January 5, 2020 "Lord, Teach Us to Pray", Rev. Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams

the God who governs Angel armies has sent encampments around me the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid you are not alone this morning and you will not be defeated because we serve a God who is mighty and able good morning alfrid street I stand here before you grateful to God and expressing appreciation to our pastor for the opportunity and I want to invite you in this new year to consider with me the topic teach us to pray our scripture lesson comes from the Gospel of Matthew chapter six verses five through 10 I invite you as is our custom to stand if you are able reading Matthew six verses five through 10 and when you pray you shall not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men assuredly I say to you they have their reward but you when you pray go into your room and when you have shut your door pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly and when you pray do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do for they think that they will be heard for their many words therefore do not be like them for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him in this manner therefore pray our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven sisters and brothers as you take your seats please join me in a word of Prayer Lord teach us to pray help us today to hear your word we ask that the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts would be acceptable in your sight O Lord our strength and our Redeemer amen well Saints it is January 2020 and whether you have purchased a new calendar yet or not you know it's the new year and one of the ways you know it's the new year is because of the presence of the weight loss industry they have made their presence known to us they've been watching us and they know that we have not been eating well over the last six weeks and so here they come Weight Watchers Jenny Craig Nutrisystem South Beach Diet or maybe you're going to do paleo or perhaps you're gonna try keto or maybe you're gonna go vegan vegetarian or perhaps pescetarian they're all of these eating plans promoting themselves at the beginning of the year so that we can have a fresh start the gyms are promising results and if you pay attention to the language there is language to the weight loss process there's a specific vocabulary that they use and I think the idea is that they're gonna transform your attitude towards food so that you think differently about what you do right that that that thing on your plate big Mama's mac and cheese right that's not big Mama's mac and cheese that's 310 calories per cup and you all know we never put just a cup of big Mama's mac and cheese on our plate all right that giant cookie that I love to get is 980 calories how can a cookie be 980 calories that's like your whole calorie allotment for the day all of these plans are attempting to use language to help you to think differently about something you do all the time the unders the underlying assumption here is that we all know how to eat and that you've been eating for as long as you can remember and some of us have made an art form out of it but for all of the eating that we do maybe just maybe you don't know how to eat well maybe somewhere along the line you forgot that food is actually fuel and so the diet industry wants us to know our whole situation could change if we learned how to eat well your skin could clear up joints won't hurt you get more energy all of that can happen if I eat this and not that this is the cookie eat this and not that right so they come to us in the new year with this invitation think about this thing that you've done all the time think about eating in a new way and try to begin a new approach now come with me to Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount because Jesus is trying to take his followers on a new path and so he wants to teach them about things that they've done before and he says whenever you pray do this and not that whenever you pray don't be like the hypocrites he starts with this negative example because the hypocrites have what we call prayer as performance the hypocrites get up and when they pray they start out and it sounds like they're gonna pray but the next thing you know they're preaching a sermon or they're telling a story or they're it explaining a situation they were in and they're secretly trying to get back at somebody you know what you've seen this before yes when you pray as performance you are the star and when you are the star of your prayer my sisters and brothers we call that idolatry all right there's only one lead in this story and it's not you there's only one lead and it's always the same person the matter of fact I would say the lead is typecast it's someone that has to be omnipresent omniscient and um what's the other one omnipotent the only holy and righteous God who is abounding in love and mercy the one true and wise God is the only one who gets to be the lead in your prayer so don't pray and put yourself in the center all right the other thing that Jesus says as a negative example is don't pray like the Gentiles now the Gentiles were known for their beautiful prayers carefully crafted lovely phrases y'all know people who get all those nice little phrases in their prayers all those little cliches and it's a work of art and we listen and we go oh I don't want to pray after that lady right as beautiful as those words are if they're not directed to God they are irrelevant Jesus wants his disciples to know even though they're