the main passage for the sermon, covering giving, prayer, the Lord's Prayer, forgiveness, and fasting
1 “Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
3 But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does,
4 so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
5 “When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward.
6 But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
7 In praying, don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking.
8 Therefore don’t be like them, for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him.
9 Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
10 Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
13 Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16 “Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face;
18 so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
the shorter form of the Lord's Prayer, placed after the Good Samaritan and Mary and Martha
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”
referenced when speaking about hallowing God's name, all tribes tongues and nations gathered around the throne
9 They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
referenced alongside Revelation 5:9 about all peoples lifting up God's name
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message walked through Matthew 6:1-18, centered on the Lord's Prayer within its Sermon on the Mount context. Pastor Brad worked through what Jesus meant about motivation in giving, prayer, and fasting, then took the congregation phrase by phrase through the prayer itself. He closed by connecting the prayer's shape to how disciples are meant to live out the gospel in ordinary life.
What was said
The setup came from the homework given the week before. People had submitted their answers to "what is the gospel in 10 words or less," and Pastor Brad read through them, pausing on one in particular: "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He held that one up because it pushes against the tendency, even inside a church, to expect people to clean themselves up before coming to Jesus.
Before getting to the prayer itself, Pastor Brad worked through the surrounding verses in Matthew 6. Jesus says to take care not to practice righteousness in order to be noticed. The same warning applies to giving to the poor and to praying. Motivation is the thing Jesus keeps returning to. If you do a good thing so that people will see you and praise you, you have already received whatever reward you were going to get.
That framing led directly into the warning against thoughtless repetition. Pastor Brad told the story of saying the Lord's Prayer before basketball games, often forgotten and tacked on at halftime, as a clear example of exactly what Jesus was cautioning against. He was careful to say the problem is not repetition itself. Repetition with real attention is good and needed. The problem is saying words as a kind of magic formula without meaning them.
Working through the prayer petition by petition, Pastor Brad noted that the first three petitions are entirely about God: hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Only after those does the prayer turn to what we need. That ordering is intentional. "Your kingdom come" is not just about a future cataclysmic event; it is a prayer for God's rule and reign to be real in a person's life right now.
The petition about forgiveness got the most weight. "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors" is stated in the past tense, as though the forgiving of others has already happened. Jesus then repeats the point immediately after the prayer ends: if you forgive others, God will forgive you; if you do not, he will not. Pastor Brad put it plainly and let it sit.
The shorter form of the prayer in Luke 11 came up briefly. There a disciple asks Jesus to teach them to pray after watching Jesus himself pray alone, which fits the instruction to go into your room and close the door. The Luke version has five petitions rather than six and leaves out "on earth as it is in heaven," which Pastor Brad suggested is simply a clarification that the longer Matthew version makes explicit.
He closed by reading step 11 of Alcoholics Anonymous, which calls for seeking through prayer and meditation to improve conscious contact with God, "praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out." Pastor Brad held that up as a plain restatement of what the Lord's Prayer is actually doing, and then posed the question he said he was adding to last week's homework: how will your life promote heaven's influence on earth?
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Brad read several congregation members' answers to the question 'What is the gospel in 10 words or less?' Which of those responses stood out to you, and why?
Pastor Brad said that as a church 'we are a lot of times guilty of trying to get people changed before they get saved,' pointing to the line 'while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' Where have you seen that tendency show up, and how does it affect the way we relate to people outside the faith?
Alright. Good morning, everybody. How are we doing? Good to see you. And, how about an encouraging word from Lamentations?
Ironic. Lamentations to lament, but not in this case. It says, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. Shall we sing about it?
Start by singing, one thing remains. His love never fails. It never gives up. Never runs out on us. Let's repeat that again.
And on and on it goes.
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. There's few announcements this morning. Monday nights at first b. What's happening, Carl?
Yes. We are on tomorrow meal, music, and message, and we're in Mark chapter eight where Jesus seems to be repeating miracles. And you wonder, are the disciples gonna get it? They do eventually, but but he's doing the same miracles in his hometown than he is he that he is in doing in Gentile territory, which is really, really significant. But please join the fun on on Monday, Monday nights.
