The Lord’s Prayer - 2
Matthew 6:9-13
January 16, 2022
The goal of this series is to help us to draw nearer to Jesus. That’s really in some ways, the goal of each and every message. In fact, it should be our everyday mission. Yet, I’m trying to be very intentional about helping us move towards Jesus. Ultimately, we’re called to submit ourselves to God. That’s the only way we can experience the power and presence of Jesus. Yet, we struggle to do this.
I was talking to someone who was bemoaning that very fact this week. They’re struggling and they so desperately want to keep the joy and love of Jesus as part of who they are, yet, it’s an everyday struggle. Have you ever been there? Maybe you are right now! You’re struggling to meet Jesus everyday. You say your prayers, you read a devotion or two, maybe there’s a little Bible reading, but you feel empty on the inside. You know what I mean? You want it, but it’s not happening in your life.
That’s what we’re going after in this series, and possibly for the rest of the year. And you know what, I’m excited about that, because I think about 99% of us are in the same boat.
One of the books I’ve been reading is called Absolute Surrender. It’s by Andrew Murray and was written in 1897. It’s an amazing, convicting book. In chapter 11, Murray says this - - -
God gives Christians the Holy Spirit with this intention: every day should be lived in the power of the Spirit.
Is that true for you? Are we living everyday in the power of the Spirit of God?
Later in that chapter Murray wrote this - - -
“The great question for us to ask God as we examine ourselves is whether our Christian life is lived more in the power of the flesh than in the power of the Holy Spirit.
How many Christians there are of whom no one would ever think of saying, “The life of Christ is in him. He is holy! They may see many of you as religious or sincere, yet you go on, perhaps without realizing you are sincerely working and praying and teaching and preaching in the flesh. That is the weakness of the church of Christ. It is all in that one word — flesh.”
Man, I don’t know about you, but he is hitting me hard. I don’t like this book. It’s hitting home. But I will tell you that Murray is one of my favorite writers. He’s convicting and what I like and don’t like at the same time is that he doesn’t give you a formula to solve our issue. He diagnoses, but doesn’t necessarily give the prescription. We’re on our own.
So, where do we go from here? Well, I have thoughts, which is why we’re doing this series. We’re looking at ways to draw closer to God in prayer. Sometimes prayer isn’t easy, but it’s so vital to help us connect with God.
Last week we started looking at the Lord’s Prayer as a means of connecting with God and I thought we would finish this week. But when I looked at where I was, this was going to be really long, so we’ll finish up the Lord’s Prayer next week, then move on to another prayer the following week.
Again, let’s look at what Jesus said in the Lord’s Prayer ---
9 Pray then like this: “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 this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. - Matthew 6
Last week we looked at the first 2 verses of the Lord’s Prayer, then moved into a time of guided prayer as we took the words of Jesus and used them as a basis for our own prayer. This week, we will continue looking at the Lord’s Prayer, then move into the guided prayer at the end. In 2 weeks we will look at the prayer of Jabez, then look at a prayer circle, which is a different way to approach prayer the following week.
So, let’s keep moving on with the Lord’s prayer. The focus of the Lord’s Prayer shifts in verse 11. It moves to a more personal level, as we look at our needs.
We’ve worshiped and praised God. We’ve sought His kingdom over ours, we’ve praised His holy name, and asked for His will to be done over ours.
We now pray to God - - -
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
It’s at this point where Jesus transitions into instructing us to pray for our needs, no matter how seemingly insignificant or mundane. We don’t often think about praying for our daily bread. We don’t think about what we need that’s right before us. We tend to look at the big needs and wants. But I really believe God wants us to come before Him asking for all things.
We need daily bread in the sense that we need God to dwell with us on a daily basis and guide us, but also that we need literal daily bread to stay alive.
So, we need to pray for both His physical and spiritual provision in our lives and in the lives of those we love.
God created us with bodies and souls that both need daily substance to sustain it. Pray for the things that you need and thank Him for all that He has already blessed you with.
We can look at a few scriptures for our daily bread. In John 6, Jesus said –
35 “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” - John 6:35
Isn’t that what we really long for. We are hungry and thirsty in this world - - - and we often go to extraordinary means to satisfy these wants and needs. Our problem is that we often look to the things of the world and not the things which are of the Spirit of God.
It goes back to Andrew Murray’s thoughts about surrendering to God. So we pursue these things and we lose sight of the fact that Jesus, who is the bread of life, the One who supplies us with our daily bread, is already present with us.
That’s what this is all about . . . our need to draw closer to Christ, to trust and rely on His daily bread, not the bread of the world.
Paul then tells us in Philippians 4 --
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7
As we ask God for our daily bread, that’s part of our prayer. Not to be anxious about anything, but in all things, as we pray, doing it with thankful hearts, yet making our requests known to God.
Not that we get what we want, but we receive something even better — — we receive His peace, which guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
If we’re willing to look back and see ancient Jewish history, we would see how God provided for the people. When God saved the Israelites from slavery, He led them into the desert. And every morning God sent them manna — flakes that were made into bread. Everyone could eat and be satisfied. The manna would rot each night, so they only received their daily bread!!
