How True Prayers Make a Difference: Part III Matthew 6:5-15

The Lord’s Prayer as a Model for Communicating to God

This morning we are going to look at part three of this three-part sermon on the Lord's Prayer. What the sermon is calling us to do is to follow our Lord to know how to communicate to God properly. This is our big idea in this sermon.

If we are honest we have a hard time praying and So we are blessed that Jesus is teaching us how to pray. The Lord's Prayer is a sample or model prayer that Jesus gives. So generally speaking our prayers Should be something like how Jesus prays here in the section He has taught us how not to pray and how to pray.

To recap let's first look At what we learned about how not to pray. We saw this two Sundays ago. What we learned is that we are not to pray to be seen by others. This is what the Jewish false teachers did they wanted the praise of humans.

They wanted everyone to see how spiritual they were. May we not fall into the same trap. Jesus also warned against mindless prayers of repetition. These are ritualistic prayers where we don't really know what we are saying.

But somehow the words that come out of our mouth are supposed to work and bring blessing upon us. But in reality this way of praying is damaging. The Lord desires for us to sincerely offer our prayers to him.

Our minds should be fully engaged as we pray. He is not pleased with thoughtless prayers of repetition. Now Jesus moves from these two warnings about how not to pray to give us six examples of Petitions that we should bring before God.

This is where Jesus tells us how to pray. But before he gets to the petitions Jesus tells us that most of our prayers Should be to the Father. We can pray to the Son and by implication we can pray to the Holy Spirit.

But the most common way that we should pray is to our Father. Last Sunday, I said that it's like a child crying out to their earthly father in time of need. This is built off of the intimacy that a child has with his or her father.

What we know from our experience in life is.

That.

Our we cry out to our father in times of need. But we also go to our father for intimacy for that sweet fellowship. And we do the same With the Lord as well. We go to him for intimacy to have that sweet fellowship with him.

We also go to him in times of.

Need.

After teaching us to whom address our prayers to Jesus jumps into the six sample petitions That we should bring before the Father. We looked at the first three of these last Sunday. The first petition Jesus gives is that we are to pray for the Lord's name to be honored on earth.

We are to pray that we honor his name and pray that others honor his name. Only he is worthy of worship and may we pray this way. And may we pray also that others treat him with the reverence and honor that he deserves.

The second petition Jesus gives is to pray for people to live as Kingdom citizens on earth. What we learned here is that Jesus is calling us to live as kingdom citizens now in our life. The kingdom is not here yet.

But those who are transformed by the gospel can live as kingdom citizens right now. We are to pray that we do that other Christians do and that the world does by Following their need of Jesus Christ now and following him.

We also saw last Sunday the third petition that Jesus gives. We're to pray for God's will to be done on earth. What we saw last week is there are two Understandings of God's will. The first is that everything happens according to his decree.

Ephesians 111 says everything happens according to the counsel of his will. This means that there are no random Events. The Lord writes the story that he wants to write for all of world history including your story all of world history.

Weaves together into this master work of art and obviously from a human perspective. We're thinking things seem confusing and yet all of it is this one masterpiece of art that God Has made. Another understanding of God's will is God's holy will.

These are the commands that he gives like the Ten Commandments. For example, we are to pray that we and those in the world submit to God's will of command. God uses our prayers to help produce the triumphs of world history.

Think about that. This is incredible to ponder. This is a great mystery indeed. God is fully sovereign and we make our own voluntary choices. This includes prayer as we pray this loot. This leads people to follow his holy will as the Lord answers these prayers.

Prayer is the fuel that transforms our lives and the lives of many on earth. So if you ever think should I pray? Yes, you should pray. Think of the difference that it makes in the big picture all who Follow his holy will on earth will reign with him forever.

This is God's great plan and we contribute to this plan through prayer. This leads us to the last three petitions that Jesus teaches us in verses 11 through 15. And this is where the focus of today's sermon is going to be.

The first three petitions were focused on God and his work kind of the big picture. The next three petitions that we're going to see today are more than we're on the ground level. They're more what they're more our daily weekly yearly experience.

And so I look forward to looking at that with you as I so this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 6. We'll be looking at verses 11 through 15. If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on paper.

Page 9 64. This sermon is once again titled How true prayers make a difference and this is part three. And as I said above this sermon is calling us to follow our lord to know how to communicate to God.

Properly.

