The Lord's Prayer: Give us this day...

[0:00] Good morning and welcome to our online service for July 12th, 2020. My name is Kent Dixon. I'm the lead pastor of Braemar Baptist Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

[0:12] I encourage you to look at the information below this video. If you haven't liked us on Facebook yet, you're tuning in on Sunday mornings, but haven't hit that like button, please do that so that you'll like the Braemar web page for Facebook and then you'll be connected to us and you'll get notifications of things when we go live or when we post new things on our Facebook page. Also below in the information you'll see email addresses if you want to be added to our prayer list, the website for the church as well if you want to learn more about us. We encourage you to connect. Welcome this morning to people from our church who are tuning in as always and people who are checking us out for the first time. Welcome to people who are listening this morning or watching this morning live or who are listening and watching later. So welcome to everyone. God bless you as you join us in worshiping God this morning. So that's opening prayer. Father God, we know that you are with us this morning no matter where we are and what that looks like. Lord, you are with us even when we're apart. You care for us. You love us. Even when we feel lonely, Father, we are never alone because you are always by our side. Lord, thank you for the ways that you are blessing us even during this pandemic. The ways that we can see provision. The way that we can see your hand at work. Your will at work in our lives and in the lives of other people. Lord, thank you for opportunities to be agents of your will. Father, help us to be open. Open hearts, open minds, open eyes and being willing to to follow your will in our lives and to be open to opportunities that you put before us. So Father God, thank you for the opportunity again to come before your throne this morning to worship you and to study your word. And Lord, just I pray a blessing on each one that's watching or listening this morning. And we pray all of these things in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. So we're going to join together in worship singing this morning. And we're going to be singing nothing but the blood and rock of ages. And these are two great old hymns of our faith. So you'll be able to follow on along with the lyrics as they appear on the screen.

[2:42] So let's sing praises to our awesome God this morning with these two great hymns. God bless you as you sing. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole?

[3:19] again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. Oh, no other fountain, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

[3:58] me.

[4:10] for my In this I see nothing but the blood of Jesus.

[4:22] For my cleansing, this my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

[4:37] Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.

[4:51] No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

[5:07] This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

[5:29] This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

[5:44] Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.

[5:58] Oh, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

[6:10] Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.

[6:23] Oh, precious is the blood of Jesus.

[6:38] Oh, precious is the blood of Jesus.

[6:53] Oh, precious is the blood of Jesus. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flow Be our sin, the double cure, safe from wrath that made me pure Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know?

[7:41] All for sin could not atone Thou must save and Thou alone In my hand no prize I bring Simply to your cross I'll cling While I draw this fleeting breath When my eyes shall close in death When I rise to worlds unknown And behold thee on thy throne Rock of angels, clap for me Let me hide myself from thee

[8:42] What a great way to worship God through singing, isn't it?

[9:02] It's so encouraging. Even if you don't have a great voice, right now you're blessed by Being able to listen to your own voice In the comfort of your own home As you sing to me on your computer And to sing to God So enjoy those moments Enjoy those moments of worshiping God As great as it is to worship God together in community It's also great when we lift our voices in solos to God Singing our praises to him ourselves So this morning we're going to continue in our series on the Lord's Prayer That we began last week And we'll conclude this series next Sunday As we explore the Lord's Prayer together in this series Last week we recognized that Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer as a model As a template for how we should pray Prayer is not about perfect words But a focused heart It's not about showing off

[10:04] But showing up The Lord's Prayer is a helpful guide that Jesus has given us As we seek to cultivate an intimate, intentional, and rich habit of prayer in our own lives As we learned last week The Lord's Prayer is found in a longer series of Jesus' teaching Known as the Sermon on the Mount And we find this prayer in Matthew 6, verse 9 And we're going to say it together Again, if you're more familiar with a different translation Or prefer to recite it from memory as you have That's just fine And I'll be reading the prayer from the NIV translation this morning And as we, before we begin that reading together As we also learned last week The closing doxology of the prayer The end of the prayer While it's not recorded in Scripture It's an acceptable way for us to close

[11:05] So I'll be including that in And if you're reciting it from memory Chances are you may be including it as well So let's begin Our Father in Heaven Hallowed be your name Your kingdom come Your will be done On earth As it is in heaven Give us today Our daily bread Forgive us our debts As we have also forgiven our debtors And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from the evil one For yours is the kingdom The power and the glory Forever and ever Amen As we talked about last week The Lord's Prayer has a definite structure to it And as I mentioned The content forms essentially an X It begins with the broader topics focused on God Comes to a more personal level focused on human needs and provision And then returns outwards again

[12:07] To a broader eternity focused perspective And I want us to recognize this morning That the Lord's Prayer is a series of what are referred to as petitions And like many English words You've heard me say this before Many English words The definition of the word petition Has become largely watered down over time The word has come to be associated with Signing your name to a list of other names on a clipboard Right?

