### Quotes for Outreach

1. "Prayer is a connection, discussion, a conversation between you and God. It's not for show. It's not and it's not beneficial. It's not for the benefit of those who have sinned. It's not for the benefit of anyone else but for you. He says don't be like those hypocrites who pray out on the street who are trying to bring use those prayers to bring attention to themselves. It's not what prayer is about. Prayer is about that connection between you and the God who created you and the God who loves you." [55:01](30 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "There's no right way or wrong way to pray. Pray with your eyes open. You can pray with your eyes open. You can pray with your eyes closed. You can pray with your hands out or up or by your side or in your pockets. It doesn't matter. You can speak the prayers verbally. You can say the prayers inwardly. You can use your own voice. You don't have to worry about anyone else judging you." [01:01:24](30 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "Prayer does a lot of different things for us. It brings us into the presence of God. It creates that relationship. It adds to our peace. That was Engstrom's, that was his goal, was to add to our peace. Find something to be thankful for in the midst of chaos. Build a connection to God." [01:01:24](30 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "In times of crisis, it's easy for us to make those sacrifices, to be called to sacrifice, to respond, to be called to sacrifice. Through sacrificial ways, but we as Christians are called to live lives of sacrifice, not just in times of great crisis or upheaval, but that's one of the founding principles that Christ calls us to, to sacrifice in the name of God, to give of ourselves, to give up comfort sometimes, so that others might come to know the grace of God." [53:01](41 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "It reminds them of something. Now, if we were to analyze, if we were to analyze this, you know, me looking at this, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I'm kind of drawn to the simplicity of it. There's really not much to it. The background is, there's nothing in the background. You see some rays of light, maybe from a window. In the foreground, there's a few simple things on the table there. A Bible, eyeglasses, a bowl, which we can't tell what's in it, a loaf of bread and a knife to cut the bread with. Simplistic, simplicity." [51:22](35 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




### Quotes for Members

1. "Jesus took his friends to the garden with him. said, y'all, come pray with me. Now, they fell asleep. Their bellies were full. They were half drunk. They wanted to, but they just couldn't stay awake. But Jesus took them nonetheless. Come pray with me. Praying with others is a part of our prayer life. I love that we have the prayer board out here and that we have neighbors who want to pray with us, who want us to pray with them. And so when we lift these up each Sunday, we are praying with others. And we are participating with others in their prayers." [58:02](38 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "Another way to pray with others is to pray within your small group. We have a number of small groups. They're printed here in the bulletin each week. If you're not part of a group that you can pray with, that you can interact with, that you can learn with, that can support you and you can support others, I encourage it. That's the way to faith. You know, Kathy talked about John Wesley. John Wesley earlier, the fact that we are called Methodists. You know what the method is in Methodists? to join small groups, to pray with others, to hold others up. It doesn't replace kind of a congregational support or participation, but it strengthens it." [59:37](48 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "Jesus knew what was happening. He was fully aware that he would be executed the next day. What was on his heart? He didn't want to go through it. He anticipated the pain, the agony that he would be facing, and he says, God, take this cup away from me. That was what was on his heart. He knew it wasn't what needed to be done, but he prayed it anyway. God, take this cup from me. And then followed up with, but not my will, but yours be done. He put himself in proper relationship with the creator who created him. He said, God, I want to be part of your world, of your kingdom. I've got this part to play, and I'm willing to play it. I don't want to, but I will." [01:00:25](55 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "Prayer does a lot of different things for us. It brings us into the presence of God. It creates that relationship. It adds to our peace. That was Engstrom's, that was his goal, was to add to our peace. Find something to be thankful for in the midst of chaos. Build a connection to God. There's no right way or wrong way to pray. Pray with your eyes open. You can pray with your eyes open. You can pray with your eyes closed. You can pray with your hands out or up or by your side or in your pockets. It doesn't matter. You can speak the prayers verbally. can say the prayers inwardly. You can use your own voice. You don't have to worry about anyone else judging you." [01:01:24](30 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "On one side it's just a lesson on how to pray. I don't want to assume that everybody, everybody has a vital prayer practice or that everyone is happy with the way that their prayer devotion time goes. So this is just help for anybody who needs other help with that, developing that time. But the prayer calendar that you see, I'd like for us as a church to join with others to pray for the bishop on Mondays. So whatever kind of prayer practice you have or are developing, pray on Mondays. Especially for our bishop and for the cabinet and for all of those who are working in the conference office. They're supervising clergy. They've got churches, over 200 churches that they're supervising as well. It's a difficult job." [01:03:34](49 seconds)(Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Wonderful. Thank you so much to our bell choir for starting us off today in worship.