Daily Bread and God’s Provision

And the fourth example that Jesus gives is this. We pray for the physical necessities of life. So as we jump into these three petitions, let's begin by let's let's read these Five verses verses 11 through 15 and then we will we will dig in to these.

Jesus says he pray he teaches us how to pray. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts. As we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive? your trespasses. So we're gonna begin by zeroing in on verse 11 as I mentioned the fourth Example that Jesus gives is how about how to pray is To pray for the physical necessities of life.

So Jesus says here give us This day our daily bread. One thing we must realize as we go through our life is that the lord provides all of our needs. As we look at this prayer, we might be tempted to think that it is silly to pray for our daily bread.

When our fridge is full. And our pantry is full of food. But that's not how we should be thinking as we pray this. Rather we should be thanking the lord for his past and present provision. But we also must be praying for the future.

Who's to say? That a year down the road we will have food. Maybe a crisis will hit our life. Maybe everything that we have will be taken away. We need to pray for that future provision. You may have a footnote in your bible that shows a different reading of this.

The alternate reading is give us our bread for tomorrow. This may be the correct reading. But either way we are to be thankful for the past and present provision and looking ahead to the future by praying for the lord to provide for us.

We don't know what the future holds. We may face financial hardship. But as his children we can have confidence that the lord will always provide for us. About a year ago, we wrapped up our sermon series on genesis.

We went through the story of joseph toward the end of that sermon series in chapters 37 through 50. And one of the major storylines in that narrative is that there is a famine. What we saw is the lord gave joseph wisdom to feed all the people.

This included feeding joseph's brothers and his father during this famine. They did not starve but the lord provided for them. Now it is true That people in the world die from starvation including followers of christ in those cases.

Where some believers die? The lord is taking care of them too because he because he safely takes them to heaven to be with him when they die. But generally speaking the lord always provides food and drink for his people in this world.

Let me show you this from scripture in psalm 37 3 king david wrote trust in the lord and do good dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Then in verse 25 of that same psalm. He says I have been young and now I am old.

Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. So as we see here, the lord will take care of you. He will provide your daily bread. As long as he wants you to live he will provide for you and this not only Includes food and drink but also clothing shelter.

And and whatever we need to get through life. And you have experienced the lord's goodness and taking care of you. And we must acknowledge that and say thank you lord for providing for me my daily bread and all of my needs as american christians.

If we're honest, we do not feel the urgent need of this prayer and that's because We have an abundance. Think about how Wealthy we are compared to most of the world through brian stout our missionary who by the way, he He's he's a macedonian missionary.

He was now a transfer into croatia. But brian stout through him. I've made some friendships with some people in macedonia. Macedonia is the poorest country in europe. They people there live on five thousand dollars a year.

And a lot of them don't own their own homes because they can't afford it. So what they do is they pass the home down from one generation? To the next now one of the friends I made there. He doesn't have much money.

But he told me of a story one time he needed five hundred dollars To make a payment and he didn't have any money. And he prayed he's like lord. I don't know how you're gonna do this, but I know That you are going to take care of this.

One of his friends sent him a check in the mail. Saying I was thinking of you and I wanted to bless you with this. The check was five hundred dollars the exact amount that he needed. It goes to show right the lord knows the needs of his people and he will provide.

He provides for his people when they pray this friend of mine and my parents know him igor. He he prayed. And the lord answered. We can think of his provision individually, but we can also think of this as a church.

Think about how the lord has abundantly blessed our church. What a blessing it is to have the madsen building which is just about done. We were able to enjoy that Together last week and all the ways that he's provided for us.

I think about covet 19.

Lots of.

People and businesses are struggling financially. And the lord has sustained our church through this and we're so grateful for that. And we should say lord. Thank you for your provision. So as we think about our lives the apostle paul wrote this.

He's in philippians 4 19. He said. And my god Who will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in christ? Jesus. And and we have experienced that and we need and this is not something we should just assume is going to be there.

The lord wants us to pray for provision and so we must pray for our daily bread. So we must follow our lord to know how to communicate to god properly. And the sixth example. That jesus gives us is to pray for the physical necessities of life.

The seventh example. Remember there's eight of these. The seventh example that jesus gives us.

Is.

To pray for forgiveness across the board. Okay pray for forgiveness.

Across.

The board verse 12. This is what jesus prays he says and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven.

Our debtors.

Okay, so he just talked about physical needs now. He's moving to the spiritual side of things. We know what jesus has in mind.

Here.

