1. "He is so wonderful that even just reporting who he is and what he's like is to burst forth in praise. He is majestic and he gives life to all and to him all life is aimed."

2. "There's no darkness that you're experiencing now that the glory of God's name won't help dispel. He is worth it."

3. "We can't see past this moment, but God sees past tomorrow. We don't know what the future will hold, but God holds it in his hands."

4. "It's one of the sad realities of this life that those who have so much to thank God for often lose sight of him. It's true that in abundance there is a temptation to forget God."

5. "Through Christ, God is more ready to forgive you of your sin than you are to confess it. So don't delay in confessing your sin to this God and see the forgiveness that he provides in Christ."

6. "The forgiveness that we seek in prayer is a living forgiveness that bears fruit in our lives and relationships. As we receive it, so we extend it to others."

7. "Left to ourselves, we'd make the same mistakes repeatedly. Left to ourselves, we'd be consumed by the darkness of sin. But here, like a child walking in the midst of beasts, we need a protector."

8. "Sister, you're not too far gone. Sin hasn't corrupted anything in you that God's mercy can't redeem. He knows your need. Turn to him. Don't delay. Cry out to him. He will deliver you from evil."

9. "We don't have to perform our prayers for him to be heard. We're not heard for our eloquence. It's not our work that causes God to hear our prayers. His ear is inclined to us in Christ."

10. "Though often our prayers fall short, though often we feel like we can't capture all that we're going through with the words or the time, Jesus catches our prayers and perfects them. He taught us to pray and He continues to approach the Father for us."

Observation Questions

1. In Matthew 6:9, how does Jesus instruct His followers to address God when they pray, and where does Jesus say this God is located?

2. According to Matthew 6:9-10, what are the first three requests Jesus teaches His disciples to make in prayer, and what do these requests focus on (God's concerns or human concerns)?

3. In Matthew 6:11, what specific provision does Jesus instruct His followers to ask God for, and what time frame does He attach to this request?

4. According to Matthew 6:12, what does Jesus teach His followers to ask forgiveness for, and what condition or comparison does He include alongside this request?

5. In Matthew 6:13, what two things does Jesus instruct His followers to ask God to do for them regarding temptation and evil?

6. Looking at the structure of the entire prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, how many total petitions or requests does Jesus include, and how does the prayer move from its beginning to its end (what shift in focus occurs)?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Jesus teaches His followers to address God as "Our Father" rather than using a more formal title, and what does this language reveal about the relationship believers have with God through Christ?

2. What does it mean to pray "hallowed be your name," and why does Jesus place this request before any petition for human needs? What does this ordering teach us about the priorities of prayer?

3. How does the petition "your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" shape a Christian's understanding of their purpose and priorities in daily life? What is Jesus teaching about the relationship between God's plans and our own?

4. According to the sermon, why does Jesus connect our receiving forgiveness from God with our extending forgiveness to others (Matthew 6:12)? What is the relationship between these two realities, and what does this teach about the nature of God's forgiveness?

5. How does the final petition—"lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"—acknowledge both human weakness and God's power? What does this request reveal about where our strength to resist sin ultimately comes from?

Application Questions

1. The sermon emphasized that praising God should characterize our private prayer life, not just public worship. What is one specific attribute or promise of God you could meditate on this week, and how could you build time into your daily routine to praise Him for it?

2. Jesus teaches us to pray for God's kingdom to come and His will to be done. What is one decision, priority, or use of your time this week that you could evaluate in light of God's kingdom priorities rather than your own comfort or advancement?

3. The sermon noted that those in abundance can easily forget their dependence on God for daily provision. In what specific ways do you tend to trust in your own resources (savings, job security, abilities) rather than acknowledging God as your provider, and how might you cultivate gratitude and dependence this week?

4. Regarding forgiveness, the sermon distinguished between extending forgiveness (which we freely give) and reconciliation (which requires rebuilding trust). Is there someone you are struggling to forgive, and what would it look like this week to release bitterness toward them while still maintaining appropriate boundaries?

5. The sermon taught that we need God's strength to resist temptation and that no one is "too far gone" for God's mercy. What is one area of temptation or sin in your life where you have been relying on your own willpower rather than crying out to God for deliverance? How can you begin to pray specifically about this need?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Psalm 103:1-14 — This passage shows God's fatherly compassion toward His children and His readiness to forgive, reinforcing the sermon's teaching about approaching God as a loving Father.

2. Romans 8:14-17 — Paul explains how the Spirit enables believers to cry "Abba, Father," connecting to Jesus' teaching that we can address God with familial intimacy through Christ.

3. Hebrews 4:14-16 — This passage describes Jesus as our great high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses and invites us to approach God's throne with confidence, supporting the sermon's emphasis on Christ's intercession.

