Collide – Thy Kingdom Come

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

The Sermon on the Mount

Do you ever find yourself searching for something bigger than you? For a community to be a part of? A place founded on truth and love. A place to worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Son of God. Welcome to Founded in Truth, where we're more than just a fellowship. We're a family. So welcome home. So, guys, we are still journeying through Matthew chapter 6. We are kind of past the halfway point for the Sermon on the Mount. This revolutionary sermon that was preached 2,000 years ago on the mountainside in Galilee by this no-name rabbi from Nazareth named Joshua or Yeshua. And this sermon started a revolution.

This sermon was so radical that it got this rabbi killed. This sermon was so radical that it has gotten his followers killed for the past 2,000 years. This sermon preached a way of life for a people of God and how they acted in a world when his Torah is actually written on their heart. And it's something that the world hates to hear because it goes against everything the world stands for. And so we went through Matthew chapter 5 the last few weeks and the first part of Matthew chapter 6. Today we're going to continue with prayer and the Lord's Prayer. One of the most well-known prayers in the world, and yet I would dare say one of the prayers that is least recited among Christians, at least Protestants.

Anybody guilty of that? Anybody sit down and pray and never even think about the Lord's Prayer? That's just something we learned to memorize in Sunday school. And so we pray and we have this grand, original, polished-with-my-fingerprints, from-my-heart prayer to God, which is good. But the only time we really recite the Lord's Prayer is when we come to fellowship and someone actually suggests it. And we're like, okay, I know this from Sunday school. I got this.

When Yeshua says to pray it every day. When Luke says, "Every time you pray, say this." There's something revolutionary about this prayer that for a very long time from its preaching fueled this radical movement of Yeshua. And so let's just jump in. We're going to start in Matthew chapter 6, verse 5. If you can turn with me there. And we're going to see what he says right before we go into this famous prayer.

The Lord's Prayer

Matthew chapter 6, verse 7. And Yeshua is speaking and he says, "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 not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Therefore, pray like this," dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. So I wanted to show you a couple translations. This is a verse we're kind of familiar with. So this is the English Standard Version, which I kind of like. It's nice. And it's also the default in my Bible software, so it is what it is. We also have the Holman Bible. "When you pray, don't babble like the idol worshipers."

And then you have the faithful King James Version—King Jimmy. This is the one we're familiar with. And the reason I want to point out these phrases is because we probably don't remember hearing this exact verse. We don't think of "do not heap up empty phrases." And a lot of times when we remember this verse, we don't typically recall "babbling like the idol worshipers." We remember this translation, the original King James, where it says, "When you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." Out of these three translations, which one kind of perks your ears up the most?

Is it "vain repetitions"? Most of us are taught that. And the reason why I bring this up is because that word in Greek is battlegeo—vain repetition, babble, long-windedness, empty phrases. Battlegeo. And we don't have a clue what it means. We don't know what it means. The only reason it's translated as empty phrases, vain repetitions, and babbling is because of the second part of what Yeshua says here. It adds context to the word, showing it has to do with empty phrases, like what the pagans do—they try to be heard by their many words. Well, battlegeo must have something to do with that, right? And I believe it does.

Vain Repetitions and Empty Phrases

So here we go. Yeshua is calling us out from empty phrases to vain repetitions, which tends to be the most popular quoted verse. I bring this up because Yeshua reveals something important here. Whether it hits you or not, he just revealed that he knows about your heart. And he's been doing this all through the Sermon on the Mount. And this is one of those instances where it's a little awkward if you were standing beside him because now you know he knows your heart. And Yeshua kind of hits home here. Yeshua is going to teach us how to pray. And when you talk to God, don't do it like the pagans. Why?

Because the pagans believe their God is off doing something else. Perhaps their God is sleeping. Or in Elijah's case, perhaps their God is busy in the bathroom. And so if you want something really, really, really, really bad, you've got to get their God's attention in such a way that you can wake them up from their sleep or get them to run out of the bathroom to come to your rescue. You have to try to get their attention in order to get something that you want from them. And this is called pagan theology. This is literally the theology of the ancient Gentiles and pagans in the Roman Empire. And they had gods they could cry out to and petition.

They could manipulate their god's will—at least that's what they thought. They believed they could manipulate their gods based on how much emotion, loudness, and flowery words they spoke—speaking more than everyone else. If I can scream louder than everyone else, if I can spend more time talking than everyone else, then maybe that God will favor me and give me what I want.

Pagan Prayer

So Yeshua is asking the question: What God do you worship? Do you pray to that kind of God? Or do you pray to the one true God, the God of Israel, the God that loves his children as a father? Yeshua is saying, don't pray to another God. Our God is greater—much greater. Our God is so great that he knows what you need before you pray for it. Don't discard that thought. I know what some of you did. It went in but kind of confused you a little bit. So you're thinking, okay, I'll just go with it. No, let it hit you. If you're slightly confused by this, embrace it right now. What do you mean he knows what I'm going to pray?

