Matthew 6:11-12

Relying on God

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Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today and we pray that you’ll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart.

Well, please turn over in your Bibles with me, now, to the Book of Matthew. And we're going to be continuing our series through the Lord's Prayer, as we look at Matthew chapter six. And we'll be focusing in the sermon specifically on verses 11 through the first half of 13, but this morning we’ll read verses 9 through 15. “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever.

Well, know it or not, you have an inheritance. Know it or not, you come from a rich tradition. Know it or not, you were born into a state where you inherited a whole lot of baggage. Western philosophy. The American spirit: “I don't need no one. I'll pick myself up by the bootstraps and make my own way.” A lot of times, that's good, but it's not always good. And here, in the Lord's Prayer, the last three petitions, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, teach you and teach me that all that baggage, when we come to the Lord in prayer, goes by the wayside. That in prayer we recognize that we rely on God alone, and He's the one who takes care of us. That He's a good Father and that He loves us.

And so, your call this morning is in your own prayer life, to pray to God for everything. Pray to God for everything. He is your Father who supplies everything for you. And the first place we start with that is that fourth petition. Look with me at verse 11. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Now, this shouldn't just be restricted to bread. But when Jesus is talking to the Jews, up on the area of Galilee, and they’re on the hill, these are people who live daily, hand to mouth. These are people that the majority of their diet, archaeologists are able to show us, the majority of their diet was just this: bread. But Jesus is getting at something deeper here. Jesus is teaching me and is teaching you that we rely on Him for even the food that we eat. And when we pray this petition, when we ask God this thing, “God, give us today our daily bread,” there is an assumption here in the text. You're going to be praying daily asking God for it. Let me ask you, do you pray daily, asking God for your food? And when you do get food, have you ever wondered why when you sit down and when you eat, you ask grace over your food? That's just a Christian tradition, right? We just get into this habit. We sit down. We thank God for our food. We might ask His blessing on it. But why? Why do we do that? It's because when we sit down at our meal and we're getting ready to eat our food, now some of you can't have bread, some of you it's rice bread, or on my new diet, I'm allowed sour dough bread, and that's it. But even when you sit down to any of your food, and you sit down and you pray, you're thanking God for whatever portion He has set before you. Our hearts are supposed to be overwhelmed with thanksgiving and acknowledging that it is God who has provided for us.

This is why First Corinthians, chapter 10 God's tells us that “whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do, do all things to the glory of God.” Have you ever thought about that? How do you eat to the glory of God? How do you eat to the glory of God? Well, there's a negative side and there's a positive side. One is we're not to be gluttons. That's the negative side. We all have to fight against that, some more than others. I'm on the “some” side, but that's a negative. But what's the positive of how we glorify God when we eat? We eat with thankful hearts. We eat, recognizing that every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights. Do you eat thanking God for your food? When we thank God for the provision He's given us, we're saying, “Lord, You're the one that has done everything to put this here on the table for me to eat. And whatever it is, thank you.

There was a man, a story I heard one time from this non-Christian. He was joking around about this farmer. And this farmer, at every meal, he would sit down and it was his tradition to thank God for his food. And as he would pray in front of his family, saying, “God, I planted that seed. God, I weeded that field. God, I'm the one who cultivated it. God, I'm the one who reaped it. God, I'm the one who ground it. God, my wife is the one who baked it, but I guess thank you for it.” What was he missing? What is this farmer missing? Well, it's something that you farmers know all too well. Can you control the outcome of all your crops? I was just talking to a successful farmer in our area with thousands and thousands of acres. And his point to me was, he said, “There's one major thing that controls all the crops that we still can't control. What God does with the weather.”

How many things can go wrong in your life when you're trying to provide food for your family? How many times have we heard about stories where people, it seems like they're just down and out of luck. It's like no matter what they do, they have a job and they work at that job and we know they're good workers, and then, all of a sudden, they're laid off. It's not their fault. It’s just the company isn't doing well and they’re laid off. Or how many times have you heard about families that just lose everything. There's a fire. There's a tornado. They had dinner. They had their savings, but now everything's gone. Who's gonna provide for them? See, we can provide all we want, we can think that we're in control, but when we come here to this petition of the Lord's Prayer, we’re saying, “God, I'm not in control. I'm responsible to do all my lawful work to put food on this table as much as relies on me, but without God's blessing, that food's not going to get there. Our Father in heaven, who provides our daily food. And when we come to this, we realize that it is God who loves us and cares for us.