surrounded by prayer there are some prayers that are idolatrous and some proves that are irrelevant don't pray like that Jesus shows the disciples how to pray effectively by giving them or offering them a model prayer everywhere we look people are praying the Greeks pray the Romans pray the Jews pray but Jesus says you still have some to learn about prayer now stay with me because some of us learn how to pray in Sunday school and we're like this is good this works for me alright this is what my Sunday school teacher taught me I like it I'm in my zone this is how I'm gonna pray and that's alright but we can always learn more and there are those of us who have been praying all of our lives in church and we can't tell those folks anything either because they've decided that they have mastery of the subject in Christ we must all be life long learners there's no such thing as a PhD in the Holy Ghost and so we in this congregation are lifelong learners we always want the Lord to teach us how to pray and one of the things I love about our church is the way we value education we have an HBCU college fair coming up on January 25th we have a graduation luncheon where everybody whether you're getting promoted from lm3 school or wherever you are you get honored and recognized we have an Alfred Street Baptist Church Foundation which is a scholarship fund we support our undergraduates by sending them little care packages and giving them a little money when they come home for break we value education and I'd like to think that the reason we value education is because we are historic black church and our history tells us there was a time when brown and black people risk their lives to learn it was illegal to learn that if you learn the alphabet you were literally taking your life into your hands and for that reason I believe that every time a middle schooler is promoted in our congregation the ancestors living and dead rejoice every time someone gets an associate's degree or a bachelor's degree Big Mama and the heavenly hosts are celebrating and when we get those advanced degree these both genetical and w EBD boys are smiling we value education we know it's important to learn we come to Bible study because we want to learn and I thank God that I have had opportunity to get an education I thank God for the doors he's opened and I thank God for the stamina he gave me to earn a terminal degree but don't let the language fool you because let me tell you what I didn't learn in five how many years six years elementary school three years of middle school four years of high school four years of college three years of a master's degree in more years than I care to count in a ph.d program let me tell you what I didn't learn I didn't learn everything and I never will we will never know everything in fact the more you know the more you realize that there's a lot you don't know right have you ever been in a big library and realized if you spent your whole life there you still wouldn't be able to get through everything we have a lot to learn so in a world saturated with prayer we need to ask the Lord to teach us how to pray just like the disciples and so here we come to the Lord's Prayer which is this modeled prayer and it easily divides into two parts the first half is speaking about the heavenly kingdom and the second half is focused on earthly concerns and because it's all about how we begin I want us to focus our attention just on that first part this morning is that alright with y'all all right so we have this opening phrase our Father who art in heaven I'm gonna stop right there our Father who art in heaven is revolutionary this is the only place in the Bible where our Father is used referring to God the only place now there are plenty of places in the Bible to say father and Jesus often says my father and sometimes we'll see our father Abraham but in Matthew we get our father referring to God in this place we have Jesus changing the playing field of Prayer by simply saying our Father God who art in heaven now let's just look at three parts of that phrase the first part is the word father it's the now that's the subject it's the person that we're directing our prayer towards so if anybody asks you who to pray to pray to God all right that's the first thing right it's good we've got a Trinity so you're never going to go wrong but you pray to God and then we have modifiers to God one is our Father in Heaven so that tells us which father we're talking about because we have more than one father so it's which one we're talking about and it also tells us where that father is which is good thing to know the other modifier is a possessive pronoun our our Father so can we just look at those together can we look at those together all right thank you I'm gonna start with father family is our fundamental social unit this is how you first start to identify yourself you come into a family all right and so the language that Jesus uses to talk to us about God it's the fundamental language we have for relationship all right this is not a mistake this is intentional and so what we want to do is think about Jesus using the model of family to tell us something about how we are in relationship with God now in the greco-roman world the father was the head of the household the father in that capacity had responsibility for everybody in the family he had responsibility to meet everybody's needs he had a responsibility to manage the family's Goods and property and decide how it was going to be divided remember the story of the prodigal son where the prodigal son says give me my share remember