January 29, 2025 • 22 mins
26.1.2025 | Alex Huggett on the Lord's Prayer
Part of a series on Local Houses of Prayer
© Bentley Baptist Church Inc.
www.bentleybaptist.org
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, it's a similar struggle knowing how to bless
someone that a lot of Christiansstruggle with prayer.
How do I pray?
What do I pray about?
What do I come before God with,beyond the obvious urgent
prayer request?
Well, jesus has an answer forthat.
Can we throw that Lord's Prayerup on the projector?
(00:22):
That's what we're looking attoday is the Lord's prayer.
We often recite the Lord'sprayer at communion, and one of
the earliest documents outsideof the New Testament, called the
Didache and it may be as old asparts of the New Testament
instructs Christians to pray theLord's prayer three times a day
(00:42):
.
But the Lord's Prayer is notonly meant to be recited as it's
presented in the Bible.
It's actually a structure forprayer that we put flesh on, if
you like, and although we'refocusing on blessing in this
series, and although we'refocusing on blessing in this
(01:03):
series, we don't have to choosebetween praying for people and
blessing them.
We do both.
We pray for our communities andwe bless them in Jesus' name.
Having a bit of trouble, okay?
Well, I'll be giving the linesof the Lord's Prayer.
(01:24):
I'm sure most of you arefamiliar with it as we go
through.
And Jesus begins the Lord'sPrayer with a platform for
approaching God.
In prayer, he begins with youknow it, our Father, our Father.
What it reminds us is thatprayer is relational.
(01:49):
In prayer, we come to agracious Father who loves to
bless.
When we bless, we bless in thename of the Father, who wants to
bring healing and wholeness toour world and friends.
The deeper our intimacy withthe Father, the more effective
(02:10):
and the easier, I would say,will be our prayer and our
blessing people.
But as we come into a verymessy and, frankly, increasingly
scary world full of sin anddisappointment, it's both
important and comforting toremember that our Father is in
(02:33):
heaven, and this means that he'stranscended.
He's above and over everycircumstance, he's sovereign
over all the earth, and althoughwe don't understand why he
allows everything to happen asit does, we know that he holds
(02:53):
us securely and that one day hewill set all things right.
And so we don't just come to aloving father, we come to a
powerful and transcendent God.
As we look to God in heaven,whose name is hallowed, the next
(03:13):
line, we can only be drawn intoworship.
Hallowed be your name, ourFather in heaven.
Hallowed be your name.
Now, what does hallow mean?
It's an old word that simplymeans to make something holy.
To pray for God's name to behallowed is really to long for
(03:35):
his reputation to be establishedin the world and perhaps more
significantly, for hisreputation to be established in
my life.
Because when you go in Jesus'name, you go as his
representative.
When people see you, they seeGod.
(03:55):
Now, I don't mean that you'redivine.
I mean that when an ambassadorgoes from one country to another
, they represent that country.
What that ambassador says andthe way they act reflects on
that country and affects theirreputation Pretty heavy, isn't
it?
Fortunately, god gives us hisHoly Spirit to help us with that
(04:15):
.
But as Christians, we carryGod's name and so we can hallow
his name or we can profane it inthe way we speak and act.
And so to pray for God's nameto be hallowed is a prayer that
I will live and speak in a waythat honours his name and that
(04:40):
his name will be honoured in theworld and that his name will be
honored in the world.
So it's about aligning ourlives with God's values and
priorities.
Think about this If we don'thave a heart for the things on
God's heart, how can we possiblyexpect him to hear our prayers?
(05:02):
We can be very me-centred inour prayer life, and God does
care, but ultimately it's abouthim, it's about his glory, and
so we need to be aligningourselves with him, and it's
actually when we do that we finda lot of our prayers answered,
just by the fact that we'regetting our lives straight with
him.
Our Father who art in heaven,hallowed be thy name.
(05:29):
I'm going with the thys.
It slips off the tongue easily,doesn't it?