He knows what I need before I pray it. That doesn't make sense. That's the whole reason I pray. Just embrace it. That's how big your God is right now. Find comfort in that. That's a wow level of greatness. Pagans ain't got that. Okay, so why do we have to pray if God already knows what I need? Sheesh, Matt. Because prayer is not about you getting stuff. Prayer is about connecting to God and God connecting to you. It's a shared experience of intimacy between you and God. That's what prayer is—connection with the God of Israel. The God of Israel is not simply a Santa Claus. If that's who you're wanting, boy, in Western culture about 100 years ago, Macy's and Coca-Cola created a God for you, a big old red suit and everything. You can pray to him if you want.

God Knows Your Heart

This God, your God, is bigger. You don't treat your God like the God of the pagans. Treat your God like a father that you have a relationship with. And I wanted to show multiple translations today because if you're like me, you've likely attended a church at some time in your life that hyper-focused on the first part of this verse while cutting off the context of the latter. So we're moving from sermon into a little Bible geek stuff because I like to have fun with this as well. Vain repetitions, vain repetitions. I was told by one church that this means repeating yourself. And if you repeat yourself, you're pagan.

If you stutter, just don't even try. Get someone else to pray for you. You don't want to be a pagan. If you're what I call "a just Justin"—and I mentioned this last week because that's totally me—when your excitement for prayer and experiencing God makes you nervous and you end up saying "just" twenty times in a prayer, right? May God have mercy on you because apparently you're pagan. I actually heard one commentary that said Yeshua was referring to Jewish prayer because the Judeans at the time had these prayers they would say every day in their evening standing prayers. And they have these books called Siddurs—prayer books—where they say the same prayers over and over and over again.

And I had one commentary tell me that's what Yeshua was talking about—that you're not supposed to repeat prayers. They've got to be fully crafted from your heart and soul. 100% authentic. If not, it's plagiarism and it's pagan. And the issue I have with this assertion is the Bible and what it says in this verse about the Gentiles and the idol worshipers and the heathens and the pagans, not people who pray to the God of Israel. And we tend to take this to a hyper-literal level, as we discussed last week, and say that nothing can be repeated when you pray.

Praise Without Repetition

And it's not just in prayers at this point. We transition that over to all areas of our worship, including praise. So now praise cannot be repeated. My favorite song to sing on a rep shabbat with my boy and my wife is Shabbat Shalom. Can we sing Shabbat Shalom together in a way that's not pagan? Okay, you ready? Shabbat Shalom. Stop! The point is not about repetition. It's not even about spending a long time in prayer to God. You know how I know this? Because Yeshua in Luke 6, 12 went up on a mountain and prayed all night. There may have been a time, maybe in your life, that you have prayed all night long. This is what Yeshua did. And we like to get judgmental about it when people are praying for a long, long, long time and they're engaging with God for a long time. And we're like, that just can't be sincere. All night, your Savior, your rabbi that you follow. And Yeshua is warning us about putting energy into manipulating God. This is what this is talking about. And if you are not a puppet master to God, don't do that because that's pagan. That's how the pagans pray.

Standardized Prayer in History

Revisiting the same phrase or even the same prayer each time you pray is something that was prevalent in Judaism long before the first century and after and was prevalent in Christianity from the first century all the way for about 1900 years to about 100 years ago—standardized prayer. Didn't mean it wasn't sincere. Didn't mean it was bad. Didn't mean it was pagan. Meant that's just the tradition started in the first century, adapted from Judaism, from a Jewish rabbi. And it's really only been recent when we've actually been encouraged to take our prayers to be spontaneous only, which I like. But what I'm trying to say is I don't want you to get me liking spontaneous prayers confused with absoluteness and me liking standardized prayers with absoluteness because if we look at history, they're both prevalent in Christian history.

In fact, Yeshua in Luke says in the Greek, do you know what he says? He says each time you pray, he doesn't say "pray like this" in the Greek. He says recite this, recite this. If we take the Greek literally, literally he says every time you go to pray, recite the standardized prayer that I just gave you in the Greek.

Heart Over Mechanics

Yeshua is concerned about one main thing in your life in the Sermon on the Mount. And it's not, he's concerned about your actions, but he's more concerned about what? Your intentions and your heart and what is fueling your actions. What is fueling your prayer? If you repeat yourself, if you're so lost in intimacy with God that you begin to babble a little bit in prayer or you begin to repeat yourself a little bit in prayer or you say just too many times, that's beautiful. Yeshua is addressing what the heart is and are you trying to manipulate God and treat him like the God that the pagans worship?