Jacob and Esau trying to figure out who's gonna get what that's the father's job to decide who gets what and then to make sure that they get it and the father has Authority so when Jesus uses family language specifically father he is saying that God in heaven like any good earthly father has responsibility for us holds and keeps our inheritance and has authority over our lives listen to that think about all the things you need right now take a minute think about all the things you need for other than food after church think about all the things that you need all right and then remember that if God is in fact our Father everything on your list is God's responsibility everything on your list right now is God's responsibility now let me tell you how that works because sometimes God's gonna look at your list and say uh BMW's not a need but transportation is and I've got it alright God is responsible for everything that you need in the present which means it's not your job to worry about it so that father who's been laid off who cannot sleep at night because he's worried about how he's gonna provide for his family can say our Father who art in heaven and be reminded that actually God is responsible for him and his family that person who's saying you know at this point in my life I thought my situation would be a little different I thought I'd have this and that I thought I'd be living here God is your father God is responsible for what you need in the present and when we say those words our Father who art in heaven we reorient ourselves and take ourselves out of the hot seat and let God move in the way that only God can move God is our provider a good earthly father takes charge of the inheritance this is important because I feel like we worry so much about our future we worry about whether we're gonna have everything we need we're worried if we're gonna achieve the dreams and goals that we have and it gets worse when we see other people in our peer group getting the things that we thought for for us remember God is the one who's overseeing the inheritance and the part that has your name on it is secure because God will see to it God is the executor of all of these things and because God has authority no door that is opened can be closed no door that is closed can be open and that weapon at your job that is forming herself against you cannot do so without God's permission and God knows the plans that God has to you even when your boss does not God has authority over your life this language of father opens up a new understanding for how we relate to God and I want you to hear this carefully because the language of father is a doorway and not a destination alright stay with me God is our Father but there's always more whenever you read the Bible and you hear something that God says or that Jesus says something that comes from God's Word it's true but there should always be written underneath but wait there's more right because if we get stuck at Father we're gonna have a problem let me tell you what the problem is there are some people for whom the term father is a deal breaker because father means trauma abandonment disappointment hurt not all earthly fathers are good and so when some people hear the word father they can't go any further unless we remind them it's not a destination it's the doorway all right don't ever get into a fight with somebody about God's gender it is such a waste of time it assumes somehow that God fits into compartments that we fit into did God ever claim to do that right so don't ever get stuck there it's a doorway not a destination just stay with me for a minute and let's let's see how this works out because when we say God his father what we're saying if God is like any good earthly father God is like any good earthly father now I had a really great dad his name was Wallace Thomas Fentress he had three girls I was the middle child I was the only one that didn't look like my mother I look like my dad I was a daddy's girl all right we got along just fine we were thick as thieves and in my mind my daddy was the strongest the smartest the tallest in the whole world and when I got older and looked at pictures of my dad I was like he looks smaller than I thought he was in my mind he was a giant he took care of us we trusted him he was so funny my dad couldn't sing to save his life but he got in church on Sunday and gave it all he had and he exercised authority in our home I know this for a fact he exercised authority in our home all right I remember one Sunday in church I was talking as I often did and he told me to be quiet and I don't know what possessed me but I looked at him and said no it gets a little blurry after that yeah but I can tell you this my father had Authority but for all of the authority my father had he didn't have authority over the government he didn't have authority over the church he didn't have authority over my school he certainly didn't have authority over the wind and the rain so when we say God is our Father it's a way in but it's not the destination it doesn't stop with an earthly father God is like any good earthly father and that same God is unlike any father you have ever seen because God can do things that no other man can do in fact when we connect God and father God transforms the term father all right think about Simone biles so Simone biles is a gymnast yes you all know Simone biles well she does things they don't have language for right this chick gets out there and does stuff and they're like we've never seen that before we don't have a name for it we've got to come up with a new category and it