Monday nights first be happening down the hall. Awana happens at the same time in this room. Kids Club pouring scripture into the minds of the kids so that we can reach their hearts and carry them forward. If you'd like to make a meal for Monday night or if you'd like to sign up to do the connect hour, there is quite a spread down there this morning. So, that.
But if you want to do that sometime, let us know. You can sign up in the fellowship hall. The men's word retreat is coming up. It's getting closer. February 23 to the twenty sixth.
That will end up actually. It'll be over there but it'll end up in church here on Sunday morning. That's the plan. So, if you wanna know more about that, contact Matt Litzelman. There's a ladies fellowship on Thursday evenings down the hall.
They eat together, they pray together, they study the Bible together. It's a good group, 6PM in the fellowship hall. The women's retreat, I think there are still flyers out front out there, and I haven't heard an amendment to this exactly yet. But talk to Nancy T, women, if you'd like to go on this women's retreat March sixteenth through nineteenth. Let her know if you'd like to be involved with that.
And student ascent is happening on Thursday evenings at the tribe ministry center at 06:30 in the evenings. That's our high school ministry banding together with other high school ministries at other churches in town, and it's good. It's really good. If you have not been in your high schooler, you probably ought to check it out. It's it's something that's worthwhile.
It's really good. There's a young adult Bible study that bounces on Sunday evenings at 06:30. If you would like to be a part of that, contact Erin Anderson. There's her number up there. The if gathering.
Alright. There's a microphone. The red microphone is right there. Natalie, if you wanna do this one for me. Thank you.
I told you more information was forthcoming about this.
Yeah. Okay. I have can have flyers in the back, but for women, this is the third year running. We've hosted If Gathering. It started in Bondurant down at the Browns Barn three years ago.
We livestream a conference that's broadcast globally to, I think, more than 30 countries. There's millions of women every year that dial in. It's amazing teaching, amazing worship, and just a chance to recharge and come together. It's also meant to be an outreach opportunity. So if there's people in your life that you've been discipling or neighbors to invite in, it's a really easy ask.
It's happening Friday night and Saturday. This year we're offering a Friday night only ticket as well if you can't commit to the Saturday. So you can sign up scanning this QR code. I'll leave it in the back. But I do want to encourage you, every the last two years, there have been ladies that have committed their lives at the conference.
So it's super powerful, and we hope you can join us.
Thank you, Natalie. Appreciate that. This is the announcement Nick made last week about upcoming, Will Graham. It's like a Billy Graham rally, but it's Billy Graham's grandson doing it, not his son, but his grandson, Will Graham. And there are several opportunities if you'd like to be one of the counselors, one of the people that speaks to people if they walk the aisle on that night, or if you'd like to be somebody that helps to follow-up with people after the fact, this is a good way.
Church prep briefings are happening 03/03/2010 sorry, March 3, ten a. M. To noon. And then Christian's Life and Witness course is 05/04/1118 from seven to nine. This is a pretty big event.
It takes a long time to get something rolling like this and it's happening in Idaho Falls. But the classes will be here at First B. Is there another one, Blake? I think that's it. Anybody have anything else?
Would you stand then and join us in song.
God, we do say worthy you are indeed. Thank you, Lord. You've died in our place for our sins, taking our penalty on yourself. God, you are extending grace toward us. Thank you for that favor that you are showing us always.
God, may we reach back in faith, in belief, and lean not on our own understanding, but in all of our ways acknowledge you, and you'll make our path straight. Amen.
He shall come with trumpets on, who may I then and him be found,
rest in
his righteousness alone,
Let's sing it again. Mostly voices here. Before you sit, can I just share a verse? Because it is so pertinent to this. It's a song that we've sung here from first Peter.
It says, you're coming to Christ. We're coming to Christ who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. Isn't that good news? The living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by people.
Yes. Indeed, he was. But he was chosen by God for great honor. This is who we're worshiping today. Isn't that good?
Amen. You can have a seat here for a moment. This is a worship through giving part of the service. And I'll invite the ushers to come on forward, and we're gonna sing your words from Isaiah. Listen to this about God about about the word of God, about scripture.
