The Lord’s Prayer

Intro

Ok everyone, glad to be back this week!

Can someone give me a summary of what you learned about last week?

This week we’re looking at what comes in the middle of those hypocrisy passages. The Lord’s Prayer.

Does anyone know the Lord’s Prayer by heart?

Scripture Reading

Matthew 6:9–15 ESV

Pray then like this: “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 also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Explanation

Ok there are six “petitions” in the Lord’s prayer.

What is a petition? Well it’s a request. It’s asking for something. You know when you sign a petition for something, it’s a list of names of people who are all going to ask an authority figure to do something.

Has anyone ever signed a petition before?

So that’s a group of people getting together to request something from someone in authority.

When it comes to prayer, a petition is really just a prayer request. And so we see these in the Lord’s prayer.

How many petitions? 6

But first, let’s look at how we address God.

Addressee: Our Father In Heaven

This shows us our relationship with God. He’s our Father, and we are his children. We come to him with a childlike reverence, but also trust that he is good.

We trust that he is our provider. He can do the things for us that we cannot do.

I see this with my son all the time. He can’t walk or talk on his own yet, but he’s very determined to see and do things. So he’ll crawl up to me, then hold his hands out to signal that he wants me to pick him up. Then he’ll guide me step by step by pointing at what he wants or where he wants to go.

Owen knows that I, as his father, can do things for him and take him places he can’t go on his own.

When we address God as father, we recognize this and proclaim our trust that he is a good provider.

And he’s in heaven. He’s a heavenly authority and a heavenly power that can do infinitely more than an earthly father could.

So we come to him as our all-powerful, loving, caring Father.

Petition 1: Hallowed Be Your Name

And first we ask that he be honored and praised as holy. That’s what this word hallowed means. We ask that this be done in our lives. We want our lives to honor him, and so we ask him to help us do that.

We ask him to help us know him more. To know and see more of his glory so we can praise him all the more.

We ask that our lives magnify him, and that he keep us from dishonoring him.

Petition 2: Your Kingdom Come

We ask that he reign and rule in our lives and in the world.

We ask that he help us to submit more and more to him as our King.

We ask that he destroy the works of the enemy in the kingdom of darkness. That his kingdom would push back Satan’s.

We ask that he would bring the whole world to submit to him as King.

Petition 3: Your Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven

Following that logic, we ask that his will be done in our lives. We ask that he help us to submit to his will completely and be eager to do his will instead of our own.

We ask that we would be like the angels who faithfully and willingly serve him with gladness. That’s how we want to be.

Petition 4: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

When we ask this, we recognize that God is our only source of all good things. He is the one who gives us the things we need to live and thrive. So we ask him for it daily.

We recognize that even our own efforts to provide for and take care of ourselves don’t work apart from his grace in our lives. He’s the one who enables us.

In this way, we also ask that he would help us to trust in him alone for these things. Help us to not trust in ourselves, or other people, or the world, but in Him.

Petition 5: And Forgive Us Our Debts As We Forgive Our Debtors

We use the word debts here, but know that this is referring to sin.

Because of what Jesus has done for us, we ask him to forgive us. We ask him to not punish us for our sins, even though he has every right to. We ask for continued forgiveness as we are never perfectly obedient to him, and therefore always indebted to him.

And we ask him to help us to forgive others as well. Since we have been shown great forgiveness, we out to show forgiveness to others out of gratitude for God and recognition of his mercy.

If we aren’t forgiving, something is wrong. It’s a serious heart check. Jesus says you cannot be his follower and be an unforgiving person. It just doesn’t work like that. Anyone who is unforgiving hasn’t really been changed by Jesus.

But it’s hard to be forgiving, so we need his help. So we ask for it.

Petition 6: Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil

We recognize our weakness in facing sin. We cannot resist it on our own, it’s too tempting. So we ask for God to steer us away from temptation, and to give us the strength to resist it when it does come our way.

We ask him to bring the victory over sin in our lives. Literally, save us from the sin that we are so tempted with. Keep us from falling victim to it. Rescue us when faced with temptation.

The Ending

Many people add “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen” to the end of the Lords’ prayer.

I don’t think it was originally part of what Jesus said, so that’s why it’s in a footnote.

But whether or not it was what Jesus instructed us with or not, it’s still a very solid way to pray.

It reminds us that he is in charge of all things. He is the one with all the power and glory. We can come to no one else with these request. Only he is powerful enough to come through for us.

Pray for Small Groups