Matthew 6:9-13

Good morning church family. It is good to be here with you sharing God’s word. My name is Dan Spino and I’m one of the pastors on staff here. This morning, we were going to continue in our sermon series that we started just two weeks ago. If you remember, Trent started us with are praying for your church. I’m teaching us how to pray for one another. He was in John chapter 17, the last two weeks Jesus high priestly prayer, and today we’re going to continue in that series. Today we’re going to be in Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 through 13. That’s going to be our text for today. The context for that text is actually kind of it goes back to verse 5, and then moves forward to verse 15. We’re going to touch on those a little bit. But we’re going to focus on 9 to 13, specifically. Also this, this text and more generally, is actually part of what’s known as the Sermon on the Mount, which takes up all of Matthew 5, 6 and 7. It’s an amazing sermon that Jesus gives that we have recorded here, and this is kind of a piece of that and that sermon. So just a little context for you were of the texts that we’re in today. If you remember, last year, we actually went through the Sermon on the Mount, I think was last spring, sometime around there that we took our time. We went through this, this sermon from Jesus. So I can always invite you to check out our sermon library if you want to learn more about what we covered in there. But today, again, we’re going to be in specifically in 9 through 13, and chapter 6. Let me read that for us here today. Just to kind of start us off in God’s word. So starts in verse 9, Jesus speaking here, he says, Pray, then our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we have also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This is the word of the Lord. If this probably sounds familiar to you, it’s known as the Lord’s Prayer. My guess is some of you are most of you may have heard this text before maybe even prayed this texts. Because of that, I really wanted our big idea for today to simply be that this is a really dangerous prayer. It is its familiarity is almost blinding to us. So we pray this prayer, we may read this text and and we might just move on without realizing what we’ve actually just said. Perhaps if we did realize what we just said, we might not want to pray this prayer. I don’t know if any of you’ve ever had the situation where you’re when you’re driving. For those of you that drive, if you ever come to an intersection, like a stoplight, and it’s your turn to go and you proceed. As you go through the intersection, you might stop and look up in your rearview mirror and think was that light green? I don’t have that experience. Or maybe you’re like driving down the road for a little while and you’re like, Boy, those last few miles really have no idea what just happened. You want to have that thank you for making me feel a little more normal. I appreciate that. Well, how long has that guy been behind me? You know, following me? How long has that person been there? Now what’s actually happening in those situations that you are paying attention, it’s just that it’s so second nature to you. You just You just do it right like so the light turns green and you go you don’t consciously think the lights green, it’s my turn, I’m have my foot on the gas. I’m gonna now go like, because that’s what I do. Like, you just you just do it. It’s just, it’s second nature. That same type of mindfulness is what we bring to this text as well. The Lord’s Prayer is a common popular prayer. I bet most of you can probably recite it right now you probably get most of it, if not all of it. Some of you might even use some of the old English, right? Some of the VI will be gone, right? That’s okay, that’s still good. Most of us probably probably have this but but did you ever stop and slow down and actually just pay attention to what it is, you’re actually praying. It is a dangerous prayer. A more gentle, big idea for our time together is that in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus calls us back to a proper acknowledgment of at a proper relationship with our Heavenly Father. So Jesus in this Lord’s prayer is calling us to a proper acknowledgement of our heavenly Father, and a proper relationship with our Heavenly Father. He’s calling us back to this. We’re going to spend our time today going through this prayer, just just line by line. Before we do, let me just continue our time in worship. Let me just pray for us as we look at God’s word.

Father, first we just pause and we say thank you that we get to worship you that we get to just praise your name. We get to praise your biblical truce and song we thank you for that. We thank you for being such a good father to us. Now, when I ask now that as we put our eyes into this text, we start kind of pushing into this a little bit that you would just remove any distractions that we might have. All of us have, have had a morning we’ve come from someplace we’ve perhaps even had some TVs Ray before we got here, just help us to kind of put that in the past, to stay present and not to be thinking through what’s coming up in the afternoon, but to stay just ready and willing for what you might have for us in Your word. And I do want to ask that You would speak Holy Spirit, that you would anoint my tongue that you would anoint these words that they would bring honor and glory to our Heavenly Father. And that which is of you with stick and that would snot would just fall away, and that you’d be glorified? We ask this in your name, amen.

