last year walking through chapter five, we walked through the beatitudes, the antithesis of you've heard it said this and continue on and now we're going through six and seven and we looked at these different things and as we are continuing looking at it, let me give you a recap of just overall so you guys understand where we're at. So chapter five was the beatitudes. We looked at what it looks like, hashtag blessed life, what it means to live a life that is flourishing and we learned about the characteristics of what it means to be a follower of Christ. We looked at those beatitudes then we continued on through those the through the sayings of you've heard it said this but I tell you this and you look at those and you kind of like Jesus only seemed like he was contradicting himself like saying this isn't true but what Jesus is actually showing was that it was a hard issue that there was more to it than just what the law was saying that there was a hard issue behind it and so then we two weeks ago right yes two weeks ago when we met it on tiles we walked through first part of chapter six we walked through three different sections of giving praying and fasting and we looked at how Jesus talked about it and he said don't be like these people but be like this and again it's a bigger and he's still going along with this hurt issue and now tonight we're looking at that section of passage in Matthew 6 that John had alluded to but didn't hit on and it seems like this random tangent that you just went on in Matthew you're like you're going through all this and I'm like okay time to pray and then he continues on but you look at it and you realize now like it was a purposeful inclusion that Jesus is doing in the sermon that he's giving because he wants him to understand the power that prayer has and how important prayer is to us and so but before we jump in let me just pray for us and we'll jump straight into the text during the Father we just thank you for this time we thank you this opportunity just to open up your word may you just speak through me tonight may these words be your words and not mine and may we just our hearts and our eyes and our mind be open to what it is that you want to teach us tonight and we just pray these things only in your name amen so if you have your Bibles or you want to look at the screen we're gonna be reading the same passages that we read two weeks ago and from 5 to 14 but we're only gonna focus on a little bit of it so certain verse 5 it says when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites but they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corner that they may be seen by others truly I say to you they have received their reward but when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father in secret or who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you and when you pray do not keep up empty phrases as a Gentiles you for they think that they will be heard for their many words do not be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask him and this is where we're getting into the me of the text it says verse 9 it says this pray then like this our Father and heaven how it will 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 forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil verse 14 it says for if you forgive others their trust passes your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others their trust passes neither will your Father forgive your trust passes you look at that and you go okay I'm a little bit confused of how this is a hard issue and what Jesus is showing is he's saying it's the attitude about what you go into prayer I know this prayer by heart because I grew up in the Catholic church this is hear me I want you to say this is not a knock on the Catholic church but going to confessional going to say yeah this is how I've said and the priest goes okay you have X number of our fathers to say X number of Hail Mary's to say and I don't even remember the third one and you have this and great you're forgiven and it's like so that's all I have to do is pray these things and I forget so great me being like crazy Ram Wonchus kid I was like great I'll pray this I'm done like I don't have to worry about it and so I just became rudimentary from it just became a robot I didn't understand what was what I was saying and it and it was my attitude and my heart was not right but what Jesus is saying in this and showing us is that our prayer this prayer though it's simple but powerful he's not giving us a cookie card of prayer so it is simple right but what's more powerful about it is that he's actually showing us that our prayers are active worship to God and so there's we have to have a right mindset and a right heart going into it and so this is our main point tonight it says that even though he's giving us a template of what prayers look like that he's giving us a template that pray of how to pray the honors and worships God through adoration and seeking God's will and provision so let's break those down adoration it's the act of understanding whose presence you are in right seeking God's will it's wanting God's redemptive purposes to advance in our world and lastly the God's provision what we are asking God for in our lives is provided by him so this is our first point tonight is this it's going along that adoration aspect it's this who are you praying to we see this in verse 9 it says our Father in heaven hallowed be your name different translations say differently our Father who are in heaven hallowed be like there's different way but that's the essence of what he's saying so you look at this and you're like hold on timeout didn't he just say like don't just throw up empty words that seem like to make you sound oh wise and powerful John alluded to it and sermon a few weeks ago he had someone that like their prayer voice completely changed not I could easily just say it's Jesus Jesus does what he wants because he's Jesus but it's not it's an extremely cool inclusion that Jesus is doing here including our Father at that point in time you look at Old Testament prayers never once was ever muttered father it was always Lord God God Almighty Yahweh it was something of that accord this is the first time you see it as Father because Jesus is showing us something amazing about God's