[12:39] A petition Or even more generically than that Signing into some sort of website And clicking off boxes That's a petition When we think of that word And in its basic form Petition is defined as a request to do something Most commonly addressed to No big surprise here A government official or a public entity That's what a petition is generally recognized as meaning But that's And that's probably the perspective that first pops into our heads Right?

[13:13] That's the one that we're most familiar with That it's some sort of document Addressed to some public official And signed by numerous individuals Maybe you've signed petitions yourself But I want to suggest this morning a different definition And it's the one that directly applies To the words of the Lord's Prayer Here we go With the new definition Petitions to a deity Are a form of prayer Called supplication Petitions to a deity Are a form of prayer Known as supplication And so we recognized last week That the initial section of the Lord's Prayer Involves us asking God To make certain things happen Do you remember that?

[14:06] Not as though we're giving Him permission somehow Or contributing some way But we're actively calling on God To act Calling on God to make things happen According to His will In that beginning section We're asking God to make His name holy We're asking for His kingdom to come And we're asking for His will to be done And it's important for prayers of petition or supplication To begin this way Because we come before God Recognizing that He alone is God We are not And we turn our focus intentionally on God And His will Not ours But this morning we recognize the next portion of the Lord's Prayer We're going to This is where we ask God specifically to provide for our needs

[15:08] It's a specific change in focus Jesus shifts in His model of prayer By changing personal pronouns He shifts from your To our To us There's a noticeable change in the wording and the focus of the pronouns Jesus shifts courses He changes tracks at this point in the prayer And as many commentators put it Jesus shifts from the Father's cause To our cause So let's recognize for a moment the breadth behind the thinking our Behind as we consider the change in focus to our When we petition God for provision and speak of our needs I believe we can and should consider this To mean more than simply our personal needs More than just the needs of our family

[16:09] The needs of our church The needs of our community Sure it means all of those things It includes It's inclusive It includes all of those things But also so much more I believe we're asking God for His provision When we say our Not just for the people and groups that we mentioned But also for everyone else who has needs For our as a collective people And in coming from that perspective of our then Jesus is indicating that our request for provision Not be selfish But that we consider the needs of others as well So our is not just our me Or our my little group But our meaning God's provision for all of us Does that make sense?

[17:05] So next we come to give us today our daily bread Seems simple enough right? And absolutely it can be just as straightforward as that But you won't be surprised to hear me say Let's think a little deeper We move at this point In the prayer From the eternal To the temporal And some might even say the mundane The everyday The ugh Here we go Now I have to have my laundry list of things But again there's more here More here than meets the eye More meaning than simply a superficial reading We ask for provision Recognizing both a very real and specific need that we have But we also recognize something else that's important We recognize that it must be given Do you see that?

[18:06] We ask God to give us our daily bread We recognize it must be given It must be provided Did you see that?

[18:17] Do you recognize that? Do we say these words? Do we pray these words of the Lord's Prayer? And yet still think somehow in our heads and our hearts That meeting our needs Providing for ourselves Is somehow our responsibility and not God's?

[18:36] I've often heard Christians say I can't say God it's up to you to provide for all my needs I can't take control I won't take control Because that feels somehow What?

[18:52] Irresponsible It feels lazy But I want to encourage you I want to challenge you To think of asking for God's provision For everything that you need As an act of faith An act of trust If we say that God is the giver of everything If we believe in faith In our words That God will provide for our needs That God will take care of us Then let's put our money where our mouth is So to speak And trust that God will provide Do you think that at times We say these words And we believe that everything that we have The money we earn The homes we live in The food on our tables Is there solely because of what we have done?

[19:46] Think about that for a moment At times do you think we even fail to recognize That the provision Comes from Is given by God And so here's another perspective You may even begin to think at this point If God knows what I need As scripture says Without me even having to ask Is there any point in me asking?