As we turn now to Matthew 6, 9 through 13, you’re gonna see that there’s really there’s like a simple or just really basic outline to this text. There’s first there’s an opening invocation. Then after that, Jesus gives us six petitions. So we’re just gonna, we’re just going to focus on those. There’s three petitions focused specifically on God. Then there’s three about God and His work in our lives. So first, let’s start with the opening invocation, which are really the first four words of this prayer. Jesus says, Our Father in heaven. Now before he offers this invocation, you said, you can see Jesus says, Pray then like this. So the thing that Jesus is using, there’s actually linking us back to what came right before we get to this prayer. What do we see in that texts? Well, in verses 5 through 6, Jesus talks to his disciples about praying and secret. It’s not be like the hypocrites who look for attention when they pray, he says, Don’t be like that. Then 7 and 8, he says, don’t keep up empty words, using many words like the Gentiles do. For your Father knows what you need. Then he says, Pray then like this, our father. What Jesus is doing is he’s centering this prayer entirely upon the disciples relationship with our Heavenly Father says, You don’t need to draw attention to yourself. You have a relationship with your heavenly Father, He sees you. You don’t need to heap empty words upon your father trying to impress him or win him over. He already knows what you need, and he knows you. Instead, simply say, Our Father in heaven.

Jesus starts with relationship he has to, its completely bound up with who Jesus is. Jesus, the Son of God is in an eternal relationship with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit since before time this relationship has existed. It’s natural, when praying that we would draw back upon this relationship. Jesus is forever in relationship with his father. At this quote here from Michael Reaves, who wrote this book, the Lighting of the Trinity it came my way from Russ Allen. So this is his favorite book, he reads a lot. So I was like, well, that’s intriguing. I want to look at this book then. So I’m in the middle of working my way through it. Reeves says in his book, he says, before he ever created before he ever ruled the world, before anything else. This God was a father, loving his son. This relationship has always existed. Jesus didn’t become son, when he like came to the earth, that that’s not how this Jesus has always been son and a relationship with a father. Just as Jesus has done since sincerity and eternity pass, he calls upon his father starting this prayer off with this means that what is the follow stems from a relationship, it’s incredibly important that we realize that this prayer, this Lord’s Prayer, is just steeped in relationship. It’s a highly relational prayer. Notice, Jesus says, Our Father. Now elsewhere in Matthew, almost throughout the rest of Matthew, Jesus is going to talk about his relationship with the father, he’s going to talk about my father. But here he says, Our Father, He reminds us of our relationship with our Father. You see, as a disciple of Jesus through the blood of Jesus, we are brought into relationship with God as Father. Now, this is not universal. Not everyone can call on God as Father only those whom he calls himself through their precious blood of Christ, our sons and daughters. Salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit on your life, calling you into this relationship. Then the Holy Spirit stays with you each moment of every day, as you walk into this calling as you continue to live into this relationship and our hope. Our hope is is that everyone will call upon, we will be called and will answer this calling from God. But we know sadly, we know that this is not true. So this isn’t universal. But for those that are, as we read in Romans eight, you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba, Father, only as adopted sons and daughters. Can we say, Father, you see the cross restores our relationship with our Heavenly Father and as wonderful as that is, that also presents a problem for some of us when we come to this time. You see, some of us don’t have an earthy dad. Some of us have a broken relationship with our earthly dad, or simply some of us have pain or hardship surrounding that relationship with our earthly dad. So when we come to this prayer, and it says our Father in heaven, it’s like reading empty words rather than relational language. In fact, it might even stir up pain for some people. Father, what does that even mean? How do I have a relationship with his father? Because of broken relationships on Earth, it mars our ability to have a right lens through which we have a healthy relationship with our Heavenly Father. You see, we have a father and yet we don’t always know what to do with that. It says he’s in heaven. So it’s not like we can go visit him, right? Like, hey, it’s weekend, I’m gonna go visit my father. It’s hard. This opening line can be a stumbling block for some, how do we relate to relate to God as our Father, how can we if this is you, let me encourage you, God is not meant to be compared to your earthly dad. Like that’s bringing God down. Because of evil in their world, sinfulness, negligence, brokenness, because things are just not the way they’re supposed to be. Some of our dads cannot love us the way we want them to. But all of us who have received the gift of salvation, have a heavenly Father who is full of compassion. He’s full of mercy. John tells us in first John 4:8 that God is love. Our Father is by his very essence, in loving Father, and He loves you. The rest of this prayer will talk about what this love looks like in your everyday life. For some others, this opening implication might just be too casual, we read it and they’re like, and it means nothing, right? Like, God is our Father, God, it Bendis Sunday school, check the box, totally get it.

