The Lord and His Prayer: Realizing the Kingdom through Prayer
May 24 • Deliver Us from Evil
May 18 • Forgive Us, as We Forgive
May 10 • Give Us This Day Our Bread
May 3, 2020 • Let His Kingdom Come
April 26, 2020 • Our Father, Hallowed Be Thy Name
Introduction
Some associate The Lord’s Prayer with rote religious tradition. How far from its original intent! Jesus taught this prayer as the path into the burning center of God’s Kingdom. Coming in the middle of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7), The Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9–13) is how disciples engage and enjoy their new life in God and live into His missional purposes here on earth. In praying these words, doctrine becomes life, teaching flows into kingdom.
Over the next five weeks, in our series The Lord and His Prayer: Realizing the Kingdom through Prayer, we will study this prayer, what it means, how we pray and live it, and why it matters for us today.
Three goals excite me as we launch this series. The first has to do with experience: I want God and the realities of God’s Kingdom to become more real to our hearts through this prayer. Through Jesus we become God’s children (John 1:12–13), but it is through prayer, by the working of the Holy Spirit, that we experience our sonship.
The second is about reorientation and engagement: I want us to become reoriented to what God is doing in the world, and increasingly to be His instruments in accomplishing it. Praying “Thy will be done” thrust us into the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom here on earth, reorienting us to see events, happenings, and spiritual things from God’s perspective.
The third is all about rest: Jesus words just prior to The Lord’s Prayer are, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt 6:8). And His words soon after read, “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For … your heavenly Father knows that you need them all” (Matt 6:31–32). Praying this prayer is our rest.
Schedule
Our Father, Hallowed Be Thy Name (April 26)
Let His Kingdom Come (May 3)
Give Us This Day Our Bread (May 10)
Forgive Us, as We Forgive (May 17)
Deliver Us from Evil (May 24)
Holy Week 2020
Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday
Easter Sunday
Jonah and the Whale
Credo: Truths That Shape a Christian Life
+ About Our Series
FROM THE RECTOR (Jan. 19, 2020)
Like vines climbing a latticework, our lives are supported and shaped by a few deep truths we cling to. It may be the wisdom of our parents, ideas of a beloved teacher, or the values of a popular ideology we hold to. More common today, we may simply believe in ourselves. Whether we realize it or not, we all live by a creed—some assortment of beliefs that shape the quality and direction of our lives.
Christians face squarely this dynamic between belief (faith) and life. From their earliest days they knew following Jesus meant reshaping life around a new creed. One enduring example of this is the ancient Apostles’ Creed, a succinct articulation of the truest truths according to Jesus Christ. Still recited worldwide, the Creed boldly begins, Credo in Deum (I believe in God).
In our sermon series over the next six weeks, Credo: Truths That Shape a Christian Life, we consider some essential doctrines (truths) of the faith as expressed in the Apostles' Creed (and Nicene Creed, CLICK HERE) by looking at how they arise from Scripture. Whether hearing these truths for the first or thousandth time, please join me these next weeks in asking two questions: What creed am I currently living by? What might life look like if I wholeheartedly believed the truest truths of Christianity?
I Believe in…
- The Doctrine of God (Jan. 19)
- The Doctrine of the Son (Jan. 26)
- The Doctrine of Humanity (Feb. 2)
- The Doctrine of the Cross (Feb. 9)
- The Doctrine of Final Things (Feb. 16)
- The Doctrine of the Spirit and the Church (Feb. 23)
+ On the Doctrine of Humanity (Introduction)
FROM THE RECTOR (Feb. 2, 2020)
What is man that you are mindful of him?" -Ps. 8:4
Inscribed across the ancient Greek portico of Apollo’s Temple at Delphi, a timeless maxim reads, "Know thyself." Long before the insights of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, we humans knew we were a knot in need of untangling. And for good reason! Answering who we are is important not only for meeting the woman or man in the mirror, it’s essential for knowing how we should act, interact, hope, love and ultimately find fulfillment.
As we continue our sermon series, Credo: Truths That Shape a Christian Life, we take up the Doctrine of Humanity, asking with Psalm 8, “What is man…?” Christianity requires a biblical view of being human. Scripture opens with God making humanity in His image (Gen 1:26–27) and for our redemption, as the Creed attests, our Lord “came down from heaven … and was made man” (Nicene Creed). Christianity sets forth a story that begins with man’s grandeur, plunges into his misery, then points to his future glory—all under the watchful eye of our Creator. Careful reflection upon the biblical view of humanity has never been more important in this age of confusion.
