The sermon, delivered by Jamey Stout, explores the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13, emphasizing its pattern as a guide for effective prayer. It starts with addressing God as 'our Father in heaven,' highlighting the assurance of our adoption and grace through Jesus Christ. The speaker stresses the importance of recognizing God's holiness and treating His name as sacred. The sermon delves into the concept of God's kingdom, explaining that it encompasses righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It cautions against idolatry and emphasizes the need for practical righteousness, aligning with God's will as demonstrated by Jesus. The speaker ties the petitions for daily needs, forgiveness, and deliverance from evil to the overarching goal of honoring God's name, kingdom, and will. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to embrace prayer as a means of aligning with God's purposes and receiving His grace.

You Matthew chapter 6 verses 9 through 13. Matthew 6, 9 through 13. In this manner therefore 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 this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your words. Thank you so much for who you are. Thank you for the privilege to call you Father and to ask you to do what only you can do in our hearts and minds to set your very self apart in our hearts as the glorious being who would adopt us and has adopted us through your son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord we give you praise and honor and we pray that you would instruct us now as we look at prayer and we thank you for the gift of prayer. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, in the context of avoiding pitfalls of the hypocrite and the pagan in prayer our Lord gives the following pattern for prayer and we'll never be able to exhaust this pattern that our Lord lays out for us this sign of heaven as we think about these petitions and what is said here. And at the outset I would just say that as far as the last part of the prayer where we start in verse 11, I've been benefited greatly from instruction given by Paul Warsher on that when we get to it. But the first thing that we see as our Lord lays down this, it's a pattern, he says in this manner therefore pray.

And He starts out for us our Father in heaven and that is so important for all of us. When we start in prayer we must assure our hearts. Our brother Scott has been seeking to bring the Word of God upon us and have us all to be assured of our salvation and our standing in grace. And that's where this prayer begins. It starts with our Father.

And I find that true in my experience in prayer is the first thing I need to convince my heart of despite my flesh, despite the accusations of the devil, despite just my failings, you know, He's my father through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I must remind myself of the free grace granted to me through the merits of my great King who is my righteousness at the right hand of God and that's my surety and that's why I can come before the throne. I'm adopted through the Lord Jesus Christ into the family. To have such a father as this and he's an exalted father isn't he? I mean notice what the text says, in heaven, in heaven, there's none like him.

There's none who can compare to him. He is the one, as was mentioned earlier today, who spoke and all things came to be. And it's that same word that sustains all of creation. One brother put called Providence as the perpetual miracle and I think it was brother Gavin and but that's what it is. I mean God is sustaining by the very by his very word right now us and that's why we exist and it's he he who's my father it's a miracle of grace and I got to remind myself of this I have got because I mean you're like me we wrestle we struggle and we have to take these things and make them bend the knee to the Word of God as we go to our Lord in prayer and be assured of our sonship through our King the Lord Jesus.

So that's the first thing our Father in prayer as we think about prayer we need to convince our hearts of the grace of God and think about who it is we're speaking to in heaven and what's the first petition? Well, once you are in a state where you're basking in the grace of God and your adoption, you're ready to ask these petitions of our King, of our God, our Father. Hallowed be your name. And it's really, I mean, as you think about what's going on just with the language that's being used, it's please, please let your name be treated as holy. It's actually in the imperative mood, which is a command, but it's not a command when you come to God in prayer it's it's entreaty it's request it's please I want I want your name to be treated as holy as set apart from all other names And so we get lots of help from this in our Old Testament.

In Isaiah 8 13, the Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow, here's our word here, let him be your fear and let him be your dread or let him be your awe. Isaiah 29 23, but when he sees his children the work of my hands in his midst they will hallow my name and hallow the Holy One of Jacob and fear the God of Israel. In Ezekiel 36 God shows his zeal for his name as he speaks to his people there And in that same text comes the great promises of the new covenant. Ezekiel 36 22 through 38 therefore say to the house of Israel thus says the Lord God I do not do this for your sake oh house of Israel but for my holy namesake which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went and I will sanctify my great name. So when we ask this petition we're asking something that God said he's going to do.

I will sanctify my great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst and the nation shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God. When I am hallowed, listen to what he says here, when I am hallowed in you before their eyes for I will take from among the nations gather you out of all the all countries and bring you into your own land listen to these new covenant promises that come here then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them then you shall dwell in the land I gave to your fathers you shall be my people and I will be your God hallelujah This is what God has done for his church.

