Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
the Lord has made let us rejoice
and be glad in it thank you well this Sunday will be continuing Joel's two-part
series on Lord's Prayer and I'll be reading
Matthew 6 9 to 13 from the English standard
version here's what Jesus said
pray then like this
our Father in Heaven hollowed 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 have also
forgiven our debtors and lead us
not into temptation but deliver us from evil
good morning
thank you for reading Kent
I love it when Kent reads any Star Wars fans I think that he would have
been
may be a better choice even then James Earl Jones for Darth Vader's Voice
I have another question for you
how many
how many if you enjoy reading that it doesn't mean just Christian
books but you just love to read can I see a show of hands
good for you if your hand didn't go up you need to do less of something else
read more it's just
it's good for you but I enjoyed reading and a lot of you
I think are aware by now that I started a three-year program
this past January and so they're forcing a lot of reading
on me fortunately it's been very good but I have a lot of required reading but I
also enjoy other things I like a science fiction
adventure lately I've gotten into biographies I really enjoyed
reading about people's lives especially if they've overcome some
obstacle in their life and I wonder how they were able to
accomplish that and so I really enjoy all those things
but there are some words that
that I tend to come back to over and over either reading or
I've got my headphones in a lot if you ever here at church and see me walking
around I'm often listening to
to scripture or other things because I can do that while I'm doing other things and
still I
I'm one of those people that just really need God's word I turn into a jerk
in about three days if I don't I'm pretty on a regular basis either
looking or listening to either
scripture sometimes sermons with something there that are going to help
me
be more in the presence of God and but these words that I keep coming back to
are the words
of Jesus and what strikes me about them is that they are often
shocking and amazing
and even sometimes offensive and I think
when I was a younger and first learning about God I had this idea and if you've
seen some other older movies especially about Jesus
there's some good things in there but there are some things they don't quite
get right
First of all Jesus was not Swedish in A lot of these movies he has
got these a your blue eyes and blonde hair and
I don't think so, so they really miss some things and Jesus is often
portrayed
just as a very mild-mannered compassionate
nurturing loving man and certainly he was
all of those things but there are times again where he says things that are so
shocking that I have to kind of take a double take a look back to the page and
say did
did Jesus really say that did he really say some other things
when he was teaching people did he really mean
what the Bible records that he said and towards the end of the Lord's Prayer
as I get for the end of the sermon today we're going to look at what other
things a little more
in depth because it it's shocking it's difficult
I'm a while ago I was reading a book and I'm in the back it had some
further recommended reading and one of these books that was recommended was
called the Hard Sayings of Jesus
and you know what I found they're all hard
the things he says hate your enemies someone slaps you on your cheek turn the
other way
if your eye causes you to sin pluck it out I realize the figurative but I mean
he
he says some shocking things
and we're going to see one of the most shocking that he says as we go on
in this prayer but I want to take just a couple moments to recap from last Sunday
As Kent mentioned a two-part series on the Lord's Prayer
if you weren't here on Sunday I would recommend the pickup
the CD because it'll give you some nice context for this prayer
and what I wanted to convince you have last weekend again this week
is not only at the importance of prayer but that Jesus way
is the best way to pray that he left us
this model for a reason really expecting that we would look at it and
understand what the prayer
said and so we even did a survey before last Sunday and I shared some
Of the results
but just by way of reminder one of the statements in that survey
was do you pray the Lord's Prayer on a regular basis
we had 82 people respond from Sequim Community Church throughout all the
services
and the column there that was the biggest was the sometimes column
but I would like to get those up so that you would see the most of the time
column
and the final column was the Amen column that maybe after these
two weeks in learning more about the Lord's Prayer that you might be a person
that says yes I use that prayer
all the time because it's it if the best way to pray I think
and so I'm let me encourage you to take out a message outlined if you don't have those
out already
there are some blank for you to fill in if you prefer just to listen
absolutely fine but let's take a look at the Lord's Prayer
there are seven requests in the Lord's Prayer and we look at the first
three last week
the first three from last Sunday were
