KEY THOUGHTS...
-God is more interested in our heart than our fancy words!
-The Lord’s prayer is not only an instruction manual on how to pray… it’s also a standard by which we can examine our own lives. Where am I at?

A Quick Recap...
-The sermon on the Mount has been called Christ’s inauguration speech for the kingdom. This is where Jesus outlines the core values of the kingdom of heaven.
·It was just after Jesus had called the disciples to come follow him, that it say’s that he went up on a mountain… And then he sits down and it says that his disciples came to him. Now… Don’t forget that from a Jewish perspective, it would have been very significant that Jesus called them to himself and then sat down to teach them up on the mountain.
-And if you recall, it was Moses that brought the very word of God down to God’s people from the mountaintop. But this time, instead of a list of do’s and don’ts, Jesus simply tells them what it’s going to look like. You want to know what a true disciple looks like? It looks like this!
And part of what I LOVE about the Sermon on the mount is that Jesus breaks down the very basics for us! It’s the Cliff Notes Version!
Remember Cliff notes? Cliff Notes used to be a study helper back in the day before Google. And essentially, if you read the Cliff Notes, they would summarize the entire book and give you all of the main ideas, central themes, and key points in the book so that you could pass the test without ever actually reading the book. In the same way, the Sermon on the Mount is a little like a cheat sheet on how to be a Christian! You want to know what it looks like to be an authentic disciple of Jesus? This is what it looks like!!!

The Beatitudes…
If you recall, we talked about how the Beatitudes have been described as a staircase of light. Every step building upon one another. Every step supported by and dependent upon the previous. Every step leading closer and closer to the summit where you can finally see the whole Big Picture. This is what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus!
- And it all started with being Poor in Spirit. (V.3.) The very starting place for the Gospel is that a person needs to be poor in spirit! A person needs to come to that place of recognition that we are hopeless, lost, doomed, and bankrupt on our own! We bring nothing to the table! That’s poor in Spirit!
- And of course a person that is Poor in Spirit, is a person that truly understands their spiritual depravity, they have come to the end of themselves and can’t help but grieve those areas of our lives where they have allowed sin to affect their relationship with the Father! Blessed are those who MOURN! Blessed are those who are broken over their own sinfulness!
-And when a person understands their own sinfulness & depravity, and when a person is broken and mourns over their own sin, then a person can’t help but be humble! Blessed are the Meek! These are people that have come to learn that I am NOTHING without Christ! These are people who can’t help but be humble because they remember their own rescue! They remember how God reached down and rescued them! Blessed are the Meek!
-These are also the people who have come to realize that outside of Christ, nothing satisfies! They have experienced the empty promises the world has to offer! And so these people instead, have begun to hunger and thirst for righteousness! No longer am I going after the things of this world… these are people who now hunger and thirst after God!
-And as we seek after God, we can’t help but be struck by the mercy that he has shown us and we can’t help but show that same mercy to others. Blessed are the merciful.
-And of course if we are seeking his ways daily, then God begins to change our hearts. God begins to change our motivations. Blessed are the pure in heart!
-And when our hearts begin to be motivated by the same things that move the heart of our father, then suddenly we will find ourselves standing up to adversity, standing up for the unborn, standing up for the helpless and oppressed. Blessed are the Peacemakers!
- And guess what??? When we begin to stand up for the oppressed, and we begin to proclaim Jesus in the face of adversity, the world isn’t going to like that! And it’s when we finally begin to stand up for what’s right, that the enemy bares his teeth.
-Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake
-Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you!

-Can you see how the Beatitudes have all built upon one another? Do you see how with every step we gain a clearer and clearer picture of what a true disciple of Jesus really looks like? Well the Beatitudes are just the intro! The sermon continues! And section by section, passage by passage, Jesus has continued drawing for us a picture of what the Christian life looks like. And that in a word, that we are to be DIFFERENT!

Salt & Light
He continues the sermon and says that we are to be SALT & LIGHT! We’re supposed to be so different that our lives radically affect everyone around us for the better! (Salt) Our lives are supposed to be so distinctly different that we stand out like beacons of light in a dark world! (Light)
-Ultimately, we see that Jesus is more concerned with the heart, and that he’s not so concerned with outward performance, but rather, internal obedience! And the Sermon on the Mount is so foundational to you and I as believers, because in the simplest of terms, Jesus walks through exactly what an authentic Christian looks like. And… in sharp brutal contrast, what is DOESN’T look like!

Matters of the Law
·Don’t forget that it was God Himself that had given the law to His people from the mountaintop. How interesting, that here at the sermon on the mount, that once again God speaks to His people from the mountain and clarifies the very law that He gave! And so in MT 5:17-48 Jesus goes on to give 6 comparative statements addressing matters of the law. “You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.”
-And over and over He emphasizes the HEART of the law! That our motives matter! That it’s NOT about the Letter of the Law, but about the HEART of the law!

