Teach us to pray (4)

Forgive us our debts

Matthew 6:12 ESV

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Debt

Most of you do not have the greatest concept of what debt is. Most of the leaders here will have some sort of idea.

we talk about debt a lot in this culture. people these days have a lot of debt there is a credit card debt, student loan debt, mortgages. most people in our culture have some sort of debt.

An obligation to pay in the future for a present benefit. Most of the biblical treatment of debt is within the civil law of ancient Israel, and all biblical instruction concerning debt is in a context of charitable, benevolent lending to relieve distress.- Dictionary

However we’re not asking Jesus to forgive the new sneakers we bought on our parents credit card.

we are asking for something much deeper.

The word used for debt is another one of those fancy greek terms ὀφειλήματα ( (Ophelima) this word is used only two times in the new testament and it refers to debts, obligations, delinquency and sins.

The thing is with debt or offences delinquency all of these require a payment or punishment

Gospel recap

Creation: God made everything perfect and everything was the way it should be

Fall: human kind had the ability to choose and we choose to act as if we were smarter then God. In turn the people were cut off from God because a perfect God cannot look upon the sin of his people. this was the debt we bore. our sin has separated up from God it was a debt we would never be able to pay because we have been separate

Redemption: God had a plan right from the beginning to get his people back Jesus who was perfect and never sinned became sin

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Taking on all the debt that we would never be able to pay on our own upon him self that who ever would be believe in him would be saved from the punishments of our debt and sin

Restoration: we are now brought into life with Jesus where we live according to his life and world and we get to work with him in restoring thing to what they once were

When We pray

We are asking God to forgive us there is a two pronged event here

When we are asking jesus to forgive our debts we are asking that we be forgiven of all our sins.

This is for followers ofJesus, if you have accepted Jesus as lord god and king you are in right standing with the King of the universe

he took your sins and the debt that you could never pay with him to the cross.

We must forgive others

There will be countless time in your lives where people will wrong you

Mark 11:24–25 ESV

24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Colossians 3:13 ESV

13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

This is found though out the bible we talked about it last year.

we have been forgiven of so much, every sin ever committed has been forgiven

Christians should be the most forgiving people We have been forgiven of everything so there is the caviat here we need to forgive others who wrong us

when thats difficult we can pray for help to forgive it doesnt just happen over night sometimes it does but we can pray that we may forgive.