The grass withers, the flowers fade. Indeed, they do. But the word of our God stands forever. It will always stand. It will always remain God's word.
Before we do Brad, would you
Sure. God, thank you for this place and time to gather in the warm fellowship of other believers, Lord, and seekers, hopefully. God, I pray that you would have your will done among us in your way this morning, that you would, that you'd lift us up, Lord, that you'd lift us up out of the mire, that you would, bring us out of whatever winter doldrums we may find ourselves in. God, would you, would you share, your great love, your tender mercies through this congregation towards one another this morning? May we may we lean towards one another and embrace one another, bring each other in from the fringes.
And Lord, God, I pray that we would be loving each other in such a way that others would be called into fellowship with you. In Jesus' name, Lord, we lay it out there before you. That's what we desire. I pray, Lord, that with these funds and resources that are placed in these plates and with the time and with the talents of the people that are offering, Lord, I pray that we'd be good stewards and that we would do only that which you direct. We know, Lord, that nothing that is ever done in your name is in vain.
God, do your will among us this morning. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright.
It's time. It's children's church time. And it's sermon time. There it goes. So last week, the Gospel in 10 words or less.
We hit that. And I told you I'd preached through that seven years ago, and I was using some of the responses from the last time that I went through it. But the homework assignment had been, what is the gospel in 10 words or less? And a few of you took me seriously. So I've got a few of those.
Here they are. Man's search for meaning come to rest. His truth. That's good. That's good.
Focuses on God's word. It focuses on coming to rest and that's good. The gift of salvation and how to receive it. Okay. That explains what it is.
It doesn't say what it is though. My sins exposed. His grace poured out. My soul saved. Individual.
That's good. Really good. The story of how we became more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans eight thirty seven. Sorry.
It's more than 10 words. It's scriptural. It's good. God is holy. I rebel, and Jesus reconciles his bride joy.
Some of y'all played with punctuation trying to make it work. God incarnate Jesus sacrificed his life for my sins. Hallelujah. Had an extra word left over. Hallelujah.
Receiving and living under Jesus' Jesus Messiah's acknowledgment of our worth. Wow. I had not considered this one this way. I I love the nuances there, but I had not considered that one this way. He died for us.
Wow. Because I tend to think about pitiful wretched me, but he he kind of declared some value there when he was willing to change his perfect life for our imperfect ones, our worth. Wow. The way home, three words. Oh, this was fun.
There's somebody who watches every week from, kind of far away. Younger person I met twelve years ago at a middle school camp, for at Old Faithful Christian Ranch, Softening and saving stubborn hearts since the cross. One way Jesus, one way Jesus, hashtag it, if he did it to Paul, he can do it to you. Hashtags count as one word. That's funny.
Ain't nobody that Jesus can't save, even me. What about you? That was somebody took the words of a song that she had heard and changed them just a little bit, but there you go. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is really important, really, really important.
While we were still sinners or some of your versions say, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, goodness. There were some in the offering plate. Without reviewing these at all, Jesus died for our sin, then rose, we believe, and we're saved. Couple of parentheses probably because they were over the limit.
I hadn't counted. Submission to God's truth offers eternal life and unconditional love. Good job. I want to come back to this, I probably will forget. This is important.
We don't clean ourselves up to come to Jesus. We come to Jesus. If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all, the old song says. Right? So while we are still sinners, Christ died for us.
If you recognize that fact, it's it's he can transform you. He can change you. And and I think that we as a church a lot of times are guilty of trying to get people changed before they get saved. So that was that. The homework assignment also is how will you live out the gospel.
I put it up on the screen briefly at the end and somebody came forward and said, leave it up there. Leave it up there so we can ruminate on that. And they talked about it in small group. How will you live out the gospel? And how will your life reveal God's righteousness?
It's something I think it's good to consider, especially as considering the gospel. It's not just fire insurance. It's not just saving us from the wrath of God. It is be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure and transform me. Right?
So that's, was last week's homework assignment. This week, we're up to the Lord's Prayer. Would you stand with me? I haven't seen here he is. There he is.