character right here he's showing us that though he has got almighty he has a desire to have a relationship with us have a loving relationship with us just as a father does with his children and yet he also wants us to make sure that yes he is your father but he also wants you understand he isn't heaven he's not neglecting who got truly it because I'm sure at that time looking at it the Pharisees are probably like oh I'm gonna stone you like why are you saying our father like he's not like he's God like he's almighty because you think about it we don't understand it because it's so far from us but if you've ever watched may have watched the royal wedding or you may have seen the Olympics years ago when it was in England but you ever noticed when a king or a queen walked in and how the room just changes I mean the military has a little understanding of it when a higher ranking officer or the president walks in and everyone stands at attention and like it the room changes and you look at it you're like okay in that time and age royalty was a powerful thing you didn't just walk into the room and go oh what's up dude I got it no like there was respect you understood whose presence you were in and it changed it and so Jesus is saying that our father someone who loves us dearly but isn't heaven who is our king in heaven kind of flipping it on the on edge of what they were used to how would be your name what he's saying is look you start your prayer out don't go straight for God I need this this and this now you're missing the point you need to understand who you're going before because it sets the tone for the rest of the prayer and so understanding that we have a father bigger their father in heaven who loves us dearly but it's also royalty and is Lord over us it causes us to be mindful of how we're going into the prayer it changes our attitude it changes our mind you don't go before a king and to say hey King wasabi like I need this and this and this I don't go before president Trump or any of the president's hey Donnie like can you do this or like no it's like Mr.
President or your majesty it's the way you approach it changes and so that's why he's letting you know this with the awesome part about knowing that it's a father a great example of this look at the prodigal son you want to understand the love that God has for us and the ability for us to approach him in that manner look at the product of son good spent everything and it's like all right I go back to dad like I got a secret goodness and is working out this thing in his head and goes I got I've sin against my father I've sinned against you that like he's working this Jesus father and says dad I've sinned against you and it's that just like okay and just embraces him and you're like what in the world but that's what we get to do that's how we get to approach God and so Jesus is saying this is how you approach it in prayer but you also have to be respectful of it I have a great relationship with my father I joke around with him I make fun of him for being old I say how was Jesus in third grade like there's drugs like that but reality when it comes down to it I respect my father I submit to his authority because that's the authority figure that's over me does it change how I approach him no but when I have to ask him for something I do it in a respectful manner because of the position that he is over me but I can do it boldly because I know that my father loves me and he cares for me and he wants what's best for me and so as we continue through this and see that when we first start when our prayer in our prayer life that we go before God in a way that is loving and honoring of him it changes our the tone of the prayer but not only does it change the tone of the prayer it changes how you pray right and so continuing with the adoration because once you're told the tone of the prayer set you're understanding who God is oh sorry I told you before I move on how would be your name what he's saying there is that your name be holy right not may you be holy because God's already holy but you may you be treated as holy I don't I'm fully sorry for missing on that but I want you to understand that he is saying like that's who got it got his holy he's gonna be treated as holy and so knowing you have a father we're gonna it's setting the tone we move on to the next section in the next part and it's this it's how are we praying for God to ban and you're like wait hold on when do I pray for me like when do I get to meet and that's what Jesus trying to get us to understand is you set that tone you set the tone of like knowing whose presence you are in but understanding who God is as you get to learn God's character and understand who he is you begin to see things a lot different you understand that yes God cares about you but he has a bigger purpose at play he wants all of us to experience and be in a relationship with him whether you're good better and different he wants to be in a relationship with you and that goes above and beyond anything we can ask for and so part of this showing adoration and honoring God comes from verse 10 it's a continuation of verse 9 as well how would be your name your kingdom come your will be done and what he's saying is it's this that it's your name not my name your will not my will and your kingdom not my kingdom it is again Christ showing us that hey there's something bigger at play that you get to be a part of because this will show so I'll stand up and do this so it says here your name this make sure I get this right yeah so your name is understanding who God is we are praying that we get the opportunity for people to understand who he is that we get the opportunity to help people about that your kingdom what is it it's the church it's God that they get to experience God so not only do they get to experience the king the matter see but they get to understand God as father because unfortunately there are a lot of people in the same age they don't have a great relationship with their parents they may be missing a father they may miss missing a mother but in getting to experience God they get to see a greater and more perfect picture of who a mother is or who a father is through God and lastly your will your will be done it is his redemptive purpose it's his redemptive plan that going into the