Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Positional clarification and Gospel centering on the issue of Racial Justice from part one of the Love Your Neighbor Seminar on Monday, October 12, 2020. See video and other resources from the seminar at parkchurchdenver.org/neighbor.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Fasting is not to earn God’s love. Rather, it is an expression of a hunger to know and experience more of the Father’s power and love towards His children.This week we’ll discuss Fasting in our ongoing Matthew series. This completes the section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is focusing on internal motives for spiritual practices.
Here’s how you can prepare for this Sunday!
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.””
This is the third teaching on the importance of tending to the internal motivations that drive your spiritual practices. Here Jesus is focused on the practice of fasting. Fasting, which is to purposefully refrain from food (or some other basic need) for a set period of time, has been a common practice for the people of God throughout the ages. In first century Judaism, the whole community would fast together in weekly rhythms, during certain annual holidays, and for other situational reasons. Though the specific purposes for fasting may vary (deliverance, direction, provision, renewal, etc.), Biblical fasting is a physical expression of a spiritual hunger for God.
Like all religious activity, this good spiritual practice can easily get commandeered and distorted for self-exalting purposes. Jesus again calls His disciples to turn away from the desire to practice these religious activities in order to gain the approval of others. Instead, He encourages His followers to fast in the context of their relationship with their Heavenly Father who sees the heart. Fasting is not to earn God’s love. Rather, it is an expression of a hunger to know and experience more of the Father’s power and love towards His children.
Don’t use Spotify? Click the song title below to see song on YouTube.
How precious is Your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
They feast on the abundance of Your house,
and You give them drink from the river of Your delights.
For with You is the fountain of life;
in Your light do we see light.
Promises (Alvarado, Barnes, Bowe, Gaines, Marin, Moses)
God of everlasting love,
we confess that we have been unfaithful
to our covenant with You and with one another.
We have worshiped other gods: money, power, greed, and convenience.
We have served our own self-interest
instead of serving only You and Your people.
We have not loved our neighbor as You have commanded,
nor have we rightly loved ourselves.
Forgive us, gracious God,
and bring us back into the fullness
of our covenant with You and one another.
Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Yet Even Now (Joel Limpic)
The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does He remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear Him.
When we’ve met as a large group on Sundays, we’ve always had a time of greeting one another after singing. Many churches call this time “passing the peace.” In some church traditions, one person will say to another, “The peace of Christ be with you” to which the other person responds, “And also with you.”
While potentially unfamiliar for some, we felt that “passing the peace” during greeting times at home could be a powerful act in this age marked by very little external peace. In Isaiah 9, Jesus is described as the Prince of Peace. He wants His kingdom to be marked by this very peace! We want to “pass” to one another this peace that only Jesus can give, especially at a time like this.
It might feel a bit cheesy, but we encourage you to actually pray the peace of God over each other during our times. We encourage you to look into each other’s eyes as you say, “The peace of Christ be with you!” and have others respond with, “And also with you.” Be open-hearted to Jesus, asking Him to fill you with His peace.
We Are Hungry (Brad Kilman) / Set A Fire (Will Reagan)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This life-transforming invitation to commune and converse with your heavenly Father lies at the heart of what Jesus came to provide for His followers. He came to reconcile us to God.This week in our ongoing Matthew series, we talk through “Jesus and Prayer” in Matthew 6:5–15. We’re getting into the Lord’s Prayer here toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
Want to get fired up on this passage? Here are four messages on the Lord’s Prayer from our Teach Us To Pray series in January of last year.
As for this Sunday, here’s how you can prepare:
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this:
‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
This is Jesus’ second of three teachings on the internal motives of spiritual practices. In this teaching He focuses on the practice of prayer. The teaching assumes that prayer is a part of the daily life of disciples, and that was definitely the case for most people in the Jewish community. Not only would they pray corporately in their synagogues, but they would also stop as a community to pray three times a day from wherever they were. Some used these contexts to showcase their spirituality. Others were using prayer as a way to try to manipulate God to do what they wanted. Both of these distortions miss the point of prayer altogether. Jesus teaches that prayer is, at its very heart, relational communion between a beloved child of God and their Good Heavenly Father.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is teaching His followers a better way to commune with God. It’s not intended to be a mechanical formula, but more of a framework and a guide to help people talk with God in ways that are natural, honest, and healthy. This life-transforming invitation to commune and converse with your heavenly Father lies at the heart of what Jesus came to provide for His followers. He came to reconcile us to God.
Don’t use Spotify? Click the song title below to see song on YouTube.
Great and amazing are Your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship You,
for Your righteous acts have been revealed.
Holy, Holy, Holy (Reginald Heber, John Bacchus Dykes) / Yes And Amen (Anthony Brown, Chris McClarney, Nate Moore)
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does He remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear Him.
