Text: Matthew 6:11 "Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Introduction

In recent weeks we have been looking at subject of prayer and at what Jesus had to say about it. This is important because not all that passes for prayer amongst men is acceptable to God. And this is difficult for men and women to admit because prayer is such a universal human reaction. Nevertheless Jesus said:

Matthew 6:7 "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words."

We began by looking at the kind of attitudes that Jesus said were essential if his disciples were to pray properly.

We noted that when we come to prayer we must do so believingly with faith. We noted too that hypocrisy and prayer are incompatible – sincerity of heart is a prerequisite if we are to pray acceptably. As we search our hearts this will lead us to come humbly recognising our own weaknesses – self-righteousness has no place in true prayer. Jesus also indicated that we must recognise the important role that prayer plays if we would win in the spiritual battles we are facing. When we realise this we will be prepared to go on and on praying.

Having dealt with the matter of our hearts we then turned to the Lord's Prayer to see what Jesus had to say about how his disciples ought to construct their prayers. We saw that he told them to begin with God. When we pray we are to remember to whom it is we are coming – we are coming to the God who reveals himself to us both as our Father, which encourages us to think of the warmth and intimacy of close personal relationship, and as being in heaven, which should properly engender a sense of fear and reverence.

Being mindful that we are speaking, in prayer, to God Jesus tells us it is only appropriate for us to begin his concerns rather than with own immediate interests. However, beginning with God interests does in no way mean that it is wrong for us to present our own to him in prayer. Indeed, when Jesus told his disciples that they were to "pray like this" v.9 his model prayer includes personal requests. Thus it is not only acceptable for us to bring such requests to God our father in prayer, this is something that we ought to do!

So this morning we come to consider the second half of the Lord's Prayer.

Christianity and real-life

While some people might like to try and dismiss Christianity as all "pie in the sky" or as a religion that is so otherworldly that it has no earthly use, nothing could be further than the truth. Yes, the Christian faith does talk about spiritual realities: God, heaven, eternal life etc. but it does not do so at the expense of ignoring or denigrating human life as we know and experience it here on Earth.

The three requests that Jesus tells his disciples to make cover the whole range of human experience: they deal with physical, spiritual and social concerns. At the same time, they deal with the present, they do not forget the influence of the past, and they take in the future.

Letters look at these three requests more closely.

1. "Give us this day our daily bread"

It may seem obvious but we should not overlook the fact that Jesus instructs us to pray about our own physical needs. "Us" and "our" figure prominently in how we are to pray.

God already knows that we need food in order to survive – after all it was he who created us and he knows all about us. So then, we do not need to go into great and extravagant detail trying to argue a point will make a case it was after all is Jesus points out in v.8 and again in v.32 our Father knows what we need before we ask him – he doesn't need us to explain our needs to him.

Well then, we might ask, why should we need to pray at all?

No, in presenting this request to God the not telling him anything that he doesn't know but we are telling him that we recognise our dependence upon him. Back in the opening chapters of the Bible we are told that God gave Adam and Eve a wide variety of things to eat – and everything that God had made was very good! To pray "give us this day our daily bread" serves also to remind us of this dependence.

I imagine in some countries of the third world Christians take much more encouragement from this command than we do here in the affluent West. At home our cupboards are full of food as are our fridges and freezers not to mention the shops and supermarkets where we live. In our affluence it is so easy to forget our dependence upon God. It is a good thing to give thanks to God before we begin to eat a meal, thanking him for his generous provision for us and asking him to bless the food to our bodies but is that sufficient? Would we not do well in our daily praying to ask God to meet our physical needs?

The Bible has a lot to say about food. (We have already read about how God fed Elijah during a famine using firstly ravens and then secondly a poor widow .) When the Israelites were being led through the wilderness God provided manna for them to eat and he did this on a daily basis. He did this despite the fact that the people were full of grumbling and complaining. The manna was a food that was previously unknown to the Israelites and it was obviously provided in a miraculous way. The Lord also provided quail for the people to eat though the second time that he did this it proved to be a mixed blessing. It would appear that the people were not at all satisfied with what God was providing for them and they made their dissatisfaction known:

Numbers 11: 4b-6 "Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leaks, the onions, and the garlic."

