Luther's Simple Way to Pray

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Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.
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Today is October 16th, 2020, and if you're reading along in our daily Bible reading, you're going to be reading from Hebrews chapter 13.
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If you'd like to get a copy of our daily Bible reading, you can go to our website, sgfcjacks.org, that is Sovereign Grace Family Church of Jacksonville, and you can go there and look at posts, and under posts you can download a copy of our 2020 reading list.
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For reading through the New Testament, one chapter a day, every weekday, and you have the weekends to catch up.
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Well today I'm continuing something I started yesterday on the podcast.
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We were asked, or I was asked, if I would be willing to go over some of the basics of Christianity, some of the basic disciplines that Christians need to be practicing and growing in.
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One of the basics, of course, of the Christian faith is the discipline of prayer, and we all know that we should pray.
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We all know that we are called to be people of prayer, but oftentimes, unfortunately, we do not pray as we ought.
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Part of the reason why we don't is because often we find prayer very intimidating.
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We feel like we don't know exactly what to say when we do pray.
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We find ourselves somewhat repetitious, going back and forth, not knowing how to proceed, or sometimes we may just feel like all we ever do is ask God for what we want, and we're not really praying for the things that we should be praying for, or praying about the things that we should be praying for, and so oftentimes our prayer life is certainly not what it should be.
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I'm certainly the first to admit that even my own prayer life does fail often, and it's something that even now, being 20 years almost in the Lord, well, just a little over 20 years in the Lord, I know that this is an area that I can grow into.
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As I give this lesson, I give this lesson as a man who can honestly say, I have not arrived, I am not perfect, and I need to grow as well.
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So whether you are two months in the Lord, or whether you're 20 years in the Lord, I hope this lesson can be an encouragement to you today.
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And what we're going to talk about today is we're actually going to talk about something that was written by the reformer Martin Luther.
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Now Martin Luther is, as many of you know, one of my favorite historical figures in Christian history.
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And the reason for that is because of the major impact that he made during the Protestant Reformation.
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In fact, it was his nailing of the 95 Theses on October 31, 1517 that many see as the spark that began the flame which would become the Protestant Reformation.
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And every year at Sovereign Grace Family Church, we have a celebration of Reformation Day.
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We celebrate October 31, 1517 every year because we believe that that is not only a watershed moment in history, but we believe that was a day God designed to begin to bring his people into a time of revival.
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I see the Protestant Reformation not just as a reformation of the church, but as a revival within Christendom because the church had become so far from the truth and had drifted so far away.
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And so much corruption had arisen in the church and to know that God had set the stage by using men prior to Luther like John Wycliffe and Jan Hus to set the stage for Luther to come on the scene and with his hammer and nail, nailing those 95 Theses up and really being again, like I said, the flashpoint in Christian history.
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And I want to mention since I'm talking about this, this will go out before we do this.
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So this year on October 31st, it's a Saturday at Sovereign Grace Family Church, we're going to be having a Reformation Celebration Festival.
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This is going to be our second year doing it this way because we've done this for many years, but this is our second year having a German feast.
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We're going to have German food that's going to be celebrating because the Reformation of course, Luther was German, so started in Germany.
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So we're going to have our German feast.
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It's going to start at noon.
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It's going to be followed by a short recitation of the life of Luther and reading a few of the 95 Theses.
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I'm not going to read all 95 because there's 95 of them, but we're going to read a few of the 95 Theses and then we're going to go outside.
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Brother Mike Collier, one of our elders, is going to preach a message in the open air.
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And I'm really excited about that because I love to hear preaching out in the open.
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And Brother Mike is a wonderful open air preacher and he's going to be preaching from a replica of George Whitefield's pulpit.
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Last year, Brother Jerry Gomez and I and his wife, Tamara, and their boys built a copy of George Whitefield's mobile pulpit.
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And so every year at our church, we use this mobile pulpit as a place to stand and proclaim the word as George Whitefield did.
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Here in the United States.
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And so if you are in the Jacksville area, October 31st is coming.
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Mark your calendar and come be with us.
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Let us know you're coming.
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We'd love to be able to plan for your visit, especially if you have a large family.
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We'll make sure we save you a table, save you some seats.
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But we would certainly love for you to come and join with us for the Reformation Celebration, October 31st.
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We're going to start at 12 o'clock.
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It's going to go probably until about 3 o'clock.
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So plan for that amount of time.
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So let's go back to the lesson talking about Martin Luther.
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What am I, why did I bring up Martin Luther today? Well, there is a book online and really it's not a book as much as it is a letter, but it is available online for free.
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And the title of it is A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther.
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A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther.
