All right, my name is Eric, one of the pastors here.
Glad to be here with you. We are continuing on in our
series in the book of Matthew, first book of the New Testament,
which is all about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. We call Jesus our King.
We believe he came and brought his Kingdom with him when he
stepped down 2000 years ago. And it's, it's unfolding before
our eyes as we speak. And today we're in a portion of
the book, Matthew 5 through 7 is called the Sermon on the Mount,
famous sermon of Jesus. And we've reached somewhat of a,
a masterpiece. You know, not every piece of
art. Can you call it a masterpiece.
A masterpiece is something that you see or that you look at and
every time you see it, something new jumps out at you.
The beauty of it just causes you to feel something new.
Maybe you've never felt before. Maybe you understand something
that you've never understood before.
It brings about just joy. And as you view the beauty of
this masterpiece. And, and I would say that that
would be a good, a good explanation of what the Lord's
Prayer is. We are going to look at the
Lord's Prayer. John just read that for us
beforehand. We're going to break it down.
But I've titled today's message the Lord's Prayer, the pattern
for posture and priority and prayer.
And why do I call it a pattern? Because sometimes we get
confused about this prayer and we think we're supposed to
repeat it verbatim, as if God wants us to mindlessly chant or
quote words to him and somehow he's pleased with that or he's
going to, we're going to get some extra blessing.
But really what it is, is Jesus is teaching his disciples,
Christians, how to pray. And he starts it out with this.
Pray then like this. It doesn't mean to chant it or
say every word exactly. And that's the only way that you
can pray. Remember the context before
this. Jesus is calling out the
hypocrisy of the religious leaders in Judaism, the
Pharisees. He's he, he, he, he said things
like don't be like the hypocrites who pray too long
with wordy prayers or don't be like the Pharisees who pray with
pride. But here's a model of what
prayer should look like in the Christian's life.
And what we're really focused on are the contents of this prayer
that Jesus is teaching us. How are we supposed to approach
God with these requests that we have now a man named Origen in
the late 2nd century and into the 3rd century, early church
father wrote a book called the Treatise on Prayer.
And from the Lord's Prayer, he kind of brought out these four
points of what a prayer should hold.
And, and that's where we actually get this axe acronym
that we pray in our church. Adoration, confection,
Thanksgiving, supplication. He, he pulls it out of there.
Like these are kind of the four main themes of this, this
prayer. And so that's where that ACTS
acronym comes from that we, we like to use to have kind of a, a
full prayer in our service. But I've answered the question,
which was our main idea today is how should we pray?
We're going to look at the contents and I'm not going to go
along with the ACTS acronym. It may it may jump out every
once in awhile, but simply prayer.
How to pray is to talk to God, praising him and making requests
or petitions, but doing so in a posture of worship and humility,
acknowledging His Holiness and our neediness.
So you can see kind of some 2 themes here in this, in this
main idea or, and how I've answered this question is
there's praise in making requests.
We're doing it in a posture of worship and humility.
We're acknowledging His Holiness and our neediness.
And I believe that this prayer is broken into two categories or
two categories with three priorities in each category.
Now I want to quickly look at the entire passage.
I've kind of made a visual for us to maybe learn from what I'm
talking about here, how we can dissect this, this verse.
If you look at it, the two categories are we're praying to
God first, and then we're asking for our needs second.
So as as you look at it says our father, so let your name, your
Kingdom and your will be done. So we're praying to God for his
glory about his priorities that our our will would be aligned
with him. So it's your, your, your so
that's the first priority is praying to God in a in a posture
of praise and worship. And then we move to now I'll ask
for what I need. So it says give us, forgive us,
lead us, deliver us. So you could call this divine
petitions. You start with the divine to
God, and then you move into the human petitions, the upward and
the inward. And another thing I'd like to
point out here is it says us. So this is meant to be a
corporate prayer. Obviously you can pray this
prayer or, or I mean the model or the pattern of the prayer
should should fill your personal prayer life and and direct your
personal prayer life. But was when Jesus was preaching
this Sermon on the Mount to a group of people, his his people
who are going to, to start the church, he was, he was saying,
use the word us like we're praying together.