Your kingdom come, your will bedone on earth as it is in
heaven.
So here's another reason weneed to look up.
We start by looking up to God,who is in heaven, because Jesus
calls us to call heaven down toearth in prayer, and so we need
(05:54):
to look up to see what it iswe're calling down.
God's kingdom come, god's willbe done on earth as in heaven.
You know so many people, I knowI often say this.
They want the kingdom withoutthe king.
They want heaven on earth, butusing worldly rather than
heavenly means.
Now, jesus does call us to workfor the kingdom to come, but
(06:21):
it's God's kingdom.
In fact, jesus often called itand particularly Matthew talks
about it this way as the kingdomof heaven.
Heaven is our model.
We want the transcendent, whatis high and lofty to come near
(06:42):
to us.
That's a big prayer, and whenthat's our focus for God's
kingdom to be manifested in thisworld and his will to be done
in this world, then we'reinviting the Spirit of God
directly into earthly places.
When we do that, we become apart of the great reversal of
(07:05):
the fall that happened at thebeginning of Genesis in the
Garden of Eden.
In Eden, the image is of heavenand earth meeting.
Eden is a kind of cosmic templeand after Adam and Eve sinned,
heaven leaves.
There's a separation between usand God.
(07:28):
Heaven leaves or humanity getskicked out of heaven.
We have this tree as our logo,this sort of.
I don't know why it took so long, but it was transformed for me
last year as someone came andwas talking about the tree of
life.
In the Garden of Eden there wasa tree of life and a tree of
(07:50):
the knowledge of good and evil,and really that was a choice
between human autonomy meworking it out with my own
wisdom and my own way or relyingon God.
Of course we chose autonomy andour own wisdom over dependence
on God and his wisdom, but whenwe invite heaven back, we gain
(08:11):
access to the tree of life onceagain In the story of the Bible.
You know what that tree of lifeactually looks like.
Looks like a cross, where Jesusdied for our sins.
Where Jesus died so heaven andearth can come back and meet
once again in him.
And so in this day and age well, every age really there's
(08:38):
nothing new here.
But political engagement andsocial programs are actually
good.
I'm not saying we shouldn't dothem, but we've had centuries of
both and we still haveintractable social and political
problems in our world.
It says to me, working harder,working even smarter, isn't the
(09:02):
answer.
It's not going to get us betterresults.
Seeing heaven on earth andhistory tells us, every time
heaven touches earth, lives aretransformed, whole societies are
transformed, and then thesocial programs and the
political programs really getrevved up and make a difference.
(09:24):
And so this is a prayer thatGod's kingdom come and his will
be done on earth.
What does that look like?
Well, his kingdom come and hiswill be done in my family, my
neighborhood, my community, myworkplace.
You can pray for your workplace, my school, as it is in heaven.
We're wanting heaven to touchall these realms that we live in
(09:48):
.
And, of course, on thisAustralia Day, we have to say in
our nation.
So what does heaven on earthlook like?
Thank you for pulling that up.
What does heaven on earth looklike?
What do we specifically pray orspeak, blessing for Well Jesus
(10:10):
in the second half of the prayergets very practical.
He says to pray give us todayour daily bread.
Now, of course, bread is astaple food in many cultures.
In others it's rice or maize,and food security is one of the
most fundamental of human needs.
You know, some peoplespiritualize this verse to mean
(10:34):
spiritual bread, the word of Godand maybe, but I think you have
to be living in a world, in acountry with the luxury of
having enough food to eat totake on a more spiritual meaning
.
We live in a society with theluxury of having enough food to
eat to take on a more spiritualmeaning.
We live in a society ofabundance.
We're blessed.
One of the things I thank Godthat I'm in Australia.
I doubt a subsistence farmer andday labourer in Jesus' day took
(10:58):
these words spiritually.
I'm sure they were verypractical.
I've met people who havenothing, who pray this God, give
us our daily bread Today.
We need it.