Because Jesus talks about this in a different place because as we read this we might be thinking is he talking about Financial debt or is he talking about? spiritual debt. In a similar conversation. It was a different different event not the sermon on the mount.

But in a similar conversation that jesus had with with his disciples in luke chapter 11 Jesus told them this. When they asked him how to pray he said forgive us our sins. For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

So what jesus makes clear here is that debt refers to sins? Not financial here, but to sins and we are to pray for this. Now as we think about this the first time we prayed for our sinful debt to be forgiven was when we came to faith in jesus christ, this is conversion the first time.

That you believed.

And if you have a relationship with christ your enormous debt against god has been wiped away.

Completely.

If you think of all the sins you've ever committed it would be it would be a long.

List.

I heard a pastor say one time that if I wrote down every one of my sins on a piece of paper and attached each piece of paper It'd probably go to osceola. I mean think about how much.

Debt.

How many sins we commit. We commit every day against god. And what jesus did the cross is he completely?

Paid.

That debt.

So when you come to faith in christ your past present and future sins are forgiven which is the best news in the world. But the lord still calls us as we go through the christian life to ask for forgiveness.

And this is what he's telling believers here the apostle john Said something about this here in first john 1 9. This is a famous verse if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So the christian life is one of continual Confession continual repentance. And I think when people think in our culture think of confession they think of someone going to the priest. Telling them their sins.

And then thinking okay. I'm good. I can go sin again, right? That's not what the bible is talking about. The bible is saying we confess our sins and we never want to commit those sins again. All right, there won't be perfection but our aim is never to sin again in that way.

So there needs to be this deep sorrow for sin saying lord. Is march saying that I don't want to be on that train, right? We're flirting with the train when we sin the black train. We need to follow the straight path that god has called us to.

One of my professors in seminary said. The forgiveness that happens at conversion is the bath. Okay, the big water that's poured over you. Well, the continual forgiveness throughout the christian life is like the washing of feet.

This is the point of jesus. Demonstration in john 13 when he washes his disciples feet. They've been forgiven the bath. But this continual washing of the feet needs to take place as you go through the christian life.

So jesus tells us here. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Okay, so forgive us our sins as we also have forgiven the sins of others. This is the normal christian life a life of repentance.

A life of sorrow for sin and a strong desire to turn from it. And when this happens. You will you will see spiritual growth if you feel horrible about your sin today be encouraged. That's a sign that the spirit is working in your life.

And what god's going to do with that is he's going to grow you over time. You just need to follow his way and not the path of sin. We not only need to pray for our sins to be forgiven but also the sins of others as jesus has here.

He says we need to forgive the debts of others. And this is very important to jesus. We know how important it is to him. Because once he stops giving the sample prayer at the end of verse 13. What he does is he emphasizes this part of the prayer.

Okay of all the things he emphasizes in this prayer. This is the part that he emphasizes in verses 14 and 15. He writes or he says. If you forgive others their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses. Neither will your father forgive your trespasses. We should tremble When we read that. Because we know how easy it is to hold on to bitterness to hold on to Grudges to hold on to resentment toward other people.

One mark of an unbeliever. Is a person who does not forgive. Who refuses to forgive others for the wrongs that they have done to you?

However.

Even believers Sometimes fail to forgive the way that we should. When a believer does this it does not mean you are not saved. But it does mean the lord may discipline you if you refuse to forgive. The lord does this to the one he loves.

Hebrews 12 says that he disciplines the one he loves. Whatever sin it may be that a believer continues in without repenting. That the lord disciplines the believer for that and that sin may be what he's addressing right here.

And that sin is the sin of withholding forgiveness from others when god Has forgiven the enormous debt that you have sinned against him And forgiven you of in christ. And this is this is the point of the parable Of the unforgiving servant that jesus gives in matthew chapter 18 verses 23 through 35 in this parable.

There's a servant Of a master who was forgiven an enormous debt. And yet he refused to forgive a much smaller debt of one of his servants. And when the master The one who forgave this massive debt to this servant when he heard that he wouldn't forgive someone.

The debt that was below him. The master throws this servant in jail. This parable is addressing the believer who refuses to forgive and therefore faces god's discipline right. Every every father every mother Disciplines their children every good father mother disciplines their children and god who is the most good the standard of goodness.

He of course is going to discipline his children when we veer off the path when we say lord I can't forgive this person because of the wrong that he did to me or the wrong that she did to me. And god is saying look at this verse right here.