As we get started, I want to remind you that we're celebrating Father's Day today, and that's why all of the folks who got the word are wearing a kind of Hawaiian or print shirt. So I feel better that people got the word, and I'm not the only one who's doing that today. But it's wonderful to see everybody dressed up to celebrate Father's Day.

Let's see. Let's start with some announcements. First, I want to let you know that this coming Saturday, on the 22nd at 10 o'clock, I'll be in the fellowship hall giving a presentation about all of the happenings in the UMC. There's been a lot of stuff going on. We'll talk about it at 10 o'clock in the fellowship hall. I'll give a presentation. It'll be 20, 30 minutes probably, and then we'll just open the floor for any questions that you have. And if I know the answers, I'll share them with you.

Let's see. Of course, we're ramping up for Vacation Bible School. We'll have a training on Wednesday. That will be a virtual training. So if you'd like to attend, talk to Nicole, and she will send you the links so that you can connect and be part of that training. We are doing—we're calling it the Sensitive Vacation Bible School to follow our Sensitive Easter Festival, where we make special accommodations for kiddos with autism or other sensory kind of issues like that. Give them a place to decompress and to participate as well.

Let's see. Next Sunday, we'll be decorating after the 11 o'clock service, and then Vacation Bible School will start that next day on the 24th. That'll be in the mornings that week from 9 to 12.

Let's see. Other things I want to lift up and let you know about today is that the office will be closed on Wednesday in honor of Juneteenth. Also, on July 7th, please note that we will have a potluck. It'll be just after the service in the gym.

We've had a donation to the church, and it's in the fellowship hall. We've got several tubs worth of crafting supplies. There's a lot of yarn there, so if you use yarn in your crafting, go check it out. There's some other crafting supplies there as well, but it's all free for the taking. So go see if there's something that you would like, and it is yours.

And then the last thing that I will lift up today is a note of condolence. We sent out the email this week that Jackie Purvis has passed away. It was Thursday last week when she passed, so just know that that has happened. I've not been informed of any services, but we'll let you know if I do.

All right. These are all of the announcements that I have for us. Now, we just had our annual conference, our annual business meeting for the conference last week. Kathy Kane is our delegate, and so I'd like to invite her up to give a report on what happened at annual conference. Kathy, thank you for sharing that report, and thank you especially for sharing your photos. I love that.

All right, let's begin our worship now with a prayer. Would you pray with me?

Oh, great and gracious God, as we come together today, well, Lord, we ask that your grace move within us and among us, and oh, Lord, help us to be empowered by your grace and help us to go and to share with everybody that we meet in every situation we find ourselves in unto the ends of the earth. Oh, Lord, these things we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.

And now I'd invite you to stand as you're able as we join together in "My Faith Looks Up to Thee." Thank you so much. You may be seated.

Now I'd like to invite Nicole to come up for our children's message.

Hey, Annie, how are you this morning? Good to see you. Amen. Thank you so much.

And now as we come to the time of our offering, let me remind you that there's an offering box there by the door as you leave, or you can donate online at the website that you see there on the screen. But now let us pause to ask God's blessing upon this giving. Would you pray with me?

O great and gracious God, as we come together today, O Lord, please receive these gifts that we return to you. Bless each of those who gives today, and bless each who will receive from this offering. Remind us that we are all part of your kingdom and that you have given us a task to complete. O Lord, help us to share your grace in every way that we can, and O Lord, be with us as we do so. These things we pray today in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

And now let me invite Greg, I mean, Rebecca, to come up to read our scripture for today. Rebecca, thank you so much for reading for us today.

We will continue today in the Art of Faith series that I'm preaching over the summertime. In this series, I'm using works of art to help illuminate the scriptures and illuminate the teachings of Jesus for us.

Now, last week, I covered an image we used of the Creation of Adam from Michelangelo, and everybody has heard of Michelangelo. I mean, he's studied by art critics and art lovers, is maybe the best-known artist of all time.

Today, I've chosen an artist that I bet you haven't heard of. His name is Eric Engstrom. Has anybody by name heard Eric Engstrom? That's what I thought. I thought the name would be obscure, but let's see if the artwork is when we get to that.

Eric was born in Sweden, 1875, died in 1968. He lived all over kind of the Minnesota area, the Great Lakes region, and was a photographer.

Now, the thing that I want to take a moment to mention is that one of the things that really impacted the image that you're going to see in just a moment is World War I. It made a big impact on this image.

And so let's just stop for a moment and think about what was going on in World War I. I think that Eric was especially impacted by the rationing that was going on in the country at that time.