And thinking practically, do wereally think the kingdom of God
(11:19):
is a kingdom in which children,in which people go hungry, is a
kingdom in which children, inwhich people go hungry.
God cares about our practicalneeds and in this country, with
the cost of living crisis, as inmany countries, praying for
daily bread and a roof over ourhead, it means something.
It's important.
(11:40):
So what are the practical needsof maybe yourself, but also the
people around us?
Those are the things we canseek God's blessing on and we
can pray for, and I think in oursociety we can legitimately
include well, food, as in Jesussaid, but housing we're in a
(12:01):
housing crisis Work, food,transport.
We live in a city that's, asthey say, built for cars, not
for people.
We can include these things inour prayers for people and bless
people with these things.
Then Jesus goes on and saysforgive us our debts as we
(12:22):
forgive our debtors.
We pray for people'srelationships and there's an
interesting interplay here.
Jesus puts our verticalrelationship with him.
Forgive us, god, with ourhorizontal as we forgive others.
They're tied together.
You cannot live with bitternessand holding on to unforgiveness
(12:45):
against someone else and expectto be living in open
relationship with God.
But Jesus begins with thevertical, with our relationship
with God, which makes sensebecause you can have the perfect
life.
But if you're not right with God, it's all smoke.
(13:05):
Without God, you may haveheaven in this life, but it will
be hell in the next.
Conversely, life may be hellnow, but if we have God even now
, heaven starts to break in andin the next life.
That's all we have to lookforward to.
That's everything to lookforward to.
(13:26):
That's everything.
And so the prayer asking forforgiveness is God forgive me.
It's a prayer of hope thatthings can be and will be right
with God.
Doesn't our world need hope now?
But what are the debts that weowe God?
(13:46):
Well, obviously, we owe a debtof sin, one we can never repay.
Christ has repaid that sin ofdebt if we put our trust in him.
But there's more that we oweGod.
What do we owe God?
Well, you're here today becauseyou believe.
You perhaps owe him, or justwant to give him a debt of
worship.
(14:06):
We owe him our gratitude forgiving us life.
We owe him or just want to givehim a debt of worship?
We owe him our gratitude forgiving us life.
We owe him our obedience.
We owe him our love and ourloyalty.
You know.
The prayer of forgivenessreminds us of our complete
inability to live up to any ofthese.
These are debts we can't repay,repay.
(14:27):
But God is a God who isgracious and merciful towards us
in our weakness and in Jesus,and when we enter into Jesus
through faith, jesus has made upthe fullness of all of this and
we have the fullness of it allin him, and so we need
forgiveness, and so does ourworld.
(14:48):
And when we ask God to forgivethe sins of those around us as
well, then we're actuallyentering into a priestly role.
If you were here a couple ofweeks ago, you remember we
talked about us being priests, akingdom of priests, and
intercession is one of ourpriestly roles asking God have
mercy on our community, havemercy on our nation.
(15:15):
In fact, the Bible makes itclear that not only are our
hearts stained by sin, but so isthe land we walk on, and so
this intercession isn't only forhearts, but for creation.
Romans says that creation longsfor the children of God.
So this intercession isn't onlyfor hearts, but for creation.
Romans says that creation longsfor the children of God to be
(15:39):
revealed.
So let's plead for the peopleand the world around us that
they may be forgiven andreconciled to God.
But it's not just peace withGod that we need, it's also
peace with one another and infact Jesus indicates, as I said,
that receiving forgiveness fromGod is dependent on our
forgiving others, whether it'sthe family mired in conflict or
(16:05):
domestic abuse, or the domestichusband, usually a partner with
a conflicted heart, warringneighbours or warring nations.
All need peace and the path topeace begins with forgiveness.
Forgiveness leads toreconciliation.
Reconciliation leads to peace.
(16:26):
Peace leads to restoration ofrelationships.
I guess that's whatreconciliation is.
Anyway, it's all intertwinedthere.
