Sermon OTM – Matthew 6:9-15

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord and join us today
Bind us together
Make us one in you

Thank you Lord for friends who
Love us without judging
Who listen without correcting
Who engage without controlling
Thank you for friends who
Help us up when we are knocked down
Who steady us when we are wobbly
Who are like rocks when we need to lean

Thank you for friends who
Will tell us the hard truth
Who hold our feet to the fire
Who expect the best from us.

Help us Lord to be these sorts of friends
And help us be the sort of community
that helps each other become better friends
Ready to love
Willing to love
Strong and gentle
Forgiving and long suffering
Kind
Patient
Steady
Full of joy
Full of goodness
Ready to trust

So our friends can know that they are loved
by us
In the way
we have been loved
by you
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Father of us, the One in the heavens,
Let be revered the name of You,
Let come the kingdom of You,
Let be done the will of You,
As in heaven also on earth.
The bread of us daily give to us today.
And forgive us the debts of us,
As also we have forgiven the debtors of us.
And do not bring us into temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.
[Some later manuscripts add, For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever. Amen] Matthew 6:9-15

Intro: Jesus has given the world this incredible prayer

Recited every day and prayed in almost every language,
– it contains the essence of what everyone needs to say to God and ask of him
• and yet, when Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples,
◦ it was in a side comment he felt needed to be included
• up to this point, Jesus theme beginning in verse 1 was, “Don’t advertise your spiritual devotion and service to God”
◦ he follows this statement with three examples: charity, prayer, and fasting
• there are four parts to each example:
First, “Don’t be like the hypocrites, to be seen by others”
Second, “The hypocrites are rewarded when others notice them”
Third, “Serve God in secret, keep it between you and the Father”
Fourth, “Your reward will come from the Father”
◦ this was how he began this second example, “Don’t pray like the hypocrites”
◦ but then the Lord swerved onto a side-track
Don’t pray like the Gentiles
• and he was still off-topic when he taught them the “Lord’s Prayer” (AKA: the “Our Father”)
◦ the impression I get reading this is that Jesus felt this point required elaboration
◦ in a sermon that defines our spiritual life, prayer is key!

Jesus did not mean for “Lord’s Prayer” to be our only prayer

What he has given us is more of an outline or template for prayer
– perhaps if we think of bullet-points – abbreviated topics
• we personalize each point with our immediate concerns
◦ our joy or sadness, problems or opportunities, and so on
• following the template, the substance of our prayers comes from our own hearts
– there are other types of prayers–some of them cover extraordinary circumstances
• this prayer covers most the important and universal themes
• so let’s learn from Jesus a basic form of prayer

Sadly, lots of people have trouble with the first words

The more common issue, is the idea of God as a “father”
– man I worked with, explained his father abandoned him and his mother
• he was a Christian, loved God and prayed,
◦ but he found more resonance with Jesus as his brother than God as a father
• others sexually, physically, verbally abused by their father have trouble accepting God in that role
◦ so some of us need to rehabilitate the word father
◦ this is one reason why I appreciate the distinction Jesus makes: “our Father in heaven“
– another person I knew of wrestled with the first word, “our”
• their relationship with God is very personal and healing
◦ he is a refuge from an abusive relationship
◦ or from others – some who are dangerous
• they had trouble sharing God with them, and so stumbled over “our,”
◦ and idea they’re related to each other by a heavenly Father
– these are very real and serious psychological blocks
• we can’t expect people to bully their way through them
◦ that is not a sincere response, and it does not heal
• the Holy Spirit has been the source of my best therapy
◦ through the Scriptures mostly, but also through wise counselors too

Every prayer is an encounter with God

We’re not just floating balloons up into the air
– we’re entering a conversation with God, the Creator of heaven and earth
• it seems appropriate to begin with who he is and what he wants
– the first three requests are intertwined in one great project
• think of it as a threefold prayer, not three separate themes
◦ the big idea is the total completion of God’s will
◦ it is the culmination of all time and space