We're praying not just with our own selfish needs in mind, but
those around us as well. So I've got 2 points today and
it's I'm first going to talk about the priority to focus on
God. And then we'll talk about our
needs. And so the first priority of
prayer is focused on God's glory.
Let's go to the first verse. Pray then like this, our Father
in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Now he starts with our Father. This is this is a big deal
because it was only a few times in the Old Testament vaguely was
God called Father. He was he and and God the Father
has always been he's always had that role in in the Trinity as
as God the Father. But but Jesus says our father
now he's saying he's your father.
And this was Jesus's favorite way to address God in the Sermon
on the Mount. He says it 17 times and over 44
times in in the entire book of Matthew.
He says father, not just transcendent God, God who
created everything and stepped back.
And now he's just waiting for us to to either mess this thing up
or follow him. Now he is like a father to us.
And he was certainly a father to his only son, Jesus, the eternal
son. In fact, Jesus in Mark 1436, he
called him ABBA Father. What is ABBA father?
So father is the Greek term pater, but ABBA was the Aramaic.
And so there's very few places in the Bible that are written in
Aramaic or it's it's just inserted in there among the
Greek because that was also the regular language right there in
the Middle East. And then the the book of Hebrew
is obviously in the Old Testament or the book of the
Old, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew.
Sorry, but ABBA father, what does that mean that that means
father, but it but in its original language carries this
more intimate name like a small child would would sit on his
father's lap and and call him daddy.
It's this intimate name daddy that that he allows us because
in in Romans 815 and Galatians 46, Paul takes this word ABBA
father and says now that the Spirit of God has adopted us as
sons and daughters of God. And now we get to come to, as
Jesus is saying, our Father and even going deeper, he's our
daddy. He's our your daddy, father.
Now I just want you to pause for a moment and realize this
privilege that we have. We get to call the God of the
universe. If you are a Christian here
today, you've believed, if you believe in Jesus alone for the
forgiveness of your sins, the most powerful being in all the
universe wants us to come to him like we're going to our father
on earth, our daddy. And maybe some of us didn't have
that healthy relationship with our fathers, but we can have
that and we can have that in a more perfect, beautiful way that
we as his children can come and say, Daddy, I think so much of
you, and I'm so needy. I have all this stuff going on.
I have questions for you and you're the all wise one who
knows everything. Please answer my questions.
This means that God is personal. He's not just transcendent and
powerful that he is. It says our Father in heaven.
So he is above all and over all and God Almighty.
But he's also personal and near. The Bible says He's everywhere
all at once. So that starts our prayer out.
We talked to him, we're talking to our Father, and then it goes
on to say hallowed be your name. What does hallowed mean?
It means to be holy or sanctified.
Actually, interestingly enough, that's where we get our holiday
Halloween from this word. And before it was, you know,
became this kind of Christian Pagan mixed holiday.
It was called All Hallows Eve. And then the following day was
All Saints Day. And that was a day where the
church recognized and honored Saints from the past and, and
current Saints, Saints are just believers, Christians.
But basically the history was that the night before they would
basically, you know, mock, mock the devil and mock the idea of
death because death for the Christian is no more.
Later. It's, it's morphed into all
kinds of, you know, weird things that Halloween is now.
But just that's where we get this, this, this, that's where
they got the name for Halloween because hollow or hallowed means
to be holy or sanctified. And the prayer is, is that God
would be holy. But the question is, isn't God
already holy or his name holy? And the answer is yes.
But if you take the verse into context, it's got these three
requests and it says on earth as it is in heaven.
So while God's name is completely held holy among all
of heaven, it's not so yet on earth.
Not everybody knows God and that everybody has reverence for God.
Not everybody fears God on earth.
And so our prayer is coming to him and saying, oh, that people
would know how holy you are. And oh, how we as Christians
would represent you in the world.
God's name means something. It represents who he is.
You know, in, in, in. In ancient times, a name meant
more than just identifying different people.
And I believe, you know, when we pick our babies names, I know
we're probably spending tons of time reading through books.
What does this name mean? What does that name mean?
And, and so we're trying to give meaning to our children's names.
And sometimes I, I believe that the name can, can be maybe
indicative of, of the person's personality and God's
sovereignty. But on a grander scale, God's
name reveals how he is like his name.
Elohim is a plural form of a singular name referring to His
Holiness, His trinitarian creating power.