Teaching Through Repetition

Singing songs in a repetitive manner is how most of us teach our children about the wonderful values that we can instill in them in their life. It's how Hebrew blessings are often taught to children. It's how we learn things in school. Let me give you an example. If you know this, I'm sure you do: Broccoli, celery, gotta be vegetables. I know this. Veggie Tales. It's an okay show. I have a disagreement with theology, but we got it. So Ben is at the age where he can watch Veggie Tales now, so guess what we listen to and guess what he sings all along? It's part of being a human. So yeah, Yeshua wants you to be focusing on something here.

And it's not necessarily what you're saying, it's why you're saying it. Are you saying it for the same reasons that the pagans are for their gods? Or do you not know that your God so intimately loves and knows you and is big enough that he already knows what you need. He just wants to hear from you. He just wants to connect with you. He just wants to spend time with you. He doesn't want you babbling off about your Christmas list, wish list, sorry. He wants to hear from you as his daughter and as his son.

The Lord's Prayer

And so now, Yeshua shifts gears and he goes into teaching us how he expects us to pray. Okay? So here we go. Verse 9, Our Father in heaven... That's it. This is of the heavenly kingdom has come to the Christ, the Messiah, the Mashiach. And he is about to teach us the most potent way to pray to God. This is the prayer that you need to memorize. Are you ready? Yeah. Like five sentences later. Is it? Is it? That was kind of short. Refer back to the passages before this. What is the intent here? It's not about how long or short the prayer is. Your prayer does not need to be ten minutes long to be effective. What Yeshua is showing here is he's saying, look at the intention of this prayer. This is what I want you to pray every day. And so we're not going to look at the length of the prayer today. We're going to look at what? The intention of what Yeshua is saying and just how much he packs into this small little poem, if you will. I love it.

Our Father

Our Father, holy is your name, set apart. Notice how he says our. Do you want to know why he says our? Because originally this was intended to be a public prayer. This was intended to be a communal prayer. When we gather together and we pray together, we say this together. Our Father, holy is your name. And this term Father kind of brings together at least two attributes of God. His intimate love for his children as well as a sovereign power over creation, which is invoked in heaven. God of heaven. To call God a father, as we discussed I think a few weeks ago, to call God a father is to receive the love and mercy that he would give.

Your Kingdom Come

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is it. This is the verse in the Bible that I get most excited about, I think, at this point in my life. Because this one verse embodies everything the gospel represents. What is that on the screen? Guys, this is creation the way that God made it. This is Genesis 1 when God formed his good creation. Every aspect was good and ready to be launched forward as him as king over the world. And if you notice, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Heaven and earth were one. God walked face to face with man. The kingdom of heaven was fully engulfed on earth, in the garden and with man. Man looked at God and said, Your reign is supreme. We serve you. And God's kingdom fully manifests in the world. His love, His forgiveness, His mercy, all of His attributes had fully engulfed the world. And it gets me excited every time I talk about this because the Bible tells this story. It tells a story about God creating His good creation where man and God fully communed together in the garden as one.

The Fall

And then man decided to seek autonomy from God in the garden. And he allowed the words of the serpent to infiltrate the garden, infiltrate their soul. And they said, you know what? Maybe we can choose good and evil better than God can. We can determine good and evil better than God can. We don't need God to rule our life. This was the moment that God was pushed away from his good creation through the actions and decisions of mankind. The fall of man, if you will. The story of the Bible continues the point, continues to say that mankind produced violence on the earth and hatred and injustice in God's good creation. The world had become a dark, dark place. But God makes a promise. And God makes the promise that He will forgive man. And that he will take mankind back and reconciliation will happen and heaven, his kingdom, will overtake the world once again just as it was in the beginning. This is the story of the Bible. I will be one with you. Restoration of my good creation will occur. And the story continues from this point forward.

Yeshua and Forgiveness Parties

And it speaks about a no-name rabbi from Nazareth, this Yeshua that stands up, that would love the unlovable, that heals the unhealable, that forgives the unforgivable. He actually, if you notice all through the gospel accounts, he hosts these parties. I heard one teacher refer to them as forgiveness parties, where the prostitute and the tax collectors could come in and sit down as his friends. Hey, you're an image bearer just like me. I want to show you God's love, and I want to show you how you can show others God's love. Come, dine with me. Forgiveness parties. I like that term. And he makes his displays of compassion on these people, the outcasts.

And he begins to heal every single person that has a sickness and he forgives those who are unforgivable. He begins to walk out the prophecies of Isaiah when Isaiah speaks about God's kingdom returning and fulfilling God's promises. Mankind may have pushed heaven away from earth, God's reign away from earth, but in Yeshua, in the place that Yeshua stands, heaven is remarried to earth and to his creation. This is the story of the Bible, and this is what Yeshua asked us to pray for. He says, God, that your kingdom would come, and that your will, as king of the kingdom, would be done. Where? As it is in heaven.

