Worship as Jesus Taught

Transcript

GRM 839
2/23/2003
Worship as Jesus Taught
Matthew 6:1-18
Gil Rugh

We are in the Sermon on the Mount, a rather well-known portion of the New Testament by any who has some knowledge of the scripture. Yet a portion that is often misunderstood. Sometimes the Sermon on the Mount is used for just the opposite reasons and purposes that Christ gave it. What He is emphasizing in the Sermon on the Mount is a righteousness that exceeds the external righteousness of works that was practiced by the Jewish leaders of the day, and thus characterized the nation itself. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 20 Jesus said, “for I say to you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Some have taken that really as the theme verse of the Sermon on the Mount, and it is fitting. You must have a righteousness that goes beyond the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. As Paul bears testimony later in his own life, he was very scrupulous, attempting to keep all the commandments and all the requirements. Yet he did not have righteousness before God. You must have a righteousness not as a result of our works, but as a result of God’s work in our lives. We’re going to be looking at matters that really relate to our worship of God. Jesus said in John chapter 4, and He talked to the woman at the well, God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. We always want to make worship a matter of the externals, we’re going to come to one of those that has been turned into an external in Matthew 6, the Lord’s prayer. We even take the Word of God and just make it part of the ritual that has lost its true significance as it was given by God as part of His Word.

God is seeking people to worship Him, but according to John chapter 4 verse 24 those that He is seeking to worship Him are those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. God is not just seeking people to worship. Even the church today gets confused. We think as long as get people to go to worship…well, God is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Jews had very elaborate worship, but it was not acceptable to Him. Worship must be in spirit and in truth, genuine, sincere worship offered from the heart according to the Word of God. It’s a private, personal matter but it doesn’t have to be private in its conduct. There is a public aspect to worship and the things we’re going to talk about, but they begin with a personal relationship with the living God.

We’re talking about righteousness and in the opening verses of chapter 6 of Matthew Jesus talks about giving of alms, about prayer, about fasting. He begins with a word of warning. Look at verse 1, “beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them, otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” He’ll emphasize repeatedly to practice your righteousness before men to be noticed by them is to be a hypocrite. Because worship as He is going to talk about it, the practice of righteousness is really to be an overflow and manifestation of our relationship to the living God. But if I’m doing it to be noticed by men, I’ve taken the focus from God and put it on man. My concern is the opinion of men about me, not the evaluation of God concerning me. He gives them that word of warning.

Back in chapter 5 verse 16 He told them “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Those who truly belong to the living God and walk in obedience to Him will manifest His righteousness in their behavior, but a godly life will direct the attention of those who observe to God and bring glory to Him and not to us. Beware of practicing your righteousness before men, and yet let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father. But don’t be practicing righteousness to be observed by men. The warning that is given, and that becomes key, to be noticed by them. We’re not saying that no righteous deeds now won’t be seen, but they are not done with the desire to be noticed by men. If you do it for men you have your reward, men have seen it and that’s all the reward you get. Jesus is going to bring that up in verse 2 as He addresses the subject of the hypocrites.

Look at the specific area, it begins here with the alms. “When you therefore give alms do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you they have their reward in full.” Down the end of verse 5, “truly I say to you they have their reward in full.” That emphasis is the other side of what He said, saying it a little differently from the end of verse 1. You have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Another way of saying that is you’ve had reward full when men noticed you. You did it to be noticed by men, they noticed. You’ve had your reward; you’re paid in full. You have no further reward from the living God. You did it to be honored by men, you were honored by the men whose approval you wanted. You’ve got everything you’re getting. It’s the emphasis through this section. Where do you want your rewards? Do you want honor and rewards from God? Or do you want honor and rewards from men? Thus, who are we serving?

When you give alms, basically the word righteousness, like when you bring your alms and the gifts that you would give to the poor and that. Sometimes they were done in such a way that you did it to draw attention to yourself. Some have taken this sounding of trumpet, don’t sound a trumpet before you, obviously calling attention to yourself. Jesus gave examples of this on other occasions. Some writers have noted that in the court of the women there were 13 alms boxes with the receptacle the shape of a trumpet, and it was said when people sometimes with some ostentation would throw their money in in such a way that it clang around. It became known as sounding the trumpet, so-and-so sounding the trumpet. They’re giving it in such a way that people will notice. We can do the most spiritual of activities with a motive that destroys it, because I’m really doing it which in itself is a good deed, but I’m doing it for the wrong motive and so it is not acceptable before God.

