Sermon on Lord’s Prayer

This evening I am holding a glass of water.
How heavy do you think this glass of water is? Anyone?

The Absolute Weight of this water doesn’t matter.
What matters is how long I hold it.

If I hold it for a minute it’s not a problem

If I hold it for an hour, my arm will ache

If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb & paralyzed

The weight of the glass doesn’t change
But the longer I hold it the heavier it becomes

The stresses and worries of this life are like this glass of water.
Think about them for a little while and nothing happens.
Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt
Think about them all day long you will feel paralyzed.
That’s why prayer is so important.
We need to let go of our stresses as early as we can,
put your burdens down at the feet of God.
Put the glass down in prayer…

Today we are going to be talking about The LORDS PRAYER. Matt. 6: 9 – 13
This is a BOLD PRAYER…
It is mostly about asking God to help us out in the stress and stuff of life,
I just want to say…
when you pray this prayer watch out…
Cause if you pray it from the heart, you are praying for some pretty big things

9. Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11. Give us this day our daily bread.
12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Have you ever notice???
The first part of the Lord’s Prayer are all “THY” statements
The second part of the Lord’s Prayer are all “Us” statements, which means that
This prayer is all about God first, and how we fit into his plans Not about us first and how God fits into our plans

That ought to relieve some stress right there…
The only thing we must do…. according to this prayer is to forgive…

9. OUR FATHER: WHO ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME
Right here we declare Our FATHER is the Creator of the Universe…because this Father is in Heaven.
Jesus is telling us that God is in heaven.
It is meant for us to have a personal relationship with God. That’s pretty BOLD to pray to the Creator of the universe and call that God “Father”

That’s exactly what Jesus is doing here.
Nothing is impossible when you are God’s child.
Let the stress go!
Put the glass down.
You are a child of God the Creator of all
The One who created the universe by his power is at your side, caring for you, listening to you, as a parent for a child

Hallowed be thy name,
actually for the Jews meant “Holy is your nature”
Today names are a label…something we call each other…
Back in the ancient world names were meant to reflect who the person was…
Sort of like when Gloria calls me “Grumpy” probably she not expecting me to be a barrel of laughs
We now go to a dentist called Dr. Spitz….I kid you not…
That’s more the way names were used in the ancient world to describe… Who someone was or what someone did

Given who God is:
faithful to his people
does saving acts for human beings
he will indeed follow through on the things that are in this prayer….
so HOLY IS YOUR NAME IS AN ON RAMP to prayer in faith

10. Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done, On Earth As It Is In Heaven
This is saying “Lord, let what’s up there, in heaven, where you are God, come down here.”
Bring heaven…to earth!
Most people think of eternity, or heaven, as something that will start at some point in the future. We think about it as something that will happen someplace else rather than here.

But heaven has already begun to show itself:
When Jesus enters somebody’s heart…
what’s up there, comes down here

When someone does justice, loves mercy, walks humbly with God…
what’s up there comes down here…

So this part of the prayer says let’s get as much heaven on earth as we possibly can

I can put the glass down if I am worrying

We move into the US statements…
This is not a me and Jesus prayer ….This is an “us” prayer…
11. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
Here we are very bold, because we are expecting God to be available to us, to provide for us simple basic stuff, not once in awhile…but daily!…

Here again we can put the glass down,
isn’t the basic stuff of life what so often creates our stress? Job, kids, expectations, finances etc.

12. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors

Is this a conditional statement?
If we don’t forgive others will God not forgive us?
Jesus highlights it right after the Lord’s prayer (V14) and says, “If you don’t forgive others their sins, neither will my heavenly Father forgive you.”

To put the glass down ..This time we put it down in terms of putting down our bitterness, resentment, hostility, and pain

13. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPATION BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL
What does this mean?
Why would God lead us into temptation…

Temptation actually here means trial or testing… not sin

the word “into” temptation…seems to indicate that

So the prayer is help us not to sin when we go into the dry patches

But deliver us from evil
can also be translated…deliver us from “the evil one” who causes us to sin in the dry times .
So it’s a prayer for our protection

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever…Amen
What about this ending?
If you were raised Catholic you stopped before this.
The gospel Luke:11 don’t have this part in it.

It is believed that the early church added “for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever” as a doxology; Jewish prayers always ended with this kind of form focusing everyone’s eyes back upward in praise to God. So that’s why we say it too.

This prayer helps us to put the glass of stress and strain, unforgiveness and fear, down at the feet of One who cares more for us then we can ever imagine…and who can be trusted completely…

So lets pray it boldly from the heart,
in an act of passionate worship, and watch God work

 

 

Darkness

When you reach your low:
is standing in darkness looking up and seeing a light.

 

 

 

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