The modern Western self finds herself stripped of a creator, dislocated from any story with eternal purpose and meaning, and burdened with an unbearable weight of self-actualization. “Know thyself” has morphed into “create thyself.” Issues as far-ranging as justice, sexuality, gender, fulfillment, and hope are now held, not in the wise hands of God, but feeble fingers of man. The Church invites wandering Homo sapiens back home, where the question is not "Who am I?" but "Whose am I?" May The Falls Church Anglican be a place where the Doctrine of Humanity is reclaimed, rearticulated, and esteemed as the good news it is.
Feb. 23, 2020
Feb. 16, 2020
Feb. 9, 2020
Feb. 2, 2020
Jan. 26, 2020
Jan. 19, 2020
Christmastide
Jan. 12, 2020
Jan. 5, 2020
Dec. 29, 2019
Dec. 24, 2019
Songs of Christmas
Dec. 15, 2019
Dec. 8, 2019
Dec. 1, 2019
The Church Actually: The Falls Church Anglican Formed by Acts
Introduction
Nov. 24, 2019
Nov. 17, 2019
Nov. 10, 2019
Nov. 3, 2019
Oct. 27, 2019
Oct. 20, 2019
Oct. 13, 2019
Oct. 6, 2019
Sept. 29, 2019
Sept. 22, 2019
Sept. 15, 2019
Entering Our New Home
Christ-Centered: A Study in Colossians
Christ-Centered: Introducing Colossians - June 1-2, 2019
Introduction video
The Gospel Bears Fruit in Colossae: Col. 1:3-8 - June 8-9, 2019
Paul’s Goal for Your Life: Col. 1:9-14 - June 15-16
Once Alienated, Now Reconciled: Col. 1:15-23 - June 23
Suffering in These Bodies: Col. 1:24-29 - June 30
Growing as Christians: Col 2:16-20 - July 7, 2019
Error and Its Remedy: Col 2:1-10, 16-23 - July 14, 2019
Oneself in Another (Col. 2:8-15;3:1-4) - July 21, 2019
Jesus amid Our Closest Relationships
Knit Together in Love
Eastertide 2019
St. Mark’s Church in Jerusalem, where some believe is on the site of the Upper Room.
John’s sermon from May 19, addressing the reliability and inerrancy of Scripture.
John’s sermon from May 26, his last service as rector.
Palm Sunday
First Sunday of Easter
Second Sunday of Easter
Third Sunday of Easter
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Fifth Sunday of Easter
The Promises and Warnings of Jesus
This is a series given January-April 2019. Frequently Jesus coupled words of warnings along with wonderful promises in his teaching. We are quick to reach for the promises but often tend to pay less attention to the warnings. For instance, Jesus warned that “In this world you will face trouble,” but then he affirmed this great promise, “but take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) During the winter season we will look at several examples in which Jesus brought together words of great promise with words of warnings and we will seek to better understand how the one relates to the other and how together they can change our lives.
Preachers
The Rev. John Yates
The Rev. Bill Haley
The Rev. Will Shafferman
The Rev. Sam Ferguson
Sermon Excerpts
The promises and warnings about living a fruitful life.
The promises and warnings about heaven.
The promises and warnings about the Holy Spirit.
The promise and warning about unity and oneness.
Full Sermons
Revelation and Reprisal
The is the sermon given on Epiphany Sunday, January 6, 2019.
Lessons and Carols
December 23, 2018
Preacher:
The Rev. Bill Haley
Prophecies of Jesus
This series was presented in December 2018.
Preachers:
The Rev. Bill Haley
The Rev. Dr. John W. Yates II
The Rev. Will Shafferman
The Impact of Jesus on Others
This series was presented in November 2018.
Preachers:
The Rev. Dr. John Yates
The Rev. Bill Haley
The Call and Preaching of Jesus
This series was presented in October 2018.
Preachers:
The Rev. Will Shafferman
The Rev. Dr. John Yates
The Person of Jesus
This series was presented in September and October 2018.
Preachers:
The Rev. Dr. John Yates
The Rev. Bill Haley
Summer Series 2018
This series was presented in July through September 2018.
Preachers:
The Rev. Dr. John Yates
The Rev. Dan Moratta
The Rev. Dean Miller
The Rev. Will Safferman
The Rev. Bill Haley
The Rev. Chris Royer
The Rev. John Yates III
Grace in Practice
This series was presented April through July 2018.
Preachers:
The Rev. Sam Ferguson
The Rev. Dr. John Yates
The Rev. Bill Haley
The Rev. Tim Muehlhoff
The Rev. Brock Morgan
The Rev. Kathleen Christopher