Peacemakers #1

by Jonathan Manafo | Mar 8, 2017 | Sunday Conversations

VIDEO LINK (you’ll also find a shorter recap on this link)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (go to home group questions for small group discussion)

52 Words to Follow: Last Words

by Jonathan Manafo | Mar 1, 2017 | Sunday Conversations

Here we are: the final week in our series on the Lord’s Prayer. We made it! We hope it was both encouraging and inspiring…and most importantly, that it leads and compels us to PRAY more. Every thing must come to an end, even Jesus’ teaching on prayer. Some might say that it ends with a splash.

Think about what we’ve been reminded about? Some very important essentials: (show the prayer)

• God is Father…He is Holy
• We can pray for his ways, his kingdom, to be present right where we are…and we can live in a way that expresses this…
• God is our provider…each and every day
• God forgives…and invites us to extend that forgiveness to others
• God leads & delivers us…away from temptation and away from evil

After Jesus says all the things we read in this prayer…we are then presented with 3 words: Kingdom, Power, Glory. It reads like this in the NKJV, For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. This is essentially a closing statement, a clincher, the final word…it’s a Doxology – a Benediction – an AMEN.

It’s worth noting that not all bible translations agree on including this section in the prayer. There is however, enough evidence, both form the first century and the last four centuries to justify its use. The reason being is that these words summarize so well what Jesus is trying to say. They solidify the rest of the prayer. What’s also important to notice is the beginning and ending of this prayer are so closely knit by telling us who God is. Jesus begins with Father and ends with King; he begins with Holy and ends with Powerful.

Is it possible that Jesus is trying to helps us deal with our false view of power and guide us back to the one who is truly powerful? We can probably agree that we put too much value on power and before we know it start abusing it for our own gain.

Lincoln said this “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

Jesus, with this one statement, centres and balances our perspective – God gives life, God provides, God forgives, God delivers, God leads.

How do we fight against our desire for a false view of power? A few suggestions might be to pray, rest (sabbath), worship, gathering (community), love and serve others, be generous, be light, etc.

Don’t fight the power struggle alone, let Jesus’ invitation to prayer bring us to a place of humility, reminding us of who God is and what he does.

After 6 weeks in The Lord’s Prayer what are some must have take-a-ways?

This prayer is a model, not a formula. Jesus says, ‘pray like this’. Prayer is about relationship, not results.

Prayer is never selfish, but always selfless. We never read the word me in this prayer. Instead we read Our Father, give us, forgive us, forgive others, lead us, deliver us. Prayer really is a community thing. No matter if you’re praying alone in your home or your car or your seat at church, you are praying with the community of people who you follow Jesus with.

Lastly, if there’s only one thing you take away, let it be this, PRAY! Just pray!

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small(er) group discussion: (VIDEO RECAP)

What are some feelings or thoughts you may have about The Lord’s Prayer? Inviting? Challenging? Helpful? Thankful?

Jesus ends with 3 words: Kingdom, Power, Glory. Any thoughts on this? Why?

Does our culture struggle with power? Do we tend to want more of it than we should have? (Lincoln’s quote)
– Where do you see this in others? Where do you see this in you?
– What leads to this?
– What can help us stay away from this?

Some earlier and more recent theologians say that this last statement in the Lord’s prayer summarizes and/or solidifies the whole prayer? How so? How does it connect to the first phrase of the prayer(Our Father, Holy is your name)?

Two take homes from the prayer:
1) Did you notice the lack of a certain word, ‘me’? What we read instead is Our Father, Forgive us, Deliver us. What do you make of that?
2) Can we all agree that this prayer should, at least, if nothing else, encourage and challenge us to pray more?

52 Words : Temptation & Evil???

by Jonathan Manafo | Feb 22, 2017 | Sunday Conversations

One of the first movies that caught my attention when it comes to finding truth and faith in film was Changing Lanes, a 2002 film with a young Ben Affleck and a younger Samuel L. Jackson. The two main character’s lives changed because of a traffic accident. One, a young punk lawyer, began to realize who they had become and wanted to change, the other, a simple, honourable Father, was tempted at every turn to become a person he never wanted to be. Two words that depict this movie are also found near the close of The Lord’s Prayer: Temptation & Evil.

These aren’t two words we love to talk about. They are words we hope don’t associate with us very much. I want nothing to do with evil. I want very little to do with temptation – at least I don’t want to succumb to it. Jesus puts it like this, “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” He choses to include these words with this final petition.

Lead us not into temptation…

At first glance, this sounds about right. I don’t want to be tempted, I don’t want to fall into temptation – do things that I have no intention of doing.

