Men's Breakfast Bible Study

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Raymond. Thank you, Father Caleb, for having me here. Let's see. Yes, thank you. As I get older, there are fewer and fewer people who were at St. Andrews when I was there, but I'm glad there's still a few like Jack Mumford and Jim Fuller and Steve Fuller.

So, and Raymond. Raymond. Well, let's see. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'll tell you a brief, give you a brief testimony. I started out at, I went to college at Cornell and I was an engineering student there.

I got a degree in electrical engineering and then I went down to New York City to, I got tired of electrical engineering. I thought maybe I'd make a career change. And so I went down to New York City and started working on an MBA at NYU. I got the MBA. I started working on a PhD. But sometime in there, my grandfather had a house in New York City and he had died the year I was starting out at NYU.

And so the family said, well, we got this house here and we're not selling it yet. So why don't you sleep in the house? So I said, okay. So I slept in my grandfather's bedroom. And my grandfather had a, on the, on the bed table, he had a Bible. So I said, oh, this is a good idea. He, it looks like he was reading the Bible before he went to sleep. So I'll start reading the Bible.

So, so I started, I started with, with, with, with Matthew. I said, I said, I said, maybe, I said, I don't know if I'm a Christian or not. But if I look in the, if I read the Bible, maybe the Bible will tell me what a Christian is.

And then I can say, and, and, and, and then I can go to that church that's next door to my grandfather's house that had a sign outside that says, young adult fellowship meets here.

And I'd love to meet some other people my age, harmless people. I knew Christians were harmless and harmless people who, who, and especially some nice Christian girls who would be harmless also.

And so, so, so, so I started reading the Bible with Matthew and going through it. And I couldn't find a description of what a Christian was. So I couldn't say if I was one.

So I kept reading it every night for about 15 minutes to half an hour. And it became clear that, that, that Jesus was calling people to be his disciples. And I said, that's interesting. And then I read for a few more weeks and I said, you know, maybe Jesus is calling me to be his disciple.

And so I thought about that some and kept reading at night. And I thought about that. And finally, I said, no, I don't want to be his disciple. I said, I said, I said, I said, I think Jesus might not want me to make as much money as I want to make.

I mean, I can do pretty well with an engineering degree and an MBA and I should be able to make some money. So, so, but so, so then I kept reading at night and then I, then one night I woke up at 5 a.m.

and, and started thinking about whether I'd made a big mistake and I should be a disciple of Jesus. And so, so no, I said, no, I don't want to do that.

And then, then about a week later, I kept waking up at 5 a.m. and thinking about this. And about a week later, it occurred to me that Jesus was waking me up and, and that he really wanted me.

And I, so I would say, no, no, and go away and leave me alone. And, but I wasn't getting any sleep because I was waking up at 5 and then I was falling back to sleep at 6. And then my alarm would go off at 6.30 and, and so, so I was getting very tired.

So at the end of, at the end of this going on for several months, I, I went, I, one night I woke up at 5 a.m.

And I said, oh no, not again. So I, I slid off my bed, put my arms up like this. And I said, I said, I give up. I said, I don't care how much money I make, but I'm willing to be your disciple if you'll give me a good night's sleep.

So, and I never woke up again early. I mean, I didn't die. I didn't wake up early again.

So I, I got a good night's sleep. He did give me a good night's sleep from then on. And, uh, then I had to, um, then I had to figure out what to do as a Christian.

And I had a, um, I'd met a girl who was going to a church. So I asked her if I could go to church with her. Nobody told me churches were any different from one another.

And I didn't know much about churches, but I, I'd met this girl and she said, sure. So she started bringing me to an Episcopal church. And, um, and, uh, um, and, and I got enrolled in doing things like teaching Sunday school.

But after a while, it occurred to me, there were people my own age there. And I would stand around with them at the coffee hour. And, um, but I found out very few of them had had the same kind of experience I had had.

Very few of them had had, had had Jesus confront them and call, call them to be his disciples. And very few of them had made decisions. They'd kind of, kind of just, they were just going to church and enjoying the fellowship afterwards.