That your government would once again overtake. Your kingship would be once again recognized in this world. Isaiah speaks about a time where swords will be made into plowshares. That's God's kingdom. Isaiah talks about a time where all relationships will be reconciled. That's God's kingdom. Isaiah speaks about a time where hatred and malice will no longer be something that's—that's God's kingdom. This is what Yeshua pointed to you and said, you see me carrying out God's kingdom? Do you see me bringing heaven to earth now?

Bringing Heaven to Earth

Putting out the fires of hell that we've caused? I want you to follow me, to be an ambassador of Christ, as Paul calls us, a representative of the kingdom. Guys, what Yeshua is offering us is a chance to partake alongside him in bringing heaven back to earth, bit by bit, with every action that we do, to bring about the end of Isaiah, to bring about the end of Revelation, to bring about this time period when God's love is fully felt in all the world. That's what this prayer focuses on. And we make the mistake as believers of making the gospel message about being saved from this dark world and escaping it one day.

We make the message of the gospel more about us being here and being saved from this dark place so we can go to be with God. This is not a biblical concept. It was actually a Gnostic concept. The reality is, you weren't made to escape this world. You were made for this world that has become dark, and God has charged you to bring heaven to earth once again along the leadership of his son. That's what the kingdom coming is all about. That's everything that Yeshua preaches. And I stress that, and I talk about this a lot because, guys, this is our mission. This is our faith. This is what we're called to do in the way that our heart produces and our actions.

And the Sermon on the Mount is exactly what Yeshua says this kind of people looks like, where you no longer objectify people in your heart, when you no longer hate someone in your heart, when you no longer carry unforgiveness with you. This is what a kingdom people looks like.

The Age That Is and the Age to Come

In the Bible, Paul and Yeshua both call these two separate domains something different. See, Paul calls this age that we find ourselves in in this world the present evil age. Yeshua calls it the dark world around us. And of course, God's kingdom, if you will, the reality of God's fullness and who he is and intimacy, is called heaven. And it would also be called the world to come. In Judaism, they have a concept called the Elam Haba, the world to come. It's the idea that one day God is actually going to do something to fulfill the promises of bringing his kingdom to earth. I'm thankful that Yeshua has birthed that.

And Yeshua says, if you're in me, then you have life. Yeshua says, welcome to that kingdom now. And the moment that you pledge your allegiance to Yeshua as king, the moment that you pledge your allegiance to this kingdom of heaven, that's the moment that you enter into eternity. When you begin to enter this world to come that is prophesied about by Isaiah and Jeremiah. Here's a familiar verse. Can you kill the background? Anyone familiar with this verse? We learned this one at Sunday school, right? John is, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

And we always see this verse as, "If I believe in Jesus, I will escape from this world, and when I die, I'll go to heaven and I'll live forever." Anybody? That's what we perceive when we see this verse. I don't believe this is what this verse is trying to tell us. As I said, the prophetic expectation of the first century was something completely different. It wasn't escaping anything. The verse is speaking of something in the first century that was very, very, very familiar: God's new age spoken about by the prophets themselves that would come. A king would come and he would defeat the principalities that hold us back from God and God's kingdom would be ushered in and reign forever and ever.

John Reimagined

God so loved the world that he sent his son, and whoever pledges their allegiance to him will enter into this eternal new age where heaven is once again manifest, where God's kingdom is once again touchable and intimate. This is the age to come. This is the Elam Haba. And in Yeshua, the biblical authors seem to claim this has happened and that you can be a part of it here and now. I love that. And so here is the setting behind the rest of the Lord's Prayer. Everything it speaks to. It's the creed of our mission. It's the creed for how we should live. And it's the creed for, yes, how we petition God, but also how we should solidify it in our lives as believers. And he continues. He says, "Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, and also as we forgive those who have debts against us."

The Bread and the Covenant

Bread. So interesting. Many commentaries about this verse. Bread, heaven, forgiveness, and deliverance is pretty much the stack of the Lord's Prayer. These are the key items. And daily bread. So Yeshua is doing a very Jewish thing. He's alluding to something already in the Scriptures, but also giving a new teaching alongside it. And I really appreciate something David Wilber said a couple weeks ago. He said something profound: "My favorite Jewish literature is the New Testament." I love that. Yes. So Yeshua is alluding to something already in the scriptures, and he's bringing up a new teaching beside it, or a new way to fulfill it, or a new way to implement it in his life.

So, daily bread. Can you think of a time in the biblical narrative, maybe in the Old Testament, where bread was given daily? A time when the people had to depend on God for their most basic needs. Anybody? Manna? Manna. Right. Manna. You know what manna means? What is it? The wet bread. What is this? We can eat it? Read the description of it. It's a gnarly looking thing that fell from heaven. This is residue that you can make flour out of. I don't know. It's just neat. Manna.