When it says in verse 2 “that they may be honored by men,” that word honored is the word glorified, that they may be glorified by men. Same basic word as we have back in chapter 5 verse 16, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” But these are giving in a display before men that they may be glorified by men. So rather than doing what they do with the desire that God will be glorified, they’re doing it so they may be glorified. You see what really happens, they’ve really taken that which is to belong to God and taken it to themselves. They’re hypocrites because they’re going through the motions like this was done for God. They’re hypocrites, they’re pretending to be something they are not. I say to you they have their reward in full, there is nothing else, there is no more. “But when you give alms do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” So now it is giving that is done for the honor of God, not for credit from men. In II Corinthians chapter 8 verse 5 Paul told the Corinthians that the Macedonians gave and gave beyond their ability, but first they gave themselves to God. Their giving was an overflow of that relationship to God and a desire to be honored by God. Now this does not mean giving can never be public. We’re really dealing with the motivation here, because there are times when giving is public. In Acts chapter 4 we studied Barnabas sold a piece of land and brought the money and gave it to the apostles. That was done publicly. Created a problem because Ananias and Saphira liked the glory and thought well, we ought to do this. But they cheated, they wanted glory for an action, but they weren’t really doing what they were pretending to do. You see you can have something done, two people…….both are acting here but one is doing it with the right motive and one is doing it with the wrong motive.

II Corinthians chapter 8 Paul uses the Macedonians as an example of giving. We say nobody should know; it has to be secret. Well, it should not be done, it must not be done for public display to bring glory to self, and that’s the point of what Jesus is saying. In that sense to a person, their motivation is not to be recognized. Notice, that becomes a private matter, a private matter in the sense we don’t know one another’s hearts. Sometimes we don’t really know the motives. Sometimes we may credit a bad motive to somebody when their motive has been very good. Sometimes we may credit a good motive to someone when their motive has not been good. But one person who always knows is God, and He is the one, Paul says, who will judge the motives of men’s hearts. We just have to be careful that the desire of our heart is to honor the Lord. When Barnabas brought his gift to the apostles his desire was to honor the Lord and it was a great blessing and encouragement to the church as they praised God for His goodness. We want to be careful. Sometimes we think in giving no one ought to ever know. I have found myself on occasion greatly blessed by the giving of some people on certain occasions. It’s not always the amount, it depends on the situation. I’ve just been encouraged to see some people so willing to give. We’ve all experienced that as we’ve seen the Lord respond perhaps on a project and use us. And what? We just can’t help but praise the Lord for how He worked, what He did. Sometimes we give Him added praise for certain individuals and the way they’ve responded. It wasn’t that glory was given to them, but they became instruments to bring glory to God. Our giving is to be there like all of our lives. So we have to be careful with our money as with our other things.

He moves right into prayer. You know these things, giving of your money, your prayers, fasting, all of these things will become really the same issue. What is the condition of my heart? Jump to fasting and we’ll come back to prayer, the fasting I think is connected with alms in some ways. Down in verse 16, some people gave money ostentatiously and some people fasted, and you know fasting wasn’t required by the Law, except on the Day of Atonement. That’s the only required fast in the Old Testament. Now fasting was practiced for other occasions, fasting was practiced in New Testament times. But the only requirement for fasting in the Law was for the Day of Atonement and it was often connected with repentance. Really it is abstaining from food to concentrate in an intense way on the things of the Lord. Often in times of suffering or trial or persecution it was that added pressure that believers fasted and concentrated on the Lord. Now what had happened is the Jews had made fasting an occasion for revealing what they’re doing, you know, looking godlier. When you fast do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do. You understand this word, every time He says hypocrites just like driving a knife into the Pharisees. They’re the ones in view, He’s addressing His disciples here, He’s addressing those primarily who are going to be part of the kingdom. But the message includes the message to those who are hypocrites.

