Text: Matthew 6: 7-13

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Proposition: In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus simply yet succinctly lays out what it is that the Father already knows concerning us and thus how we should move in the generosity and agreement of prayer.

Introduction: Harry Emerson Fosdick once said, “No horse gets anywhere until harnessed, no steam or gas drives anything until confined, no life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined.” The truth is that there is a great connection between discipline and generosity, especially when it comes to being generous towards God. With what will you be generous towards God, with your wealth? Certainly that is a measuring stick for where your heart is there is your treasure also, but what is of even greater worth is the way you are generous with your heart as you expend it in prayer with God. Let me encourage you this morning to be an extremely generous people in your desire to spend time with God. Let me exhort you to be a generous people of prayer. It was one of the first things that Jesus taught His disciples as He sat down on a hillside just outside of Capernaum. The Sermon on the Mount, it was called, and yet in it He referred to the discipline of being generous towards God, in it He spoke for the first time the Lord’s Prayer. Turn with me to Matthew 6:7-13.

I. The Discipline of Honesty in Prayer Declares the Omniscience of God. As Jesus begins to teach about prayer He presents to the disciples (and us) the insight that God already knows what it is we need. It is not the volume of words nor the complexity or poetry of your words that God desires, it is the honesty of your heart, the broken and contrite spirit He will not despise. So to be generous in the discipline of prayer calls me to give my undivided attention to God, to get my head right and then to get my heart right. Jesus begins by saying that the Father already knows what we need, then in less than seventy words Jesus lays out a template for prayer that is so concise that it can also serve as the very prayer itself. Consider for a moment the discipline of brevity in the Lord’s prayer. It has an invocation or address to God, three petitions that speak to the glory of God, three petitions that speak to the needs of man and of these latter three one is for physical need and two are for spiritual need. These can even be divided into needs for ourselves and needs for others… in 70 words or less. Let’s look at this prayer and consider the generosity of heart that it calls forth out of us as we agree with the Father about what He already knows concerning our needs.

II. Our Father (Who art) in Heaven… You can imagine how confusing and awkward it might be if I came up to Pete and said, “Say Dad when are we going home?” There’s several things wrong with me saying this: Pete is not my Dad, the home where he lives is not my home and the familiarity of me coming to Pete in such a way would be “over the line”. Extend these same arguments to those who are meant to say, “Our Father who art in heaven…”. The term ‘our’ is meant to imply that this is a prayer for those who live by faith in the God of redemption and forgiveness and salvation. Jesus instructs His disciples to come before such a God and to call Him Father, our Father. Since He is their Father and since heaven is where He is, then that too is the real home of those who pray this prayer. So the generosity of saving grace is the first thing I am called to agree with God about, my need for a heavenly Father is what He already knows and invites me to agree with. Then my Father invites me to tremble in awe, to recognize the generosity of heart that is demanded of me to fear the Lord.

III. Hallowed Be Thy Name… You here of people walking down the hallways of some great academic institution and describe it as walking in the hallowed halls. It means they are stirred with a respect or even awe about was has happened there. What does it mean that God’s name be hallowed? Is it that His name stands for all of Who He is, that there is reverence and deep respect, that God is being recognized in this very moment of me saying, “Hallowed be Thy Name” as being great and holy. Yes all this but it is also a statement that goes beyond just my recognition of the holiness of God, it is a call to the world to see Him as holy, perfect, beautiful, amazing, wonderful. It calls forth a great generosity out of me to let go of my dignity and pride and bow at the feet of an almighty God and let my heart soar in appropriate admiration and praise. It is, if you will, an invitation to remember Who God is.

IV. Thy Kingdom Come… Jesus once said that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, at present so tiny as to hardly be seen and yet when it is realized in the future it is so great that the birds of the air take shelter in it. He said that kingdom of God is near, even within you. What He was referring to is that kingdom or kingship, requires an understanding of sovereign authority over us. It is a bending of the knee to God and by faith agreeing with Him about sin and asking for and receiving the forgiveness of that sin through Christ. It is an entry into the kingdom of those who belong to Him and He desires that this news of grace be carried out to the world. It proclaims that one day the kingdom will arrive in it’s fullness, the day when we see Jesus face to face, the majesty of His glory reigning over all the universe and all the universe in full recognition of it and in complete acceptance of Him as King of kings. The generosity of heart that this calls forth from us is the agreement, ‘not my kingdom, but Thy kingdom…come.’

V. Thy Will Be Done, On Earth As It Is In Heaven... What do you imagine is the response to the revealed will of God in heaven? How do you think the angels respond, or the great group of humanity that is there? It is likely with an eager, immediate, absolute obedience. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, this is really a yielding to God that my will is often less than an eager, immediate, absolute obedience. It is a petition to the Father that one day I would be perfectly transformed so that my response to His revealed will look just like the way Jesus responded.

VI. Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread… “Give us”, sounds rather demanding until we see that a person who earnestly calls out these first three petitions for the name, reign and will of God then requires strength to do so. It acknowledges the meeting of our daily needs as a gift, it’s why we return thanks before we eat, for being able to pay our taxes, our mortgage, our daily needs. It declares dependence on God, it seeks the needs of ‘US’, a plural care for one another. It calls forth from us the generosity of humility to say that what I have is what I have been given.

VII. And Forgive Us Our Debts As We Forgive Our Debtors… What is a debt? Well whether it’s credit card related, tax related, financial or material or spiritual, it’s something that you owe to another. How did you get in debt, often it’s through bad decision or crisis or coveting or, in the case of sin, a debt that we are born under. Like a slave we are born in an indebtedness and there is a complete inability to pay it down. Our debt of sin demanded death from us, an eternal death in separation not only of body from soul but also of soul from God. That debt was paid by Christ and I am forgiven it when by faith through grace I receive what Jesus did on my behalf. The depths of such a debt are as deep as the release from it is high. As we appreciate the release from such debt the right response is also to extend release to those who owe us. To pray such a request for ongoing forgiveness demands from us great generosity as we forgive… gladly, completely and with finality.

VIII. And Do Not Lead Us Into Temptation But Deliver Us From The Evil One... Note that again this prayer is for ‘US’, it is ‘us’ who are prone to being tempted and who need a heavenly Father to show us what we can and cannot handle. A heavenly Father who delivers us from the Tempter, who disciplines us when we get soft on sin. It is in the transforming of such sinners into saints that the kingdom of God is, it is Thine kingdom, forever. Amen.