Our Spiritual Lives
-After addressing matters of the law, Jesus focuses his attention on three areas central to their religious lives. GIVING. PRAYING. FASTING
Do you see how Jesus is systematically addressing every aspect of their lives? He’s talked about their posture of brokenness over our sin. He’s talked about how are lives are to be distinctly different. He’s addressed how believers are to live in relation to the law. And now Jesus wants to address their spiritual lives. GIVING. PRAYING. FASTING (No stone unturned)
-Giving
Last week Pastor Mike had the privilege of jumping into the fun topic of Giving. And we learned last week that even in our giving, that once again, it’s all about the heart! It’s about wanting to give because we understand how much has been given to us!!
-That’s why “The Widows Mites” were more valuable in the sight of the Lord than all the other gifts. Because it’s the heart behind the gift that really matters. And the widow gave her last coin up sacrificially because she truly understood how much God had given to her sacrificially.
It’s the HEART that matters!! And when we get this right, God is pleased!

Prayer
Once again, Jesus continues describing for us an authentic disciple! And leaving no stone unturned, he now examines the prayer life of an authentic disciple. This is what it looks like, AND…this is what it DOESN’T look like. (Matthew 6:5-8) So once again we see Jesus differentiating between an authentic disciple and a disingenuous phony.

-Then Jesus gives us a picture of what an authentic prayer life really looks like. And when you talk about a person’s prayer life, essentially you’re talking about their relationship with God. Our relationships with one another and with God, are closely tied in with our communication with one another. You can’t have a relationship without communication! By the same token… You show me all of the people that you communicate best with. The people that you could tell anything. The people that you have an ongoing text conversation with. Those are the people that you have the closest relationships with. Right?! The way we communicate with one another, (Or don’t) is a clear indicator as to the health of the relationship.
-And in the same way that the Beatitudes give us a picture of an authentic disciple… the Lord’s Prayer gives us a picture of what an authentic relationship looks like between God and His people.

The picture of a perfect relationship...

"When you pray..."
First of all, I want you to notice the beginning of verse 5, verse 6, & verse 7. Do you notice how they all begin? “And when you pray”. There is an assumption that you pray! Just like the beginning of verse 2 and verse 3 that we looked at last week. But "WHEN YOU GIVE". There is an assumption here that as authentic disciples that of course you do these things! Of course you give! Of course you pray!

"Do not be like them..." (V. 5 & 8)
Jesus is trying to zero in on the authentic vs the phony.
Jesus starts off by saying, “you must not be like the hypocrites’. This word used here in the Greek is Hypo-krites which was used to describe a theatre production. An actor that wears a mask. The thought being that our prayers shouldn’t be a production! It’s supposed to be about an authentic relationship between you and the father where you will go to Him even in the secret place because it’s not about what other people think, it’s about the heart. My heart connecting to God’s heart!
-God isn’t interested in phonies!

“Pray then like this…” (Matthew 6:9a)
-I think there is a natural tendency for us to look at this statement like instructions from Jesus on how to formulate our prayers. "Pray like this"… And then Jesus gave us this perfect format. And so we go through the Lord’s prayer systematically and use it as a template for our own prayer life.
-And that’s all good stuff. Quite honestly, that’s how I’ve heard the Lord’s prayer taught most of my life. We use His words to guide our words! Good stuff! I will always seek to do that! And so we pay careful attention to the words and structure our prayers accordingly. But the irony is this…the point of the entire passage is that ITS NOT ABOUT THE WORDS! It’s about the heart! In fact, the very people that Jesus spoke against all had the right words!! Look at verse 7 with me…

Matthew 6:7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”

Do you hear him talking about their empty phrases and their many words? They had all of the right words! They HAD all of the right words, but they were empty words because there was no heart behind them!!

-So I think when Jesus said “Pray then like this…” that he was talking more about our posture before the Lord than he was talking about the perfect verbiage! He’s far more interested in a broken spirit and a contrite heart than the proper structure of your prayers. And part of the beauty of the Lord’s prayer is that not only are we given a perfect instruction manual on how to pray, but we are also given a picture of what it looks like when we get it right! Pray then like this!

"OUR Father..."
-First of all, it starts with OUR Father. And even though this is an abundantly personal prayer, he starts this prayer with “OUR” Father!
-And even though this is a personal prayer in a solitary place, we see an understanding that that they were adopted into the family of God! That we are part of the body of Christ and that Christ is the head of that body! We were grafted in! And so even though this is a deeply personal prayer delivered in a private place, there is an understanding that they are part of the larger body!
-So we pray OUR Father…
-Give us this day OUR daily bread
-Forgive us OUR debts
-As we forgive OUR debtors
-We call out OUR Father because we are part of the Body! We weren’t adopted into isolation. Doing life without the church as a Christian doesn’t make sense any more than the thought of getting your hand cut off and then having it go on to live a productive life on its own. That’s just not the way it works! Church isn’t an optional component for the disciple of Jesus! We are part of the body! We serve a function within that body! How would that work out if a part of your physical body just decided not to function on occasion? (Long weekends, holidays, etc.) That wouldn’t work out so well! You are a necessary part of the Body of Christ! So we pray OUR Father…