usually if named after her when God comes in his father God is gonna do things you've never seen a father do before and so we have to find new language that we've never seen that before we don't know a father who can do this and so we have to go through the door father look at all that God can do all right none Deuteronomy 32 to 13 God is a nursing mother I don't know a man who can do that numbers 11 11 to 12 this language of God giving birth to God's people don't know what Brotherhood to do that Isaiah 49 15 Isaiah 66 13 God's role as father gets transformed as soon as God shows up it starts with God having responsibility for us and with God taking care of our inheritance and with God having authority but it never ends there God has more this God who is like no earthly parent better than the best mother the birth best father who takes responsibility for us and has the authority to keep us and preserve us all of that power all of that compassion comes under the pronoun our this God is ours in God's prayer in the Lord's Prayer we are officially God's children and Jesus is sharing his father with us he doesn't say my father and yours says ours we're invited into community not just with Jesus but with each other and this is interesting because most of us don't mind being siblings with Jesus but quite a few of us have problems with being siblings with one another in the family of God this hour is inclusive we don't have to vie for the attention of our parents we don't have to worry about who's the favorite because there is enough for everyone there is not room in God's family for sibling rivalry God isn't here just to bless you and only you and you don't have to be upset or rejoice when God blesses him because he's God's favorite and you don't have to be upset when God blesses her because she's got special one because so are you everybody gets to be the favorite in God's family and in God's family we don't have to worry about things like resemblance so let's stay with me for a second because an earthly families there's always that poor child who doesn't look like mommy or daddy right maybe it was you and your whole life people kind of look at you and try to figure out where you came from or how you fit into the mix but they can only see what they can see they can't go back three generations twice removed to see who you look exactly like jeans are funny that way they present themselves differently in different people and so even though you have the same parentage you may not look the same so when you are in church it is not your job to decide who was in and who is out of the family you don't get to decide I don't see God in her that's not your job and it may be that the aspects of God that they are exhibiting are things you haven't learned yet so instead of kicking somebody out we want to remember we are all God's children and our inheritance is secure so this is great and I'm studying this text and I keep coming back to this verse before the Lord starts to teach us to pray and says your father already knows what you have need of okay so God is gonna provide for us and God's got our future and God has authority and God already knows what we have need of so I need somebody remind me why we are praying because for so many of us prayer is about petition prayer is about asking now we might throw in little praise and thanksgiving but what's really driving this thing are the requests that we have to make of God and so I've been trying to think about this dynamic of Prayer and it seems to me that when we look at the first part of the Lord's Prayer and it says our Father in Heaven hallowed be thy name but it is trying to front end the glory and the majesty of God the other worldliness of God and the part of what happens when we pray is that we come into the presence of something that changes the whole world for us so for me it's like when I go to the store because I need to buy some socks I need socks it's something I need I got to check it off my list and I get to the store parked my car get to the front door and see a sign that says everything in the store 60% off my whole day just changed all right I wanted socks but clearly dad has another calling for me on that thing right prayer is like coming to God with petitions and needs and wants but when we come into the presence of the God of creation who has authority over heaven and earth the one who we can call father our father with our laundry list of worries and needs and concerns and he already knows what we need know that when you come into God's presence you're going to be changed when you come to God's presence you're gonna learn something when you come into God's presence you're gonna forget about all those things you needed to do you're gonna forget about the person you want to tell on because you're gonna remember in God's presence that you've been redeemed that God is forgiving you when we comment to God's presence and recognize who this God is who calls us who invites us to call him our Father we say our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name hallowed be your name your kingdom come not my agenda your kingdom come your will be done in this life on this earth as it is in heaven Lord teach us to pray amen you

Channel: Alfred Street Baptist Church

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Keywords: Alfred Street Baptist Church, 2020, Lord, Teach us to Pray, Rev. Dr. Judy Fentress-Williams, Lord's Prayer, pray, #asbc, #wearealfredstreet

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Length: 30min 39sec (1839 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 05 2020