During World War I, the rationing was needed. They needed to send food over to Europe to support both the troops and the allies. All of the farmland in Europe was either chewed up in battles or the farmers weren't able to farm the land because they themselves were in the fight.

In 1917, we created the U.S. Food Administration, and the first director was Herbert Hoover. I bet you've heard of him; he went on to do other things later on. But as part of the war effort, they created some rationing.

Now, I've heard of the rationing in World War II; my grandparents had told me a lot about the rationing then and the effects that it had on them. But I didn't realize that World War I had rationing as well. It wasn't as prevalent as it was in World War II, but the Food Administration did encourage things like Meatless Tuesdays and Wheatless Wednesdays.

They encouraged people not to eat meat on Tuesdays and not to eat wheat products on Wednesdays so that those could be sent for the war effort over to Europe. They encouraged U.S. citizens to consume fruits and vegetables because we couldn't preserve them as well; they were more perishable.

So their plan was for U.S. residents to eat those perishable items and to send the more non-perishable items across the Atlantic to support the troops and the allies there.

By the effort of this rationing, the food that we were able to send to Europe doubled in the first year of the program, so twice as much food was able to be sent because of the rationing that happened, and the American consumption overall in that year was reduced by 15%. Some stats are a little higher than that, but all of this kind of is the backdrop, I think, for this picture, for this work of art that I bet at least some of you will recognize when I show you Eric's artwork.

Let me first have a couple of posters that were up to encourage the rationing, but here's the piece that I bet many of you have seen before. It's called "Grace." I'm showing you the photograph, the original photograph that was taken by Eric. You may have seen painted pieces or colored pieces of the same picture. Those colored and painted pieces are copyrighted, so I'm not allowed to show them without paying a license, but the photograph from which they were taken is public domain. So what we're doing here is legal in showing you the photo, the original photo that was made.

It was taken in 1918, right there in the time of the war. The person, the man that you see in the photo, his name is Charles Wilden, and he was a peddler. He was selling shoes, scrapers, door to door, came by Eric's studio or his home or something, and Eric said, "You're the perfect man for this picture that I want to take."

And so he brought him inside, set up the scene there, and took the picture. Later, the picture started selling like hotcakes, really, really high sales. He gave Charles five dollars for his work. It'd be about eight dollars in today's dollars, but to buy the rights from him for the work.

In 2002, I believe it was, this photo was recognized as the state photograph of Minnesota, where he's from, so published there. You look at this photo, and it has been reproduced. It's one of the most reproduced photos of the 20th century.

What really kind of makes this stand out to me—well, let me just say the meaning is added when I found this quote by Eric about why he wanted to make this picture. He said, "I wanted to take the picture that would show people that even though they had to do without many things because of the war, they still had much to be thankful for."

So everybody was affected by the rationing. Everybody was affected by the fear, the chaos, all of that stuff that comes with war, even if it's not here, even if it's overseas somewhere else. But he wanted to remind people about the bigger picture.

And so he took a picture of a man praying. There's nothing really extraordinary—I mean, to be honest about this picture, it's composed well, it's lit well; those technical things are good, but there's something more than that that makes people want to buy this picture, makes people want to put this picture in their homes, makes people want to hang this picture in churches and other areas of faith.

It reminds them of something. Now, if we were to analyze this, I would say I'm kind of drawn to the simplicity of it. There's really not much to it. The background is—there's nothing in the background. You see some rays of light, maybe from a window.

In the foreground, there are a few simple things on the table there: a Bible, eyeglasses, a bowl, which we can't tell what's in it, a loaf of bread, and a knife to cut the bread with. Simplicity.

Of course, the man there is obviously praying. It shows humility in the humbleness. There's no ego here. There's no pride. The man there is not trying to show off or to show his piety or anything. It's kind of obvious, but he's not trying to show off in doing that.

There's something about it that tugs at your emotions, too, especially if you hear kind of what's going on in the context around which the photo was taken. It kind of hits you emotionally.

Of course, the spirit of the man there, the spiritual aspect of it, is somebody remembering that God is the source of the bread that we eat, that God is the source of the air that we breathe, that God is the source of the life that fills our muscles and fills our lungs.

There's the part of it that reminds us to be thankful. And because it's set in this wartime setting, this connection of God, this statement that Eric made that he just wanted people to know that they still had something to be thankful for really gives a sense of hope.

There's a lot of depth in this photo. There's a lot of things that happen in this photo. It's simple by design, but there are a lot of layers to it that really feed into our kind of viewing of this picture.