None of these people had been confronted with the claim that there's a difference between being a Christian and a non-Christian. None of them had been, had made a decision to, uh, to follow Jesus.

So as time went on, I said to myself, you know, I'm doing a lot with learning about money, working on this MBA. By then I was working on a PhD.

And so, uh, working on a PhD in economics, I said, uh, I'm learning a lot about money. But I said, it would be a lot more important to call people to be disciples of Jesus than to teach them how to make money.

So, um, so I quit and went to seminary. Um, it wasn't a very good seminary, but, uh, I went, I went to seminary anyway and learned some things there.

And, um, and then I, uh, this church here eventually, uh, this church here, um, called me to be the rector.

And I'd never, the one St. Andrews in the Valley, 120 people on Sunday morning. I'd never, uh, I'd never, uh, been the rector of a church before.

I didn't have any models of what that looked like. But I had a conviction that if I, that if, uh, that, uh, that, that most of the people in the church, before I got there, my conviction was that most of the people in the average Episcopal church are not Christians.

And that, uh, that if I were to preach a gospel asking people to make a decision from the pulpit, every Sunday that people would decide to become Christians, you know, the, the paradigm was that people, these people are going to pay me to convert them.

So, uh, so anyway, so I kept, uh, I kept preaching the gospel every Sunday from the pulpit there. And, um, eventually, uh, and eventually with a little more teaching, somebody told me about small groups.

I started small group Bible studies. And, um, somebody then told me the metric of small group Bible studies was, was one Bible study for every 15 people in worship.

So with, uh, with, uh, we'd gotten up to maybe 150 by then. So with 150 in worship, you should have 10 small groups.

And we had 10 small groups after, after I was at the church for five or six years. And, uh, it was, uh, it was wonderful to see all these people studying the Bible, committing their life to Christ.

It was, uh, it was a blessing to me and encouragement to me. And, uh, and it really didn't, back in those days, at least, uh, it didn't require a lot of skill.

It required conviction and, and, um, on my part, it required me to be convinced that, that the only way to go was, uh, was a commitment to Jesus.

So the, um, well, anyway, let me go on to talk a little more about what I'm going to do today. And, uh, I need a volunteer to hand out some things here.

Here you go. Thank you. Yep. Growing a church today is, is a lot more, is a lot more difficult than when I was, um, when I started out in the ministry.

I think the paradigm today is you can't, well, it's important to have your church, uh, offer things to attract people. Um, in today's church, you have to go out to people instead of them coming to you.

So, uh, I think if I were doing this again, I would do a lot more, um, a lot more neighborhood canvassing. And, um, yeah, one day I decided, one day down in the valley, I decided to do on my own a neighborhood canvas.

And I decided to go door to door starting Saturday at nine o'clock in the morning. So, so I started going up one street and down the other, Searland, Lindbergh, and, uh, knocking on the doors of these houses and, and introducing myself and, uh, asking people if there's anything I could pray for.

And, uh, uh, but it didn't yield any results. Nobody ever, I'd hand out my card, nobody would ever come to church. And in fact, it was tiring.

People, after three hours of doing that, I was ready to quit. And, uh, and I didn't like the person who, once, one family I knocked on the door of, and nobody, I could hear people inside, but nobody came to the door.

Then I heard the side door around the corner from the front door open up and close. I wondered what that was. Then a large dog comes around. Oh, no.

And starts, uh, barking at me. So I, uh, anyway, the, uh, I left. So, uh, I think if you're going to do neighborhood canvassing, you need to do it in teams of two. You need to have an appointment with one another so you don't quit.

And, uh, uh, the, uh, asking people if you can pray for them is a, is a wonderful idea. And, uh, and if they say yes, and you write down in your notebook what you want prayer for, you can come back a couple of weeks later and say, say, hi, I'm from, uh, I'm from Holy Trinity Church.

And, and I've been, you mentioned you had problems with, uh, your, uh, your older son, your child. And we've been praying for him every day for the last two weeks.

Has there been any answer to prayer? See, it gives you, if people will tell you that you can pray for something for them, it gives you a reason to ask them about it and follow up.

