An Audience of One 
Prayer – Part 3 (Matthew 6:9-15) 

Baxter T. Exum (#1739)
Four Lakes Church of Christ
Madison, Wisconsin
June 2, 2024

Good morning and welcome to the Four Lakes congregation! If you are visiting this morning or joining us online or on the phone, we are especially glad to have you with us, and we’d like to ask that you fill out a visitor card – online if you can, or if you are here in person, you can use one of the cards from the pew in front of you and give that to me on your way out this morning. Whatever works for you, we would love to hear from you, and we invite you to pass along any questions or prayer concerns.

Yesterday afternoon we got a text from a Christian sister in the Atlanta area. She says that she is a regular listener, and she is asking that we pray for her as she faces surgery in the near future. I don’t have a name, and I didn’t ask, but that’s okay, because God knows. So let’s remember our sister in Georgia in our prayers today.

One of the main reasons we come together each week is to share the love of God. He sent his only Son as a sacrifice to die on the cross in our place. He died, he was buried, but he was this raised up on the third day. This is the good news, and we obey this good news through faith, repentance, and baptism (an immersion in water for the forgiveness of sins). And this morning we are sharing some good news from the North Lexington congregation down in Kentucky. And this church building looks a bit familiar, as it’s where we saw Josh and Shelby get married a few years ago. But they posted this week and they say, “We have a new sister in Christ tonight as Nevaeh Allen obeyed the gospel, putting on Christ in baptism after Bible study!! Nevaeh is a friend and co-worker to Jacie Brewer. As Christians, we are called to spread the Gospel, and this is a perfect example of how sharing the Good News with your friends classmates, and co-workers can make an eternal difference in their life!!” Good to see it!

And we also have some good news from Brandon Edwards, a friend who serves as the campus minister over in Columbus, Ohio – working with Buckeyes for Christ. So, they must have a university over in Columbus or something. But Brandon is doing a great work there and he posted online a few days ago and says, “Rejoice!! Help us welcome our new brother in Christ, DeAnte Ables! God is truly good!”

And we’ll share one more today, from Paul Holland, a friend who preaches over in Swartz Creek, Michigan. Their congregation posted a few days ago, and they say, “We’re excited to share that Barbara Evans was baptized for the forgiveness of sins, according to God’s Word found in: Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:26-27; and 1 John 1:7-9. She was brought to the knowledge of the truth found in God’s Word and is so thankful to her friend who started bringing her to worship here. Friendship evangelism works!” My friend Paul adds a note of his own and says, “I am thankful for the ‘evangelists’ we have at Swartz Creek. Elders are studying with people, deacons are studying, the secretary… it’s not just the minister. Invite. Invite. Invite.” So good to see this, and we share the good news from Kentucky, and Ohio, and Michigan as a reminder that the gospel is the same everywhere it’s preached, and you can obey the gospel right here in Madison, Wisconsin. You can do it today. If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch using the contact information on the wall up here (or on your screen at home). If you are joining us on the phone, you can send a text or give me a call at 608-224-0274.

This morning, we return to our ongoing study of the Sermon on the Mount by getting back to the first half of Matthew 6, where Jesus emphasizes the importance of practicing acts of righteousness “for an audience of One,” with God in heaven being that “one.” The theme for this series comes from Matthew 6:1, where Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”  We have looked at GIVING TO THE POOR, and we are now looking at PRAYER. Up to this point, we’ve learned that we are not to pray for the purpose of attracting attention, and we’ve also learned about the danger of using meaningless repetition.

Well, today, we come to what many have described as the “Lord’s Prayer.” However, it might be more accurately described as a “sample prayer,” or perhaps even a “template” for prayer. If you’ve ever created a resume, then you may be familiar with the idea of a template. We open a template on the computer, and at the top of the page it says “Your Name,” followed by “your address,” and so on. We certainly don’t apply for a job by turning in the template, but we use the template as a pattern. Well, so also with the “Lord’s Prayer.” Contrary to what some may believe, this is not an actual prayer to be prayed, but this prayer is to be used as a tool. And we say this because of a somewhat parallel account over in Luke 11. In Luke 11, the disciples approach Jesus and say, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In response, Jesus gives this prayer as something of a template. In fact, even before we read the text, just notice from the opening line how Jesus says, “Pray, then, in this way.” He doesn’t say, “Repeat after me.” He doesn’t say, “Pray this actual prayer.” After all, Jesus has just finished warning about the danger of “meaningless repetition,” and yet this prayer is now the prayer most often repeated! But that is certainly not what Jesus has in mind here.