They’ve let everybody know they’re fasting. They didn’t get themselves fixed up, they didn’t fix their hair and their clothes and everything, because when they walk down the street, they wanted everybody to know, there goes a godly man, he’s fasting. Well, they had all their reward, somebody noticed. There goes a man who is fasting. That’s why he did it, he wanted people to know he was fasting; so, he has his reward in full. “Truly I say to you they have their reward in full. They put on a gloomy face; they neglect their appearance. “But you when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face so that you may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” He’s not commanding to fast, if you fast, you’re doing it for a spiritual reason. The Bible doesn’t address the idea of fasting for dieting or health reasons, so I’m not into that one way or the other. But He’s talking about your spiritual activity. And you do it. What do you do? You get up, you get yourself all ready, look good, because if you’re fasting, if you spent extra time in prayer today and you want to concentrate your attention on the things of the Lord in a special way, it’s a matter between you and the Lord. You don’t have to display it for everyone. Now for some reason someone found out, that doesn’t mean you’re a hypocrite. But the point is you’re not doing it for the recognition of men. Just that simple. It has to come out of our hearts. Now some of what we do in our walk with the Lord will be seen by men. Let your light so shine that men will see your good works and glorify your Father. But we’re not acting on that basis. If it happens, okay, if it doesn’t happen, okay. You know for the Jews nothing worse than you went through all the trouble of fasting and no one noticed. I mean I could have just as well eaten. Well, if that’s why you did it, that’s right.

One more area of prayer. Back up to the matter of prayer and what is known as the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer that is often used in worship. I’ve often had people, some of you come from more ritualistic churches, and people have often said to me you know it was an adjustment for me. I didn’t feel like we worshipped because we never said the Lord’s Prayer. And they say couldn’t we say the Lord’s Prayer occasionally in our Sunday morning service? I feel like I’ve worshipped more when we say the Lord’s Prayer; and there are areas for all of us. I use that as an example because we’re going to talk about the Lord’s Prayer here. But you know the way you’re raised; you begin to associate certain things with the reality. That is the danger and that’s true for us even as Bible-believing Christians. Our worship services take on a form and there is benefit to that, we need to have some kind of order. Even the routine, the order of the service which becomes a pattern that we generally follow, enables us not to be distracted by constant change. There is benefit in it. But pretty soon we assume that’s true worship and the form becomes what we think is the true worship. If we change the order of the service, oh my it’s hard for me to worship. Well what do you mean? I mean we’ve come to bow before the living God and exalt Him. Does that matter if we change the way we do the order of the service? If I got up and preached first on Sunday then we did the songs, other than the fact that half the people would miss the sermon, what would be the difference? We say well you know it doesn’t matter. If we did part of the music and then I preached and then we did the other part of the music. Oh, it wouldn’t feel like worship to me. You know little things like this, sometimes we begin to identify the form we go through as though that were the reality of the worship. We can have our convictions, well I like things done this way, I like things done this way, I like…… But we need to be careful that we don’t begin to say that is the worship. The worship is what comes from my heart. There are people who come in and go through the service and never worship the living God. First of all, if they don’t have a relationship with God through Christ, they are not able to worship Him. Secondly, even as believers if they come in and their mind is never there. They’re thinking about other problems, difficulties at work, family troubles or whatever. When it gets down to it God is really not part of their thoughts this morning. Yet they went through the worship service, stood at the right time, sat at the right time, sang the right song, listened to the sermon and went out, but never worshipped. They went through a form. Now we need to be careful that we don’t begin to identify the form with having worshipped. So it is here with the Lord’s Prayer.