Your Love Is Strong (Jon Foreman arr. Robbie Seay)
When we’ve met as a large group on Sundays, we’ve always had a time of greeting one another after singing. Many churches call this time “passing the peace.” In some church traditions, one person will say to another, “The peace of Christ be with you” to which the other person responds, “And also with you.”
While potentially unfamiliar for some, we felt that “passing the peace” during greeting times at home could be a powerful act in this age marked by very little external peace. In Isaiah 9, Jesus is described as the Prince of Peace. He wants His kingdom to be marked by this very peace! We want to “pass” to one another this peace that only Jesus can give, especially at a time like this.
It might feel a bit cheesy, but we encourage you to actually pray the peace of God over each other during our times. We encourage you to look into each other’s eyes as you say, “The peace of Christ be with you!” and have others respond with, “And also with you.” Be open-hearted to Jesus, asking Him to fill you with His peace.
Good Good Father (Anthony Brown, Pat Barrett)
Oh Come Let Us Adore Him (Vined Y Adoremos) (Stewart Landon)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This teaching marks the beginning of a new section in the Sermon on the Mount. The focus of this section is the call to pay attention to your inner motives for good works…We continue this Sunday in our Matthew series, discussing “Jesus and Generosity.”
Why are we in Matthew? The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the earliest biographies of Jesus, presenting Jesus not as a mere historical figure, but as “good news” for the world that should reshape every part of life.
Additionally, this Sunday, September 27, we’re joining with thousands of churches across America in what’s being called “Repentance Sunday.” During each of our services we’ll take time to pause, repent, and pray for revival across our cities and world. More on that below!
Here’s how you can prepare for this Sunday:
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
This teaching marks the beginning of a new section in the Sermon on the Mount. The focus of this section is the call to pay attention to your inner motives for good works. Jesus is teaching that His Kingdom people ought to be driven by a healthy desire to please their Heavenly Father rather than by cravings for public notoriety and human approval. To work out this teaching in real life, Jesus gives three examples of core spiritual practices that marked Jewish religious life: giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting.
Jesus assumes that giving to the needy is a part of the life of His listeners. He doesn’t expand on the practice here, but instead focuses on the heart motivation. He says that those who perform good works like giving to the needy in order to be seen by people are like performers who may receive applause from people, but they won’t receive anything from God. On the other hand, those who freely give out of love for people will be rewarded by their Heavenly Father.
Don’t use Spotify? Click the song title below to see song on YouTube.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Fall Afresh (Jeremy Riddle)
The phrases below in regular text will be read by the leader. The bolded text will be read all-together.
Lord, You said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Forgive us our lukewarm love and our disobedience.
Lord, You said, “You may ask for anything in my name.”
Forgive us when we think we need to solve our own problems.
Lord, You said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
We confess that our lives are often consumed by worry and anxiety.
Lord, You said, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”
Forgive us our barren lives, Lord.
Lord, You said, “You must testify, for you have been with me.”
We confess, Lord, that we have been too often silent.
Lord, You said, “Love each other as I have loved you.”
We confess that we are quick to anger, contempt, and division.
Lord, You said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
We confess that we often seek first our own little kingdoms of material comforts, human approval, and personal glory.
In these and in so many other ways, we confess our failures and shortcomings. Amen.
The phrases below in regular text will be read by the leader. The bolded text will be read all-together.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from Whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
Father, today we kneel with our brothers and sisters around the nation, and we confess that we need You. We need Your Spirit to revive our hearts, our churches, and our cities.
I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Father we pray that You would pour out Your Spirit of power on us so that we would truly and experientially know the immeasurable love that You have for us in Christ. And we pray that You would fill us up with Your fullness, that we would be a fresh and radiant reflection of Your glory to the world around us.
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Father, just like You brought revival to communities and cities and nations of old, we pray that You would do it again. We can’t do anything apart from You. Let us be a generation that seeks Your face! Give us a blazing passion for Christ and His Kingdom—and do in us and through us more than we could ever ask or imagine. For the sake of Your Kingdom and Your glory. Amen.
Give Us Clean Hands (Charlie Hall)
Rock Of Ages (Augustus Montague Toplady arr. Page CXVI)
When we’ve met as a large group on Sundays, we’ve always had a time of greeting one another after singing. Many churches call this time “passing the peace.” In some church traditions, one person will say to another, “The peace of Christ be with you” to which the other person responds, “And also with you.”
While potentially unfamiliar for some, we felt that “passing the peace” during greeting times at home could be a powerful act in this age marked by very little external peace. In Isaiah 9, Jesus is described as the Prince of Peace. He wants His kingdom to be marked by this very peace! We want to “pass” to one another this peace that only Jesus can give, especially at a time like this.
It might feel a bit cheesy, but we encourage you to actually pray the peace of God over each other during our times. We encourage you to look into each other’s eyes as you say, “The peace of Christ be with you!” and have others respond with, “And also with you.” Be open-hearted to Jesus, asking Him to fill you with His peace.
Take My Life And Let It Be (Frances Ridley Havergal, Henri Abraham Cesar Malan)