He has taken their heart of stone and given them a heart that is sensitive to Him, that loves Him, that obeys His commandments, and all of this is for the sanctifying of whose name our name now to set God apart as the Holy One that he is to treat him as holy and When we think about the fact that we are praying to our Father and we are asking him to sanctify his name, this doesn't dismiss the other persons of the Trinity because we notice in Matthew 28, 18-20, Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name singular of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even to the end of the age amen so when we think about a name and what it represents in scripture I think brother Freiberg and his lexicon is right as a designation for God or Jesus Christ as he is revealed through all his attributes, majesty, and perfections and I think we can include his works as well in that.

His works reveal who he is. They flow from his essence of who he is and what he's like as we even looked at today in Jeremiah. So this petition, this cry of the child of God is for God to be treated as God ought to be treated. That's really what we're asking. We're asking that our hearts would treat God and the hearts of those who are around us would treat him as he deserves to be treated as God.

You see the spiral down into idolatry that's given to us in Romans chapter one as God lays out there for even though for although they knew God what did they do? They didn't, this is just revelation from creation, unconscious. Although they knew God they did not honor him as God nor did they give thanks but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. That's idolatry that's where it leads That's where the heart left to itself goes. It does not treat God the way God deserves to be treated.

And so when God regenerates a man, a woman, a boy or girl, he causes that man, that woman and boy or girl, to honor him and to thank him and to give him his due to treat him as he ought to be treated we saw that in Ezekiel so sin is the belittling of God it's me not giving God is due It's me not trusting him as he ought to be trusted. It's me not fearing him as he ought to be feared. It's me not loving him as I ought to love him. That's what it means. I mean that's what I'm doing when I sin against this great and awesome God.

I am belittling him. I am saying he's not who he says he is. He's not trustworthy. He's not worthy of all fear and respect and love and adoration. And so the follower of Christ wants nothing more to be rid of this.

The Father of Christ wants nothing more than just to stop sinning against such great a being as our God and to give him what he deserves. And now brothers and sisters you know there's only one person on planet earth that walked on planet earth that gave God his due and you know his name right his name is Jesus Christ and he is the one who never belittled God in any thought in any word in any action and yet he suffered for us for who did belittle God. So I mean it's amazing to us that we wear a righteousness by justification that is absolutely flawless and that God is making us that way in our sanctification and one day we'll remove that very presence of sin. I long for that day where no more belittling will go on this heart. There'll be no taint and he will be honored as he deserves to be honored.

But even now through Christ, the Word of God teaches us because we have the Holy Spirit we can line ourselves up with this by the grace of God no it will never be perfect it will always have to come through the mediator It's the only way that it can be pleasing to God, but nonetheless what does he tell us in Romans 8? That we can please him. Those who have the Spirit can please God. That is a miracle, isn't it? So wonderful that he accepts our obedience and our attempt, even this feeble attempt to seek to have his name set apart among us.

You know, it's just what a God we have that he accepts our obedience through Christ. So what we're asking is that he would be honored as he deserves to be honored that he would be appreciated as he deserves to be appreciated that he be feared as he deserves to be feared loved as he deserves to be loved trusted as he deserves to be trusted that God would get his due and that he would get his due from us personally and from our families and in our church and churches and the whole creation and that's what we want. We want God to be treated as God the creator and sustainer and Redeemer that he is and ought to be treated right and then your kingdom come and like I said I mean these these things are so expansive they cover so much of life all of life that you're never gonna exhaust this prayer, this pattern of prayer. So as you go to prayer, you know, and you may, oh, I pray, well, here you go. How many ways does mankind belittle God?

Well, there you go. God help me, you know, and get specific about ways that you know you're not trusting him and giving him what he deserves. And go to prayer and ask God to grant you grace to overcome that by his spirit. Look at your kingdom come. I love Paul's definition in Romans 14 17 for the kingdom of heaven is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Well what is the Sermon on the Mount brothers and sisters? Is it not the clearest declaration of the righteousness that God requires of those who enter His Kingdom? Yes, it is. And unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. And then he goes on to tell you what that righteousness is, doesn't he?