4. Colossians 3:12-15 — Paul instructs believers to forgive one another as the Lord forgave them, expanding on the connection between receiving and extending forgiveness found in the Lord's Prayer.

5. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 — This passage assures believers that God will not allow them to be tempted beyond what they can bear and will provide a way of escape, reinforcing the petition for deliverance from temptation and evil.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Getting God's Attention: The Challenge of Being Noticed

II. Who We Are to Pray To: Our Father in Heaven

III. How We Are to Pray: The Six Petitions of the Lord's Prayer

IV. How Our Prayers Work: Jesus Intercedes for Us

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Detailed Sermon Outline

How far would you go to get someone's attention?

Well, when I was in high school, my one goal was to play college football. And so I entered the world of college recruiting. Little did I know what all awaited me as over 1 million high school football players vie for about 100,000 spots on a team and fewer than that actually see the field. So you could say that the recruiting process, it's been a while, it's changed some since I was in high school, but largely the recruiting process is still the same. How are you, how is one athlete noticed by the right team?

How do you get on the team of your dreams? Well, what it takes is being noticed by the right person. So you can hire professionals.

You cut film. You spend hours trying to show many the best version of yourself, that highlight reel that will wow even the most skeptical of coaches. You spend, I can't say this enough, a lot of time trying to figure out what will be appealing to the team of your dreams? Well, high school sports, college athletics is one thing, but I think that it largely applies to a lot of us. How many of us spend time building just the right resume?

Building up the right professional reputation so that we can get the right job? How many of us spend a lot of time looking at the mirror to make sure that special someone will notice us, so that we can hopefully find the relationship that we've always been desiring. Well, how about when it turns, when we turn to think about things much grander than are contained in this world? How is it that we can know that God attends to us? What is it that makes him hear our prayers?

Much of that is what we're looking at in our passage for this morning. The passage this morning that we're considering is in Matthew's Gospel. This is the second of two sermons in Jesus' much-famed Sermon on the Mount, which is that section of Matthew's Gospel of chapter 5 through chapter 7, which is really Jesus' first extended teaching in the book of Matthew. There, Jesus wants his followers to see what true righteousness is. As we looked at last week, he's correcting a lot of the misconceptions and misnomers, the misinterpretations of many of the famed interpreters orders of the law during his day.

But what he wants his followers to see is that true righteousness, the righteousness that God requires stems from the heart. And you can largely see that organized in the Sermon on the Mount in two sections. Matthew chapter five, which is where our passage last week was, defines a true righteousness. Matthew chapter six through seven exhibits a true righteousness. What does this righteousness look like?

Starting with devotion to God, and then working itself out to others.

So here, and the passage that we're at this morning is really at a hinge point in the Sermon on the Mount. And somebody asked me last week, why did you choose these two passages to look at in the Sermon on the Mount? And I think that the answer basically boils down to this. If you can understand what Jesus is saying here in the Lord's Prayer that we're gonna look at in just a moment, and what he means when he says love your enemies. If you can kind of grasp what's happening in those two passages, I think you can walk away understanding pretty well what Jesus is after in the Sermon on the Mount.

So here what we're looking at is what kind of devotion does God require? What does he want to hear from us when we pray? That's what Jesus is teaching us in our passages this morning. So go ahead and turn there now. Turn to Matthew Chapter 6, and we'll be in verses 9 through 13 this morning.

On the Red Pew Bibles, you can find this on page 811. Page 811.

Jesus says, Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallow it, 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.

So here, Jesus gives his followers a model prayer He instructs them plainly and simply how they are to approach this great God. He gives them an example to follow. And if you look there, the prayer really can be divided into two sections. So first, there's the introduction, there's who we should pray to, our Father in heaven, and then there's followed by three requests. This is the first section.

You see that hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. All of these are directed at God's plans. Who he is?

His character, His priorities, His kingdom, and His plans, that is His will. And then the second section is those final three requests. You see that there, it's daily bread, forgive us our debts, and lead us not into temptation. All of these press in on what we need, what are our needs. So first we pray to God, we seek His glory, and then the prayer turns to consider what we need before this great God.

It's as majestic as it is simple. So for his followers, Jesus defines first who we are to pray to, second how we are to pray, and third how our prayers work. So that'll be the outline for this morning. The first point is who we're to pray to, second how we're to pray, and third how our prayers work. How prayer works.

And just to give you a little warning up front, the second point is by far the largest. That's where we'll work through each of these petitions in the Sermon on the Mount.

