“A Weight Upon The Heart”

August 17, 2014

Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church

Sermon Series on “All My Day: A Summer of Prayer”

Inspired by Marcia McFee

Sermon 7 of series-

“Concern”

John 17:6-25 NIV Bible

“A Weight Upon The Heart”

Let us pray… (Pray for God’s illumination…)

Have you ever had anything that was just a weight upon your heart? You know…that thing that keeps you up at night. You are truly concerned about a person or situation and you just can’t get it out of your head.

Now that the girls are getting older, I find myself in prayer more often than before. I never really thought much about them going out into the world. I know they have been brought up knowing God and God’s love for them. I find myself praying for them as they leave the house. It is hard for kids, I think, living in the world as it is today. There are so many things that bombard their minds during the day, things that are of this world, things that could lead them to stray away from God, things that could be dangerous for them. The list just goes on and on. They are near and dear to my heart and at times it really weighs upon my heart. It truly concerns me that they are going out into the world sometimes…

This summer, we are invited to pray “All My Days” and to make a habit of prayer wherever you are. Each Sunday in worship we have focused on one of the steps of the prayer beads but you are encouraged to pray these categories all summer long. I would ask that you take out your beads if you brought them with you this morning. My continued hope is that our Summer Sermon Series “All My Days: A Summer of Prayer” will help us learn a way of prayer that will bring us closer to the maker of all we see.

I hope we have learned a few things as we have been going through the beads on the string.  Remember…the Gold Bead…which reminds us to begin with adoration and the second bead….the bumpy beady….that is to remind us to let go and let God. The “holey Bead” invites us to sit in silence, listen for what God has to say. Then the steeping stone bead, our journey of faith. The next bead …the black...the black and white...the grey bead...we are reminded to bring our spiritual struggles to God. The next bead, the green bead, represents concern. What concerns you most in life?

Now…we’ve talked about the worry in our lives…about “Letting Go and Let God”…but what about our concerns. Are we not trusting God if we have “concerns”? Now there is a difference between worry and concern…we learned that in the book study of Mary and Martha.

·        Concern=Involves a legitimate threat, is specific (one thing), addresses the problem, solves problems, looks to God for answer.

And

·        Worry=is often unfounded, is generalized (spreads to many things), obsesses about the problem, creates more problems, looks to self or other people for answer.

Jesus modeled prayer for you and me. We read many accounts in the bible of when Jesus went away, by Himself, to pray. We read some of those prayers in the bible and some are about things and situations that concerned Him about humanity. As a matter of fact, Jesus, just before He was betrayed and arrested, prayed prayers if concern. Three of them are found in the Gospel of John chapter 17…as a matter of fact it is all of chapter 17. The first in this series of prayers was for Him-self. It was time for Him to complete the purpose He came for and now it was time for Him to do his final ministerial act for humanity. He was about to die for all of humanity.

The next part of the prayer is the one I read this morning as Jesus prayed for the disciples that were with Him as He was healing and bringing the Good News to a hurting, still hurting, world. Jesus was concerned for them. He wanted them to be protected from the evil one who is in the world. He was concerned for them because they have now become in the world but not part of the world because of their faith in Jesus.

And then Jesus does something that is truly hope and life giving to me. In the third part of the prayer, Jesus prays for all believers to come. Listen to this part of His prayer that is found in John 17 verses 20-25…now as I read this prayer, I want you to put your name in where ever you hear the word “their, they and them” because Jesus is praying for you and for me…future believers…

Jesus Prays for All Believers

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Jesus, who taught the first disciples how to pray, was modeling a prayer of concern for those around him and those yet to be. Even the Lord Prayer that we prayed just a few minutes ago has a concern…request…from God…give us this day our daily bread….forgive us of our trespasses…and lead us not into temptation…

So…is it a matter of distrust if we have concerns in our lives. It becomes a matter of distrust of we don’t bring those concerns to God. We doubt God and His goodness and mercy when we keep them to ourselves. It is an act of disbelief when we think God is not concerned with our concerns. If even Jesus…the perfector of our faith…brought His concerns to His heavenly  Father…well…you get the picture.

Are there things that are concerning you and you don’t know who to turn to for help? Are you having trouble believing that God wants to hear you “silly concern”? Is your heart heavy laden with concern? Come to the cross of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ who knows what it is like to have concerns upon the heart. Come to the One who will share your concern with you and lighten your load. Come and lay your concern down at the feet of the Shepherd and rest in the meadow by the still waters of our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, and live…

Let us pray…pray about those concerns that we bring to God…

Amen