And especially because of the war efforts that were happening at the time, it reminds us of the sacrifice. Now, in times of crisis, it's easy for us to make those sacrifices, to be called to sacrifice, to respond, to be called to sacrifice.

Through sacrificial ways, but we as Christians are called to live lives of sacrifice, not just in times of great crisis or upheaval, but that's one of the founding principles that Christ calls us to, to sacrifice in the name of God, to give of ourselves, to give up comfort sometimes, so that others might come to know the grace of God.

There's a lot to this photo. There's a lot going on. No wonder that it's been so popular and so reproduced. All of this comes through a picture of a man who is praying.

Doesn't this teach us something about the power of prayer? Doesn't this teach us something about what prayer can provide for us? I think it does. And that's where I wanted to go with this analysis, this viewing of this picture called "Grace" by Eric Engstrom. It's about prayer and the power of prayer.

Now, Jesus, of course, teaches us about prayer, and I chose the scriptures that were based on lessons that Jesus has given to us. The passages from Matthew 6 are taken from the Sermon on the Mount. If you don't read anything else in the Bible, please read the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5, 6, 7. Read those three chapters. Probably the most powerful chapters in the whole Bible.

But in those chapters in Matthew 6, we see that God is teaching us that prayer—his first lesson on prayer that we'll lift up today—his first lesson is that prayer is between you as an individual, as one who is created by God. Prayer is a connection, discussion, a conversation between you and God. It's not for show, and it's not beneficial for those who have sinned. It's not for the benefit of anyone else but for you.

He says don't be like those hypocrites who pray out on the street, who are trying to use those prayers to bring attention to themselves. It's not what prayer is about. Prayer is about that connection between you and the God who created you and the God who loves you.

And also there in Matthew 6, he says pray using your words. Don't worry about those phrases like everybody else uses. Pray using your words. I love the scene from Bruce Almighty where Bruce gets an opportunity to stand before God, and God tells him, "Bruce, would you pray?"

Bruce feels put on the spot. "I have to pray before God?" Well, whenever you pray, you're praying before God. But he was standing before Morgan Freeman at the time, who played God, and he was nervous.

And so the prayer that he said was a thousand King James language and was ultimately gibberish when he got done with it. God said, "No, that's not prayer. You're doing it wrong, son." He says, "Pray what's on your heart."

So Bruce had to stop. He had to get out of his head. He had to get out of, "Well, what is right? What's the proper way? What's the best way?" And he had to move to his heart. "What is it that's bothering me? What are my concerns? What do I care about?" And then he prayed about his girlfriend, wanted the best for her, prayed about his life and the others who were in his life.

He prayed these things that were on his heart, that were really on his heart. He didn't try to use any language other than the language that he normally spoke. When he finished, God said, "Now that's a prayer. That's the way we are called to pray."

There's no right way; there's no wrong way as long as you're praying from your essence, those things that are deep within inside of you. That's the purpose of prayer.

Now, the other passage I chose was from the Garden of Gethsemane, the night of the trials that Jesus would face before he would be crucified. And in that passage, we see some other lessons on prayer from Jesus.

Jesus took his friends to the garden with him and said, "Y'all, come pray with me." Now, they fell asleep. Their bellies were full. They were half drunk. They wanted to, but they just couldn't stay awake. But Jesus took them nonetheless. "Come pray with me."

Praying with others is a part of our prayer life. I love that we have the prayer board out here and that we have neighbors who want to pray with us, who want us to pray with them. And so when we lift these up each Sunday, we are praying with others.

And we are participating with others in their prayers. Frankly, I'm honored that they want to include us. I'm honored.

Another way to pray with others is to pray within your small group. We have a number of small groups. They're printed here in the bulletin each week. If you're not part of a group that you can pray with, that you can interact with, that you can learn with, that can support you and you can support others, I encourage it. That's the way to faith.

You know, Kathy talked about John Wesley earlier, the fact that we are called Methodists. You know what the method is in Methodists? To join small groups, to pray with others, to hold others up. It doesn't replace congregational support or participation, but it strengthens it.

And so let me just put out the ad for you now. Join a small group. Check these small groups out. If you don't see anything there, come meet with me, and let's figure it out. Let's figure out how we can do that.

Another prayer lesson from Jesus is to pray for yourself. Jesus knew what was happening. He was fully aware that he would be executed the next day. What was on his heart? He didn't want to go through it. He anticipated the pain, the agony that he would be facing, and he says, "God, take this cup away from me."

That was what was on his heart. He knew it wasn't what needed to be done, but he prayed it anyway. "God, take this cup from me." And then followed up with, "But not my will, but yours be done."