The name used in in creation and and earlier places in the Old
Testament or El Shaddai means God Almighty.
Elian means God most high. Adonai is Master Lord Yahweh.
His personal name speaks of eternality, His perfection, his
self-sufficient efficiency. Other attachments to his name
are justice and righteousness and peace and provider and and
shepherd. And so his name carries a lot of
weight and it has reputation. You have you ever heard that
that phrase like, I don't want to, I don't want to dishonor the
family name or my father's name because a name means something
and God's name means everything. It's it, it, it represents his
character. And so oh, that we would, we
would represent and as Christians, as adopted sons and
daughters, that we would go out into the world and, and
represent your name rightly and not bring dishonor to your name
and who you are. Oh, that everybody would know
you. That's what we want.
How does this happen? Well, in our posture we first
acknowledge God for His name in the holiness of who He is, and
then together as Christians we proclaim it to the world.
I love what first Peter 315 says it says, but in your hearts
honor Christ the Lord as holy or hallowed.
But then it goes on to say, how do we honor Him like that?
Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asked you
for the reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with
gentleness and respect. So we're going out there and
we're representing God by telling others about Him, and
we're making his name and his reputation holy.
We're keeping it that way as we learn how to defend our faith.
That word apologia or apologia is where we get the word
apologetics for make a defense. This is defending the faith.
If anyone asks you a question or if you're out there evangelizing
and you're telling truth, it's that's apologetics.
And that's how we bring fame to the name of God.
We should be doing that. That's our prayer.
Oh, that your name would be hallowed.
And then it goes on and says and that your Kingdom come and your
will be done on earth again. Some of the similar, similar
direction is that your name would be made holy in all the
earth, that people would know you and that God, your sovereign
rule as king of the universe would take over this place, take
over the the world. So what is God's Kingdom?
As I alluded to the idea, when Jesus came down, he brought the
starting of his Kingdom, his reign here on earth and he's
slowly taking ground and he takes it through people's
hearts, through the church, through the preaching of the
gospel. Right now we can see the visible
Kingdom of God right out here on the floor.
This is the Kingdom of God visible, and we, like soldiers,
are sitting here getting our training ready to go out to
defend the faith and to bring about the love and grace and
kindness that God through Jesus brought to this earth.
That is his Kingdom. We're praying for his Kingdom to
come. Now, it's interesting, you know,
if you don't believe in God's sovereignty as a Christian, and
sovereignty really just means that God's in control of
everything and he rules over everything, and thinking about
prayer and praying that his Kingdom would come.
Well, His Kingdom comes through changing hearts and taking them
from the Kingdom of darkness, the Bible says, and transferring
them to the Kingdom of the beloved Son or the Kingdom of
light. If we don't believe in God's
sovereignty, then why would we ever pray a prayer that says, Oh
Lord, would you save my brother and sister, my mom or dad, my
son or daughter, my neighbor, my coworker, my friend?
Like what's the point in praying that prayer if we don't believe
that God can actually make it come about?
Like we must believe that that God will make his Kingdom come
about. We want it and we're we're
waiting for it and we want to play our role in it, which is
sharing the truth. And that's how God does change
people's hearts. But again, we're asking
ultimately not for our our part of it only to be done.
We're saying God, let your Kingdom come, bring your Kingdom
down here, take over, take control not just of the earth,
but of people's hearts. And who wouldn't pray a prayer
that says God have control of my heart.
I would love to be controlled by God like rather than sometimes
my own stupid decisions and will like and how how terrible I feel
when I go against God's will and I sin against him.
God take control of me. Let your Kingdom come into my
heart, let it work its way out. And God is the one who's doing
that. In Mark 426, when Jesus was
explaining the Kingdom, he said the Kingdom of God, as if a man
should scatter seed on the ground.
He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and
grows. He knows not how, what what's
he, what's he talking about here?
It's that that seed that's being scattered is what the church is
doing. What you and I individually go
out and do is we share the seeds of the words of the gospel, but
ultimately we don't know. It's like a mystery how that
seed gets planted in a person's heart and then actually sprouts
and becomes life. That's the mystery of the
Kingdom of God that we are praying for to happen in our
community, in new communities. So this, you know, reminds me of
what Paul says in First Corinthians 36I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the growth.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only
God who gives the growth. God, it's so funny to me when
we, you know, treat church as if it's some kind of a business and
we've got to have all these ideas and marketing schemes and
everything to try to reach people.
