RoboPreacher

but i'm ready A sermon on the prayer Jesus taught us, Luke 11:1-4 : Even though there’s still one last sermon in our series on the Lord’s Prayer, I’m just going to go ahead and show my hand. This entire prayer Jesus teaches us is a simple prayer. A simple prayer that is by no means easy to pray… Often we think prayer is just trying to get God to come around to our way of seeing things. In the Lord’s Prayer, though , Jesus teaches you to pray for the exact opposite !   To pray that God would hallow God’s name. That God would give us enough to eat. That God would forgive. That God would spare us… Well, you get the idea. The cumulative effect of this prayer is that God would bring us around to God’s way of doing things!   Which is tough to pray for, isn’t it? I know from experience; you and I like to be the ones who are in control —the ones who are in charge . For as difficult as all this is to pray for, though, it’s the petition I left out th

when you're around A sermon on the first petition in the Lord's Prayer : Today we get to the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “hallowed be your name.” Or, “hallowed be thy name,” depending on how you pray it. But either way, it’s just four little words.   Four little words that are easy to say, but hard to understand.   For a whole multitude of reasons, too. Reflecting on these words, “hallowed be your name,” Luther remarks in the Large Catechism that this an odd phrase. He says it’s not a natural way to speak in German. Well, it’s not a natural way to speak in English, either! Is it? As it turns out, though, this little phrase, “hallowed be your name,” encapsulates the entire Lord’s Prayer! In fact, it even sums up the whole of the Christian life! And here’s a wild thing; just making this supplication helps bring it to pass, too! Now, I know that’s a little ambiguous . But for now, I want to leave it at that.   In the meantime, though, le

parading you home A sermon on the Lord's Prayer as recorded by Luke 11:1-4 : Teaching about prayer has to be one of the dullest things a person can do. Who wants to hear talk about prayer, when you can talk directly to God in prayer?   There are a million miles of difference between those two things. Isn’t there? Talking about and talking to . It’s the difference between explaining how fireworks operate, and lighting the fuse. …When the disciples come to Jesus wanting instruction about prayer, Jesus doesn’t hem and haw with any of that. Does he? No, instead, he just gives them a prayer . And what a humdinger of a prayer it is. He lights the fuse with one simple word, “ father .” Say it with me, “ Father .” _________ …Now I know exclusively masculine descriptions for God isn’t always helpful. Bear with me, though, because Jesus does intend to trip you up with this word. But not because it’s masculine. No, Jesus intends to trip you up with this wo

to the blood A sermon on Communion based on Mark 14:12-27 : Today’s Scripture begins with Jesus and the disciples concerning themselves with the sort of thing that makes up a lot of our lives, making preparations .   But , there was nothing routine about their preparations that day.   Thickheaded as the disciples could be, and they could be thickheaded. Even they knew the preparations they were making that day had a life and death significance to them.   After all, the last time they had been in the city, the chief priests, scribes, elders, Pharisees, and Sadducees had all tried to trap Jesus in what he said.   So you can bet the disciples were following all of Jesus’ directions to the “T” that day.   And while we may not be receiving any direct instructions from the Lord these days, we can all relate to how the disciples must have felt that day. Can’t we? After all, never before have all of our preparations had such life and death connotations att