Sunday 5th Feb 2006

Call to Worship

Psalm 100

“Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For the Lord is good; His loving kindness is everlasting, And His faithfulness to all generations."

 

Today in Family service, we explore together the prayer Jesus taught us, which begins with the words “Our Father who art in Heaven – Hallowed be your name”. The prayer, and our worship, starts by focusing on God our Father.

 

Songs

Praise him on the Trumpet

Father God I wonder

Intercessions

Your Kingdom Come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

(We bring the prayers of the world right at the beginning)

Not self focused – but remembering others.

Look at Newspapers and find stories: good things where God’s Kingdom is shown, and difficult situations where signs of the kingdom are needed.

Songs

Wait for the Lord (Taize)

Notices and Offering: May your will be done here

Bible Readings

Mat 6: 1-21

Hymn  

Give me Joy in my heart.

Talk / Sermon

Give us this day:

• Start where we are. (Right here, right now!)
• Right here, right now, lets recognise dependence on God.
• Christ is our bread: Christ is life, bread is life.
• Jesus said “I am the bread of life”
• At communion we remember Jesus saying “this is my body broken for you”
• Right here, right now, let’s God meets our needs.
• Daily prayer for daily needs is the antidote to worry: (Mat 6:25, 26 NIV) "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
• God has promised to care for us; he invites us to pray for our basic needs. Identifying our corporate needs – name them.
• Sometimes this is a problem for us because it means us recognising we are weak and vulnerable. Picture. A mechanical universe with God standing hands folded waiting us to press the prayer button? No, we don’t have that kind of contract with God. God is not static, his universe is richly flowing with his goodness, we are invited to connect with him in a covenant bond- we trustingly give ourselves to God; he freely lovingly gives himself to us.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

• Forgive us our debts; sins; trespasses
• Reflect back. What have we been through?
• Asking for forgiveness for individual acts and events
• Recognising that the personal relationship between God and us is clouded by sin against our neighbour
• (Psa 103:12,13 NRSV) as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him.
• Forgive… as we forgive. If we refuse to put right those things we know are wrong, how can we ask God to put things right? We pray, Lord help us put things right with others so we can have things right between you and us.
• Help us to be forgiving; then we can be forgiven

 

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

• Moving forward.
• Lead us not into temptation; save us from the time of trial
• Prayer from the past of sins forgiven into present struggle for Kingdom in world
• Save us from those times when the will of God is hard to do.

When you pray – you don’t have to try hard to persuade or coerce God

There are no magic words, no magic formulae,

But here Jesus gives a pattern of prayer acknowledging our past and present has happened and is happening under God; our future, our world’s future, is in his hands.

 

Hymn

Father, hear the prayer we offer

The Lords prayer: - enactment (Amy)

Hymn

I the Lord of sea and sky

Benediction

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Last Updated On February 21, 2006