When it's clear in Scripture that we spread the seeds of the
gospel by telling people and then God does the work of the
growth. We don't need to be concerned
about church growth. God is growing it by by changing
hearts, but asking for his Kingdom to come is that his his
churches would be planted all over the place and they would
grow. And in fact, I'm excited we have
for one of the first times a church planter with us that's
we're planning on planting a church in Tremont next year.
And Jason Parker and his family are here and going to be here
with us, you know, serving right beside us, alongside us, because
they're praying for the Kingdom of God to grow in Tree Mountain.
And that's what we want. We want God's Kingdom to come on
this earth. That's why we we pray for it.
We do the work, but we're praying ultimately relying on
God and his sovereignty, which is also His will, by the way,
where it said his let your will be done.
God's will is that people would come to faith and hit, and His
people would go share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Now God has two wills because one's called a moral will and
one's called His decree or decreed of will.
Not everybody follows God's moral will.
We want we even ourselves. We cannot follow God's moral
will perfectly. And so again, we're praying God
that your will would be done on earth.
Even in my life and my church's, my church family's life, my
family's life and people around me, that people would follow
your law and your commands. But it's not happening perfectly
yet as is as it is in heaven. There is no sin in heaven, but
there's still sin on earth. We want God's will to be done on
earth, but God is also in control and we know that his
will will happen in the sense that everything that He's chosen
to come about will come about. Everything that He's allowed to
come about will come about. Even though God is in control,
he allows us to make wrong choices and things like that.
But before the world was ever created, and this, this might
blow your mind as we're thinking about a posture of praise and
worship of God is that he knew all of the evil that was going
to happen, every sin that you would ever do, every bad thing
that would ever happen on earth, every good thing that would ever
happen and come about. And God chose to create it the
way it is now. Now you think, well, couldn't he
have gone through every different scenario in his mind
as a creator, as an engineer sits down and says, here's some
different scenarios and here's the best one.
Couldn't he have made a better one?
Well, let me tell you, this is the best one because God created
it this way. Now that doesn't take away the
pain and the suffering and the evil that happens in the world
and the questions that we might have, which is why we should be
praying God to the omniscient God.
But remember Jesus when he was in the garden and he said, ABBA,
Father, what did he say when he was about to go to the cross to
suffer? He said not my will, but yours
be done. So praying ultimately is
aligning our wills with God's will when we're saying let your
will be done. So that's how we get into the
posture of prayer is acknowledging God, who he who he
is, giving him the praise and worship that he is due.
And then we can move into this second part of the Lord's
Prayer, which is focused on human needs, says give us this
day, Our Daily Bread. Now this can mean like a general
health and well-being the the, the, the basic needs for
provision. Again, when Jesus says pray like
this, he's saying get the general truths out of this and,
and extend your prayer. Use this as a, as a, a template,
as a, a guideline, as a foundation for your prayer.
And this part can be where we're asking God to provide for our
daily needs. Now, this is a humble thing to
think about because it's, it's moderate.
We're not saying God give me my monthly bread, my yearly bread,
like take care of give me so much, put a bunch into my
storehouse so that I can I can decide how it's distributed in
my own life. We're saying God give us what we
need. We we need to rely on you and
not ourselves. Give us Our Daily Bread.
In fact, Proverbs 3030 verse 8 and 9.
It's a beautiful prayer. Remove far from me falsehood and
lying. Give me neither poverty nor
riches. Feed me with the 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 profane the name of my God.
You see, we're humbly relying on God rather than going out
thinking that we're the the, the, the master of our own lives
and we're going to solve our our life of provision needs.
No, God wants his people to be dependent on him like a child to
a father. And we get out of we get out of
this, we step out of this dependence on God.
And in our pride, we think we've got to make a name for
ourselves. Going back to the the first part
of the prayer, let your name be hallowed in all the earth.
But we're like, but I'd also like my name to be on a
billboard somewhere or, you know, on a, on a big building on
the side. That would be really cool,
right? Like Goldman Sachs and what's
your last name? Whatever that is, right?
This is a prayer of daily provision of of humility.
God, we need you as our Father. In Exodus 13, in the wilderness
journey of Israel, God was supernaturally providing the
food for Israel, manna and quail.
So bread from heaven and the meat from a bird and how he
provided it was daily. He said go gather as much as you
need for the day and no more and people would go out and gather
their food daily. If someone gathered more than
what they were supposed to or save some for the next day
they'd wake up and had worms all in it and it stink except for
one day Friday. He said gather enough for two
days because I don't want you to work on the Sabbath.
And so God was teaching them to rely on him and he provided
everything that they needed to follow his commands and to do
his will. So in the same way this kind of
makes me think of now not in the same degree is the the Sabbath
in the New Testament and the Sabbath in the Old Testament the
same. It is believed that the Sabbath,
the Christians changed it to Sunday and but it, it's in the
created order of God says work 6 days and rest one day a week.
And again, think about our reliance on ourselves when we
say, no, we've got to work every day.
We've got to work on the Lord's Day.
We've got to make sure that we've got enough money because
we don't believe that God's going to provide for us.
And so instead of making the Lord's Day and worshipping him a
priority, we're like, I'm going to, you know, work some overtime
this week. Now I will say that there is
obviously Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and the Sabbath was
made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
So we're not we're not legalistically saying I can't do
anything on Sunday. If again, he made the point like
if someone's sick, if there's a need, if your job makes you work
on Sunday, all these types of things, like that's not a sin.
But the point I'm just trying to make here is, is our rhythms in
life prove our worship. And so when we think we've got
to do all this stuff rather reliant on God, even in not
participating in weekly worship, I think our priorities are
getting out of line with God's will.
Again in Deuteronomy 8, he in the book of Deuteronomy, he
looks back at all that had happened in the 40 years of the
wandering of Israel and he says this, he says, and he humbled
you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did
not know, nor did your Father's know that he, he might make you
know that man does not live by bread alone, but might man lives
by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
So God was teaching them and it in the Bible says in the New
Testament, it was written down for our instruction as well that
God's going to take care of them.
And also this daily bread that Jesus is talking about isn't
just physical needs. This is also spiritual needs.
Now you guys have probably all seen that little booklet.
You've been around the Christian world for a while.
It's Our Daily Bread. It's a little booklet every day.
It's a Bible reading, maybe a devotion or whatever Jesus says,
quotes this this verse when he combats the devil in the
wilderness. He says man doesn't live by
bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of
God. And so going back to this idea
of Sabbath, if we think that we have to work so much for our
physical needs, but we forget about our spiritual needs,
again, we're out of rhythm and falling out of the will of God.
We need his word. We've got to have priority.
We ought to organize our lives in such a way that we're taking
in a moderate amount of food and water, our physical needs, but
also our spiritual needs as well.
So when he says, give us this day Our Daily Bread, he's
providing. And God has provided a church
for us, and he's provided his his word for us so that we can
take in that spiritual sustenance.
Moving on, this one's huge. Forgive us our debts as we also
have forgiven our debtors. So here's a question.
If this is a Christian prayer, aren't Christians already
forgiven? So why are we having to pray for
more forgiveness all the time? That's a question.
Well, the answer is yes, we are forgiven once for all time.
The Bible says past, present and future.
When Jesus died on that cross hit the the the atonement of it
goes backward into history and forward all the way to the end.
He his death was sufficient for every sin of everyone who would
ever believe in Him. But God wants us to be humble
and to come to Him and recognize our sin.
It took humility for the first time to come to Him to ask for
that forgiveness. And now, if He's going to
completely save us, if He's going to continue to change us,
we've got to keep recognizing the sin that put Him on the
cross. We still sin even though we've
been forgiven. Therefore, in humility and
acknowledgement, knowing that we need God to help us in our
sinfulness, we go to him in prayer.
We should make a a regular habit, a daily habit of
confessing our sins and naming them, naming what kind they are.
Now, we're not going to remember every single one of them, but as
much as is brought to your mind in prayer as you look over your
life, to be honest to God and say God, yeah, that one, that
was an honoring to your name. That one I did yesterday, the
day before. Lord, I confess that to you.
I'll tell you when, when I do that, I feel so freed.
There's no burden. I'm not keeping secrets with
God. God knows everything already.