I know we haven’t read it yet, but going into this study, I want us to notice how simple this is. And what a relief, that for God to hear us we don’t need to make some kind of eloquent speech. In English, in fact, we are dealing with less than a hundred words. I’ve counted about sixty words in the prayer itself, not including some words either in brackets or a footnote, depending on the translation (those words are not in the oldest manuscripts and were probably added later) – but about sixty words, and the words we have are generally one or two syllables. Even young children can understand it. So, when the disciples want Jesus to teach them how to pray, he gives us a very simple example.

9 Pray, then, in this way: “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

As we learn from what Jesus has to say to us in this passage, I’d like to arrange our thoughts this morning around a series of categories. As we think about this as a sample prayer (or as a template), what do we need to remember when we go to God in prayer. And again, this is not exhaustive. This is certainly not everything God wants us to know about prayer. But as a template, as a sample, what can we take home with us this morning?

I.	Well, let’s start at the beginning, and let’s start with the reminder that as we approach God in prayer, Jesus suggests that we ACKNOWLEDGE THE RELATIONSHIP. **PPT**

Notice, Jesus starts by saying, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.” And there’s so much going on here, but we start with the reminder that we may pray alone or in a group, but prayer is something that we do alongside others, and we see it in the first word, “our.” When we pray, it’s not all about me, but it’s about all of us as God’s children coming to him as our “Father.” There is a value to praying with others, because prayer is not something we have to figure out all on our own. We have the ability to pray with others, and we also have the privilege and responsibility of praying for others. We can ask others to pray for us as well. Prayer is something we can do together. And just a quick reminder to those of who sometimes lead God’s people in prayer: It’s not a matter of “I am asking for this or that,” but it’s a matter of “us” approaching God together. When we lead, the pronouns are different. Let’s note, as we continue in this model prayer that there’s no “I” or “me” in this prayer, but rather, we have Jesus praying for “us.”

Well, this leads us to the other half of this relationship as Jesus addresses God as “our Father who is in heaven.” We pray to our “Father” – we aren’t praying to the saints or to the angels, but we are paying to God as our “Father.” And I believe Jesus addresses God as “Father” at least 70 times throughout the gospel accounts. In fact, the only time he doesn’t use “Father” is when he cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” which is a direct quote from Psalm 22. God, then, is our Father, and it is good to acknowledge that relationship when we pray. As God’s children, we have a relationship with God that others may not have. I think about the neighborhood kids when our children were young. Down in Janesville, I remember building an igloo out in the front yard, and those kids would come help. Here in Madison, the neighborhood kids would often come over, and I was always nice and welcoming to them, but they never called me “father.” My kids, on the other hand, were special to me in a way that the others were not. As earthly fathers, don’t we love hearing from our children? They don’t have to need something to talk to me. Our children have access to us 24 hours a day, and we love it when our kids just want to talk with us. So also with God. When we have that relationship, God is special to us, and we acknowledge this when we pray.

On the other hand, God is also our Father “in heaven.” Yes, God is our Father, but he is also holy, “hallowed be your name,” Jesus says. To be hallowed is to be holy, and to be holy is to be separate. “Hallowed” is a strange word for most people today, but we see it in the word “Halloween,” going back to “All Hallows’ Eve,” or the evening before “All Saints Day.” We see it in the Gettysburg Address when President Lincoln referred to the “hallowed ground” at Gettysburg. Because of what happened in that place, the land was special or set apart, in a sense. So also, God is our Father, but his name is also holy. Those creatures around the throne in Isaiah and in Revelation are constantly crying out, “Holy! Holy! Holy!” Yes, God is loving and merciful, but above all, God is holy.

When we pray, then, we acknowledge this special relationship. God is our Father, but he is also holy, and to address God in prayer is an amazing privilege, an amazing blessing; so, we approach him with reverence and awe; we approach him with the utmost of respect. And when we approach God in prayer, it’s good to slow down and acknowledge this whenever we can. Of course, when we are sliding sideways down an exit ramp off the beltline, maybe we only have time to say “Help me, Lord!,” or “Lord, save me!” (like Peter did when he began to sink in the waves), and that’s alright, but this is our pattern, our template. We address God as our Father in heaven. We start (we set the tone) with praise. We start by acknowledging and appreciating the relationship.

