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Grace, mercy and peace. Be to you from God, our Father
from our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today I want you to meditate on the Lord's Prayer.
Whenever you pray at your regular times in the day, or in a moment of special
need, you can pray a prayer that you've learned or you can pray using your own
words. But this prayer, the Our Father, Is the perfect prayer. And a pattern
for all your other prayers. Because it's been taught to you by Jesus himself.
So learning it meditating on it. It teaches you how to pray. It also teaches
you how to believe how to live and even how to die.
We'll go through each of the petitions and meditate on
the words. I'm using much from Luther's, large, catechism the section on the
Lord's Prayer that's available from me, just to ask me sometime. For a copy. So
I invite you in these next few moments to meditate on the words of the Lord's
Prayer concentrate on the Lord's Prayer, so that you learn to use it In your
days ahead. First. It starts by saying, “Our Father who art in heaven”. God in
heaven, wants us to know him and to be in a relationship with him. So he says,
“Pray.” Well certainly, this is a great treasure -- this invitation from Heaven
above to pray.
So we can pray. That's God's command. But more
significantly, we can pray because we need to. We are stressed. Distress is of
all sorts, on all sides. The distress that are to concern us most you will find
is set out in front of us in the Lord's Prayer.
As we pray, we can daily list our distress, our
problems to our Father in Heaven, with full confidence that he cares about us,
his children. You know, he loves to listen to us. And he's at work to help us
in our distress. To save us from harm and danger, and provide for all our
needs.
The first petition that we pray is “Hallowed be thy
name”. God's holy name was placed on us, given us when we were baptized --
baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. With
this name, God introduced himself to us, that we would know him personally.
How's it going to be holy among us? Well, in two ways:
when we believe rightly everything his name stands for and secondly when we
behave rightly, according to the love and goodness that his name stands for.
You can picture how God's name would be dirtied by untruths told about
him. When people would believe those
untruths false doctrines. His name wouldn't remain holy and If God's children
don't speak and act in love and goodness. Well, their poor Behavior, reflects
poorly on God. There's a great need for this prayer. All around us people
misrepresent God. When others hear that, and when they see their ungodly
actions, then they mistrust God.
Then we pray, “Thy kingdom, come”. God's kingdom is in
heaven and it is in the hearts of those who believe in him. It's not something
we can see with our eyes or feel in our hands. So it's likely, we think a
little of it and rarely What we more often think about, is all the stuff before
our eyes and in our hands. We're more likely to pray for the stuff that's right
in front of us.
Our Lord's Prayer has us slowed down a bit and pray
for what we can't see. The things of God's kingdom. Our greatest need is God's
kingdom. Our neighbor for whom we pray, their greatest need also is God's
kingdom.
We can ask for is the God's kingdom come to us and to
others. After we pray Our Father's Kingdom. We pray that his will be done. “Thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. As in any Earthly Kingdom, it's not
enough just to found the kingdom. Establish it, it must be kept up defended
against enemies, so we pray the good Lords will be done in order that his
kingdom come and His name be hallowed. Now take heed for what you're praying
for here. When you say “Father, your will be done”, there's surely going to be
a conflict in our life, if our will is different than God's will. You're asking
for trouble when you pray this, because the way of the world you're living in
is different than God's will.
And you shouldn't be surprised by the attacks of the
devil who goes to great lengths to hinder, God's will But take comfort as you
pray. The will and purpose of the devil and the world and even our own sinful
nature will and must fail. No matter how proud or secure, or powerful they seem
to be.
Now, we are ready to pray for the needs of our life
and our in our entire life. Summing them up in the word bread. “Give us this
day, our daily bread.” It is good to have one cover term to include all the
needs of this present bodily life.
Bread is a cover term for many different things. One
day, it’ll be in our mind a lack of money. And the next day it may be that it's
your health is all you can think about. Another day, you may be shaking your
head about the weather or wondering what will become of our government and
economy.
Jesus welcomes us to bring our distresses in all those
things into one word “bread”. And lay it at the feet of Our Father, who is in
control of all things. By using this covered term bread. We're asking God's
help for all the concerns on our mind at the moment and also the great needs
that we have that we don't even know yet, but God knows. And God's working on
it.
Trusting that our Father in Heaven loves us and is
kind to his children, whom his Son, Jesus saved. We can happily ask for his
help and provision for all our needs.
Then we pray. “And forgive us our trespasses, as we
forgive those who trespass against us”. Notice how this petition starts with
the word “and”. It's connected to our daily bread we just prayed for. Just as
much as we need food and other physical provisions every day, even more, we
daily need to pray for forgiveness. Because we so frequently trespass, that is
we step beyond the line that the Lord has laid out for us. We need to pray
daily for forgiveness.
Martin Luther. When he comes to this point in in the Large
Catechism. Says that when a person prays this fifth petition, he or she “must
put down their feathers”.
You can just picture, can't you the proud peacock or
other such bird that puffs up their feathers trying to appear bigger and
prettier Than they are and, and prouder than they should be. This is the time
in our prayers, to be honest, with ourselves and honest to God and to humbly
Put down all our self-defenses and say, “Dear Father in Heaven, forgive us”.
Now, when Jesus on the cross said “It is finished”, so,
all his work of saving the world was done. Forgiveness there is accomplished. Condemnation
for sin, is removed. That is ours when we believe it. We're praying here for
what Christ has already got for us. And the father loves to give us for Jesus’
sake.
And Jesus teaches us to pray “as we forgive those who
trespass against us”. Because we love the Forgiveness that Jesus has for us. We
love giving it to others -- forgiving those who trespass against us. Just as
happiness inside you produces laughter. So the joy of your forgiveness,
produces your patience, and long-suffering toward others, forgiving them for
Jesus sake.
“And lead us not into temptation.” Life has its ups
and downs, doesn't it? So, even though, at this moment we're doing fine, have a
clean conscience, a Godly appearance, we must pray this petition that God
wouldn't allow us to fall again. The devil, though damned, still attacks with temptations
severe, and multiple Temptations.
Don't think little about that, as though those
Temptations are trifle, like a temptation to overindulge in some rich food, or
temptation to take an extra 5 minutes of pleasure, instead of 5 minutes at
work. No, the devil's Temptations are directed at the core of who you are. And
what you believe.
He tempts you to doubt God, to doubt that God loves
you, forgives you and accepts you. You know, some have fallen for this
Temptation and in shame, they stop coming to church. They stopped praying for
help and mercy. When you feel Temptations, especially a temptation to doubt,
pray. Say, “Dear Father. You've asked me
to pray. Don't let me fall for Temptation. When I try myself, I make matters
worse. Lead me not into temptation but . . .”
“But deliver us from evil.” This final petition seems
to be a summary of all the previous petitions. The Father preserves us from evil
by keeping His name holy among us, with the true Doctrine and healthy morals, and
by bringing His Kingdom to us with His Gospel and his love in the church, and
by establishing his will in our lives.
When Jesus Christ saved us, he brought about a change
of rulers for us. before we were under the domain of death. Now, he is the Lord
of life. The devil's domain is sin and hopelessness. The Lord's kingdom is
righteousness and hope. he has rescued us from evil. So we can call him our
King, and our Lord. And to all this, we add our bold and sure. “Amen”.