Let’s move on. Perhaps God is father has lost its significance in your life. That’s the danger of this prayer. Slow down and ponder for a moment, this invocation once again, our Father in heaven. He’s not like any earthly relationship you have. He’s God. He loves in ways no other human can ever love you. He’s not out to get you or to hurt you. Yes, there are trials in life. We’re gonna get there even in this prayer. But he works all things out for his good and he wants to see you flourish. He loves you with a steadfast love, and he has compassion on you. Even more, he’s not just sitting here watching the world go by. He’s not some impersonal deity, some some God that we just kind of like shout out to. He is father and he is in heaven. He reigns overall. Heaven is a place of superiority. It’s a place that is above all that we see. There is our Father, reigning over it all, while still maintaining a personal relationship with you. Listen to these words from Psalm 63. This just really kind of helps us understand what this looks like the psalmist says, Oh God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirst for you. My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power, and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you. As long as I live in your name, I will lift up my hands my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you have been my help. And in the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy, my soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me. This is what it means to say Our Father in heaven.

This opening invocation sets up all that’s the fall after this opening invocation. After setting this up in relational prayer, Jesus then moves to the six partitions, and each partition is utterly dependent and calls us back to our relationship with our Father. So let’s just go through these one by one here first petition, hallowed be your name. This is the second half of the opening sentence but as a separate petition, it’s not part of the invocation. Jesus says our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name or let your name be kept holy. Your name shall be revered. Your name shall be esteemed. You see, this is worship language. Jesus’s first priority after calling upon our Father in heaven is to honor and worship Him. It’s right and fitting that we worship and Knowledge, the holiness of our heavenly Father, there’s great risk for us in our culture and in our church family, and that we don’t fully acknowledge our Heavenly Father as holy and to be revered. There is a place of pre eminence our Heavenly Father should have in our lives built upon respect, love and trust. But this hallowed be your name language, this is impossible language for us to understand. You see, we’ve been muted. We’ve been muted by so much our society and our culture doesn’t hold anything back. nudity, swearing, sins, lies, instant gratification. There’s nothing sacred in our culture, perhaps there’s very little that sacred in our culture. In fact, if you’re bored here today, you might have just go to a church down the street. If you get bored there, you might go somewhere else, right? Church membership itself, because it’s lost its place. Like it’s lost, its meaning its value in our church family. So we’re gonna when we come and we say someone is holy, someone is other to be esteemed and revered, we don’t quite know what to do with that. We’ve lost our sense of reverence, and all. We’ve lost our sensitivity to what is holy. But here, Jesus tells us to pray this way that our Father’s name would be revered, would be honored in our lives and in the world around us. But why? Why should we honor our Father’s name that way? Why should we say hallowed be your name? Well, Listen to Isaiah chapter 40. It’s in verses 12 through 26, it’s going to be kind of some pieces are pulled out of that. Isaiah writes, he says, Who has measured the waters and the hollow of his hand, if that’s not enough, he keeps going, and marked off the heavens with a span and close the dust of the earth and a measure and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills and a balance. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are counted as the dust on the scales. If you have a scale at home, put some dust on it and see what that comes up. Nothing.

Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine does Lebanon would not suffice for fuel nor its beast enough for a burnt offering? All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness compare with him? Do you not know Do you not hear has not been told from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is key God who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like attend to dwell and to whom then will you compare me that I should be like him, says the Holy One. Later in Isaiah 45:5, we read, I am the Lord and there is no other besides me, there is no God. In Exodus 19, we have this image that tells us that like God has come down onto the mountain, he’s he’s speaking with Moses, that says in the textis that the Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because of the Lord had to send it on it and fire in the whole mountain just trembled greatly. As Moses spoke with him, and God answered, God answered in thunder, the next time you hear a thunderstorm, imagine what that’s like to hear God. That’s what God’s voice was for Moses. We’re told no man can see God and live when they’re bringing the Ark of the Covenant in in II Samuel chapter 6, this is a really big moment in their history. The Ark of the Covenant is coming in Kings, David’s on his throne, they’re entering into Jerusalem. It’s just like really important posture of God, and it’s on a cart, as the cart is going to cart stumbles. And as a puts up his hand, he tries to catch the Ark from falling and instantly he’s dead. Why because you cannot approach a whole day God on your terms. Listen to what we read in Hebrews 12, verses 28 to 29. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence, and all for our God is a consuming fire. In Revelation, we see that it’s God the Father and the lamb seated on their throne that everyone is worshiping. This is our Father in heaven, and Hallowed be his name. Holy and with reverence is his name and may it always be treated as such, my hope for you, my hope, my line of longing in my heart, my deep desires for you to know and honor your heavenly Father will grow that you will just you’ll want to grow in knowing him more and more and more. It’s my passion. As I lead train ministries here at this church. I longed for that desire to be palpable. So when people come men hear. They just they just sense that we just love that we revere our Heavenly Father. When you pray this prayer and say these words, think of what you’re saying, hallowed be his name.

The second petition is Your kingdom come or let Your kingdom come. Now Jesus has been speaking about God’s Kingdom since like he’s set for like since His earthly ministry started right? What’s his first words, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The whole sermon on the mount is an understanding of what it means to live in God’s kingdom. You see, as God’s chosen to let we’re to live today as if we’re living in God’s kingdom as heirs to the throne. Now, oftentimes in agony and pain and hurt situations, we kind of like off quick like, you know, just just second hand majors, they seem like Jesus just come and just take me home and that all right. That’s not what this prayer is saying. That’s, that’s more of an escapist attitude. This prayer is in the midst of a larger Sermon on the Mount teaching, reduces giving guidelines on how his disciples can live in God’s kingdom which is at hand right now. God is King and His Kingdom is advancing. One day a will be here as it is in heaven with full reign and rule where those outside the royal family are not allowed in, where there’s no more weeping no more sin, no more pain, no more suffering. Now, we’re not fully there yet. God’s Kingdom advances though, as more and more people repent and come the saving faith. His kingdom comes as more people come to know him through this gift of salvation. So Jesus is telling us pray, then this way to pray that the boundaries of God’s Kingdom will continue to advance here that more people will come to know him. Yes, the gift of salvation is wholly a work of God on an individual’s life. It’s the it’s the moon movement of the spirit, that person’s life, God calling them and then answering, but we are called to be the hands and feet to deliver the gospel to God’s people, to the people all over to to advance the kingdom and to let God use it for His glory. When you find yourself in places where you’re rubbing shoulders with people who do not yet know the Lord, pray to God to use you to advance his kingdom. We’re not left on our own, we have the Holy Spirit to help us. If you’re not, if you’re never in situations where you’re not rubbing shoulders with people who don’t know Jesus yet, man, pray that God will put you in situations where you’ll start meeting people who don’t yet know are king, and that God will then use you to advance his kingdom. For those that do not have the secure gift, or that do have the secure gift, excuse me of salvation, we’re to keep living as Kingdom dwellers, keep abiding in Jesus. Follow these instructions that he has left for you and pray to our Heavenly Father, for His kingdom to come fully.