may your name be holy may your kingdom come
and may your will be done
and you can think of those as the heavenly requests those are the things
that Jesus asks us to do
to get our minds to line up with his purposes
but then the remaining four requests rather is what I'm going to go
over today
give us, forgive us, lead us
and deliver us and you can think of those as the earthly request so Jesus is in
effect saying after you've got your
mind focused on heavenly things now I'm going to show you what kind of things
to ask for and what kind of prayers that my father wants to answer
for you and so we're going to start with give us give us our daily
bread and you'll see some scriptures in your notes so let's start with that and
one way that you might remember that these are earthly requests
is a question that is in your outline there it says what on earth
are you praying for what on earth are you praying for
give us this day our daily bread
and I don't know about you but I am so grateful that God is concerned with that
I think their times we have a tendency to overlook those things but God does
Want us to have enough food to eat he does want to
to be able to provide for our families he does want to have the things
that we need and so this first scripture
is really talking about that just how does God meet our needs just in a
material in a base
Sense it's from Proverbs it says keep falsehood from me
give me neither poverty nor riches but given the only
my daily bread otherwise I may have too much
and disown you and say who is the Lord or I may become poor and steal
and so dishonor the name of my God and I'm guessing
even in a tough economy
that most of us perhaps every single one of us here
has our daily needs met I doubt if there are any of us
that literally had to wonder recently am I going to be able to eat lunch today
am I going to be able to get dinner on the table am I going to be able to heat
my home those things do come up and so if you've been in those situations I
don't mean
to make light of it but I think again we're
part of this wonderful country where we have a lot of freedom they were able to
generate
wealth many people moved to Sequim for that reason
some people have retired their forties and fifties and come out here
and
I'm jealous because I'm going to be working Until I'm ninety, I'm not actually because
I
I enjoy what I get to do but up I just think
If we are honest our daily needs are met
and where we tend to trip or get into trouble is when we start to meet our
needs
beyond that so I was thinking about some nations on earth where
many people are poor we can think of some are in China things are changing
there but a lot of China
India where you've got people literally living in cardboard boxes in
shacks
and can you imagine some of them getting together and saying boy I'm so sorry
about what happened to your 401K
it would never happen because it's not even an issue for them they're just trying to
figure out
can I eat lunch today can I feed my children
but what we do sometimes we're trying to plan so far into the future
that are material possessions actually end up getting in the way of our
relationship with God because now we've got all these things to keep track of
we've got all these toys to maintain we've got to figure out where we
can go on our next
vacation and sometimes we actually worry about those things
but what God tells us is that he will meet our daily needs that's where he
wants our focus because otherwise like that scripture says
we can sort of forget about God I've got everything lined out for the next few
years why do I need God
so that the danger for us that we need to be aware of but there is more to this
request
then just our daily needs in terms of material possessions
I am going on to the next scripture in just a moment from Exodus
but I want to give you a little context a lot of you
will be familiar with this but just for the benefit of those who may not
I mean the Old Testament we read a lot about a nation called Israel
and I'm giving kind of a broad brush stroke but basically God
pick a man named Abram later his name is changed to Abraham and he says through
you
I'm going to create this nation you're going to have all these descendants and
at one point he says look up at the sky and as many stars are you see your
descendants are going to number
like that and then there are other people added to the family
along comes a guy named Jacob eventually his name is changed to Israel
we have what we know is the nation's Israel and what God wanted to do with
the nation Israel
really goes back to the very first requested this prayer from last week
he wanted Israel to make his name holy he wanted Israel to make his name known
throughout the earth so he did all these amazing things with this
nation and he blessed them in wonderful ways so that
other nations would look at them and say what in the world do you have going on
can you tell me about your God because you've obviously got this incredible God
That's leading you and just like we tend to do from time to time they blew it on
occasion
and they end up in slavery to the Egyptians
God saved them from that and they're out
in this desert and they say to the leader Moses
may grumble and complain a little bit again like we might do
