210: Josh Somerville - Exhortation: How We Pray

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1. 0:13

   Welcome to good for selfie and talks. I’m Levi and I’m Chris and I’m Brian, thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one taco week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode of the start of each week with a short intro before. Hand to kind of set the stage for the talk. You’re about to listen to and now let’s talk more about this week’s talk.

2. 0:51

   Hello, this is brother Chris for this week. We are listening to an excitation that was given last not by brother. Josh, Somerville. I really enjoyed brother, Joshua Sex. You can have the topic that I kind of have given to it, is how we pray and in it. Brother, Josh is looking at the different ways that in scripture, people talk about actively doing prayer and in our culture a lot of times the way that we think about prayer is you know, you’re standing with your heads bowed and you know maybe holding the hands of the person next to you, otherwise you’re being very still and somber. And one of the things that I really appreciated about brother Josh’s excitation is he describes the actual Different poses and positions that you can do for prayer and during the excitation, he actually had everybody at the meeting stand or kneel or do whatever pose it was together and I thought it to be both awkward if I’m honest.

3. 1:46

   But also really profound because it takes you out of the normal routine that you have, you know, you’re going to say a prayer and you just bow, your head and close your eyes for a minute. And if you do that every single time, you can almost become a routine that doesn’t necessarily The same impact.

4. 2:00

   So I would encourage you as you’re listening to this, excitation when he talks about that from points, if you’re in a situation where you’re able to to try to replicate the poses. As he describes them, he says, small little prayers during each of those various poses. And I just found it to be a really interesting way to look at your prayer life and how you approach it. I know for myself, sometimes prayer can be something. I know I’m supposed to To do.

5. 2:30

   But not always something I think to do and looking at things from a different angle, find I find for myself to be a powerful way to make me reconsider and approach my prayer life in a different way. So I hope you enjoy this excitation as much as I did. I thought it was a really interesting way to approach thinking about your prayer and made me think about the different ways that we do, our prayers, both publicly and privately.

6. 2:56

   So as Levi, and Brian mentioned in, Interest previously, thank you to those who helped cover Us in the summer. It’s been nice to have a summer break, but now we’re able to get back to what we were doing and being able to share some new talks that we found so excited. Now, as we kick off the fifth season of this, we’ve gotten about five seasons of talks and as we mentioned, almost about four years.

7. 3:20

   So it’s pretty exciting to continue this going forward. And we thank you for all of you that have been listening all this time. So with that, I’m going to turn it over to Brother, Josh for his extrication, how we pray. I’m excited to bring to you the words of excitation today because I’ve been having some you know things on my mind and I wanted to kind of get them down and I’ve been looking forward to taking the opportunity to get those words on a paper and share them with you. I’ve given an excitation in the past right where I explained how to pray and I used the The Lord’s Prayer in the gospel of Matthew, to kind of give us a template of how to pray. What are the steps?

8. 4:05

   You know? What do you do first, what do you do s, and to go through kind of like that? At use that as a template in your lives, but recently, recently have, been spending more time, thinking about, you know, how we pray. And those of us have been raised in the Chris delphian meeting. I’ve heard it said many, many times, please bow your head with me and let us as we approach our heavenly father in prayer, right?

9. 4:27

   Can say it verbatim. And there’s nothing wrong with that because bowing our heads is how we show respect. You know, Boeing goes back, many many years centuries, thousands of years as a way of showing obeisance and subservience and honor and respect in my house as a child growing up at dinner, we sat around the table and bowed our heads and prayed for the meal every night and that just comes naturally and it’s even found in scripture because even in Genesis chapter 24, When we read about Abraham’s, Chief servant, being sent to find a wife for Abraham’s, son. Isaac.

10. 5:04

    We read in verse 26, then the man Bow Down and Worship the Lord saying praise be to the Lord, the god of my master Abraham who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my Master’s relatives.