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And if you are online, which obviously you are if you listen to this program online, I would encourage you to go find this and it's available from several different outlets, so I would encourage you to find it and look at it because this is Martin Luther's writing a letter to a friend about how he ought to pray.
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And this was actually based upon a request from this person.
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This person, interestingly enough, this was Martin Luther's barber.
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His name was Peter and the title is A Simple Way to Pray for Master Peter the Barber and it begins, Dear Master Peter, I shall do my best to let you know how I go about praying.
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May our gracious Lord help you and others do it better than I.
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Amen.
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And after this, he goes into the letter and basically if I could break it down into small bites for you, because if you want to go read it, please do.
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But but for those who are listening, just to give you basically the overall of Luther's letter, he basically says this.
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He says when he is praying and particularly he says this, he says when he says he has grown cold or neglectful when it comes to prayer, he he likes to do his prayer in sort of a methodical way.
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And the methodical way that he talks about in this is to pray the model prayer, which is what we talked about yesterday.
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Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
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But he makes the point that he goes through and he doesn't just recite the prayer, but he talks about each of the prayers parts.
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And this is what we talked about yesterday.
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Our Father in heaven.
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He calls that the first petition.
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And then he goes on to say your kingdom come.
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He said that's the second petition.
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And he goes through each of the parts of the prayer and he explains how he would pray that particular part more than simply just saying our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
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He makes the prayer more, if you will, alive.
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He brings out the meaning and the parts of the prayer and I think is very, very helpful.
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So what he does with the Lord's Prayer is very good, but he doesn't stop there.
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He says he starts by praying the Lord's Prayer.
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But then he says he prays the Ten Commandments.
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Now, this may seem kind of interesting to pray the Ten Commandments, but basically what he's doing when he's praying the Ten Commandments, and I'm turning in the book now because basically what he says when he's praying the commandments is he says basically he's praying the parts of the commandments.
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He's breaking it down into petition and confession and those different parts.
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Let's say this.
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Let's say I pray the Sixth Commandment.
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The Sixth Commandment is thou shall not commit murder.
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And how would I pray that? Well, first of all, I would remind in my prayer that Jesus says that if I've ever hated anyone that I've committed murder in my heart.
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So that causes me to think introspectively and say, Lord, I know that I didn't kill anyone this week.
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I know I didn't commit physical murder this week, but have I harbored anger? Have I harbored murder in my heart? And it would cause me to think genuinely about my personal feelings, my personal thoughts, my own personal private workings in my mind that no one else knows about and I can think to myself, Lord, have I hated anyone this week? And if I have, or have I hated anyone today? Have I woken up with an angry spirit towards someone? And so by praying through the commandments, I'm recognizing sin and recognizing the need to repent.
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So if you go back to the model prayer, it says, forgive us of our debts or our sins or trespasses, depending on how we translate it.
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This is a way of really pinpointing those areas that we need to be praying about, and perhaps it's a way to be able to really get into our own heart.
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Oftentimes, I think we sort of shove things down, push things away because we really don't want to deal with them.
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But if we're praying through the 10 commandments, we're going to be dealing with all of them.
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We're going to be dealing with idolatry.
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We're going to be dealing with the question of how we treat others.
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We're going to be dealing with the question of lust.
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We're going to be dealing with the question of covetousness.
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These are all the things that are going to happen if we are praying through the 10 commandments.
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And so we see first the prayer of the Lord's prayer, of course, the model prayer, and then he says, pray the 10 commandments.
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But then he goes on to another prayer and he said, pray the Apostle's Creed.
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Now, I know for many of us, the Apostle's Creed is not probably a common part of our own life.
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Because some of you it may, because some of you may be in a church that recites the Apostle's Creed regularly.
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But I know at Sovereign Grace, that's not something that we do regularly.
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It's not that it's wrong in any way, shape, or form.
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The Apostle's Creed is great.
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It's one of the oldest and most beloved creeds.
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And we're not anti-credal.
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We are pro-confession.
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We're pro-credal at Sovereign Grace.
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But we just don't do it as a church.
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However, many of you, even if you don't do it, you know the Apostle's Creed.
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Even if you don't, if you haven't memorized it, you've probably, you'll, as I'm going to read the, I'm going to read a version of it to you.
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There's various versions.
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This is the one I'm going to read to you is from the Book of Common Prayer.
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This is the Church of England's version.
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This is the one I think many of us are very comfortable with.
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I'll just read it quickly.
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It says, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.
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He descended into hell.
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The third day he rose again from the dead.
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He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
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From hence, from thence, he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
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I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
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Amen.
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So you might say, okay, there's some, I have some questions about that.
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And I am sure that you do.