But this is also, again, we might think about this as this is my prayer. When I'm in my prayer closet, I pray this by myself. God, I need food. But what does it say? Give us. Us, this day, our daily bread? Are you mindful of the people around you who do not have bread? Are you mindful to pray for those in our society, those in our neighborhoods, those in our families, who do not have the means necessary to have bread? Are we praying for our children, our grandchildren, the elderly in our community, that God will provide for them? That's what we're invited to in the Lord's Prayer. It is not an individualistic type praying, but in a community praying with and for others. Rely on the Lord. Rely on the Lord for your daily bread. Ask Him for it. He wants to hear you praying for that daily bread. Bring that petition to Him.

But Jesus goes on. He gets a little bit deeper here in verse 12. Look with me at Matthew 6:12. The gears shift a little bit and Jesus says, “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” This might seem weird to us, right? What is debt? That's kind of odd. Do I owe God? Like, do I need to pay God, you know, $1000, $10,000, $100,000, and then He won't be angry with me? What is this idea of debt and who do I owe debt to?

Well, the idea here, the parallel passage in the Book of Luke, chapter 11, it's forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. See, our sins, our transgressing, or crossing the line of God's laws, His limits, His commandments. When we cross those, we become moral debtors to God. What is the wages of those sins? Death. Romans 6:23, “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” We owe God a debt. By the way, Jesus, again, is assuming that you know this. You know that you're a sinner. And we come as Christians to our Father and we say, “Lord, I am a debtor. Forgive me, please, of this debt. I can't pay it.”

Jesus shows us what this looks like. I want you to keep your finger in Matthew 6 and turn over to Luke 18. And we'll look at verses 9 through 14. Jesus gives us a story here of what this looks like; the heart of prayer. Luke, chapter 18 beginning at verse nine, “Also, He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.” This is what He says. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” So one person who's righteous in the society's eyes, one who's a vile sinner in the society's eyes. “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; and I give tithes of all I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, he would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘Lord, God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Do you see? When Jesus is inviting us here to pray, “forgive us our debts,” He's saying, “You're like the tax collector. You're like the one who comes and is to not even look up to heaven, but to be humble in heart and say, ‘Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner’.” And when we have that heart, Jesus is faithful and He is righteous to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all of your unrighteousness. When we confess our sins, when we plead with God to forgive us of our moral failings, of our debt to Him, He calls us righteous, justified.

Again, back up here, this ain't the American way. This is not the philosophy of our age. If you ask people why they think they should go to heaven, most people in America and American society will tell you, “I'm not that bad. I'm not like that guy over there and I don't murder. I don't steal. I don't do that stuff.” Who does that sound like? Sure sounds like the Pharisee, doesn't it? That's not the heart of the Christian. Jesus is instructing us in how we're to think. And again, when He tells us that we're to pray these things daily, that means every day in your prayer life are you going to your heavenly Father approaching His glorious throne of grace saying, “God, I failed again. You know it. I know it. Cleanse me of it.” First John 1:10 is clear, “If you say that you have no sin, you make God out to be a liar. And the truth is not in you.”

We're sinners. But that has an effect in our lives. When we take that and we ask God to forgive us, it has an effect on how we treat other people also. “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Man, it's really easy to hold a grudge. It is really easy to puff ourselves up and think, “Oh, I'm the right person and this person sinned against me and I'm gonna be mad at them and I'm gonna hold them accountable.” But Jesus humbles us here and says, “You have sinned too and you need to forgive that person of their sin. Because if you won't forgive them, your Father's not gonna forgive you.” That's what He says in verses 15 and 16. Think about that. Take that seriously for a moment. Ask yourself, “Is there a person in your life who you are refusing to forgive? Is there a person in your life whom you have said? ‘No. That person is beyond forgiveness.’”

Maybe you don't understand the depths of your sin and how much it costs the Father to sacrifice his only begotten Son so that you might be forgiven. Jesus gives us a picture of what that looks like in Matthew chapter 18 with the Unmerciful servant. When a servant is forgiven by his master of a debt that he could never repay. And then he goes off and he finds someone that owes him just a little bit of money and he chokes him out. And when he still won't pay, he throws him into prison. The other servants look around and they say, ‘This ain't right.’ And they go to the master. He says, “You who have been forgiven much, you won't forgive little?!” And He casts him away. Don't be those who are cast away. Understand how much your Father loves you, has cared for you.