II.	This brings us to the next category (in verse 10), where we OFFER OUR SUBMISSION TO GOD’S RULE IN OUR LIVES.

Or, as Jesus says, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s kingdom is God’s rule. And in this picture, he is the King, and we are his subjects. So, when we pray for God’s kingdom to come and for God’s will to be done on earth just as it is in heaven, we are offering ourselves to God, to be used in his service. The kingdom of God, then, is not a place. I cannot point to it on a map. I cannot give you directions (head south for half a mile and take a left – nothing like that), but God’s kingdom is God’s rule. And when we study the gospel accounts (especially here in Matthew), we find John the Immerser and then Jesus preaching the message that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It’s coming! It’s right around the corner! Then we come to the establishment of the church in Acts 2, and from that point forward, the Bible speaks of God’s kingdom as something that is already in existence (we have been added to his kingdom, and so on). God’s rule in this earth, then, is expressed through the church. The church is the kingdom of God.

I would take this statement, then, as a reminder to pray for the church, to pray for God to rule over us. In one sense, I can’t really pray for something to “come” that’s already here; but in another sense, if God’s kingdom is here (which I believe that it is), then we really need to be praying for it. We need to pray for the lost to be saved, to be added to God’s kingdom. If the church is a kingdom, we need to be taking back territory from the enemy – not physical land, but souls. So we need to be praying for God to use us to that end. Pray for the elders and deacons. Pray for our future elders and deacons. Pray for your preacher. Pray for our missionaries. Pray for the spiritual health of the congregation. Pray for peace. Pray for our senior saints. Pray for young parents. Pray for those who are having a hard time spiritually. Pray for those who are getting things done, and then join them in that service. Pray for God’s will to be done, and pray that God will use us to do it, “Dear God, take my life and use it in any way possible! Wear me out in your service!” When we pray we don’t just go to God with our list, asking for his stamp of approval, but we offer ourselves up in his service. As we sometimes sing, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my hands, take my feet, take my voice, take my silver and my gold, take my will and make it thine.” We submit just as we would submit to a king. He is our ruler. So, we offer up our submission to God’s rule in our lives.

III.	This brings us to a third category, where Jesus has us pray for DAILY NEEDS.

As he says in verse 11,“Give us this day our daily bread.” And personally, I can’t help but wonder whether this is tied to the manna God sent to his people in the wilderness. It showed up on a daily basis. Only what they needed. Nevertheless, down through the years, scholars have debated the meaning of “daily bread” in this passage, and the challenge is that the word translated “daily” is only found here and in the same prayer in Luke’s account. Years ago, one scholar thought that the Bible writers actually made up the word, since they couldn’t find it anywhere else in the ancient world. That is, until a few  years ago, when archaeologists finally discovered this exact word on a small papyrus fragment from the time of Christ, and the fragment turned out to be someone’s shopping list! That small papyrus note was a reminder to purchase supplies for the following day. Years ago, Amy told us about a post-it note type app that we used for many years. But then when COVID showed up, we shifted to a shared Google doc where all of us could add what we needed, and whoever went shopping could cross things off, in real time. And we still use it. This is our list, as of yesterday. We have one column for us and one column for my mom. I’m not sharing her list, though! But this list will grow for a few days, until one of us stops by and starts deleting stuff, and the cycle continues. We update this “daily,” and this is the very real and practical meaning of “daily bread,” the stuff we need on a daily basis. By the way, if you ever find “Pickle de Gallo” at Aldi, I’m going to need you to get it, and I will come find you. I’ve read about this pickle-based salsa in the fresh food cooler at Aldi, but it has eluded me up to this point in my life. And you may notice that these things are in the order you will find them in each of these stores – very important on a shared list! But these are the kinds of provisions Jesus wants us to ask for on a daily basis, the necessities of life – milk, and bread, and coffee.

Now, before we think that something may be too insignificant to pray for, think about your shopping list. That’s what God wants us to pray for. He wants us to ask him for our “daily bread.”  You know, there are times when I walk into a place like Woodman’s, and I am absolutely overwhelmed with the beauty of it. Have we stopped to think for just a moment about the amazing assortment we find in the produce section? Have we stood in awe in the cheese department? It’s amazing, and all of it comes from God! But when is the last time we specifically prayed, “Dear God, please give me the food on our list today?” Hopefully we thank God as we are eating, but what about beforehand? I don’t, and one reason why is that I already have my daily bread. I could probably go home today and lock myself in my house and I could most likely eat pretty well for the next two months. It might get down to that can of beans and that tomato sauce that expired in late 2022, but for the most part, we already have our daily bread, so we don’t often think about asking God for something we already have. But we need to, because all of it comes from him. And even the coffee on the list up here: I already have two 2-pound  bags on top of my fridge; I’m thinking about the coffee I hope to be drinking this coming September. I have some freeze-dried hiking food that’s good for the next 50 years. But all of it comes from God, and he cares for our daily needs.