If you do not forgive the trespasses of others Then i'm going to discipline you. And if this is a pattern in your life, it probably means that you're not saved. Because the holy spirit won't let you stay there he's going to bring that conviction in your life.

And the discipline continues for the believer until the sin is dealt with. And once you forgive You will be released from the lord's discipline. And you might say well, what is the discipline? Well, it could be a lot of things you can bring some kind of hardship in your life saying I'm sending you a message to say you need.

To deal with this.

We want to be living under the lord's blessing and not his discipline. So anyone we are tempted to hold a grudge against we are to forgive. One of the most effective ways We can fight bitterness in our heart because this this is a struggle that we face Is to pray for the one Whom we have bitterness toward.

I mean think of that person right now in your life. There's someone in your life right now He might say i'm tempted to not want to forgive this person. And what jesus says in mark chapter 11 verse 25.

He says whenever you stand praying forgive If you have anything against anyone so that your father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. This is so helpful. You may be tempted lord. I just want to think a bad thought about this person.

I want to think about bad things Happening to this person. And when you're tempted to think that way Pray for the well-being of that person. It'll it'll take away.

That bitterness.

In your heart. Several months back. I was hurt by a friend. And I found this tremendously helpful. Uh to pray mark 11 25. And say lord i'm gonna pray for this person and I tell you what I don't hold any bitterness toward this person and how freeing that is.

When we are tempted to withhold forgiveness from someone We need to remember the tremendous debt that we carried before god before we came to faith in christ. But what jesus did at the cross is so wonderful.

The apostle paul says this in colossians 2 13 and 14. He says you who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him. Having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us With its legal demands.

This he set aside. Nailing it to the cross.

Amen.

Can I hear an amen? There we go. It's funny my old youth pastor came to one of our services and he's from the south. And some of you maybe remember this was like three years ago, and I was preaching and also he just started yelling amen.

And I was like, we don't do that in eureka. Why not? So you have the freedom to do that. So as we remember what christ did it will help us forgive. We are able to do this through god's spirit working within us.

To hold bitterness over the long haul. It's a horrible way to live. Bitter people are not happy people. You know this. To hope to not hold something against the one is a beautiful thing and god is pleased.

May this be the pattern of our lives. This life of personal repentance and forgiveness of others. That's the pattern That god calls us to so we are to follow our lord to know how to communicate to god properly.

And the seventh example That jesus gives is to pray for forgiveness across the board for your own sins. And for those who have sinned against you. Okay. Now we now we have arrived at the eighth example that jesus gives and this is the final example that jesus gives and that is pray to not enter dangerous Territory.

Okay. This one's very interesting. I you maybe you've wondered what in the world does this mean in the lord's prayer? We're going to look at that right now verse 13 jesus prays. He tells us to pray this way and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

Now this raises a question here as we look at this verse. As we look at the first half of verse 13 Is god able to lead us into temptation?

Isn't that satan's?

Job, is it he the tempter? Is not god? 100 holy and unable to do anything evil. Yes, that's right. And we must affirm that God is only able to do good. And what james 1 13 says is that god is not able to tempt anyone to sin.

And so we must Affirm that god is never the author of sin. He never tempts anyone to sin. But why would we pray for him not to lead us into temptation? Well, it's helpful here to know the greek word that is used here.

The greek word can be translated either temptation.

Or.

Trial. In other words We are to pray. That we are not led into trials where we are more likely to sin. Hence this is why in the second half of the verse The prayer to be delivered from evil is made. It's interesting here some of the some of your uh, your bible versions.

We're using the esv here. But some of your bible versions might say the evil one. And it doesn't really matter if it's evil one or evil because what what it's telling us is to be delivered from sin. And of course satan is always there wanting to tempt us.

And our sinful nature Likes to give in to temptation. So so whatever we're talking about here It's talking about this desire that we have to go away from god and satan is glad to tempt us to lead us to that place.

As one author interpreted Jesus is telling us to pray that all of us be spared from difficult circumstances. That would tempt us.

To sin.

And.

The lord uses trials for our good. The bible is clear on this. Romans 8 28 says that. And we know that for those who love god All things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose He does sometimes lead us down difficult paths in order to test us.

And what first peter chapter 1? verses 6 and 7 Tells us is this. Peter wrote. For a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials So that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes Though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of jesus christ.

So all of your trials as a follower of christ Are meant for your good. When a trial comes upon.

One.

