Christ, the hope of the Good News known?

Today we come across an able evangelist, who meets a seeker who came from Ethiopia. This Ethiopian was an important official, their national treasurer no less, who made a trip to Jerusalem so he could obtain a simple scroll of the book of Isaiah. He had a thirst to know God more. This Ethiopian Eunuch went to Jerusalem knowing he would have been excluded from entry to the temple. All he understood was how he needed to know God more, and his question was how: How do you get to know God better? He thought he’d find the answers by looking into what God already had to say.

Philip is the one God sends along the Gaza road down from Jerusalem. Philip is someone who is a passionate follower of Jesus, and he went wherever God sent him. In order to help us understand what is going on here is if we were to take a satellites view a Google earth view we might seem like the intersection of two lives. On the one hand we have ne of a ready and questioning seeker, who meets a well-directed and able evangelist. As you think about this encounter are you asking yourself was this all by chance? A kind of revolving doors of possibilities at play, or was God up to something good? God making good his promise of changing lives and bringing hope and salvation with the good news all about Jesus . As we read in Acts 8:26-28

²⁶Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. God is the sovereign and premier evangelist, whose heart is to seek and save the lost. He goes about that by using us ordinary people, with an extraordinary hope, that is all about repent and believe in Jesus. God has a heart for the lost, as Philip shows us what happens when we take God’s lead and just start talking about Jesus. See here how we catch Philip’s willingness. When Philip started down that road from Jerusalem towards Gaza he wasn’t sure who it was God was sending him to. He was ready to take God’s lead when it was clear. Look again at verses 27-28 ²⁷So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Ethiopian chief treasurer coming to Jerusalem would have been a long trip. His status is shown to us as he sits in his chariot a status symbol of power and wealth. Another hint at his wealth is that he has a copy of Isaiah. These copies were not cheap or easy to obtain. This was a hand-written scroll that would have had hundreds of hours poured into the making of it. Copies of these scrolls were not just given to anyone. Here is where life intersects between Philip & the Ethiopian Head Treasury official as Philip runs over to the chariot as it is moving down the road and overhears the Ethiopian reading Isaiah (who was obviously keen to get stuck into reading what he had traveled all that way to get). Philip is bold and comes closer and running along Philip asks a simple question in verse 30-31 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. 31 "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. I’m pretty sure Philip is relieved when the Ethiopian asks him to stop running and join him in that chariot to explain to him what he’s reading. This Eunuch was reading a portion of Isaiah 53:7-8 in Acts 8:32-35 "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." 34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. The Good News is about a person as Philip starts speaking from where this man’s at, and he points him to Jesus. Like we can be sure that he would have said some more things from this passage from Isaiah about the identity of this suffering servant. In Isaiah 53 the next verse on from where the Ethiopian Eunuch was reading we read in Isaiah 53:9-10 “⁹He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. ¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.” The Ethiopian is introduced to the person of Jesus, the suffering servant, the chief of all sufferers. The one who took the punishment for our want and waste in life, and who bore the punishment we should have received only Jesus can take our sin away and give us new life. Philip shares the good news and the Ethiopian Treasurer turns to Christ. Jesus is the one who changes our lives. So here is the question if God’s heart is for the lost, how does that pay out in our lives? As we’ve been reading and hearing about Philip, what’s going on in us. We are given the insight into what God is doing in Philip’s leading and the Ethiopians conversion, and with what goes on with Philip & the Ethiopian are we thinking that this passage lets us off that the hook as “God is sovereign, we’ll just let him do the work of evangelism” Or on the other side when we say to ourselves “I’ll just let my life do the talking.” The Bible doesn’t know a silent Christian when it comes to sharing the good news. As Philip asked sharing our faith can begin with a simple a question as “Do you understand what you are reading?” Do you trust what God has to say? Can you get into the inner world of the person we are speaking with, by getting alongside them with love and humility. As we take this passage with us into our week, are we aware of the intersections of our lives with the lives of others around us. How will we pray, like what is the one simple question I could ask that would get into speaking about life and hope and where Jesus sits in that for us? Are we curious about what people believe and sure ourselves about what we believe in when we speak about Jesus? That Ethiopian having heard the Good News responds ^36-39As they continued down the road, they came to a stream of water. The eunuch said, “Here’s water. Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down to the water, and Philip baptized him on the spot. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of God suddenly took Philip off, and that was the last the eunuch saw of him. But he didn’t mind. He had what he’d come for and went on down the road as happy as he could be. (Acts 8:36-39 The Message.) As we rejoice as well with the love of God

God knows where he will take the conversation. Are we ready to ask that simple question to see where God wants to take it?