The people's needs were being met, they had what they needed to live on, but they were not satisfied and they wanted more. We learn that God heeded their request and brought in huge quantities of quail for them to eat but it did not do them the good they were hoping for:

Psalm 106:14-15 "But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them."

In our affluence let us take care that we do not exhibit the same kind of dissatisfaction and lack of thankfulness that characterised those Israelites! As we learn from Jesus and pray "give us this day our daily bread" let us do so in the spirit prayer recorded in Proverbs chapter 30:

Proverbs 30:8-9 "Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the LORD?" Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God."

While Jesus' command is about praying for literal food we are not meant to limit our praying to only that. Jesus is giving us a model prayer and this particular request refers to what is needful for the continuance of life, to our physical needs in other words. Jesus' instruction authorises us then to pray for much more than just good food such things as: a measure of health and strength, employment, sleep, a place to live and clothing to wear etc. Let's remember at the same time that our needs are not necessarily the same as our wants!

2. "Forgive us our debts as we also have for given our debtors."

Isn't it easy to put the blame on others? Something goes wrong – but it's not my fault, it's theirs. But the thing is we are not perfect either! And Jesus would have us admit this as we seek God's forgiveness for our faults too. How important it is to deal with past and offences committed in the past! How many friendships have been brought to an end by wrongdoing that has been compounded by a stubborn refusal to admit the error or the mistake? How many marriages have been soured? How many churches divided? How much fellowship with God spoiled or forfeited?

Perhaps you're happy enough to speak to God in the general terms that Jesus gave in his model but are you so ready to be much more specific with God? It is one thing to pray "forgive us our debts" or "forgive us our trespasses" but quite another to detail out particular sins that we have committed and for which we need to be forgiven.

This prayer is so important, it will enable us to properly put the past behind us and not to live on dragging the weight of guilt with us in the present and on into the future. The clouds that hide God's face from us can thus be dissipated and we can enjoy open fellowship with him.

The forgiveness that we ask of God does not depend upon the forgiveness that we grant to others – were it to do so grace would be replaced by works and that is not what the Bible teaches! The reason that this condition has been added is in order to stop us approaching God into a carefree and presumptuous manner. We must realise that if we desire reconciliation with God then all ill-will and all desire for revenge must be banished from our hearts.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance that Jesus accords to this and he will indeed return to it as soon as he has finished giving the outline for the model prayer:

Matthew 6:14 "For if you for give others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses."

Later on in the gospel of Matthew, when Jesus had again been speaking with the importance of forgiving a brother the wrong he had done to them, Peter came to Jesus and asked just how often he ought to forgive such a one. Jesus replied basically that as often as forgiveness is requested forgiveness must be given. He then went on to tell his parable of the unforgiving servant where once again a forgiven person is to demonstrate a forgiving spirit.

In the last week of his earthly ministry Jesus continued to teach this same truth:

Mark 11:25 "And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."

The New Testament church was told that this was just the kind of behaviour that should characterise their relations with each other:

Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in this Christ forgave you."

Do you notice here the reality that is involved? The Christian is not to imagine that he is without faults, he can and must give all up all pretence of being righteous in himself – he stands in need of forgiveness that forgiveness is available to him through faith in Jesus Christ. Neither is the Christian to imagine that everyone will treat him well – there will be times not only when he feels let down but when he genuinely is let down by others. He does not have to convince himself that these debts are somehow aren't real or and painful – there is a real recognition here of the reality of evil which mars and spoils God's good creation. But he is also given a way forward – as he himself stands in need of God's forgiveness and benefits freely from it so he too can freely forgive others who wrong him. The natural gut reaction may well be to lash out but no Christian is to be dominated by such natural gut reactions he is to think of what God has done for him and act in the light of that.