He says that in actually in verse 8 right before it.
For your father knows what you need before you even ask him.
He's, he's omniscient. He knows everything.
Why not just tell him and be honest then so we don't have
this weird awkward wedge in our relationship where I'm not being
truthful? He's already forgiven my sins,
so why not just name them and take away the power it has over
me? That's what I tell people when
they come to me with counseling is like.
Have you cleaned your slate with the Lord first?
Maybe you're feeling guilt and shame, wanting to mask that by
self medication or some sinful erratic behavior.
Let's get right with the Lord by humbling yourself and admitting
when sin is sin in your life. Now here's an interesting thing
then it says as we have also forgiven our debtors.
And then let me bring this into it. 14 and 15 are actually not
in the prayer verses 14 and 15. They are a commentary on verse
12 and it says for if you forgive others their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will
your Father forgive your trespasses.
Now what does that mean? Does this mean that at the
moment of my death, I must have gone back into all of history
and made sure that I have forgiven everyone?
Otherwise, when I die, I'm not sure that I'm going to be
forgiven because I've held a bunch of things against other
people. No, that's not what this means.
Let me just give you some some rest there, OK?
Nobody could possibly know all the things that they need to
repent of first and foremost. But secondly, remember the
context of the Sermon on the Mount.
It's he's talking to Christians who are already Christians, and
he's saying blessed are those meaning if you are a Christian,
you will be pure in heart, you will be merciful, you will look
like Christ. It will happen because God is
working it out in all of us. And So what will be a natural
result of being a Christian and making a habit of praying is
that we're not going to hold as many grudges against people
because we're going to be humble enough to save.
Wow, I've been forgiven so much. How am I not going to forgive
other people? Again, going back to the context
of chapter 6, not being a hypocrite.
I can't sit there in prayer and be like, God, I confess all my
sins to you. Thank you.
I know you've already died for my sins.
And then leave it there and be like, yeah, but I'm going to
hold this, this, this and this against the people in my life
right now, right? This is God helping us to get
out of our hypocrisy, to love better, to forgive others.
When you and I forgive, we are more like Christ than we ever
will be. Now it's not to say that you
can't forgive and still have boundaries with people that need
to earn trust back. I'm not going to go into that.
You guys talk about that at your small groups, your Bible
studies, or with your families. But we need to be aligned with
God and be reminded to show the same grace that we've received.
Again, Colossians 313 bearing with one another.
And if anyone has a complaint against one another, forgive
each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so
you all must also must forgive. Forgiveness is the sign that you
are a Christian. Be kind to one another, tender
hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
Now I want to get to the gospel, to the one who is unforgiven and
stands before God, ready to be judged if he or she passes away
or if God comes back. And you cannot forgive anyone
until you yourself have been forgiven.
So why does these these passages use the words debts and
trespasses? Verse 12 said debts and debtors,
and this one says trespasses. Well, it's two different Greek
words, but they're both are getting at what sin is.
It's forgiving someone's sins. And when you and I sin, it
incurs a debt between US and God.
God requires all of His creation to live by His commands.
And when we fail to do so, we fall into this negative balance.
And now a payment is due. And the problem is that that
debt that we incur against God because of our sin against an
eternal holy God is such a high price that it would be justice
for us to spend an eternity paying the price in hell.
We cannot pay that price and therefore the consolation is OK.
You're going to be paying for eternity in hell for that sin
against the holy God. Only eat The eternal Son of God
could be the substitute then for how massive our sin is for Him
to come in and to be able to pay that debt by His sinless life
taken on the cross. And As for the trespass, it's
similar in that God has set his holy standard of commands and
laws as a boundary. And you guys have all seen signs
back in the day or, you know, not even not too many years ago,
I used to love, you know, going exploring.
I grew up in Hooper and so going in fields and, you know, hunting
birds and things like that and just exploring.
And there was one time in Ogden, we were, you know, Ogden is not
like Hooper, but there was a little piece of land.
This is a beautiful piece of land.
I took me and my boys through. There was like a little canal
and it was like the most wooded area in, in Ogden.
And then we got started getting our way in and you see these
signs like no trespassing, like something like vicious dog going
to attack you or whatever, you know.