The third petition is Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven or let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This one, man, we have so much to learn here. Do we really want this? When you say this prayer, do you really want God’s will to be done? Right after the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 8, we see Jesus comes off the mountain, and immediately he’s met by a leper and he and he heals us leper. The meaning of this is like just so incredibly significant. This man is like, going to be able to be brought back into relationship with a covenant people. He’s no longer an outsider, he’s been healed. It’s huge. Right after that Jesus raises a Centurions child from the dead. He comes a storm, he has two demons say to him, we know who you are, leave us alone. That’s in Matthew chapter 8. You see, Jesus has power and authority. If he wills it, it will happen. So when we see Jesus on the cross, we shouldn’t think about what he could have done this man with ultimate power and authority that could will things rather we should focus on what he does do. He dies. Right before his death in the Garden of Gethsemane, enemy, he says to His Father, not my will, but Your will be done. The Father’s Will was to have Jesus die.

See, friends, This Is he dangerous prayer? Do we really want God’s will to be done in our lives? Now, God has given us His revealed will for right living as followers of Jesus. But as we surrender ourselves for our father and live day in and day out, do we really want His will? What if God’s will is that you never get married? What is God’s will as you never get that job promotion. What if God’s will is that you never have children, or that pain or illness that you have is never cured? Worse So what do we do when our family members in our church are going through the experiences? How do we then like, try to like push our will onto them? Then what do we what do we do in those situations? When we’re coming alongside our brothers and sisters, what then this is a danger, his prayer. We want God’s Will when the scholarship comes when we get the promotion when she says yes, when we have our kids but trials, suffering calls to speak out against injustice, that’s when we say, Lord, let your kingdom come, right. This whole thing, but Your will be done. We want your will, when it means our will, our wants, our desires are met. That’s when we say we are blessed and rightly so you are blessed. Those are gifts from your father who loves you, He bestows them upon you. Those are gifts, but to truly want God’s will to be done. If you really want to pray this prayer, then that means you have to die to yourself. You must, it’s the only way.

And Habakkuk three, we see Habakkuk writing, he says, verses 17 through 19. He says though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, the produce of the olive fell, the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there’ll be no hurt in the stalls. I mean, it doesn’t get any worse for this guy. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deers he makes me tread on my high places. About 10 years ago or so like i i took this past as Stephanie and I are just in some hard times and and I took his passion. I just rewrote it. Like Laura though, like though we’re living in a city that we don’t want to be in, we were someplace where we really did not want to be. We’re in a condo that just had this awful mold smell that we couldn’t solve and we were trapped in it. I was facing unemployment, under employment, right? We were not where we want it to be though all these things, Lord, I will still choose to rejoice, I will still surrender to you will own scripture own this text for yourselves. Now I don’t mean to imply that surrendering to God’s will will mean hard times will come. Right. I don’t mean to just say like, that’s what’s going to happen. But God’s will also does not mean that life will be easy. God loves you as a heavenly Father, way too much for that. I just want us to see that even in the hard times. I think we’re good at embracing joy but but sometimes there’s suffering as well. God’s will is still being done. Remember, this prayer is all about relationship. It’s a conversation between children and their father. And in that trusting relationship surrounded by love the children submit, yikes, submit to the Father’s will and can say let your will be done. But when you say it, mean it because his will will be done. There’s nothing that’s going to stop the Father’s will. Now, this does not mean that you can’t pray for all the things in your life, even things that you want. We’re we’re encouraged to pray to God for everything to pray without ceasing. Scripture says, Pray to God about that scholarship, pray about marriage, pray about the job promotion, pray about everything and anything pray all the time he wants to hear from you. But just because you want it doesn’t mean our Father will give it or thinks that you need it for your path of salvation.