We talked about doing alms in secret, it’s a natural thing to talk about prayer and how do you pray. Well look at verse 5 of Matthew, “and when you pray you are not to be as the hypocrites for, they love to stand and pray in the synagogues on the street corners in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you they have their reward in full.” I’ve shared with you before when I was in Israel one of the things I found almost glaring is going to the Wailing Wall, a sacred site for the Jews, and so many of the Jews come and they’re dressed in their outfits. The Orthodox Jews you know, they have the long braids, and they go there, and they go to the Wall, and they go through this, they’re praying and they’re just going like this. Have to be careful, I’ll get dizzy. You know it’s just so much form. I mean you’re just almost mesmerized. You stand there and look at them and say how long is he going to do this? You know there is such a show about it. It’s like oh here is somebody who is truly spiritual, look at him praying. A warning here, “when you pray you are not to be as the hypocrites. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues, on the street corners in order to be seen by men.” You know again that constant emphasis here, you did it to be seen by men, you have your reward. You did it to be seen my men, you have your reward, and that’s it. “When you pray go into your inner room. When you shut your door pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” Now you see it’s done for the Lord, it’s done in light of your relationship with Him and your desire to honor Him, your love for Him. Then you have reward from Him. Now that doesn’t mean you can never pray in public. Keep the context Jesus is talking about, otherwise there would be problems. We have prayers recorded in scripture; we have Jesus’ prayer to the Father in John 17 recorded. Was this recorded to give glory to men? We have prayers from the Apostle Paul when he tells people he’s praying for them, he tells what he is praying for them. Was this ostentation that he was looking for glory because he’s a praying man? In the Old Testament we have many prayers recorded, many prayers of David are recorded in the Psalms and so on. Obviously, they haven’t violated scripture in this. The point is that it’s not done for men, and we all battle this. You know now I pray to the Lord with this prayer, but if someone would ask you to pray in the class would you say oh I couldn’t do this. Why? You talk to your heavenly Father in private? Yes. Would I talk to Him with somebody else? I wouldn’t know what to say. Well wait a minute, what do you mean you wouldn’t know what to say? You talk to Him in your closet? Yes. Do you know what to say? Yes. When you’re asked to pray with others present, we’re not asking you to talk to them, we’re asking you to talk to God. Now I realize there are other dimensions, saying things out loud with others, you are aware of them. But sometimes our prayers, and we preachers are great, but that’s because we’re going to be exceptionally holy, godly and pray, taking us before the throne of grace. There is a sense of awe, and there ought to be a sense of awe in all those things, but let’s be careful. Whom am I doing this for? Whom am I praying to? If I’m praying to you, we’re all in trouble, and nothing is done. If I’m praying to God, you’re secondary.

That doesn’t mean there oughtn’t to be thoughtfulness worked out in our prayers. Even when we go into our closets we oughtn’t to babble incoherently. Now Lord bless our kids (I wonder what I’m going to wear to work today, maybe those brown shoes would be better), and also Lord bless the missionaries (hope I get a raise this year). You know sometimes our prayer life goes like that. We start praying and we get a sentence or two out, then our minds wander off here. How would you like it if somebody comes to talk to you and says I’m glad you’re taking time for me to talk to you. I wanted to talk to you about what the meaning of John 3:16 is, boy I wonder what my kids are doing today. I hope they’re being good in school, wonder what they’re having for lunch. Oh yeah, and about the theology. If they went on like that, I’d think maybe you ought to go home and take a nap. Come back when you can get your mind together. But we go to God like that all the time. Get my confession out of the way. I’m sometimes embarrassed. I start out talking to the Lord, next thing I know my mind is on something else. I come back and you know there are some days you fight that it seems. I’ve shared with you that sometimes the best thing for me is to start talking out loud. It seems to help me keep my thoughts flowing a little better and more organized.

When it comes to praying before people, if someone would call on you unexpectedly don’t be embarrassed. I realize some people, that’s easy for me to say because I am accustomed to being up in front of people. But it is no more important for me, you know I have to remember I’m not praying to you. If you get caught sometimes you don’t want to have to say oh no, I couldn’t do that. Just immediately close everybody else out. Now don’t go on for two hours like you might in your closet. Dwight L. Moody is famous for his actions when a man was brought up to pray in one of his crusades and the man went on and on and Moody finally got up and said well so-and-so finishes his prayer we’re going to go on and sing the next song. You know we have to be careful. If I get up and pray for two hours on Sunday morning and say well, I wasn’t praying to you. I have the responsibility to consider the setting.

All right, let’s look at the Lord’s Prayer. One more thing before I get into this. One of the most difficult things about praying in public is if you don’t pray in private it becomes all the more. You want me to talk to a person who is somewhat a stranger to me, what I want to do is talk to the Lord so much that it just is part of my life and becomes a normal thing. If I don’t talk to Him in private it is difficult to talk to Him with others present.