Let’s pray

David Hassan @ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 5/3/17

Details: Written by David Hassan; Published: 04 March 2017

Acts 8:1-25

Australia is a country renowned for our inventors. We seem to love new technologies which would explain and why we lead the world for new inventions. We can track back as far back as 1879, Australians developed a way for ice to be manufactured artificially, enabling us to export meat to Great Britain on refrigerated ships. In 1929, Alfred Traeger built a pedal-powered radio at the request of the Rev. John Flynn, as the communications for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. All of these everyday items were also invented by Australians:

Details: Written by David Hassan; Published: 05 February 2017

Bible Reading: Psalm 51:1-9 (Matthew 6:5-15)

Ever thought about what makes forgiveness, forgiveness? How do you know someone is really asking your forgiveness? Is it the sorrow they express, the lack of excuses and full ownership of what they did? Is it the truthful explanation that they actually could see you may not be able to quickly forgive what it was they had done, and they are prepared that it may just take time to restore the relationship again. How do you know forgiveness is forgiveness? How often do we experience forgiveness as the person just saying I’m sorry you feel bad about what they did? That’s not forgiveness at all, that’s making excuses, or saying I never meant to say that, when the truth is I’m really sorry I said out loud what I was thinking all along.

Today we step into this big courageous prayer Jesus gave to his disciples ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Forgive us our sins Lord, we sin against you and one another. Sins of omission and commission, the want and waste of our driving desires to have what I want, and want what I have, and how prepared I am to hurt or move aside anyone who gets in my way. Forgiveness is such a big thing for us, in the company of Jesus, we start praying about the relationship we have with our Father. We have begun to pray about the things of God that matter, like who God is, what he is like, what he does. Jesus gets the focus on us:¹¹ Give us today our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ AMEN. Give Us, forgive us, lead us, as well as give us Provision, pardon, and protection

Last week we looked at how Jesus told us to pray for bread ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread. We are needy, Jesus reminds us we need bread for life. We’re to pray not out of what we want asking God to give us what he knows we need. The hardest part of asking for our daily bread Jesus tells us is coming to God and wanting what he will give us for today. Trusting that Jesus is enough. As we’re now getting to focus on that it is where we now stumble over a little word it’s the word – AND.

¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. AND links forgiveness with us praying for bread, as we start by humbling ourselves before God praying God help us to depend on your unfailing love. Supply our needs as we are needy beggars. Help us Father not to be consumerists. Help us to deal with not getting what we want, but be accepting of getting what we need and to not assume control over everything ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Pardon us O Lord. The question is what are the debts Jesus was talking about. The word we would usually use is sin. The problem we would face is, if we did one of those straw polls down Peel Street on what people think sin is…The answer to it would be the big stuff, Sin is Murder, genocide, rape, theft. The stuff that only bad people do, not the evil I do myself. Have you ever had someone say to you “We’re all good people at heart aren’t we?”

The trouble is “We don’t sin against a commandment we sin against a person”[1] It’s what’s Paul was getting us thinking about, with how we act around God’s people ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