11. 5:22

    And even earlier in Genesis, what happened? When lot saw the Angels into the city of Sodom and Genesis chapter 19. First verse the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening and lot was sitting in the Gateway of the city when he saw them he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

12. 5:39

    So right at the beginning of scriptures, you see that bowing down, is a great way to show respect to another person but we don’t necessarily bowed down anymore. We just kind of Bauer our heads and maybe it’s because we’re wearing nice clothes on Sunday. Maybe we don’t want to get him dirty. Maybe we don’t kneel down because we don’t want to be like other churches who may do that as a practice and maybe we just bow our heads because that’s how we were taught from childhood. And that’s just been kind of carried on Me and it just kind of comes back, just kind of comes naturally. So whatever the reason is I just wanted to have us think about it to just be aware.

13. 6:19

    Bring that to the Forefront of our minds. So what I’m going to do this morning, is read some verses in scripture and then have us practice kind of some different positions of prayer just to see how it feels. It’s going to be awkward and it’s going to be uncomfortable because we’re not in the habit of doing it and we’re really a conservative bunch of folks if the truth be told.

14. 6:43

    But I want us to allow ourselves this time here this morning to experiment and not have any judgment and I’m not saying that we have to do this, you know going Forward every Sunday but I just wanted us to give it a shot and see if that was something that you might want to do for yourself either publicly or privately or you might do this today and just go, I’m now that’s not for me. So the first one, I want to look at is the praying with our hands outstretched in First Kings chapter 8, verse 22. Solomon says a prayer of dedication and we read then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel spread out his hands toward heaven and gave his prayer of dedication to the temple, Nehemiah 8:6, Ezra praising the Lord.

15. 7:31

    And as a wroblewski, the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered. Amen. Amen. With lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and Worship the Lord with their faces to the ground. In Psalm 119 verse 48, giving praise to God. My hands also, will, I lift up Unto thy Commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes and in Luke 24 Christ.

16. 7:59

    Lifting his hands in blessing, his disciples and it reads in verse 50 and he led them out as far as Bethany and lifted up his hands and blessed them. And First Timothy 2:8. This is what kind of got my head going in this direction. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up, holy hands without wrath and doubting.

17. 8:21

    So we can see that there’s this idea in scripture and his concept of lifting up of our hands. And we see it in both the New and Old Testament. And in Luke 24, even Christ, lifted his hands and bless those around him. We also noticed that most of these verses have an uplifting feeling the more of a praising and a blessing idea. So we’re going to keep that in mind. Now that’s not always the case because there are verses I found that that do have a lifting of hands even when they’re making dire requests.

18. 8:53

    So they’re doing that with her hands outstretched. But for the most part, we’ll keep this as a more positive and upbeat type of feeling. So in a minute, I’m going to ask you to stand with me and will raise our hands towards the sky and if you want to raise them high that’s great.

19. 9:10

    If you want to raise them kind of halfway that’s fine too. If you want to have them down next to your your size, but you want to have your hands open that works as well. I think what I would like us to focus on this morning is just keeping our palms, open, right? Not closing, not behind the back. Just our palms, open and out.

20. 9:34

    Opening the To me is a helpful way of opening my heart and maybe opening my mind to be able, to better, concentrate and express that thankfulness that we have towards our heavenly father. And also, as an aside, I’m not sure if you’ve ever done this, but I have, have you ever looked up during a prayer? It’s just something to think about. Have you ever raise your head towards God? Instead of bowing it down.

21. 10:00

    We are his children and children, look up to their parents, both physically and, and probably, you know, emotionally. So what if you raise your head and close your eyes and you kind of picture, God bending down to pick you up in his arms, like a loving parent would with their child with a smile on his face and forgiveness in his eyes.

22. 10:22

    And that is a powerful picture. So I recommend you try that, don’t have to try that today but you know, give that up. Give that a try at some point. Okay, so with that, let’s go ahead and stand up. If you’re comfortable doing it, if you don’t want to do it, that’s fine.