We're going to say this together. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen.
Now we're gonna go over today Matthew six one through 18, including the Lord's Prayer. Now a little over a year ago, I did Matthew six one through 24 minus the Lord's Prayer. I was skipping it because I wanted to wait till we got to Luke and compare them side by side. So I preached this section 01/16/2022. If you wanna go back, you can.
Matthew six one through 18, including the Lord's Prayer. And then Luke eleven two to four, it's a shorter and less familiar. It seems like the abbreviated version, and there are different theories for why they came to be slightly different. Some feel that the our father from Matthew was kept basically within a Jewish Christian community and the one from Luke was kept within a Gentile Christian community. I hate that there was a separation between those two, but that's one theory for why they might have been.
Don't know. Jesus could certainly have said the same thing twice, and I believe he did. I believe he did in this case, say similarly. But this is since context is king, I wanna build up to the prayer because I think that what Jesus says in Matthew is at the Sermon on the Mount. That's where it is.
And this Sermon on the Mount has a lot of really, really difficult things to do. Some stuff that's fairly easy to understand in some ways, but really difficult to to practice. But let's refresh our memory first about that, and then we'll consider the placement of the shorter form in Luke. We've got a lot of slides this morning. Take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people.
Now that if you if you just stop right there, take care not to we're not supposed to practice righteousness when people are around. Well, earlier, it said your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. So it sounds like those two things are contrary to one another. But Jesus follows up, take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people to be noticed by them. Motivation matters.
Why you do what you do as far as good works is concerned, why you do what you do matters. Don't do it to be noticed by them. So a wooden translation of this first verse right here is, beware now, the righteousness of you not to do before men. Actually, it's interesting. It says the righteousness of you or your righteousness, the righteousness of you because we don't have any righteousness apart from God.
Right? Be careful not to just try to be try to out christian one another. Okay? Be careful not to try to be holier than thou. Be careful not to show the righteousness of you before men in order to be seen by them.
Otherwise, you have no reward with your father who's in heaven. That's not what it's about. He's very simple simply saying that. So when you give to the poor, it says when, hotham, when you give to the poor, it is presupposed that disciples will be giving to the poor. When you give to the poor, do it this way.
Don't sound a trumpet before you. Don't have to ring a bell. You don't have to let everybody know as the hypocrites do in the synagogues. Oh, church people of the day and on the streets so that they will be praised by people recognized for almsgiving that they might be praised so that they might be praised. Who should be praised?
God's name be praised. God should be praised. If you do anything so that you might be praised, that's probably stepping away from gospel truth. To render or esteem as glorious. Look at me.
I am so benevolent. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full, same thing. If you do it to be seen and you're seen, then that's it. It ends there. But when you give to the poor, when?
Again, it is presupposed that you will be giving to the poor. If you're a believer, when you give to the poor, u equals disciples. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your charitable giving will be in secret. Take care not to be showy about it. And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
You just have to trust that that is the case. God is rewarding those who earnestly seek to do his will. And when you pray, this is what we're getting up to. When you pray, it's presupposed that disciples will be praying. When you pray, you're not to be like the hypocrites.
Hypocrites are play actors that do things to be seen. When you pray, you're not to be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they will be seen by people. That's coming from a guy who says the operatory prayer every single Sunday with a whole bunch of people looking up here, and it's the most nerve wracking thing in a lot of ways to think about this. I had a guy that questioned me, at our prayer circle in the mornings, down in Mexico. We used to pray for five things every day, pray for the kids' safety, pray for the building of the for the work people's safety, for the building of the school that they would hear the gospel, all these different things.
We pray for those five things every morning, and this guy had become a believer two weeks before he came on the trip. Said, I've been reading the New Testament. It says don't pray in front of people. Oh, that's be careful about it. Be careful about motivation matters.
You can pray in front of people and not be doing it to be seen by the people. But to join our hearts together in prayer before God. I think it's possible. I think it's possible to humbly pray to God, though there might be people that do see it. We're coming together in one accord right here.
