“The ‘Lord’s Prayer’ Service”
Matthew 6:9-13


"Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name”

Lessons on Hallowing God’s Name
Our Lord instructs us to begin our prayers with the most intimate of expressions, “Our Father, Abba, Daddy.  So right from the start we are being reminded that when we pray we can approach God with boldness and confidence knowing that we are fully and unconditionally accepted and beloved in Christ.  Some of you don’t believe that.

 “Hallowing” is not a word we use in our everyday conversation.  The word hallow comes from the same root word as holy in the Bible.  And the word holy means to set apart for sacred use.  And God’s name is the full person of God as revealed in His character, creation, and works.  

So to hallow God’s name is to hold God in reverence, to declare God to be holy, to proclaim aloud all the attributes of God’s character.  We are being called to worship the person of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit just for who they are in all their glory and beauty.

Additionally, because the first three petitions of “hollow thy name,” “let your will be done,” and let your kingdom come” are all connected to the petition of “on earth as it is in heaven, this first phrase has a double duty of calling us to begin all our prayer in worship, and calling us to pray that God’s name will be hallowed, will be glorified—that is, the person of God would be made know in all His irresistible self— in all the earth, and through everything we do.

It is also worth noting that there are no singular pronouns in this prayer; they are all plural. It begins with “OUR Father,” we confess OUR sin.  When we pray, we must remember that we are part of God’s worldwide family of believers. We have no right to ask for ourselves anything that would harm another member of the family. If we are praying in the will of God, the answer will be a blessing to all of God’s people in one way or another.

So let us now hallow God’s Name in Worship by singing:
    “Lord I Lift Your Name on High”
    “Great is Your Name”


“Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven”

Lessons on Praying for God’s Kingdom and Will
When we pray, the Bible instructs us to pray in Jesus’ name, to pray according to God’s will, to pray for God’s kingdom to come.  All these mean the same thing.  Prayer serves two primary purposes.  First and foremost, prayer is not primarily to get God to give or to do something.  

We pray to draw closer to our triune God in intimate relationship.  In the same manner that the majority of the conversation you have with a loved one or a close friend is simply to get to know each other better. The majority of our time in prayer should be in relationship-building conversation with God.  Like reconnecting with a lifetime friend!

It is out of that intimate relationship with the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Sprit, that we can then pray according to God’s will as God shapes our mind, heart, and desires to align with His will.  This is how we pray according to God’s will and for His kingdom.  

We also know we are praying according to God’s will when we pray according to what the Bible clearly instructs us to pray for.  So here’s the secret to powerful prayer.  Draw close to God in intimate relationship, and live lives that are saturated with God’s Word.

Now when we pray, “let your kingdom come,” we are praying a dual request.  We are praying that Christ would return to planet earth soon and very soon to put an end to this tragic, fallen, horrific, rebellious age we live in.  

But because Christ came the first time to actually usher in the already-but-not-yet kingdom of God, we are also praying that the power and blessings of God’s kingdom that are available this side of Christ’s return would be manifest right now in the current situation!  

Now here’s a key question.  How much of God’s kingdom blessing and power is available right now? How you answer that question determines how you live out your Christian faith.  The spectrum of answers to that question range from that the only kingdom blessing available right now is forgiveness of sin, to those that embrace a full blown prosperity health and wealth gospel.  We all fall somewhere between these extremes.

For example, when you pray for someone who is sick, how much of God’s kingdom are you expecting to be manifest?  I challenge you to allow the Holy Spirit to continually expand your understanding of how much of God’s kingdom is available right now so that your prayers become increasingly more powerful for God!

Let us now pray in worship by singing:         “At the Name of Jesus”     
 
Let us pray for God’s Kingdom and Will.  Here’s how we’ll do this.  I am going to call out an area…  Save the prayers for God’s provision…


“Give Us Today Our Daily Bread”

Lessons on Praying for Our Daily Bread
This phrase “daily bread” has puzzled theologians and scholars for centuries.  This is one word in the original Greek and is not found elsewhere in Scripture.  It is possible Christ coined a new word here, and its meaning is not fully understood.  

