Prayer #4

Prayer for everyday life

Intro

Matthew 6:9-13 ““This, then, is how you should 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 today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

Forgivenness

Forgive us our debts.

Origen

Debts we owe people

Debts we owe ourselves

Debts we owe God

We have been forgiven

Cross

Forgive others

This is who we are

A people marked by forgiveness.

Jacob and Esau

Prodigal Son

Do you grasp how powerful this is.

If you did, then forgiveness would flow from you

Forgiveness is an outpouring

Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

This doesnt mean that to be forgiven you need to forgive. That would give you too much power. What it means is that if you really grasped how much your heavenly Father forgave you and everything that that means, we wouldn’t hesitate to forgive.

If we don’t forgive, we don’t really get it. We are saying God, I know better than you. You should forgive me, but not that person. I know better than you.

You can’t ask for forgiveness for yourself and not give it to others, thats pretty selfish

I get it, this is hard

Illustrations

Many of you have been hurt.

Had things done to you

Forgiveness is not

Being best friends

Pretending its okay

Putting yourself in situations to be hurt again.

Forgiveness is

Canceling Debt

Moving on

Giving back to God

Trusting

Story about parents divorce

Exercise

Close eyes

Picture that person that has hurt you that you are having trouble forgiving

Tell God everything you wish would happen to them, don’t hold back.

Picture yourself at the bottom of a hill

There is a cross at the top of the hill and Jesus calls you to him

What do you say to him? What does he say to you?

Of your own will, walk back down the hill, and bring the person who hurt you up to the cross with you

Ask Jesus to give them what he gave you.

“I will, be blessed, you are never more like me than when you forgive”

Conclusion/Ministry time