Oh, anyway. Okay. Praying the Lord's Prayer. So see where it says our father.

Luke 11, one, the disciples said to Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. And Jesus said, pray then like this, our father who art in heaven.

We all have that memorized, right? Yes. So, so I remember once I, I read this, pray then like this, our father. So I, so I said the prayer to myself and then I said, is this all there is to it?

I mean, I mean, I've said the prayer. What isn't there, isn't there something else I have to do? And, and, and is it enough just to say this prayer in church on Sunday?

It's, but the, it took me a little while to figure it out. If rather than just being a formula that you say or a set of words that you say, think of it as an outline.

The Lord's Prayer is an outline. And so what I do now is I'm, when I'm, as I'm waking up in the morning, when I, when I start to become to consciousness somewhere in the 615, 630.

I, what I do is I lie in bed and I start working through the Lord's Prayer in my mind slowly. The idea with the Lord's Prayer is slowly.

So, so I say our father, our father, and then I have things I say about our father. And then I say who art in heaven. And I have things I say to God about that.

And then I say hallowed be thy name. And I, I have things I do with that. So here I have on this sheet of paper are the things I do with each of the lines. They not, may not be your things.

And you could probably improve on this. You've got things here that, that you could add. So what I want to suggest is don't leave this piece of paper behind. Fold it in half, put it in your Bibles, and use it for your outline.

And then you'll say, you'll say, I don't like that part. And I do like this part. And I think I could add something here. So then make notes on this. And after a little while, this will become your outline.

So, our father. Somebody, somebody told me that when you say our father, the our here refers to all the Christians in the world.

And so all the Christians in the world are every day saying our father. So you're praying with them. And that's true.

But the, the, the, as originally written, one of my commentaries says, as originally written, the our refers to you and Jesus.

How else can you pray to the father if, if Jesus himself was accused of blasphemy by the Jews for calling God father?

You see, I've got the citation here, John 5, 18. That was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making him equal with God.

Now, the past, the verse I haven't put in here that you might want to add at this point is John 1, 14. So, John 1, 14. To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave them power to become children of God.

To all who received him. Anyway, if you have received Jesus, if you have believed in his name, that he is Lord, that's Jesus' name. If he is Lord, and the Savior, that's Jesus.

If he is the Lord who saves, I believe that you are the Lord who saves me. Then he will, you can, you are a child of God.

And if you're a child of God, then you're a brother of Jesus. So, when you start out saying, our Father, you and Jesus can stand next to one another.

And you can look at the Father, and you can say together, our Father. Because it's, you and Jesus can say it, you can say it. And you and Jesus are our, our Father who art in heaven.

So, so the next way, who art in heaven. I've learned two different ways to pray this Lord. And if you have a Greek text, I don't, I can, I don't, I don't do Greek very well.

But I've got an interlinear, I've got an interlinear Greek New Testament. So I can read what the words mean by looking at the literal English translation. So it says, and literally it says, who art in the heavens.

Plural. Who art in the heavens. So, what can you do with that? Well, the, the one way you can do it with that is to, you know that the, the Jews in Jesus' day, some of them, there were groups within the Judaism.

Some of the groups had an idea that the world was divided up into different heavens. And the first heaven is what we call earth. The second heaven is what we call the atmosphere.

The third heaven is what we call outer space. And then there were more heavens. And here I have to lend plausibility to that. I have this quote from 2 Corinthians 12, 2.

Where St. Paul says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Anyway, this lends plausibility, whatever that means.

This lends plausibility to that. But the idea is that I can affirm when I start out in saying who art in the heavens. I can affirm that there's no place that I can go where God is not.

So if I'm in some terrible situation, if I am, if I'm in some hostile situation, some bad situation, I can say, I can say, God is here.

Because he is in the heavens. He's in heaven 1, heaven 2, heaven 3, heaven 4, heaven 5. There isn't any place where I can go where he is not. Which is a good thing to know.

Whether or not the bad situation that you're in is being stuck someplace where you're going to fall a long way.

Or whether it's being in your house and you and your wife are having an argument. There's no place you can go where God is not.