from time to time and they say okay we're out here were freed now but we
have nothing to eat
What are we going to do about this and Moses spend some time with God
and Moses tells them that God is going to rain down this bread
from heaven called manna and we can think of it
kind of like a wafer like a bread wafer
and so with that context let's look at the scripture from Exodus
the Lord said to Moses I will rain down bread from heaven for you
the people are to go out each day and gather enough
this is key for that day
in this way I will test them to see whether they will follow my instructions
a few verses later it tells us how God tested them
you see they were to go out and gather just what was there
for that day now if somebody was hungrier than some else, had a bigger
appetite that was okay they could gather as much as they were hungry for
but they had to eat at all that day other people might not have
as great a need and they gather what they would be for that day but if they
tried to hoard the manna and take back more than they needed in other words
they didn't trust God and they thought
what I've God doesn't provide tomorrow what if he doesn't provide the next week so if
they tried to gather up more than they could eat that day
when they woke up the following morning it turned into maggots
and I wonder again if some of those things that we're trying to gather
above what we really need because we're not trusting God end up being maggots
in our life and really getting in the way
the relationship we could have for God in our case
what we should be thinking is how can I hear the excess because we really do
have
so much most about but this next scripture
even gets a little bit better because Jesus sort of play is off about what's
happening in Exodus let's
take a look and your outline at this together this is from John
Jesus said to them truly, truly I say to you
it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven
Let's put a little time out there but they had to be thinking
Of course it was Moses he was the one who said this bread was going to come down from
heaven
but it wasn't from Moses ultimately and how often do we think
I don't know how many of you are still employed many of you retired but
Some of you are still working
and we think they were paid by our employer
or we think that we're blessed because some person or some people are life did
this but
even though I'm a full time employee of Sequim Community Church the same guy who
pays me pays you
it is God our Father who gives us his blessings he does it through
conduits
Businesses, employers, inheritance
Friends, family but is ultimately him that is meeting our needs and it's so
important for us to remember that
and that's what the scripture says it is saying it wasn't Moses who gave you
the bread from heaven but my Father gave the true bread
for the bread of God and listen to this is he
who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world
ultimately when we're praying for our daily bread yes it's about making sure
our provisions are met and it's about making sure we've got food on the table and
shelter over our heads
but more than that do we have enough of Jesus Christ for this day
you see what we want to ask for is the supply
but God is so gracious that we get the supplier
we get Jesus himself but also just like these Israelites if
if they were trying to count on things in the past for their daily bread it
wasn't going to work
so in other words if I get caught in this binder
and I'm not having a good relationship with the Lord I'm struggling I can't
rely on a prayer I said a month ago
I'm going to have to get that relationship Right today I can't
rely on Bible reading that I used to do but today
and if you're not putting yourself in a place of an Israelite
how's your appetite are you going towards Christ with your mouth wide open
ready to adjust all He has to offer and give you are you following somebody
offers faith
may be picking up a scrap of manna here along the way
we need to focus on a relationship with him today
in the present because God lives in the present he doesn't live in our past he
doesn't live in the future he lives right
now how are we doing asking God for daily
bread I'd like to go on
with this great prayer and I have purposely change the order of the rest
of the prayer and I hope that will become clear
just a few minutes I really felt like I was supposed to focus
on something that I started this message with this hard
thing that Jesus said so I had to put things out order just a bit
the next request in the prayer would be forgive us our debts but I'm going to go on
and in the outline it in order that I'm going through
so let's look at temptation a little bit lead us not
into temptation
lead us not into temptation lets look at it a couple of the scriptures
together
let no one say when he is tempted I'm 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
so well there are times when we might want to say well
So-in-so made me do this or actually I would have been okay but
my life has turned out this way because of them and they have done that if
they hadn't done that to me
we can get a victim mentality so easily
But what scripture tells us is no, it's something deep within the earth
that causes us to be drawn toward temptation