And isn’t it interesting that we shift from praying for God’s rule all the way over to stuff on our grocery list! Yes, God’s kingdom is so important, but our daily needs are also an important part of going to God in prayer. Surely God doesn’t care about my weekly dose of avocados, and yet he does! And the fact that we are to pray for “daily” needs reminds us that we need to be praying on a “daily” basis. We pray, not for our monthly bread or our yearly bread, but for our “daily bread.” And let’s tie this in to what we learned last week about “meaningless repetition.” There are things we need to pray for repetitively, where the repetition is not meaningless! To pray for our daily bread never needs to be meaningless, but it will be repetitive, and that’s okay, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And by praying for “our” daily bread, we are including others in this. We pray for food to share, and we pray for those who may not have the same resources we do. We pray for our daily needs, our “daily bread.”

IV.	This brings us to a fourth item in our template for prayer, where Jesus tells us to pray for FORGIVENESS.

In verse 12, Jesus says, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” And then, immediately after the prayer, he has a follow-up. It’s almost like he realizes how extreme that must have sounded, so he clarifies (in verses 14-15), “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” And again, this right here is how we know without a doubt that this is the one prayer Jesus never actually prayed, because Jesus never needed forgiving! But as it is, we do need to be forgiven.

As we’ve studied before, the Bible describes sin in several ways. Sometimes, sin is described as “missing the mark.” We try to do good, but we miss. There’s another word that describes sin as stepping over the line, a “transgression.” God has given us a line and told us not to cross it, but we cross anyway. There are other times when sin is described as slipping across a line. We don’t start out trying to cross it, but we slip and fall, and we slide right over it. Other times the Bible describes someone being “caught” in a sin, and it’s the idea of getting caught in a trap. We’re going through life minding our own business, and sin has a way of sneaking up on us and taking us by surprise. We never see it coming. But here in this passage, sin is pictured as a debt that we are completely unable to repay. Maybe we can imagine being in so much debt that we are completely in over our heads, and it’s hopeless. That right there is a miserable feeling. And yet, that’s how sin is sometimes pictured. So here, we find that we are to pray that our spiritual debts would be forgiven. And isn’t that amazing? As his children, we can go to God and simply ask for the debt of sin to be forgiven. Can we imagine doing that with a bank? Imagine walking in and asking, “Excuse me, but would you be willing to forgive that car loan I took out a couple of years ago?” That’s not how that works, and yet we can ask God to forgive sin.

But here’s the catch: We pray for our spiritual debt with God to be forgiven, only to the extent that we forgive others! So, what we are aiming for here is an attitude adjustment. The tendency, of course, is for us to see what others have done to us as being far worse than what we have done to them. If you are late for a meeting, you’re just irresponsible. I, on the other hand, was stuck in traffic. If I forget your name, it’s because I’m just not good with names, but if you forget my name, it must be because you don’t really care about me, and so on. It’s very easy, then, to be tougher on others than we are on ourselves, and this goes for sin. So, the Lord puts this in perspective as he tells us to pray for forgiveness, but only asking God to forgive us to the extent that we forgive others. To forgive is to “release.” To forgive someone is not to say that what they did doesn’t matter, but it means that we are no longer holding on to what they did. We are letting it go.

And this reminds us that even though we are children of God, we still need forgiveness, and we need it on an ongoing basis. Even though we’ve already prayed for God’s will to be done through us, we still miss the mark, we still slip and fall, we still step over the line, we still get caught in the trap, and we need God’s forgiveness, and when we ask for it, we remember. As John says in 1 John 1:9-10, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” Perhaps we ask God to forgive us for snapping at a member of the family. Perhaps we ask God to forgive us for what we said while driving. I’ve said before that my most often repeated prayers (personally) are 1.) Thank you, and 2.) I’m sorry about that. But if we stubbornly refuse to forgive those who sin against us, the Lord says right here that our attitude sets the standard for our own forgiveness. In other words, I cannot be holding a grudge, while I am asking God not to hold a grudge against me. That’s not how that works. To be forgiven, I must forgive.

So before we move on, maybe we should ask: Is there someone who comes to mind right now? If there is, then work it out. But asking for God’s forgiveness needs to be a part of our daily prayer.