So, the... But the other way to look at it is you go down to 610.

Let me just see. I've got the Bible here. If you go to 610. The Lord's Prayer in Matthew is found at 6.9. But if you go to 10.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your kingdom. That's what we're praying. Who art in heaven. So, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Heaven is where God's will is done. Where is God's will not done? Earth. Earth. That's right. Earth is the only place where God's will is not done.

Perfectly. So, here, if you do it this way, then you're praying. Then you're affirming there's a place where your will is done perfectly.

And it's in the heaven. Our Father who art in heaven. If you do it in the singular. Our Father who art in heaven. There's a place where God's will is done perfectly. And Jesus goes on to say that.

So, you can say, you can say, I believe that as I pray to you, that you, that your will can be done perfectly here with, in my situation.

Since it's done perfectly in heaven, it can be done here. So, you're affirming that this, that Jesus can answer this prayer.

Okay. So, if you have my outline here, it says, this is where you'll hallow God. Tell him, I praise you. I bless you. I worship you. Run your own private prayer meeting.

And this will be a time to thank God for all the things he has done for you. So, you can say, God, I thank you for this. I thank you for that.

I thank you for... You start running through the things that you're thankful for. Let me just flip your outline over to the other top of the next page.

We're going to go back. Here's a prayer principle. And that is to pray from near to far. That is, rather than just being scatterbrained about, you know, praying for the first thing that comes to mind.

The principle is to pray from near to far. So, the person nearest to you is you. So, pray for you. The next person closest to you may be your spouse.

Your children. Your parents. Your brothers and sisters. The people you work with. The people you see every day. Those are...

You start... So, you put a... Put a hierarchy on... On people. And it will let you bring them to mind in an orderly fashion. So...

See this... The Bible says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The word neighbor, the word N-E-I-G-H, is related to the English word N-I-G-H.

Nigh. The Lord is nigh. The Lord is near. It means near. Your neighbor is your nearber. We don't have a word like that. But it's the person who's nearest to you.

So... And that was what the question was. When the scribe got up and said, Who is my neighbor? He was saying... He was saying, Who is the near person that I need to pray for?

And Jesus says... Jesus says, It's the person that... Where you... Who has a... You have an opportunity. You see, the Pharisee... I'm sorry. The Samaritan, whom he commends as being your neighbor, was not...

Didn't... Didn't live near... Near the person who was on the road. But he had an opportunity to minister to the person on the road as he came near to him. It was a situation...

A situation that presented itself. An opportunity. So he was the neighbor. But you can use this as a hierarchy. So, go back over to the next page. Tell him...

This would also... First paragraph under hallowed be thy name. This would be a time to thank God for all the things he has done for you. So let's start out with yourself. God, I thank you for...

I thank you for... All the blessings that you have been to me. I thank you for the way that you've taken care of me in difficult situations. I thank you for the way that you are...

That you are still with me. I thank you for the way that you're going to be with me all day as I go through a series of difficult events. So, and then you can go on and thank God for your wife.

You can go on and thank God for your children. You can go on and thank God for your brothers and sisters. Thank God for the people you work with. You see, I'm taking... Now working under the principle...

Under the category of thanking, I'm now working through the same hierarchy of near to far. Okay. Some people... Praise God using the compound names of God in the Old Testament.

So, this would be another way to pray. Hallowed be thy name. So, you want to hallow... Hallow the... You can hallow God for his various qualities in himself.

And a way to remember the qualities in himself is to remember the compound names of God. Which I have... Most of them listed here. Seven of them.

There's traditional seven. So, you remember this... Any of you... There was a song when I was at St. Andrew's that I don't think anybody sings anymore called Jehovah Jireh, My Provider.

Jehovah... You know that song? Yeah? Okay. Jehovah Jireh, My Provider. So, the first of these compound names... I have YHWH, YR... I've... I've...

Made it more contemporary because... Using the word Jehovah is out of style now because Jehovah takes these four consonants... YHWH...

And puts in the vowels for the word... For the Hebrew word for Lord, Adonai, underneath them. And so, people thought that you were supposed to take the... The vowels in the word Adonai...

