When You Pray: Sermons on the Lord's Prayer

By Randy Cooper

These sermons can be read as devotional reflections upon our Lords Prayer. Originally addressed to the people of the First United Methodist Church in Martin, Tennessee, they will edify other Christians in various settings and walks of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512714043

Randy Cooper

Randy Cooper was born into a farm family near Humboldt, Tennessee. The youngest of four children, Randy planned to farm with his brother before God called him into the ordained ministry. Randy has been a United Methodist pastor for over 37 years. He has served congregations in upstate New York, west Tennessee, and western Kentucky. Randy and his wife Gayle have been blessed with two daughters, two sons-in-law, and four grandchildren. He understands his ministry to be one of building up the Body through the priestly work of worship, sacrament, preaching, pastoral care, and service.

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Copyright © 2015 Randy Cooper.

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New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-1405-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1406-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1404-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015915809

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/28/2015

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1   When You Pray

Chapter 2   Our Father

Chapter 3   Our Father (Again)

Chapter 4   In Heaven

Chapter 5   Hallowed Be Your Name

Chapter 6   Your Kingdom Come

Chapter 7   Your Will

Chapter 8   On Earth

Chapter 9   Daily Bread

Chapter 10 Forgiveness

Chapter 11 Temptation and Deliverance

Chapter 12 Doxology

About the Author

Endnotes

Introduction

My weekly preaching responsibilities don’t allow me to dwell very long upon those sermons I have preached. I always have to look ahead to the next Sunday’s worship which is never more than seven days away. So I want to thank Crawford Gallimore for his lingering interest in these sermons. To Crawford belongs the credit for thinking it might be worthwhile to put them in print. This little book can be offered to you because of his generosity.

I have learned over the years that there is a noticeable difference between words composed to be spoken and those intended to be read by another. With this in mind, I have agreed to do very little to alter these sermon texts beyond their original form as scripts for the preaching task. For good or ill, they are presented here much as I spoke them in worship through the fall and winter of 2013–14. My good friend Cherry Pyron made helpful editing suggestions to make the sermons more readable. A few footnotes have been added along the way.

Let us remember that we are always learning how to pray our Lord’s Prayer. While we may learn the words in our early childhood, we only can pray—truly pray—as Jesus teaches us in the Holy Spirit. Each Sunday Jesus gives us his prayer anew. We become as children when we pray together these words in worship or when we pray them alone in our lives with God. The early church theologian Origen says it beautifully when he writes that we pray in hope that the whole of our life says, ‘Our Father.’ Thus we should never tire of praying our Lord’s Prayer, because we will never exhaust it. Indeed, it would be quite easy to preach yet another series of sermons on our Lord’s Prayer with little repetition.

These sermons are now before you. The many weaknesses within them glare at me, as I look them over. Yet if God can ride a lame horse, as Martin Luther says, then perhaps God will use even these words to draw near to you in your devotional life.

Randy Cooper

1

When You Pray

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." (Luke 11:1–4)

It goes without saying that words demand a context. Words are always spoken within a particular setting and time. If I say to my wife, I love you, she will hear my words in the context of more than forty years of marriage. If I say the same words to a church member who is dying, he will hear them in the context of the mercies of Christ. Words can’t hang in the air. Words demand a context. Words have to have a setting—a time, a place.

And the context for the Lord’s Prayer is very important. Even the Lord’s Prayer can’t hang in the air. It too demands a people, a context, a setting, a time and place. And the context for the Lord’s Prayer is twelve disciples who wish to pray as Jesus prays. The context is crucial.

These twelve disciples of Jesus are men of prayer. They are good Jews. They attend synagogue. They’ve probably been to the temple in Jerusalem for Passover. They have likely prayed the Psalms all their lives. They are men of prayer. But they are with Jesus now. They are following Jesus. And they see that Jesus has been praying in a certain place. And they want to pray not just in any way. They want to pray as Jesus prays. I say it again: they want to pray as Jesus prays. So when Jesus finishes his own time of prayer, one of his disciples says, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. They ask Jesus to teach them, his own disciples, to pray.

The disciples know something that we can easily forget. They know that all prayer is not the same. And they know that nearly all people pray in some way or another. And they know that to follow Jesus means to pray a certain way. As disciples of Jesus, there will be ways to pray and ways not to pray. And they