Sermon Text: Matthew 6:5-13
Sermon Excerpt
The Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father is a model for prayer. While you can pray through it quickly as we do in worship, it is also a rich resource for a slower form of prayer.
If you look at the chart I placed in your bulletin you will see that the prayer begins with an introduction and ends with a conclusion. In between, in the body of the prayer, there are seven petitions. The first three focus on God. The final four focus on us.
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Introduction: Our Father who is in heaven |
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| (1) hallowed be Your name | (4) give us this day our daily bread |
| (2) Your kingdom come, | (5) forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us |
| (3) Your will be done | (6) lead us not into temptation |
| (7) deliver us from evil | |
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Conclusion: |
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I invite you to set aside some time this week to pray the Lord’s Prayer at a slower pace than normal. After saying each petition pause and lift up the prayers it inspires.
By now it is . . . (read manuscript or watch video)
So What?
At Fort Myers Congregational United Church of Christ we have prayed several versions of the Lord’s Prayer in 2015 after relying on a single version for 2014. This shift has helped many to really pay attention to the words they pray in worship, and to consider the model provided by the Lord’s Prayer.
- Share one way your experience and/or understanding of the Lord’s Prayer has been enriched in recent years.
- What other model prayers or models for prayer do you find helpful (the 5-finger prayer and ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication were given as examples in the sermon)?