And stick them between the letters in YHWH. But it... It turned out that wasn't the case. When you saw the word... When you saw the...

The... This... These four consonants... YHWH... You weren't supposed to say Jehovah. And you weren't supposed to say Yahweh... Because that's pronouncing the name of God out loud... Which is a sin.

What you are supposed to do... If you're a Hebrew... And you're reading the Hebrew text... If you're a Jew and reading the Hebrew text... When you see the YHWH...

You're supposed to say Adonai... Which means... Which is kind of... Which means Lord. And... You're not supposed to take the vowels in Adonai... And fit them up between...

The consonants YHWH... Which is what people were doing in the 19th century. So... So I have YHWH... Yairah...

Jehovah Jireh... Jehovah... Jehovah... I'm going to use Jehovah here... Just so I can say it. Jehovah Rapha... Jehovah Nisi... Jehovah Shalom... Jehovah Ra'ah... Jehovah Tzikenu...

Jehovah Shama... So you can... If you have... Some of these memorized... I can say... I can say... Lord I've got... Five hundred dollars in bills...

That I have to pay this week... And I only have two hundred dollars in the bank. But I say... But I will affirm at the start of my prayers... That God is Jehovah Jireh...

Or Yahweh Yireh... If you want to do it that way... Either one... That He is our provider... I don't know where the money is coming from... But I know God... That you have...

You know... The cattle on a thousand hills are yours... You can provide for me... And I know that... Based on my experience... That God will provide for me...

So... The... So... Oh... Down at the bottom of the first page... This would also be a time to ask... That God's name be hallowed...

By people who do not hallow it... At the present time... That is... This is a prayer for the conversion of people... So... Once again... Take all the people you... Take all the people...

You can do it with yourself... Lord I know that my heart is not... As close to you as you want it... And I pray for my total conversion... I pray that my heart... Would be totally dedicated to you...

And now you go on to your wife... Your children... Your... And so forth... But you're praying... And so you're praying for people's conversion too... Hallowed be thy name... May thy name be hallowed...

In this place... May thy name be hallowed... Okay... Let's see... So... Let's see... On the back page...

Thy kingdom come... Thy will be done... On earth as it is in heaven... So... Now you pray for God's will... To be done in the lives of people... This is where... People... Somehow Christians are attracted to praying...

For people who are sick... And there's nothing wrong with that... There's lots of other things you can pray for... Besides sickness... But this is your time... Where you do pray for sick people... If you want to pray for sick people...

Thy kingdom come... Thy will be done... God's will is health... So we pray that it's not sickness... So we pray that all the sick people you know... Are doing well...

Give us this day our daily bread... God wants to provide us with all the things we need... For life... But he wants us to pray for it... There are people who go around and they say...

If God wants to... If God wants to do something... He'll make it... He'll make it happen... But God says... But Jesus says...

You have not because you asked God... So... So you want to be always asking for... He loves to have us asking for things... And...

The word daily here in the Lord's Prayer means... That he really doesn't want to give us... He doesn't want to give us a trust fund... That will last from now until the time when we die...

He wants us to pray every day... For the money we need today... So... How much money do you need today? So I say... God, I've got... I've got bills I have to pay...

And it amounts to $832... And if you could... You could provide for the $832... You know... I don't have any place to go for it... So...

God likes desperate people too... He likes to know that... You can't get it yourself... And he's going to have to provide... And... So... Pray from near to far...

Right... I need money for a car... My children need their college loans paid off... There are several people in the church... Who are out of work... By the way... I... That's one of the things that I...

That I learned to do at St. Andrews... Was to... I would ask people to pray for people out of work... So there are people in this congregation...

Who have lost jobs... And I would... I remember several times making the announcement... There are several people in this congregation... Who are without... Who have lost their jobs... And you should be aware of who they are...

And you may be... Their answer... You may be the answer to their prayers... So... Think about sending them... Money...

And people at St. Andrews... When I was there... Used to report that... That they would get... Small checks... On a regular basis...

From people in the congregation... Who... From people in the congregation... I mean... So there were... There were people getting checks for... $25... $10...