this next scripture from Proverbs this actually made me laugh a few years ago
when I saw it
because it was so much like my life
it says the person's own folly leads to the ruin yet their heart rages
against the Lord
I thought that's me how often especially when I was younger but even
today I get myself into this big mess I just want to say God
what are you doing
and God says what are you doing and
I want to blame him have you ever tried to pray yourself out of a situation you
sinned yourself into
I have and so the reality is a lot of times us giving in to temptation has
nothing to do with
God or anything at all it's just our own bad decisions but hopefully we
Get a little older we mature and we're making some better decisions
but still it's our own desire that tempts us and it's so important for us to
know that
to take responsibility and just go to God and saying I'm sorry
I blew it or to go to that family member and say that
that was my fault I'm sorry will you please
forgive me it's important that we take that responsibility
but this next verse is interesting because even though God doesn't tempt us
directly
there does seem to be a sense in which God will allow us
or maybe even lead us into a situation
where we might be tempted so let me read this and I'm going to try
to explain it a little more then Jesus was led up by the Spirit
with capital S so we know that we're talking about the Spirit of God the Holy
Spirit
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by
the devil and so even though God isn't directly tempting he's allowing
in some way even leading Jesus into the situation be tempted what what's going
on there
well it's interesting that if you translate
these terms sometimes they are translated the same
the word temptation and the word tested in the original
language can mean the same thing so there's a real sense that
that God is sometimes trying to stretch our faith
allowing us to go through tests to grow our faith
but Satan uses the same thing as a temptation to lure us
into tripping or into losing our faith
and so it's so important when we're going through things to be
Prayerful and to try to discern
okay what's happening here is a test that God is wanting me to endure
or is Satan trying to tempt me because because the thing itself might be
neutral
and one thing that helped me tremendously in this is something I
learned from a pastor years ago
is that when the Spirit of God is trying to help us or stretch our faith
or maybe even convicted of a sin we're not condemned
he condemns a specific habit Joel I notice you're doing this in your life
and I love you
and that's keeping you from being in a relationship for me you really need to
take a look at that you need to stop doing this thing
you need to get help with that thing that's the Holy Spirit it's a specific sin
our behavior
something they were doing that God wants us to get through he wants to test
and stretch our faith
if it's the enemy whose tempting us the book a Revelation talks about
the enemy basically stands there he accuses
brothers and sisters he condemns the whole person
he says Joel you're not even acting like a Christian no, you're
Just kind of a loser he condemns us he makes us
feel depressed and so or what I would say is when you've got a situation is
going on is it
if you feel like you're just condemned God is never going to do that
to you that's the enemy and sometimes it's important for us to look at that
and
that might seem a little complicated to be honest I'm kind of
wrestling through
but I think the importance of that lead us not into temptation
or maybe the first couple words rather than temptation
Lead us to something else let me be led by you in my life
so that I can conquer these things
and then this next phrase deliver us
from evil or some translations will say deliver us from the evil one
and a couple verses here put on the full armor of God that you may be able to
stand against the schemes of the devil
submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil
and he will flee from you
and again prayer is a great way for those battles
to take place and I've got here in your outline one way to remember this God
tests are Satan's temptations
and now we're going to go on to forgive us
forgive us our debts as we also forgive our
debtors and I want to start with the definition of forgiveness that has
really helped me over the years there there are a lot of good definitions this
one
I think it's just been easy for me to remember forgiveness is giving up
my right to hurt you for hurting me
forgiveness is giving up my right to hurt you
for hurting me and again I have really felt
that I need to spend a few more moments on this
this morning because sometimes
it's hard to forgive people
because they're done things that are truly wrong forgiveness isn't pretending
that
somebody didn't do something wrong or pretending that somebody didn't do
something unjust
people do nasty horrible things to us sometimes
and if we took a little time this morning I'm sure I could find that's true
In all of your lives
certainly been true in my life so what can happen is
we carry around this weight this burden because we're unwilling to forgive and
you can think of this as
the anchor of forgiveness this morning