The Exodus Echoes

And it's part of the Exodus story, right? Yeshua's entire ministry revolves around the first Exodus and kind of mimicking that. And it revolves around looking back at the first Exodus and then fulfilling the prophecies of the second Exodus that Isaiah and Jeremiah spoke about, that we spoke about in the last series. Tons of Exodus motifs. Like Matthew's account of Yeshua's birth being very eerily similar to Moses. Both placed in a little basket made of straw. You have a ruler that's trying to kill him. You have people who are working for the ruler, but they lie to the king to save lives, right? You have Yeshua going into Egypt. You have all these little parallels that are fascinating. You have him walking up to a mount in Galilee, and Matthew says, the mountain, to speak the laws on behalf of God. I mean, you have this second Moses narrative going on there in the undertones. And when Israel was given manna, it was after they had been redeemed from Egypt. But it was before they entered into the ultimate promises of God. They had not entered into the climax of coming into the land yet.

So they were wandering around, fully dependent on God for their needs, his sustenance, and his resources to keep them going. And this is what we, as the followers of Yeshua, are doing. We've been redeemed. We've been redeemed not from Pharaoh or slavery in Egypt, but from death and slavery to sin, the greatest exodus of all. And here we find ourselves walking and wandering on this journey, giving witness to the greatness of our God, all while waiting and hoping and anticipating the fullness of God's promises to engulf the world.

Citizenship in Two Kingdoms

It's like Paul talks about us. Going back to my animations—I love them—it's as if Paul is talking about when he talks about us being a kingdom, a part of a kingdom that's not of this earth, a kingdom of heaven. But where are we now? Are we still here on earth? But our citizenship is in heaven, in which we live out our faith. That's what Hebrews 11:1 talks about. We walk out our faith with substance. So it's almost like we've got one leg down here in this world and another leg up here, right? With the presence and the intimacy and reconciliation with God. We haven't quite gone. We haven't quite found. We haven't experienced what the end of Isaiah speaks about yet. We haven't entered into the land yet, but we've been redeemed and we're wandering on this journey, continuing to walk and depend on God for the resources he's giving us as his people. Does that make sense? Kind of? Okay, good. I love my little there you go. Go ahead and knock that.

On This Journey

When we're on this journey as a believer, does anyone ever get distracted? We can be real. Anyone feel like they're facing battles along the way? The Moabites are attacking, except it might not be the Moabites. It may be that guy at work. It may be unforgiveness. It may be anger. It may be lust. It may be gossip. It may be whatever. And we're depending on God to give us everything that we need so that we can stay focused on what his mission is for us. That we would not turn into the people who want to go back to Egypt because they had watermelons. Yeshua wants to implement through this prayer, this creed of allegiance, this mindset in every single one of his disciples: the mindset of a beggar or a vagabond, of someone who truly is on a journey, of someone who is not entitled to have everything. And he wants you to have this mindset regardless of your lifestyle or your wealth or what you have or your possessions or your esteem or your honor.

He wants you to have this. He wants you to have a mindset where every single piece of bread that you pick up, you say, "Thank you, God, for giving me what I need today," because this is my basic needs. And when you drive your car and see that you have shelter and you're wearing clothes, he wants you to say, "Wow, thank you, God, for giving me the basic resources that I have." And don't look at everything else that you've acquired or pursued as things you need. This was radical. Do you know why he wants you to formulate this mindset? Because if you're so focused on just the basic needs of what you have, when you look at all the other stuff, wow, well, these aren't really my basic needs.

I don't need all this stuff. Oh, but someone over there needs some stuff, so then you give it to them. And someone over there says, "Oh, I have my basic needs. God has met my basic needs. Here, let me help you with yours. Let God meet yours." That's what happened in the church in Acts, right? They all got up in this community and they were like, "Yeah, we got our basic needs. Here, you take all our stuff." That's crazy. What are they thinking? We live in a world that is fueled by capitalism where we don't think about what we can be generous with, mimicking the entire backbone of the gospel. We think, "Why do I need to give so much?"

Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's just me in the culture that I live in. So we're having a fundraiser for diapers, for foster care, for children that have been ripped away from their families by a decision that was not their own. And they're sleeping in a stranger's house and they have this new temporary mommy and daddy. And who are these people? And now they have these other kids around them. And who are they? And we're trying to raise money for diapers and wipes to give to the parents so that they can have everything they need to put energy into these children. And maybe not you, but I'll just say an example.

We think sometimes like, "Maybe I can get 50 bucks." Now in our culture, we would say, "Oh, but that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. Do I have to give that much?" A family has their house burned down and they have a GoFundMe page. We need help getting it. I'll give 20 bucks. And I'm not sitting here trying to be like, you know, holier than thou up here. This is me too. This is the culture that we have allowed to train us.