V.	This brings us to the last part of this prayer, where Jesus tells us to pray for GOD’S PROTECTION, GOD’S GUIDANCE.

In verse 13, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” So, now that we’ve prayed for forgiveness, now we ask: Please help me to not do this again! We are familiar with the old proverb, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” So also with sin. If we could only spend more time asking for God’s help in avoiding sin, perhaps we would need less time asking for his forgiveness. And once again, this is a prayer not just for me, but for US, “lead us not into temptation.” By asking for God’s help, we are admitting that we cannot handle Satan’s temptations on our own. But instead, we need to be rescued. And I know, it is hard to ask for help sometimes, isn’t it? But when it comes to avoiding sin, we need help. This section right here, then, is the equivalent of dialing 911 in our prayers.

And we should also give the reminder here that temptation itself is not sin. So, don’t get discouraged if some evil thought passes through your mind. And we need to give the reminder here at the beginning of Pride Month. If you are tempted by an attraction to someone of the same sex, that feeling, that temptation is not the sin. The sin would be dwelling on it and taking steps to give in to it. I don’t know why, but with this sin for some reason, many people have the feeling, they may get disillusioned by it, society says that this is the way you are, and the answer is to go with it. But this is not the case. We are not to feel guilty when some temptation passes through our mind, but we are responsible for how long we dwell on it. So, our encouragement would be to keep struggling and do not give in. The temptation is not the sin; the sin is giving in. Temptation does not define who we are.

So, keep praying! Help me, Father, not to give in. I’m attracted to this person, show me the way out. I’m tempted to gossip about my coworkers; show me the way of escape. God has promised a way of escape (in 1 Corinthians 10:13), and our job is to ask for his help, and to find it, and to take it – no matter what the sin may be. E. Claude Gardner, the president of Freed-Hardeman College when I first went there, would often end his prayer in chapel by asking God to “help us live this day in such a way that we can look back with no regrets.” That’s a good prayer for college students, but it’s also a good prayer for all of us.

But this is how the prayer ends, with a cry for help, “Deliver us from evil.” Now, you might have noticed that some of the older translations have a few more words here, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen,” or something to that effect. The NASB includes it, it’s in brackets with a footnote explaining that the “earliest manuscripts do not include this statement.” There’s been a meme going around social media this week, claiming that the NIV is removing verses from the Bible, and you can only trust the King James. I’d be glad to pass along some good information on this, but short version is that the NIV (and most modern translations) are actually based on much older manuscripts than they had available when they translated the KJV back in 1611. And those manuscripts, more than a thousand years closer to the originals, do not contain a few lines here and there, and this is one of those lines. So, it’s not that the NIV is whacking lines, but the KJV put a few things in there that didn’t belong, and the NIV (and some of the others) are fixing that. And I think there’s a pretty good explanation of this one. Some scribe somewhere probably thought that “deliver us from evil” was a pretty weird way to end a prayer, so they put an explanation in there that made it’s way into the text. But now we know better.

Conclusion:

This morning, we have looked at a sample prayer, a template for prayer, an outline. So, instead of actually praying this prayer, I would suggest taking some time this week to use this prayer as it was intended. Go on a walk, find a closet, or get up early in the morning and:

    • Take a few moments to go to God with praise; tell God how awesome he is and what he means to you.
    • Continue by offering yourself up in submission to God’s rule on this earth, “Use me in any way possible.” Pray for his kingdom, the church. Pray for the lost.
    • Continue by asking God to provide for your needs; show him your shopping list!
    • Continue by asking for God’s forgiveness, and ask for his help in forgiving those who have sinned against you.
    • And finally, ask for God’s guidance and protection in your life. Ask for his help in finding the way of escape 

As we close our study this morning, let’s go to God in prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

You are holy and awesome, and we come to you together this morning, as a congregation of your people. We ask for your forgiveness, and we ask for your help with the basic necessities of this life. We know that all good things have come down to us from your hand, and we thank you for that. Thank you for this word that we have heard from your Son this morning. We are thankful for your guidance, and now we ask for strength in putting these words into practice. Thank you for teaching us how to pray.

We ask a special blessing on a sister from Atlanta this morning. We ask for your comfort for Callie today as she mourns the loss of her mother. Be with Jane as she gets settled in a new place for a few weeks. We pray for strength and for healing, and we pray that she would be a light to those around her.

We come to you this morning in Jesus’ name. AMEN.

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