No Trespassing Series

No Trespassing

PPT 1 Series Title

PPT 2 Text

Mt 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Mt 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven.

Mt 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.

Mt 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Mt 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

PPT 3 Message Title

The introduction to the Lord's prayer in the Gospel of Luke goes this way:

PPT 4 text

Luke 11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Teach me the mechanics of prayer. The proper way to go about it.

Back up, why do you think the disciple asked that question?

The way Jesus prayed moved him. He saw something that was different and powerful in the way Jesus prayed, and he wanted to pray like that.

How did Jesus pray? Is there anything about how he prayed in the bible?

The Lord's prayer is a what prayer, that is, it teaches about the things we should pray for, not the way in which Jesus prayed.

How did Jesus pray? The answer will surprise you:

PPT 5 text

Hebrews 5:7 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

He prayed with loud cries and tears. He prayed passionately.

I think that is what motivated the unnamed disciple to say, I want some of that, teach me how to do that.

Yet when asked to teach on prayer, Jesus gave a summarized version of what to pray, not one word on the volume level, or the intensity of prayer. Why? because passion cannot be taught. It has to be birthed inside you.

Kind of like Elisha's prayer to be given me a double portion of Elijah's spirit.

Elijah couldn't give him his prayer life.

His experiences.

His intimate moments in the presence of God.

His hunger, his passion.

Elisha did twice the miracles, but God didn't send His personal limo for him when he died like he did Elijah when Elijah was taken up to heaven. So Elisha had the mechanics the same as Elijah but his personal walk with God never appears to have reached the same levels as Elijah.

Jesus spoke as one who had authority.

He prayed as one who knew God. That cannot be taught, you have to learn that in the privacy of your own personal walk with God.

Jesus gave us a 20 second to do list that is amazingly compact, and yet if we were to fully unpack it we would see that in essence it covers every subject that needs to be covered in prayer.

Last week we talked about the need to pray deliver us from evil.

Prevention is better than the need for treatment.

To be proactive is better than being reactive.

This morning we are going to talk about forgiving trespasses.

There are 3 different words used by translators of this passage:

Some use debts,

Some use sins,

Some use trespasses.

The words all basically mean the same thing as the example of Luke's gospel shows us:

PPT 6 text

Lu 11:4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Do you see how sins and debts are used interchangeably by him?

The Greek word translated sin is harmatia and it means to miss the mark. Often pastors will use the example of an arrow, but I don't think that gives justice to what Jesus had in mind. Because with the arrow we think of the bullseye, but we could still hit the target somewhere else.

In reality a better example might be a drivers road test, which is pass or fail. To miss the mark, to sin, means not your close but that you failed miserably. This is not horseshoes or hand grenades, it does matter if you are not perfectly on the mark.

This morning I want to use the word trespass, which means to go somewhere you aren't supposed to go, because it will help us with our understanding of forgiveness. Sin in its essence is going somewhere you aren't supposed to go, whether in thought or deed.

Again trespassing is to go someplace, you got no business going.