23. 10:37

    No judgment again. And you can just pick a position, how we want to do it and what you want to do with your hands and your head is up to you. So let us pray. Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Father, we look to you with our arms raised. And our hands open and thankfulness for the blessings that you so generously have given us. And we know that all things in our lives come from you. And so we give thanks to you for the ability to meet here at this place as a family.

24. 11:16

    We’re thankful that you call this to be your children and that you are continuing to work with us. In our lives. Guiding us protecting us. Teaching us as a loving parent. You love us so much father. And we see that love in our lives and in your word. Heavenly father, thank you for your Plan of Salvation that you have planned for us. We look forward to that day with growing anticipation. Send your son soon, father, that we might be with you and your glorious Kingdom.

25. 11:50

    For it is through your son’s name. We pray. Amen. let’s take a moment, think about how that felt kind of internalized that process that

26. 12:06

    The next position, which I would like us to consider. Is this idea of kneeling before god. Again, I clearly remember growing up doing that saying the Lord’s Prayer every night before bed on my knees. My sister Erin and I shared a room. So we’d be right next to each other saying it. In unison before we went to bed at night.

27. 12:28

    I think that stopped when my mom stop putting us to bed probably, but it was a good memory you know. I did, I didn’t hate it. Another memory and I’m sorry Dad, I have to put you on blast here for a little bit. Is my dad doing it as well full suit and tie dress shoes kneeling, down and giving prayer to God.

28. 12:51

    Before starting the day. And when you’re six or seven, you don’t fully understand what what’s going on because that’s just totally normal in the house. But as an adult, you know, you come to understand what it was that he was doing. He’s putting his life and his day in God’s hand. And that’s a powerful way that we should all be doing that is kneeling before god.

29. 13:13

    And putting the day in his hands just to encourage us and to strengthen us just through the day. So it’s a good reminder that we should be doing that in our homes as well. So what does Scripture say about kneeling? Psalm? 95 begins with. Oh, come let us sing unto the Lord. Let us Make a Joyful Noise to the rock of our Salvation verse 34, the Lord is a great God and a great king above above all gods, Verses 6 and 7.

30. 13:43

    O. Come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker for. He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his hand. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 3, gives a prayer to the Ephesians and it begins in verse 14. And he says for this cause I bow my knees or I kneel on to the father of our Lord. Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would Grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the Inner Man and I’m cutting it off there, but the gist is at the, you know, he’s He’s kneeling in prayer and earnestly asking God with humility and respect to be with the Ecclesia at Ephesus. Let’s take a look at Acts chapter 20. Now that’s the reading that I had Tyler read this morning. I found that chapter to be very interesting and very powerful, especially in the context of this topic. And you almost have to read the whole chapter to get the full picture of what’s Happening Here. But I’m going to just read excerpts to refresh that picture in that scene in our minds.

31. 14:56

    So, starting at verse 17 and from my latest, he sent to Ephesus and call the Elders of the church, and when they were come to him, he said unto them. You know, from the first day that I came at, Asia Asia, after what Manner, I have been with you at all seasons. Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold I go Bound in the spirit in unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. And now, behold I know that e all among whom I have gone preaching.

32. 15:34

    The kingdom of God shall see my face, no more for this. For, I know this that after my departing shall Grievous wolves. Enter in among, you not sparing the flock and when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him.

33. 15:54

    So that’s kind of like the highlights of what was it? What was happening there? And when I picture this, in my mind, I don’t see. Just Paul kneeling, I see all of them kneeling together possibly holding hands, or even their arms around each other because these Brethren loved Paul. And they were devastated that they would no longer see him.

34. 16:16

    And I want to believe that Paul was praying for, not only them, but for his own strength, Daniel chapter 6 is another good example to us of not, allowing the pressures and societal, indoctrination change us in our faith. And following after God, because in Daniel chapter 6, it was made illegal to pray to anyone other than the king for 30 days and we see in verse 10. Now, in Daniel knew that the writing was signed. So he knew that the law was put into place, he went into his house and his windows being opened and his chamber towards Jerusalem.

35. 16:50

    He Neil Upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a for time. So now we can see something of a pattern, again, begin to emerge as to what kind of prayer we could do when we meal. It is a position. We can take when we’re praying to God and asking for strength, for guidance, for encouragement and not only for others, but for ourselves and of course we’re giving thanks. So we’re going to experiment with that now. And for those of us who are able to and willing to kneel I encourage you to do so you can choose again either to Bow your head or lift it up.

36. 17:33

    Now you can decide what to do with your hands either open and raised or down as more of a bowing. So let’s think about that. If you kneel in front of your chair, if you can there might be room to do that or you can just stay in your seat that works as well.

37. 17:46

    So let’s all kneel and we’ll do a short prayer. Father, we come to you now in humility. Looking to you for strength. As we are here this morning. Renewing our minds and our spirit with your word.

38. 18:14

    We struggle with the pressures of the world puts us under and we know that we are weak and we need your continual support. We ask that you. Give us the courage to stand up to the Temptations. We face.

39. 18:29

    To be reminded that through you, there’s no temptation that we cannot overcome when we are faced with it. Father, we ask in humility that you be with our brothers and sisters that need your healing hand. We have heard in our announcements this morning of those dealing with health issues. We know that there are so many more in our family that are struggling, not only with the health issues, but with mental issues as well, he’ll them encourage them and let them know that you are with them. Father, we are overwhelmed.

40. 19:10

    By your grace and forgiveness. And we ask that you help us to show that same Grace and forgiveness to those that look to do us harm. Help us in our walk. We pray and may all that we do be right in your eyes. We look to your son as our example, in all things and pray this through his name. Amen.

41. 19:38

    Thanks guys, that was awesome. the next one I want to talk about is not necessarily a bodily position, but the idea of praying while touching someone So many times when we read about the miracles of Jesus during his ministry, he heals those that are sick and he touches them in some way. Matthew chapter 8 verse 3. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I am willing be cleansed and immediately, his leprosy was cleansed Matthew 9:29.

42. 20:14

    Then he touched their eyes saying it shall be done to you, according to your faith in Mark, chapter 6, verse 5, and he could do there. I’m sorry. And he could, there do no Mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. And in Luke 18, verse 15 and they were bringing even their babies to him, that he would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them.

43. 20:44

    So when you read through the life of Jesus, you realize there are times when he’s he says words and touches them and the healing occurs. But we also know that there are plenty of times when either just says words or and the healing occurs, he’s not even doesn’t touch them and he’s not near them. So clearly it’s not necessary for Christ to be touching to touch someone in order to heal them. But there is a power in human touch. we know that because science tells us, that there’s a lot of benefits to touch There’s a deep biological connection between our sense of touch and our emotional well-being.

44. 21:32

    Touch is a powerful sense that changes how we feel touch releases oxytocin, which is known as a feel-good hormone. Newborns that are given nurturing touch grow faster and have more improved mental. And motor skill development children, raised with more physical interaction, tend to be less aggressive, and violent Partners. Who cuddle have been shown to have lower stress levels, and blood pressure and improved immune function.

45. 21:58

    So, although Jesus didn’t need to touch anyone to heal them. I think there’s clearly a benefit for both Jesus and the person he would touch To the point that in the Luke 1815, they’re bringing babies to him, just so he will touch them. And we think back to that prayer in Acts chapter 20, they were kneeling with him and probably holding each other in prayer.

46. 22:23

    And we see it here in Arc lygia, I see it here in our kaliesha all the time. Those of us that are married are holding our spouses hand during a prayer. We’re holding our child’s here. And I think I’ve even seen some of our older sisters holding each other’s hands during a prayer. Or married people putting their arms around each other during prayer.

47. 22:44

    Touch helps us to strengthen our bond, that we have with each other. So why not pray with each other and hold hands or when we are with someone who needs a prayer, put your hand on their shoulder, hold their hand, let them know that you are connected to them. It’s just another option, you know, for us to keep in mind another idea.