You know one of the things Ibless the community I've got
this little sort of enclave inEllenbrook, where I live, that's
(16:47):
sort of cut off by a majorarterial road on one side well,
two and a road and bushland onthe other and then a railway
line.
So we sort of feel like our ownlittle space and there's all
these new houses popping upthere.
It's a complete mess becauseit's a building site.
But one of the things I goaround and I'm blessing my
neighborhood and I bless it andI pray for good relationships
(17:09):
between the neighbors.
It's this beautiful big parkthat sort of sits in the middle
of all these high-densitytownhouses that have been built
around it and it's reallypicturesque.
I don't know what it's like tolive in them because they're
pretty small, but it's apicturesque place and I pray
that that park will be filledwith people playing and talking
and community gathering together.
(17:30):
God bless my community with goodrelationships, with good
neighbourly relationships.
Bless the homes with peace,bless the marriages in the homes
and so on.
And what is the kingdom of Godif not restored relationships
between God and people andpeople and people.
(17:50):
So pray for heaven to invadepeople's hearts and
relationships and invoke thatblessing of peace On your street
.
You can just walk up and downit and around the neighbourhood,
blessing it in Jesus' name withpeace.
And finally, jesus says to praydo not bring us into temptation
(18:13):
, but deliver us from the evilone.
This reminds us that we're in aspiritual battle.
Real spiritual powers of evilare arrayed against us Now.
God is king of the universe buthe kind of made humanity as
prime ministers at creation.
It says to have dominion overthe earth, to rule over it.
(18:34):
But when we fell we kind ofhanded those keys over to Satan.
And you know what?
We keep doing it every time wesay no to God.
What does evil look like?
Well, sometimes it looks likesomething human or political.
(18:54):
It can be people acting up, itcan be politics acting up, it
can be structures that we justcan't break out of, and it is
expressed through relational,political or social oppression
and turmoil.
So very often it looks and itis structural and human and
(19:14):
political.
But standing behind that andmanipulating things behind the
scenes are real spiritual forcesof evil.
Satan or the devil and hisdemons are real and they're out
to destroy God's good creation,both humans and the physical
world that God has made for usto live in.
(19:37):
Friends, there is a spiritualbattle going on in your street.
There is a spiritual battleover our city, over our nation,
between the nations of our world.
There's even a spiritual battlegoing on for our environment
and, whether human, spiritual orboth, we need someone stronger
(20:01):
than this world to rescue us andkeep us safe and praise God.
There is victory in Jesus.
When you pray for God's kingdomto come, when you invoke a
blessing on your street or inyour workplace, you're actually
part of pushing back thedarkness.
When we ask God to deliver usfrom evil, we're inviting him
(20:24):
into our world to take backdominion, not just in theory,
like you know, like we have aking over Australia, he's pretty
impotent.
He's just a figurehead.
When we're asking God to resistevil, to not lead us into evil
but to deliver us from evil,we're inviting him in to take
(20:45):
charge, to actively andmanifestly move in his power,
drive back evil and establishrighteousness.
So pray to God to deliver yourfamily, your neighbours, your
street, your workplace.
Does your workplace have badrelations, perhaps a manager
(21:06):
who's not really getting it orworkmates who gossip?
Ask God to drive back the evilin that place, to bless them
with.
Don't just pray that God willsmite them.
Don't pray that.
Pray that God will bless themwith what it is that's needed
for good, healthy relationshipsand wisdom in management all
that sort of stuff.
(21:26):
It's called coming in theopposite spirit.
It's why Jesus said bless thatsort of stuff.
It's called coming in theopposite spirit.
It's why Jesus said bless thosewho curse you.
Pray for your community, prayfor our nation, that God will
deliver us from evil and may hiskingdom come.
I was going to wrap this up witha video, but we're having
trouble and it's probably in thewrong place.
(21:47):
We can't get that video, butwe're having trouble and it's
probably in the wrong place.
We can't get that video, can we?
So why don't we pray thatprayer together?