Hopefully, that's the idea. Truly, say to you, they will have their reward in full. Same verbiage exactly. They'll have their reward in full so that they will be seen by people. Motivation matters.
What is your motivation for why you pray, when you pray, where you pray? But as for you, you equals disciples here. Right? These are the people that Jesus is speaking to. These are the ones who've gathered Sermon on the Mount.
It's a big crowd, but they're people who've come out to hear him. When as for you, when you pray, you go into your inner room and you close your door and you pray to your father who's in secret, and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. It's a rewarding relationship with God, an intimate relationship with God. If you will go about it this way, he will reward you. That's a God will reward in Spanish.
I like that. And when you are praying, again, presupposed, will be praying if you're a disciple. When you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do. The word for Gentiles there, it's an adverb an adjective in this case, it's ethnikoi, ethnikoi. It sounds like ethnicity, does it not?
Yeah. There's a reason for that. It is about every tribe, tongue, and ethnos, pontata ethne, all of the nations. Anybody that was not Jewish was considered other, ethnicoid, pagan, heathen, gentile. It comes from Goyim in Hebrew, translates over into ethnikoi in Greek.
Pagan, heathen, gentile, a non Jew. A heathen usually refers to non Israelites picked up in the New Testament mean those who are not yet believers in Jesus. A pagan, non covenant person, someone who is standing outside of God's covenant salvation. Somebody who has not realized the gospel yet, who's not accepted and taken it in, living it out. So this implies that Jesus is speaking here at least mainly to a Jewish Jewish audience.
In the in Luke, it might have been that he's speaking more to Gentiles. I don't think so because it still says that it's a disciple that asked him, but this implies he's speaking to mostly insiders. When you're praying, don't use thoughtless repetition. Now, thoughtless repetition. The Lord's prayer.
The the way that I have said the Lord's prayer more often in my life than any other was like this. We're before basketball game, after warm ups, during halftime if we forgot.
We're start trespassing, we forget those, we wrap up together.
With a bunch of heathens, quite honestly, and it was vain repetition. It was something that we said over and over with the hopes that, that help us win that game. If we forgot it, we said it at halftime. Thoughtless repetition. Now this is the place where most Baptist preachers would say, like they do at the Catholic church.
That's not true though. Thoughtless repetition is thoughtless repetition. You can have repetition of order and liturgy that is really really good and sweet and we need to be reminded of this. One time I got stuck, might have told this story one time before, one time actually somebody else got stuck And they asked me if I go help them pull their car out of a ditch and I said yes. And so as I was going to help them pull the car out the ditch, the closer we got, I thought, man, where's this car?
And we kept on driving, kept on driving. We're almost to Bondurant, four miles from Bondurant. We turned down Forest Road, whatever, and we kept on driving. Still no car, still no ditch. We're a mile and a half down there.
I'm in Tanya's car. Couldn't get that car unstuck when I finally did find it. And then I got Tanya's car stuck on December 23 out of phone service. She thought I was supposed to be at a luncheon that she showed up for. Scared my wife half to death.
Had to walk out of there, walked out, got picked up by the first team member actually, brought me back to Jackson. And then a couple of days next day actually, I called a fellow and couple of guys, and they met down there. One of them had a snowmobile, the other one had a skid steer tractor. And when he got the skid steer hooked up to Tanya's car and started to pull us out, and Carl was with us too, he said, now that I've got both of my pastors here, why is it we don't say the Lord's Prayer every Sunday anymore? My hope, my reason for not saying it every Sunday is because I think it gets to be where we don't appreciate what it says.
We probably should do it more often than we do. We did it twice the next Sunday for his benefit. He did get us out of there, got us unstuck, literally got us like having an ox in a ditch, right? He got us unstuck from there. And I really, really appreciated it.
Then we got the other car unstuck and we got everybody back to where they needed to be. I'm careful about the vain repetition. You can say the same thing over and over again and I do say a lot of the same things over and over again that are pertinent. If they're pertinent, it's good. But be careful about saying it just because.
Right? So when you're praying, don't use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do. For they think that with their many words, they will be heard. So don't be like them. Don't be like that.
