Sermon Notes, January 29, 2017
Rev.
Garry McGlinchy
Pastor
Garry continued his sermon series “Seven Hebrew Words Every Believer Should
Know.” This week’s word is Tefillah, meaning Prayer. We have talked about Chesed, God’s loving kindness, and about Emunah, faith that moves us to action.
The
scripture that gives the basis for this sermon is 2 Corinthians 13:1-10, with
emphasis on verses 5 and 6. Verse 5
tells us “Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and
drink from the cup,” as preparation for the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. Psalm 139 23-24 continues in this vein: “Search
me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and
lead me in the way everlasting.” Tefillah is prayer; pouring out our
heart to God, sensing a Presence; being present; our connection with the One.
Typically
people understand prayer as something of a 911 call for ourselves or others. We
use it in emergency type situations. God gave us each other so we can pray for
each other. Some use prayer as a bargaining chip with God:
“Lord if you get me out of this, I’ll go to church every Sunday!” Both of these make sense, being as how the
English definition for prayer is “to ask or beg.”
Tefillah takes prayer much deeper than
what most people may understand. Tefillah means to “self-evaluate.” According to chabad.org
it is a labor of awakening the hidden love within the heart until a state of
intimate union with the Divine is achieved.
Prayer implies two distinct entities, an inferior one making a request
of a superior. Tefillah is more of a communion of both mind and spirit with
God Himself. Prayer is an expression of
a person’s deepest needs. This means
that prayer brings the person into communion with God Himself. We become
one with the One above. This means that
we must know God.
The
The figures in the Hebrew word, which are read from right to left,
each have their own meaning, which make it easier to understand the word. They are
·
tav—crossed
sticks;
·
pei—mouth,
blow, scatter;
·
lamed—a
shepherd’s staff, teach, yoke, to bind
·
hey—a man
with his arms up; revelation, reveal
In
essence, tefillah is a bottom up action. It begins by examination of the heart. It moves to comprehension of the greatness of
God in our minds, and is spoken out loud.
Tefillah is our mode of
reaching deeper and yet deeper into our inner thoughts, and finding within them
God Himself. Paul says this when he is
correcting the Corinthians about their abuse of the Lord’s Supper in 1
Corinthians 10.
Jewish
people pray three times daily, morning, noon and night. The morning prayer is the longest; it is a
time of reflecting on God’s greatness in a person’s life.
We
need to pray, examining ourselves and asking the Lord to search us. We need to meditate and reflect on God. We live
in a Post-Christian society, but people are looking for something real; they’re
looking for authenticity.
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