To wrap this up, our Father inheaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth asit is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
(22:07):
Forgive us our debts, as wealso have forgiven our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one
.
Amen.
Thank you, team.
Well, it's a similar struggle knowing how to bless
someone that a lot of Christiansstruggle with prayer.
How do I pray?
What do I pray about?
What do I come before God with,beyond the obvious urgent
prayer request?
Well, jesus has an answer forthat.
Can we throw that Lord's Prayerup on the projector?
(00:22):
That's what we're looking attoday is the Lord's prayer.
We often recite the Lord'sprayer at communion, and one of
the earliest documents outsideof the New Testament, called the
Didache and it may be as old asparts of the New Testament
instructs Christians to pray theLord's prayer three times a day
(00:42):
.
But the Lord's Prayer is notonly meant to be recited as it's
presented in the Bible.
It's actually a structure forprayer that we put flesh on, if
you like, and although we'refocusing on blessing in this
series, and although we'refocusing on blessing in this
(01:03):
series, we don't have to choosebetween praying for people and
blessing them.
We do both.
We pray for our communities andwe bless them in Jesus' name.
Having a bit of trouble, okay?
Well, I'll be giving the linesof the Lord's Prayer.
(01:24):
I'm sure most of you arefamiliar with it as we go
through.
And Jesus begins the Lord'sPrayer with a platform for
approaching God.
In prayer, he begins with youknow it, our Father, our Father.
What it reminds us is thatprayer is relational.
(01:49):
In prayer, we come to agracious Father who loves to
bless.
When we bless, we bless in thename of the Father, who wants to
bring healing and wholeness toour world and friends.
The deeper our intimacy withthe Father, the more effective
(02:10):
and the easier, I would say,will be our prayer and our
blessing people.
But as we come into a verymessy and, frankly, increasingly
scary world full of sin anddisappointment, it's both
important and comforting toremember that our Father is in
(02:33):
heaven, and this means that he'stranscended.
He's above and over everycircumstance, he's sovereign
over all the earth, and althoughwe don't understand why he
allows everything to happen asit does, we know that he holds
(02:53):
us securely and that one day hewill set all things right.
And so we don't just come to aloving father, we come to a
powerful and transcendent God.
As we look to God in heaven,whose name is hallowed, the next
(03:13):
line, we can only be drawn intoworship.
Hallowed be your name, ourFather in heaven.
Hallowed be your name.
Now, what does hallow mean?
It's an old word that simplymeans to make something holy.
To pray for God's name to behallowed is really to long for
(03:35):
his reputation to be establishedin the world and perhaps more
significantly, for hisreputation to be established in
my life.
Because when you go in Jesus'name, you go as his
representative.
When people see you, they seeGod.
(03:55):
Now, I don't mean that you'redivine.
I mean that when an ambassadorgoes from one country to another
, they represent that country.
What that ambassador says andthe way they act reflects on
that country and affects theirreputation Pretty heavy, isn't
it?
Fortunately, god gives us hisHoly Spirit to help us with that
(04:15):
.
But as Christians, we carryGod's name and so we can hallow
his name or we can profane it inthe way we speak and act.
And so to pray for God's nameto be hallowed is a prayer that
I will live and speak in a waythat honours his name and that
(04:40):
his name will be honoured in theworld and that his name will be
honored in the world.
So it's about aligning ourlives with God's values and
priorities.
Think about this If we don'thave a heart for the things on
God's heart, how can we possiblyexpect him to hear our prayers?
(05:02):
We can be very me-centred inour prayer life, and God does
care, but ultimately it's abouthim, it's about his glory, and
so we need to be aligningourselves with him, and it's
actually when we do that we finda lot of our prayers answered,
just by the fact that we'regetting our lives straight with
him.
Our Father who art in heaven,hallowed be thy name.
(05:29):
I'm going with the thys.
It slips off the tongue easily,doesn't it?
Your kingdom come, your will bedone on earth as it is in
heaven.
So here's another reason weneed to look up.
