The Lord's Prayer Matthew 6: 9-13

Note image: We cannot see a face, skin color, job, race, Before god this is who we are.
Without a facade to keep up.

I. Why we pray it?

A. Jesus' response to the disciples question
B. Brings focus to our prayers
C. It contains the entire scope of the Christian Life

II. Our Father who art in Heaven [CLICK]

A. In 2003 watching a baseball game at a friend's house til late
B. Upon opening the oven I saw this...[ HI DADDY SLIDE]
C. Excited due to surgeries possible I may never have children.
D. So, in 2004 Reger was born and in 2010 Ledger was born.
E. I'm proud to be their father.
F. Jesus acknowledge God as father. Why?
G. Jesus the only son of God, right? Not for long.
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A. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become children of God. John 1:12
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B. For God so loved the world he gave his ONLY son, that whoever believes
in him should not perish but have eternal life John 3:16
I. Connecting these verses we see we are not automatically God's children.
A. We are adopted as God's own children with all the rights of Christ.
J. Not just a father but in HEAVEN.
A. Heaven is perfection.
B. In this earthly life fathers are imperfect.
C. Not so with God our Father.
D. There are good dads. [CLICK}
E. There are not so good dads. [CLICK]
F. And some the jury is still out. [CLICK]
G. We have a perfect heavenly father who does not make mistakes.
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III. Hallowed be thy name.
A. Jesus asks that we pray for God's name to be considered holy.
B. Why? His name is holy already isn't it?
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A. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD
will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain Exodus 20:7
B. We need to understand he is God. And we are not.
C. This petition brings us into the awe of God.
D. We've lost our awe.
E. Family vacation to Big Horn Mountains, California
a) I didn't appreciate those mountains the way I do now.
b) Driving slow. See the clouds. Enormous. Awe.
 F. If we fail to honor God in his Holiness we fail to understand.
a) What if the world honored God as holy?
b) How many movies, TV shows, Books. Dishonor God?
c) If an unbeliever will not respect God he will not turn to him.
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IV. Thy Kingdom Come
A. How does God's kingdom come?
B. It was God's desire that Jesus come to bring grace to us.
C. It is that mission of grace that Jesus ordered the Apostles to spread.
D. God's kingdom expands every time an unbeliever repents.
a) That means your unbelieving loved ones, unbelieving neighbors,
unbelieving waitress at your favorite restaurant, the unbelieving postman that
delivers your mail, the unbelieving jerk that broke your heart, the unbelieving driver
who cut you off this morning, the unbelieving atheist, the unbelieving murderer, the
unbelieving rapist, and the unbelieving terrorist.
b) These all were made in His image and Gods desire is for their unrepentant
hearts to be softened and allow God to restore them to their original purpose.

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V. Thy Will Be Done
A. This is a tough one.
B. Usually when we ask for God's will to be done...
a) Career. Or pertaining to a relationship.
b) Focused on me. God's will for me.
C. Asking for God's will to be done not FOR ME. But for God's own purpose.
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VI. On Earth as it is in Heaven
a) In heaven his will is done.
b) How do we pray for his will to be done when it might negatively impact me?
a) How do we pray for God's will to be done when...
a) Our loved ones are suffering?
B) What if our loved one may die?
C) We can because Jesus has told us previously in this passage that
God is our Father who loves us and is a holy God that is far above all that is.
God sees the big picture.
E) When he says to us I will never leave you nor forsake you he means
it and he has the ability to back up that promise!
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VII. Give Us Our Daily Bread
A. This is the easy part, huh?
B. We already pray for those things we need don't we?
C. Some of you are thinking to yourselves, If this was my prayer...
D. Jesus fed 5,0000 with some fish and bread
E. God gave manna to the Israelites in the wilderness.
i. Exodus 16. Bread from Heaven
ii. God fed them quail and bread each day.
 iii. They were supposed to keep only what they needed to eat.
iv. Were not supposed to keep any overnight.
v. They did and it bred worms and stank.
F The Christian Life is a daily walk.
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VIII. And Forgive us our Trespasses
A Not for our salvation.
B Those things that separate us from relationship
1 God does not separate from us. We separate from him when we sin.
2. Rejoice in the fact we have forgiveness!
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IX. As we Forgive those who trespass against us.
A Really, Dave? I have to forgive?
B I'll be honest with you about my brother Chris and a Ryne Sandberg rookie card.
1 A friend of mine used to give me sports cards for the players I liked.
2. He took the cards, including Ryne Sandberg and sold them for drugs.
3. Over twenty years ago. I thought I had forgiven him of that. Until I began
working on this sermon. And this phrase cut into me like a knife. There are people in
our lives that God requires us to forgive. It is not a suggestion.
4. God is the God of second chances. Amen.
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X. Lead Us Not into Temptation
A Does anyone hear have difficulty with praying this?
B Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was LED up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil.
C Notice the difference here?
D Have you ever watched a show where some guy is going to do some crazy stunt
that could cause serious bodily harm and the narrator says DON'T TRY THIS AT
HOME.
E That's what Jesus is saying to do! Temptations will find you and they will be
opportunities to do what's right or wrong. Let's not go asking for them.

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XI. But Deliver us from Evil.
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A Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
B Who is the someone? Anyone know?
C That's right. It's YOU.
D Now let's not be foolish. Not every situation you find yourself in is the Devil.
F Be sober-minded; be watchful. Know the difference.
G Don't be fooled that he's just wants you to sin. He wants to DEVOUR you.

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XI. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory FOREVER. Amen.
A I want to bring this to full circle.
 1 God becomes our father thru Jesus Christ.
2 Forever is a part of the deal.
B Many of you in here may have a plan for the next few years...
A School. College.
B Project of some sort.
C Planning for a special vacation.
D I can't say with any certainty where i will be in 5 years or 10 or twenty...
E But I know where I will be in 10,000 years.
C I hope you noticed that there were a couple of OUR's and US's but no MY or I.
A We are a community as were the apostles that Jesus taught to pray.
B we are all in this together as a family sons and daughters in Christ.
C We do this looking for God and looking out for each other. amen.