Give Us Our Daily Bread

And Yeshua's saying, "You have bread? Yeah. You got insulin? Yeah. Praise God I do. You got milk in the fridge? Yeah. You got clothes for your kids? Yeah. Praise God. He's given you everything that you need." And Yeshua's trying to break this mindset of protecting our kingdom. And that's a hard one. That's a harder one.

So you guys know Pete? Pete's car died the day before yesterday. It was Marco and me and everything. He was going down the road and he's like, "Yeah, it keeps overheating, so I'm just driving a mile at a time. Can I come get you?" He's like, "No, I'm almost home. It's fine." So what happens? Well, Amy and Max, they got a spare car. So they're like, "Pete, you can borrow our car." Great, I got a car. Praise God, I got a car. Who of you guys would let someone borrow a car? Are we not going to be honest? We've got a new couple. How many of you guys would let, I guess, a stranger or maybe someone even in your own fellowship, like, a car is a lot of money.

That's also a lot of liability. That's your insurance. That's a lot. And then you have another aspect of community stepping in. You didn't know I knew. I know. When Tim gets off work and books it over to Pete's house to look at the car, giving up his time and his energy to diagnose a bad radiator. So they order another one. And Pete's going to drive this car around that's not his. And he's going to get this radiator installed in his car with time and energy that's not his, because this is how believers act with each other. Because they understand that they have their needs met. Max and Amy know they've got one car.

They can share it. It happens, right? It's not always fun, but it happens. They've got their needs met. Yeah, we can meet this. I know Tim wants to go home and spend his time doing whatever he likes to do. No, I've got my time. I'm okay. I can come over. "Give us our bread, our daily bread. Give us our daily bread. Give us the things that we need so that we can focus on the things that we need to be doing, Father." It's a big one. That's a big one. It's a prayer that we're supposed to say every day that instills in us the spirit of generosity. This little point, this little prayer that Yeshua gives to us—this is what fueled this entire revolution. It's amazing.

Forgive Us Our Debts

"And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors." So we touched on this a little bit in the last chapter about turning the other cheek, about forgiving your enemies, loving your enemies. Forgiveness is a big one. Forgiveness is the backbone of forgiveness and generosity. They go hand in hand. It's the backbone of this revolution of Yeshua. And it's something about retaliating. It's something about someone offending you and not retaliating. There's something huge about not responding to offense with an offense, about not responding to anger and hostility with anger and hostility like the world does. There's something about responding to offense with love and mercy and grace that seems to accelerate heaven being manifest in this dark world. We're supposed to shine our light. There's something about this being a fuel that really shines the light of God. And Yeshua's obsessed with it.

The climax of the kingdom qualities was displayed on the cross. When the world threw everything they had at Yeshua—suffering, insults, violence, and death—and his response? Selfsacrificial love. "This is the perfect conduit for my Father to show his self-sacrificial love to the world. This is how we make the kingdom of God manifest and visible in this world. It's how we resemble the image of God. This is how you follow your king—forgiveness." And you say this daily. You say, you remind yourself of this daily. You say, "I am forgiven. Therefore, I forgive." And as we discussed in the cost of following a few weeks back, the world thinks that they have the right to retaliate to offense.

If you are offended, you have the free speech to respond with offense. Everyone thinks it's a trap. Don't we have free speech to respond however we want to respond in this good God-given country we live in? Which I'm proud to live in. I love this country and the freedoms that it gives. It's amazing. It's truly a blessing. But our nation truly promotes this idea that if you're offended, if you're offended, then you have the right to retaliate. And you are expected to retaliate with the same measure of offensiveness towards others. And here Yeshua says, "That's not how my kingdom works." Yeshua is saying that if you're his follower, you forfeit your right to retaliate to offense.

You forfeit the right to harbor unforgiveness and anger and malice towards another human being, another image bearer, despite what they've done to you. You forfeit your right to be like the world, because the world tells us if someone wrongs you, you respond with another wrong. The world tells us that if someone does evil towards you, then you respond with evil. "Yeah, but it's justice. Okay." If someone offends you and says something nasty about you, then you have the right to respond with the same thing. And then what happens, right? Everything gets resolved, right? Everything gets resolved because justice has been served and you met equal weights and measures and it's great.

What typically happens after someone says, "Your mama," and then you go, "No, your mama"? What typically happens after this? "No, I got another your mama in my back pocket." And then so on and so forth. Flashback to middle school, some of you? Yeah. Retaliation does not defeat evil. Why do you think God promised never to flood the earth again? He flooded the earth to defeat violence. Did it work? Something better and bigger has to happen here. "I'm going to have to do something bigger." It's a huge message in that alone. When someone does something to you, we're called to forgive. And forgiveness is not becoming a doormat for someone else, and forgiveness is not to take a sinful, evil measure of action towards you and just swipe it under the rug and say, "No, that's okay, it's no big deal."

