Good evening and welcome to the Collierville
Church of Christ.
Wonderful to see everybody here this
evening.
Before we get started for class,
we’ll go ahead and open with a word of
prayer.
So if you please bow with me. Dear Lord,
our mighty God and Father in heaven,
how wonderful is your name. How wonderful
it is that we can come before your throne
boldly at this time, speaking you to you
directly through the authority of your
son.
That we can come to you and lay our hearts
down for you to see.
That we can ask so much of you,
even though you’ve already given us so
much.
Lord, we pray that at this time we take
the lessons that we learned this evening
in a way that we can apply to our daily
walks of life,
that we can become strengthened and
fortified as Christian soldiers in your
army,
so that we can go out and reach the public
of this world,
the lost, and bring them into your fold,
Lord God. May we always seek to and strive
to put you first and foremost
in every daily walk of life that we have.
Not just when we walk in the building,
but even when we leave. Lord, please
continue to protect us,
guide us, and direct us with the holy
inspired word that was your gift to us.
Thank you so very much for your son that
died on the cross,
and so we pray to thee in Jesus’ name.
Amen. If you would please turn your Bibles
over to Matthew chapter six.
It’s where we’re going to start our class.
I know it’s been a hot minute,
I think at least a month and a half to two
months since we touched Matthew.
~ last time, I believe we got through
chapter five.
~ if we did not, you’ll have to forgive
me.
My notes say that we did, but it could
have been short,
one or two verses. Chapter five took quite
a bit of time.
make sure to hang on to your pencils.
We’re gonna go through this a little
faster than normal.
I’m gonna try to give you as many notes
that I can out of my notes
for Matthew chapter six. If you are taking
notes,
don’t drop your pencil, otherwise,
you may lose two weeks’ worth of notes as
Brother Webster likes to say. So we’re
going to be going over the Sermon
on the Mount. ~ Now, the if we have to put
an idea
to this chapter, I put the idea down of
know your why.
Because Matthew chapter 6 repeatedly asks
several different questions.
It asks, Who’s my audience? What’s my
motive?
Who is my master? And what am I trusting?
So it asks four different questions.
So we’re gonna go Matthew chapter six
verses one.
And if we can have somebody read
~ chap verses one through four.
Matthew chapter six verses one through
four.
Yep, six, one through four. If you do.
Giving may be in secret.
All right, now before we move on and go
actually into these verses
and pick them apart, I’m gonna give you
the key thought and I’m gonna give
you my section breakdown like I typically
do.
So the key thought for this chapter is
that Jesus is not only concerned with what
you’re doing, but why we are doing it.
The why matters exactly the same amount as
what the means are.
So our simple outline of Matthew chapter
six,
verses one through four, is giving or
charity is the word that I would put
there.
Then the second section, we’re gonna have
five sections total.
We have verses five through fifteen,
and we’re gonna label this one prayer
because he’s talking about our prayer
life.
Then we have section three, and that’s
gonna be verses sixteen through eighteen,
which is fasting. Then verses nineteen
through twenty-four will
be treasure or devotion. And then the
fifth and final section is
Of the chapter is verses 25 through 34,
which is worry or trusts.
~ or if you want to put it down in two
larger movements that are a little easier
to remember, the first half, verses 18 and
beginning,
~ would be sincere religion. And then
verses 19 through the end of
the chapter would be singular devotion,
would be the title that I would put there.
So beginning in verse one, Jesus begins:
take heed.
In other words, he’s saying, pay
attention,
be careful. What I’m about to tell you is
very,
very important. Jesus is not condemning
giving here.
He’s talking about caring for people in
need,
and that’s repeatedly taught all
throughout history history and scripture.
We are stewards of what God has placed
into our hands.
Now let’s get a few cross references for
this.
Someone get Galatians six and verse ten.
And we’ll have someone else get James one
and verse twenty seven,
and that will also be a tie in for the
devotional later on this evening.
We’ll start with Galatians chapter six and
verse ten.
Alright, so as we have opportunity,
if it presents itself, we need to be doing
good unto all men,
especially those that are of the household
of faith.
And now let’s get James chapter one and
verse twenty seven,
someone.