And Jesus teaching his followers to pray, he shows us God's plans and God's priorities. So largely what we're gonna see in the Sermon on the Mount is a large meditation on what it is that God would have us see and what matters in the world. So I hope as we consider this model prayer, that the Lord gives you confidence as you approach God, and that you can stand firm knowing that he does, in fact, hear your prayers, and that we can approach God in his abundance and know that he supplies our need. So let's look first at who we are to pray to. So here Jesus teaches his followers, he says it simply, to our Father in heaven.

And here Jesus very astutely is opening up new vistas to his followers. Now, we should note that knowing God as Father or calling on him even as our Father isn't new or novel necessarily to Jesus' teaching. It does occur in the Sermon on the Mount. We see that in Psalm 103 where God shows his fatherly care to Israel. Or we also see it in Isaiah 63 16, where God is called on as Father and Redeemer.

However, though present in the Old Testament, what Jesus is doing is significant. He's bringing something to the foreground that was in the background. It's kind of like the show, I think it's still running, Undercover Boss, where the boss is hidden. He disguises himself, goes amongst the employees. He's always there, but then at the end there's the great reveal, right?

And it's the mask is taken off and the boss that you see was always amongst them. And that changes how the employees see them, changes how the employees interact with the boss. Well here, Jesus is unmasking this truth for us, that no longer do we deal with God in shadows and types, no longer is God worshiped through a temple. Instead, Jesus is bringing the language of the familiar relationship to us. He's saying, Pray to your Father.

He's saying pray to my father. He's saying pray to our father together. Jesus's followers here are uniting with him in prayer. That language is significant. Jesus again, he isn't just giving you a model and saying you all pray like this, I'm going to pray this way.

He's saying no, come and pray to our father. He's teaching us the family language. It's how to approach. What he's showing us here is how to approach the father in faith with his help.

And notice there, where is the Father? The Father is in heaven. Again, this is a prayer of faith. The Father isn't someone that we see now. We're reliant on his Word.

We're reliant on Jesus to show him to us.

If you're here and you're not a follower of Jesus, I just want to make it very clear that Accessing God as Father in the way that Jesus extends here, it isn't something that you can do apart from Jesus. It takes repenting, it takes turning from your sin and turning to Christ to pray this way. Apart from Him, you're left exposed. See, the problem isn't that you just need to do better. That you just need to clean up your life, then you can come to God.

That's to totally misunderstand God, that's to misunderstand the Bible, that's even to misunderstand what Jesus is saying here. What God would have us do is recognize first that we are sinners, that we need a Savior, that we need someone else's righteousness, that we on our own are condemned, but that in him, through Christ, we can be redeemed.

So if you're not a Christian, friend, I would beg you to consider the one teaching us to pray this prayer. Consider what he would have you see about yourself. Consider what he would have you come and do. If you have questions about that, talk with the friend who brought you. Or come talk to any one of us at the doors following the service.

But this language, one of familial relationship, is open only to those who see God by faith and by faith in Christ our Lord.

For others, our struggle may be somewhat different. You may believe everything that I just said to be true, that Jesus came, lived, died for your sins, but you still yet struggle to know God or see Him as a loving Father.

It may be that you're more inclined to see God as the one whom you dutifully serve. It's amazing what our sense of duty can do, isn't it? It can cause us to show up early on a Sunday morning. It can cause us to bear with those who are really hard to get along with.

But brother, sister, notice here that this language isn't something of duty. It's not coming with command. It's not telling you, this is who your Father is, so worship Him. The Bible does say that, but notice here what Jesus extends is language of relationship. It's the warmth of being welcomed.

So your prayers, if you're prone to think this way, may be more out of this sense of duty than they are delight. But friend, don't miss this point. Jesus came to show us that in God, that in Christ, God is pleased with you. And he's inclined to hear your prayers because it's Jesus who's taught you to pray. He looks on you now in Christ as his beloved son.

There's no mistake. He sees you, the object of His delight, in Christ. You are hidden in Him and everything that God the Father sees in the Son is now awarded to you. And here Jesus is acquainted with our need. He knows what we need.

He knows that we need to be taught to cry out to God as Father. He knows we're so prone to look to other things for comfort and satisfaction in this life. He knows that we're tempted to that we cower in fear, that we're tempted to hide behind our sense of duty, that we oftentimes don't and can't see him as a loving father without Jesus's help. Brother and sister, God the Father is your father. He's Jesus's father.

And Jesus here helps you focus your prayer and supports you in the task. He's the one who knows the Father like no one else does. And he's the one who awards you the right to call on God as Father in this special way. Here Jesus is teaching you the family language, and that language is not one of duty, but delight. It's like this.

Those of you who know me and my wife, you know that we have two kids. Both of our kids are cherished. We love them dearly. With our youngest, who was born to us about two years ago, we've never had to teach him to cry. That came automatic on day one.

And let me just tell you, he's great at it. He knows how to cry for his mommy and daddy. He can do so loud, he can do so with a whisper. But you know what? His mommy and daddy always respond.