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I'm sure a lot of people, when they first hear the Apostles Creed, they have the question about Jesus descending into hell.
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What does that mean? Questions about why do we say Holy Catholic Church? And that one's pretty easy, so I'll go ahead and answer it.
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The word Catholic simply means universal, referring to there is one body of Christ all around the world, and that makes up the universal church.
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And so that's the Apostles Creed, and that's the way that the language is being used.
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You say, well, why in the world would I pray this? Well, this, as much as the commandments remind us of our sin and our need for repentance, the creed reminds us of our faith and what it is that we trust in.
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That is actually the very reason why we have peace, even though we are sinners.
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The commandments condemn, the law condemns us, but the creed tells us about Jesus who saves us.
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And so we come to the creed and we can pray the faith in these things.
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I do believe in God, the Father Almighty.
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I believe that he made heaven and earth.
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God, I'm speaking to you today and I'm saying I believe in you.
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I believe you created me.
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I believe you're my father.
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I believe you made heaven and you made earth.
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I believe in you, Jesus.
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I believe that you are the son of God and that you are Lord of my life.
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I believe that you were conceived of the Holy Spirit.
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I believe that you were born of the Virgin.
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I believe that you suffered, was crucified, dead and buried.
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I do believe that you have been risen from the dead and you are risen indeed, that you ascended into heaven, that you sit on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, and that you will come again one day to judge the living and the dead.
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You see, that's part and parcel of how we can use the creed as a model for prayer.
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And might I add, there are many scriptures that we could use, that we could bring in.
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And Luther talks about that as well.
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He talks about reciting the words of Jesus, reciting the words of Paul, reciting the words of the other writers of both the Old and New Testament.
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So some of you might say, well, I don't really want to use a creed.
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I prefer to use scripture.
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That's fine.
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Use the scripture and praying the scripture is great.
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Praying the Psalms, praying the great passages of scripture.
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And I would encourage you to do that.
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But going back to the whole conversation today, we're talking about Luther.
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Luther's barber asked him how to pray.
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And Luther said, this is a model for you to follow.
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Pray the Lord's model prayer.
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Use its parts to help you to pray the petitions of the prayer.
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Go down them one at a time and then pray the commandments.
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Go through each commandment.
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And I would say this.
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If you haven't memorized the Ten Commandments, I would encourage you to.
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It's good for the soul and it's a good encouragement.
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To memorize it, we teach this in our karate class for the kids that we do at the church.
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They all learn the Ten Commandments.
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That's part of the lessons that we do.
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After every lesson, they recite the Ten Commandments.
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They recite the gospel.
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And I just think it's important to know.
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So learn the Ten Commandments if you don't know them, and that will help you in your prayer.
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And then, of course, in regard to the creed.
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The creed is what we believe as Christians.
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It's what unifies us as believers in Christ.
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And praying your confession of faith is an encouragement to the soul.
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So these are all from this book.
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And again, you can find this book online for free.
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It's called A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther.
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It's available on several different websites.
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I was able to find it.
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And I want to end with a quick story.
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The first time I ever heard about this, Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul actually gave a lesson on this writing of Martin Luther.
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And Sproul started with kind of an interesting story.
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Kind of made us all really think about this.
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He said during Luther's life, there was a price on his head.
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Luther was a marked man.
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From the time of his condemnation, because of his teachings, there were many people who sought his life.
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And yet, he was never killed.
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He died of natural causes.
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And so, one of the things that Sproul pointed out, he said there was a man in Luther's life who could have taken his life at any moment.
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Because every time Luther sat in his chair, his barber would take a razor sharp instrument and would shave his neck.
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And at any moment, he could have taken that razor sharp instrument and ended Luther's life.
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Knowing that Luther was a marked man.
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Knowing that Luther was condemned by Rome.
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He was the enemy of Pope and kings.
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And yet, his barber did not do that.
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And Luther was not fearful of his barber.
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Because his barber loved Jesus and loved Pastor Martin.
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And Martin loved him.
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And that's why he wrote him this letter on how to pray.
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So, I hope that that little historic thought will maybe encourage you even more to seek out this letter and read it for yourself.
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I hope today has been an encouragement to you as every day.
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And this ends our week here at Coffee with a Calvinist.
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Thank you for listening to the show today.
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My name is Keith Foskey and I have been your Calvinist.
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May God bless you.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist.
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If you enjoyed the program, please take a moment to subscribe and provide us feedback.
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We love to receive your comments and questions and may even engage with them in a future episode.
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As you go about your day, remember this.
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Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
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All who come to Him in repentance and faith will find Him to be a perfect Savior.
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He is the way, the truth, and the life.
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And no one comes to the Father except through Him.
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May God be with you.