Okay, so in verse one we see the phrase to
be seen of them if you’re using
the King James Version. I think believe
the new King James could
be a little different than that.
What is Jesus condemning in this verse,
in verse one? Is he condemning anything?
Is he condemning giving to in order to be
noticed?
Right. Yes, absolutely. This is where we
have that margin reminder,
the one that I told you guys to write down
in the section,
know your why. Two people could perform
the exact same outward motion
of doing things, but the why could make
the doing it either righteous or wrong.
Because your heart has to be in what
you’re doing.
So let’s have a contrast here.
~
Matthew five and verse sixteen.
Alright, and now skip over and do Matthew
chapter six verses one through two.
Alright, so the issue is not simply
visibility,
right? It’s visibility’s okay if done for
the right reason.
The issue here that Jesus is talking about
in Matthew chapter six is motive.
What is your motive behind the visibility?
Is it to glorify God or is it to glorify
self?
Glorifying self is condemned here.
Now a question, can a good action become
sinful because of the reason that
I’m doing it?
Even though it’s a good action,
if I have the wrong reason for doing it,
can it become sinful? Yeah, absolutely.
We could be teaching in the synagogue.
I could be up here teaching, trying to
glorify myself and making myself
out to be the latest and greatest teacher
and all knowing and everything else,
but that’s not going to help anybody.
But if my purpose for getting up here,
which it is, is to glorify God and to
impart his wisdom of what I’ve learned
unto
you, then that’s the right way to go about
it.
So now that brings us to verse two.
Sound a trumpet before thee. Jesus
pictures the hypocrite during sorry.
Jesus pictures the hypocrite turning
charity into a performance at this point.
Whether the trumpet language is literal or
deliberately vivid,
the point is the point. Everybody look at
me.
Look at what I’m doing. He’s turning his
charity into something to be seen of men.
He’s glorifying himself. It’s that’s why I
say the the word trumpeting.
It’s like tooting your own horn.
Have you ever heard that phrase back in
the day?
It’s an old man phrase, I know,
but I like old man phrases. The hypocrite
is somebody who wants the glory of men,
not the glory for God. So Jesus says what
later in that same verse.
They have their what? They have their
reward.
They’re getting exactly what they want.
They’re laying up treasures where moth and
dust doth corrupt,
while we as Christians, if we’re seeking
to glorify God,
are
Instead, laying up our treasures where
moth and dust does not corrupt,
something that’s going to outlast the
world that we live in now.
They wanted human recognition.
And because of that, that’s all the
recognition that they should expect as
well.
A hypocrite is not a person who sometimes
fails to live up to what he believes.
In this context, the hypocrite is
performing spirituality for an audience.
Shakespeare said it this way.
We are all actors and the world is a
stage.
In the hypocrite’s view at this point,
that’s exactly what’s happening.
He’s just acting the part of someone who’s
altruistic,
someone who cares deeply about others.
He’s doing it simply for the applause at
the end of the show.
So I will agree with Shakespeare on this
rare occasion.
Typically I don’t I don’t agree with
Shakespeare’s thought process at all.
The verses three through four.
Let not thy left hand know. So Jesus is
describing giving without ostentation.
Without making the show of it.
He’s not teaching literal ignorance
between our two hands.
He’s not saying close your eyes and do
something.
He’s teaching the secrecy of motive and
the humility of service to our fellow man.
All right, so let me ask this:
if nobody knew I did this except for God,
should I still do it? Yeah,
absolutely. If it’s a good thing,
we should absolutely still do it.
So the question exposes motive quickly
when we ask ourselves this.
And I think this is a good question to ask
on a daily basis.
If I’m giving to charity, why am I giving
to charity?
Am I doing it so that the people around me
can see me writing out
the check visibly and announcing that I’m
giving X amount of dollars
to this charity, visibly and audibly
tearing it out of my checkbook
and handing it over? Or are we doing it
secretly to glorify God?
There’s a big difference. Verse four
reminds us what is hidden from people
is not hidden from God.
Thy father which seeth in secret.
God sees the action. Not only that,
but God knows the motive. God tells us in
another passage that He knows
the intents and the thoughts of all
mankind.
We can’t hide what our heart has in store.
But God also sees the reason for the
action.