With our oldest, the story's a little bit different. You see, with our oldest, we had to teach her how to cry for her mommy and daddy.

It took some time after she came home, but slowly, day by day, we taught her that when you say the words mommy and daddy come, those words mean something. Those words cause action. Those words cause those who love you most to come to you.

And friends, if we who are evil parents, who are often led astray, know how to teach our children how to cry for us, imperfect as we are. How much more does God the Son know how to teach you how to cry to your Heavenly Father? He will have you call on God as Father, and He will patiently bear with you when you fail. He will hold you up knowing that your sonship is something that He's purchased.

He's the one that richly blesses those who were formerly his enemies. He now welcomes his friends. And he invites you to call on his Father as your Father. He's our Father in heaven who hears our prayers. And this is all just a preface.

Next we dive into how are we to pray. Knowing who God is is only the beginning, but God as we mentioned so often in our services together, would have us make our request known to him. So that's point two, again, the longest point, how are we to pray? Well, we'll look here at the series of petitions that Jesus gives. So again, you see those first three and then the second three.

So let's start first looking at the first things that Jesus tells his fathers to ask. He tells them to first ask, hallowed be your name. You see that there in the second part of, or the last part of verse nine.

To hallow is to consider something holy or treat it with reverence. For God's name here to be hallowed is for God's name to be known and praised. His name is Yahweh. He is the Great I Am. He's the one who's always existed, who will always exist.

He's the one, He is the first and the last, and there is nothing and no one greater than Him. This is the God who to rightly know him and to rightly speak about him by faith is to praise him. He is so wonderful that even just reporting who he is and what he's like is to burst forth in praise. He is majestic and he gives life to all and to him all life is aimed. In teaching his followers to pray here, Jesus is inviting his followers both to praise God's name in their prayers and to seek God's the praise of God's name from the lips and lives of others.

So often you hear us pray here that we praise God, but we also pray that more would praise God because his name is so glorious and his glory is so beautiful that he is worthy of all our praise. Friends, this is why we give such thought to praising God in our services together. But also Jesus wouldn't have us stop there. This isn't just about praising God in public. So don't think just because you come to a church where we say a prayer of praise to God that you've met your praise quota for the week.

No, Jesus would have us push that privately and to praise God even in our closets, even when no one is watching, that our lives are to be oriented around the praise of God's name. And praising God, hallowing his name is something you should regularly do in your prayer life. Is this something that characterizes your prayers?

I know, and as I've gotten to know many of you, it's so encouraging to me to know how many of you just, it just seems that praising God just naturally flows from your life. And to me, I see this as an overflow of so much of your prayer life where it's clear to me you are delighting day by day in the God whom you love. But I also know that there are others who find this one of the most difficult prayers to pray.

And I think that's relatively common. We know who God is, we know things about Him, but to focus on those things and to praise Him for those things, we often find our minds get so distracted. We find other things that we're consumed by. Maybe it's a need that you personally have or a friend has, maybe it's a certain trial.

Where these things are filling your mind more than the praise of God is. Brother and sister, make no mistake, God would have you come to Him with His need. But I do think Jesus putting hallowed be your name first is meant to show us a priority of praising God. I think there are needs that we have that oftentimes the only thing that we can do in the midst of that is praise God for who He is. Even and maybe especially even when it's hard to see, God would have you praise Him.

He would have us lose sight of ourselves in praising His glorious name. I know often for me, I'm so tempted to think about my day, my plans, my problems, that it's so easy to become consumed with myself that I miss the wonderful workings of God around me. Brother, sister, Jesus would have you prioritize praising God. There's no darkness that you're experiencing now that the glory of God's name won't help dispel. He is worth it.

And if you struggle to know where to start, often it can be like trying to describe a mighty waterfall. How could you describe something so majestic? Brother, sister, in God's word, God, He invites you to draw near and to drink, to fill your soul with His majesty, to know His promises, to know, as Deuteronomy 7:9 says, that He is a God who keeps covenant, steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations. There's no one faithful like this God. There's no one who keeps his word like him.

Or consider even what we've just been meditating on. What does it mean that God is your father? How much has he shown his love to you? Brother and sister, if you meditate on that, informed by this prayer and even Jesus' ministry, you'll have much to praise God for. So meditate on, or meditate on one of God's many promises.

Just start where you can. Seek to praise God for a minute more today than you did yesterday. And I think you'll find that the time spent is well worth it. So after hallowed be your name, Jesus moves on to two other requests. He says, you, kingdom come, your will be done.