Don't do it just as a matter of, oh, yeah. This is my magic amulet. I've got to I've got to use this. This is I forgot about this. Let's say it at halftime.
For your father knows what you need. God already knows what it is that you need. He is omniscient. He knows what you need. Prayer is acknowledging that you need him.
It's looking to him saying, I need you. I need you, Lord. Before you even ask him, he already knows. So you're not gonna sneak up on him with a request. Before you ask him.
He already knows. So prayer is acknowledging that you need him. So then this is the prayer. In the New American Standard, this is the prayer straight up like this. Pray then in this way, our father who's 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 also have forgiven our debtors. This is new American standard. Trespasses, debts, sins, depending on your translation. Don't lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. King James adds, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
I've mentioned a few times lately that there's a textual tradition associated with the King James, New King James and some of the older translations and some of the more modern ones. If you read in any modern translation, it will leave out this last line. But most likely, when you start saying it in your head, you're going to say this because this has been hanging around for quite some time. This is a very, very, very early edition within the first one hundred years, the Didache, the first kind of life application Bible, if you will, had this appended, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. It attributes to God his rule and reign and his authority and his glory.
That's good. It's good because we're saying, we trust you, Lord. We trust you. You've got what it takes to bring about this end. It's good.
So that's the Lord's Prayer. I'm gonna go about it. I'm gonna slow down a little bit since we've said it rather hurriedly, I said it rather sweatily. And then I said it again rather quickly. That's what we're used to saying.
But think about this first petition, hallowed be your name. This is it's not grammatically exactly this, but it is a third person command. It's saying for everyone, all of us to be honoring and lifting up God's name for all of us. May it be that your name is honored. And I immediately go to places like Revelation five:nine, Revelation seven:nine, where everybody's gathered around the throne, holy, holy, holy, all tribes, tongues and nations, lifting them up, hallowing his name.
I immediately go there. Or Psalm 67, where it starts out with us and then spreads from there to others, hallowed be your name. That's foremost. That's the very first thing. Our Father, who's in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Wow. Your kingdom come. Oh, your kingdom come is a second petition. How often did Jesus say the kingdom of God is right here with you? It's right here among you right now.
The kingdom is available to be living under the rule of the king of heaven is available right now. What we are praying when we pray the Lord's Prayer, your kingdom come to me. Your your rule over me. I'm acknowledging him. I'm yours.
And I drop the knee and I say, you're the king. May I act like it? May I act on it? Your rule, your reign, hallowed be your name. I want that to happen from everyone.
Lord, show me what to do for the kingdom. Earnestly, pray for you to help me see what it is that I should do your will for me. Your will be done. That's your kingdom come. Actually, I'm more not more, but when you hear kingdom come, usually it's about blowing something up and then, oh, they're gonna blow that thing up to kingdom come.
It's cataclysmic end of the world sort of stuff. It's like, blow that bridge up. Blow it will blow them to kingdom come. It's it's used that way as often as it's used this way. Kingdom come is about God's rule and reign in our hearts individually.
God, we hallow your name. First petition is about God. Your kingdom come. Second petition is about God. Third petition is your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
That's about God. That's about God's will. It is carried out perfectly in heaven. The devil's thrown out. Right?
It's carried out perfectly in heaven. And how will we carry it out here like that? It's first, it starts with God. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Hallowed be your name, kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
It is not about, Lord, get us out of this big fat mess. Damn everyone else. It is more, God, how can we be a part of your kingdom's advance? Show me how to live my life on earth as I will in heaven, giving you honor and glory and serving. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven individually.
The reason we say it together is because collectively, that's what we want. Right? We want to collectively do that. Give us this day our daily bread. Now this is about our needs.
It starts off the first three petitions are about God and primary. I think primary and importance like we got to get things straight here. It's not about us. It's about him. So show us, lord, how to live our lives.
And then once we've settled that and we bowed the knee and we ask for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, give us what we need. This reminds me of give us our daily bread. And there is some great controversy over what exactly daily means. It's the only place, daily.