He put himself in proper relationship with the creator who created him. He said, "God, I want to be part of your world, of your kingdom. I've got this part to play, and I'm willing to play it. I don't want to, but I will."

This is coming from Jesus. We can make that part of our prayer as well. So, how can I be part of your world? Do the work that you've called me to do.

Prayer does a lot of different things for us. It brings us into the presence of God. It creates that relationship. It adds to our peace. That was Engstrom's goal: to add to our peace, to find something to be thankful for in the midst of chaos, to build a connection to God.

There's no right way or wrong way to pray. Pray with your eyes open. You can pray with your eyes open. You can pray with your eyes closed. You can pray with your hands out or up or by your side or in your pockets. It doesn't matter.

You can speak the prayers verbally. You can say the prayers inwardly. You can use your own voice. You don't have to worry about anyone else judging you.

While one of the speakers at conference mentioned that she prayed on a schedule. Every week she told the conference that she prayed on Monday, and every Sunday she prayed for the bishop and the people in the conference office.

I was inspired by this and kind of thought that would be great if we as a church, St. Matthews, could add to whatever our kind of normal prayer schedules are, our prayer practices, if we could add one thing each day of the week that we would pray together.

And so in your bulletin, you had this handout. On one side, it's just a lesson on how to pray. I don't want to assume that everybody has a vital prayer practice or that everyone is happy with the way that their prayer devotion time goes. So this is just help for anybody who needs other help with that, developing that time.

But the prayer calendar that you see, I'd like for us as a church to join with others to pray for the bishop on Mondays. So whatever kind of prayer practice you have or are developing, pray on Mondays, especially for our bishop and for the cabinet and for all of those who are working in the conference office.

They're supervising clergy. They've got over 200 churches that they're supervising as well. It's a difficult job. So let's pray for them on Mondays.

On Tuesdays, let's pray for our community. For, I don't know, let's pick a two-mile radius around the church. And let's pray specifically for those people who live there, who work there, who are part of our mission area.

Let's pray specifically for those items that get written on our prayer board. We pray on Sundays for them, but take note of them if you can't remember them. And pray for those on Tuesdays as well. We join together to pray.

On Wednesdays, let's pray for the staff here at St. Matthew's. Let's pray for all the ministries that are here. Let's pray for Church Under the Bridge, for VBS, the other seasonal kind of ministries that go on. Let's pray for our day school. Let's pray for just all of the ministries that we are sponsoring, that we are a part of.

On Thursdays, let's pick that day to pray for whatever is kind of in the news that has struck your heart. And specifically, I'd ask that you pray for the people who are affected by whatever it is, by the catastrophe, by the event, by the policy, whatever it is that's being talked about.

Pray for those who are affected, those who are hurt by whatever that news story is. I'm not saying don't pray for those things every day. Continue that practice if that's yours. But on Thursdays, let's especially pray together as a church.

On Fridays, let's pray for the schools. We've got Regency, MacArthur, and Oak Grove just right here on the street. Let's pray specifically for those schools. Let's pray for those teachers and those students, those families.

We have the district offices just down the street as well. Let's pray for the district office. Let's pray for the bus barn, the security, the IT center—all these parts of the district that surround us. Let's join together on Friday in praying for them.

On Saturday, let's pray for our small groups. Let's pray for each of the people who attend, who take part in any one of these small groups, that they might be fed, that they might grow, and they might have support as they grow in faith.

And then on Sundays, let's pray together for each one of the people, each one of the teams that take part in worship: our music teams, our tech teams, our scripture readers, everybody else who takes part in Sunday mornings. Let's pray for our worship on Sundays.

I asked Holly to print this on cardstock so it would be a little durable. I hope that you will carry this into your spirit. It's a prayer space. We'll have some extras out in the lobby area. So if yours gets tattered or torn or lost or whatever, feel free to pick more up.

We'll continue this practice. We'll try to continue this practice. So please, take a handout, grab one if you need an extra. And let's pray together on a schedule.

Because prayer brings us together. It brings us together as a church. It brings us together as a child of God. It helps us to grow. It adds to our peace. It gives us comfort. And it helps us to grow.

And so let's do all of these things together as the church that Christ created here at this address, in this building, in this place.

And now let me invite any of you, if you wish to join the church, to come forward while we sing our final song, which will be "God of Wonders."

I invite you to stand as you're able as we join together.

For our first-time visitors, we'd like to give a gift. I know, Jelena, you've been here during the week, but it's the first time I've seen you here. So welcome, welcome.

And so now, as we prepare to leave this place today, to go out into the world and become the people who pray, go with this blessing.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon each of you and bring you peace now and forevermore. Amen.