We’re about to come to the Lord's supper in a few minutes and here we taste and we see and we know the cost of your forgiveness. Will you not show that grace to others around you? Who are the unforgivables you need to forgive in your life? Who is that one in your life you need to go and ask forgiveness from? Young people, hey kids, your parents are sinners. Kids, your parents are sinners and they need your forgiveness. Adults, your parents were sinners. They need your forgiveness. Spouses, if you're next to your spouse, look at each other. Guess what? You married a sinner. They need your forgiveness. Are we a forgiving people? “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Do you see? This is the heart of the Christian Church that launches us into evangelism. When we understand the depths of Jesus Christ’s work to forgive us, it launches us into the nations and into our communities to say, “Look how much Christ has done for me. Come, come. Let me tell you the good news of Jesus Christ, who will cleanse you of all your sins.” Look, we were once enemies, and I'm gonna tell you, I used to despise you at one point. And I was wrong, because I'm a sinner. Christ has forgiven me, and I forgive you. Come. I want to invite you and teach you and show you who our Savior is.

But that's only two of the last three petitions. The last one is in verse 13, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” In this sixth petition, we pray for God's protection. When you pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one,” you're praying that God protects you. You're praying that God sustains you. See, some people have a problem with the translation here, “And do not lead us into temptation,” because they hear this idea of temptation and they think, “Woah, hold on, hold on. Satan's the great tempter. How can God lead us into temptation?” You're right that Satan is the great tempter.

But we're in Matthew 6:13. I want you to flip over just one page to Matthew 4:1. Matthew 4:1, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.” Why? “To be tempted by the devil.” To be tested by the devil. This idea of tempting in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for it is ‘nacah’. It is trial. It is testing. It is putting something through the furnace and seeing how pure it is. This is what God says he did with Hezekiah in Second Chronicles 32:31. God says that he brought the Babylonian ambassadors to King Hezekiah. Why? To test and see what was in his heart. The same idea here. The Lord sometimes brings His people into fiery temptations, into fiery trials, to test and see what was in their hearts. But when we look at Matthew 4 and we see the trial that Jesus went through, we realize how ferocious Satan is and how deceitful our hearts would be. Every single one of us, if we hadn't eaten for 40 days, but we had the power to turn a rock into bread probably would have done it. Every single one of us, if we had to face Satan face to face, we would fail that test. How do you know that you would fail that test? Because Adam did in the garden.

Do you plead with God? In your life, when we ask Him to forgive us of our debts, and then right after that, say, “God lead us not into temptation.” We're telling God, “God, I can't go through what Jesus went through. I can't handle the entire pressure that you would put on me because you know my heart.” When we pray, “lead us not into temptation,” we're admitting to God that we can't handle that temptation. We're pleading, “God, please, please, Lord, lead me not there.”

But there's a reality that God does. Look with me at the Book of James. James chapter one. You’ll find that on page 1072 of your Pew Bibles. James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” So we pray, “Father, lead us not into temptation.” But when that trial does come, what's the second part of that temptation? But deliver us from the evil one. When we pray this prayer, we realize that the fangs of Satan are ready to sink into your carotid artery. That his claws are ready and he is crouched down like a prowling lion, waiting for you to slip up so he can devour you. You say, “God, I can't do it myself.”

Is this your prayer? Is this your prayer? Do you walk around in your life knowing that it is God who protects you from the temptations of your own heart, of your own mind, and from Satan's tempting you with things outside of yourself? Do you actually pray this prayer? Do you humble yourself and rely on God that He's the one who will deliver you. This is what the process of sanctification looks like. God makes us more and more like Himself by purifying us through these trials. But He does not purify us through these trials because we are strong enough to get through them. He purifies you through these trials, because it teaches you to rely on Him. That's what these trials are for. They are for refinement of your faith, that you might come out with less and less dross. That you might come out more and more pure.

Does that make it easy? Man, I'm telling you, if you sit there and you say, “Oh, yeah, God, bring on the trials. I'm ready for it.” You're nuts. You are outside your mind. Any rational person should be praying this: “God don't lead me into temptation. Don't lead me into trial. God, I don't want it. It's hard. It hurts. It's uncomfortable. It makes my relationships uncomfortable and makes me come face to face with my sin. It makes me realize I'm a jerk to my spouse. I'm not loving to my kids. I was a horrible child to my parents.” Trial is hard! But when He brings us into those trials as a refining fire, He brings us out of it more pure, more beautiful, more holy.