And sometimes friends, it takes a little while for God’s will to unfold in our lives. In our Amazon Prime culture, this is hard for us, right? I mean, you could pick up your phone and order something in a pipe either this afternoon. Waiting for God’s Will stems from a deep relationship with your heavenly father built on trust and love. In Joshua 6 through 7 it’s a story of the story of Jericho. Some of you might have may be familiar with this. The walls of Jericho come down they go and they take the city. In the midst of this God says devote everything to destruction, the golden silver mine give it to the temple. There’s this man named Aiken who in chapter seven I think it is we learned he actually confesses he’s like I gave over to covetousness and I took a cloak took some silver coins and it took a gold bar for myself. Now the Israelites move on from Jericho and they go on to another battle. Then then other battle, they suffer loss. All of a sudden they’re like, Wait, I don’t understand. We’re just wandering the desert. We just came through the Jordan you like stop the River Jordan walaikum. It’s just amazing. Right? You you stopped the river from flowing. You brought us in you said Father, you said that we’re going to have this land. We’re going to take the land. Why are we dying? God says because somebody in your camp has broke covenant with me. They find out that it’s Aiken and what happens Aiken is killed. What’s startling is that in the very next battle So to kind of turn to page chapter eight, God says, go into battle. Whatever you want, you can take. If Aiken could have just waited, if Reagan could have just waited just just a little bit longer, God had provisions for him. But instead, he didn’t come under God’s will. Waiting for the Lord’s will can be hard and not following the Lord’s will can have consequences. I don’t mean to insinuate you’re going to die. But there are consequences for not following God’s Will when it’s revealed to you. From a trusting relationship with your heavenly Father, you can say, Let your will be done. In Psalm 138, we read verse eight, it says, The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me, your steadfast love, oh Lord endures forever, do not forsake the work of your hands. You see, the goal of our lives is to enjoy God and to glorify Him forever. It’s not to make your bank account big, to be comfortable and to get whatever you want, whenever you want it. Right. That’s not the goal of life. No loving Father will allow that to happen. But our heavenly Father’s will for our lives is good for us, and He will fulfill His purpose for you. As we surrender ourselves, we can pray, let your will be done. The first half of this prayer has focused utterly on our father and what he does for his good measure his holy name, his kingdom, and His will.

The second half these other last three petitions are on our father and kind of focused on our Father, and what he does for our good measure the requests for our daily living. So the fourth petition that is Give us this day our daily bread. I’m indebted to Martyn Lloyd Jones here who points out this amazing contrast we we have just covered like Heavenly Father, like you know, overall creator and sustainer of all things is supreme God, our Father in heaven, whose kingdom is coming, whose will be done whose name shall be revered as this big entity. Then Jesus next words are, give us our daily bread. There’s such a contrast here. Yet this is what our father’s father does, he provides our daily bread. Daily Bread refers to living each day, moment by moment dependent upon him. It’s a daily relationship upon him looking to our Heavenly Father to provide as we need so that our trust in Him continues to grow. The caution of living outside of this dependence is seen in Proverbs 30, verses seven through nine, the author there says two things I have asked if you deny them not to me before I die, one removed far from is a false, false hidden line and to give me neither poverty, nor riches, feed me with a food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord, or lest I be poor, and steal and profane the name of God? In situations of abundance, we tend to forget God. When life seems easy, it’s easy to think that we can just be on our own and go at it alone, which is just kind of utterly ridiculous because it’s your heavenly Father who placed you in that place of abundance. But we think, ah, we got this, we forget about that we lose our dependence on upon our father, in situations of scarcity, whatever that might look like, we can be tempted to live outside of kingdom values, we can start to scramble and scrape and try to get by and, and we can even get angry at God. But our father, who finds our lives to be more valuable than all the sparrows, is willing to provide us what we need each day for that day at hand. Psalm 144, paints this picture of our father’s provider for like everything on Earth, including mankind. This is what our father does, he provides. We’re to look to Him for our daily needs, and each moment throughout the day, and it stems from our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Later in this sermon, Jesus will tell us tell his disciples not to be anxious not to not to worry about anything not to worry about what to eat, or to drink or to wear. rather trust what God trust that God will provide for you and your daily needs. That connects into this as well. We can trust our father to give us our daily bread, Seek first the kingdom of God, seek first God look to him to provide for your every need.