world what Jesus is doing going forth and succeeding and so as we pray as you pray you get this opportunity to sit and go alright God I get your king I get your who you are I understand your character how can I be a part of what you're doing use me as your vessel to move your kingdom forward to move your plan forward and it's not just lifting these things up and going alright guys like you think we're gonna win it somehow but it's actively seeking God out going I got provide opportunities this week for me to have these gospel conversations with people it's that redemptive gospel present or perspective that Christ has wherever he went always ensure the gospel was preached we'll get everyone he interacts with it somehow someway he got the gospel in yes it is you as I get that we all get to do that same thing too again goes back to our prayer attitude how are we approaching it are we going it's about me me me or is it he got you know we look at it Isaiah yeah idea when he's getting commissioned and God goes who shall I send I go send me I'll go that's the prayer that we should be praying God asking who am I gonna send we all really know he's gonna send us as his Bible but he's waiting for our response because the willingness of us to let go of our will our name our kingdom for his changes the whole dynamics because it it we are submitting to who God is right and what it's it blew my mind is I was reading through this and I'm talking through this with John that we actually see this of your kingdom from your will be done on earth as it is in heaven play out in Luke 4 another one of the gospels Jesus opens up the scroll of Isaiah right and says this and the scroll of the prophet I say was given to him he unrolled the scroll found the place where it was written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor he sent me to proclaim the liberties to the captives and recovering of psych to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor right so we have your name your kingdom and your will proclaim the good news to the poor right that's a good news if it's for them to keep them this is a dimp to blame right it's his will he sent me to proclaim the liberties to the captains and recovering of the side to the blind and just a liberty to those who are oppressed they're experience in God. Yes, at this time in Isaiah, they were held captive, but they were understanding the freedom that they were getting was coming from God. The same thing we got to experience when we entered the relationship with God. We experienced all of this.
So we're claiming the year of the Lord's favor. In Isaiah at this time in Old Testament, there was always a year of Jubilee, a year of blessing. And in that time of blessing, they got to know who God was. They got to see God and they got to experience Him.
And so you see how it all culminates to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And it's all of this encapsulated in Jesus saying, May your kingdom come, may your will be done through your name, not my name. And then he continues after all of this pointing back to God, he goes, all right, now let's get into the me side. But he said, it doesn't in a unique way that truly just, as you see it, you'll understand how powerful it is.
And this is our last point for tonight. It says, How are we praying for God's provision? And this comes from verses 11, 12, and 13, 14 and 15 are caveat for verse 12. So we're going to freeze it all together and give us our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Or 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. You're like, okay, I'm confused. How does this work out to like what I'm praying for for myself?
Give us our daily bread. Keep pointing back to those who he's speaking to who are a Jewish background for them. They understand that Moses, Israel heading out into the desert. Guess what they get?
They get manna from heaven every day. Little pieces of bread. I have no idea what they look like. There's the jokes like, Oh, it's like this or that.
Some people say it's jiculae, whatever. But this for them relying on God, they had to rely on God daily supervision. And even more so, they didn't have the wealth and the opportunity for for self security that we do. They didn't have opportunity to be like, Well, we got enough money for today, like we can do this and this and this and this again, but join my car.
Like they didn't. It was literally like, I have five cents. What can I get for five cents? That I mean, it truly was they were what they worked was what they had to support themselves for them for that day.
And so they're truly relying on God for what they physical needs. But this is also goes into spiritual. Give us this our daily bread. We constantly need to be in daily connection with God.
You don't have a relationship with someone if you're not daily connected to them. Ask anyone who is married or dating or in a serious relationship. If they tell you that they have not talked to their first significant other for like five months and they have a thriving relationship, I will slap that to you that they're lying because it does not work. It's not possible.
And saying this to you with God, we have to be in connection with God. We can't grow in our faith if we're not praying, if we're not studying our work. We don't we can't grow in that. Right?
Forgive us our debts as we've forgiven our debtors. Frick, it's not talking about money. Your debt is sin. Debtors are those who have sinned against you.
Right? And you look at that and go forgive us our debts. Forgive us our sins. But I thought we are already forgiven of our sins when we accept the Christ.
We are. But it is a once and for all. But also remember you constantly sin daily. You have to be God's forgiveness for that so that you can continue to grow and be mindful and be conscious of what's causing you to sin.
So you can basically set up concrete barriers and just say, Nope, going this way and not dealing with that anymore. If you're not seeking that, if you're not understanding that you're sinning daily and seeking forgiveness for that, it's going to hinder your growth. It's going to hinder your opportunity to be who God has told you to be. And one of those things, this is why 14 and 15 plays into this because this is and we also have forgiven those who have sinned against us.