If evil has come against you, it is a big deal. Forgiveness has to do with calling that sin out. Forgiveness has to do with saying, "No, this is wrong. This is wrong. It needs to be called out. And there's something better for you in your life, and I don't hold unforgiveness from you, but I'm calling this sin out. And I will not let it go any further, especially through me." Forgiveness has to do with stopping evil in the world by absorbing it and calling it out for what it is. It's not being a doormat. It's not. It's not. When Yeshua was on the cross, he took every sin—every sin, hatred, malice. He took unforgiveness.

He took every offense. He took every broken, vain relationship. He took everything that hurts and that causes you pain. He took that into himself. And he doesn't get even. This is how he defeats it. And what's he say on his time at the cross? He looks down at everyone throwing these things at him and he says, "Forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. They've never experienced the kingdom of God. They have no idea of your peace and love and mercy and grace, God." They don't know what a renewed spirit is, they don't know what a new creation is like. God, they don't have a clue what they're doing.

Forgive them. Use this moment to shine your light so that all of them could be one with you, so that your love would overtake the world. So as his followers, this section of this prayer is meant to remind us of that when we pray it every day. It's to remind us of what was established on the cross and how we are supposed to reciprocate that moving forward as the ambassadors of that. And that's tough. That's tough. That's tough. Why is this so important? This is Yeshua speaking. The verse right after the Lord's Prayer, verse 14, if you have your Bibles, you can look at it. Yeshua is saying, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Well, Matt, that's not a very loving God right there. I mean, God won't forgive you your trespasses if you don't forgive others. Not if you're struggling with forgiveness. Not if I'm thinking about forgiving them. No, Yeshua is so blunt here. It's disturbing. It's so raw. If you do not forgive, you won't be forgiven. It's harsh. It's harsh. But it isn't. Because Yeshua is recognizing that there is no middle ground for someone who claims to have experienced the ultimate forgiveness of God in their life and in their being.

And there are no excuses. The cross that was taken for you, that was taken for the world. And this prayer is designed to help you remember that on a daily basis. So remember that. Remember that.

Lead Us Not into Temptation

Verse 13, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So here's a verse that causes a little bit of confusion. Is it saying that God would actually lead us into temptation? No. It seems like it. He wants to lead us into temptation, and we need to petition, no, Lord, don't drag us into the temptation, right? And I would encourage you to allow Yeshua to set his own context for what he's saying here by looking at the next line. But rescue us from evil. Rescue us from evil. And I would petition that the focus and the intent of verse 13 is not about God leading us into temptation at all. The weight is on verse 14.

For God cannot—look at this, here we go. James even, even, even confirms this. He says in James , "Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one." So this verse, this word temptation can also mean test or trial. Used many times throughout the gospel accounts. That clears that up, test. And what I think Yeshua is trying to remind us of is that God is leading us in our lives. So where are we right now between Egypt and the promised land? We've been redeemed. We haven't seen the culmination of God's promises fully engulf the world, end of Revelation, end of Isaiah.

So where are we? In the wilderness. We're wandering, right? This is the language Peter uses in 1 Peter. We're wandering as if we're exiles wandering home, towards home. And so God is very much leading us and that means we what? We follow. We're following God, and as we follow God, we will encounter tests and trials. And in those moments, we ask, we do petition God, lead us not into these areas. If there's any way, lead us not into these areas. But, more importantly, rescue. Rescue me when I encounter them.

Yeshua's Testing

Actually, Yeshua did go through two testings, if you remember. One at the beginning of his ministry, one at the end. The beginning was in the wilderness, where the voice of the serpent entered into his ear. Say, hey, you hungry? Rocks. Hey, jump, bow down. And he overcame. He overcame on behalf of Israel. These were the three tests that they failed in the wilderness in Exodus. At the end of his ministry, you find him in a garden knowing what's coming next. And he breaks down and he's crying to his father and he says, God, I don't want to drink this cup. I don't want to drink it. There's any way we're going through this.

I know this is where you're going, this is where we're going. If there's any way that we could just move this cup out of my hand, put it somewhere else. Can we just take this cup and drop it in the ocean? That'd be great. This is what he prayed in the garden. But nevertheless, your will be done. Nevertheless, I know that you're leading me. And despite the test and the trials, despite the tribulation, I know that you are God and you are leading me. I know that you are my rescuer. I know. That's powerful. That's powerful.

God is Our Rescuer

As we wander through the wilderness, we know and we expect that there will be times when through us following God, tests and trials, tribulations will occur, battles in our life, distractions. The emphasis on this verse is God is our rescuer. Prepare us. If we're going to go there, if we're going to go there, prepare us. Rescue us. Bring us through. Bring us through. This is a prayer about preservation from sin and temptation. Paul and Peter speak about this. They say, "The Lord will rescue me from every attack and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen."