"Our FATHER..."
We also pray…Our FATHER...- The very fact that he uses the word Father here is astounding! Don’t forget that to the Jewish audience, that the very name of God was unspeakable! This alone would have blown their minds! God at that time was not seen as Father. All of the words used to describe Him were distant! Words like Elohim (The Strong One). El Shaddai (The Mighty One). Rabbi’s at the time would say “Hasheem” which means, “The Name”. They wouldn’t even write His name down, they would only use consonants. (Tetragrammaton) There was such AWE and FEAR with the name of the Lord!
-And then Jesus tells us that a true disciple calls out to his FATHER! Once again, do you see how Jesus is describing this RELATIONSHIP? There’s intimacy there! We’re welcomed in and given free access to our Father! There’s joy when a child gets to be with dad!
-Ephesians 2:18- “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”
We’re part of the FAMILY of God. And so we pray Our FATHER!

Hallowed be Your name.
Now whereas Our Father describes our relationship, hallowed be your name describes our role! And this word hallowed is a word that we don’t use much these days. It means to be set apart, to be sanctified. To be absolutely unique and treated differently.
-Well, what are we to hallow? What are we to set apart? The Name of the Lord! And His name here speaks of the very character and nature of God Himself. That He would be exalted and set apart!
- As Christian’s, we quite literally bear the name of Christ. And just as a Corinthian was a person of Corinth, and a Philippian was a person of Philippi then a Christian is to be a person OF Christ! An image bearer! We represent Him. We are ambassadors! And our role is to hallow his name through our lives! That our lives would be (Like it tells us in Psalm 34:5) a radiant reflection of His Glory! Hallowed be your name Lord, through my life! Oh that I would be a radiant reflection!

YOUR kingdom come, YOUR will be done
-The key ideas here are SURRENDER & SUBMISSION.
And we would ALL like to be king and sit on our own thrones. But this prayer says “God, I want Your will!” I surrender my own will! I submit to your authority! Not my will but THY will be done!

On Earth as it is in heaven-
He’s talking about God’s good and perfect will being accomplished in our world! In all things.In all circumstances. And so I want you to think about your world. Your little world right here in Wasilla Alaska. Your relationships. Your work. Your community. And I want you to replace the word ‘Earth’ in this prayer with those places in your world that you would like to see God’s will accomplished.
-God… I want your will to be done, in my family as it is in heaven.
-God… I want your will to be done, in my business as it is in heaven.
-Would you allow your will to be done, in my marriage as it is in heaven.
-What would you place right there?

This is a prayer of surrender and submission. Not my will, but Your will!

Give us this day our daily bread
-Even though bread can be one of the yummiest of treats, it is also the humblest of foods. It is only the poorest of the poor and prisoners banished to dungeons that are left to a diet of bread and water. And when you think of bread, you think of SUSTINENCE not OPULENCE. And bread represents the most basic simplest things for sustaining life.
-I think part of what Jesus was getting at with this is that there is absolutely nothing too small for us to go to the Lord with. There’s nothing so menial or small that you can’t go to the Lord with it. And that just like God provided Mana in the wilderness, that you and I would be dependent upon God’s daily provision!
-And the picture we’re given of an authentic disciple is a person that REGULARLY goes to God with the smallest and most menial aspects of his life! “Give us THIS DAY our DAILY bread!” This is an ongoing conversation with the Father! DAILY!

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors
-So not only do we ask God for provision, but also for pardon! Forgive us our debts.
·Scripture tells us that Sin incurs a debt, and that the wages of sin is death! And of course, the work of Jesus on the cross was that He paid that debt! Never again would we have to make sacrifices for sin, because Jesus canceled our debt once and for all!
-Even though Jesus canceled our debt, unfortunately, we know that we still continue to blow it. And it’s the sin that we allow in our life that comes between us and the Father, and it affects our relationship with God. So Lord, please remove anything that stands between us! Forgive us our debts! I don’t want any of that junk coming between us.

-And as we experience forgiveness from our sins, it then enables us to forgive others. God wants to give forgiveness to you and for forgiveness to flow through you. And now notice this… “as we also have forgiven our debtors.” “Have Forgiven”. This is a past tense… That’s because an authentic disciple of Jesus is poor in spirit! They understand their own depravity and they understand how great a debt they were forgiven. Their lives bare the mark of that forgiveness because in the same way that they were shown mercy and forgiveness…. They show mercy and forgiveness! Their actions bare testimony to their heart! I forgive because I was forgiven!

And LEAD us not into temptation, but DELIVER us from evil
Not only did Jesus cancel ALL of our debts on the cross, but He also CONTINUES to deliver us! And the key words in verse 13 are LEAD and DELIVER. And the disciple of Jesus, is a person who cries out to God from the midst of the storm. Lead me Lord. Deliver me Lord. My life is in your hands!

Application
Question… Does the Lord’s prayer describe your relationship with Jesus? Because the Lord’s prayer, is not only an instruction manual on how to pray… it’s also a standard by which we can examine your own lives. Where am I at? Does this describe me?
Use the Lord's Prayer to examine your own life. Hold your life up to the light. Does Jesus example look like my life?