{"id":7909,"date":"2018-12-30T09:30:55","date_gmt":"2018-12-30T14:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/?post_type=ctc_sermon&#038;p=7909"},"modified":"2019-06-22T16:55:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-22T20:55:05","slug":"lord-teach-us-to-pray","status":"publish","type":"ctc_sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/sermons\/lord-teach-us-to-pray\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord, Teach Us to Pray"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-gdm-google-drive-embedder-viewer\"><iframe width='100%' height='100' frameborder='0' scrolling='yes' src='https:\/\/drive.google.com\/a\/scbc.com\/file\/d\/1Xr8NHWJ8nyrJEaMkYQa8YM_6DtdnBaku\/preview?usp=drivesdk' allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-gdm-google-drive-embedder-viewer\"><p><span class=\"gdm-drivefile-embed\"><img src=\"https:\/\/drive-thirdparty.googleusercontent.com\/16\/type\/application\/pdf\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" \/> <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/a\/scbc.com\/file\/d\/1iyYfddkepWOX2Pa07eu-PSDchoKVwugF\/view?usp=drivesdk\" target=\"_blank\">View\/Download Sermon PowerPoint<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prayer: An intimate conversation and a divine encounter.<br>                                   An intimate conversation \u2013 Luke 11:1-5  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne day Jesus was praying in a certain place.  When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, \u201cLord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On January 12th the English congregation is going to embark on a wonderful adventure of prayer.  For forty days we will be encouraged to spend time with God listening and speaking to him.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone will be provided with a personal prayer journal that is to be used to supplement your daily walk with God (Some hard copies will be provided and it will be available for download from the EM website).  The journal has been specifically written for SCBC to help guide us to pray over events, people and missionaries.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each Sunday morning during the forty days (January 12th &#8211; February 24th ) our sermons will focus on prayer and include reflections on the journal.  Also, the format of our adult Sunday School classes will be radically changed.  Each room will be used for creative, individual and congregational prayer.  You are encouraged to attend a prayer gathering during the Sunday School hour, lead by our skilled facilitators and pray for our church, world, and one another.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two prayer retreats have been planned.  A half day retreat (9:-12:30) on January 12th and a full day retreat on March 2nd in the sanctuary.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our community groups have been asked to allow time for individuals to share insights gained through their individual prayer times as related to the journal.  The Children\u2019s ministry will also focus their teaching on prayer so that parents will have a common discussion point during family devotions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am looking forward to it all.  BUT! I do have a fear.  And the fear is that we treat the forty days as a program, as something that we do to appease God.  Read the book of Amos and Isaiah and you will soon discover that God hates religious festivals that are devoid of a genuine encounter with him.  (Amos 5:21-24; Isaiah 1:10-15)  So please, will you join me now in praying for our times of prayer in January and February?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, ask God to give us a hunger for a deeper relationship with him.  When the disciples asked Jesus, \u201cLord teach us to pray.\u201d (Luke 11:1) it was out of a gnawing hunger to have what he had \u2013 an intimate relationship with God the Father.  Pray that as we become aware of our spiritual emptiness we long for a deeper relationship with God through prayer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second pray that God would break open our hearts and move us to genuine repentance, thanksgiving, praise, supplication and dependence upon him.   Ask him to tear down any barriers that keep us from being transparent before him.  Pray that he will meet us during these times of prayer and that each one of us would experience him.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Andrew Murray offers us this prayer to pray for the coming days\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLord Jesus!  I ask you this day to enrol my name among those who confess that they do not know how to pray as they ought, and so I ask you for a course of teaching in prayer.  Lord! Teach me to wait with you in the school, and to give you time to train me.  May a deep sense of my ignorance, of the wonderful privilege and power of prayer, of the need of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of prayer, lead me to cast away my thoughts of what I think I know and make me kneel before you in true teachableness and poverty of spirit.  Amen&#8221;(1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In anticipation of what God will do in our midst, Pastor Tom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(1). Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, (U.S.A.: Barbour and Company, Inc. 1992) 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luke 11:1-4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","ctc_sermon_topic":[],"ctc_sermon_book":[150],"ctc_sermon_series":[465],"ctc_sermon_speaker":[105],"ctc_sermon_tag":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/7909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ctc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7909"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/7909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8380,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/7909\/revisions\/8380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_topic?post=7909"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_book?post=7909"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_series?post=7909"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_speaker?post=7909"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scbc.com\/em\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_tag?post=7909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}