Learning (Again) to Pray (4) – Father, Protect Them

Welcome to CROLCC, we are so glad you are here with us!  I hope you had a very nice thanksgiving holiday!  I remember when I first came to the U.S. Thanksgiving day was a very quiet day, at least in terms of the traffic at shopping malls.  Nowadays stores are open even as early as 6 p.m. this past thanksgiving.  One of my friend on facebook commented that he will never ever buy anything on Thanksgiving, saying that day should be reserved for being with one’s family and giving thanks for the year.  Others are simply just trying to get a good deal or get a head start on Christmas shopping.  I won’t tell you what you should or should not do, but I do think it’s important to think about what you do on thanksgiving before doing it.  That way, you won’t feel guilty one way or the other.

We are closing our series on prayer today and we have been talking about learning perhaps again how to pray.  We have talked about the Lord’s prayer, the need to surrender our wills to God’s will, and last week we talked about having the right attitude when we approach our heavenly Father.  Today as we close we are going to talk about one of Jesus’ most important prayers.  It’s a prayer he prayed specifically for each one of us against one of the greatest threats facing the church in any generation: the threat of disunity.

Moving Forward

We follow a savior who placed himself on a cross so we could know our heavenly Father now and for all of eternity. As a church, we have the opportunity to be united and, in our unity, to reflect God’s love to the people around us. Oneness matters.

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever been part of a team or a group that just didn’t gel? What happened?

2. How does disunity among Christians affect the way non-believers view the church?

3. Most of us get frustrated at one time or another when our purposes for the church don’t align with God’s purposes for the church. Talk about a time when you’ve experienced that. What did you do?

4. What kind of people do you have the most difficulty interacting with? How do think Jesus might use those people as part of his church? How does that challenge you to change the way you think about and treat them?

5. What is one thing you can do this week to find “oneness” with someone you find difficult to interact with?