And it's a heart righteousness because our God considers anger murder and he considers lust adultery. This God is a holy God and he tells you at the end of chapter 5 you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. So the bar could not get any higher the bar is God himself and he expects his people to be righteous and Of course he gives us the righteousness required as a gift but he also expects a practical righteousness in his people that is produced by the Holy Spirit of God and we must have it for the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Do not be deceived.

There must be sanctification going on in your life. You must be growing in holiness or you will not see the Holy One. It must be taking place. And so God gives us all the gifts and all the things that we need to see that take place. He gives us a new heart and a new spirit and this kingdom is this great rule of our God.

You know as you think about it think about 2143 of Matthew and this is what our God says about it. He says, therefore I say to you the kingdom of God will be taken from you. He's talking to the scribes and Pharisees or the chief priests and Pharisees and he says and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And this is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about. So when we go to God in prayer and we're asking His kingdom come, there is an aspect where we're wanting the consummation.

We want to see King Jesus in the skies and come down and consummate his rule and cast out all lawlessness but we're also wanting him to do it now in our hearts in our churches in our families and we're wanting to see the fruit of his rule his glorious rule We're wanting to see righteousness and we're wanting to see peace and we're wanting to see joy, the experience of gladness in the Holy Spirit of God, right? And so just think about the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. You know, blessed are the poor in spirit. When we go to God and we're asking for his rule to come we're asking God God take me and make me a man who realizes that I have nothing without you I am a beggar spiritually that unless you do it I can do nothing Please help me Please grant to me grace that I might love my wife that I might love my children that I might walk in your ways God make me a man who's dependent upon you and that sees you do a good work that only you can do this is what we're asking God to do blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn who are aggrieved over their sin and the sin of those around them they shall be comforted this is the kingdom of God this is what it looks like blessed are the me blessed are those who are not filled with a sense of self-importance that they will not stoop and bow and serve their fellow man and and love their God I mean this is this is what we want.

We want the rule of God upon us We want the manifestation that we truly are a temple of the Holy Spirit So we're asking for the fruit of the Spirit when we're asking for the kingdom of God We're asking we're asking Galatians 5 22 and 23 we're asking that the manifestation and glory of Christ would be seen in our daily conduct and that all opposing rule of the sin that is in us the devil outside of us and this world system that marches according to his lies would be abolished in us and in our churches and our families so I mean it's a it's so extensive you know and in this prayer as you can notice I mean it is about us becoming a God-centered people it's it's his name it's his kingdom it's his will it's not our name it's not our kingdom or our will and I just highlight again I somewhat quoted it but just the import of this practical righteousness that we must be growing in and is first Corinthians 6 9 through 11 do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkers nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God and such were some of you but you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

I mean how many times have you had to deal with people that say oh yeah I'm saved I prayed a prayer and yet they're living in sexual immorality And you bring this verse to them and you tell them the truth out of love Oh, no, I'm good Do not be deceived friend. We can be deceived and there are lots that are deceived No, if you are a temple the Holy Spirit, I mean just think about the name Holy Spirit. How can you be a housing of the Holy Spirit and not love holiness and want to be holy? It doesn't work does it? So And then he says your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

How important is this request? Well just look at the sermon that our Lord is preaching here and he says in 7.21, not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does, what does the text say there? The will of my father in heaven. This whole matter of the Lord's will, I mean we want to be like our Lord. If you think about a text like John 4 34, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

I want to think that way and have the mind of Christ. I mean I just ate a big old potato with chili on it. And I really liked it. It was really good. I wanted delight in the will of God like my food.

I need it to live. Jesus saw the will of his father, his food, his meat, his drink, and that's how we need to see the commandments of God. That's how a regenerated man, woman, boy, or girl sees the commandments. Not to say that we don't struggle, we've got a flesh with indwelling sin. I do not want to deny that nor the the truth of it and it fights tooth and nail.

But by the grace of God as we come to God and we kick the curb the stinking lies of our flesh and we believe his word the spirit of the living God takes the truth of God and helps us doesn't he I mean I don't know how many days he's done and I wake up about dead as a doornail that's that good book open that good book up and stop believing lies and believe truth and all of a sudden I'm ready to face another day by the grace of God. So man that's just the life of the Christian, The will of God and then how important is it? I mean that it must be taking place as our Lord said in 721 and so look at what our Lord said when he's about to experience all of God's wrath to his people in the latter part of Matthew 26, 42 and again a second time he went away and prayed saying, Oh my father if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it your will be done this is the identical phrase of what we have here the identical phrase of your will be done now it's our Lord as he is staring the bitter cup of God's wrath in the face and he says your will be done.