and I think anchors a great example because when we're not willing to
forgive someone
it's sort of like harboring something
we harbor this resentments against another person
we replay what they've done over and over and over in our mind in this weight
is heavy to carry that this has got some weight
To it and I can't hold it for too long
and it's going to keep me from going where it is that I need
to go it's this anchor this weight but sometimes I'm unwilling
to give it up an interesting thing
that Jesus does and to be honest I just got some
I guess illumination on this
even this past Friday as I've just been thinking through this prayer over and over
and I think the Lord revealed this and I thought why it is prayer
does he say forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Then he gives a verse on temptation and then right after that he goes back to
forgiveness
why not cover the whole forgiveness part and then go to the next section
because he says right after He talks about temptation
for if you forgive those who trespass against us
your heavenly Father will forgive you and here's the shocking thing he says
but if you do not forgive those who trespass against us
your heavenly Father will not forgive
You, shocking
is that what he meant
so I've been looking into some different Bible commentaries you know what most
commentators do with that verse
skip it, I found that with a lot hard verses in scripture you're looking them up
to learn some more in a lot of the guys I don't know just skip that
that's
a bit too dangerous
but then if Jesus isn't being clear enough about forgiveness
several chapters later he's talking about this parable
and there is this master or this King
and master as a servant who owes him what we might consider to be millions of
dollars
in a common context and this king calls the servant and says pay up the servant says
I
don't have the money I can't pay you please don't throw me in jail I've got
a family to take care of
I'm going to work I'm going to do all I can I promise I am going to repay my debt
but I cannot repay it now could you please have mercy on me
and the master forgives him
completely he frees him is merciful and he says go on your way
and then this person leave the presence of this master in some time later they
run into
somebody they know that owes them a few dollars
And he goes and begins to strangle him He says pay up what you owe me right
now
and these people go back
to the master and say I don't know if you are aware of this but
you forgave that servant of yours who owed you millions of dollars
but when he left you he went and practically kill the guy who owed
him a few
dollar and courses masters is enraged and brings the servant back and
He says put him in jail and tortured him
here it's a shocking part again Jesus is still talking the very next verse
that toward the end up Matthew 18
he says this is exactly how your heavenly Father will treat you if you do
not forgive your brother
is Jesus serious about
our forgiving other people
and now we do have to be careful because it does seem clear in Scripture that
this is not talking about ultimate unforgiveness but when we come into
relationship with Jesus Christ
We're forgiven the way we understand that our sins past present and future
We're free the Bible says in Romans 8:1 there is no longer any condemnation for
anyone who is in Christ Jesus
so it seems that we're forgiven in that sense completely but at the same time
you cannot read the scriptures in plain language did not see that
Jesus is saying exactly what it looks like he saying that if we don't forgive
We're not forgiven
so does that mean that God just sort of shut out our prayers until we forgive
some people think that, doesn't mean that our relationship with God
and other people is ruined until that forgiveness takes place some people think that
but whatever it is
It's serious and how do we
how do we let go this anchor how can we
forgive can we try harder
are we just going to will ourselves to forgive that person
I think the reason that sometimes you and I may have trouble forgiving
is because we forget
about what happened in our own lives you see at one point
this anchor represented our own
sin in our lives in all these ways that we had rebelled
against God all these things that we had done wrong to other people
and maybe when we were younger in my case anyway I'll be honest
didn't bother me a bit I was looking for myself I didn't
care about any effect they had on other people but at some point
we realize I got this guilt which ought to be there because
I've done the things wrong I've got a shame I also have other people that have
Sinned against me I got
this anchor this you can imagine this chain I'm in this bondage what do I do
and we at some point you all have different stories but you
met Jesus Christ and whereas once he may have just been this person you'd
heard about in history
may be some type of a religious teacher you might have even heard of him doing
A miracle or two
but he became to you Lord and Savior
for now while you were still a sinner you were forgiven
I think what we think sometimes is that Jesus sort of comes
and takes this and pretends that nothing ever happened
their verses in scripture for example that say your sin is as far from the east