And here Jesus would have us focus on God's purpose and His plan. God's kingdom is the visible manifestation of God's rule and reign. Or as two theologians describe it, God's kingdom can be seen as God's people in God's place under God's rule. So here to pray for God's kingdom to come is to ask God to make his rule and reign visible. It's oriented, it's certainly oriented towards the future where one day the kingdom of heaven will merge and become the kingdom of earth.

Or as Calvin says, God's kingdom is seen when people are united under Christ's lordship, sin is conquered and Satan bound. Such things we certainly see. This is why throughout the gospel, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven has come near. We see those things working in a heightened sense in the gospels, as Jesus is even here gathering his disciples. He's pressing into matters of the heart.

And in the previous chapter, two chapters ago, in chapter four, we saw him overcome Satan. We see the beginnings of the workings of God's kingdom. Now, with God's plans, those plans are God's to accomplish as we anticipate them. So building his kingdom is something that God is doing. So with Jesus drawing us in to pray for God's kingdom to come, he would have us know what his kingdom looks like.

He would have us know what are the characteristics of this kingdom. And it means that we certainly would seek to orient our lives and to prioritize the things in His kingdom now. And I know for many of you, that's exactly why you've stayed in DC, is that you've chosen to be here when you could have easily moved elsewhere, and maybe it would have been more convenient to you. But instead, you chose to stay. You chose to stay in this church with these people to see God's kingdom built up.

And you've seen the kingdom come as you've seen the members of this church come, overcome sin, be united under Christ's rule, and flee temptation. You have shown by your lives that you prioritize the kingdom, so keep prioritizing it. Keep making hard decisions that the world's not going to understand, but those who pray this prayer, who see God by faith, will understand. And I know others of you who what this looks like is you've refused to take certain jobs that will require too much of your time and attention. You've chosen instead priorities of the kingdom that Jesus is extending here rather than building your own kingdom or serving the kingdoms of fame and fortune.

Instead, you've denied yourself those things so that you can devote more time, whether that's building the kingdom through your home or building the kingdom through this church. Discipling brothers and sisters, confronting those in sin, sharing the gospel with those friends who haven't heard it. These are ways that we prioritize the kingdom now as we pray for it to come. Also closely related to this is praying for God's will to be done. Praying that God's will is done means acknowledging His plans are what orient our lives.

Again, it's His priorities that determine ours. Just as praying for the kingdom to come, God's kingdom to come, focusing on God's will here, it's something that de-centers ours. We're not praying that our plans come to pass. Only in so far, we only pray that in so far as they align with God's. We can't see past this moment, but God sees past tomorrow.

We don't know what the future will hold, but God holds it in his hands.

It's our prerogative to prescribe our plans and submit our will to God's. We pray for it to come to pass. That's why when I first came to CBC, I thought you all were strange, but how often you said, well, I plan to do this tomorrow, God willing. God willing. God willing.

And you know what's happened to me? I've adopted that language for my own because I think it's a biblical thing to say. That then that's so true that we do and we make our plans according to the will of the Lord. And we know that unless he sustains it, unless he decrees it, unless he brings it to pass, it won't happen.

I do think it's important here to distinguish between just to have a biblical gear for God's revealed will and his hidden will. And God's hidden will is something that Deuteronomy 29:29 refers to when it says, the secret things belong to the Lord.

Or God's eternal plans that he doesn't reveal to us. And it is his prerogative to not reveal all his plans to us. They're his after all. But it's what Paul draws Paul to worship in Romans 11:33 when he exclaims, oh, the depths and riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.

For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. For instance, make no mistake that the God that we're talking about here is the infinite God and we're finite.

We're bound by our limits and we can never fully understand or know God. But like Paul, when we come to the edges of our understanding, The proper response isn't fear, it's not doubt, it's not uncertainty. The proper response for us is worship. God is so big, His plans are so great that we've only just begun to understand what they are.

And God is so gracious that He reveals His plans to us. So yes, He has hidden things from us. Yes, there are things that we Now is not the time for us to know, but there's many things that he has chosen to show us. Many of his ways are not in fact hidden to us, but we know these things and can know them because he's made it known. And as we've understood so we pray that his will would be accomplished.

Jesus would have his followers pray for God's will to be done that we might consider it personally. One of the ways we see God's will is by overcoming sin. Jesus would have considered this will privately as we pray for it to be done publicly. And as we're helped to think about God's will for you, Christian, is your sanctification. God would have you overcome sin.

But why God has allowed you to face a particular situation or particular temptation or why he's permitted a certain trial to come into your life may not be clear to you. And he doesn't promise to reveal that specifically to you now. But when dark times do come, we do need to be reminded of God's plan. We need to be reminded that the same God who lives is the same God who's willing and working in your lives. And brothers and sisters, that's why we need each other.

There's so much that we don't see and there's so much that often distracts us that we need others to help us carry on and endure when times are trying.

