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We are going to continue today with the Lord's Prayer, if you'd like to turn to Matthew chapter 6. And we're going to start off with an R today. The R is for Review. We are preaching on the Lord's Prayer for the purpose of maybe leading somebody to the point of where your first conscious thoughts of the day will be drawn to the Lord through this prayer. That will become a habit, a good habit. When thou said, seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. We talked about the fact that my father undergirds this entire prayer. My father speaks of a relationship. It is a statement of my faith that he is my father. I know him. We talked about the fact that he is in heaven. This speaks of reality. Only Christians live in the real world. My father in heaven, that's where reality is. Hallowed be thy name. My prayer is let your name be declared holy, unique, separate. There's no one else like you. May that be declared to everyone about me. That is my chief responsibility in life. Thy kingdom come. Let your kingdom come. Let your kingdom rule come. It speaks of my readiness. I should have a desire to be ready and looking forward to meeting him. We spoke of a resignation to another's will. Let your will be done. Not my will, but let your will be done. A renewal every day to get rid of my own will and to seek to accomplish his will. And then we spoke of the standard of righteousness that God expects, that may your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. God's standard here is the same standard as there. And may God help us to understand that. Really, everything up to this point in this prayer is God-centered. A.B. Bruce said in his book on the training of the twelve, the first part deals with God's glory. The second part with man's good, there are many. outlines for the Lord's Prayer, and they give their different phrases to describe these two sections. So we come to the first request, and that's our R word here. Give us this day our daily bread. Request. We personalize it. Remember, we're trying to personalize this prayer. Give me this day my daily bread. We're talking about daily sustenance. It can mean a number of different things. You may need simply the physical strength to get out of bed each morning. You have a disease, you have a sickness, and it's ongoing. It's difficult just to get out of bed. This day, my daily bread, the physical strength to keep on going. It may be food. You say, well, we don't need to ask for food. We've got plenty of food in the closet or in the cupboard. Well, it may not be there five minutes from now. A fire can sweep through our home, an earthquake can hit, a hurricane. We have to depend on him and we need to show our dependence on him for the things that we really don't think we need to. We still need to voice that dependence upon him, no matter what it is. Finances, the power of God's spirit in my life, right attitude, you may be facing something that really is giving you a hard time and you need to ask God, give me a right attitude in this situation. Wisdom for particular decisions or jobs. Spiritual strength. This word is rather hard to really nail down because it's one of those hapoxlegomenas. You know, one of those strange words that appears only once in the New Testament. And very few times in all of Greek literature. It does appear in the papyri to describe daily rations. And in one case, a provision list for the day. Here's what we have to get to by today. Much of the world still lives on a day-by-day basis. We pull our food out of the refrigerator or the freezer. But a daily provision list, and that's what we're talking about here. Give me this day my daily bread, and often we don't even know what we need today. I don't know what I'm going to face today. I don't know what decisions, what phone calls I'm going to get today. Grant to me what I need to live for you in a way that would please you throughout this day. I can't help but think that Jesus had in his mind when he was teaching this prayer at this point about the man in the Old Testament. And perhaps many of the Jews that were listening also thought of that when he said, Give us this day our daily bread. Manna was a day-by-day thing, remember. He said, you take enough manna for today. Don't try to keep it overnight because it will spoil. Well, some of them tried to keep it overnight, just like we do. We know what God says, but we still try to do it our way. And he said, remember now on the day before the Sabbath, you take twice as much because you're going to need for two days. Don't want you out there on the Sabbath day. There won't be any out there on the Sabbath day. But of course, there were those who were out on the Sabbath day looking for manna. No, manna was a day by day thing. So it is our life with the Lord must be day by day. Give me this day my daily bread. It speaks of My dependence, my constant dependence upon Him. Each day I renew this plea, it keeps me depending upon Him. He's my Father, He knows what I need. Now, children don't always think that. Children say, no, I really think