1 Title: House of Prayer Forgive Us Our Debts Matthew 6:9-13 Aim: The vital importance of confession & repentance of sin. Intro: Today, of course, is Palm Sunday (actually not the true Palm Sunday, that would be April 17 th week before Passover). But our calendar has Easter (not Resurrection Sunday) on March 27 th & thus Palm Sunday today. Too much to go into. Palm Sunday is the celebration of when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey & was hailed by the people as a victorious king. This was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah (9:9), Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous & mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The people lining the streets shouted out, Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna means, Lord, save! They cried, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Palm Sunday begins what we call Holy Week actually 8 days, Sunday to Sunday commemorating the last week of Jesus earthly life, culminating w/his crucifixion & resurrection. The same crowd of people who hailed Jesus as king were turned against Him & cried out crucify, crucify! This week we celebrate Good Friday, remembering the day Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. That s what makes the day & His horrible death good. He paid a debt He did not owe; I owed a debt I could not pay; I needed someone to wash my sins away. Surely He has borne our griefs & carried our sorrows He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, & w/his stripes we are healed (Is.53:4-5). God graciously dealt w/our sin, which is the basis of a great divide between us & God huge chasm. He did so by sending His Son to be our Savior & die in our place. Still, Jesus taught us to acknowledge our sin & pray for forgiveness. It is a fool who thinks he has not sinned or doesn t need forgiveness. Paul wrote in Romans 3:23,...for all have sinned & fall short of the glory
of God Our theme: House of Prayer - God has called His Church to be a house of prayer for all nations, so that people the world over can encounter Him wherever & whenever His people gather. We are to be people of prayer thru whom others may encounter the living God encountering God ourselves, day by day & helping others to encounter Him also. People of prayer recognize their sinfulness & need for forgiveness. They confess & repent of their sin, seeking the God of mercy, whose grace is greater than all our sin. Matthew 6:9-13 [READ]. It is not possible to truly encounter the living God Our Father in heaven, whose name is to be honored, whose reign is to be recognized & surrendered to, whose will is to be obeyed - & not become acutely aware of our sin. So, as we cry out to God for daily bread provision for today it s imp for us to understand that 1 daily need we have, as fallen men/women, is for forgiveness. Now, it s true that when Jesus died on the cross He paid for all our sin (those who believe) & therefore all our sin (as believers in Christ) is forgiven already Colossians 2:13-14: And you, who were dead in your trespasses & the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together w/him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us w/its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. So, for believers, our sin is paid for & already forgiven, not held against us any longer. So why do we need to pray for forgiveness? No longer to be saved (already are), but to be in sync w/god, aligned w/him. Talk about being a people of prayer! We cannot if we do not properly deal w/sin in our lives. It s been said that sin paralyzes the lips of prayer that s Biblical. Psalm 66:18 If I had cherished (hidden) iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. An imp part of the Christian life is the application & receiving of forgiveness by faith & the dealing w/sin in our daily lives. As Christians, when we sin, we are living contrary to the One who died for our sin, the very One to whom we have committed our lives (have we committed our lives to follow Christ?). If we are new creations in 2
Christ, then we are to live new, putting off the old & on the new. Sin the deeds of the flesh - is to be put to death by faith in Christ & the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Tho we will sin, even as Christfollowers, we are not to live in sin & we must continually deal w/sin in our lives. There is a lack in the Church today, at least in the western world, w/our abundance which we take to be the blessing of God, signifying His pleasure in/of us. That s not so it s only because of the atoning work of Christ & Christ in us that we are accepted by God. There is a lack in the Church of an awareness of sin, a lack of confession & repentance of sin, & a lack of humble contrition. We take sin too lightly. Now, that s easy for me to say, yet that lack is in me. The same was not true of many of the Puritans. Have a book entitled The Valley of Vision, given me by one of my sisters here. Don t know if she was trying to tell me something! It s a collection of Puritan prayers & devotions. Those were deep thinkers. Let me read