God may not tell us why he's allowed certain things, but you can be sure that this God, the loving God, he will have that trial for your good. He will not bring you into any temptation that you can't endure by faith. He will supply what you need to trust him. You may not know the reason or the outcome, but in those moments of trial, he would have you trust him.

And he would have you pray that his will is done. I think for many of us, this is so challenging to grasp, especially when we're facing that temptation even now. Brother and sister, don't miss that the fulfillment that God's promises, that your sanctification will one day be complete. View today in light of tomorrow. View today in light of eternity when that work will be finished, when his kingdom will be built and his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Heaven. That is sure. You can trust that. Jesus then, considering God's will, moves from these glorious things of God's name, God's kingdom, God's will, then he moves from these heavenly realities into what could be seen as earthly considerations. And the first there you see there in verse 11 is a prayer for daily provision.

Jesus starts here by centering our requests on our need. So the God who is in the heavens, the God who reigns over all, is the God as Jesus has worked out in the text previous to ours is the God who is mindful of our needs. By Jesus mentioning bread here, he means to reference all of our daily needs. Just as he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, so too this God provides for the needs of his people. He knows what we need and he would hear from us about it.

But notice Jesus' language here. We need not linger here. You don't have to prevail upon God to be mindful of your need. He knows it better than you do. He knows what you need, but he invites you to come and to tell him that in so doing you can see that he is the supplier of even your deepest needs.

For many, I know that we're acquainted, you're acquainted with these prayers. Now, you're in this room and you may be acutely aware of your need for God's provision today. It's possible you don't know where your next meal may come from. It's possible that every day for you is filled with uncertainty. Or it may be that as we're all thinking about the weather that's to come, All you see is cold and you're concerned if you'll have enough to stay warm.

Friend, Jesus would have you cry out to God. He knows what you need and He would have you look to Him to provide it. And if that is you, let me just encourage you, talk to someone before you leave. God has given you, He's given us one another, to help see that these needs are met. Don't let fear or shame of something that you lack prevent you from coming and sharing your burden with others.

It's our delight as brothers and sisters in the Lord to care for you. That is what we do. That is what we're about as Christians, is seeing one another's needs provided for. That's not God not providing. That's not like we're stepping into bro-- no, that is in fact how God cares for his people.

He cares for us through others. Not just in sin, not just in overcoming shame, but he cares for us in how he provides for us through the hands of other brothers and sisters. I know many of us are acquainted with this lack, but I know there's also Some of us who seek in God's supply for our daily need, although we may not say it, it seems outdated. We think we're under the illusion that our bank accounts or the balance in other accounts somehow provide security. And if this is what we think, it's often true that these things serve as a buffer to our soul.

We think that we've worked hard, we've saved enough, and so you don't have to worry about what tomorrow brings. It's one of the sad realities of this life that those who have so much to thank God for often lose sight of him. It's true that in abundance there is a temptation to forget God. And here on this point what John Calvin says, says regarding this request in the Lord's Prayer, he says, these words remind us that unless God feed us daily, the largest accumulation of the necessities of life will be of no avail. Though we may have an abundance of corn or wine or everything else, unless they are watered by the secret blessing of God, they will suddenly vanish.

Or we will be deprived of the use of them, or they will lose their natural power to support us, so that we shall famish in the midst of plenty. Brothers and sisters, let's be a people who daily remember our need for God's provision and let's thank Him for when we've received it. Let's never miss an opportunity to thank God for another day, for another meal, for another friend, for a new house, for all of the things that it's easy for us to dismiss when we think of the great realities of salvation, but nevertheless that God provides for us. That he sees our needs are met. Moving on to the next request, Jesus presses further in to an even greater need.

His followers should seek God's forgiveness for their sins. The language here of debt shows that there is something that we owe God, something that we failed to provide. There has been a relational break. Our sins have separated us from God, and Jesus would have us confess where we've fallen short. Notice it's not saying that this is only a prayer that we should pray once.

This is to be a model prayer for Christians. So Christians, you do continue to sin. You're no longer a slave to that sin in Christ. He's given us His Spirit to help us overcome that sin, but yet we still do sin. And yet we still do need to confess that sin to God.

So don't delay in confessing these sins. He expects us to confess them after all, but he doesn't expect us to linger there. Don't cower in shame or fear or even what may start out as a heartfelt prayer of confessing your sin to God but too easily your mind is turned and you start to condemn yourself yet again. Know your sin, know your Savior, and confess that sin. To God.

Through Christ, God is more ready to forgive you of your sin than you are to confess it. So don't delay in confessing your sin to this God and see the forgiveness that he provides in Christ. And you'll notice there that there's another phrase that comes with this request. It says, As we forgive our debts also, as we, excuse me, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Jesus here would remind us even in our prayers that the forgiveness that you find in God is a fruitful forgiveness.