We start by looking up to God,who is in heaven, because Jesus
calls us to call heaven down toearth in prayer, and so we need
(05:54):
to look up to see what it iswe're calling down.
God's kingdom come, god's willbe done on earth as in heaven.
You know so many people, I knowI often say this.
They want the kingdom withoutthe king.
They want heaven on earth, butusing worldly rather than
heavenly means.
Now, jesus does call us to workfor the kingdom to come, but
(06:21):
it's God's kingdom.
In fact, jesus often called itand particularly Matthew talks
about it this way as the kingdomof heaven.
Heaven is our model.
We want the transcendent, whatis high and lofty to come near
(06:42):
to us.
That's a big prayer, and whenthat's our focus for God's
kingdom to be manifested in thisworld and his will to be done
in this world, then we'reinviting the Spirit of God
directly into earthly places.
When we do that, we become apart of the great reversal of
(07:05):
the fall that happened at thebeginning of Genesis in the
Garden of Eden.
In Eden, the image is of heavenand earth meeting.
Eden is a kind of cosmic templeand after Adam and Eve sinned,
heaven leaves.
There's a separation between usand God.
(07:28):
Heaven leaves or humanity getskicked out of heaven.
We have this tree as our logo,this sort of.
I don't know why it took so long, but it was transformed for me
last year as someone came andwas talking about the tree of
life.
In the Garden of Eden there wasa tree of life and a tree of
(07:50):
the knowledge of good and evil,and really that was a choice
between human autonomy meworking it out with my own
wisdom and my own way or relyingon God.
Of course we chose autonomy andour own wisdom over dependence
on God and his wisdom, but whenwe invite heaven back, we gain
(08:11):
access to the tree of life onceagain In the story of the Bible.
You know what that tree of lifeactually looks like.
Looks like a cross, where Jesusdied for our sins.
Where Jesus died so heaven andearth can come back and meet
once again in him.
And so in this day and age well, every age really there's
(08:38):
nothing new here.
But political engagement andsocial programs are actually
good.
I'm not saying we shouldn't dothem, but we've had centuries of
both and we still haveintractable social and political
problems in our world.
It says to me, working harder,working even smarter, isn't the
(09:02):
answer.
It's not going to get us betterresults.
Seeing heaven on earth andhistory tells us, every time
heaven touches earth, lives aretransformed, whole societies are
transformed, and then thesocial programs and the
political programs really getrevved up and make a difference.
(09:24):
And so this is a prayer thatGod's kingdom come and his will
be done on earth.
What does that look like?
Well, his kingdom come and hiswill be done in my family, my
neighborhood, my community, myworkplace.
You can pray for your workplace, my school, as it is in heaven.
We're wanting heaven to touchall these realms that we live in
(09:48):
.
And, of course, on thisAustralia Day, we have to say in
our nation.
So what does heaven on earthlook like?
Thank you for pulling that up.
What does heaven on earth looklike?
What do we specifically pray orspeak, blessing for Well Jesus
(10:10):
in the second half of the prayergets very practical.
He says to pray give us todayour daily bread.
Now, of course, bread is astaple food in many cultures.
In others it's rice or maize,and food security is one of the
most fundamental of human needs.
You know, some peoplespiritualize this verse to mean
(10:34):
spiritual bread, the word of Godand maybe, but I think you have
to be living in a world, in acountry with the luxury of
having enough food to eat totake on a more spiritual meaning
.
We live in a society with theluxury of having enough food to
eat to take on a more spiritualmeaning.
We live in a society ofabundance.
We're blessed.
One of the things I thank Godthat I'm in Australia.
I doubt a subsistence farmer andday labourer in Jesus' day took
(10:58):
these words spiritually.
I'm sure they were verypractical.
I've met people who havenothing, who pray this God, give
us our daily bread Today.
We need it.
And thinking practically, do wereally think the kingdom of God
(11:19):
is a kingdom in which children,in which people go hungry, is a
kingdom in which children, inwhich people go hungry.