I need this. When a good father says, no, you don't need that. And sometimes our Heavenly Father knows that we really don't need what we think that we need. He will give us what we need day by day. We must live out of that knowledge. Psalm 81.10 says, Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. I think of the little birds. You see them in their nests and their mouths are wide open. They can't do anything but sit there and leave their mouths open. They're totally dependent, moment by moment, on their parents for sustenance. That should be our attitude to our Heavenly Father. And by the way, let me say, I think it's very important for us to give thanks publicly for our food. Several times when we were together as a family, we had four children. We would eat out somewhere. We would pray. Somebody would come by. usually an older couple, and say, that was an encouragement to us to see your family praying and thanking God for your food. It encourages me. It probably happens all the time around here. But in California, it doesn't happen too often. But it encourages me to be sitting in a restaurant and see somebody bow their heads and recognize their dependence upon Almighty God for their food. And we shouldn't do that to impress others, but it is a testimony of our dependence upon a living God. Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, told of a trip that he took with his children. And he said, I was very much aware that they needed something for breakfast, they needed something for lunch, and they needed something before they went to bed. He said, I'm a very poor father. But I was cognizant of the needs of my children. He says, I have a very, very, very good Father in Heaven. And I know that He is aware of all of the needs that I have. Unfortunately, some people want the gifts and want what God has to offer, but they don't want God. What would we rather have? God or everything that God can provide? That's not an easy question to answer if we look at how we live. We probably can answer it correctly theologically, but it's a good question to ask ourselves. What do I really want? God or all that he can provide? God is a giver by his very nature. And we get his gifts, his graces. The word grace comes from that word gifts. We get this through the means of grace. This is very elementary. This is very fundamental. We talk about the two means of grace. How do I get what God wants to give me? Primarily, it's through the word of God and prayer. His grace does not come to us any other way, and yet these are the very things that we often neglect in our lives. Feeding on His Word consistently, and pouring out our heart to Him in prayer. This request also is an invitation to be direct and open to Him. Let us be honest with God. Let us be embarrassingly honest with God. I've heard people actually say, I'm just too embarrassed to even admit that to God. Well, after all, He's God. We can't hide anything from Him. But we do need to remind ourselves, I need to pour everything out to Him, no matter how ashamed I am of it. Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 1 Peter 5.7. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Matthew 7, 7. We move on to our second request for this hour. Forgive us our debts. Lord, forgive me my debts. It would be nice to get rid of all of our debts that way, wouldn't it? The way we normally think of debts. Anybody in debt here? I know every college student is. This really isn't speaking of that kind of a debt. In verses 14 and 15 of this chapter, he chooses the word trespasses. In Luke's gospel, it's our normal word for sin in the New Testament. So we're asking here for him to forgive our sins. Our word here is restoration. Restoration. I want to make sure that I am restored to a proper place with my God as I begin my day. In the first century Jewish mind, the word debt would equate with the word sin in this context. And we need to ask ourselves, what am I really asking? Forgive My sins. Well, the word forgive simply means to dismiss. It means to put away. When Jesus, when our Father forgives our sins, they are gone. He chooses to remember them no more. They've all been placed on Jesus. They have not been swept under the rug or put someplace in the universe. They are placed on Jesus and they have all been taken care of. This really begins to make us think of the ways that we have offended our God, and how we have offended others. I think there's a very important thought here. Until I recognize that something is sin, I can never be forgiven. We live in a day of syndromes and diseases. As long as you look at your sin as a syndrome or a disease or something that is something less than sin, we can never find forgiveness. God forgives sins. He doesn't forgive diseases. Some of you here today perhaps have been through an abortion. And you live in a society that says there's nothing wrong with that. Just, you know, go on in your life and push down all those feelings of guilt There's only one way to recover from an abortion experience, and that is to admit that it is sin. And when we do that, we open ourselves up to the grace