You find out much about a person's character. It's easy to be a kind And loving person When everything is going well. But what about when hardships come? Will this lead you to question god will this lead you to seek comfort in sin.

When one's faith is shown in trials. The lord led job Into an enormous trial. Mike and I are just started this book. And for a time god let satan wreak havoc on job his family and his possessions. But job's story ended well.

And trials in the big picture for all believers do end good. God has a design in them and he grows us through them. And we might not know exactly what he's doing. But we do know that somehow this is going to be for my good.

Somehow this is going to be for the good of the believers around me. And even in the big picture somehow this is gonna this contributes to god's master story in world history. It's remarkable to think about all of that.

He's got a design. And as we think about this though what jesus is telling us though is that it's foolish to pray for hardships. And jesus tells us here not to pray for them. Not to be not to pray for those situations where we might fall into sin And and be turned from his path.

But in his timing he will bring them and when they come as difficult as it is. And we take a big gulp as we are Beginning to go through a trial. We should count it all joy. As as james 1 2 says count it all joy my brothers when you face trials of various kinds.

But we should pray to be kept from trials and and and specifically. From the strong desire that our sinful flesh to lead us into sin. And the temptation of the devil to lead us Into sin because satan is there to harass us.

When we are in difficult times He's he wants to say, you know what god doesn't really love you if he loved you so much He wouldn't put you through this. That's what he's there to tell you. But don't listen to him.

He said you know what? You know what's going to help you during this trial. Why don't you go do this? This is going to make you feel good. And really it's the path of destruction. And sometimes satan starts the trial as in the case of joe.

Where god lets satan start the trial, but sometimes? Satan adds To the difficult circumstances that we are already in. As he did with peter. When peter denied jesus three times, you know what satan wanted to do?

He tried to swift peter like wheat. And what jesus told peter is that I prayed that your faith might not fail so peter was in a vulnerable position. Satan was there to pounce first. Peter 5 8 says that satan prowls around like a roaring lion.

Seeking someone to devour. But because peter belonged to jesus Jesus prayed for him that his faith would not fail and it didn't fail. Look at the life of peter. He was martyred for christ his story entered ended in triumph.

And so will yours As the lord sustains you as we turn to him in times of trial. Over the last several months our country and world has been hit by a trial the cold the coven 19 Pandemic and everyone has been impacted in some way some more than others.

It we had to miss church for two weeks, I mean two months because of this. This is a trial. That none of us wanted It's not something that we would ever prayed for.

However.

We have all taken a big gulp. We've been tempted to sin in different ways through this. But as we trust the lord He he has guided us through it. And you can think of this individually you can think of this as a church.

The lord planned the covet 19 would occur for the good of his people. And as we go through this with him May we not waste this trial because we're still.

In this.

Experience. May we not waste this trial in sin, but rather grow and become better followers of christ.

Through this.

I was thinking this week that As we stay the course Doing what we are supposed to be doing through this covet experience We will come out of this as better followers of christ. This could be months and months from now when this is over but my prayer is that as a whole our church Will come out of this as strong believers.

You know as your pastor, I and I want to be with you guys for a long time. I have no plans I'm going anywhere else. I love it here. Uh went for a bike ride last night. I'm thinking This is such a beautiful place and I love all of you.

And I just and I want to go on this journey with you and i'm thinking like this could be a watershed moment in the life of our church. One thing i've told mark and others is I want to I want to have a church full of navy seals.

You know people who through thick and thin stand for christ. That we're not. We're not just here to get our religion for the week. We're not here to be entertained, but we're here to live for christ every single day.

And every sunday is the is the crying call.

For that.

And my prayer is that as we come through covet, we're going to come out of this strong.

And we're gonna.

And and we're gonna have an influence on this community like nothing. They haven't seen in years and years. And our own lives are gonna be Vibrant and strong for him. So this is my prayer and i'm already seeing this happen.

And so let's just stay the course.

In this.

So jesus tells us here that we should not pray to enter This dangerous territory, but I remind you that when it comes and it has come All of god's people in this room. He will bear you up and he will strengthen you.

And we can praise the lord for that.

The Purpose and Limits of Trials

Now.

What this three-week sermon has called us to do is to follow our lord to know how to communicate to god properly. Jesus has taught us to pray. And we have seen eight examples that jesus has given us.

As to.

These lessons and prayer. And let me read these to you here to summarize This this three-part sermon. As we pray we must follow this pattern in some way. Generally following him here. Do not pray to be seen by others.