Ultimately, is anything permanently hidden
from God?
No. No. It could be permanently hidden
from the world.
But not when judgment day comes,
because everything’s going to be laid bare
at that point.
So, Bible contrast that we have here that
I have in my notes is the poor widow gave
sincerely. Barnabas was someone who gave
generously.
However, do we remember two people that
gave outwardly but not inwardly?
Do we have an example? Ananias.
Ananias and Sapphira. What happened to
them?
Was the issue the fact that they didn’t
give,
or was it an issue from the heart?
It was an issue from the heart.
Now I’m not saying that you ornately have
to simply just by nature be that way.
Humans, by nature, are pretty selfish
creatures.
But we have to teach our hearts.
It takes time to get to that point,
and God understands that. When you’re a
little kid,
we have to be taught to care for others.
We have to be taught to share as little
children.
It’s the same thing sometimes as adults.
It takes time to mold our hearts into what
God wants them to be.
But as long as we’re walking the light as
he is in the light,
as long as we’re seeking to train our
hearts in that way,
we can get them to the point where we do
genuinely care and genuinely want
to do these things from the heart.
Another good illustration that came to
mind when I was putting this together was,
again, a reference to the child.
When you first obey your parents,
at least in my case, it was out of fear of
getting spanked with the belt.
The Southerners in here would get that
one.
My dad was one that spanked, but as I grew
older,
the obedience to the parents morphed from
fear into love.
It came out of obedience, wanting to be
obedient,
instead of just out of fear. That’s what
God wants for us.
He says to fear God and keep his
commandments.
But what more is later on in the Bible,
he tells us if you what? Love me,
keep my commandments.
We are still always to fear God.
He’s one who could tear apart our souls
and throw us into everlasting damnation.
However, he’s also the one who can save
us.
He wants us to have the right heart
towards him.
So, getting back to the lesson,
Jesus now takes the same principle and
applies it to something even more
obviously
spiritual, and that’s to prayer.
So let’s go ahead and read Matthew chapter
6,
and we’ll do the next section 5 through
verse 8,
if someone will get that.
All right. Prayer is one of the greatest
privileges that we can ever have
as a people of God. It is one of the
greatest gifts that we have been ever
given.
And that’s one of the rewards that we got
that shouldn’t have been ours,
that we were given to us by Christ dying
on the cross.
First Thessalonians five seventeen tells
us to pray without ceasing.
And James five sixteen tells us the power
of prayer.
It says the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man what?
Availeth much. Now many times when when
I’m going around and going from
congregation
to congregation and I’m speaking about
Japan gospel,
I’ve had a couple of congregations come up
to me and say,
Well, Justin, we’d love to have you come
and speak ~ about what you’re planning
on doing in Japan and the work you have
out there,
but we just ~ we just can’t financially
support you.
And I’m like, Great, brother, that sounds
fun fantastic.
When can I come?
And they kind of look at me sideways and
go,
What do you mean, when can you come?
I just told you we can’t support you
financially.
Brothers and sisters, the power of prayer
coming from
a faithful servant of God is more powerful
than any number that they could
put on a check. And we need to remember
that.
The effectual, fervent prayer of a
righteous man doesn’t avail little,
it avails much.
We need to stop discounting the power of
prayer.
That’s why, whenever we go through,
and I keep harping on this ~ over and over
again whenever we
do the evangelism training or those little
prayer cards that we have in our Bible,
when we go through those, we need to be
writing down people’s name because
it avails much when we pray for them on a
daily basis.
Sometimes that could be the difference
between a soul saved and a soul lost.
Could be simply the power of prayer.
Now, to what extent the prayer will work,
I’m not sure. That’s up to God.
But we know that it avails much.
Yet Jesus tells us that even prayer
sometimes can become hypocritical.
Verse five, he denotes that they may be
seen of men.
Now Jesus here is not condemning public
prayer,
but scripture contains public prayers,
congregational prayers, prayers offered in
the presence of others.
The problem is praying for the express
purpose of impressing others.
And that’s what these people at this time
were doing in the culture.
Again, Jesus asks us to know our why.
So let’s ask another question.
When I pray publicly, am I more conscious
of God or
of how I sound to everybody listening?
