Seek and Show
The Lord’s Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We have been looking at what Jesus gave to his disciples as a model prayer. A structure, a guideline for his followers and his children as we enter into a time of prayer with our Father, God, the creator of heaven and earth, and the one who loved us so much that he would send his son to die in our place for the forgiveness of sins.
I have told you every week, and I want to remind you again, these are just the instructions of how to pray. These verses in Matthew 6:9-13 are not all the words we need to say when we come before Him in prayer. They are just a model of the things we need to do when we pray.
Matthew 6:9 (ESV)
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
In verse number 9, Jesus says “pray LIKE this.” He didn’t say, “Pray this,” he said “pray LIKE” this. So we should understand that these words are not all there is to a healthy prayer life from a healthy, mature, and growing believer. But these words give us an understanding of the things we need to consider and use in times of prayer.
So far, we have seen that when we come to him in prayer, we praise him:
Matthew 6:9 (ESV)
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
We acknowledge him and give him the glory that he deserves. In the book of Revelation, John witnessed the 24 elders before the throne of God. They were in awe of his presence. And the Bible says that they placed their crowns before him, glorifying him and saying:
11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
They were captured by his glory. They were captured by his presence. So they gave him the respect he deserved by praising him and giving him glory.
We should do the same. The creator of heaven and earth, the creator and Savior of YOUR life are just words away, but when we come before we understand that he his holy, and we approach him with revereverrce.
Then Jesus shows us that as his children, we desire what he desires.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
I have spoken about the word sovereignty before. God is sovereign, which means he is over everything. He knows everything, past, present, future. He knows. He knows one day if you have a child, what name you will give it. In fact he know that if you have a child one day, and then that child later has their own child, he knows their name. He is sovereign. He has always has been, and he will always be.
So he has a plan. For you. For me. For the entire world. He has a plan and nothing can change it. HIs plan includes his Son Jesus, one day returning, not to walk the earth as a Savior like he did before, but to come back as a conquering King. Defeating Satan, and bringing forth the new heaven and the new earth where those who follow him will be with him.
That’s his plan. And it will be accomplished. So when we pray, your Kingdom come your will be done, we are saying, YES. Yes God, your plans, your will, be carried out. And where I fit in those plans…use me.
Then finally, Jesus says that after we have give glory to our Father, after we have agreed with him that we desire for his plans to be fulfilled, we now can approach him and ask for him to sustain us.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
Last week we talked about the difference between wants and needs, so I thinI we have covered this, but I did want to add one thing that we need to remember about this verse.
In this verse the word day is seen two times: day and another variation of the word, daily. I was reminded this week that while this verse talks about askIng for daily provision from our Lord, it also gives us the idea, that prayer needs to happen every daily. How can we ask for daily provision if we are not going before him every day.
Look what the Psalmist wrote Psalm 5:3
3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
The Psalmist is saying, in the morning I come before in praying, and then I look for you to work in my life throughout the day. Prayer with God, the way Jesus told us, needs to be something that happens daily.
We are now ready to move onto the next portion of instruction that Jesus gives us about prayer, but first, let’s stand and proclaim what we believe about his Holy Word.
+++CBC CREED
+++CBC CREED
Open your Bibles to Matthew 6 .
This morning, we are going to look at Jesus words about forgiveness. We all have heard many devotions on forgiveness. But Jesus presents two sides of forgiveness. One we SEEK, and one we SHOW.
First lets look at the forgiveness we seek. Matthew 6:12
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Jesus uses the word “debts” and “debtors” Now I have taught that the Bible was mostly originally written in two languages. Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament. But when Jesus spoke, he spoke in the Aramaic language. And the Aramaic word for debt is
KHOBA
It means both sin and debt. We know what sin is, but the word debt points to something that you owe someone.
That’s why, if you have a more modern english translation like the NLT, you will see the word sin rather than debt. But it is the same meaning.
So Jesus shows us that when the Christian goes before the Father we need to first SEEK forgiveness. We need to seek forgiveness where we have failed him.