“When you pray do not use meaningless repetition.” Who does that? He says the Gentiles do. Here He uses Gentiles, which basically you’re dealing with unbelievers, those outside even the family of Israel. “They suppose they will be heard for their many words.” Basically, they think they’ll be heard for their many words. That’s the whole foundation of prayer beads and so on. We have a song that talks about the little prayer wheel turning. You know those kinds of things, the meaningless repetition. We need to be careful we don’t think we’re heard just because we say it and go. You know sometimes even we as believers can find that. I’ve shared with you that when I was in Bible college, I had a professor who’s with the Lord now, he was an older man when I was in Bible college so he’s been with the Lord many years. But he used to call on us to pray and boy that was an unnerving experience because after you got up in his class and prayed for the Lord to bless the class and so on and then he always invariably, now ladies and gentlemen you have just had a perfect example of how not to pray in public. Then he’d say how would you like it if I said Gil would you Gil pray Gil this morning Gil for Gil this class Gil. But you know what you did, you said Lord thank you Lord for blessing us Lord and being with us Lord and help us Lord and continue to provide Lord. I think you said Lord 37 times. That’s not always meaningless repetition, but I stop and think, should I talk to the Lord this way? What am I doing? Do I think it is because I call on the Lord every third word He listens better? So sometimes in my prayer I just need to think more about my prayer. I’m talking to the living God. There’s nothing wrong with organizing my thoughts and thinking, I mean of all times I want to think I want to think when I come to talk to the living God. Meaningless repetition. We have to be careful.

You know people say the Lord’s Prayer. I don’t have any problem with that anymore than I have them reciting any other portion of scripture. I think there is danger in reciting the Lord’s Prayer, I think it was given as a form of prayer to show us what prayer ought to include. But there is warning here about the empty repetition. We just want to be careful. Sometimes we can say the same thing. Think about your prayers, I mean, what are they. Do we basically say the same thing every time? Why? I liked it when my kids were at home, I liked them to come and talk to me about things, but I didn’t want them just to come and say the same thing every time. I’d begin to wonder, is there something wrong? This is the same thing you said to me this afternoon and the same thing you said this morning. In fact, you’ve said the same thing for the last three weeks. I’m not saying we don’t pray for the same thing at times, when praying for a loved one or praying for … What I am saying is sometimes our prayers are basically the same prayer repeated whenever we pray. I need to be thinking, maybe I need to expand my prayer life, so it doesn’t become meaningless repetition.

So don’t be like them. Do not be heard for your many words. “Your Father knows what you have need of before you ask Him.” This reminds us of what prayer is. Prayer isn’t bringing God up to date, prayer isn’t really informing God of my needs. I don’t need to tell God anything in that sense. When you pray, pray like this: our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We start out with God; we’re going to exalt and honor Him. The first three parts of the prayer are directed toward God—your kingdom come, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts, do not lead us into temptation. The last three parts of this are going to relate to us.

First “our Father who art in heaven.” We’re talking to our heavenly Father. I can relax. There is a reverence, there is an awe, there is a respect for God, but He’s my Father, He’s my heavenly Father. I can come and talk to Him, Father. I’m His child. There’s an intimacy in this relationship. I come to Him as one of His children. This is the foundational thing. If you don’t have God as your Father and you try to pray, you know what God says? Proverbs 28:9, even the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to God. God is offended at the prayers of the wicked, they are an affront to Him. Now anyone is invited to come to Him, but only through His Son, Jesus Christ. This idea people just think that they pray. The problem with these ecumenical prayer meetings, I don’t see how a believer could be involved in that. I don’t want to join with people who are being an abomination to God. That’s not because I am better, I am every bit the sinner they are, and perhaps I was worse. I am what I am by the grace of God. But I also know no one comes to the Father but by the Son. The only reason we can come is because our high priest has prepared the way for us, so everyone who has God as their Father through being born again through faith in Christ, can come. Prayer begins what? “Our Father who art in heaven.” He is the exalted sovereign God. That keeps it from deteriorating into trite familiarity. He is my heavenly Father. The one who is in heaven, so there is awe and respect here. My Father, sovereign God. The one who rules over all.

“Hallowed be your name.” That word translated hallowed is just the Greek word holy. He is holy, He is to be honored, to be held in reverence. His name stands for all that He is, that God be set apart, be honored, Father. Your residence is the glory of heaven. You are separate and apart from all your creation, you are worthy of all honor, you are holy. I come as His child but I come with respect and honor. The opposite of this word hallowed or holy would be to profane, dishonor, bring into disrespect. Hallowed be your name. The desire as I come is that you be honored, you be recognized as holy, the one worthy of all the glory.

“Your kingdom come,” Now the Sermon on the Mount was given by Christ in the context of Him coming as the Messiah of Israel, of His servants, beginning with John the Baptist. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He prays your kingdom come. He’s telling these Jews to be praying for the coming of the kingdom, that’s their desire, the promised kingdom. Promised to them in the Old Testament. Their desire is for the kingdom that was promised to Israel to come.

