Corona Chronicles - The Lord's Prayer

Welcome back to our studies in the Lord's prayer and we're we're looking at this throughout the month of November because we're finding ourselves in another lockdown And actually, key to our survival as Christians is gonna be depending upon depending upon the lord and seeking the things that that he seeks and that he loves And so this is like a survival survival kit prayer really for this for this lockdown. And we're now working our way through and we're up to verse 12. So but we'll start at verse 9 again. This then is how you should pray. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debt Yeah. Well, I mean, this is this is right for us to be coming to to God and saying, forgive us. I mean, obviously, Christ has taken our, you know, our punishment for our sins and dealt with all of our sins.

And that's how we come into into the family of God in the first place. No 1 comes to the father except through me. What he's done. But as Jesus said to, you know, Peter, you know, he washes the feet in that whole -- Yeah. -- washing the feet that confessing our sins is is is a good thing.

Yeah. And reminding us of what Christ has done. And that's a constant thing that we need to be doing. It's not just Yeah. He's he's clean -- Yeah.

-- in the sense that Jesus is washing But his feet get dirty every day if he needs to And so he doesn't need to be washed again like like, becoming a Christian every day. Jesus says that makes that clearly, but I need to wash your feet. Yeah. Yeah. And there are so many other parts of the bible that deal with that as well.

I was just thinking of 1 John. You know, if anyone claims to be without sin, he is a liar in the truth is not in him. And there there is a sense in which, you know, because of the blood of Christ, that is true. We are we are our sins how been taken away and removed from us, and we've been cleansed in that once and for all sense. But whilst we await the new creation, we are gonna be warring against the old self all the time.

There is gonna be this conflict between the new man and the old man, and we're to put that to death and this is just a recognition that that is still a reality for us and we need God's help every day. Yeah. And and again, this you know, we're we're finding how liberating prayer is. That is so liberating. I'm not perfect.

I don't have to pretend to be perfect. I don't have to have everything together. You know, I I'm gonna work hard to honor God's name, but actually part of honoring God's name is to admit our failure. Yeah. That's certainly been helpful for you.

And and it's so it's it's so liberating. I don't have to put on this front of perfection, and I can work it out. And I, you know, everybody else is wrong you know, those people because everybody's wrong, aren't they? But me, I'm always right. No, I'm not always right.

And so, I need to confess my sin. I think that's really helpful, isn't it? And that that is honoring to God because he he is a tender loving saviour and he wants to come and to help his people and his sheep when they get all muddy and stuck and they're about to fall off a cliff. That. And when we say Lord, I'm a sinner help me, that that draws his heart towards us, because that is what he loves to do.

He doesn't want, you know, the pharisee standing at the front saying, I thank you, lord, that I'm not like other people. Mhmm. You know, I tithe, I devere, you know, He's turned off by that. He's drawn out in affection towards those who want to put their sin to death and live more like him. So, it's an appeal to the kindness of God, which he loves to answer.

But it is funny, isn't it? Because you'll you'll know again as as a father of a young young kid, how how much we deny? I mean, kids are like that, aren't they? You know, have you eaten the chocolate cake from the fridge? No.

No. I didn't do it. It didn't do it. It was my sister. And there's She hasn't even been born yet.

Yeah. I know. But there's chocolate all over the face. Yeah. Yeah.

Exactly. But there there were just silly silly ways of trying to get around it and blaming someone else. Where it and that is dishonoring to you as a father because you've lied to the father, haven't you? And you're saying, you know, it was someone else fault. But what warms you is when when -- Yeah.

-- you know, your kid says, okay, yeah, I was I did it. Yeah. I was wrong. Yeah. Absolutely.

And and it's And you know, as fathers, we wanna be like this father, don't we? Because sadly, I'm very unlike the father often in the sense that, you know, when when people do wrong to me, I might sort of withdraw and be spiteful and try to sort of repay them in some sense. But God is just the opposite of that. He loves to come towards sinners. And to restore them and to forgive them.

And so, there's that there. But, what's interesting here is the connection between between our own forgiveness and the forgiveness of others. And that is a really important thing. And Jesus actually goes on to that in verse 14 and 15. And he says in verse 15, if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins.

And so suddenly, this request has got a whole lot more serious, isn't it? Because what Jesus is saying here is that look, if you are a member of God's kingdom, You will know that God has treated you in the absolute opposite way in which you deserve. He has he has loved you and forgive you. And for us to therefore, withhold mercy and kindness to other people, there is something so inconsistent about that. That in the end reveals that that heart hasn't understood God's forgiveness after all.

Yeah. Because it they they so flow from each other. Yeah. That's the 1 without the I mean, he tells the story, isn't he about the great debt? Yeah.

The, you know, someone's been forgiven, and then they don't they don't you know Yeah. That unmerciful and he's choking it. Yeah. I want that penny. Yeah.

I've been I've been let off a million pounds, but I want you to give me that penny. Yeah. And and Christ is saying, that is not Christian. Yeah. Yeah.

But you've don't understand. You don't really understand what's going on. Yeah. And we have seen that, haven't we? I mean, you know, it it is sometimes quite shocking when when someone comes to you purporting to be a Christian and It's not a shock that we have a problem with another brother and sister, but it's a shock when when they say, I will never forgive them.

And I demand justice and it it's so shocking. And when we had that once with someone and we felt dirty afterwards, well, I didn't know to do, I couldn't even pray actually, because it was so shocking that sort of language that was said Is that right? That is right. Yeah. And, you know, as you say in this life, we're we, you know, we're all sinners and we do we do struggle sometimes because the hurts against us can be real and and leave very deep scars.

But but actually, what I think, you know, what once are once we've actually realized the scale of our offense against the Holy God. We were talking in 1 of our previous videos about Isaiah. You know, when he stands before the holiness of God, he he pronounces a woe and a curse upon himself. And I think that that is essential to Christian conversion. Is we have to at some stage realize that we have just so utterly blasphemed and dishonored the name of God.

And yet, he's come to us. And I think without that kind of crushing realization, it's gonna be hard for us to forgive anyone. Because we we won't think we're that bad. No. And and we're we're living in an age where we're all offended.

You know, you've got to be offended instantly by everything. That is not Christian, is it? Mhmm. As we move away from a simple prayer like this. Yeah.

Because again, how liberating this is of keep saying this. But if I'm saying, okay, I admit I'm in great I'm in great debt to you God and I'm in to my other brothers and sisters -- Mhmm. -- I'm always failing them. Mhmm. Then I'll be able to be liberated and not say, I demand -- No.

-- you know, I cancel you. Yeah. You know, offended by you. Yeah. As this mouth is offending me that I'm looking at, you know, what this person is, I can be saying well, that's nothing to what I've done or what I've thought or where I've been.

Yeah. I think that's there was a few people in the art congregation shared an article online, which was from a from a a page, and it was the title was something like blessed are the unoffended ball. Yes. And the point in the article was to say, even even getting offended shows that we think more highly of our name than we ought to. Yeah.

Because you think, well, you know, you're offended. Well, what is your name? Yeah. What makes you so glorious? And, you know, what's it?

And it was, I can't remember with these as of it. But Well, that brings right, isn't it? That brings us right back to our father in heaven, hello, be your name. Yeah. Because I want his name to be so hallowed.

I want to be able to forgive people because I've been so massively forgiven. Yeah. Well, again, that's the thing that you need to pray for today and perhaps this is a thing that you'll chew over and look through scriptures and pray. So forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.