Forgive & Lead Not
Notes
Transcript
Good morning!
Pray over Gateway using Col. 1:9-14 as a guide.
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ME
Life is hard.
Amen. Let’s pray.
I want to follow Jesus and love him, but every day I sin in innumerable ways.
Sin blinds me. At times it blinds me to the gospel and I forget that I’m forgiven, and it also blinds me because some days I think I don’t need to be forgiven at all, I’m just a good nice person and it’s no wonder God chose me!
Life is hard not just because of sin, but also because of how our world is.
Just the other day, I was walking down the stairs with two drinks in my hand and my foot caught on the baby gate. I was 2 inches away from face planting down the stairs. Things can happen fast.
Not only that, I am constantly tempted to sin and live apart from my values as a Christian.
Life is hard not just because of sin, and the world, but also something I largely forget: there is personal evil which does not sleep and does what he can to destroy me.
What does prayer look like in such a minefield?
We
How do we pray in a world full of sin and evil?
How do you pray when your harsh with your spouse? You gossip about a coworker?
How do we pray when every day we may be tested by a flat tire, a health crisis, or a major change at work? How do we start the day in prayer when we’re tempted to judge others, covet what they have, or put our hope in our finances rather than God?
How we do we pray when right now there is a being who is described as a lion prowling around looking for a way to ruin our relationships with God and each other?
How do we pray in a way that doesn’t ignore sin and but also doesn’t give it more attention than it deserves?
God
As we finish up our sermon series on prayer, we recognize that Jesus and his disciples lived in the same world of sin and evil that we experience today.
They, too, dealt with the effects of sin. They knew what it was like to experience testing and to be tempted. The same enemy that prowls today was at it back then.
So how does Jesus teach his disciples to pray in a world of sin and evil?
Jesus teaches us to pray against sin and evil by staying awake to our need for God’s pity.
Jesus teaches us to pray against sin and evil by staying awake to our need for God’s pity.
First, he says
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Jesus doesn’t use the word ‘pity’ here.
But he does talk about forgiveness.
What is forgiveness?
In Scripture, sin is viewed as something that needs to be destroyed or removed.
God please remove our debts.
Debts here means sin.
Why would Jesus use the word debt instead of sin?
In Jesus’ day, they didn’t have commercial or business loans. Borrowing and debt were personal.
So I think Jesus here is showing the personal nature of sin - God it’s between me and you.
Jesus once told a story about a man who needed his debts forgiven.
He owed a laughable amount of money - think billions of dollars - and his master ordered that he and his family be sold in order to pay the debt.
But the man comes before his master and falls on the ground and says - “Please be patient with me!”
27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
For pity he forgave him.
Pity is a four letter word.
You don’t get this kind of stuff elsewhere.
You know what I mean? Pity is a humiliating word.
“I don’t need your pity.”
If you said to your spouse, “I pity you.” How would that go?
We talk often about God’s mercy.
Mercy gets watered down in my mind. It doesn’t pack a punch.
But when we say - out of pity for me - God sent Jesus to die for my sins - maybe we’re getting closer to reality.
What would it look like if we prayed for forgiveness remembering our need for God’s pity?
Maybe you need to hear this morning that Jesus does not mean we are to ask God for salvation every day.
No. Just like in the story, the man’s debts had been paid once and for all.
Or as Paul says
14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
We can be comforted today that if you are in Christ, your sins are cancelled. It’s gone.
And, Jesus teaches us to daily pray so we stay awake to that need for God’s pity every day.
Sin cannot separate us from God’s love, but it can harden our hearts.
And so we pray, “Lord, have pity on me and forgive my sins.”
But Jesus doesn’t end there he says,
Matthew 6:12 (NASB95)
12 …as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Receiving God’s pity changes our lives and we cannot help but give the same compassion to others.
It’s the irony of Jesus’ story later in Matt 18, the man who is pitied doesn’t forgive his fellow servant.
31 “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened.
32 “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33 ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’
So how do we know we’re staying awake to our need for God’s pity?
Our relationships.
How we treat others.
