Forgive Us Our Debts (Contd) - Matthew 6:12 Series

Matthew 6:5-15 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' 14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Introduction: Soul and Body

If all your sins are forgiven when you become a Christian, and all of your debt to God was paid on the cross, why does Jesus tell us to pray, “Forgive us our debts”? What is forgiveness? And how do you know when it has happened?

It is worth noting that in the second half of the Lord’s Prayer there is just one short line devoted to the needs of the body. All the rest of the prayer is about the needs of the soul. The first half of the prayer is not about our needs at all – it is all about God. The second half of the prayer, where we pray for our needs, in the Greek – twenty-five words about the needs of the soul, eight words about the needs of the body.

That tells us two things. First, the body is important, and second, the soul is far more important. We do not want to miss that first point - the body is important. God made a physical world with physical things that we need to function and He delights in supplying those physical things, and so that is the proper subject of our prayers. However – far more important is the spiritual world.

If you could get one sin forgiven if you agreed to let them amputate your right arm, would that be worth it? Yes. Otherwise why would Jesus have said “If your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away”? If it is worth losing a limb to prevent a sin, it would be worth losing a limb to have a sin forgiven.

We all say “amen” when a preacher stands up and says “The spiritual world is more important than the physical world” and yet – is that belief reflected in the decisions we make in life? What sort of effort goes into your body – feeding it, resting it, washing it, dressing it, painting it – whatever needs doing, compared to the effort that goes into the needs of your soul? How much time and effort goes into strengthening your soul compared to what you do for your physical health?

1 Timothy 4:8 physical training is of a little value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

All those six-pack abs out there will be dirt a few hundred years from now. Larry Ellison spent over $200 million to build this yacht.

It comes complete with onyx countertops, a gym, spa, sauna, wine cellar, a movie theater and basketball court. Someday it will be a rusting pile of trash in a scrap yard. One thousand years from now it will not exist. So, do we pray for our physical needs? Yes, but we pray far more for our spiritual needs.

Must the Forgiven ask Forgiveness?

And our chief spiritual need is forgiveness. We found last week that there are two kinds of forgiveness – the forgiveness you get the day you become a Christian and the forgiveness you get after you become a Christian. The moment a person believes, God forgives all His sin and all His wrath toward that person gives way to love and favor and delight. That is a single, momentary, once-for-all event that takes place at conversion.

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

1 John 2:12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven