Growing up, my classroom teachers always said, “There is no such thing as a stupid question.” Well, I disagree. Consider these real-life examples.
o standing in front of the open refrigerator and asking where is the milk when you are staring at it
o asking a question of your New Testament professor who is reading from the Greek text of the New Testament that begins with “well, my Bible says…”
o “when is the Fourth of July this year?”
We find in reading the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible that the disciples asked Jesus many questions. Some of those questions did not receive full or direct answers from Jesus. They may have not been stupid questions, but they certainly did not always come across as the ‘right’ or appropriate questions for the situation. But when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, Jesus answered them directly with a description as well as an example prayer. The prayer that Jesus taught them is the prayer we call “The Lords’ Prayer” or “our Father”. You can find Jesus’ teaching of this prayer in both Matthew 6:5-15 and Luke 11:2-4.
This prayer is more than something to be repeated verbatim over and over—which often seems like some kind of ‘magic phrase’ that will correct things in a poof of magic if said just right. The Lord’s Prayer provides us with a framework around which to build our own prayers and serves as a window of insight into how we are called to shape our lives with prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer will serve as the focus of the July sermon series at Discovery. Each week we will explore a different portion of the prayer. Worship celebrations are at 9:30am and 11am each Sunday
July 3—Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name
July 10—Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as in Heaven.
July 17—Give us today our daily bread.
July 24—Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
July 31—Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
(11am worship only followed by a pot luck lunch)
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