Peter speaks similarly: "Be alert and sober-minded. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion waiting for someone to devour." In the wilderness, you're prone to attack. Yeshua is saying, just remember, God, God is your rescuer. And this is what you need to remember every single day. That this is not your kingdom. This is not your journey. This is a wandering to something greater. This is a wandering to home. You will fight battles. You will go through tests and trials. Pray and remember that God is there and he is the rescuer. He's the rescuer.

The Kingdom Creed

And this is the creed—the prayer that fueled a revolution 2,000 years ago. And in Luke's account, it says every time you pray, you recite this. As believers, as Christians, as followers of the king, this is the kingdom creed. And so I ask you, I petition you, I encourage you, every single day, do you pray this? And not in a way with a motive that it is a babbling or empty phrase or vain repetition, but in a way where, wow, these are the words of my master and I need to internalize them today. I think Yeshua knew what he was doing when he asked us to pray it every day. Are we going to dare internalize this creed of this rabbi into our daily lives?

And maybe for some of you, maybe it's not always this exact recitation of the prayer. Maybe it is something that is fluid. Maybe you are going through something in your life right now, and maybe you do implement that in the focus of your life where you're struggling most. Maybe you do go, Father, I know I'm in a time of temptation and tribulation right now, and I'm tripping, and I'm falling, and I'm getting hurt, and Father, will you rescue me from the evil one? I pray that you rescue me from this conflict that I'm having in my life, from this offense that I'm having in my life, that you would help me forgive.

Father, will you rescue me from this broken relationship I find myself in? Will you give me your peace? Will you lead me out of this battle victoriously every day? Every day. Worship team, I guess you guys can come up. It's a good time for you guys to get set up to conclude services. But I want to take a moment to kind of have another Bible Geek moment here. So the doxology at the ending of Matthew—do I have it here? I don't, but that's okay. So at the ending of Matthew, if you remember, at the end of Matthew in your King James Version, it should say something like, "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever."

Anybody have that in their Bibles? Yes. So if you have an older translation of the Bible, not an NIV, ESV, not an ASV, you'll have that in there. And you also have a footnote that says the earliest manuscripts of this phrase are not found in this. In other words, when Matthew was originally written, this verse was not put in there. "For that is the kingdom, power, and glory of God forever." This is why a lot of newer translations omit it. It's not there, right? And a lot of people have a misunderstanding of why that was placed in there. Why did early believers write that in and add that to the Lord's Prayer?

The Doxology's Origin

And I'd like to share with you what I believe to be kind of a neat reason why it's placed in there. Do you know? A lot of people get upset because they think someone added to the Word of God here in the early church through pagan influence, but that's not necessarily the motivation. This is actually kind of a summary from 1 Chronicles 29, a prayer that David prayed. And I'd like to read that with you real quick. It's up on the screen. Starting in verse 10 of 1 Chronicles 29, there we go. "Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel. From everlasting to everlasting, forever and ever, yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things." In your hands are the strength and the power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks and praise, your glorious name.

The Doxology and the Lord's Prayer

So it seems the earliest believers, when they recited the Lord's Prayer orally, because they didn't write everything down yet, that was a transition that was taking place. They decided that it would be a really neat idea to praise God after they said the prayer. And so they took a praise from King David and they attached it as a conclusion to the prayer of the Son of David. And I just find that so cool. It's not part of the Lord's Prayer, which is why it's omitted in many of your Bibles, and your other Bibles that do have it have a footnote. But it seems to be an early tradition of the early believers to end the prayer with a praise from King David. And that really means a lot to me. I feel like that's just kind of neat. So that's your Bible trivia of the day.

Praying Together as a Community

So please stand with me. And I'd like to say the Lord's Prayer alongside you as a people or as a kingdom. And guys, when we're finished with the Lord's Prayer, we're going to begin worship and conclude services just as we entered in. And there's a prayer team that will be off to the sides. If I don't know what you're going through in your life this week, it could be something related to forgiveness or to not understanding and not showing gratitude and the understanding of God meeting your basic needs. It could be that maybe you're just lost in the wilderness and you're fighting a battle and you don't know for a fact if God is going to rescue you or not. Guys, we have a prayer team that's devoted to support you and pray with you in those areas. So I invite you to take part in that. Let's start as a community that is a follower and has pledged allegiance to Yeshua in this prayer.

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Yours is the kingdom. Amen.

Closing

Shalom, I'm Matthew Vandrells and I hope you enjoyed this message. Founded in Truth exists to cultivate a fellowship of image bearers that live the redeemed life only Yeshua can give. If this ministry has been a blessing to you, we would love to hear from you. Send us an email through the contact form on our website and tell us how God has used this ministry to edify your faith and relationship with Him. If you'd like to see more messages like this one, subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here. If you'd like to donate to this ministry and be a part of what God is doing through it, you can donate through our online giving portal here. We thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to next time. Shalom.