It carries two meanings at the same time.  In one sense it means something like, “Give us today, tomorrow’s bread.”  In this sense, some scholars say this bread refers to the blessings and power of the coming kingdom that we ask for a small taste of today.   

In another sense, as this is what drives most translations to say “our daily bread,” it does carry the meaning of God providing for all our needs, physical, spiritual, material, relational, and financial.
So is this category, we can rightly pray for God’s provision in every area of life, and we also pray that God will release every resource and blessing of the kingdom to and through the people of God right here and globally so that the Church can proclaim the gospel in power,

Let us now pray in worship by singing:    “God Will Make a Way”     
    
Let us now pray for Our Daily Bread.  We will have an open time of prayer…
   

“Forgive Us Our Debts, as We also have Forgiven Our Debtors”

Lessons on Praying for Forgiveness
In this section of the Lord’s Prayer outline we are invited to both ask God for forgiveness for sins, and to extend forgiveness to others.  

What does it mean to repent, to ask God for forgiveness?   There are two types of repentance.  One is what I call the perpetual posture of repentance.  Sin is not primarily our behavior or attitudes, but the condition of our fallen heart that absolutely will not, because cannot, as Romans 8 declares, obey God’s Law.  This fallenness remains a part us even after becoming a Spirit-filed, born-again, regenerate Christian.   So remember, you cannot take a single second of your life and offer it up to God as being free from sin!   That’s the bad news!

Here’s the good news! As new creations in Christ, we are no longer defined or controlled by our fallen heart!  So our new heart in Christ, that is able to obey God’s Law, even delights to do so, must stay in a place of constant repentance driven by the ongoing awareness of our dual status as sinner and saint.  This is what I call living in brokenness, staying in that place utter dependence upon grace and absolutely surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Now, we also need to keep this critical distinction clear between salvation through grace alone, and God’s forgiveness of specific sins.  Our sin as holy and dearly loved children of God never jeopardizes our adoption or eternal destiny!

But sin does horrific damage to our immediate relationship with our triune God and each other:
 - it impedes our prayers,
 - it destroys our relationships,
 - it compromises our witness,
 - it robs of us the fruit, gifts, and power of the Holy Spirit as sin
 - it quenches the defining deep sigh within our hearts of Abba Father!

So we must always fight against the lure of the fallen heart to confuse grace with license to sin!

So we are called to live in a constant state of repentance in our heart, while we also confess and repent of specific sins that we commit.  Listen to this important truth:  Specific sins must be repented of specifically!  

General prayers of asking for God’s blanket forgiveness for your sin as a whole, will bring you general forgiveness. But freedom from specific sins requires specially naming that sin and renouncing it before God in the name of Jesus.  

So let us know ask God for specific forgiveness and freedom by confessing specific sins before the throne of our gracious God.

Prayers of Confession:
 “Heavenly Father, I confess the sin of ________, and I ask you to forgive me.  I renounce this sin of _________, and any associated unclean spirits of darkness, and I ask you Lord Jesus to remove this sin and the desire for it from my life, and empower me by you Holy Spirit to live in surrendered obedience in this and ever area.”

Assurance of Pardon.

Praying in Worship, sing:  “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”

Lessons on Praying to Forgive Others
What puzzling, even troubling words Jesus speaks after he gives us this outline for prayer: “If you do not forgive others, neither will God forgive you!”  Is God’s forgiveness really conditional?  

There is a wide spectrum of interpretations on this passage.  Here is what I believe this passage teaches.  When we harbor unforgiveness toward another, God does not withhold forgiveness in reference to all our sin, but he does withhold forgiveness of the specific sin of our unwillingness to forgive.  

You see harboring unforgiveness is sinful in itself. Of course God does not forgive our unwillingness to forgive, so long as we persist in that unwillingness, no more than God forgives any willful rebellion.  

Now in this matter of extending forgiveness to others, it is best that we live in such a manner as to always keep short accounts with others. But many have one or perhaps a long list of people who have offended them, sometimes in horrific ways, who they have been either unable or unwilling to forgive.  