The fifth petition is and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Now, this is the only petition that Jesus like expands on the shoes or prayers over he talks a little bit more about this. What we learned both here and then that just right after in verses 14 and 15, when he highlights is that forgiveness is reciprocal. It has to be, how can forgive him people not want to forgive others. Paul will tell us in Romans eight that we are all sinners, all of us sin and fall short of the glory of God which means all of us are in need of forgiveness from God. God who is willing to forgive will meet our needs and forgive us. Now we are justified, once and for all that is we’ve been made right by the blood of Christ, that that’s not what this prayer is getting at. It’s not saying, you know, justify me again, make me right again, justify me. That’s not what this is saying. Rather, it’s in our daily living will be given to sin that we need to have God forgive us our debts, and then we are then able to forgive others. Now, this is hard. On our own, we cannot do this. As we reflect upon their forgiveness of God for the forgiveness we receive from God, we can then ask God to help us in our in our forgiveness for others, as forgiven, people were called to forgive others, it’s reciprocal, a forgiving person can’t help but to forgive others. But it doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. That only that Jesus talks about this right after the prayer, but he tells us and He gives us a parable and Matthew 18 and Matthew 18. This is unlike unrepentant servant. What ends up happening is His servant goes to his king he has it’s a parable. Right? So this isn’t based on a true story, but he’s painting a picture to draw out truth. What happens is, there’s this servant who has this unlike unfathomable amount of debt that he owes a king, the numbers is ridiculously high, he could never pay off this debt. The King comes and wants to collect these debts now, and then man pleads for mercy. The king has mercy and let them go. The man goes home interacts with one of his own servants who has a has a significant debt, but it’s much more manageable, easy to pay off something that he could easily pay, right? So comparison, they’re just completely juxtaposed. Right. The man does not forgive that servant. He’s like, No, I’m not gonna forgive that. I’m not gonna forgive that. The king then finds out that servant does this and he takes them and he walks him up, and the tech says, he locks him up until he can pay off his debt, which is impossible. The man could never work off the debt. That’s what startles you in this parable that Jesus tells us. This is what our lives are like for those who call upon God, His Heavenly Father, they have received a forgiveness for a debt that’s unimaginable. Instead of death, they have life. That’s what salvation is. We have this relationship now with our Heavenly Father restored. So then we are called to restore relationship with others by forgiving debtors. Now, listen, again, this is not easy. That’s why this prayer is so dangerous. We just say this glibly without realizing what we’re saying. Perhaps there’s someone in your life who you need to forgive. It’s not easy, I get it. Narrow is the road that leads us salvation. But we don’t walk it alone. Pray about the situation. Ask your father to help you He will meet you in that prayer. So we can pray and declare, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

