Christ Community Brookside
A Life That Prays Honestly - 9:00 & 10:45am
Jeremiah 15:10-21 ESV
Title: A Life That Prays Honestly
Scripture: Jeremiah 15:10-21
Speaker: Paul Brandes, PaulB@ChristCommunityKC.org
“Prayer is an expression of who we are … we are a living incompleteness. We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment.” -Thomas Merton
>> The way we pray reveals the kind of God we believe in.
>> Do we pray to a God who wants all of us?
>> Next Step: Try it.
>> Do we pray to a God who can interrupt us?
“That is a picture of prayer. …Prayer is carefully protected and skillfully supported intimacy. Prayer is the the desire to listen to God firsthand, to speak to God firsthand, and then setting aside the time and making the arrangements to do so.” -Eugene Peterson
“But there is a parody of prayer that we engage in all too often. The details are the same but with two differences: the person across the table is Self and the waiter is God. This waiter-God is essential but peripheral. You can’t have the dinner without him, but he is not an intimate participant in it. He is someone to whom you give orders, make complaints, and maybe, at the end, give thanks. The person you are absorbed in is Self — your moods, your ideas, your interests, your satisfactions or lack of them. When you leave the restaurant you forget about the waiter until the next time. If it is a place to which you go regularly, you might even remember his name.”
-Eugene Peterson
>> Next Step: Listen.
>> Do we pray to a God who will say it again?
Conversation Starters – Brookside Campus
Date: Oct 29, 2017
Text: Jeremiah 15:10-21
Title: A Life That Prays Honestly
TAKEAWAY: What is one point from the text or sermon that reframed prayer for you, or brought to mind something you had forgotten about prayer?
EVALUATING: Paul quoted Eugene Peterson, who said that sometimes we treat God like a waiter: “Essential, but peripheral.” How do you usually treat prayer? What makes prayer so difficult?
HONEST PRAYER: Jeremiah prayed an “Oh My God” type of prayer — unashamedly open and honest. Would you be willing to share a time in your life when you prayed an “Oh My God” prayer?
LISTENING: Listening is an essential part of prayer, yet likely one of the hardest. What are barriers to listening? How can we bring down those barriers and allow God to interrupt us?
RECEIVING PROMISES: Paul said, “What we really need in prayer is not new information, but an old promise.” What implications might this have for your own prayer life? What promise of God do you need to be reminded of?
PRAYER: We come to God in prayer both individually and corporately. Pray together, that we may be honest and open, bringing our whole lives before God.