A few things we have to think about when reading this:

First, the word temptation may better be translated testing. That changes how I understand this phrase. Temptation is something I struggle with. Testing is something I deal with. I am tempted to do something wrong (personal). I am tested in a circumstance and have the opportunity to overcome or succumb. Some might even say that testing can refer to future judgement or difficult times for those who want to follow Jesus in this world.

But what about James 1 (trials/testing is pure joy) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (2-3)

Or 1 Corinthians 10 (God will not give me what I can’t handle) So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (12-13)

Jesus did say, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33)

In light of those scriptures, it’s fair to say that we will experience difficulty or testing or even temptations, but Jesus says, I have overcome this for you. Perhaps we should understand the prayer to mean that we can ask God for help so we don’t fail or fall from or because of these obstacles in our lives.

Remember that Jesus was also tested and tempted. In the wilderness with the Devil, and in Gethsemane where we read something like this, ‘If you could remove this from me…please do…BUT…your will be done through me.’ Those two instances (including John 16) say something about what he dealt with, but also that he overcame troubles for us.

So…when we pray these words, we are asking God to help us not succumb to temptation and not to fail in times of testing.

But deliver us from evil/evil one…

What is Evil…? How do you define it? I guess you can answers this with simple responses or significant ones, with (lower case) evils to (UPPER CASE) EVILS.

Evil is all around us. We are naive to think that it isn’t. From one of the first scenes in Scripture we find humanity turning something beautiful into something not so beautiful. In ideal conditions, Eve and Adam fail their test. We’ve been failing tests and falling prey to temptation ever since.

Does evil come from inside or outside of us? It has to be a bit of both. Perhaps a cycle that can only be broken with God’s intervention and power. In Matthew 15 we read that evil thoughts flow from our heart. So it’s in us. However, we also know that people’s lives have been influenced by the evil done to them or shown to them.

Some standard responses to evil are:
– head in the sand (pretend it doesn’t exist)
– the opposite (think that it’s everywhere)
– self-righteousness (I’m not as bad as them)

Jesus uses none of these. Instead, he recognizes evil’s reality and power, and he confronts it with the reality and power of the Kingdom. (i.e. beatitudes, fruit of the spirit, clothes in Colossians 3)

With that in mind we must balance how we view evil. It may not be everywhere, but it’s also got to be somewhere. We can’t talk about it all the time (conspiracy theorists), but we also can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.

Our response should be this:
– Recognize & Pray (Matt 26:41 says to watch & pray)
– Confront evil with who we are & how we live
– Romans 12:41, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We pray this prayer because as we follow Jesus we are called to be in the middle of the action, making a difference, being a witness, shedding light in dark places. In those places, doing those things, with Jesus with us, we pray this prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” so we can do all that he, Jesus, has called us to do.

And remember this, both our wrong doings (fulfilled temptations) and the wrong in the world (evil) have been conquered by the cross of Jesus. One writer puts it like this, In the cross God has seriously and radically dealt with evil. When we pray this prayer we are ‘inhaling the victory of the cross…’

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small(er) group questions: (video recap)

When say Temptation & Evil, what goes through your mind first?

The word temptation can easily be translated as testing. Does that make a difference for you? If you’re praying for either, what kind of things are you praying for?

Read (from above) James 1, 1 Corinthians 10 and John 16. Do these verses seem to contradict what Jesus invites us to pray for? Jesus was tempted and also prayed to avoid testing. What do you make of that?

How do you define evil? What words or phrases or actions would you use to do so?

Are you an evil is everywhere or evil is nowhere kind of person? Why do you think there’s such a drastic difference in perspective from person to person?

What can we learn from Jesus’ response to evil? Recognize, Pray, Confront?
How does Romans 12:41 help us here? (Overcome evil with Good)

How is our calling to serve impact the context of our prayer?

52 words to follow: Forgive Us

by Jonathan Manafo | Feb 14, 2017 | Sunday Conversations

I’ve been quite into golf for many years now. I discovered it in my mid to late twenties and have been hooked ever since. Many people say that golf is not a game you perfect, but a game you discover and try and figure out your hole life. Out of the many things I learned about this sport, one of my favourites might be what they call ‘a mulligan’. A mulligan is a redo, a do over, a grace shot. If you’ve hit your ball into the woods or into the water, your partner may say, ‘take another shot, we’ll give you a mulligan’. They are some of the sweetest words you’ll hear on a golf course; because of course you’ll hear many not so sweet words (insert wink and a smile).

