The Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:9-13
“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 yours is the Kingdom, and the glory, and the power forever. Amen.]”
Although we’ve passed the Lord’s Prayer in our Sermon on the Mount series, I wanted to take a moment to go back and highlight it once more. Right in the middle of the sermon, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray – giving them a “step-by-step” guide on how to do so. Now, this should call us to serious attention. Jesus hardly EVER gives his disciples a step-by-step guide on anything! He most often lays groundwork and principles using metaphor and parables for his hearers to draw conclusions. And half the time (mostly due to hard hearts) his disciples completely miss his point! So – why does Jesus give such a clear guide for prayer here in his sermon?
Two brief reasons:
1.) Jesus’ prayer gives us a huge vision for God.
In Matthew 6:5-8, Jesus says that the main problem He sees in prayer is that it’s being done by Jews and Gentiles alike as a way to puff up the one praying. Prayer had become a vain form of religiosity for bolstering the ego. Empty words, flung to the ears of passerby’s rather than to the heavens.
Jesus teaches in the first three lines of instruction on matter that prayer is, in fact, ego-less. It’s actually an act of utter humility before a humongous and holy God. The first three petitions in Jesus’ prayer are all about Him: God, cause your name to be hallowed! God cause your kingdom to come! God, cause your will to be done! And notice – Jesus gives no scenario for when this prayer is to be prayed. This is not simply a prayer for happy days. It’s a prayer for all time. In joy and pain, sickness and in health. Jesus says that it is good for us to pray about God’s reverence, God’s Kingdom, and God’s will.
Notice that all of these things are eternal in scope. They’re not based on circumstance. Jesus desires his disciples to come to God in prayer not just for moment to moment needs – but for eternal realities in the world, in our community, in our families, and in our own hearts. Jesus wants us to have a huge vision for God, and gaining this huge vision starts by praying that God would move and act and work according to His good pleasure – for our good, and our neighbors good, and our nations good, and the good of the world.
2.) Jesus’ prayer gives us a proper vision of our needs.
After teaching his disciples to pray big – then Jesus teaches his disciples to pray small. This is important and strategic. It’s only in light of remembering God’s big plans and purposes that our own needs are put in proper perspective. Often times we buy into believing the optical illusion that today’s problems far outweigh God’s plans. Yes, today’s problems may be big, no doubt, but they pale when compared to God’s holiness, His Kingdom, and His will. Jesus’ prayer doesn’t downplay our needs, it just helps us to see them as they really are.
And after putting them in perspective, Jesus’ prayer helps us to truly see what our deepest needs are: physical wellbeing, God’s forgiveness, and daily strength for the fight against sin. In humility, Jesus teaches us to ask for sustenance for physical life, sustenance for spiritual life, and sustenance for enduring deaths associate. These are the things that matter, because these are the temporary things that lead to eternity with God.
In the whole of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus is teaching us to have a mind fixed on eternal things. Completely contrary to the pompous prayers of the day – Jesus’ prayer humbles our anxieties, calms our fears, and gives us a proper perspective for every circumstance. Jesus gives this step-by-step prayer guide as a mercy to us in our day to day lives.
If you’re looking for more opportunity to pray, and want some further accountability and fellowship to do so, Ryan D. shared this weekend that the Lord has been working on him in the area of prayer – so much so that he’s starting a Zoom Prayer Group on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 6:00-7:00am that you would be well encouraged to join! Toby also leads a Prayer Gathering on Thursday nights from 7:00-8:00pm at EBC. Both of these are fantastic opportunities to exercise the spiritual discipline of prayer in your life. (Please email the EBC Office at office@evergreenbible.com if you would like to be added to the list for either of these prayer groups, and let us know which one.)
We’ve also been singing the Lord’s prayer as a way to respond to God at church in recent weeks. Click the link here if you’d like to listen and put Jesus’ beautiful words to a melody to hum and store up in your heart.
Continuing to be amazed with you at the mercy of our Lord, that He inclines His ear towards us always.
In His Mercy,
Pastor Ryan A.
Categories: Evergreen Connection