And When You Pray | And Forgive Us As We Forgive (Part 8.2) - 05/02/2021

May 2, 2021 Lots of Bdays:DeLauren, Ashley, Graduations December 13, 2020 Sis. Michelle Mack's Mother's passing: Ms. Mary Ann Montgomery Anita's Father Absent from Body - Elder Leroy Sampson Prayer for Marvin Anita Johnson Family - A Job Moment - Covid, Death, etc Benita McBride - The passing of her sister in law Ms. Aye Christmas Food and Toy Drive - Dec 22 "...And When You Pray" And Forgive Us As We Forgive Matthew 6:14 & 15 Matthew 6:9-13 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6:14 & 15 14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. START Here: GM GP This morning I'm excited about returning to finishing some unfinished business that we embarked on in 2020. That unfinished business is the business of finishing our Prayer Series entitled "...And When You Pray" - a verse by walk through of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6. The last installment of this series was engaged in back in mid-December. So many things were happening at the time - including a number of funerals, the National Convention, and Christmas --until before you knew, it was the New Year 2021. Then in January, I hit the "Super Pause Button" to share with GP some things the Lord had put in my heart about TRUTH. Although that message was to be a Part 1 and Part 2, it ended up being a long running series that lasted several months. Needless to say, we have some unfinished business to take care of in the way of returning to and completing our series on prayer. In that series, we stopped in the middle of teaching on "forgiveness" at verse 12 of Matthew Chapter 6 which reads: 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. That installment was entitled: "And Forgive Us As We Forgive" For good measure, I'm going to read the entire text basis for this series which is the Lord's Prayer also known as the Model Prayer. After which, I'm going to use today's teaching time as a time to refresh everyone's memory on insights we have learned about this prayer, while catching up those who have not been with us since the series began. No matter whether you've been with us throughout the series or you're just joining us, today is a good time for everyone because it sets us up for a teaching on forgiveness that's certain to be blessing to you. It's shaping up to be a powerful and liberating teaching. In fact, I want you to submit questions you have about the topic of "forgiveness" by way of the chat box or by email or text, or during the after church chat, or call me. You can submit questions like: "Is forgive and forget biblical?" "How can I forgive what I can't forget?", and "Is there anything or anyone God won't forgive? . . . With that in mind, let's read our main text for today and do a catch up overview of where we've been thus far - then look forward to next week's fresh start teaching on "forgiveness". [SLIDE] Matthew 6:9-13 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6:14 & 15 14 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Now, let's look at where the Lord's Prayer has taken us since we last engaged it. How much of what we covered did you retain or capture in your notes? Let's begin: Actually, our series started in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 5 where Jesus was having a conversation with His new followers about the proper way to live and do as Children of God - as opposed to living and doing as the legalistic Pharisees, the hypocrites and the heathens. Jesus's series was entitled "The Sermon on the Mount". It covered topics such as The Beatitudes, The Similitudes - Believers are Salt and Light; Things addressed in the Law including Murder, Adultery, Divorce, Oaths, Retaliation, Love, Charitable Deeds, Prayer, Fasting, Wealth and a lot more. Our series began at the point Jesus was teaching His followers on how to give and how to do charitable deeds. In short, He said to them, "Don't do your charitable deeds in public to be seen, rather do them in secrete - be so secretive about it until "your right hand never knows what your left hand is even doing". From that teaching, Jesus moved to teaching on "Prayer". That's where we saw Him [again] lambast the Pharisees, the hypocrites and the heathens for their improper conduct. He chided them for their hypocritical ways of loving to pray -- standing in the synagogue and praying on street corners all to be seen by men. He condemned the heathens for praying to God as if He were an idol. They used an overabundance of words and vain repetitions and chants thinking this is what it took to get Him to respond to their prayers. We learned that both the Pharisees and the heathens were on the wrong path when it came to praying. That's when the Lord introduced to His followers the proper way to pray. He said explicitly, "Do not pray like the hypocrites, but when you pray, do four things: [SLIDE] Proper Way to Pray 1. go into your room, v.6 2. shut your door, v.6 3. pray to your Father in private v.6 4. do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. V.7 Upon the condition of doing these four things, four more positive things would result which we called Prayer Realizations . . . they are: [SLIDE] Four Results of Proper Praying 1. Your Father [will] see in secret v.6 2. He will reward you openly v.6 3. Your Heavenly Father isn't interested in the number of words prayed, rather He wants to hear the words of your heart. The number of words won't get you heard or rewarded v.7 4. Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him v.8 After introducing to young followers the proper conduct to be exercised in prayer, Jesus laid out "The Manner" in which Believers should pray. [SLIDE] In Matthew 6:9, He said: 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: I think these words are super significant because they convey that Jesus is providing all who pray a prescription, a MANNER, for us to follow when we pray. That manner should not be ignored as it reveals the attitude of how you and I [should] approach prayer. Prayer places us immediately before Holy God who is Our Father. It instantly brings heaven and all of its blessings and resources to earth - specifically our secret closet. The hypocrites and the heathens had a manner in which they prayed. That manner violates and contradicts the manner in which Christ said should be practiced and followed. The Believer's manner must be different. Our manner must be to pray with confidence believing and knowing that because of our relationship with God -- that we are heard by Him. Following Christ's "manner" gets us there. When we understand "manner" in relationship to order, then our spiritual eyes and spiritual senses will come awaken to how to truly reverence and connect with God in prayer ... (over and above human feelings and emotions). Christ's manner for us included first a perspective of Who we are approaching and praying to as well as where He is. That is covered in verse 9 which says: Our Father in heaven, You'll recall, I placed great emphasis on the phrase "Our Father" - in particularly the word: "OUR". The reason was to bring our attention to the fact that God is the God and Father of every believer - without bias or prejudice. [SLIDE] * "Our Father" is an exclusive birthright that belongs only to a people who have consciously accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior; therefore, when a Believer goes before the Lord, he does not go to the exclusion of all of his brothers and sisters who make up the family of God. * The word Our in prayer takes into account every child of God whether you're getting along with them or not. God won't tolerate us coming before and ignoring or disrespecting all who make up the body of Christ. * We must understand and realize that to pray: "Our Father" means that God has a few more children than just ME, Myself and I! And that God cares equally for each of them. Remember: Blacks can't go to the throne without Whites; Democrats can't go to the throne without Republicans; Males without Females; Wives without Husbands; Rich without Poor; Conservatives without Liberals; Rightwingers without Leftwingers; Saducees with Pharasees; Confederates vs. Union Soldiers; Jews vs. Gentiles; Falcons can't go before God with the New Orleans Saints; Gators without Bull Dogs; Zebedee The "OUR" in Our Father" is the passkey that is used to place all believers on the same plain when the God of heaven is sought for anything divine and spiritual. Our Father . . . . In heaven, . . . . This points to the God that we pray to, non other. Next, in Jesus' manner He revealed to us SIX Petitions in the Lord's Prayer. These SIX Petitions should regularly serve as a backdrop to all of our prayers in one way or another. [SLIDE] Here are the Six Petitions: Of the six, Three (3) are directed to God (vv. 9,10); and 3 toward human needs (vv. 11-13). The first three are focused on God and found in verses 9c & 10 which reads: 9c. Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven * God's name * God's kingdom; and * God's will The first three petitions focus exclusively on God and His interests, not on human needs or interests. They involve: * Glorifying God's Name - Your name be hallowed * Hastening the coming of His kingdom (2 Peter 3:12) - Your kingdom come; and * Helping to accomplish God's will on earth - Your will be done [SLIDE] The last three petitions, Petitions 4, 5 & 6 focus on human interests - our needs as children of God. Those three include verses 11 - 13 which reads: 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. These three Petitions focus on the three greatest human needs believers have outside of salvation: [SLIDE] 1. Petition 4: We need food, both natural and spiritual: 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 2. Petition 5: We need forgiveness, but more than forgiveness from God, we need to learn to forgive so that we can receive God's forgiveness. (More on that next week). 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 3. Petition 6: We need focus, that is guidance from God into His righteous path and away from the dangers and desires of sin and temptation. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. That brings us up to speed and in good position to now finish what we started in our addressing of the last three petitions. Next week, I will resume a deep dive teaching on biblical forgiveness as it relates to the Lord's Prayer and our daily lives. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%END%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Page | 2