It's the only place that it's used in any classical Greek, biblical Greek. It's used two times in New Testament, once in Matthew and once in Luke in the Lord's Prayer. It's the only place it's used, daily bread. Most people go with daily, but other people say it's more than that. It's above the essence.
That's what it means literally. It is give me bread that is above own. To we're we're going do And And proverb that says, Lord, give me enough that I won't be tempted to steal, but not so much that I forget about you. I wanna hit that middle ground, the balance place. Right?
Give me what I need, Lord, to live and forgive us our debts. As we also have forgiven our debtors, that's the fifth petition. And that petition is tied to something. Lord, forgive us as we forgive others. How are we doing?
Should we have a heads bowed and eyes closed? Everybody raise your hand on that one. It's hard. Forgiveness is hard. But because God offers us forgiveness, he also empowers us to forgive.
Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. It's put it it says it says we've already done it. God, forgive us the way that we're forgiving others. That's a and he's going to repeat this in verse 14, by the way. He's going to say it again after the Lord's Prayer closes out.
Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. If you're thinking to somebody right now that you need to forgive, would you just do it? Leave it there. Leave it with the Lord. Forgive us our debts, fifth petition.
We ask for your forgiveness, Lord. We also ask for power to forgive others. Don't lead us into temptation. James says that don't let anybody who's tempted say that the Lord did that to them, but don't lead us into temptation. If there is some place or some event or some people, some gathering, something that would put us in a position of being tempted beyond what we're able to deal with, Lord, we don't want to go there at all.
Lead us not into temptation. Now right here, I started to inject Jesus' vice list where he says, it's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out of and then you what's in your heart overflows out of your mouth, And what overflows out of your mouth are all manners of evil, murder and slander and all sorts of evil. I didn't add it in in the slides, but particularly, don't lead us into temptation. We we don't wanna find ourselves anywhere, Lord, where we would be drawn away from you. Again, enough that I'm not tempted to steal, but not so much that I forget about you, Lord.
But deliver us from evil. Now evil there can be either neutral, neuter, or it can be masculine. And so it's don't, deliver us from evil evil, like as a concept, just delivers from all evil or deliver us from the evil one. Some translations use evil one, some just use evil. Either is a perfectly great translation.
In the first part of Matthew, it's usually used for evil in general. In the latter part of Matthew, it is sometimes used for the evil one, Satan. But, really, it doesn't matter. I mean, evil is evil. Deliver us from evil.
We find ourselves in this fallen world among wickedness and evil. Lord God, deliver us out of it if we find ourselves in it, and lead us not into it. Let's let us stay away from it as much as possible. Show us your way, Lord, on earth as it is in heaven. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.
Amen. Don't use thoughtless repetition as the ethnos outsiders do. So that's the Lord's prayer in Matthew, and I have one minute left. Good grief. If you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.
Say that again. Forgiveness. God's message of love and forgiveness. That's one of those 10 words or less gospels. God's message of love and forgiveness available in Christ.
If you forgive other people their offenses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. He offers forgiveness, and then you can forgive others. But if you do not forgive other people, then your father will not forgive your offenses. This is something that we need to dwell on. Actually, I'm going to split this sermon, think.
Just split it. We'll talk about Luke some other time. If you don't forgive other people, then your father will not forgive your offenses. Think about a few weeks ago actually, no, I'm going go ahead. Here we go.
That's all important right there. Green it out. That's all important. Now whenever you fast, let's skip that. It is expected that at some point you would fast.
I'll skip that part because that's uncomfortable. No, I'm just kidding. I'm skipping it just for time sake. I'm skipping it just for time sake. I already covered it last January.
I'm just kidding. Consider the placement of the shorter form and loop, the Good Samaritan. So a couple weeks ago, I handed out those cards. Y'all handed them back in. And I said, somebody you trust, a bigger group that you trust, and then somebody that you think is the most antithetical to the gospel, the one that is harboring or inhibiting the gospel's advance, and y'all were all over the map.
Some of y'all said the extreme left wing is to blame. They're the ones. There's a reason this is not going forward. And then others of you said Christian nationalists, extreme right wing are to blame. They're the reason it's not going forward.