God cares about our practicalneeds and in this country, with
the cost of living crisis, as inmany countries, praying for
daily bread and a roof over ourhead, it means something.
It's important.
(11:40):
So what are the practical needsof maybe yourself, but also the
people around us?
Those are the things we canseek God's blessing on and we
can pray for, and I think in oursociety we can legitimately
include well, food, as in Jesussaid, but housing we're in a
(12:01):
housing crisis Work, food,transport.
We live in a city that's, asthey say, built for cars, not
for people.
We can include these things inour prayers for people and bless
people with these things.
Then Jesus goes on and saysforgive us our debts as we
(12:22):
forgive our debtors.
We pray for people'srelationships and there's an
interesting interplay here.
Jesus puts our verticalrelationship with him.
Forgive us, god, with ourhorizontal as we forgive others.
They're tied together.
You cannot live with bitternessand holding on to unforgiveness
(12:45):
against someone else and expectto be living in open
relationship with God.
But Jesus begins with thevertical, with our relationship
with God, which makes sensebecause you can have the perfect
life.
But if you're not right with God, it's all smoke.
(13:05):
Without God, you may haveheaven in this life, but it will
be hell in the next.
Conversely, life may be hellnow, but if we have God even now
, heaven starts to break in andin the next life.
That's all we have to lookforward to.
That's everything to lookforward to.
(13:26):
That's everything.
And so the prayer asking forforgiveness is God forgive me.
It's a prayer of hope thatthings can be and will be right
with God.
Doesn't our world need hope now?
But what are the debts that weowe God?
(13:46):
Well, obviously, we owe a debtof sin, one we can never repay.
Christ has repaid that sin ofdebt if we put our trust in him.
But there's more that we oweGod.
What do we owe God?
Well, you're here today becauseyou believe.
You perhaps owe him, or justwant to give him a debt of
worship.
(14:06):
We owe him our gratitude forgiving us life.
We owe him or just want to givehim a debt of worship?
We owe him our gratitude forgiving us life.
We owe him our obedience.
We owe him our love and ourloyalty.
You know.
The prayer of forgivenessreminds us of our complete
inability to live up to any ofthese.
These are debts we can't repay,repay.
(14:27):
But God is a God who isgracious and merciful towards us
in our weakness and in Jesus,and when we enter into Jesus
through faith, jesus has made upthe fullness of all of this and
we have the fullness of it allin him, and so we need
forgiveness, and so does ourworld.
(14:48):
And when we ask God to forgivethe sins of those around us as
well, then we're actuallyentering into a priestly role.
If you were here a couple ofweeks ago, you remember we
talked about us being priests, akingdom of priests, and
intercession is one of ourpriestly roles asking God have
mercy on our community, havemercy on our nation.
(15:15):
In fact, the Bible makes itclear that not only are our
hearts stained by sin, but so isthe land we walk on, and so
this intercession isn't only forhearts, but for creation.
Romans says that creation longsfor the children of God.
So this intercession isn't onlyfor hearts, but for creation.
Romans says that creation longsfor the children of God to be
(15:39):
revealed.
So let's plead for the peopleand the world around us that
they may be forgiven andreconciled to God.
But it's not just peace withGod that we need, it's also
peace with one another and infact Jesus indicates, as I said,
that receiving forgiveness fromGod is dependent on our
forgiving others, whether it'sthe family mired in conflict or
(16:05):
domestic abuse, or the domestichusband, usually a partner with
a conflicted heart, warringneighbours or warring nations.
All need peace and the path topeace begins with forgiveness.
Forgiveness leads toreconciliation.
Reconciliation leads to peace.
(16:26):
Peace leads to restoration ofrelationships.
I guess that's whatreconciliation is.
Anyway, it's all intertwinedthere.
You know one of the things Ibless the community I've got
this little sort of enclave inEllenbrook, where I live, that's
(16:47):
sort of cut off by a majorarterial road on one side well,
two and a road and bushland onthe other and then a railway
line.