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Now God does rule on earth. Passages like Daniel chapter 4 says that “God rules over all,” so there is that dimension we call the universal kingdom of God. The coming kingdom that the Jews are promised is what we call the Messianic kingdom, or the mediatorial kingdom, that kingdom that will be mediated through the divinely appointed king. As David was in the Old Testament the ultimate realization will be the Messiah, when Christ comes to rule and reign. When He comes to establish His kingdom then God’s will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. There are a number of Old Testament passages that speak to this. The knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. So that’s what they’re praying for here. We long for your kingdom to come, for you to rule on this earth, you the God who rules over all, that time when your kingdom will rule over the earth and your will shall be done on this earth. We recognize you, who you are, we desire your honor, we look for the fulfillment of your promises. We recognize your control, that you are moving all things to your appointed end. We look to you for every provision of our life right now.

“Give us this day our daily bread.” We look to you for our sustenance. Interesting, this was the only appearance of this particular word in Greek in the Bible or outside the Bible until they found a fragment some years ago. Interestingly enough it was the grocery shopping list of a lady from Biblical times, and she was making note of what she needed to get for her daily supplies. It gives you a picture of what is in view here. “Give us our daily bread.” Recognizing God is the one who supplies our needs every day, and we are acknowledging. God, we come to you for our needs, we come to you to provide everything. We acknowledge that you are the one who provided food for us, covering for us. Jesus talks about some of those things more in detail, food and clothing, at the last part of chapter 6. What we are doing here is recognizing and acknowledging God as the source of all that we have, even everyday things that sustain us in life. God is concerned about those things and does provide them, which Jesus elaborates on in the last part of chapter 6. God cares for the birds, and you are more valuable than the sparrows. They don’t sow, they don’t reap, but God provides for them. You know we get all concerned and upset and where’s the world going, and what’s the money going to be worth, and what will we have. We ought to be wise and plan, but you know what? God provides our daily needs. Sometimes I think what we’re really afraid of is we might have to walk by faith. Again, I’m not talking about being foolish. We are to plan, use the mind God has given us, but you know, I believe God will provide for me daily. If in all my great wisdom and all my planning everything goes to pot, my God will still be my heavenly Father. I still turn to Him as the one who supplies what I need daily. I can walk by faith. Now I like to have it stretched out a little bit so I can have a shallower faith. Oh yes, I’m trusting God and I’m sure my reserves will last. Nothing wrong with having reserves, God has blessed us in this country, we ought to use it wisely. But where do we go for our daily needs? If it all gets wiped out, if the banking system collapses and our country comes apart at the seams before the rapture, where will we go? What will we do? Social security may go bankrupt, but God won’t. Aren’t you glad He’s your heavenly Father, not Uncle Sam? You know sometimes we seem to get confused. Now again, I’m not against planning. Praise God for provisions He makes in other ways. But my dependence is not on those provisions that He has graciously provided, my provision is in Him; and if I don’t have anything but Him for today, that will be sufficient. “Give us today our daily bread.”

The danger for us is the danger that faced Israel. We don’t have time to go back there, but in Deuteronomy chapter 8 what did God warn Israel? When you go into the land and you prosper and you have all these good things, be careful you don’t forget the God who provided them all. That’s the danger of prosperity. We begin to trust the resources instead of the God who has blessed us with the resources and that’s our danger in prosperity.

“Forgive us our debts as have forgiven our debtors.” We look to God for ongoing daily forgiveness. He says in verse 14, “if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. If you do not forgive men, your heavenly Father will not forgive your transgressions.” The prayer is an accepted fact, and it is. Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13 tell us as those who have been forgiven in Christ, we are to forgive others. We have been forgiven such a great debt, Jesus talks about later in Matthew, how could we not forgive whatever the pittance that someone else might owe us. What forgiveness that we have to bestow upon them. But here, forgive us our debts. He’s talking here, this is a prayer for believers, and we have been forgiven our sins but there is the ongoing cleansing we experience, pictured when Christ washed the disciples’ feet. You are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you, Jesus said in John 13, but there is the daily defilement. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins. It is in Him we have cleansing; and so, in order to come for cleansing and we are forgiving people. We come as those who have been forgiven. We know our forgiveness is in you and we forgive others.

