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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Dean Cullinane

The Privilege of Prayer

Father in heaven, Lord all of us here this morning have sinned against you and against heaven.

And Lord we are not worthy to be called your daughters or your sons.

But Father your son will forever be worthy to be called our Savior.

And so we ask that it is He and not me that speaks to us this morning.

If you'll turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6, let me ask you a question.

If you wanted to know how to preach, who would you choose as your prime example?

Christ was the right answer and if you wanted to know where to go in the Bible to read about Christ preaching where would you go?

Maybe Matthew chapter 5 the Sermon of the Mount.

If you wanted to know then how to teach who would be your prime example?

Alright some of you I think I heard Eugene Pruitt.

No we would look at Christ again right and where would we go where's a good example of Christ's teachings?

Again Matthew, 1 of my favorite ones is Matthew chapter 13.

So many different parables, so many different lessons that Christ is trying to teach, none of which the disciples understood, of course.

And if we wanted to look at healing, again, we would look at Christ as our example, in many instances through the book of Matthew, but what about prayer?

If we wanted to know about prayer who would we look at as our example?

To the book of Matthew perhaps Matthew chapter 6 now the disciples come to Christ and they want to know how to pray.

Now do you think the disciples have been praying prior to this?

Absolutely, but they're seeing something in Christ's life, specifically in his prayer life that's different to theirs that they want to emulate and so they come to him and they say teach us how to pray.

Now how Christ starts this teaching really gripped me because when he starts he says this, after this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name.

Now the disciples they have an idea of how to pray, right?

But here, when they come to Jesus and say, so what do we do to pray?

You would expect that the first words that come out of his mouth are the most important.

This is the topic this way trying to direct their minds You notice this he doesn't mention form Are you with me?

He doesn't say oh you want to know how to pray let me tell you Peter come come Get down on your knees Maybe lie prostrate on the floor You know lift your hands up to the heavens, say specific words, pray in the King James Version.

Our Father, The most important thing about prayer according to Christ is not what we say, but who we're speaking to.

Psalm 103 verse 13 says this, Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pities those that fear him.

What's the Psalmist trying to tell us about the father?

I also intend to be 1 in the distant future.

But how many of you here are currently parents?

I want you to imagine this situation as a parent.

And you know, if you don't have a child yet, and you're not married, praise the Lord.

And just imagine a future scenario where you might have children.

Now I want you to imagine that you have a son.

You have 1 son and you know you're growing up, you're helping your son grow and he's growing up in the fear of the Lord and he's a good child.

And he gets to the age of 16 and 16 is generally, especially with men or boys, when we say, okay, I'm an adult now.

And let's say at 16 years old, he decides to leave home.

All good adventures in the building, amen.

I remember my mom told me that if I didn't stop misbehaving she was going to kick me out so I said you won't have to and I left.

And I was like, you know, I'm going to punish her for the amount of times she tells me that she's going to kick me out.

And so I went outside my house and there was this big tree.

I went inside the tree and I was like, I'm going to stay in here for a whole hour.

And I could hear her coming out and she was like, Dean, Dean, where are you, where are you?

And I'm in the tree and I'm just like, uh-uh.

And I stayed in the tree and lo and behold, I fell asleep.

I fell asleep and I stayed there for the whole night and my mom was going crazy and I woke up in the morning and I was like oh my days.

I'm a very light sleeper so I have to fall asleep outside, not in the summer like that matters in the UK.

And you just, I wake up and I'm like whoa I've been out here for the whole night.

And I go home and my mom's reaction was telling.

I didn't get disciplined physically as I was expecting.

But her reaction is something that I want you to imagine.

You've got a son, 16 years old, he runs away from home.

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The Privilege of Prayer

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