The sixth petition is and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Now, it’s important to point out like what this text is not saying. So God as our Father may actually discipline you, out of love. Hebrews 12 tells us this, our Father disciplines us for our good. God is our father may also allow you to be in situations where your faith is tested. James 1: 2-4 tells us that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. 1 Peter, one very similar tells us the same idea read something very similar to that. We will have moments in our lives when we will be under trial. But as for the benefits of our faith, it’s used to make us stronger to grow in our relationship with our Heavenly Father to grow in our dependence upon him. But what this is saying is is asking God to not lead us into situations in our humanity and in our flesh leanness, where we will be overcome and fall into sin. God does not tempt us to sin, but our flesh is weak and quick to wander. So we need God’s help. First Corinthians 10:13, it says, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. That’s what Jesus is praying for us. Father help us we are fleshly we are prone to wander we’re prone to sin. Help us to not fall into those temptations. Jesus also adds a petition for protection against evil. Some translations have the evil one meanings Satan specifically, again, I’m gonna lean on Martyn Lloyd Jones, I love what he says here as well. He says, For evil here includes not only Satan, but evil in every shape and form. It certainly includes Satan, we need to be delivered from him and his wiles. But there’s evil also in our hearts. So we need to be delivered from that. There’s evil in the world. We need to be delivered from that as well. So Jesus is saying, Father, deliver us from all the attacks of evil, whatever the source is, these last two petitions, both look back to sins that we have committed, and look forward to two sins that we want to avoid. We might be tempted to commit. In both situations, we are called upon our Heavenly Father to help us live rightly. Now, let me make a quick note on what’s called the ducks. doxology. So at the end of this prayer, when prayed out loud, some of you may may have been included, like another line that that’s not printed in the text. Some of your bibles might have it in the footnote, and it goes something like this, it says, for yours is the kingdom and power and glory forever. Amen. Now, I’m not going to spend a lot of time unpacking this at all, I do just want to say that this is this was called a doxology. That shows up in later manuscripts. When we look at the early manuscripts where we kind of base our biblical texts on, it’s not showing up there. So that’s why it’s not printed like in Matthew 6 itself. It’s not it’s not canonical, right? However, the words that are said in there are still very much based on scriptural truth. It’s good and it’s okay to say them as you pray. It’s still biblically and theologically true. But just note that is not part of Jesus Prayer as you as we have in Matthew. So then, what do we do with this prayer? Well, there’s two quick notes. First, the Lord’s Prayer is communal, its core, it’s a corporate prayer. In a way, it’s also incredibly, incredibly personal. On both accounts, it’s relational. So pray this prayer in your life group together, pray this prayer with your family. Pray this prayer and communion with others as God’s called out ones a church, we’re going to conclude our time in our in our benediction. Today, we’re actually going to pray this prayer together. But also pray this prayer when you’re alone. This prayer is so incredibly relational. It’s a conversation between you and your father, drawing you back into relationship with your father, who’s in heaven. It’s a good prayer to pray. And also know that this prayer is like scaffolding or it’s like a skeleton. It’s like, it’s like a blueprint. This is a framework for your prayer. This isn’t the only thing that you should pray. But it’s definitely a blueprint for like all your prayers, it encompasses so much. It’s good to pray this prayer, for sure. pray the Lord’s Prayer. But add to it the requests and words of worship that you have. Your father wants to hear from you, that you don’t need to pray lots of words to win God over. But you can pray using lots of words as you would in your relationship with your heavenly Father. So that’s the Lord’s Prayer. We’re going to conclude here, our time and the songs of worship team if you want to start heading up and I hope that as you pray this prayer, that you will take time to meditate on what it’s saying, and that in so doing, you will have a proper acknowledgement of an a proper relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Let me pray. Father, we thank you for these words. Jesus, we thank you for giving us these words on how to pray to and with our Father. We thank you for the truths that are in there. How help us help us to remove barriers help us to remove our sins, forgive us where we sin. Help us to hear these words and have respect we might grow in relationship with our Heavenly Father. And help us to forgive where we need to forgive. Help us to surrender to your will where we need to surrender to your will help us to participate in your kingdom advancement as you would want to use us. Help us to honor and glorify your name as holy other. Daily. Give us our daily bread. We look to you utterly dependent upon you. Beat us each day for your glory. Amen.