So we sort of feel like our ownlittle space and there's all
these new houses popping upthere.
It's a complete mess becauseit's a building site.
But one of the things I goaround and I'm blessing my
neighborhood and I bless it andI pray for good relationships
(17:09):
between the neighbors.
It's this beautiful big parkthat sort of sits in the middle
of all these high-densitytownhouses that have been built
around it and it's reallypicturesque.
I don't know what it's like tolive in them because they're
pretty small, but it's apicturesque place and I pray
that that park will be filledwith people playing and talking
and community gathering together.
(17:30):
God bless my community with goodrelationships, with good
neighbourly relationships.
Bless the homes with peace,bless the marriages in the homes
and so on.
And what is the kingdom of Godif not restored relationships
between God and people andpeople and people.
(17:50):
So pray for heaven to invadepeople's hearts and
relationships and invoke thatblessing of peace On your street
.
You can just walk up and downit and around the neighbourhood,
blessing it in Jesus' name withpeace.
And finally, jesus says to praydo not bring us into temptation
(18:13):
, but deliver us from the evilone.
This reminds us that we're in aspiritual battle.
Real spiritual powers of evilare arrayed against us Now.
God is king of the universe buthe kind of made humanity as
prime ministers at creation.
It says to have dominion overthe earth, to rule over it.
(18:34):
But when we fell we kind ofhanded those keys over to Satan.
And you know what?
We keep doing it every time wesay no to God.
What does evil look like?
Well, sometimes it looks likesomething human or political.
(18:54):
It can be people acting up, itcan be politics acting up, it
can be structures that we justcan't break out of, and it is
expressed through relational,political or social oppression
and turmoil.
So very often it looks and itis structural and human and
(19:14):
political.
But standing behind that andmanipulating things behind the
scenes are real spiritual forcesof evil.
Satan or the devil and hisdemons are real and they're out
to destroy God's good creation,both humans and the physical
world that God has made for usto live in.
(19:37):
Friends, there is a spiritualbattle going on in your street.
There is a spiritual battleover our city, over our nation,
between the nations of our world.
There's even a spiritual battlegoing on for our environment
and, whether human, spiritual orboth, we need someone stronger
(20:01):
than this world to rescue us andkeep us safe and praise God.
There is victory in Jesus.
When you pray for God's kingdomto come, when you invoke a
blessing on your street or inyour workplace, you're actually
part of pushing back thedarkness.
When we ask God to deliver usfrom evil, we're inviting him
(20:24):
into our world to take backdominion, not just in theory,
like you know, like we have aking over Australia, he's pretty
impotent.
He's just a figurehead.
When we're asking God to resistevil, to not lead us into evil
but to deliver us from evil,we're inviting him in to take
(20:45):
charge, to actively andmanifestly move in his power,
drive back evil and establishrighteousness.
So pray to God to deliver yourfamily, your neighbours, your
street, your workplace.
Does your workplace have badrelations, perhaps a manager
(21:06):
who's not really getting it orworkmates who gossip?
Ask God to drive back the evilin that place, to bless them
with.
Don't just pray that God willsmite them.
Don't pray that.
Pray that God will bless themwith what it is that's needed
for good, healthy relationshipsand wisdom in management all
that sort of stuff.
(21:26):
It's called coming in theopposite spirit.
It's why Jesus said bless thatsort of stuff.
It's called coming in theopposite spirit.
It's why Jesus said bless thosewho curse you.
Pray for your community, prayfor our nation, that God will
deliver us from evil and may hiskingdom come.
I was going to wrap this up witha video, but we're having
trouble and it's probably in thewrong place.
(21:47):
We can't get that video, butwe're having trouble and it's
probably in the wrong place.
We can't get that video, can we?
So why don't we pray thatprayer together?
To wrap this up, our Father inheaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth asit is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
(22:07):
Forgive us our debts, as wealso have forgiven our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one
.
Amen.
Thank you, team.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.