In the Old Testament there are over 50 words for sin. When Jesus prays with us he tells us to expose and name our sin, forgive us our debts. As someone put it this way: “God does not deal with sin by ridding our lives of it as if it were a germ, or mice in the attic. God does not deal with sin by amputation as if it were a gangrenous leg, leaving us crippled, holiness on a crutch. God deals with sin by forgiving us, and when he forgives us there is more of us, not less.”[2] The center stage of sin is our sin against God our refusal to have a personal relationship with God. Sin breaks relationship, living life our own way, not God’s way. Praying for forgiveness of our sin is not the exercise of listing them grading them and then ticking them off the wrongdoing list[3] ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. The focus of Jesus here is on forgive us: our debts, our sins, our trespasses. We again see how Jesus gets us facing a frank admission of need. We could try to live our lives not seeking to forgive or be forgiven by anyone. Jesus invites us in to that relationship of God’s generosity, and our problem is the penalty of sin is death. All because Jesus died for our sins on the cross. Only he was perfect and sinless. Only he had no sin in his life through his death he was able to take our sin on himself and bear the wrath we deserve, so that by believing in him we may have eternal life. Deliver us from sin is as much a statement of faith as it is a confession of wrong. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. That blowtorch of God’s grace Jesus reminds us that forgiveness is all about God. Forgiveness is a 2 way street then of how we treat others. Like when Peter asked Jesus “How many times he would need to forgive his brother who sinned against him?” Jesus then told the parable of a servant, of a king who wanted to settle the accounts of what people owed him. The servant couldn’t pay, it was a large debt, he begged for his and his families lives, so the master graciously cancelled his debt. After being forgiven the same servant came across a servant who owed a small amount. He wanted his money from him… ²⁸ “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. ²⁹ “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ ³⁰ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. ³¹ When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. ³² “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. ³³ Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ ³⁴ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. ³⁵ “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Matthew 18:21-35. To pray about forgiving others is no light prayer, think about that for a moment. Of those you pray asking God to help us forgive. Since what they did or said: Have we ever dwelt on it since? Have you taken that and used it against them? Talked with others about what happened? Allowed it to fester as a hindrance to our relationship with that person ever since? Forgiveness is the promise to acknowledge that while they have hurt you, forgiveness is actually a promise: not to dwell on it, not to bring the incident up as blackmail, or Gossip anymore about it, or let it stand in the way we relate with them. We can’t manipulate forgiveness, with this prayer Jesus gave us, of all the things Jesus repeats after he gives it. Forgiveness is the one that he speaks about again. Look down to verse 14-15 of Matthew 6. ¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Hardness of heart is what God grieves most over. Lacking the ability to not show the same mercy to others, forgiveness is the only way to know God we need Jesus death to cover our sins unconfessed sin is a cancer to the soul ,unforgiven sin of others is a poison to fellowship. The grace of God is not what we bring to our relationship with him. It is the sobering reality that this is all about what God has done for us through his son. The natural question this morning is: “Do you nurse a bitterness of unforgiven sin with someone else?” If that person is now be dead and there is no way of reconciling with them yourself, but have you handed it over to God confessing what it was that you nursed and harboured painfully in your soul. Take the lead from Jesus forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. If you know a particular sin burdening your heart, name that specifically before God, and reflect on who we are and how we’re behaving, what we’re saying to others or ourselves, and pray, asking God to be at work to make known to us the sins we are blind to and to know his strength to resist the temptation of the sins we know we struggle with. Let us close saying the prayer Jesus prayed with his disciples in Matthew 6:9-13. Will you join with me as we pray in the company of Jesus together out loud ⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ AMEN

David Hassan @ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 5/2/17

[1] Peterson, Eugene Tell It Slant Grand Rapids Michigan Eerdmans 2008, p187

[2] Peterson, Tell It, p 186

[3] Idea taken from Australian Presbyterian December 2009”Our Father: theology and life meet where Jesus teaches us to pray”, an interview with Gerald Bray p9.

Details: Written by David Hassan; Published: 30 January 2017

John 6:35-40 (Matthew 6:5-15)

Ever got one of those Facebook messages that say if you send this prayer to 10 others you will receive a special blessing from God? What do you do with them? Or the emails that claims a special power from saying out loud the most powerful prayer you can ever pray. These are prayers usually promising me health, happiness, wealth and a closer relationship with God. These prayers seem to be all about attracting God like a struggling swimmer waving their arms about for rescue trying to catch God’s attention. The trouble is these prayers totally misunderstand what Jesus is teaching us when he taught his disciples this prayer. [1]