Imagine you could use a mulligan in real life? How wonderful would that be? As a police officer is about to write you a ticket you might say, ‘I think I’m going to take a mulligan on that one…I’ll see you another time, have a great day.’ After you’ve said something completely foolish you might say, ‘Mulligan. I’m taking a mulligan on that one. Pretend I didn’t say it, here’s what I really wanted to say.’ You might want a mulligan for a whole season of your life, a few months, a few years maybe. You just wish you could turn back the clock, address the situation differently, and move towards a much better experience or result.

Believe it or not, there is such a thing in life. Forgiveness. That’s right, forgiveness is what God offers to remove our wrongs doings and mess ups. King David in Psalm 103 actually describes it like this, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”  You mean God can take my wrongs…so far away…and make it like I’ve never even done them? That’s what forgiveness is – much better than a mulligan in golf. Golf is a game – Life is real.

We have been journeying through the Lord’s Prayer and have arrived at the point where Jesus tells us that we can ask for forgiveness. We’ve addressed God as Father, we’ve invited God’s Kingdom and will to be present among us, we’ve asked for something as basic as bread, and now we are invited to ask for forgiveness.

Forgive us our sins…

If we never ask for forgiveness when we pray, then something is either off with our hearts or we have forgotten a very important reality, we are broken people. This phrase in this prayer acknowledges one very important thing: SIN exists, in the world, and in us.

It might be easy to say that sin exists in the world. Watch the news, read the paper, see the terror and the violence and the injustice. Sin, wrong doing, selfish behaviour, it’s all there. But what about in me. Do I have what it takes to identify that sin is in me? Because it is. Paul says, in Romans 3, ‘we have ALL sinned’ ‘we have all done wrong’. David says in Psalm 51 that we are prone wander from the God we love.

NT Wright said, “we must beware of perceiving a world where forgiveness isn’t necessary”. That is a world where no one admits their wrongs and identifies that we need fixing – we’re broken.

E. Peterson says that Sin Kills; it kills relationships, it kills the soul intimacy that is inherent in our image of God, it kills what had potential for growth and nutrition. Some say it wastes what is good, what had life. But Forgiveness is Resurrection. Life from the dead. Forgiveness redeems what sin wastes.

Jesus says, ‘Forgive us our sins’ because he knows that we are sinners in need of forgiveness.

As we forgive those who have sinned against us…

Jesus of course never lets us off the hook that easy. When you acknowledge what’s wrong in you, what you need forgiveness for, and are appreciative of what God has done for you, Jesus says, your automatic response must be to forgive those who sin against you. But Jesus, can’t I just sit here for a while and bask in my forgiveness?

Jesus goes into more detail on this after the prayer. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Paul reiterates this in Colossians 3:13, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you…Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you.”

We who pray this are called to be the ones who live it. The church lives this. We’ve got to be a forgiveness-of-sins people. Forgiven people, forgiving others. If we don’t forgive others, it’s like we’re selfishly saying, “I want it all for me”. “I want to hoard this gift of mercy and grace”.

There are always two steps in praying for forgiveness: 1) Ask for grace, and 2) Extend that grace to others. It’s hard to do. It’s easier to host a charity event, or feed the poor, or raise money for world vision, but forgive someone who wronged you – no way, that’s too hard. Jesus’ response to that was his death on the cross. He did what only he could do so that we could receive forgiveness. He simply asks us to pay that selfless act of love forward.

Asking for forgiveness is like going to your Doctor. You know something’s not right, but in that moment you don’t really tell her what’s wrong. The Doctor can’t help you unless you’re honest about your condition. That’s why confession is important.

The church and the world are full of people who need do-overs…mulligans. We’re in luck, because God is in the business of mercy, grace and forgiveness.

Jesus says, when you pray, confess what’s up, what’s wrong…ask for forgiveness. And then, after you’ve been overwhelmed with God’s great forgiveness in your life, extend that to others around you – to those who’ve wronged you.

Life’s richest blessing comes from being forgiven and being willing to forgive.

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small(er) group questions: (short vide recap)

Was there anything this week that you wish you could do over? Don’t give us your biggest secrets, but perhaps a small regret? Did you pray the words of Cher, “If I could turn back time”?

Forgiveness is a powerful and profound thing to wrap your mind around. Read Psalm 103:8-12 and talk about how the Psalmist describes forgiveness?

Do you find yourself identifying the wrongs of others while neglecting to see the wrongs you’ve been involved in? Why is it so much easier to find fault in others and not in ourselves?
(there might be more on this though next week)

How often to you include Jesus’ words in your prayers? Forgive us our sins? Why do you think confession and forgiveness are so important to prayer and to our walk of faith?

Why would Jesus’ second part to this prayer be so difficult – forgive others? Or as Paul put it in Colossians 3:13, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you…Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you.”

What do you think it means to be forgiveness-of-sins kind of people?