Sometimes we get attached to the prayers
when we come up to the pulpit here
and we pray. And I have the same problem.
When I come up here, sometimes I’m trying
to get my words out just perfect,
trying to sound as eloquent as I can.
Brothers and sisters,
It doesn’t matter if it sounds eloquent or
not.
God hears your prayer. God cares about it.
God wants it to come for our heart.
So if it’s in a southern twang,
it’s in a southern twang. It doesn’t have
to be eloquent.
Even Paul himself said that he was not
eloquent of speech,
and yet he still professed the Lord’s name
unto all that would hear him.
So verse six, he continues, he says,
Enter into thy closet. The point is not
that every acceptable prayer must
literally
happen inside of a closet.
Now there are some people that do take
this to the extreme,
believe it or not. But the principle is
pray as though you and God are
the only ones in the room. Whether 200
people hear the prayer or nobody hears it,
prayer is addressed to who? God.
Is he going to hear it? Yes. Okay,
so when we know that it’s addressed to God
properly,
that should remove pride, it should remove
pretense,
it should remove performance, and it
should absolutely
Remove showmanship as well. We don’t come
up here to the pulpit and try
to show off with our prayers and make them
as long or as eloquent as possible.
They need to come from the heart.
I have a margin note in my Bible over here
that I wrote,
and it says, Spend much time with God in
secret.
And to compare that, someone get James
chapter four and verse eight.
James chapter four and verse eight.
Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh
unto you.
If you want to have a relationship with
somebody,
do you need proper communication with said
person?
Can you have a relationship without
communication with that person?
Now, if they’re long distance,
I know by today’s standard we send emails,
but back in the day you would send
letters.
Now to God, we can’t send a letter.
We can’t send an email. We can’t call him
up on the phone.
We can’t WhatsApp him. We can’t give him
our line.
But what can we do?
Pray. Now that’s not a communication like
ours going vertical,
but when we pray, our communication goes
vertical,
not horizontal. I got the two mixed up.
It goes vertical, it goes up. And it
doesn’t fall on deaf ears.
God hears us. A healthy private prayer
life consists
of public prayer and private prayer.
We need to be willing to do both.
And it doesn’t mean by public that you
have to do it in front of people.
For the express purpose of doing it in
front of people.
But don’t be afraid to pray over your meal
just because you’re in
a restaurant full of people either.
Because we’re demonstrating our love of
God to God.
Don’t worry about what they think.
On judgment day, is it gonna matter what
they think or what God thinks?
It matters what God thinks. So we
absolutely should not be embarrassed
at any point in time saying, you know
what,
let me I’m I’m gonna I’m gonna pray over
this food.
Or the next time that you sit there,
and this was one of the best lessons that
I was ever taught by any
of my instructors at MSOP was when someone
says,
Hey, I have this ailment, something’s
happened to me,
I’d really appreciate it if you’d pray for
me.
~ I’d be happy to do so. And typically we
have the bad habit of walking off.
From now on, let’s look at them and say,
you know what, let’s do it right now.
Don’t let them leave before you pray for
them.
Right now is the time of salvation,
right?
Right now is the time for prayer.
We’ve already established the reason why
we should pray.
We’ve already established that God hears
it.
He’s present, he’s omnipresent,
he’s always here. Where two or more of you
gather,
there I am also. That’s not just in the
worship service,
that’s outside of it as well. If I stand
there with a complete stranger
and pray before God, he is right there
with us listening to that prayer.
You can’t get any more effectual than
that.
You have a direct plea to God.
Why would you let this person walk away?
So let’s make sure to to to pray,
but pray from the heart. And then verses
seven through eight,
it we do get a warning here though.
We get the warning against vain
repetition.
Now he’s not teaching that the same
request made over and over again is a bad
thing.
Jesus himself repeated a request in
Gethsemane.
The problem is what’s what’s the ~ I
believe it’s a helping verb,
right? The the d the definite the defining
word for repetition,
the word right before repetition.
What kind of repetition? Vain repetition.
This would be empty wording, thoughtless
repetition,
the idea that sheer quantity of words
forces our God to listen.
The heathens supposed they shall be heard
for their much speaking.