First, there is “hallowing” the name of God
– as I read through the Old Testament, I have to keep reminding myself:
• the Hebrew concept of a name means far more than it does to us
◦ a name is not just a word, it stands for a person,
◦ and everything that person is and represents
• one of God’s great concerns in the Old Testament,
◦ was that his name would not be “profaned” by the sins of his people
◦ that means that God himself would be degraded in the eyes of the world
• to be “hallowed” means to be treated as holy–
◦ that unique quality of God, so present and dangerous when he is near
◦ to show reverence for God’s name–is to show reverence to God himself
– this first request is that the entire world will one day revere God
(that would change everything!)
Second, Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s kingdom to come
– we have already seen his emphasis on the kingdom
• his central message being, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 4:17)
– it is present in a way that we can experience it now,
• but it has not yet come in its overpowering fullness
◦ that is what this part of the threefold request is about
◦ that his realm will break into our 4-dimensional universe
Third, we pray that God’s will would be done
– the way I imagine this,
• that God’s will would permeate the laws of nature
◦ like a universal principle that governs the behavior of all things
◦ from fundamental particles and forces of physics to the largest galaxies
and that it includes all living things

Finally, what ties these three requests together is the line, “on earth as it is in heaven”
– the perfect reality already exists in the (now hidden)realm of God
• the first request of the Lord’s Prayer is that the dimension of God’s realm would break into ours
• when that happens, I don’t think we’ll need to pray for anything else
◦ all that will be left for us to add is worship and praise

The remainder of the prayer covers practical needs of life
Give us this day our daily bread

The Greek construction of our request for bread is confusing
– some read it, “Give us tomorrow our daily bread”
• as if to say, “We’re good for today, please bless us with food again tomorrow”
• either way, we are looking to God for our provisions
◦ Jesus’s Sermon will soon take us further in regard to God’s provisions
– bread has already been an issue in Matthew’s gospel
• and I feel that we’re meant to see a connection
• it was the first temptation Satan tried on Jesus
“People do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4 NLT)
◦ so even when we pray for our daily food we aren’t to forget that something more important sustains us

Our prayers cover every physical need, but we also have spiritual needs and issues
“And forgive us our debts
as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

This is an interesting way of interpreting the wrong things we do
– if it’s true that we owe our lives and allegiance to God,
• then our sins create a deficit, a lost opportunity, an imbalance
• if a fine must be paid to correct the deficit, we cannot afford it
◦ we can only ask that our debt it will be forgiven

“And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one”

Amy-Jill Levine, “In Greek, the verb peiradzo and the noun peirasmos can be translated as both ‘temptation’ and ‘test’ or ‘trial.’ Both translations make sense because a test can become a temptation ….”
I don’t believe God leads us into temptation, but he allows temptations to test us
– it is not that God discovers what the test reveals about us
• that discovery is important for us, so we can see what needs work in our lives
– perhaps the best commentary on this is in James
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (Jas. 1:12-14)
• “Lead us, O Lord, but not into an encounter with the evil one” (or, perhaps, evil in general)

Jesus adds a note of explanation
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 trespass Verses 14-15

Jesus explains the part of the prayer that spoke of forgiving debts
– I think it would have been wonderful if he gave a word of explanation regarding every verse in the prayer
• the issue of forgiveness must have been important to Jesus for him to go into this much detail
• it’s important to him that we accept our role in this part
◦ our cooperation is needed to answer the request for forgive
◦ some Christians become extremely agitated and upset over these verses
(if you’re one of them, Jesus said it so get over it)
– I know that sometimes forgiveness seems impossible
• and for us it is impossible; just as Jesus said that for us salvation is impossible (Mk. 10:26-27)
◦ God is always willing to work with us on forgiveness
• and I believe he gives us the time we need to heal, so that it becomes possible for us to forgive

Conclusion: Consider this, that you could be someone’s answer to prayer

Today there are millions of people around the world, praying that God will take up the slack resulting from shut down of food and medical supplies
They are begging God to provide their daily bread
and the medications that have been keeping them alive
God can use even our small donations to get help to them through one of the Christian an humanitarian organizations that are still able to operate

In the meantime, we can encourage ourselves with this encouragement from Hebrews 4:16
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need”