48. 23:08

    So let’s give it a try. Let’s hold someone’s hand, and I’ll give a short prayer and we don’t have to move around to do it. Let’s just stand up. Let’s just the nearest person that’s with us. Let’s hold hands. Oh man.

49. 23:25

    All right, here we go. Great Almighty Heavenly Father. What a blessing it is for us That you have given us this gift of touch. we know that touches a powerful sense that we have been blessed with, And it can help us in our walk. It is a simple act of showing solidarity with someone else.

50. 23:51

    It helps us to see and to feel that we are not alone that we have each other. So help us father to share this blessing with us with others, not just our family here but to reach out to those around us who are alone were hurting who are needing to feel that you care and that you are with them.

51. 24:17

    We have seen in your word how your son would use touch as a blessing and so we are encouraged as well to give of ourselves and be vulnerable to one another through touch. We thank you for this. For all of our blessings father in your son’s name. Amen.

52. 24:43

    The next position that will be covering this morning is of being prostrate before the Lord. And first of all, I think a definition is important. Because I didn’t fully understand what that meant, prostrate means stretched out with face on the ground and adoration or submission. Completely over common lacking the will or power to rise.

53. 25:11

    Here are some examples of that Genesis chapter 17, God appeared to Abram and Abram immediately fell prostrate before the Lord In verse three reads and Abram fell on his face and God talked with him in Joshua chapter 7, Joshua sent men into battle against Ai and were surprisingly defeated and ran away from the men of AI. So, when verse 6, we read and Joshua, rent his clothes and fell to the Earth upon his face before the Ark of the Lord until the Eventide, he and the Elders of Israel and put dust on their heads.

54. 25:47

    Luke Chapter 5, 12 reads and it came to pass when he Jesus was in a certain city. Behold a man full of leprosy who seeing Jesus fell on his face and besought him. Saying Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean And in Matthew 26, we read that even Jesus the Christ in his final moments, prostrated himself as he prayed to his father and in verse 39 and he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed saying O my father. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will.

55. 26:22

    But as thou Wilt. So from these beers versus, we can get a sense of when this position was used in Scripture. It is similar to the kneeling position but more respectful, more Earnest in its desire, it expresses even more humility and our own powerlessness. To do anything of Our Own. And like the leprous man, who is suffering came to Jesus and fell on his face to be healed. We can think of ourselves very much in the same way because we all have the leprosy of sin in our lives. We’re not worthy of the gift that God has generously given to us.

56. 27:02

    So, how is it that we do not always fall down and prostrate ourselves to God when we pray to him. Now, we’re not going to experiment with this position of prayer. So you can relax I probably should have said that earlier so that you guys could have relaxed or you looking around for a place to lay down, I’m not sure.

57. 27:24

    It’s just too personal, right? It’s too intimate. That is something that we will that you will do in your life, you know, privately. I just wanted to share it with you because it’s powerful and it’s something that even Jesus Christ, Jesus did. So it’s something for us to, to be aware of He is our example and he did prostrate himself to God. Now, when did he do it?

58. 27:56

    He did it in his Darkest Hour, did he? When he was coming to the end of his ministry and to the end of his life, Christ was still just a human being person like you and me who didn’t want to die, who clearly didn’t learn death, but he was willing to sacrifice to be a willing sacrifice for us. He completely submitted himself to God’s will. And so we look now to the bread and wine and we remember the price that was paid for our salvation. The Son of God being crucified for us. So when we pray to God, we can express our thankfulness with outstretched arms.

59. 28:40

    We can kneel before him in prayer. And in times of our own greatest needs, we can prostrate ourselves in his presence. John 3:16 and 17 for God. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world. But that the world through him might be saved. Thank you for listening to the good christadelphians talks podcast.

60. 29:29

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61. 29:47

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62. 30:10

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