If I say it enough times, maybe we can bug
him to death about it,
and he’ll, I’ll just give them what they
want.
At least they’ll be quiet about it.
The squeaky wheel gets greased.
That’s a good one. I’m gonna have to
remember that.
That’s not how God works. He could listen
to it for a thousand years
and it’s not gonna get tiring on his ear.
But Jesus said in verse 8, Your Father
knoweth what things ye have need of when?
Not only that, he knows before he asked,
he knew before he even made you.
He knew before he created the world.
We don’t need to limit God’s knowledge.
God knows everything from the beginning of
time to the end of time,
all the way through eternity. He knows
all.
He knew way before we ever asked him what
it is we were going to ask him.
So verse 8 gives us the reason why we
should not pray like the heathen.
God is not ignorant.
We’re not trying to wear him down,
inform him of something he missed,
unlock his attention like a little kid
pulling at the pant leg of mommy and
daddy.
So, three questions that we can ask
ourselves that are trust questions.
Do we trust truly that God hears us?
Do we trust that God knows?
And finally, do we trust God enough to
speak sincerely rather than mechanically?
Sometimes your prayer doesn’t even have to
specify.
There have been many times when I’ve sat
there on my knees and prayed
to God and said, God,
I don’t know what I’m supposed to pray for
at this moment.
But you do. So please fulfill those
requests.
Please give me what you know I need,
not necessarily what I want. Even Christ
Himself sat there face down and said,
If this cup may pass from me, please let
it let it be done another way.
Nevertheless, not my will, but whose?
But yours. He said.
I give it up to you, Father. You know best
for all things.
He already knows. So Jesus has told us now
how not to pray.
Now he gives us a model for how we should
pray.
And now we get into the section known as
the model prayer.
So now we’re going to read verses 9
through 15,
and I will get these since it’s a longer
section.
Matthew chapter 9, Matthew chapter 6,
verses 9 through 15. After this manner,
therefore pray ye.
Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, in earth as it is in
heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil,
for thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, for ever. Amen.
For if ye forgive men their trespass,
your heavenly Father will also forgive
you.
But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses,
neither will your father forgive your
trespasses.
All right, so Jesus says, after this
manner,
pray ye. If you have your pen,
please underline in your Bible,
if you’re one who marks, underline the
word manner.
There’s a key word here. Jesus gives his
disciples a pattern,
a model, a framework,
if you will, for prayer.
The passage is commonly known to be called
today the Lord’s Prayer.
Through John 17, more proper records,
an extended prayer actually prayed by
Jesus.
Here, Jesus is teaching his disciples how
to pray.
Now, question for you Is Jesus giving us
words that simply must
be recited or principles by which we
should shape our prayers?
Principles. The immediate warning against
vain repetition strongly favors
understanding this as a model to follow
thoughtfully,
not an incantation to go through
mechanically.
And so many times, there are many
denominations that will still pray today,
our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, and they go through
it word by word.
Now we’re gonna go through it word by word
here,
but we want to break down what the
structure,
what the framework is, and why we have the
framework.
First off, our father which art in heaven.
When you write a letter, do we have to
address it to somebody?
Yeah, of course. Typically you don’t write
a letter to a a loving family member
to say to whom it may concern.
You’re definitely not going to do that to
God.
And we want to show him the honor that he
deserves.
Now, I was taught in school, I don’t even
know if they teach in school anymore
how to properly write a letter,
but you capitalize their name.
You say dear, so-and-so with a capital
letter.
You show them respect. But here,
this expression shows both relationship
and reverence.
Our Father, he is our Father. He created
everything.
And not only that, he’s above everything
here on earth,
our Father which is in heaven.
We must approach him intimately.
However, we must be careful never to
approach him in prayer flippantly.
We to be very careful to give him his due.
Christian prayer begins with the reality
that the Almighty God allows people
to address him rationally as Father.
Hallowed be thy name. The next section
tells us that God is holy.
Prayer should always begin with a
recognition of who God is and
not merely a shopping list of what we
want.
He already knows all about our wants long
before we ask him.
Then we come to thy kingdom come.
Now, this is a very big one. And this is a
contention with me because I want
to make sure that everybody understands
this.