“It is not psychologically possible for us to really know God’s pity for us and at the same time be hardhearted toward others.” - Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 262
Question
Jesus teaches us to pray against sin and evil by staying awake to our need for God’s pity.
Jesus continues.
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
What does Jesus mean do not lead us into temptation?
The sense is something like “Keep us from circumstances which might cause us to sin.”
Or even, “Help me not yield to temptation.”
We face lower case t temptations and capital t temptations.
Lower case t temptations are the day in day out parts of living in this world.
That ad on your phone or on TV that’s selling a product with sex appeal.
The temptation to resent your spouse because of their tone today.
The temptation to buy stuff we don’t need at Costco or on Amazon.
Father - have pity on me you know how easily I can yield to that temptation!
But then there’s capital T temptation.
Jesus faced this in the wilderness with Satan.
Matthew says the Spirit lead him into the wilderness to be tempted.
Not because God tempts people but sometimes he permits temptation to reveal our character.
Maybe you’ve experienced that in your life.
When the economy affects your job and you’re not sure how you’ll hit budget.
A family member’s health takes a turn, your health gets worse.
Major transition in life tests us - a new baby, moving, career change…where will we put our trust?
Going into a day going to meet temptation
Father, have pity on us and protect us from bad things happening that would cause us to sin.
Jesus says we need God’s pity not just for sin and temptation, but against evil.
Maybe you have the NIV or NLT which say
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
Jesus teaches us in prayer to ask for pity against evil.
How might things have changed if Adam and Eve prayed this in the garden when they met the snake?
I had a buddy in college who - when facing temptation - would motivate himself to endure by making fun of Satan.
And I was like, “Bro, I don’t know if that’s the best strategy.”
Jesus teaches us to rely on God’s help against him.
Back in my football day - flag football - we played a team with a kid who was 6 foot 2 when he was 12. CJ.
And one time I got lined up against CJ and he blocked me and sent me flying backwards.
Apart from God, we cannot stand against the evil one.
So in prayer we rely on God’s pity in our weakness.
Because, God has defeated him.
15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
In the age of Costco, amazon, and the iPhone, it’s easy to forget we have an enemy. To fall asleep and forget that he wants to destroy us.
And Jesus teaches us to pray against sin and evil by staying awake to our need for God’s pity.
Maybe you’re curious why ‘Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen’ is in brackets in the NASB and it’s not in many other translations.
It’s not in the earliest manuscripts of the Bible, but it’s likely the church prayed it as a part of the Lord’s prayer from a very early stage.
It’s an awesome and biblical thing to pray but it’s unlikely Matthew included it in his original writings.
YOU
So what does it look like for us to pray against sin and evil and stay awake to our need for God’s pity?
Don’t sleep on sin.
Don’t sleep on sin.
I don’t know about you, but prayer often makes me sleepy.
Anyone?
The disciples experienced this.
Before he was betrayed, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and brought his closest friends with him to pray.
And Jesus - awake to his deep need - prays his prayer that he taught and asks for God’s pity.
39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
But what do the disciples do?
40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
We can relate to Peter.
While Jesus is stronger than Peter, Jesus was more awake to his need for God’s pity than Peter.
And what happens? Peter falls to temptation shortly after.
Don’t sleep on sin. Watch your heart.
Sin is more than blatant sin of lying, stealing, adultery - but more sinister sneaky things like what are you putting your hope in? What are you trusting in? What gets your attention and affection?
What would it look like for you to stay awake to your need for God’s pity?
Perhaps to change the posture of our hearts we can consider changing.
Jesus is not teaching us to be naval gazers or focus too much on our sin.
But this prayer reminds us of the importance of regularly checking our hearts and reminding ourselves of our deep need for grace.
WE
What would it look like for us to be people who pray like this?
I think David prayed like this.
1 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
David knew he needed the pity of the God of the universe.
As we become people who pray as Jesus taught us - we pray and remember who we’re talking to and we remember who we are - small.
And loved.
Forgiven.
Protected.
Delivered.
Rescued.
People who show compassion instead of judgment.
Who experience thankfulness instead of resentment.
Joy instead of bitterness as we reflect on the truth that the God of the universe bent down to earth and had pity on us.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.