The Sermon on the Mount: The King’s Mandate-The Lord’s Prayer

Sermon Series: The Life of Jesus: From Creation to the Cradle to the Cross to the Crown

Sermon Title: The Sermon on the Mount: The King’s Mandate-The Lord’s Prayer

Sermon Text: Matthew 6: 9-15

Sermon Date: January 22, 2017

 

Prayer is continuing a conversation that God has started through his Word and his grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with him. . . . The power of our prayers, then, lies not primarily in our effort and striving, or in any technique, but rather in our knowledge of God.  Tim Keller

prayer is second only to the intake of God’s Word importance.” Prayer is second in importance because it relies on our knowledge of God, which comes from reading his Word. Without engagement with Scripture, our prayers are lacking. It’s like having a phone conversation in which the other person can hear us, but we can’t hear them. Don Whitney

Prayer is an encounter with God that is initiated by him through his Word and that changes our hearts as we humbly communicate and worship the Lord, confess our sins and transgressions, and ask him to fulfill both our needs and also the desires of our heart.

 

Eloquence impresses people, not God.  The Lord is interested in humility and sincerity, not stage presence.

1. Pray God’s Person v 9 Our Father in Heaven hallowed be your name
2. God is personal and we have a unique relationship with Him so we can call him Father or daddy.
3. God is also an awesome, all-power Creator of the universe in which we all “live and breathe and have our being.” Familiarity must never give way to disrespect.

In biblical times, names reflected the character.  So if you take the time to understand who God is, you’ll also know why He is waiting with opens open wide to meet you at your point of need.

Let’s examine some of the names of God in the OT and explore for a moment the lessons they teach us about him

1. Elohim-the creator God “In the beginning Elohim”
2. Adonai-the Lord
3. Jehovah-the God who keeps covenant
4. El Elyon-The most high God. The God who sits in heaven and looks down and says, “I got this.  Everything is under my control.”
5. El Olam-The Everlasting, Unchanging God. No matter how unpredictable your circumstances, no matter how unstable your life may seem, you serve a God who is consistent and steadfast, unmovable over all time.
6. El Shaddai-God Almighty, full of grace. When I need what I don’t deserve.
7. Jehovah Raah-The Lord, my Shepherd. When you don’t know what direction to take pray to the great Shepherd to aim His sheep in the perfect direction.
8. Jehovah Jireh “The Lord will Provide. When you have a real need in your life.  Call on the great provider.
9. Jehovah Shalom ‘The Lord, my peace” When you have confusion and chaos in your life, cry out to the Lord of peace to give you the peace of God that passes all understand.
10. Pray God’s Priority v-10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

How is God’s will done in heaven.

1. Angels do God’s will without question. The last citizen of heaven who tried to follow a different agenda doesn’t live there anymore. 

Angels respond to God’s commands readily, eagerly, fervently and constantly.

If we are not willing to offer angel like obedience to the Lord, we might as well get up off our knees because we are not praying the way Jesus taught us to pray.

• Pray God’s Provision v-11 Give us this day our daily bread

God wants us to trust him for our todays, tomorrows, our next week, next month and next year.  God wants us to living in today’s blessings.  “His mercies are new every morning” Lamentation 3:21 says.  Don’t live on yesterday’s blessings.

1. Pray God’s Perfect Mercy v-12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors   

Five words in the New Testament for sin:

1. Harmartia-missing the mark. A bowman who takes his best shot but misses the bullseye.     
2. Tarabasis-stepping over the line. God establishes boundaries on our behavior and we cross over the line.
3. Anomia-means lawlessness or rebellion. When you say, “God I know what you say but I am just not going to do it.”
4. Paraptoma-means slipping or falling. When you make an unintentional mistake or sin.
5. Opheilema-this has to do with balanced owned. Every time we sin, you go into debt with God.  You have taken on an obligation you can’t possibly meet. Sin makes us overdrawn debtors to God.        
6. Pray God’s Protection v-13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

In our prayers we ask God to meet our physical needs one day at a time. We pray for our spiritual needs, regularly asking for and granting forgiveness. Now we are asking God to help us with our emotional needs.

You might pray, “Lord, I want to live this day for You. Don’t let anything cross my path that may

wind up giving a victory to the evil one. Lord, I’m on my way to work, and the folks there will try to get me to compromise my faith. I can handle some of them. But don’t let me get in over my head. I don’t want to compromise your Kingdom. Watch out for me today, Lord, so that even if people blow up at me, I won’t go near the one who will make me retaliate. I don’t want to make you look bad. Lord, lead me down the paths that enable me to glorify you and resist the evil one.