We are to forgive as we forgive our debtors. And don't mistake this point. The power to forgive others in this way doesn't come from you. Once you've received it, once you have asked God for it, you are to see that it's been fully supplied. And the natural outworking of that forgiveness is extending forgiveness to others.

It's why Jesus elsewhere commands his followers to forgive. It's not contingent on something that anyone does to you. Us forgiving as Christians isn't contingent just to be clear on other people seeking our forgiveness. Biblical forgiveness is extended, not earned. God has extended us forgiveness in Christ and we have not earned it.

Here it's important, I think, to distinguish between biblical forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is something that we have freely received and so we freely give. It doesn't earn us favor with God. It's a natural outworking of the favor that he's gladly bestowed on us in Christ.

But I know for many of you, you've been severely wronged. You've been betrayed. You've been alienated. You've been pushed to the side, and it's come at a cost to you. But here, see that Jesus would still have you forgive.

He wouldn't have you hold on to bitterness. He wouldn't have you become hardened. He would have you know that in Him you are forgiven and so forgive others. But that doesn't mean that the one who betrayed you, that everything is right or everything is restored. It doesn't mean that He's causing you to extend trust to them just as you have.

That is where reconciliation comes in. And to work through that, As I've seen so many of you do in this church, it means both parties owning where they've erred, where the betrayer confesses his betrayal and works to slowly and steadily rebuild trust. But for those who have been betrayed, it means not holding on to bitterness. It means wanting what's good for the one who has wronged you. It means seeking their goods and not holding their wrong against them.

It means praying for this good. It means that even working to delight to see good when it happens.

But to rebuild trust takes time. To rebuild trust takes ownership. And on this point, in others, there's so much more that we could say, but I've been helped tremendously by Tim Keller's book, Forgive. What it is, and how to receive it. Tim Keller's book, Forgive.

I think there's another way though that we can struggle with this doctrine of forgiveness and Jesus bringing it up here. And it may be, this may be a struggle for those with sensitive consciences. For you, the struggle with forgiveness may work to erode your assurance of faith. For you, looking at this feels like a requirement.

The thought may go something like this: if I'm struggling to forgive this person, does it mean that I haven't received God's forgiveness? Now, I do want to be careful here, as no two circumstances are the same. But to use this passage to evaluate your faith, here is a misunderstanding of the meaning of this text. It gets it backwards. You see, Jesus here means for us to ask God to forgive our sins first.

And then he would have us not divert our gaze, still look at the heavenly Father, still see what God provides, and then knowing that, freely forgive others. Of course, this sometimes takes work, as we're often too painfully reminded of the sins that someone has committed against you. But friend, the solution again is not looking inside yourself, it's not even looking at that other person. And trying to understand what motivated them or what's behind the wrong that they've done to you. No, the solution for you is still to look to God and delight in the forgiveness that's yours in Christ.

Keep looking to Christ. Feast on the forgiveness that He provides to you. Such truths are the things that we celebrate when we gather around the Lord's Supper. That we have been supplied for. That our need, our shame has been covered by the blood of Christ.

Study that. Spend time with others who help you see how great and glorious this forgiveness is. Yes, of course we may struggle at times. Sometimes forgiveness is a daily task. Sometimes it takes us reminding ourselves day after day that we've been forgiven and so we are to forgive others.

But the point is clear, the forgiveness that we seek in prayer is a living forgiveness that bears fruit in our lives and relationships.

As we receive it, so we extend it to others. And our prayer is that it even thaws the coldest of hearts. Now, as this model prayer concludes, our Lord would have us consider one additional need. He teaches us here to pray. Look at verse 13.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Here Jesus would have us acknowledge that we are entirely reliant on God to deliver us from temptation. It's His strength, not ours, that keeps us faithful and causes us to endure. Just as we're relying on Him to sustain us and forgive us, so too we're relying on Him to deliver us. Left to ourselves, we'd make the same mistakes repeatedly.

Left to ourselves, we'd be consumed by the darkness of sin.

But here, like a child walking in the midst of beasts, we need a protector. We need a protector who knows our need and who makes a way for us. We need someone who knows what it is to be tempted and not sin. We need a protector who's triumphed over that enemy who so often accuses us. And that, friends, is exactly what Jesus did.

I mentioned this a moment ago, but in Matthew 4 Jesus was tempted by the devil. And throughout his life and earthly ministry Jesus would faithfully face accusation, and persecution. As we looked at last week, even in the midst of being put to death, he's still praying. He's praying for his persecutors. He's perfectly obeying the law and loving even his enemies.

