Normal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:normal'>The Lord’s Prayer: It’s All About Him!Part 2:  Surrender

Matthew 6:10

Pericope

Prayer

 5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

 9"This, then, is how you should pray:
   " 'Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,
 10your kingdom come,
   your will be done
      on earth as it is in heaven.
 11Give us today our daily bread.
 12Forgive us our debts,
      as we also have forgiven our debtors.
 13And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.[a]' 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Introduction

Review

The “Lord’s Prayer” is really the disciple’s prayer.  As a pattern for prayer, it is both brief and complete.

If we look at an outline of the prayer, we see it follows Jesus’ teaching later in Matthew 6, “33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

The prayer can be outlined like this:

·         Know Him:  Our father in heaven, holy is your name

·         Surrender to Him:  Kingdom come, your will be done

·         Trust Him: Give us our daily bread

·         Imitate Him:  Forgive us as we forgive others

·         Overcome through Him: Deliver us from evil

·          

The prayer mirrors the progression of the Christian life. 

• First, we must know God in relationship with who he really is.
• Once we know him, the only appropriate recourse is to surrender to him. 
• Once surrendered, we trust him for all of our provision. 
• As we walk with him in this relationship, we imitate him and share his grace with others.
• This all leads to our overcoming all that is around us through his guidance and power.

Transition: Build Bridge to This Message

Lay Out Scope

I.          What is the Kingdom of God

a.   As Defined by Jesus

                               i.   Your kingdom come

                              ii.   Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

b.   The Kingdom is

                               i.   Inside us

                              ii.   Manifested by our actions

1.   Tony Compolo story about birthday party for a prostitute in Hawaii

                            iii.   Now

                            iv.   Counter to what seems natural to us

1.   It is not natural to love your enemies

2.   It is not natural to store up your treasures

3.   It is not natural to look out for someone else’s interests as well as your own

Transition:  Everyone belongs to a kingdom

II.        What Kingdom do you choose?

a.   It’s about who you serve—the kingdom of God is who reigns in your life.

                               i.   There are at least three of choices about who you can serve

1.   You can serve yourself—This is the choice of many.  Their favorite letter is I.  It’s all about them.  This is the natural choice.  I believe we are wired to serve self. If you choose to serve self, you don’t have to do anything different that what comes natural. 

2.   You can serve a cause—there are people who choose to serve something other than self, but they do it in their own power.  These extraordinary people do great things many times.  They are the crusaders, the idealists, to revolutionaries.  I admire many of these people—Ghandi, Bono,

3.   You can serve the Kingdom—This is the most challenging of all.  In fact, you can only serve one King at a time. 

a.   "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Matthew 6:24

b.   Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Matthew 16:24

                                                                                         i.    To be part of the Kingdom of God, you must forsake everything else.  The first thing you give up is self-autonomy.  You don’t operate out of the same motivation or same volition any more. 

                                                                                        ii.    This is hard for us to understand in our culture.  We are very individualistic, self-made people in America. 

                                                                                      iii.    Let me share an example of the type of sacrifice you have to make to serve the kingdom.

The Rich Young Man:  Matthew 19: 16 -22

 16Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"

 17"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."

 18"Which ones?" the man inquired.

   Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19honor your father and mother,'[d] and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'[e]"

 20"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"

 21Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

 22When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

 23Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

 25When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"

 26Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

 27Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"

 28Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother[f] or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

Transition:  So how do we get “into” the Kingdom of God or better yet, how do we get the Kingdom of God into us? Well you can’t join! There isn’t a membership campaign.  The only way to experience the Kingdom of God is to surrender to it.

Let’s look at how Jesus talks about the kingdom--

III.      Living in the Kingdom of God

a.   Poor in Spirit—

Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount off with a series of statements.  The statements are so revolutionary they seem like contradictions.  The first one is “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

In this verse we have a view into what it takes to get into the kingdom of heaven.  We need to be poor in spirit.  Well, what does that mean?

b.   Persecuted for righteousness sake

c.    Through the fruit of the Spirit

Transition:

IV.       Conclusion

a.   But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."  Joshua 24:15