But don't be a masochist. Don't go seeking out those trials. There’s a whole lot of people who have become reformed, and, boy, they just ask for a whole bunch of trials. They're jerks to everyone. And they just really want to get in fights. And the more pain, the more hurt, the more trial, “Yeah, bring it on. Bring it on. Bring it on.” The reality is, is that they're trusting their own strength, not seeing their weakness and relying on the Lord. When we go through trials, Gods subdues our flesh, He restrains Satan, and we plead with Him to order all things in our life that we might become more like Him, that we could stand in the war. But when these trials come, when the temptations come, that the way of escape would be made clear to us that we might beeline it out of there. When that moment of sexual temptation comes, you would remember, “flee from sexual immorality and all idolatry.” That you might get out of dodge. That He would create in you a new hard that you would will not to stay there where the fun sin is, but to seek His glory instead. That He would enable us to mortify our desires.

And again, I'm going to encourage you. A lot of this has been individualistic, but this is lead us not into temptation. Two weeks ago, you were given August prayer calendars. If you need another one, let me know. I'll print it out after church. Are you praying for your brothers and sisters that they might be kept out of temptation? Are praying that they might know the power of His resurrection and the freedom of His Spirit? Are you praying for your kids? Our children are living in an amazingly hyper-sexualized culture. A culture that says right is wrong and wrong is right and is turning everything up on its head. It is doing shameful things in public. Are you praying for your children and your grandchildren and your great grandchildren that they would be kept safe from these temptations, from these trials that they are going to face? Are you praying for others to be kept from those? Are you praying for those in your family, in your friend circles, in our community, who you know struggle with specific sins? And are you praying that God would enable them to put those sins to death and be kept from temptation from greed, from anger, from malice, from hatred, from blasphemy, from filthy language, from all those sins that the Book of Colossians lays out for us? Are we praying that people will be kept from these temptations? Are we praying for Christians and the church?

Now I am begging. This is Pastor Bryan's personal beg for you. Please, please do not stop praying for me. One of our seminary professors made it blatantly clear as we're going through it, young guys, if you're not fighting against sin, drop out right now. Satan has a big red bull's eye on your back and loves nothing more than taking down pastors because they don't care for their walk and their doctrine, and the people stop praying for them. Pray for John. Pray for Jim. Pray for the elders pray that God would keep the church from sin. I'm a sinner. John's a sinner. Jim’s a sinner. All deacons are sinners. They need your prayers. We need each other, as a body, to pray that God would hedge us about in safety. That we would together fight against the temptations of Satan, of this world, of our own sinful hearts.

This also means, when we're praying this prayer, that we're not leading ourselves into temptation. There are some of you who have, for years, walked yourself into the same temptation, time after time after time after time, again. When we pray this prayer, we turn our eyes to heaven and become acutely aware of what's going on with our walk. That we know, “Hold on, hold on. I've been down this path before. I know if I'm on the Internet this late at night, ain't nothing good gonna happen. I know that if I keep using my iPhone in this way, or my droid for this purpose, I'm going to sink down back into that muck and mire of sin.” Some of you need to get rid of your own temptations. Some of us need to get rid of that greed and jealousy and covetousness. We need to put those things off and put on contentment. We need to examine our own lives as we're walking along the way and asking, “Am I being led into temptation, or am I just jumping headlong into it again and again?” When we pray this petition, we're praying that God would turn our hearts away from our sinful desires, towards what He desires. It means putting away our gossip and saying only things which are good and building up of others. We could pick on individual sins all day long here, because there's as many sins as there are days that you've lived and more. Are we pleading with God and are we relying on Him?

Do you see the depth of what Jesus Christ gives us here in the Lord's Prayer? This isn't something that we just teach our children because it's a cutesy thing to say. When we come to the Lord's Prayer, Jesus Christ Himself is telling us, “This is the heart you’re to have.” It starts with turning your eyes towards heaven and praying about Him and His kingdom and His will and His name. And your eyes don't get off of Him. You take yourself, your needs, your frailties, your failures, your weaknesses, and you also take it to Him, because He is the one who cares for you and loves you.

So a few of the questions we got for this series of how do I enrich my prayer life? How do I know my sin? How do I grow in my relationship for Christ? It looks like having a thick and meaty prayer life. It looks like slowing down and considering what does Jesus want in prayer? And then praying how He's taught us to pray. Look to His glory. Rely on His grace for everything.

Let's pray, “Lord, you are our Father. You're a loving God. Gracious, merciful and good and just in all Your ways. Lord, we do pray, Father, that You would transform our hearts. You would incline us towards Your will, towards Your kingdom. Your ways in Your glory. Thank you for everything You've given us. Thank you for Jesus Christ. Thank you for the work of Your grace. Thank you for Your protection. In Jesus’s name, amen.

Thank you for listening to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.