and forgiveness of God. No matter what you have been through in your life. Don't follow the world in renaming it for some kind of a disease. Recognize it as sin, and then realize that Jesus Christ died to forgive our sins. I must acknowledge that there is sin before I can have forgiveness, and I must realize that God reveals to me what sin is. Sin is not defined by the church or by a pastor. Or by denomination, sin is defined by God and by His character. Whatever is in line with God's character is right. Whatever is out of line with God's character is sin. That's the basis of right and wrong, His character, and it never changes. And He has revealed His character to us through His Word, so that we can know what is right and wrong. It is not my opinion, or your opinion, or somebody else's. It is God's character, and He has revealed that, and I can know what sin is through His written Word. And as I am faced with sin, I need to realize there is only one way to get rid of that sin, and that is forgiveness from my God. It's the only way of a clear conscience before God. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. By the way, there's a false teaching going around that Christians don't have to ask for forgiveness. We've been forgiven. We don't have to ask for forgiveness. I think that's a false teaching. Oh, I understand. All of my sins, past, present, and future, have been placed on Christ. It's a settled matter. We're already seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But that's not where you're sitting today. You're sitting right here. There is a positional righteousness and a positional sanctification that we have in Christ. And in that sense, we are forgiven. They're gone. But we are still here, as old Dr. Bob Singer used to say, in the nasty now and now. And when you sin against your God, There is a problem between you and him. Your fellowship has been broken. Our relationship. He's still my father. I have four children. No matter what I do, I'll still be their father. But my relationship, my fellowship may be broken because of sin with my God. I need to come at the beginning of my day, and whenever it happens in my life, and seek afresh a forgiveness that my fellowship may be restored. There's an awareness of my temptations in this request, forgive my sins. Do you know what your temptations are? Do you know what your weak points are? Gather together some special verses. I believe if you'll examine the New Testament, you'll find the five big sins are these. Number one is fornication. It's mentioned far more than any others, and probably it is the biggest temptation in the life of Christians today. It's still the biggest sin that we face. After that is pride. We look down upon others. We think we're better than others for whatever reason it may be. And following that is Indian jealousy. And then that leads on to the fourth one, division and strife. Ugly sins in God's sight. And then we come to the number five. It's a surprise, it's drunkenness. Mentioned more than anything, the fifth most mentioned sin. We could probably add to that other drugs today. There are many Christians today, unfortunately, whose lives and their well-being and well-thinking depend upon some sort of a drug. It's one of the big sins of the New Testament. We come to him with our weaknesses and our temptations, and we find there forgiveness. But he continues and says, forgive my sins, forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. My Father, I'm asking you to forgive my sins as I forgive others. who has sinned against me. It makes no difference whether this is the aorist or present tense here, we have some differences. Verses 14 and 15 plainly tell us what this means. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Our R word here is revenge. Revenge. You're sitting here today, perhaps somebody. You have a vengeful spirit against somebody. You don't like them. They've done something to hurt you. And given a chance, you will get back at them. No, our Father says, I won't forgive you until you forgive them. Bitterness is a terrible sin. It wrecks many lives, ruins people for the rest of their lives, because they refuse to forgive others. You say, well, how do you forgive people who have not forgiven you? In fact, they won't even realize there's a problem. Well, I'll tell you how you forgive them. You recognize what the word means. It means to dismiss it, put it away. Well, where am I going to put it? You put it into the hands of the great God of the universe. You've tried to straighten it out and it won't get straightened out. There's still a problem. They refuse. What are you going to do? You take it and you say, my father, I give it to you. It's no longer between me and that person, and I will go on and love them. I will serve them. Nobody can keep you from loving them and serving them. Nobody. We're commanded to love our enemies. That's what we're supposed to do. You say, what is love anyway? Well, it's far different than this world thinks it is. Here's my definition. The free decision of my will to obey God's command to build up others in Christ. That's