Pray Like This pt. 4

Rev. Claude L. White, Jr.

Pray Like This • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

Matthew 6:12

Prayer

Forgiveness

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Transcript

Praying with Humility

Matthew 6:12 ESV

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

DT: When we pray for forgiveness we must also pray for the forgiveness of others and forgive those who have wronged us.

Aim: We will forgive others and pray for the forgiveness of God for them as well as ourselves.

Introduction: When you pray what is your objective? What are you trying to achieve? These are not the questions that generally come to mind. Many times we are looking for what we can get or receive from our prayers. I would like to help you to see today that our prayers are not only for our benefit but also for the benefit of others. We should be looking to both intercede for others and relinquish un-forgiveness.

As Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in this text, we are arrested by the fact that he requires his disciples to ask for forgiveness. The forgiveness Jesus requires though is not their own but also for the forgiveness of others. This Scripture like the previous ones is in the 1st common plural. “Forgive US OUR debt as WE also have forgiven OUR debtors.” Jesus is demonstrating that coming before God requires a heart repentance and forgiveness.

This petition really has two parts. The first part addresses the need for forgiveness and the second addresses the requirement to forgive.

Aim: We will forgive others and pray for the forgiveness of God for them as well as ourselves.

Transition: So what does praying with humility look like?

Praying with Humility Means We Seek Forgiveness from God

Jesus teaches, “Forgive us our debts.” Forgiveness is a big deal here. It means to wipe out an offense from the memory. It means to clean the slate, to clear the bill. To let go of what has caused harm. And Jesus refers to those offenses as debts. The word for debts in the original text is used a few ways. One of those is that which is owed in a financial sense, one’s due. The other way this word is used is obligation in a moral sense, sin. This is the way Jesus is using it in the text. “Forgive us our sins” so Jesus teaches that we must seek forgiveness. Jesus teaches:

that which is owed in a financial sense, debt, one’s due

obligation in a moral sense, debt=sin

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 743.

we seek forgiveness for our personal sins

Seeking forgiveness for ourselves means that we are admitting that we have done wrong. The humble man admits his faults without excuses and justifications. We are required to admit to God that we have sinned. There are those who will ask, “if God knows I have sinned why must I confess and tell him?” Well, the truth is confession to God is the true display of humility.

1 John 1:9 ESV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John

ILLUS: Have you ever seen people who never admit when they are wrong or never own up to their faults? Are they humble? No of course not! Jesus demonstrates the necessity to come before God with humility and ask for forgiveness.

b. we seek forgiveness for the sins of others

We are to go to God on behalf of other people. How did I get that? Remember this petition is not in the 1st person singular. This petition is in the 1st person plural which means it includes others and not just me. Jesus is teaching His disciples not to be judgmental of those who sin and make mistakes, but to pray for them. Isn’t that humbling? To know that we are required to pray for those who have sinned to be forgiven. The prayer is not one that solicit’s the just due or reckoning that we may feel others deserve but it is to request divine forgiveness for them.

Application: When you pray who do you pray for and how do you pray for them? Do you pray arrogantly or do you pray with humility? Together lets begin requesting for the mercy of God for other people instead of waiting for them to suffer and fall for their mistakes. Let us not be overly critical of other people who fall. Let us embrace people with our prayers by asking God to have mercy and forgive them.

Praying with Humility Means We Are Committed to Forgiving Others

Jesus says, “as we also have forgiven our debtors.” As we have also wiped the slate clean of others, as we have also wiped from our memories the offenses of others. You see what Jesus has done? Jesus has now begun to teach his disciples to pray with accountability. This portion of the prayer calls for honesty and transparency. Jesus teaches them to hold their own pattern of forgiveness before God to be inspected. “Forgive us as we have also forgiven others”

This is perhaps the hardest part of this petition for many of us because we are required to forgive. Yes that is right! This portion of the petition is conditional. You see it? “God forgive me like I forgive” Here is the lesson Jesus is teaching, We can not ask God to do for us what we are unwilling to do for others. Stephen Olford says it this way, “We must acknowledge that God’s forgiveness of us is contingent upon our forgiveness of others.”

We must remember that God’s forgiveness of us is contingent upon our forgiveness of others.

This petition reminds us that God expects us to forgive, no God requires us to forgive. When God views our prayer, in it there must be a heart which has been humbled to forgive other people.

This petition reminds us that God expects us to forgive, no God requires us to forgive. When God views our prayer in it there must be a heart which has been humbled to forgive other people.

So many times, many of us go through life holding on to the debts of other people and those debts have caused us frustration, anxiety, depression and anguish all because we refuse to forgive. We refuse to wipe the slate clean, to wipe it from our memory, we refuse to forgive.

I hear you saying, “Yeah I know but, I need time to get over it. Can I suggest that you will never get over it until you forgive. You will never forget until you forgive.That’s how it works. Forgiving is getting over it. You will never have joy until you forgive. You will never move on until you forgive. Forgiving is moving on!

ILLUS: Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident.

Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident.

“Don’t you remember it?” her friend asked.

“No,” came Barton’s reply, “I distinctly remember forgetting it.”

Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002).

Transition: Look, God hears our prayers and God forgives us when we forgive others. That is the rubric. To be forgiven by God we must forgive others. “As we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Matthew 6:14–15 ESV

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Mark 11:25 ESV

25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

matthew 6:

Application: When you pray is your prayer transparent? Can God see his requirement of forgiveness being met by you? Well let me ask this way, will God forgive you? Whomever has hurt you. Whomever has caused you pain. Whomever despises you. Whomever is undermining you at work, at home, wherever. Forgive them and pray for God’s forgiveness for them.

Look, God hears our prayers and God forgives us when we forgive others.

Conclusion:

Praying with humility is attainable by each of us. We do not need any special apparatuses to make it happen and we do not have to be a preacher or deacon to do it. What we must do is seek forgiveness from God for ourselves and others. And we must also commit ourselves to forgiving others. Let Jesus be our example this was not his only prayer, modeling forgiveness, but he also prayed in saying,

Luke 23:34 ESV

34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

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