3. "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

In this third request, Jesus encourages his disciples to look towards the future. We don't know what lies ahead – we do not know what will happen this afternoon let alone next week or next year. However we will be confronted with many a situation in which we will have to take decisions. Some of those decisions will be largely insignificant: shall I have lamb or beef dinner, for example? Others are likely to be far more significant with much greater ramifications for us and for those whom we love.

And you don't really need me to remind you that the context in which we have to live our lives is far from ideal. The world in which we live can at times be both lonely and dangerous. The world in which we live is always a fallen world where sin mars and taints everything that there is. We ourselves are marred and tainted – sin has worked its corrupting effects on our minds, on our wills, and on our affections. Similarly, sin is doing the same in everyone else that we meet.

So Jesus tells his disciples to pray concerning temptation and sin. How realistic he is! Here is no head-in-the-sand's philosophy, here is no pie-in-the-sky mentality but robust realism that urges us to reckon with the fact that we live in an imperfect world.

This verse when we understand it properly contains one unified thought and no two separate petitions. It could be read in this way:

"Deliver us from evil that we may not be led into temptation."

And this is what it means:

"We are conscious of our own weakness, and desire to enjoy the protection of God, so that Satan will not be able to succeed in his attempts to make us fall."

The Christian in praying like this according to Jesus' instruction is then declaring in no uncertain terms that he has no strength for living a holy life, except insofar as he obtains it from God. The one who thus asks God for help so that he might overcome temptations is at the same time acknowledging that, unless God does deliver him, he will be constantly failing.

Temptation is a fact of our lives and will, if we succumb, produce sadness, disappointment and alienation in its train. Temptation promises much but fails to deliver the hoped for fruit. Temptation is by nature selfish; it appeals to us to gratify our own perceived interests and when indulged succeeds in separating us from others and from God.

The world of advertising and marketing has played upon the whole idea with its "naughty but nice" slogans and in the process has made temptation appear humorous and light-hearted, something that we shouldn't take too seriously. The food industry likes to use the word temptation especially to do with chocolate, it uses it of biscuits too and even of cat food! And it brings a smile to our faces – but beware temptation is no laughing matter it is deadly serious.

The businessman convinces himself that just one more drink won't do him any harm and he's soon an alcoholic. The binge drinking on the weekend is just a way to having a good time but look at the photos of our young people especially our young women legless and open to all sorts of abuse. The betting shop is just a bit of harmless fun and families are ruined as the gambler is hooked and we've not mentioned the drugs scene.

My friends, Jesus did not speak as a kill-joy when he said to pray so as to not enter into temptation. Temptation is the gate to sin and sin's pleasures are just for a season, a brief season. Yes, you'll find many entering through that gate and they'll invite you to go with them, not to be so old fashioned, not to be so pompous, not to be so self-righteous or whatever and they go on the broad road that Jesus says leads to destruction! It's not easy to stand out against that. We, all of us who are Christians, are under pressure to conform to this world, a world that is making every effort to squeeze us into its mould. Sometimes the world appeals and invites, cajoles and entices, at other times it mocks and threatens but the aim is the same: get them to join in the same excesses as the rest of us:

1Pet.4:3-4 "living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;"

How appealing temptation makes itself appear but how deceptive – you can read a wonderful description of it in Proverbs chapter 7. In that chapter the writer describes an adulteress who entices a young man – this is how it ends:

Prov.7:21-23 "With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life."

Of course sin takes many forms and the self-righteousness priggishness of the moralist who is always condemning others is no better in God's sight!

How kind Jesus is to warn us! How kind he is to urge us to pray! How wonderfully gracious he is to have come to die for us who have failed time and time again to resist temptation. The Christian faith is all about gospel that is good news. And the good news is that there is a Saviour able to save to the uttermost those who will repent of their sin and believe in him – but believing is not to be seen as an easy-believism that requires no transformation. Jesus saves from sin that we might live new lives which are pleasing to God our Heavenly Father and so he tells his disciples and all would-be disciples that this is how they are to go on – praying to be delivered from the enticements of sin.

Well may God help us all firstly to become Christians and secondly to live our lives as Jesus directs us.

Amen.

******

64 Sunnyhill Road, Herne Bay, Kent. CT6 8LU