The words, thy kingdom come. At that point
in history,
the kingdom, the kingdom’s establishment
was still a future-tense thing.
It is not that anymore. We do not need to
mechanically pray.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus preached, the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.
It’s coming soon. And we see that in Acts
chapter two,
also known as the hub of the Bible.
Therefore, today we do not pray that the
kingdom be established as though
it has never come. When was the kingdom
established?
Yep, on Pentecost, right? Yeah.
It’s already been established.
The kingdom is his church. He was praying
on earth as it is in heaven.
Guess what? That’s exactly what we’re in
right now.
We have that. And yet, so many today,
specifically, I believe, Catholic
Catholicism,
will still pray that prayer. Thy kingdom
come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.
We know they’re praying.
praying mechanically because they don’t
even know what they’re saying.
They’re not taking the thoughts into
practice and figuring it out.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.
I’ve got notes. Not God will make you
agree with mine,
but Father, I want my will to agree with
yours.
That’s surrender.
Verse 11, he moves on to the next section
of prayer.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Is Jesus describing luxury here?
No, he’s saying, give us this daily bread.
He’s not asking for yesterday’s old stale
bread and complaining about it.
He’s not asking for tomorrow’s bread.
He says, give us today our daily bread.
We read elsewhere in the Bible,
he says, take no thought for the morrow,
for the morrow will take thought for
Itself. Now the word their thought is
actually an expression of anxiety.
He’s saying don’t have anxiety for
tomorrow.
He’s not saying don’t plan, don’t lay by
up in store for what we need.
We don’t need to be ignorant of things
that are coming in the future,
bills that need to be paid. That’s being
responsible.
But he’s saying don’t be anxious about it,
don’t worry about it. God clothed the
flowers of the field and waters them with
dew.
He feeds the sparrows.
How much more will he array us that are
made likewise in his image?
And I’m paraphrasing the verses back
there.
From time to time, and I think I’ve
preached it twice here already,
I preached a sermon on worry. And I always
love this comparison from a book
I had years ago called How to Stop
Worrying and Start Living by someone named
Dale
Carnegie. And he put it in a great way.
He said, Live in daytight compartments.
Now what does that mean? Who here knows
about the Titanic?
Do you know why the Titanic sunk?
Partially because of the iceberg.
We know the iceberg hit it. If the iceberg
didn’t hit it,
right? But we’re gonna we’re gonna say the
iceberg was worry.
It tore through the bow of the ship.
But the way that the ship was laid out was
you have all these sections of rooms,
separate rooms, with bulkheads on either
side.
We’ll say you had ten of them.
And five of them were cut into where water
could flow into regularly from
the side of the ship. Now
What happened was they did not have
watertight compartments on the Titanic.
What they had instead were bulkheads that
went all the way up towards
the tippy top and then left a section
about this big near the top.
So what would happen is once they struck
the very first room,
that ship was sunk. But it didn’t sink
immediately,
it took time. The water filled the
compartment.
And once you reach the edge of the tub,
whenever you’re filling it up at home,
if you didn’t have that little spout and
that was clogged up,
you know, the overflow drain, which is
there for your backup,
it saved me a couple of times now.
But if you don’t have that, what’s gonna
happen when it reaches the edge of the
tub?
Is it gonna overflow if water keeps coming
in?
So if you are in a compartment and you
have worries on this side
and worries from the future, both the past
and the future,
and you let the water start receding in,
are you going to drown?
In your own worry, in your own anxiety,
we need to live in daytight compartments.
Christ is telling us, give us this day our
daily bread.
Take care of me just today. No matter how
hard of thing that we have going
on in our lives, we can live from sunup to
sundown and be a good,
strong Christian. We only have to take it
one day at a time.
And if we continually do that,
our days stack up.
Then he continues, forgive our debts as we
forgive our debtors.
Here the debts represents our sins.
Jesus immediately returns to the issue in
verses 14 through 15 because it’s
far too important to miss. We cannot
sincerely beg God for mercy while
cultivating
very ungiving spirits towards others.
If we are unwilling to forgive,
our God will not forgive us. The person
who understands how desperately
he needs God’s forgiveness ought to become
as
Much as he can, as merciful and as eager
to forgive others as Christ
was willing to do. And God says when he
forgives us,
he throws it over his shoulder into the
deep,
where it’s never to be seen again.