I guarantee you all of us have had someone sin against us. They've lied against, lied to us for a parent, kid might have backed talk to you, given you attitude, whatever it might be. Someone somehow has sinned against you. They're not going to seek out your forgiveness.
But we have the opportunity to forgive them. And here, forgiveness is not easy. It is rather hard. It's difficult.
Look at the cross. Look what it took for God to forgive us of our sins. It took the death of Christ. So if that doesn't tell you something, then so I'm just telling you, it's going to be hard work.
It's going to be difficult. But it's a daily conscious decision to forgive others. Because when you forgive others, you understand who God is. You understand the character of God and you understand the forgiveness of God.
Can you see that in verse 15, it says, but if you do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your father forgive you of your trespasses. Hold on. So if I don't forgive others, God doesn't forgive me. No.
What I'm saying is if you aren't forgiving others, you aren't understanding the forgiveness that God has given you. Look at the parable of the death in the gospels. And there's a few different ones. But all of them culminate with this.
Big debt, God please for mercy. Please don't make me pay for this debt. And God goes, all right, great. You're forgiven.
Don't worry about it. Goes out to the little debt. The person goes out to someone who owes him a little debt, a penny, compares to his billions of dollars. And says, you owe me this penny.
And if you can't pay, you're going to jail. And it's just like, whoa, time out. That's what he's trying to get at. It's that misconnection of that peanut butter and jelly of forgiveness.
We are forgiven. So we are called to forgive others. Right. And so that's why he's helping us understand.
And then the last one, temptation. This one I found most intriguing. Because we're in what chapter? Chapter six, right?
Look over to chapter four in Matthew. What's going on? Jesus is in the wilderness being tempted. And so you look, this is legitimately two chapters after he was just tempted by devil.
And he says, lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Temptation in the Bible can have two meanings. It's the temptation of like, here's this in. You want this candy bar?
Like you want it? You want it? Like, you sure? I know you're on your diet.
Like, but then there's also temptation of testing. You're going to go through a testing. You're going to go through a challenge. And you look at that and go, lead us not in temptation.
But James said, like, consider it pure joy that we go through these times and trials and testing. Like, what Jesus is telling us not to pray. No, what he's saying here is that we should look, we should be mindful that there are going to be times that we are going to be tempted. We are going to be tested.
But may we strive not to in those times sin. Great example is Jonah. Jonah went through some great testing and trials. He was tempted tremendously.
I would say second most to Jesus. And he didn't sin. Some people will say, oh, but he didn't like, but he didn't disavow God. He didn't kick God to the curve.
He just was missing what was going on. That's what he was calling us to do. To have the faith that Job, did I say Jonah? Sorry, I meant Job.
Sorry. My bad. Job. Have the faith that Job did.
That as he went through it, like, continue to strive for what God is doing and understanding that. Right? And it's a very, you can hear me on this. There's nothing wrong with saying, like, God, please don't make me go through this.
Because again, you look at Jesus. Jesus, second, other greatest prayer was his prayer and guess, seminy right before he was being taken to Green Cruise. And what was in his prayer? God, if there's another way, let's do it.
In other words, God, I don't want to go through this. Like, I'm not looking forward to this. I don't feel like being put on the ground. Like, this is going to be painful.
This is going to be terrible. But what was the next two words? Let your will be done, goes right back to what we were talking about earlier. He had the right mindset attitude and heart.
He knew who he wasn't a president of. But, hey, God, it's your will. I'm going to do what you want me to do. And so, yes, understand, we're going to call to lead us not in an invitation, but accept the fact that there are going to be times you're going to have to go through it.
And so, change that. That says lead us not in temptation, but rather change it to teach us in this temptation. Teach us in this time of testing. Help me learn.
Help me understand what you're trying to show me here, God. Right? And so, as we close tonight, we look at this and we look at what God, what Christ has been showing us. We see that he says, pray, okay, like, I'll pray.
And you're going to pray this way. And you're like, okay, like, our Father doesn't have to know. You look at all the prayers that Jesus, they don't, they don't follow it. He doesn't, every time he prides, he doesn't say, I'll follow it like it.
He does, it's hurt. He's wanting us to understand that it's one. We first got to understand who's the president we're going in. Because then that sets the tone for the rest of the prayer.
Right? And then when we get into that prayer, we understand, hey, it's not about us. We've been saved to do something greater than ourselves. We get to be a part of doing something greater.