By teaching us to ask for our daily bread, Jesus calls us to find peace in trusting God to provide for us every single day, just as He did for the Israelites.
One of the things I think we can do at this point as well, is something I’m not sure many do or even in do well. We can present our finances to God. It’s a duality. We can thank God for the blessings we have, to give thanks, to be thankful! Whether we have much or have little, we can still give thanks to God for our blessings, our jobs, our material goods, our homes, our clothes, and more.
Then we can ask God how we can give back to Him to build His kingdom. I believe we’re all called to give back. I believe in tithing, which is an entirely different sermon series, but I believe God blesses us in many different ways when we are willing to give and not just get!
As we pray in this section of the Lord’s prayer, we ask God to bless us and provide for us. Yet, it’s not just give me, give me, give me. It’s Lord, provide me with the wisdom to go into the world and be a provider for my family. Help me to live according to my passions. To honor you with my possessions. To be generous as you are generous and provide for me.
As we continue to move through the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer becomes more difficult, as we pray -
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
12 forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Depending upon how you grew up, you basically learned this part in one of these 2 ways. This is the time when we confess our sins, asking God to forgive us for our sinfulness and we ask God to help us forgive those who have sinned against us.
To be honest, we often forget these 2 steps when we pray, yet they are so important as we seek to have an open, honest and intimate relationship with God.
On a regular basis, we need to search our hearts, to know what sins we’ve committed. It’s not easy, and by the end of the day, we can’t remember all that we’ve done . . . the good and the sinful. Yet, we need to be regularly confessing those sins to God and asking for His forgiveness.
Prayer is about cultivating a relationship with Jesus and in any relationship, part of intimacy is vulnerability, humility and openness. Humble, open, teachable hearts apologize and confess when they are wrong.
Ask the Lord to search your heart and reveal any unrepented sin to you.
Pray to repent, turning from those sins and walking closer to God’s path.
In 1 John 1, John tells us - - - -
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
What John is saying is really important - - and not only in our relationship with God, but with one another. Notice that in verse 8, John tells us IF WE SAY WE HAVE NO SIN . . . really? How can we say that? If we say that, we’re really deceiving ourselves - - - and in verse 10, IF WE SAY WE HAVE NOT SINNED . . . again, we can’t say that!! We can’t say that to God and we can’t say that to one another. But verse 9 is the freeing part - - - -
IF WE CONFESS, GOD IS FAITHFUL AND JUST AND WILL FORGIVE OUR SINFULNESS AND CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. That’s great news which is freeing and cleansing and redeeming for us. God forgives us and cleanses or purifies us from all unrighteousness and we become righteous in His eyes because of what Jesus did for us.
We’ve come to trust that Jesus is our redeemer, He’s the One who died for us so that we could find freedom and wholeness. He’s the one who went to the cross so we could find forgiveness. In 1 John 2:1-2, John tells us - -
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
I love what the psalmist said in Psalm 130 - -
3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. - Psalm 130:3-4
Isn’t that great?! If God kept a record of our sins, nobody could stand before Him. BUT, with God there is forgiveness so that now we can revere and serve God.
It’s what Paul said in Romans 8:1 - -
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. - Romans 8:1
That is great news! We are no longer condemned because of what Jesus did for us. Which leads us to what Paul said in Romans 5:1, as Romans 5-8 is one section of his letter. He wrote - - -
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. - Romans 5:1
You see, and this is great news - - - because Jesus died for us, we are no longer condemned. We have been set free. We have been made righteous because of what Jesus did for us. He was the propitiation of our sins. In other words He was the One who appeased God because someone had to pay the price and now that Jesus did this for us - - - we have been declared not guilty, which ultimately leads back to what Paul said in Romans 5 - - we are now at peace with God. It’s so great . . . it is so freeing and should lead us to give a collective Amen!
So, Jesus is the great forgiver. He’s the One who had to come and make appeasement for us to God the Father because of our sinfulness. Someone had to pay the price. So, Jesus being the only righteous, totally pure one, came and sacrificed His life for me and you. He offers us the gift of forgiveness.
OK, if I were to continue we’d be here for another 20 minutes before the prayer and I don’t want to overwhelm you with so much information. So, we’re going to stop here and look at verses 11 and the first part of 12 in a guided prayer.
As we did last week, I’m going to interject to guide you along in the prayer. So, let’s begin our prayer, and we’re going to start back in the beginning and not spend as much time in the opening parts of the Lord’s Prayer.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
God you are love compassion mercy grace
Holy is your name I honor / glorify you
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Let me demonstrate your kingdom.
Surrender to your perfect will
I accept your will / not mine
Let the world see you in me.
11 Give us this day our daily bread
Supply me with my needs
Let me honor you by giving back
Help me to serve you
Help me not to covet, but to celebrate your blessings.
And forgive us our debts
Forgive me of my sinfulness
Name your sinfulness to God.
Claim your sins and repent
Wash me / cleanse me / make me whiter than snow
Give thanks to God for forgiving you
Trust that God does forgive you. Embrace His hope, strength and power