Prayer isn’t an exercise in God control, we don’t have to attract God’s attention, like he’s distracted or disinterested in us. Jesus gave us a prayer we can pray with confidence – it’s a primer. So, if we don’t know what to pray or if we’re shy or uncertain

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

In the company of Jesus, we start praying about the relationship we have with our Father. It’s all about God, our Father. It is all about His nature, his temperament, His Holiness, His Kingdom, His will be done. This is a prayer asking God to be at the forefront of our lives and decisions. This prayer is the gutsiest prayer we can pray, asking God to help us to be aware of life on earth, and asking God to help us to live for his kingdom and share his gospel. The prayer of Jesus has cast us into what’s to come, so when we talk about God’s will, we are gives the eyes to see that life isn’t just about the existence of life on earth; it also has everything to do with life as it in heaven. This prayer is all about God’s reputation, God’s rule, God’s plans. So as we’re meditating on these words we’re praying with our Father as Jesus drags us back to pray with us the 3 demands of life from Jesus for us are: Giving, Forgiving, Leading. The trouble is we have a lifelong habit of want lists[2] & I should know mine get rather long! You know what it’s like you get that one thing you wanted, and suddenly ten others pop up to its place.

So far in this prayer of Jesus two words are the focus of “Our” & “Your”. They are about the same thing, Our Father, Your name, Your kingdom, Your will. The focus is on what God is doing. Now Jesus gets to pray with us on what priorities we’re settling into our lives ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ AMEN Summarized as: Give Us, Forgive Us, Lead Us. Provision, pardon, protection. The first part of this prayer has got us thinking and praying about God as he is in heaven, as we live our life on earth. Now the microscope comes to life in all its ignominy. The view from Jesus is panoramic as we zero in on the reality of life, give us today our daily bread. We get to pray with our bodies, and we need bread if we’re going to live. Just like we can’t miss what Jesus said to Satan after the 40 days of fasting that was followed by the temptation in the desert ³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” ⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:3-4

Jesus spoke about life needing bread, not bread as the purpose or pursuit of life. Life is not defined by bread alone ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread. As bread is the simplest word that speaks about sustaining life. We need the bread of life. Of all the staples around the world bread is the most common food of life. The simple fact remains that no matter what cures to diseases we find, and no matter what technological advances we make, or how smart we are or even how beautiful we look, the simple truth remains we need food to survive. Jesus tells us pray for our Father’s provision, enjoying God our provider. Bread has a history of its own in the Bible as Israel’s history with bread is epic. In the Passover celebration God’s mercy was celebrated by a simple of meal of bread, lamb and wine. During the 40 years of the wilderness

Manna was the daily bread God gave his people, as Moses reflected on this time by saying: ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:3. These words sound familiar just as Jesus made the link to them with Satan’s temptation. The question is do we trust that God intends good for us? Are we anxious and joyless in the hardships we face? God be our provider Jesus tells us to pray! Also in the upper room Jesus took the bread and broke it saying “This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of m” A piece of toast, a sandwich, a dinner roll remind us of Jesus and his death for our sin. Our life made possible because he gave his up. Our only to be vindicated by rising again from the dead. Forgiveness comes through Jesus alone.

Today that one act of Jesus reminds us that whenever we eat bread, we can be thankful in our hearts, of what Jesus did for us on the cross. After having fed 5, 000 people with a couple of loaves and a few fish Jesus reflects on our neediness. He prepares us to understand our spiritual hunger in John 6: ³⁵ Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷ All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

Later in verse 40 ⁴⁰ For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” We are needy, Jesus reminds us we need to the bread of life. As someone put it this way:

“It is not unheard of for us chafe at our neediness. Having to ask for help is an admission that we can’t do this on our own, that we are not in control…Consumerism is a narcotic that dulls the awareness that we are in need…technology is a narcotic. It depersonalizes needs to something that can be handled by a machine or device…money and machines anesthetize neediness. They put us in charge, in control…narcotics diminish the capacity for personal relationship. Narcotics dull and finally destroy the capacity for living, feeling, loving, enjoying. And praying.”[3]