the first part. It's a decision. It's a command. I have to choose whether I will or will not. A free decision of my will, to obey God's command, to build others up in Christ. That's the end of Christian love. Whatever act I do, as Paul writes, I can give my body to be burned. But if it's not, it is not necessarily love. There has to be a proper goal to urge them onto Christ. This is all by the power of the Holy Spirit. Can't do this by yourself. Even to the point of sacrificing myself, not expecting anything in return. That's pretty hard. Free decision of my will to obey God's command to build up others in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Even to the point of sacrificing myself, not expecting anything in return. Are you battling bitterness with someone? You refuse to forgive them? I urge you. Realize it is God's command. Set it apart. Dismiss it. And put it into God's hands. Go on and love them. Sacrifice for them. Try to build them up in Christ. And don't expect anything in return. This will clear your conscience before others. Peter said, okay. I hear what you're saying, but how many times? How many times? Seven? No. Seventy times seven. Okay, so I get my calculator and I start out. Seventy times seven. No, that's not it at all. Maybe we need to ask ourselves, how many times has God forgiven me? Let's start counting those. How many times has God forgiven me? And you'll run out of time to count those. No, we forgive others as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. Our motives to forgive are simply obedience. We must. Jesus' own example and the realization of my own sinfulness. These things will drive me to forgive others. We've got to move on to the fourth phrase in this hour. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. My father, I'm asking you to not to lead me into temptation, but to deliver me from evil or from the evil one. Now, some of my friends on the shelf take this as two separate requests. Many of them take it as one. I believe it is one. Our R word here is realization of my weakness. Realization of my weakness. Now, I'm not going to go into the differences here between testing and tempting. There is a difference in some places. I don't believe that God ever tempts us to do evil. He is not the author of evil. I believe He sends tests our way. He allows temptation. He allows tests. Here I am asking him to deliver me, that I might be able to live a testimony today that will please you. This is a prayer of my God. I don't want to offend my God today. Deliver me from evil. I don't want to offend you. I don't want to break my fellowship with you. Deliver me from evil. It's certainly a concern for my testimony before others. I don't want to cause others to sin. Many of you here today, perhaps, have been greatly disappointed by a Christian leader in your life. Through their sin, you have been damaged and you've been hurt. I might say it's no excuse for you to sit on the bench for the rest of your life, get your heart right with God, realize that you're going to give an account to God and they will too, but we need to understand That our testimony before others is important. My God, my Father, help me not to be a stumbling block to others. And I just want to live with myself today. Deliver me from evil. I don't want to have to struggle with this guiltiness that sin brings. Deliver me from evil. These are all part of this prayer. It's a matter of loyalty to God. It's a matter of facing hard things. It's not easy to face temptation. Dr. Schuller spoke of this. We spoke of it earlier. In the garden, if it be possible, let it pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. That was not an easy thing. We mentioned that in the humanity of Christ. We think of him as deity and how easy it must have been. No, it wasn't easy. It was very difficult. The most difficult temptation anybody has ever faced. Temptation is difficult. There's some things that we can do in facing temptation. I think we can perhaps share with someone. You know, I'm facing a difficult thing in my life, a temptation. You don't have to tell them what it is. You may feel free to tell them what it is. But I think it's wise sometimes when we're really facing a difficulty, ask others to pray with us, some trusted friends. And by the way, I have a list of about 13 or 14 people that I know pray for me on a regular basis. And I know there are many others, but I know these two. They're the most important people to me in all the world. I lost one here the other day, a person right here on this campus. They are valuable people to us. Didn't Jesus say to his disciples, pray with me? Watch with me. As Dr. Shuler mentioned, they came back and found them sleeping. Couldn't you even watch me for one hour, not even one hour? Say, when somebody asks you to pray for them in a time of need, and you tell them you will, you better pray for them. They're depending on you. They need you. I think we should memorize and quote scripture. I think we should pray certainly when we're tempted. And we need to stay away from tempting places and tempting people. It's