[20:14] God knows what people need God knows what I need Why should I pray and ask him? And it's really a fair point It is a fair point And Jesus himself reminds us In Matthew 6 8 As I just said For the father knows what you need Before you ask him But even as Jesus recognizes that He still clearly tells us To ask God To provide for our needs Yes God knows But Jesus still tells us to ask Recognizing it's God who gives God who provides So we ask God for our daily bread For this day The wording is very specific And so we're intended to recognize That he will provide when we ask And that he who has provided yesterday He will provide today

[21:16] And we also demonstrate in faith That it's God who will provide again tomorrow And so here we're not asking For a once and for all kind of provision Lord you know the number of my days You do the math I can't be bothered Not at all We're asking for provision With perspective A perspective that Not only the provision itself But the day for which we need That provision This day Is a gift from God And this links back to our sermon series On stewardship Where we recognize that God Is the giver of The provider of everything Even our time And so While God's sense of time Is eternal He still recognizes As Jesus demonstrates

[22:17] That he understands Our needs are temporal We have worldly needs And not worldly in the negative sense But we have real human needs And those needs are recurring They are many of them are daily So Jesus modeled for us How we should feel confident In asking God To provide for our very real human needs Asking for our daily bread then Is more than just about the food on our tables We're asking for God to sustain us To provide for all of our needs So that we will be better able to focus On the work that he has called us to do Do you recognize that?

[23:01] If we're constantly worrying about Provision and needs for daily things For everyday mundane human things We're not focused on We're distracted from What Jesus called us to do What God ultimately has In his plan for us So how appropriate for Jesus The man who The one who multiplied loaves and fishes To meet the needs of those who were with him Those who were hungry And had tired And had been listening to him teach all day The earthly needs of the people That followed his earthly ministry Who better than Jesus To illustrate that we need to ask God For our daily bread And to me it's important to reflect On the fact that Jesus is also known as The bread of life So that we recognize that Through Jesus God provides our spiritual food as well

[24:01] Food for our souls The investment in our eternity Is through Jesus So continuing on in the prayer We come to the petition of Asking God to forgive us our debts As we have also forgiven our debtors So some translations say Forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us Some say debts Some say our sins So the translations use different words But to me the concept of debt Is the best one Not that the others are somehow bad But it's the most The richest way to look at the concept When you are in debt to someone You owe them something And so if we consider the fact that

[25:04] We are in debt to God Because of our sin Jesus paid a debt You may have heard this before Jesus paid a debt That we could not have possibly paid Not ever Not in a million years Jesus paid a debt To God For us For our sins The debt that we owed The responsibility that we had Could not have been taken care of Any other way But through Jesus And his death on the cross So debt And indebtedness And cancellation of debt Is such a powerful way to view this So again It's appropriate that it's Jesus Who directs us to ask the Father For forgiveness But why is that?

[25:59] Because it's through the sacrifice of Jesus Through his death on the cross As I said That we have redemption We have restored relationship with God We have forgiveness For the selfish And self-centered things Decisions that we've made And choices That we make in our lives We have forgiveness For those things And we may reflect here again As we did with God's provision If we know we're forgiven Debt paid Jesus cancelled it Then why do we need to ask For forgiveness Why do we need to do that?

[26:39] Have you ever thought of that personally? So why did Jesus model for us A need to ask God for forgiveness? To me Losing the perspective Of On our forgiveness As being a gift Losing a perspective On it stemming solely From the grace And love that God lavished on us Do you see how it can make it Make forgiveness Begin to seem like a free pass?

[27:10] Make it seem like It's somehow cheap That we can continue to sin Can continue to turn from God And choose our own flawed path Rather than God's perfect path for us And we've been forgiven No problem Keep sinning Forgiveness is eternal But do you remember in the past We've talked about The biblical concept of repentance Do you remember that?

[27:40] The concept of repentance Is that yes We have forgiveness But that as we seek forgiveness For our sin As we come to God And repent of our sinful behavior We express a decision To do differently after And that's the full perspective Of being repentant Not that sin Forgiveness Sin again But sin Forgiveness I will go a different way I will strive Through the grace of God To go a different direction So ideally As followers of Jesus We don't just sin And ask for forgiveness Only to go back To our bad choices Do you see that?

[28:27] We confess our sinful choices And through repentance We covenant with God We agree with God That we will seek His will And His way So that we can strive To make better choices next time Asking for His strength To do that better To choose the better path So what perspective Do you have As you read the petition About your own forgiveness And the way that we seem To be called To forgive others Because it's interesting Immediately after The Lord's Prayer Jesus gives us A perspective Matthew 6 Verses 14 and 15 Spells it out Pretty clearly for us And these verses Begin with the word For Which indicates that What we're about to read Is directly connected

[29:29] To what we've just read Does that make sense? What is to come Is conditional Upon what we've just learned So recognizing We've just read The Lord's Prayer We've just read About forgiveness And that we are To ask God For forgiveness Matthew 6 14 and 15 Begins For If you forgive men When they sin against you Your heavenly Father Will also forgive you Does that make sense?

[30:00] That's pretty clear If you forgive someone else God will forgive you Then it begins But Always a cause for pause Right?

[30:14] But If you do not Forgive men Their sins Your Father Will not forgive Your sins Did you catch that?