¹¹ Give us today our daily bread. Humble yourself before God, and Pray, God help us to depend on your unfailing love. As we see everything we have is a gift from God. That is everything we have from God is on loan from Him. So the iPhone isn't the problem, it's our hearts in relation to the iPhone. The internet isn't the problem, it's what we put onto the internet, or what we download from it. The thing, in itself, isn't evil. It's what we do with the thing.[4] Is there something I desire so much that I am willing to disappoint or hurt others in order to have it?[5] So we pray ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread. Our meal table is a special place for fellowship with family and friends. Over a meal we can have fellowship and encouragement. It is there we keep company with Jesus and one another. This is a prayer to our daily provider where we acknowledge that we are needy beggars. I’m going to start us in prayer and again as we have done in other week I’ll invite you pray with me saying the prayer Jesus prayed with his disciples in Matthew 6:9-13

Let’s pray…

LORD JESUS,

I am blind, be thou my light, ignorant, be thou my wisdom, self-willed, be thou my mind. Open my ear to grasp quickly thy Spirit’s voice, and delightfully run after his beckoning hand; Melt my conscience that no hardness remain, make it alive to evil’s slightest touch; When Satan approaches may I flee to thy wounds, and there cease to tremble at all alarms. Be my good shepherd to lead me into the green pastures of thy Word, and cause me to lie down beside the rivers of its comforts. Fill me with peace, that no disquieting worldly gales may ruffle the calm surface of my soul. Thy cross was upraised to be my refuge, Thy blood streamed forth to wash me clean, Thy death occurred to give me a surety, Thy name is my property to save me, By thee all heaven is poured into my heart, but it is too narrow to comprehend thy love. I was a stranger, an outcast, a slave, a rebel, but thy cross has brought me near, has softened my heart, has made me thy Father’s child, has admitted me to thy family, has made me joint-heir with thyself. O that I may love thee as thou lovest me, that I may walk worthy of thee, my Lord, that I may reflect the image of heaven’s first-born. May I always see thy beauty with the clear eye of faith, and feel the power of thy Spirit in my heart, for unless he move mightily in me no inward fire will be kindled. (Need of Jesus, Valley of Vision p102)

Will you also now join with me as we pray in the company of Jesus together out loud

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us today our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ AMEN

David Hassan @ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 29/1/17

[1] This Illustration idea is taken from Coekin, Richard Our Father: enjoying God in prayer, IVP, Nottingham England, 2009 p 109-110, but a reminder of the many sorts of emails I have personally received in years past.

[2] Idea of want lists and the company of Jesus is form Peterson, Eugene Tell it slant, Eerdmans , Grand Rapids Michigan 2008, 181

[3] Peterson, Eugene Tell it, p183-184

[4] http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/11/02/is-technology-neutral/

[5] Sande, Ken The Peacemaker, Baker Books, Grand Rapids Michigan, 2006, p265

Details: Written by David Hassan; Published: 26 January 2017

Matthew 6:5-15

When the disciples plucked up the courage to ask Jesus about prayer His response was, if we don’t know what to pray, or if we’re shy or uncertain, Jesus gave a prayer we can pray with confidence. This is a prayer for all ages helps us get the hang of what Jesus is doing when he prays[1]. We are able to keep company with Jesus as he prayed. Jesus was teaching a crowd on a mountain side about life. He said life is to be lived for the joy of God’s glory and pleasure ⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Abba - Father is a term of recognition as Jesus included himself with us in this prayer. Our Father in Heaven we are speaking with, as he is not a metaphor not a object not a function. Our Father is Holy so our family portrait is the holiness of God; our family motto is personal purity matters to God[2]. This is a household prayer: ¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. The words Kingdom, Will , Earth, Heaven all in this one prayer, making this is an expansive prayer. Jesus tells us when we pray, we are not praying about the absurd to the disinterested. God is interested in us praying, about the future as it has to do with his glory in heaven now. This is where we find ourselves praying Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done.

Sermons

Philip: The Multicultural miracle

Simon: trying to buy faith

Stephen: a faith that stares down death

“The Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us our…”

The Lord’s Prayer: Give Us Today Our Daily Bread

The Lord’s Prayer: Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be done on Earth As It Is In Heaven

The Happiness of Domestic Bliss