So as we honor the one who's present for in, we're going to say, all right, God, use me. I know I may not want to do this. It's going to be difficult. I don't want to talk to X or Y about that.
But God, lecture will be done. You know? And then we get into, all right, God, this is what I have, like, this is what I need help with. This isn't, and hear me, I'm not saying, like, if you want to pray, like, I look, I'm sick, help me through the day.
Like, that's a totally fine prayer. God's totally going to listen to, like, and you're doing that. But at that time, people are just doing these long, audacious, like, big, grain prayers that were just empty. And he goes, you want to have a prayer that has a heart to meaning behind it?
This is how you do it. This is what it looks like. And what's even cooler is you get to look at the prayers throughout scripture. They all have this.
One of my favorite prayers, and I think it's one of the coolest miracles outside of the resurrection of Jesus is Joshua. And his bold audacious prayer to say, God, we're going to take these people, but we need your help. We need you to stop us on and for the standstill. And you're like, what in the world?
Because Joshua understood who he was in the presence of. He understood the purpose that he was being used for. And so it gave him the audacity and the boldness and the courage for those crazy things. I'm not saying, like, you're going to ask God for a billion dollars and you're going to get a billion dollars if you do.
Hey, we're going to take a word for it. We love, you know. But you, I mean, honestly, I never know. But this is what you're just saying is, don't be afraid to ask.
He is your father. He loves you. He wants to take care of you. And he wants what's best for you.
But you also got to understand he's God. He is Lord of the universe. This is the same guy that goes, all right, I'm going to make a universe because I want to be with the relationship with people. So, son, you're going to stay in there, moon, you're going to go there, start going there, there, and earth you're going there.
Pluto, now we say it's not fine, but it's still fine. Pluto, you're going there and lined up and just speaks it and happens. This is the God that we get to pray to. And so, as we close, and I pretty sure we have another song, I just want to give you guys an opportunity to go before your father, go before your heavenly father and pray to him.
We're starting the New Year off. I don't know what you guys are going through. I don't know what you guys are needing for your for. But this is a great opportunity to do it.
And this is something, you can go to the last one. This is a prayer that John and I have done. We did it last year during New Year for New Year's Youth Service as we entered the New Year. And it's a great model because you can see this throughout Jesus' prayer, this our Father prayer.
And it's called the Axe prayer model. A, Adder... I got, I'm sorry, my name. Adoration, it's understanding who God is.
It's being thankful for who God is, for who it is, his character. One of the coolest things that I've seen or that I'm knowing about who God is, is knowing that his name is Galway, which means I am I am. I have a professor in my undergrad that told me, the reason why it's I am I am is because he wants to be what you need him to be at that exact time. You need him to be a healer, he'll be your healer.
You need him to be a supporter, he'll be your supporter. You need a discipline, he'll be whatever you need him to be. That's why he's known as the great I am. And so that's a great way to show honor to God.
Confession. Sounds like forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors like typing, because it gets you in the right mindset. It's daily reminding yourself of the gospel. Thanksgiving, being thankful.
We just passed it, but we have a lot to be thankful for. And again, it's not just on the right mindset because we stepped before the throne. We stepped before His magic, His mighty presence is God. Thank you.
Like none of what we do is possible without you. Thank you for daily providing for me. Thank you for developing me. Thank you for the trials and tough times that I go through.
And I will tell you that is probably the hardest thing to pray. And I say that from experience because that is constantly a prayer that I have been praying in the last couple months, and I know my life has. It's application. Big word I know.
But this is just another fancy word for saying, God, this is my need. This is what I need prayer for. And so as we pray and as you go about your prayers, think about this. Think about the presence of who you're entering because it's going to change and affect your prayer because your prayers are powerful to a worship and they get to be used to worship God and they get to honor Him.
So this is what it comes back of. Just take a moment. Just pray. Spend this time in prayer.
There's nothing else if you want to sing. Great. Go ahead. Songs are prayers too.
Which is whatever you need prayer for. Speak out God. Or maybe you truly have never prayed before and you're probably like, you're crazy for trying to talk. I think I'm going to be some person who's going to talk to someone who's going to talk.
Take this. Like I said earlier with a relationship. Like swimming. You just got to, you don't die straight in.
You don't just go straight to the deep end. No, wait. You put your foot in. You step into the first step.
Yeah, you slowly start to go and go. Then next thing you know, you're jumping off the 100 foot dive. Hi, guys. The same thing with prayer.
God doesn't care where you start. He just wants you to start.