Last Sunday, June 3, I preached from Luke 11:1-13 on Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer and the following discussion of prayer. At the close of the sermon, I led the congregation in praying a responsive prayer based on the Lord’s Prayer. The recording of the sermon can be found on this page of our church website.
Here is the prayer:
Leader: Heavenly Father, we come before you today as the Creator of our world and as our Creator. You created Adam and Eve, the first man and first woman, and have created each of us as your own special child.
Congregation: We praise you as our Creator.
Leader: We also come before you as our Father. A loving father will provide for his child and will give good gifts to his child. You are the best of fathers and always provide us with the best of what we need.
Congregation: We praise you as our Father.
Leader: We come before as the Holy One. You are holy. Your Son and our Savior, Jesus, is holy and without sin. Your holiness is far beyond anything that we can even imagine.
Congregation: We praise you as the Holy One.
Leader: You sent your Kingdom to earth through the ministry of your Son and desire to rule in every area of our lives.
Congregation: May your Kingdom come in our lives.
Leader: The work of your Kingdom is being carried on through the work of your church. We want our congregation to be a demonstration of the work of your Kingdom, a part of the work of your Kingdom, a fellowship that leads people to your Kingdom, a people who live for your Kingdom.
Congregation: May your Kingdom come in our church.
Leader: Your Kingdom will come in all of its power and glory when your Son returns. We long for his return. We long for that day when you will restore the heavens and earth to perfection and will take us home to be with you forever. We ask you to hasten his return.
Congregation: May your Kingdom come in the return of your Son.
Leader: In our land of plenty, you provide so abundantly for us, yet we seem to never be satisfied. May we learn to be satisfied with your provision. May we always trust you to provide for us exactly what we need.
Congregation: Give us each day our daily bread.
Leader: We acknowledge our sin before you. Because of our sin, we confess to you that we are not worthy of your love. Yet, you have offered your own Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
Congregation: Forgive us our sins.
Leader: Even though we gladly accept your forgiveness for our sins, we find it difficult to forgive those who need our forgiveness. However, if we accept your forgiveness, we should also forgive those who act unkindly and unfairly toward us. We need your help in forgiving family members and friends and even those we do not know.
Congregation: Help us to forgive those who need our forgiveness.
Leader: There are so many temptations around us everyday. It has especially become difficult to live holy lives with all the images our TV’s and computers and smart phones and devices flash at us and with all the music and language we hear around us. We also need your help with all of the temptations around us.
Congregation: Keep us from being led into temptation and from falling to temptation.
Leader: Lord, there are people around us for whom we need to pray today. So we ask for you to continue to be with Jackie Wickless as she battles her brain tumor. We ask you to heal her and we ask you to be with her during this battle.
Congregation: Lord, hear our prayer.
Leader: We also continue to offer our prayers for Loretta and her sister Denise as they both continue their individual battles against breast cancer.
Congregation: Lord, hear our prayer.
Leader: We pray for Barb, Terry’s wife, who has been diagnosed with stage 2 cancer.
Congregation: Lord, hear our prayer.
Leader: We pray for Nancy, Christine’s mother, who is facing a number of age-related health issues.
Congregation: Lord, hear our prayer.
Leader: There are others who need our prayers as well, Lord. Some of them are family members and friends of various people here today. We offer them all up to you.
Congregation: Lord, hear our prayer.
Leader: Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful gift of prayer. As we have learned about prayer again today, may we each make prayer a regular part of our lives. May we each be more committed to prayer. Thank you for always hearing us when we pray.
Congregation: We offer these prayers to you in the name of your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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