Archive for December 2005
Prayer #2
Posted on Thursday, December 01, 2005 at 1:52 PM by David Zavadil
My friends, I apologize up front for the nature of this study. Due to an incredibly busy schedule, I am only posting my notes. I will work to do better next week.
Matt 6:9 Pray then like this: “ Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Often times when one thinks of the Lord's Prayer the reaction is one of, “I have prayed that prayer so often it has become meaningless.” What a shame! If we approach the prayer as it was meant to be used, it opens so many doors to deeper intercession and communion with God.
We should note first, contrary to many a liturgist, Jesus does not begin, “pray this prayer,” but “pray then like this.” He did not mean for us so simply recite and repeat this prayer, though that is not explicitly condemned. He meant to provide a model for our prayers. Keep in mind, Jesus never would have condemned superstitious babbling prayers in the previous verses and then encouraged us to pray in that manner. No, he desired to give us a form of prayer that is useful and understandable by God and man.
So then, how do we begin? “ Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Our prayer should begin with a focus upon God. A recognition of who God is is essential to our understanding of prayer, thus we should begin by praying back to God of his greatness and holiness. “Our Father in heaven...” Jesus encouraged us to acknowledge up front the supremacy of God, that He is over and above all else. We are to focus on our absolute dependency on God.
“Hallowed be your name...” – “to make holy.” αγιασθητω calls us to pray that God's name is to be holy, pure in our lives and on our lips. We are to acknowledge the Holy God in lives and in the life of the church. Our prayer concerning holiness reminds us that as He is holy, we are to be holy. (Lev 11:44,45; 1 Peter 1:15,16) Verse ten focuses us upon God's will, that He be glorified and his kingdom established here on earth. 10 “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins by asking, “What is man's chief end?” The answer is, of course, “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” In this portion of the prayer we are to pray that God will be glorified, that His will will be done here on earth as it is done moment by moment in heaven. God is glorified as His kingdom is established here on earth, as God's people are obedient to the command to go and make disciples. The challenge is for us to pray that God will be glorified as we take the gospel out into the streets and neighborhoods of the world.
Edited on: Friday, December 02, 2005 11:46 PMPosted in Bible Study (RSS)
Prayer Study #3
Posted on Thursday, December 08, 2005 at 6:52 PM by David Zavadil
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
As we begin to look at the next few verses of the Lord's Prayer, we arrive at verse 11. “Give us today our daily bread.” This first petition is for God's provision. It is linked to the previous verses in this way. The first part of the prayer deals with our need of God and spiritual sustenance. This particular petition deals with our physical needs and His provision. As we pray, “Give us today our daily bread,” we are asking for God's immediate physical provision of our daily needs and at the same time recognizing just who it is who provides. Through this petition we converse with Jehovah Jirah, “the God who sees all,” beseeching Him to care for our physical bodies and life. The very same God who provided the ram for Abraham as he was about to sacrifice his son Isaac.
It is interesting to note in this verse just how Jesus encourages us to pray. We are not to pray as one author has written, “our organ list,” all the things we want or that hurt. No, we are encouraged to pray that God will provide our daily needs. Later in this same chapter and sermon, Jesus challenges us to not be anxious or worry about our needs, but to put our focus upon God and He will care for us, Matthew 6:25-34. In our materialistic world of this day, that type of prayer goes against the grain of most people. “What I need and what I want are two different things.” We can apply this by praying this simply and trusting God to provide, trusting that He truly does know better than we do what we really need. You can keep a list, but I encourage you to pray through it like Christ in the garden, “not my will but thine be done.”
“12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Many have read this verse and taken a tit for tat interpretation of the passage. “Forgive me in the same amount that I forgive others.” I pray that is not so, for my ability to forgive is so faulty that if my ability to forgive is the basis for my forgiveness, I am in severe trouble. I see a better translation of the Greek as this; “As (in the same manner) you have forgiven my debts I forgive my debtors.”
Our prayer here is that we be enabled to forgive others in the manner we have experienced Christ's gracious forgiveness. This petition reminds of our need of God's grace and mercy. Just as He showed us His mercy and grace we should show others, pouring out forgiveness upon them. We should be praying that God will show us how to reconcile those we have injured in word, thought or deed. We should pray that our forgiveness of our bother or sister will demonstrate to them the grace and mercy of our Savior and lead them to experience more fully His forgiveness.
“13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Another of the confusing petitions, on the surface this request seems to be asking God not to tempt us. James 1:13 makes it clear that temptation as we might think about in this petition is not from God. God can not tempt us to evil, thus Christ could not have been encouraging us to pray that God would not lead us into temptation. God may sift us and allow us to enter into trials, as seen earlier in the passage in James, but God can not and will not tempt us to evil.
A better rendering of this passage may be, “Do not allow us to be led into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” God does not tempt us but there is one who seeks to do so at every chance. We are to ask God's protection and deliverance from, as the NIV translate it, the evil one. The Greek word is ponerou, ponhrou , and is in the nominative case. This case us usually reserved for a title or proper name. This being the case, Jesus probably meant Satan, the evil one, the great deceiver. Deliver us from Satan's deceptions.
When we pray we should always keep in mind the words of Paul; Eph 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Jesus and Paul definitely saw a spiritual battle ensuing, they saw a real Satan, why do we in our “modern” world think this is silly? We should pray for God's protection from ourselves and from the evil one. Ourselves, because left to ourselves we will always head away from God. From the evil one because as Peter summarized,
1Pe 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Let me summarize. We are to pray for God's daily provision, trusting that He knows what we need and will provide it for us. Second we are to pray that we will see God's mercy and grace in our own forgiveness and pray that we will forgive others to that very extent. Finally we are to pray that God will lead us from temptation and protect us from the evil one as we enter into the spiritual realm. Ultimately, we are to pray that we would glorify God by extreme trust in Him, forgiving those who wrong us as Christ forgave us and seeking God's guidance in our lives.
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New Sermons
Posted on Thursday, December 08, 2005 at 6:57 PM by David Zavadil
Two new sermons have been added to the pod list. I regret the my sermon on the Holiness of God was not recorded due to a power outage. Added was the final sermon from the brief Attributes of God series and an Advent sermon on Peace.
Christmas Break
Posted on Thursday, December 15, 2005 at 3:59 PM by David Zavadil
We are taking a brief break. I will post a new Bible Study the week after Christmas.
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