And so we're walking through and lo and behold, there's a guy
standing at the edge and he's got some pit bulls and they're
barking and he let one go. And I was like, what are we
going to do? And some the dog didn't get to
us. But man, that was scary.
You've seen those signs that say trespassers will be violated to
the fullest extent of the law. Well, when we sin against God,
we are crossing a boundary line that God demanded us not to
cross. And in large part, these things
our own good. Sin not only hurts God, but it
hurts others as well. And so the consequence of our
trespasses is death. But Jesus took our place so that
we could live forever with him. And so the prayer that you must
pray is not the Lord's Prayer yet, but simply confess to God
that you are a Sinner and that you believe Jesus Christ died
for you. That's the only prayer that God
will listen to of yours right now.
But listen to this beloved Colossians 213 And you who were
dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made alive together with him, having forgiven all your
trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood
against us with its legal demands, He set it aside,
nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and
authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.
Isn't that beautiful that our sins and trespasses were paid
for on the cross? They were nailed there and then
that last part of that says he disarmed the rulers and
authorities. That leads us to this last part
of the prayer lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil. Now that we understand our sin,
we we ask God to help us not do it anymore.
We recognize the price that was paid and, and and the
consequences were so big. We hate feeling sick and
disgusted with ourselves for doing the wrong things.
And so we're saying help us, oh God, not to wander outside the
boundary line of righteousness and so incur more debt in
trespasses against you. And though Jesus paid all of my
sin debt, if I had the possible, if I had the ability to, as I
think about my Savior Jesus Christ hanging on the cross and
being nailed there and whipped and beaten for every one of my
sins, if it was in my capacity at all, I would want to not put
one more ounce of sin on to Him that He has to endure.
And that should be how we think as Christians.
We want to get rid of this sin once and for all.
We're asking for His power over the temptations of the world,
the flesh, and the devil. So many temptations in the world
are imposed on us as Christians. Us having our own flesh,
nature's still here. As Christians, we have our evil
desires that are at war with our spiritual side of us, and we
have the world and Satan himself, the evil 1 tempting us
with sex, money, power to be unequally yoked with unbelievers
in the world, spending most of our time with them rather than
with those who are faithful, living, worldly ourselves, or
maybe even fully withdrawn. Not even doing the will of God,
not making his name famous in the earth.
We're tempted to make our own names famous.
We're tempted to laziness. We're tempted to complacency,
we're tempted to quote UN quote good things that take away from
God things we're we're we're tempted to idolatry.
We're tempted to be self focused in this world.
And Jesus knows here as in the end of this prayer, He knows,
since He's the only one who has ever overcome all in temptation
without sin when He resisted the devil in the wilderness.
But that's the model then is that we trust in His Word to
combat the schemes of the evil. 1 As he said man, doesn't he?
He used the Word of God every time to fight the enemy.
We ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen our spiritual walk,
to become more disciplined. And finally, we ask to be
delivered from all sin, all of the evil of the clutches and
vices that are on our mind, body and soul.
This is full salvation. When we're finally saved
completely out of this corrupt and evil world, God will make
all things new and take us together with Christ to settle
in our new home. And we long for that.
Oh Lord come, Lord Jesus come are some of the last words in
the Bible, in Revelation. We, we long for just come and
get us because man, sometimes it's unbearable and we long to
be with our Father, our Daddy in heaven.
So this is the model of prayer. Pray then like this.
It's simply just talk to God. But remember to have these two
priorities of of praise and making requests in a posture of
worship and humility, acknowledging His Holiness and
our neediness. Let's pray, Father, we do come
to you knowing Your Holiness, wanting your Kingdom to come,
wanting your will to be done in our lives and other people's
lives around us. We pray that you'd be made, made
famous. Your name would be hallowed
among every person who lives in my household, all the households
in this church and the households around us.
Help us to do our part. But we know that You're
sovereign and we ask you to do your part.
And we come in humility, knowing our neediness.
Give us our daily needs. Help us.
Help us to be humble enough to admit our neediness and our our
sinfulness. Help us bring it to light so
that we can confess it and get rid of it, trusting that you've
saved us. And Father, one day we ask God
that you would send your son again, that we would come, come
to be with you in the new heavens and the new earth.
Until then, Father, help us to continue in prayer, always in
Jesus name, Amen.