There is that warning, then, in verses 14-15, because those who don’t forgive are manifesting, they have not understood the forgiveness of God and thus have probably never experienced it. I believe it’s Matthew 18 where there is a rather extensive parable given of the unforgiving servant. So will your heavenly Father not forgive you. So it’s just like anything. No adulterer, fornicator and so on has any part in the kingdom of God. Well, I trusted Christ and I’m an immoral person. No. Now can a Christian commit immorality? Yes. Can a Christian live in immorality? Seems to me no adulterer, fornicator, murderer has eternal life in Him. No unforgiving person has eternal life in Him. That’s the point that Jesus makes here, and He will expand later in Matthew. Being forgiven makes you a forgiving person. If I really understand anything of the overwhelming grace of God in forgiving me, I would withhold forgiveness from you? So a word of warning there.

We seek God, so we’re looking to God for our daily provision materially, we’re looking to God for our daily provision spiritually. You provide our daily bread, you provide, if you will, our daily forgiveness. I am recognizing Him as the source for everything for life and godliness. See what I’m coming in my prayers, I’m acknowledging who He is, I’m acknowledging my dependence on Him.

“Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil.” The temptation here, remember James, God cannot be tempted and does not tempt anyone. Well here why do I have to pray I don’t get tempted? Well, there He doesn’t tempt people to sin. Here he’s talking about temptation in the context of testing, trial. Don’t lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil, or as some would translate it, deliver us from the evil one. It can be translated either way. The point basically is the same, looking for avoidance for the trial and the testing. God, by your grace, I pray you’ll spare me those trials and difficulties. Don’t we thank God for the blessings that we have in this country? You look on the news and you see other countries devastated by catastrophes and wars and famines. You say thank you God for your grace and your blessing on me. Lord, I pray that your grace will continue on this country. Continue to give us the abundance of provisions and so on you have. I don’t pray oh God take us through famines like they have. Oh God take us through the miseries of war like they have. Oh God take us through…… No. God spare us, keep us from those testings and trials. Continue to bless us with good things.

Some manuscripts add “yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever, “which is true. Questionable whether it was part of the prayer here. Ultimately His kingdom will rule overall.

What has this prayer done? It is a simple prayer, isn’t it? Here is the pattern of prayer. Now we can elaborate in it, we don’t have to pray this prayer. In fact, He didn’t say pray this prayer, and there’s no indication that it was ever prayer as a prayer after this. Now the danger in making it the prayer we keep repeating is we fall into the vain repetition and think we’ll be heard because we’ve been reciting the Lord’s Prayer. It’s given as a pattern; here’s how you pray. You begin to acknowledge God and your relationship to Him, His holy and hallowed position, your desire for the time when He will reign and rule in glory over all. It’s His will that is done. We long for more than God’s will to be done, and that will happen when His kingdom, particularly keep in mind these are Jews looking for their promise. I recognize He is the one who provides for me daily. You get up in the morning, you prepare for the activities of the day, the responsibilities of the day, of work and so on. If you breathe a sigh of relief and in your morning prayer thank God that from Him you’ll get your daily provision and your forgiveness is from Him. Lord, protect and keep me today, guard me, guard my family. We are acknowledging He is the God who is sovereign. Now when trial and testing come, I know what? For His purposes He brought it into my life. “But there is no temptation, no testing come into your life, but such as is common to man and God is faithful and will in every temptation or testing also provide a way of escape that we may be able to bear it.”

In our prayers we are what? Recognizing and acknowledging the greatness of our God, the blessing of our relationship with Him, the assurance that His purposes be accomplished to bring us to His promised goal, resting secure that we look to Him for our provision every day. We look to Him for our forgiveness every day, we look to Him for our protection every day. What else do we need? So, in our lives, you know, we walk in a relationship with the living God. That’s what He’s been talking about. In these matters of our alms, our prayers, our fasting we are a people who belong to the living God by His grace and walk in a relationship with Him.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Lord how sad that we do not enter more fully into the wonder of the relationship that you have provided for us, that you are our heavenly Father. We are your children invited to come with confidence before a throne which for us is a throne of grace, a throne from which we receive every good thing. Lord quiet our hearts, give us peace and calm, give us confidence and assurance as your people, because our trust is in you, and you are the God who never fails. Lord, we look forward with anticipation to the week ahead, the privilege and blessing that is ours to walk with you moment by moment and day by day, to be secure in your care, to be confident in your protection and your provision. Lord may our light so shine in the midst of the darkness of this world that men might see our good works and glorify our God who is in heaven. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.