Just A Reminder Pt. 5
Notes
Transcript
9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
Hallowed - greek word hagiazo - verb which means to make holy, sanctify, treat as holy
The English here doesn’t exactly give us the clear meaning that is expressed in the Greek.
We usually take it as a recognition that God is holy...
He is holy, but the Greek here is an active verb...
Meaning we are requesting that God make His name holy or sanctify it...
Why would we request that God do what He already is?
Stuart Weber says this in his commentary
“Probably as a reminder to ourselves to live a life that advertises a holy God.” - Stuart Weber
Weber, Stuart K. Matthew. Vol. 1. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000. Print. Holman New Testament Commentary.
Weber thinks that it’s more of a reminder for us to live as if we believe God is holy.
The portrayal of this begins in our posture during prayer...
We come before God recognizing that He is holy..
Also that He is perfect in wisdom, power, and love!
When we come before Him in His holiness and perfection, it should be a challenge for us!
We remember that God expects us to be holy and sanctified as He is...
Now, to be clear, this is not of our doing, it is of our position with Jesus...
We accept His forgiveness and are imparted His righteousness....
In addition, this is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives!
He is the one who sanctifies us!
So, it is not of our doing, but is of our response to His doing...
We are responsible to confess and turn from our sin...
If we have known sin in our lives it’s an insult to the work that Christ did on the cross!
So, positionally, when we asked God to sanctify His name and make his name Holy, we too, should examine our lives and take responsibility for the sin there..
Confess it, and turn from it....
And then God does the work of purifying us from all unrighteousness...
So, the beginning of the Lord’s prayer is recognizing that God is our Father in heaven...
His name is set apart and holy....and we too, should be like him, as a holy priesthood.
With this as the forefront of the prayer that we pray, we then move into the requests...
First, is...
10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
As we pray this, there are two implication that come from this
1. God’s kingdom and will is not this world...
1. God’s kingdom and will is not this world...
When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God in the beginning, the default for this earth was changed...
The garden and everything in it was good…but then the default was changed to bad...
Satan was given dominion over this earth...
So, when some ask the question: why to bad things happen...
Well, the short answer is: sin…the world is a corrupt place…it is no longer good as God created it to be...
So, really the question isn’t: why do bad things happen, but rather, why do good things happen?
As Jesus predicts his death in John 12 He tells the Father:
27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine.
31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
Jesus refers to Satan as the prince of this world…notice here also that judgement will come and he will be driven out…for now, He is present and active
Jesus again tells in disciples in
30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. “Come now; let us leave.
He here again refers to Satan as the prince of this world...
Paul also points to the work of Satan in
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
So, we understand that Satan has dominion over this world, but He won’t always, and he doesn’t have to now...
This leads to point 2
2. God’s kingdom and will CAN come to earth
2. God’s kingdom and will CAN come to earth
Once we are saved and are in Christ, satan no longer has dominion and power over us!
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
The context of this passage in James is being set apart for God
Not being in friendship with the world, but submissive to God...
When we are in line with the will of God and in submission to Him, the enemy has no place with us....that’s why he’s called “the enemy”
In the context of war, you typically don’t call your enemies to have supper with you the night before battle...
You don’t allow the enemy in the camp...
God works in the same way, when we are in God’s camp, the enemy is not welcome...
God is in the battle with us, fighting with us...
Now, He does give us warning though...
In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul gives some examples of why we need to be careful, then He says...
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
So, we need to stand firm against the enemy and temptation, but God will help us!
God is our shelter and rock, but if we walk outside of Him, we are on our own...
If we leave the camp, we are fair game...
Paul gives us more comfort in knowing that we can stand against the enemy in
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
The devil is a schemer....he wants to derail God’s plan...
Imagine this....you know that you have already lost so the only thing you have left is to try and take out a soldier one by one....
Now we paint him as this silly little animated creature...
But, in reality he has some serious power...
Of course, he’s not more powerful that God, but he also isn’t something to toy with...
His goal is to steal, kill and destroy...
Destroy Godly marriages, families, and individual...
So, be diligent people…it’s a serious battle...
Paul gives us more guidance in Romans 16 after he gives his greetings to many...
He then says...
17 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. 19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
As we were, saying, Satan is out to destroy…He wants to destroy the Church…to cause divisions in they body...
This goes back to the message a couple weeks ago about
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
And here again in Romans we see that some just want to cause divisions....Paul is a bit more harsh and says “keep away from them”
To
19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
Be wise about what is good and innocent of evil..
Wise is a Greek word that...
Describes one who is experienced or practiced in a particular skill or possesses knowledge or education.
Paul wants to to possess knowledge about what is good....to be experienced…in goodness..
Anyone know where I am going with this?
This is cool…check this out...
Jump down to
27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Note here, the word wise here, is the same word used in verse 19....
We are to be wise about what is good, like God is wise about what is good!
We are to have our “God goggles” on about what is good...
When we look and observe, we should be doing it through the lens and wisdom of God!
Be wise about what is innocent of evil...
More greek here.....
Innocent is a Greek word that means to be pure… or to be unmixed...
So, we are to be pure of evil and unmixed with it...
let’s talk about unmixed first and then we will talk about being pure...
So, unmixed could be looked at in a couple of ways...
First, how many M&M fans here?
Remember in elementary school when they would used M&M’s for a lesson?
How many of you ate one before you were supposed to?
Shame on you!
Nah, the teacher would tell you, now separate them by color...
So you separate the colors and they aren’t mixed anymore...
You have your red pile and your green pile! Shout out to Christmas!
This is one idea of being unmixed...
There’s another…a little demonstration this morning...
Be innocent or pure of evil...
Pure means that is is without blemish...
Or, to not be tainted...
So, let’s look at this..
Water - plain water
Grape juice - plain grape juice
*mix them...
Now, who is the coolest person here?
*Ask them to separate them...
You can’t, why not?
Because it’s tainted..
That is more of what Paul means about being wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil...
Don’t have a hint of evil mixed in!
And then comes the promise…when we are wise about with is good, and innocent about what is evil
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
To wrap this up...
When we stay in God’s camp, the enemy is not welcome there…he has power over us!
and when we wise, with God’s wisdom about what is good and innocent, not mixed with evil....God will crush satan under our feet!
I had a couple more verses that I was going to share to drive it home further, but time wise, I think we hit it!
So, we know that this world is not God’s kingdom and His will often isn’t done here by default,
but, we also know, that God’s will and kingdom can come!
So, Jesus tells us to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!
Wisdom about what is good comes from knowing the word of God!
When we know the word of God, we know the will of God!
And when we know the word of God, we can walk in the ways of God!
And when we walk in the ways of God, the kingdom of God comes!
I don’t know why God chooses to use people for His will!
But He does...
And, if we want to see the kingdom of heaven come...
We have a responsibility....
To walk in God’s ways according to His Word!
When we do that, we see less of the kingdom of earth and more of the kingdom of heaven!
So, maybe, as with hallowed be your name, this is more of a reminder for us to be the kingdom of heaven, then a call for God to move...
Likely, it’s both!
But, when we walk according to the Word by the power of the Spirit these things happen and I don’t have the time to dive into each individually, but this is what the Word teaches:
The gospel is preached
People are saved
Disciples are made
People are healed
People are set free
The widows and orphans are taken care of
There is a unity in the body of Christ
Grace is given
Forgiveness is recieved
Relationships are restored
So, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven...
As we move into prayer and response time...