He lived out this prayer and are we not to drink It won't be the cup of the redemption of His people that we drink, but it will be a cup nonetheless of experiencing suffering because not only has it been granted us to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for His sake. So rest assured that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And here our Lord drinks the wrath of God Almighty so that we would never have to drink it. And instead, as we just partook of the Lord's Supper drink a cup of blessing all of our days owned into eternity. Romans 12 to helps us as well as we think about this.

You know you have therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God and I would just couple that with the first part of the prayer. I mean what makes us willing? It is when we step back and we look at the mercies of God. How can I not love this one who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all? You know this is my God, this is my father and so therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God." He reaches through those mercies and he grabs us and he says, come on be a sacrifice, a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your reasonable sorrow, which is your spiritual service of worship.

And then he says, and do not be conformed to this world. That's why we meet every Sunday. That's why we open up the book every day of our existence here. That's why we're going to God in prayer. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Why? Well how in the world am I going to know the will of God? Well the Word of God. By the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Isn't that awesome?

The will of God is not it's not something you can't know it's something you can know. Open up the Bible and there it is. This is the will of God your sanctification. You know how to protest your body control yourself and not live like the Gentiles. I mean there are so many things that just found out and say this is the will of God, this is the will of God, this is the will of God.

So there is the book, here is the will of God and May God take that and just cause us to run in His ways and love His ways. That's one of the things I've loved about this church is they have brought before me just the sweetness of the commandments of God. They're the best. I'm so thankful for that. I'm so thankful.

And these last three requests that we have, I'm just indebted to my brother Paul Warsher and how he tied the first part of the prayer to this next part. And the bottom line is, God meet these needs so that I can fulfill the first three that was his basic point oh man that is really helpful you know Lord I need you to take care of my physical needs so that I can be about your name and your kingdom and your will Lord I need you to help me not to be destroyed by bitterness so that I can be about your name and your kingdom and your will Lord I need you to help me not to be destroyed by bitterness so that I can be about your name and your kingdom and your will Lord I need your help not to lead me to myself that I wouldn't fall into sin and thus not be about your name and your kingdom and your will. So that's the tie I think with this text and I found that to be very helpful and so let's look at those a little bit and then we'll we'll wrap this puppy up here's here's Proverbs 30 verse 7 through 9 check this out he says two things I request of you deprive of me not before I die remove falsehood and lies far from me give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with the food allotted to me least I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord or least I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God that sounds familiar doesn't it And then you know I just take this request as we ask God for forgiveness to forgive our debts and tie it to bitterness as we forgive our debtors and you'll notice that's what the Lord returns back to Doney that's the only petition he returns back to as far as capitalizing on and that is us forgiving others bitterness will destroy you and one brother put it this way bitterness is the poison we drink hoping someone else will die and it's so true and my friends bitterness reveals that we do not know who our God is and we do not know the magnitude of our sin against such a being.

That's what it reveals. Bitterness. So may the Lord deliver us from it and cause us to be about His name, His will, His kingdom. Lord deliver us from evil within and without. I mean it says evil one here in the King James and it could just be translated evil and I take it to be just just an all-encompassing thing here.

I mean it's it's the remaining sin in me, it's the devil outside of me, and it's the world system that loves his lies and I can't face this. I have nothing in me in my flesh that is good. I need all of what my dear Savior has provided through His precious work. And that's what I want to draw upon till the day I croak and see His glorious face and finish the race that He's given me to run and you to run. So my brothers and sisters, I hope that this just helps you, you know, as you go to the Lord in prayer.

We've got much to pray about, don't we? We've got much to ask Him, and He says come, and He tells us how, He tells us what to pray, so let's do that, okay? All right, let's pray. Father, I just thank you that after the glorious sermon of your righteousness that you declared Lord there was an unclean leper that came and he said Lord if you're willing you can make me clean and I love your words to that man because you say the same thing to us today I am willing be clean Hallelujah Pray everyone in here would take it to heart that you're a willing Savior Ready to cleanse all who come to you And Lord, I pray you'd make us people of prayer to such a one who is a forgiver of sins in Jesus name amen you are dismissed