Because that is what sin is. We have fallen short of what he requires as his children. Maybe its a thought about someone, words that you said or something that you did. Anything that goes against God’s standard for his children is a sin. And that sin, if not forgiven will seperate us from Him. Not separate like he will not acknowledge you as his child, but there will be a broken relationship between you and him.
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
When we fall short of his exceptions of how we should live as his children, there is seperation between us and God. That’s what it is important for us to go before him DAILY. And more than daily, when we find our selves sinning against his standards, we need to immediately go to him, ask for forgiveness and restore ourselves again to him.
This is not about losing your salvation. This is about a break in your fellowship with the God who saved you. And when we break that relationship, the Holy Spirit that lives within you will remind you of where you failed. And if you listen to that reminder, then you should stop whatever you are doing, and go to him, and seek his forgiveness.
And this is what I know…when you do, he will be there waiting and willing to forgive you.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We all sin. Everyday. In some way, we disappoint the God who made a way for us to be his children. And when we break that fellowship, the only way it can be restored is by our confessing and asking forgiveness from him. And he will be faithful to hear us and forgive us.
As his followers, we SEEK forgiveness.
But also as his followers, we SHOW forgiveness.
Look at the second half of verse 12..
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Our debtors. Those who have sinned against us. This one can be a challenge. I mean, it can be easy for us, when it is only us and God for us to admit where we have sinned and ask for forgiveness. But now Jesus tells us that we have to forgive others when they sin against us.
I believe the ability to forgive someone who has done something against can only happen because of two things:
Humility - It can be easy to allow our pride to stop us from forgiving someone. We might think, They did me wrong, why should I forgive them? Look at the way they treated me, they don’t deserve my forgiveness! That’s pride, the opposite of humility. And by the way, now it has moved from someone sinning against you, to now you are sinning against them and GOD! Jesus says that part of our prayer should be forgiving those who sin against us, and when we hold onto that unforgiveness, we sin!
The only way we can be right before God when someone does something against us, is to forgive them. Sometimes it is very difficult and challenging.
But here is what you need to remember… the forgiveness you give ultimately is not for them, it is for you, It is for your spiritual growth, your righteousness, your relationship with God.
2. The ability to forgive someone for something they have done against you comes from the fact that you have been forgiven. You sins have been erased. God loved you so much that he forgave you, why should you hold forgiveness from someone else.
Because Jesus put the forgiveness we seek and the forgiveness we show together, and makes it part of this model prayer, we realize the importance of seeking forgiveness from God, and showing forgiveness to to others.
If you skip down a few verses, you will see how important our forgiveness from Him depends on our forgiveness towards others.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Our forgiveness of sins from God depends on whether we will show forgiveness to others.
But Dad, you don’t know how they hurt me. You don’t know what the said about me. You don’t know what they took from me.
I don’t know that, but I do know that Jesus said forgive them. Forgive them. It is part our our own forgiveness from God, when we forgive others.
That doesn’t mean you have to forget what they did. Maybe by whatever they did you realize, maybe they should not be my friend, and you put up a boundary between them and you. But you still have to forgive, and leave the rest to God.
Again, if you think about, we were dead in our own sin. We all have broken God’s law and his commandment, but he still looks and forgives when we ask…
Hebrews 8:12
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Psalm. 103…12 remove our transgressions as far as the east is from the west.
Are you holding back forgiving someone for what they have done? If you are, it is hindering your own forgiveness from God for the ways you have broken his expectations for your life.
Maybe today, you need to let it go. Go to them, forgive them. Show some humility and realize that as much of a sinner as you are… God forgave you.
(Bow your heads)
I am reminded of Paul’s words to the Corinthians. Before they were to take communion, Paul told them to “examine themselves.” I think thats what we need to do this morning…take some time…and examine ourselves. Is there anyone you need to forgive? No matter what they have done to you…you need to forgive them. Even if they don’t take it, its ok, do your part, and forgive them.