dangerous to go around some people in some places because of the temptations that we have. Now I want to tell you the elephant story. You thought I forgot already, right? Those of you who came back today just to hear the elephant story about India. Somewhere before last, my wife and I were visiting Dr. P.D. Cherry in India. And we took a day off and went over the 36 hairpin turns one way and 36 hairpin turns back. That's an experience all in itself. To visit a place where there were, you know, nice elephants, tame elephants. And we saw them feed them these huge balls of, I'm not sure what they were, and saw them do all kinds of tricks. But in that area, there are also wild elephants. So on our way out of this place, we were in a car, and we saw three men standing on the side of the road. And we figured they were probably looking at elephants down in the jungle. So we kind of slowed down, rolled our windows down, and just as we got there, we heard this elephant, blow its trumpet, and it comes charging up out of the jungle. Well, two of these guys, no, there's three guys, two of them jump on motorbikes and take off down the road. The other guy's standing there, and the elephant goes up and stomps him and eats him and spits him out. No, I'm kidding, kidding, kidding. If I were an evangelist, that's the way I'd tell it. I'm going to get out of town quick. This guy that was left there comes running toward our car, grabs hold of the post between the front windows and the back windows and screams and hollers. I didn't know what he was saying, something in Indian language. And our driver takes off down the road. And we look back and here's this elephant charging down the road at us. Well, the elephant finally gave up. If we hadn't been in a car, we'd have been dead. He said, well, why did you tell that? Why just wanted you to come back? No, you don't mess around with charging elephants. And you don't mess around with sin. You don't mess around with places that you know may lead you into sin. It's far more dangerous than a charging elephant. No temptation has taken you but such as is common to man. God is faithful. He will not suffer or allow you to be tempted beyond that which you're able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Takes care of all of our excuses, right? I don't like that verse. I don't have any excuse. You know, you see these, you go up these mountains and you go down, you see these Places on the side where trucks can kind of run off in these gravel-type roads if their brakes go out, that's a way of escaping tragedy. God will always provide a way of escape. He will do it, and He can do it, because He is the Kingdom. His is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever. That's how this prayer ends. This is what is called the doxology, and we face a textual issue here. I hope you won't mind. Most of your study Bibles will have a note here. Some of your translations may not even have this verse in them, or some have a bracket about them. I'll say three things about that. Number one, this reading has the full support of the majority text. The words and the concepts here appear in many places throughout the scripture. And it forms a very fitting conclusion to this prayer. So, let us focus on this worshipful conclusion. Thine is the kingdom. Yours is the kingdom. Our word here is rule. Rule. Yours is the kingdom rule. It doesn't matter what's going on in my life. It doesn't matter what I'm facing. You are the ruler. And how thankful we are for that. Pure worship begins here in this prayer. Pure worship. Let me say a word about worship. We have a lot about worship going on in our world today. Worship, true worship, must engage the mind. That is, it must be connected to revelation. Or the emotion that goes along with it is not real. Let me say that again. True worship. must engage the mind. The revelation that God has given me, as I read his word, must be connected with my worship, or the emotion that goes along with my worship is not real emotion. We have a lot of emotion in this world today. And let me just say this even, even when good music, like we've had here, is presented, If I'm simply caught up into the beauty of the music, and there's no revelational content to that, I don't believe that I have worshipped. I must worship with my mind as I understand my God, and I am worshipping him through the knowledge that he's given me in his word. And as I engage my mind with the words of the music, I worship properly. We were created to worship. You can't help but worship and praise that which is good. Dr. Bob mentioned to us about someone here on the campus that ran 100 miles to raise money for Bible conference. Well, can you imagine the group standing there as he finished the 100 miles and as he finishes it, they just say, oh, hum. Oh, dear. I guess we'll go home now. No, there is something within us that is created there that we must clap, we must say amen, we must do something. Praise is created within us. And here we are saying as we praise our God, He is Lord, He is ruler, I am the slave. I recognize that, I yield to that. And he is the