February 25, 2011 Prayer 5

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen"

Good Friday Morning. my dear brothers and sisters. Please pray today for the family of Robert (D J Bob) O'Brien. Bob, who was my next door neighbor, was killed yesterday afternoon on Interstate 81 when a pickup truck came over the center and hit his car head on. Folks, things happen so fast, and I am so happy that over the years Bob and I talked about the Lord a lot and we prayed together on many occasions. Also being Friday, it is the day we pray for all those who work the fields of Harvest for our Lord Jesus. With Bob, it shows us that we just cannot overlook our own neighbors as those in the fields of harvest.

The Big Trip 11-5 Prayer 5: Matthew 6:9 - This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen" (KJV)

Let's now take a look at the next part of this wonderful prayer that our Lord Jesus taught us to pray.

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Folks, this line, this part of the prayer, I want you to really understand what we are praying and what Jesus wanted to get into our brain as He gave us this prayer. First let's look at the word "debts" which, folks, does not have anything to do with how much money we owe to others. The word "debts" in this case means trespasses and/or sins. I think if we look at it as "Sins" it might help us to understand it more.

As we are praying this prayer we are saying to God our Father in Heaven, to forgive us of our sins, but we are not asking Him to forgive us of all our sins, or at least in not so many words. What we are asking God to do is forgive us, in the same manner or the same amount as we would forgive someone who has sinned against us. So here we go, and I am going to put it at you just as I understand it coming from the Lord. You have someone who did you dirty or caused you a lot of trouble, maybe even put out an untrue something about you and got a big old rumor started. And you are really mad at them, but deep down you know and understand that if you want to move on with your life you must forgive them. So you forgive them a little bit, but you are still really upset and you hold some back, deep down you, well, you just hold onto a grudge. So when you are asking God to forgive you, are you really asking Him to just forgive you some, but you are saying, Lord, it is ok to hold a grudge against me, for I am holding one against others. We are praying to our Lord Jesus to forgive us, forgive us, Lord, but Lord, we are not willing to forgive all the things others have done to us. So what if we go to the Lord and the Lord would only forgive some of our sins, even if we have cleared the sins of others against us. Fear not, for God will forgive all of your sins, if indeed you have forgiven others. Please, please take all your prayers serious and of course please pray in faith, for it is indeed the faith that will open heaven's doors. As in all our prayers I believe we should ask God to forgive us before we ask for anything else from Him. In other words ask for Him to clean you, and then ask to be healed. Ok, let's move on.

Now for the next part where we ask our Father in heaven this, "And lead us not into temptation."

Do your remember how Jesus let the devil lead him up on the mountain and then the devil tempted Jesus about different things? Of course Jesus did not bow down to the temptations, but would we be strong enough to not give in? So we are asking Jesus not to put us into that temptation and why did Jesus put this in the prayer? I think He just wants us to pray to Him about the temptations and He will keep us away if we ask. Now, folks, there are times when we might be led into temptations by our Lord if we are indeed working for Him. We might answer the car to go onto streets and talk to people about Jesus where drugs are sold and that those ladies of the evening might be working. And can we handle it? It depends. Last evening in Harrisburg, a Catholic Priest was preaching in a downtown pub. That, folks, is a man who you might consider is being led by Jesus into a path of temptation. And for sure if you were one who wants to reach out to others and you have just come clean from drinking you sure would not want to be led into that temptation... Are you getting the picture? Let's move on.

Let's look at the next part, "but deliver us from evil."

This Jesus lined up to be with that last line, as we are really asking Jesus to deliver us from the evil one. And sticking with the last subject where the Priest went into the pub, this line is telling me that if I have a problem like drinking, then, Lord, deliver me from it. Help me get rid of my addictions. We are asking that God take us away from anything that is evil or bad or in the best way I can put it, if it does not please God. Folks, if it does not please God then I think it is evil. Amen. Now let's move on...

The end of the prayer goes into a praise type prayer, "For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever."

What are we telling God in this great prayer? We are telling Him the Kingdom is His, and He has all power, and we will give Him all the glory or we should give Him all the glory. And brothers and sisters, we do not praise Him near enough, nor do we thank Him near enough. So let's do a tad of that right now... Thank You Jesus, praise You Jesus, I love You Jesus... I do...

Now let's wrap it out with this closing "Amen" Which means in this case, "so be it". Let's pray.

"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen"

Brothers and sisters, each time I write on this wonderful prayer I find out more about it. The biggest thing I have forced myself to do is pray the prayer and not just be saying it. All so often as we do things over and over we just do it by memory and we are not really thinking about it. Just putting words together so to speak. Now as we go forth sharing our blessings this day and as I tell you that I love ya, and sign off Pastor Dan, I would like to really pray the prayer one more time. Will you do that with me?

"Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, our sins, as we forgive our debtors, those who have sinned against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen"

I love ya, Pastor Dan.