Brian's Sermons

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory We have spent months studying the Lord’s Prayer. We begin by recognizing and acknowledging who God is. God is the Almighty in Heaven, but he has chosen us as his children, so we can address him as “our Father.” We worship him and lift up his name as holy. This must always be our context for prayer. We do not lift up our prayers to someone who is just one of us. God is love; he cares for us. But he is also all powerful; he can answer our prayers.  We begin our petitions of God by asking for his kingdom to come and for his will to be done; in asking this, we also humble ourselves and bend our will to his. We call upon Jehovah Jireh - God our Provider - to give us this day our daily bread. We entrust ourselves fully to his provision.  We continue our prayer by asking for forgiveness and for the power and grace to forgive others, and we ask for the power to resist temptation and deliverance from Satan and his tricks. As we com...

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one . Matthew 6:13 Over the last two weeks, we looked at forgiveness. To get to forgiveness, we must recognize that we have sinned. We ask for forgiveness from our past sin. Now that we have done so, we ask for protection from future sin. The reality is, temptation will always be with us. The closer we draw to Jesus Christ, the more the devil will tempt us. Our goal as Christians is Christ-likeness, and so we should expect the same things that Jesus experienced. Right as he was to begin his ministry, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Hebrews 4:15, in describing Jesus as our high priest says this: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Jesus has been tempted in every way, but he did not give in to temptation. Sometimes Christians believe that temptation itself is...

Last week we looked at God’s forgiveness. How it is God’s character from which forgiveness flows. Because of who God is, and because of what Jesus did for us, God grants us forgiveness. God’s grace is not cheap. He has consistently blessed his people to be a blessing to others. And when God forgives us, he links his forgiveness to how we forgive others.  For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15) So God requires us to forgive. In Matthew 18:21, when Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him, He generously suggested seven times. The rabbis said three times was enough. If someone wronged you, you were expected to forgive them three times. But Peter was more generous. He suggested up to seven times, the perfect number of completion. But Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven tim...

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. After we give God the proper respect, Jesus instructs us to pray for our daily bread, remembering that we rely on God for everything. This is a prayer for our physical needs as well as spiritual, remembering that Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never go thirsty.” (John 6:35)  We continue today, asking for God’s intervention. Today we will begin looking at forgiveness. Forgiveness means freeing someone from guilt and its consequences, including punishment, usually as a act of compassion or love, with the aim of restoring a broken relationship. Forgiveness can involve the cancellation of both punishment and debt. Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser. We ask God to forgive our trespasses. Now, I don’t know how it works going from ...

Matthew 6:9-13 When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we first focus on God. Our Father in Heaven, whose name is lifted up and obeyed, on earth as it is in heaven. Now, in this part of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus shifts the focus. Having praised God for who He is, we now begin to ask of God. As in Philippians 4:6-7, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Now it is the time to make our requests to God.  We begin by requesting our daily bread. This is a prayer for God to meet our physical needs. It is a recognition that God is the giver and sustainer of life itself. Sometimes we need reminding that Every good and perfect gift is from above. (James 1:17a) but this prayer keeps us rooted in this truth. Even our food itself is a gift from God.  Did you notic...

Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Matthew 6:10 Do you have any friends who always talk about the same thing, all the time? I had one friend who was always talking about girls. Another friend only talked about music. If you get me started talking about running, I’m sorry, but I will talk all day.  Jesus had one subject he talked about all the time. In the first three Gospels, He was always talking about the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist came, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people (Matthew 4:23). It was the center of Jesus’ ministry. The Kingdom of God. It was so central in his ministry, that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to ask for God’s Kingdom to come, his will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. So what does this really mean? God’s kingdom is first and foremost the sovere...

Matthew 6:9-13 “This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Last week we began our look at the Lord’s Prayer. We first examined who it is that we pray to. We pray to God, who is our Father. As God’s beloved children, we are enabled to approach God directly, not through someone else, but personally. That God is our Father was a reminder of our unity in Him. As we discussed the opening phrase in the prayer, I focused on the first two words: Our Father. While we are reminded that God is personal and loves us as a Father, the next two words add more context. God is our Father in Heaven . God is not simply one of us. He is not bound by the rules and limitations of humanity. He is wholly other. So while we pray to a God w...

Matthew 6:9-13 “This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Last week we looked at motivation for praying. If our goal is to impress others or to impress God, then our motivation is wrong and we’ve received our reward in full. Please understand that this does not mean we shouldn’t pray out loud. It’s only about motivation. Today we are looking at a familiar passage, but I want to take it piece by piece. After all, this is how Jesus instructed his disciples to pray. If we want to live like Jesus, if we want Christlikeness, we need to learn to pray like Jesus. When Jesus says, “ This is how you should pray ” he does not necessarily mean that we should always or only use these same words. We can “say” the Lord’s P...