just one of the offerings a prayer of penitence entitled Self-knowledge [READ]. Whoever wrote that knew the imp of praying, Forgive us our debts The word debts means simply, that which is owed, justly or legally due, offenses, sins (Strong s). As David Brown wrote, sin is an offense against God demanding reparation or payment. Again, Jesus paid for all our sin, past, present & future, but think of the magnitude of our debts borne by Jesus on the cross! When we, as believers/children of God, sin, we are in essence adding to the load of guilt & shame & sin which Jesus bore. How can we then take our sin lightly? Too often we excuse our sin by comparing ourselves to someone else, & as long as, in our minds, we are not as bad as someone else, then it s ok. Or we say, I m only human. No! We need to have a proper view of sin & a proper sorrow for sin. David, when he was confronted by God thru the prophet Nathan, recognized his sin against God & was contrite (II Sam.12, Psalm 51). Paul acknowledged that he was the foremost of sinners (I Tim. 1:15). James urged us to be wretched & mourn & weep over our sin (James 4:9). Don t spit in the eye of your Savior by 3
failing to acknowledge your sin & be truly sorrowful. Of course, that s where some people camp, under the weight of their sin, even tho it has been lifted by Christ on the cross. If we don t have the front part of this phrase of the Lord s Prayer we will be crushed by guilt & shame. But Jesus said pray, Forgive us our debts To ask God to forgive is to acknowledge our sin. If it s not sin why would we need to be forgiven? In order to enjoy the assurance of forgiveness it is important to acknowledge our sin. To ask God s forgiveness is then throwing one s self upon His mercy & believing His promise. If we confess our sins, He is faithful & just to forgive us our sins & to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9). To confess is to agree w/. How should we agree w/god concerning our sin? 1) It is sin wrong, against His character, against who we are in Christ, not the way He wants us to live, not the way He would lead us by His Spirit, not like Christ. 2) Our need to repent - turn around - by God s grace. Submit afresh to Christ as Lord. As James wrote (4:7-10), Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil & he will flee from you. Draw near to God, & He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, & purify your hearts, you double-minded Humble yourselves before the Lord, & He will exalt you. By God s grace we can be realigned w/him, set back on the right path. 3) We are forgiven! God s children don t have to beg for God s forgiveness because Jesus paid it all! Forgiveness is a lovely word, meaning actually, to send away, let go, give up a debt (Strong s). Jesus bore our sin in His body on the cross, so that they could be taken away not held against us any longer. It s not that God simply said, Oh, that s ok, it doesn t matter. No, sin demands punishment & Jesus bore that punishment. Now, as Christians, we are forgiven. But don t you know that when we sin, shame & guilt come upon us, or ought to. The only way we can be rid of that shame & guilt is to remember that Jesus died & paid for it & lay it down at His feet w/thanksgiving. Our enemy Satan will accuse us before God & beat us w/guilt, so we must remind him & ourselves that our sin is forgiven. 4
Rest in what Christ has done, enjoy fellowship w/our Father God, by faith. Don t shy away from Him because of your sin, but agree w/him about your sin paid for, forgiven! God knows all & certainly knows when we sin & how much we sin, etc. But He forgets it against us, wiping our sin from His book of remembrance. Hallelujah! Just 2 final thoughts, again thinking about the communal aspect of the Lord s Prayer. Forgive us our debts. 1 st, it is right for us to bear a proper responsibility for our sins. We are a family/body, so we work together, succeed together, & fail together. As a church we should confess & repent of our sins of not fulfilling the Great Commission (go & make disciples), of not living the Great Commandment (love God w/all heart, soul, mind & strength). We have not always cared for/loved each other as we ought. On another level, we should follow the example of Daniel, who prayed for the nation of Israel & confessed their national sins. On some very real level, the Church bears responsibility for our nation s sin against the unborn & our nation s greed/avarice, etc. We should humbly bring such sins of our nation to God, in confession & repentance for our part, such as doing nothing to change things. 2ndly, tho we cannot confess/repent/deal w/the sin of a bro/sis in Christ, we should pray for others to properly deal w/their sin, so that God may be glorified & they may know communion w/him, restoration to Him. And we should understand, as we see our own sin, that others will be weak & as failing as we are, so we should be patient w/one another. What a wonderful gift is forgiveness! Keep short accounts w/god & rejoice in His forgiveness! God said, My house shall be called of prayer. Let us be a people of prayer! 5