to the west there's another versus as God remembers your sins no more
Can a God who is all-knowing really forget
it's not as if God takes this big eraser and says I guess that didn't happen
what Jesus does He takes the anchor
any put on himself
he actually became sin for us and he went
and stood on the cross of in our place
and he went from being just this person in history to our Lord and Savior
and while all this was happening one more incredible thing was happening
this God
we didn't really know so this God was just here
faceless to us because we didn't know much about him
but maybe we knew he was righteous or a judge
And He has to be because God is holy like we talked about last week and you cannot
let our sins go unpunished but as soon as
we came into a relationship with Jesus and He took the weight of our sins took the
anchor of our sins upon himself on the cross
this righteous judge became a loving father
And embraced the sinner
and there's this transaction takes place that's just
amazing and I want to share with you just briefly before we close
a couple things one if that has really happen
how hard they're really for us to
put this down are you living
like you're forgiven
we need to go back that picture trying harder to forgive somebody isn't going
to work
looking at Jesus on the cross will
One more thing I want to share with you A couple weeks ago
our family went up to Canada my wife's grandmother
had died and he was 90 years old and had lived a wonderful life
all the grandkids were there our kids who have no first cousins for some
reason we're working on but
they have lots of second cousins and we got to meet family
and it really was a I was wonderful time in many ways
but we had to take a ferry to get there and anybody who's
gone to the BC lower mainland a lot of times take ferries to get from Port Angeles
to
Victoria and so forth and I was talking to a
family member there and she shared with me that he had been on the ferry
recently
and felt something different look long line she was walking on the ferry and
felt this
thug on her pant leg from this child
and turned around and the child was horrified realizing
this is not my parent and maybe some of you have had that happen
before
either as an adult or maybe you've been that child and you're tugging on somebody's
leg in the turnaround and say ahh
wouldn't be tragic if on the last day many of us thought we were tugging on
the
pant leg of God the Father and he turns around we realize we don't know Him
we only come in this relationship with God the Father through forgiveness and
his son
Jesus Christ and that's why I think Jesus emphasizes the importance of us
extending this
forgiven if to other people so even though there are other scriptures and
I'm not going to get him this morning there in your notes you can look at them later
they talk about
because Jesus has done this you must forgive
don't think I've must as a command you better do this
but more how could you not how could there be any other reasonable
response to how we've been forgiven
to extend that forgiveness to others
so if there's someone in your life I don't know who would be maybe a family member
some other relationship that's gone south for some reason you're still
harboring this
forgiveness just take a look at Jesus and what he's done
and put the anchor down for His glory
in
the series was called "so that" you see all these things
really do connect God would you give me my daily bread
so that I can help make you will known
on the earth and bring your kingdom
To earth, lead me not into temptation so that I can be a good witness
for you so that your will
will be done not only in my life but other people's lives and they're all
these connections with this prayer I just encourage you to look at
and I want to one more time Clark mentioned it too you but next Saturday
8:30 to 11 o'clock right over here in Geneva we're actually going to pray through
this prayer and get into more of what it means to really understand and I think
you'll be meaningful
if you want to come please let us know there's a blue answer to your bulletin
or you can sign up on I think I welcome an information table but
We are planning on having breakfast and we just don't want people to show up
in the not have enough food for you so please
consider that I think it will enhance your prayer life
let's go to our Father, Father thank you so much
thank you that your son Jesus
has done this amazing thing and being willing to forgive us
and adopt this into your family so that now we can call you
father thank you
that this prayer within your word
and I just ask that the people have been encouraged that people have
maybe had a new sense of the power of this
prayer that Jesus that you really do
what you're talking about by breaking this down and from request that could be
so helpful to us
and ask that if there's anybody here that having trouble forgiving, people do
sometimes do awful things it can be hard would you
help them would you nudge them, would you remind them how they were forgiven
so that they might extend that forgiveness to other so that they might
drop the anchor all this extra weight and live like they're truly
forgiven and we ask it this morning in Christ's
mighty name Amen.