Majority actually said hypocritical Christians are the reason the gospel won't advance. That's that's probably closer to the truth. You know? I think that our society is telling us to be afraid of the other big time. They're constantly saying that.
And Jesus' parable of the good Samar or his story of the good Samaritan, he never says it's a parable. I think it was probably a real story of a real guy that really did act out of what his faith showed him. And he took care of the man, like, a month's worth of staying in that hotel. And then if he lacked anything else, he'd come back. He was the one and the whole point of the exercise was so that you'd see the people on the other end of the spectrum as being the Samaritan in the story.
Okay? That it's possible for God to reach absolutely everyone. The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus, salvation receives. Right? This Good Samaritan story is about living it out.
Living it out. But it's not about works. So the next week, we get to Mary and Martha. And Mary is sitting at Jesus' feet listening to his word, paying attention to everything that he says, every word that comes forth out of the mouth of Jesus. She's listening to it.
And Martha's busy with many things, and she's distracted, and she's pulled to the side. And so it's not about working for God, getting it all done, paying attention to what his word says. Yeah. It is about acting on it after that. Yeah.
But not to the point of being distracted by so many things. And then the Lord's Prayer comes in. It's a shorter form. There are only five petitions in this one. It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place that doesn't sound like Sermon on the Mount, does it?
While he was praying in a certain place. Usually, when he prayed, he was alone, took his own advice. He often withdrew into the wilderness to pray. And it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to pray like John taught his disciples to pray.
And he said to them, so there are more than one of them around, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Same hallowed be your name is exactly the same verbiage. Your kingdom come, same verbiage. Your rule and reign, Lord, build your kingdom here. Your rule and reign.
Set your rule and reign as the song we sing says. Father, hallowed be your name. We want to be a part of people who don't know you, coming to know you to be able to praise your name. We want for your kingdom's rule to be real in our lives. We want to be willing and obedient, servants.
Give us each day our quotidian bread, our epiosias bread. Give us each day our daily bread, just what we need, to be able to do the job you want us to do. And forgive us of our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And don't lead us into temptation. That's the five in Luke.
It's a little shorter. It leaves out on earth as it is in heaven. I think on earth as it is in heaven just clarifies, your kingdom your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So the homework assignment last week was how will you live out the gospel. I think that I want to add, something to that, or just nuance it a little bit.
This is step 11 from the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Okay. This is step 11. So it's on down the line. I usually mention the first three.
I mention the first three or four all the time. But this one is really, really good. All of them are good. But we have sought through prayer. This is the Lord's Prayer we're talking about.
We have sought through prayer and through meditation upon that, not senseless vain repetition, thoughtless repetition. But we have sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand him. That's a statement of humility. That's not saying God can be anything. It's saying God is bigger than we can understand.
I'm gonna take what I understand of him and act on that. Okay? We've sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out. If what you are praying is, Lord, help me show them how they're wrong, that's not step 11. That's not helpful at all.
Now step 12 says if anybody reaches out to us, we'll help us. But step 11 is praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out. So how will you pray, and how will you, your life, promote heaven's influence on earth? If God has leaned towards us with unmerited favor, Can we be leaning towards someone with unmerited favor? Would you stand and we'll call the band back up here?
Thank you for your prayers for me this week. Thank you for all of the responses and for the ones that didn't make it back to me. I appreciate those too. I heard about a small group that took that assignment and and spun on it for a while, and I think that's really helpful. God help us to be in tune with what you would have for us.
Lord, if I today, right here, have stood up here and offended anyone, in the congregation, God, I pray, that they would lovingly forgive me and that I would seek that reconciliation. In Jesus' name, amen.
And as I wait, a heart of God satisfied before and behind me in every eye that sees me Christ be around me above and below me
From Luke 17. Now when he asked when he was asked by the pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God does not come with observation nor will they say, see here or see there, for indeed, the kingdom of God is within you. Believers, the kingdom of God is within you. It is among us. God, would you be going forth from this place, lord.
In Jesus name, we ask that you would have kingdom influence this week in Jackson and beyond. Amen. Psalm 67 next week. It's an old testament. I'm just giving you warnings.