We need someone to deliver us. We need someone to face death and to come out victorious. And that's exactly again what Jesus did. Christian Jesus has faced evil for your sake and overcome it. He's the only one who's perfectly endured it and has promised to deliver all who trust in him through it.

His words can be trusted. He would have us know this need now and come to our father with our request that he may supply his strength. So it may seem for now that temptation and evil are overtaking you. That you have no strength and your faith is failing. But brothers see that Jesus is acquainted with your need.

Sister, you're not too far gone. Sin hasn't corrupted anything in you that God's mercy can't redeem. He knows your need. Turn to him. Don't delay.

Cry out to him. He will deliver you from evil. He teaches you to ask him for it.

And he doesn't hold us in suspense. He is our supply. Jesus' model prayer here is brief and to the point. He's clear. His disciples, he would have his disciples rightly consider their approach to God, what he's due, and what are their needs.

So with this, let's Think for a moment as we move to conclude about how our prayers work. In our consideration of these words, so point three, how our prayers work. In our consideration of these words, I wonder if you've noticed how comprehensive this prayer is. In a few short verses, Jesus captures the entire scope of biblical prayers. If you look there, there's praise, there's confession, there's petition making a request, there's thanksgiving even, as we think about our sins being forgiven.

And there's even lament that we are tempted and that evil surrounds us.

In these few short verses, Jesus leaves nothing out. And in this model prayer, Jesus, our Lord, captures the entire essence of prayer. Also worth noting there is the progression of this prayer. Jesus moves from heaven to the heart. He begins with what God has due in heaven and ends with what we need on earth.

Distinct from the prayers of others that Jesus contrasts in verses 5 through 8, we didn't look there, but safe to say Jesus wouldn't have us drone on or he wouldn't have us give performative prayers that are rehearsed over and over again. That we hope that by rehearsing and by being outwardly impressive, God would hear us. Or he doesn't have us drone on and he doesn't hear us for our eloquence of speech. It's not the words, it's not the outward appearances that draw God near to us. It's the heart changed by His grace.

So in a few words, Jesus invites us to pray according to God's plan while acknowledging our need. And such insight is what caused Martin Lloyd Jones to say, the Lord's Prayer covers everything, and all we do is take in these principles and employ and expand them and base our every petition upon them. This is why, this is the way, excuse me, in which it is to be approached. And as you look in it, I think you'll agree with Saint Augustine and Martin Luther and many other saints who have said that there is nothing more wonderful in the entire Bible than the Lord's Prayer, the economy, the way in which he summarizes it all and reduces everything to but a few sentences. Is something that surely proclaims the fact that the speaker is none other than the very Son of God Himself.

So brothers and sisters, as we consider how our prayers work, all that's left for us to think about now is, what is the one doing who taught us to pray? That is, the one who has given us these words, the one who summarized pages of prayer. What is he doing now? Well, you know the answer. He's continuing to pray for you.

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus invites us to join a heavenly conversation that he now is continuing on your behalf. We don't have to perform our prayers for him to be heard. We're not heard for our eloquence. It's not our work that causes God to hear our prayers. His ear is inclined to us in Christ.

He's not deaf to our need or too busy to attend to us. Prayer is an act of faith where we join the Son in praying to the Father. Though often our prayers fall short, though often we feel like we can't capture all that we're going through with the words or the time, Jesus catches our prayers and perfects them. He taught us to pray and He continues to approach the Father for us. He gives us His Spirit who helps us to pray.

He gives us the Spirit by whom we cry, Father. He gives us all that we need. He teaches us the words to say. He puts the words in our hearts. And as Hebrews 7:25 says, He lives now to make intercession for those who draw near to God through Him.

So as we follow this model, no matter how small our faith or how meager our prayers, we have confidence because Jesus himself is making our prayers effective. He's the one who ensures that all our prayers will be answered. It's him who assures that God's name will be hallowed. It's him who makes sure God's kingdom will come. It's Jesus who ensures that God's will is done.

It's him who sees that all of our needs are provided for. It's him who forgives us of our sins and enables us to forgive others. It's him who delivers us from temptation and evil. And because of Jesus, our Father hears our prayers and we, you, his beloved son, his beloved daughter, have his attention. So let these words instruct you, meditate on them.

Including the introduction, there's six requests and who we address the prayers to. What a good exercise it would be to let those organize your week of prayer. Consider what it means that God is your Father. Think more on what it means that for God's name to be hallowed, His kingdom would come, His will done on earth as it is in heaven, that He provides for your daily bread, that He forgives you of your sins, that He delivers you from evil, and let those inform your prayer life this week. But in all these things, brothers and sisters, see that God has provided abundantly for you in Christ and that He lives to make intercession for you.

So keep praying. And let's go to him now in prayer.

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. In Jesus' matchless name we pray, amen.