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Disciples Learn to Pray: The Lord’s Prayer (Part II)
Matthew 6:9-15

     Two men were talking one evening.  One fella said to the other, “You’re real religious, aren’t you? I challenge you to quote that Lord’s Prayer.  I bet you (looks into his wallet) $10 you can’t do it.”  His buddy said, “You’re gonna lose that bet!”  After taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, he said, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
     Shaking his head, the first man said, “You are something else, man.”  Then he slapped a $10 bill on the table and muttered, “I didn’t think you could do it. No sir.”
     Freshly baked bread. A flour-coated loaf, warm from the oven. Does that sound delicious to you? It does to me. Most of us love bread.  This morning we’ll be focusing on the second half of the Lord’s prayer, which begins with, “give us today our daily bread.”  In last week’s message we heard that the Lord’s Prayer is communal, relational, and it also points beyond us. It acknowledges God’s name and character, and it’s about us wanting God’s will to be done. Finally, it’s wanting what’s happening now in heaven to be our reality here on earth.
     The first half of the Lord’s Prayer points to us to God: we focus on His power and holiness, and His coming kingdom. Only then do we begin to ask God to meet our needs. Doesn’t this pattern remind you of the Ten Commandments? They begin with our relationship with God in the first 4 commandments; in the next 6 there’s a focus on our lives, how we should treat others. 

Give us this day our daily bread
      “Give us this day our daily bread” is the first petition, or request, we may put before God.  It is a top priority because we all know we need food to survive.   Asking for “bread” is a way to say we need food, sustenance, our vittles!  Since this is a model prayer, someone living in Asia might adapt their prayer by saying, “Give us this day our daily rice.” 
     God wants all of us to have what we need - the basics, like food - but also clothing, shelter, and more.  Everyone can have enough if the “haves” share with the “have-nots”. We have enough food, water, and other resources to help every man, woman, and child living on the earth. Enough to support people who can’t work because they’re too young, too old, disabled, or diseased.  God tells us the solution: Be generous, share with those in need.  But also, keep praying with urgency, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Until all have enough, we must pray and share as often as we can.  This is one way we help usher in the kingdom of God on earth. 

Forgive us our trespasses
       Our Father, who art in heaven… forgive us for our sins.  Sin is disobedience, doing what’s wrong in our relationship with God. We feel guilty - we know we cannot hide.  If you’ve ever had a dog, you may have seen how they can act when caught doing  something bad.  They have shredded newspaper, dumped over the garbage can, or otherwise broken a rule. When their owner shows up and is none too happy, the dog begins to cower.  The owner may not even say a word, yet the dog backs up, lowers his head and the front of his body to the floor.  Their tail may wag, showing us they hope we remember the good times from the past.  They do this knowing they’re guilty; there’s no escaping, nor any chance for a do-over.  Dogs are at the mercy of their owner. 
       Most owners will sigh, but clean up the mess, knowing it was in the dog’s nature to do what they did.  They liked the smell of the leftover chicken in the garbage can in the kitchen, so... Or they felt frisky and wanted to play and found something forbidden to play with.  It sure felt fun, until they were caught.
       I think dogs and their owners offer us a great example of how God relates to us when we sin.  God knows we’ll sometimes feel temptation and act on it, even though we know we’ll get in trouble. When caught, we’ll feel regretful and be anxious about what that will mean for us.  We really don’t want to stay stuck in that uncomfortable place with the One who loves and takes care of us.  So, we look up from our hunched-down posture of shame and wait for the consequences. 
     Does a loving owner send their dog away?  One mistake and you’re out of here?   Open the back door, push them out and don’t let them in again?  That would be pretty heartless, wouldn’t it?  And it would reveal a lot about the character of their owner.  Wise owners know every dog is going to make mistakes - they can’t be perfect!  So they show them grace. They forgive them, keeping them in their home and their heart.
     The Bible says we’ve all sinned and fallen short in our relationship with God.  We’ve given in to temptation.  We’re guilty, powerless to excuse or erase the wrongs we did.  God sees this, and because of his nature, he forgives us for that wrong and every other wrong, because we’ve asked Him to do that for us.  What comes next is the restoration of joy and a right relationship.  Like when an owner kneels down and opens their arms, and the dog leaps toward them happy, barking, forgiven.
     Jesus taught his disciples to say in their daily prayers: “Forgive us for our sins,” because it kept them mindful of the times their thoughts or actions were not holy.  It gave them the assurance that God, who is love, forgives the sins of all who confess them.

As we forgive those who trespass against us
     The prayer then asks God to forgive us, “as we forgive others.”
      How good it is to have God forgive us, fully, restoring the bond of our (vertical) relationship.  But Jesus had more to say about forgiveness.  Right after he taught the “Lord’s Prayer”, as recorded in Matthew 6, Jesus repeated something, making sure we’d remember it: “If you forgive others when they sin against you, Your Father will forgive you. If you don’t forgive them, your Father will not forgive you.” What? Why does God say such a thing?  It can be easy to forgive some people some of the time, but we struggle to forgive others, all the time, for all they’ve done. 
       C.S. Lewis puts this in perspective for us: “To be a Christian means we forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in us.”  It takes love that is deep and unconditional to forgive others!  The Bible says every Christian must have what’s called a ministry of reconciliation.  When we do that, there will be an ever-expanding circle of forgiveness in our world.  Forgiving others and being forgiven by God… that alone can keep us busy for the rest of our lives, am I right?

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
     The final part of the Lord’s Prayer says, “Lead us not unto temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Satan stands behind all evil.  He’s called the father of all lies - the deceiver.  In the Old Testament we see him tempt those who walk on “the way of life” to choose “the way of death.” Jesus said, “There is a narrow road and a small gate that leads to life, and a broad road and a wide gate that leads to death.”
     Knowing all of this, Jesus told his disciples to pray.  He knew they’d face difficult temptations.  He knew that doing what’s right would not always be easy.  There would be people trying to convince them that there’s no harm in something, that everyone is doing it, that they should just do what feels good to them.  The standard lies and temptations of Satan are the same old bag of tricks.  When we’re on the path of life, righteousness, and wisdom, Satan tries to confuse us, discourage us, frighten, isolate, sadden us.  Satan wants us to doubt, feel overwhelmed, and have all hope crushed.
     The Good News is that Satan and God are not equally matched.  Satan was defeated at the cross, and further humiliated on the day of Resurrection.  Christ will come again, crushing Satan and his forces.  Christ, who delivers us from evil every day, will deliver us from evil - permanently.  That makes me want to say one thing: “Maranatha,” which means “Come, Lord, come”.  May the word “Maranatha” also be on your lips and in your heart.  One day, God’s kingdom and power and glory shall come, and we will dwell with God forever and ever. Amen.

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