[30:25] As one commentator says Jesus gives us A startling warning About forgiveness If we refuse To forgive others God will also Refuse to forgive us Why?

[30:42] Well Because when we Don't forgive others We're denying Our common ground As sinners In need of God's forgiveness God has forgiven me I'm a sinner If I refuse to Forgive you Then I'm indicating That somehow I'm different Or better And that's not Correct So God's forgiveness Of our sin Is not directly The result Of forgiving others But it is Based on us Recognizing What forgiveness Means And the Bible Says in Ephesians 4 verse 32 Be kind And compassionate To one another Forgiving each other Just as In Christ God forgave You This message Is that Having freely Received forgiveness Ourselves We're called To model And reflect That in our lives By freely

[31:42] Forgiving other People who have Hurt us Or sinned Against us Freely Freely Give forgiveness As you have Freely received it You may remember That leading up To Easter Last year We had a series Called famous Last words And we considered The last words Or phrases Of Jesus From the cross And we touched On this concept There as well Forgiveness Jesus asked His Father To forgive The people Who had put Him on the cross To forgive Those who had Mocked and Rejected him To forgive The criminals Who hung on Their own Crosses To either Side of him But I believe Jesus was also Calling his Father Asking his Father To forgive You And me And everyone Who would Ultimately call On his name As Lord And follow him

[32:44] Jesus bought Forgiveness For all time On that Cross And so While it has Been bought And paid For Your forgiveness Is a done Deal Remember To ask God To forgive You And to be Oh boy I recognize It just as Well as Anyone else To be It's difficult At times But be Willing To forgive Others Because God Forgave you First Share That forgiveness Learn to Let go Of hurt And pain In your Life Learn to Let go Of bitterness And let God take That weight Off your Shoulders We're going To pause There for This morning And we're Going to Continue unpacking The Lord's Prayer In our Final sermon

[33:44] In this Series Next week So as You've been Listening this Morning Is the Idea of God's Forgiveness Forgiveness And love For you Familiar Or not That familiar Is it Something you've Maybe heard But never Really considered Or thought About before My friends The love Of God And the Invitation To be Welcomed Into his Family Is not Something That isn't Available To you No matter Who you Are Or what You believe You've Done That makes You somehow In your Mind Undeserving God Created You And he Knows you Better than Anyone else Ever Could Or ever Will If you Don't Know Jesus In a Personal Way Yet But Are In a Place Where you Think you're Ready to Do that I invite You to Pray a

[34:44] Prayer With me In a Moment And if You already Know Jesus Personally Whether that's Been for Two Years Or 82 Years I invite You to Pray this Prayer With me Today Again And Rededicate Your Life To Him Let's Pray Jesus I believe That you're The son Of God And that You died On the Cross To rescue Me from Sin And death And to Restore me To the Father I choose Now to Turn From My Sins My Self Centeredness And every Part of My life That does Not Please You I Choose You Father I Choose To give My life To you And myself To you I receive Your forgiveness And ask You to Take Jesus Take Your Rightful

[35:45] Place In my Heart In my Life As Savior And Lord Come Reign in My Heart Fill me With your Love And your Life And help Me to Become a Person Who is Truly Loving A person Like you Restore Me Jesus Live In me Love Through Me Thank you God For making It possible To have A relationship With you Again Through Jesus And it's In Jesus Name I Pray Amen So if you Prayed that Prayer for The first Time today Welcome To the Family It's a Joy for me To say That And if You're Listening And you Prayed that Prayer for The first Time I want You To email Me At Kent K-E-N-T

[36:45] At Bremar Baptist Dot Com Because I'd Love to Connect with You I'd love To celebrate This commitment That you've Made in Your life And help You get Connected To a Community And to A path That will Encourage And support You You've Made a Big change In your Life And we Want to Support You in That You may Have seen My message About this In my Weekly Emails But I Recently Heard a Beautiful Song Called Baba Yetu And it's A song That beautifully Reflects The words Of the Lord's Prayer So that's My prayer For you This week If you Have access To the Internet Or you Received our Weekly Email There's a Link to That You received My weekly Pastoral Message There's a Link to That video But if You don't Have it Look it Up Online B-A-B-A-Y-E-T-U It's the Lord's Prayer Sung in Swahili

[37:46] And I Hope it Blesses You Just as Much as It Blessed Me My Friends Go in Peace Go in Peace Into Your Week Knowing That God Is Always With You And That God Your God Is Always In Control May You Be Blessed This Week As You Walk With The Lord And As You Enjoy Your Summer Be Blessed As You Head Into This Summer Season No Matter How That Looks For You May You Find Rest May You Find Peace And May You Find God's Love Surrounding You God Bless You God pentru Others comme Are

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