I have worked with many who literally had a list of people they needed to forgive that took up many pages.  A huge part of my wife Kelly’s freedom from her eating disorder came through extending forgiveness to people who had hurt her in small and big ways from early childhood on.

Now I don’t want to insinuate in any way that if you have been deeply wounded by another such as any type of abuse, that forgiveness for the offender comes easily. Depending on how well you’ve processed these wounds so far, you may not be able to forgive the offender yet. If that’s you, please make an appointment with me so we can seeks God’s empowering grace together.  


Why do we forgive?  
 - Because we are forgiven.  
 - Because unforgiveness allows the offender to continue to exert power and damage in your life.  Why should the offender be granted such power?  
 - Forgiving another releases that person to God so that God can bring His justice which will come either in the due punishment that person deserves being placed upon Christ on the cross, or judgment.  
 - Because living in willful unforgiveness robs you of the freedom, joy, and power that is your inheritance as a child of God!
    
Prayers of Forgiveness:
   You will be given the opportunity to speak aloud or pray silently from your seat prayers extending forgiveness to those who have offended you.  


“And Lead Us Not into Temptation, but Deliver Us from the Evil One”

Lessons on Praying for Protection and Victory
I have to confess, this area of God’s protection and victory is one in which I still struggle with in regards to trying to understand just how much protection and what degree of victory does God really promise us this side of heaven?  The data is confusing and conflicting.  

We hear one story of someone being protected from a minor car accident, and then another story of a missionary child being abused in boarding school while his parents are just trying to serve God faithfully.  

We hear one story of someone being completely and quickly delivered from a life controlling addiction, and then another story of a Spirit-filled child of God doing everything possible to seek freedom only to end up dying in his or her addiction.   One person is healed, and another dies from the same disease.  

Is our God arbitrary?  Does God spin some wheel of fortune in heaven to determine who gets the victory and who does not?  We know that’s not the case.  

Many try to ignore this seeming capriciousness of God by covering over the hard questions with cliché theology like, “O it must not have been God’s will,” or “Well, you know all things work together for the good of those who love God.”  Of course they usually leave out the second part of Roms 8:28, “according to God’s purposes.”

And it’s not that such statements aren’t true, is just that such truth can be used as a way of escaping the hard questions of faith.  Or, these same statements can come from a place of authentic, mature faith.  They can come from someone who has asked these hard questions, and has been brought to a place of trust in God’s goodness despite all the data that every day screams out. “Where is God in all this sorrow?”  Then can come from a heart that rests in God’s hand even when you cannot understand His plans.

And so when we talk about praying for God’s protection and victory, we must not do so from a place of naïve or shallow faith that sees pray like some magic that will guarantee perfect protection defined as the absence of harm, or complete victory defined as the absence of ongoing struggle.  We simply aren’t guaranteed such perfection in the current already-but-not-yet kingdom.  

As in all our praying, our prayers must align up with God’s will and plans, not ours.  God’s plans are so much bigger than just our immediate needs of earthy healing and physical protection. We can rightly claim that when we are living in a state of surrender and submission to God that God does indeed works out everything for good according to God’s good and grand purposes for creation.  

And what is our missionary God’s grand plan for humanity?  Your immediate happiness and success now?  No, but to gather in all creation back into reconciled relationship with the Trinity and with each other in the eternal kingdom of God, and for you to participate with God in accomplishing this grand plan.  

And so sometimes what will best accomplish God’s missional purpose in your life will be complete healing and total victory, sometimes, I would say more often than not, it will be God demonstrating His power and grace through your ongoing struggle and weakness.

So we pray for total healing and we pray for complete victory, as we also pray that God will make His perfect will clear. Most of all, we pray according to Scripture which already reveals God’s perfect will.   

So as you pray for protection and victory, I encourage you to search the Scriptures and pray according to the prayers and relevant promises of God’s Word.  

I say relevant promises because you can’t just randomly pick promises out of the Bible and apply them to your situation. God didn’t promise you that He was going to part the Red Sea so you can stand on the bank and claim that promise all you want, only to end up drowning when you step in the water!  

Praying in Worship, sing:    “A Mighty Fortress”  (Praise! #333)

Praying for Protection and Victory
   Praying from Ephesians