ruler of all ages. He is the ruler of the rapture that begins and the tribulation that follows and the millennium and then on in the eternal state. Yours is the kingdom rule. Thine is the kingdom and the power. Yours is the power. Now, I have an R word here that I don't like, but I'm still looking for a better one. Real strength. Real strength. It is a good word because, in a sense, all other strength is false. It's not real. Well, we can do a lot of things in the flesh. The world can do a lot of things and accomplish a lot of things, but it's not real. The only real things in this world are accomplished through God, by His Spirit. There is no enemy within or without that is greater. Greater is He that is in you, that is in the world. He can strengthen me. Call unto me, I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. That word mighty speaks of inaccessible things. I can't do it. It's far beyond. But He can do it, and He will do it. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. This is a real strengthening. One of those famous 316 verses has always been a blessing to me. Ephesians 316. Paul is praying for the Ephesian believers that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. That's real strength. When we truly communicate in prayer, we will be changed physically and we will be changed emotionally. Real change takes place in prayer. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Yours is the glory. Our word is right. Right. R-I-G-H-T. All that is right is in our God. We talked about this concept of glory earlier. Glory speaks of the perfections of all of His character. Yours is the glory. There is no perfection anywhere else. There is none good but God. Yours is the glory. Your character, your glorious character is good and none else is. We mentioned this is our purpose of living, to manifest that character and to demonstrate it to others. That's how we glorify God. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Forever. The word here is refocusing. Refocusing on the eternal. Forever. Dr. Bob Sr. said the biggest lesson he ever learned in his life was, you've got to live somewhere forever, so you better learn how to live. I think he was nine years old when he learned that lesson. This puts proper perspectives in our lives. It makes things that bother us seem so small, when we see them in the light of eternity, in the light of forever. It helps us put our values where they need to be. What am I doing with my time? What am I doing with my money and my talents? Are these things going to amount to anything? Are they going to just pass away? Or are they eternal? The Christian has the privilege of living an eternal life. The gift we have is eternal life, it's ours now, and we can live it now. And finally, the prayer's not over yet. Amen! Or maybe you say, Amen. Or maybe you say, Amen! Now that's really a little closer to the Greek, by the way. Amen! Amen! You hear it? You hear it? It's life. Now, I was born in Tennessee, by the way. I can say this. So, amen. Amen. What does that word mean? It simply means this is true. This is true. I believe it. It doesn't do me any good to say words if I don't mean the words. I've ended my prayer. I'm simply saying, I will live out of this prayer. I will live out of it. I will forgive. I will believe that God has met my needs. I'm not going to gripe and complain because I don't have this or that and envy somebody else because I don't have what they have. I believe this prayer. I will live out of it today by God's grace. Amen. That's what I'm saying. Habakkuk long ago said, Behold, his soul, which is lifted up in him, lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live. by his faith. The just person is not only saved by faith, he lives out of his faith. He lives and stands upon and acts upon what he believes. My God shall supply all your need. I believe it. I will live out of it. That's the responsibility of a Christian. The author to the Hebrews said about that generation in the wilderness, God's provisions did not profit them, and God's words did not, because it was not mixed with faith. God's word, God's prayer, the very prayer that Jesus taught us, will not profit us unless we mean amen. The prayer is finished. And I ask you to remember today, again, in closing, our purpose. When thou said, seek my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning, will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Would you consider using the Lord's prayer to consciously connect to your God every morning? Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this prayer. that Jesus gave us and taught us. We pray that you might use it in somebody's life to change them for the rest of their lives and help us all to be challenged by it. Help us to remember what you've spoken to our hearts and may we change by your grace. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
The Lord's Prayer Part 2
Series Pastor Mincy Archives
Sermon ID | 7151034195 |
Duration | 43:40 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Language | English |
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