He doesn’t dredge up old things.
So when you get into the argument with
your family member down the road,
don’t dig up old bones and start throwing
the pieces at your loved one.
That’s not fair. It’s not fair to them,
and it’s definitely not fair to you.
‘Cause you what happens to the person
that’s digging up all those bones?
They tend to get dirt on it.
Someone get Colossians three, verse
thirteen.
We’re gonna get a cross reference here
from my notes.
Colossians chapter three and verse
thirteen.
Alright, because Christ forgave us first,
we need to be willing to forgive those
other.
And I think it’s kind of neat when we
think about the Old Testament because
we’re
taught that the sacrifices of the Old
Testament,
all those thousands upon millions of goats
and bulls and pigs
and doves and everything else,
could never cover sin. But the one
sacrifice from Christ could.
But not only that, we’re taught that it’s
a a rolling forward to the point
of the cross.
Our God gave us a whole lot of grace when
he died on that cross for
our sins and made it to where we could be
washed in his blood through
the act of baptism and have our sins
washed away.
But if you think of it as a drop of water
hitting a bucket of water,
when you pour it in, does it make a ripple
going both ways?
How much grace must have Christ had to
forgive those in the Old Testament before
he ever even sacrificed himself on the
cross?
Because the blood and bulls of goats sure
didn’t wash it away.
It just pushed them forward until the
perfect sacrifice was made,
and then it was washed. It’s an
interesting thing and a rabbit hole to
jump down,
but I’m not going to chase that lead
today.
So, verse 13, lead us not into temptation.
James 1.13 makes this clear. So Jesus is
not asking us to pray that
God stop doing something sinful.
He’s not saying, Don’t lead me into
temptation anymore.
Rather, our petition recognizes our
weakness,
the reality of temptation on this earth,
our need for God’s providential help,
and the fact that of our dependence upon
Him for deliverance.
Lord God, lead me not into temptation.
He’s not saying, don’t lead me into
temptation,
but keep me from it, Lord. I know that it
exists,
and I know that you’re the one to keep me
from it.
I need to hold you in my heart,
hold your words in my heart, so that when
I see the temptation,
I can leave it behind.
Because only your strength is going to let
me go past that.
Somebody get first Corinthians ten and
verse thirteen.
Let’s see what God gives every single
person in in in reference to temptation.
So he’s not going to allow us to be
tempted above what we are able to
circumvent.
He loves us enough to say, even to the
great tempter,
you’re not going to tempt them above what
they’re able to bear.
He limits that because he loves us enough.
Then the closing words in this section:
Thy kingdom come, power and glory belong
to God.
Prayer puts the creature in his proper
place before the Creator.
So we see the model prayer at a glance.
Going back over the prayer. The prayer
recognizes God’s relationship,
God’s holiness, God’s rule.
I’m gonna run out of fingers. God’s will,
God’s provision, his forgiveness,
and finally the lead me not into
temptation provides his protection against
us.
Now we’re only gonna get that protection
if we’re dwelling in his word.
Prayers is fundament the prayer that we’re
seeing,
the framework that we see all together,
if we raft it up into a single
Sentence would be this. Father,
I need you. I can’t live my life without
you.
I can’t navigate this world without you.
I need you in every way, shape,
and form. Our own breath is a gift from
God.
We need him. We’ll go ahead and stop there
since we’re at the last.
Is there any questions, concerns,
philosophical meanderings, astute
observations?
Alright, if not, we’ll go ahead and
conclude there.
That way we don’t
Saint the other day. Yeah, he does a he
does a whole lot of things.
Not only that, they keep changing changing
their doctrine with every new Pope,
it seems. I believe it was back in the
nineteen forties,
they came up with the Pope can never be
wrong.
But if that’s the case, then why does the
new Pope contradict the old Pope?
Common sense will tell you that,
but
Yeah, do they? I was born in the South,
so I figured I wouldn’t speak where I
wasn’t allowed to,
right? Like I’m okay to say it ’cause I’m
from Tennessee,
but and boy, let me tell you I deserved it
from time to time.