Every week... From somebody in the congregation... Because they were... They were... Praying... Notice it says... Give us this day... Our daily bread...

Not my daily bread... So it's... It's... This is referring to Christians... Our is Christians... So we're praying for Christians... That they be taken care of...

And so... Maybe God will work in your heart... To send them a check... Forgive us our trespasses... There are ways in which... I have disobeyed God today... There are ways in which... I have hurt other people...

Right... As we forgive those... Who trespass against us...

The people who trespass against us... You're probably... Aware of those people... And you probably are aware... You're probably angry at them... I mean... These are the people that...

That have... Hurt you in various ways... You'd like to punish them... And if... As you're thinking of those... There are people that may come to mind... And so... As I think about that...

I... I think about... I think about people who are trying to... Who are spreading rumors about me... Hmm... There are...

There are... As the pastor of a church... There are always people who are saying things about you... That... That aren't true... And... I remember once...

Somebody gave me a letter that they'd received from another member of the congregation... Which said... Which said... Did you know... That Father Bob is gay? And... As proof of that...

He lives with Raymond Day... I think about it... So... So... So... Yeah... So...

Yeah... So... So... As... Yeah... Raymond and I are not gay...

So... But... But... But there are people who... So... What would I do with... When I read this letter? What do I do? I...

I... During a time of prayer... I bring it to mind... And I look in their direction... If this person lives over here... And I hold out my hand... And I say... I say... Lord...

I forgive George... For saying... This about me... And for this lie that he told... But I forgive him... That means I won't bring it up with him... I won't bring it up with myself...

I won't bring it up with God... I won't bring it up... I forgive you... And I do that every day... That I can remember... That I'm hurt...

Or angry... Until... Eventually... The hurt and anger goes away... I forgive you... I forgive Jim... I forgive Sam...

I forgive... Whoever... I don't have anybody... In the present in mind... So... The... So... Anyway...

Forgive us... As we forgive those... Who trespass against us... And lead us not... Into temptation... Most sins are repetitive... And habitual... Yeah...

What sins do you do... As a habit... And pray... Against these habits... Tell Jesus... I repent... I will not do evil... Like this again... Yeah... Most sins are repetitive...

And habitual... And most sins are against... Members... The people who are closest to you... Your wife... Your children... Your parents... Your brothers and sisters... So...

So... You think about ways... In which... You have hurt them before... And you... Tell Jesus... You repent...

You could also... Go to the person... And say... I have sinned against you... Forgive me... Will you forgive me? And... We're looking to...

We're looking to clear things... With people... So... We need to... Go to people that we've hurt... And say... I have... Done wrong... I have hurt you... I admit it... It was a sin... I'm sorry... Please forgive me...

And when somebody asks you that... You need to say... I forgive you... I forgive... Instead of... That's alright... Don't worry about it... Say... I forgive you... Getting forgiveness...

From a person you've hurt... Is a great blessing... Right... Those eight... Luke 13, 4... Down at the bottom of... Lead us not into temptation... A passage that's very difficult...

For some people to understand... Those 18... On whom the tower in Siloam... Felled and killed them... Do you think they were worse offenders... Than all the others... Who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you... But unless you repent...

You will all likewise perish... Do you think if a bad thing happens... To somebody... That God is punishing them? And... Jesus says no...

He says... But remember... You've done stuff... That's just as bad as they had... And you deserve to have... To have something bad happen to you... So you better repent...

That's what's going on here... Remember those people in Siloam... When the tower fell on them... Were they worse? No... But unless you repent... You will all likewise perish...

There's a great need for us to... Repent of doing things... Deliver us from evil... Well... Those are the... That's...

What I have for you... But it's a blessing... To be here... And... I followed quite closely... Your... I... I sign on your webpage... Every week... And...

Read the message from Father Caleb... And... I think that... That God is at work here... That you are... You have... Put up this building...

And... This has been a great blessing... To all those who... Who are here now... And... I... Pray for you every... Not every day...

But... At least every week... And... Pray that... That this church... Would be a blessing... To... Many people... Who need to be blessed by Him...

Amen... Amen...