The Worthless Shepherd

So - I was lying in bed this morning - couldn't get back to sleep - with thoughts of church running through my brain. I was rewinding multiple conversations of a tough weekend. People saying they're leaving, people asking for ministries that they're not getting, people questioning my leadership - you know, the typical stuff that pastors face. But now it was somewhat of a crisis point. I told God that if He could find me a way out, I would take it. Really. It was an honest request and I meant it as I lay on my bed at 5:00 am. "Get me out."

I decided that lying there was unproductive, so I went downstairs to read the Word and pray. (Don't get me wrong, I don't often get up this early to do this.) I then did what I never do - I opened the Bible randomly and said, "Help me. Show me something." It fell open to Zechariah 11 and I thought, "Great - nothing in here." But then I read the chapter. Twice. It was unbelievable! Consider my frame of mind, what I was thinking, and read it. You'll see.

He especially struck me with the closing lines:
"Woe to the worthless shepherd,
who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!
May his arm be completely withered,
his right eye totally blinded!"

I understood - shepherds do not desert the sheep. Seriously, I was changed on the spot. Sheep are sheep - they push, they pull, they wander, they cry - they would walk off a cliff if you didn't stop them! But shepherds don't leave them. Fathers don't leave their families. They stay and work through these things.

To God be the glory.

Over the Hedge

Isaiah 5:4,5 "What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge."

Genesis 49:22 "Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall."

There is a hedge that we live in - though it's hard to explain, I know it's there. We as Christians live under the protection of the Lord that allows us to grow and strengthen. It's a place of study, prayer, fellowship, digging into the deeper truths, arguing about the simpler ones and being rooted firmly in Christ, who is our spring. Because Christ is our Spring, the vine grows from within this hedge. It's a nice place to be - but it is clear from Jacob's blessing on Joseph that a true vine will grow over this hedge and bear fruit in the desert.

Joseph was a great example of this. He was rooted in God - everything he said and did was centered around Him. That is why he was able to find strength in prison, comfort in a foreign land. And it was also why he was able to bear fruit in Egypt - which is always a symbol of the world in the OT. Joseph was clearly "hedged in" - but his vine grew over the hedge and impacted the world.

We need to take this message to heart: We are too "Church-focused." Feed me. Help me. Discuss and debate with me. Grow me. Play my music. Sing my songs. Preach messages that touch me. Create ministries that impact me. Read my Bible. Dress my way. Agree with me. Come with me into this hedge and hold me.

Seriously - are the vines growing out of our churches? Are they like Joseph - climbing over the wall and into the desert, bearing fruit in the world so that they may be touched, fed, clothed, loved, healed, forgiven and brought to Christ? Or is all of our fruit grown for the sake of feeding our own fat bodies?

The fruitful vine is near a spring - rooted and fed by Christ. That's the church. But it then grows over the wall and feeds the lost. That's the mission of the church. We need to get back on mission and grow over the hedge, before God takes it away and we find ourselves naked and unprotected - with our "bad grapes" exposed to the world. That's a place of humiliation that I don't ever want to find myself in.

Amen

Lost in the Translation

It has been said by people who study languages, that you can tell when a person really has learned a new language: they now think in it. They no longer have to look at something and then translate it into their own language. They look at it and they think it immediately. I believe that this is also the mark of someone who has truly crossed over into the Spirit-filled life. They no longer have to look at something, hear or experience it, and then try to put it into “Christianese.” There is no time lost as they try to translate it into a spiritual truth. It is automatic, because they are thinking with the mind of Christ. Everything has been emptied out and their mind has not simply been given techniques of successful Christian living, it has been transformed. That’s the intent of this prayer, to have ‘Christ formed’ in each one of us. (Galatians 4:19)

But somewhere over the ages, the intent and power of this prayer has been ‘lost in the translation.’ It has somehow morphed into a ‘saying.’ Clearly that was never the original intent. This is no formulaic prayer that can simply be uttered over and over and then all is well, all is forgiven.

This prayer grabs us, holds us upside down and shakes every last living thing out of us. It turns us over so that what we had hidden in the depths of our soul is now on top, forcing us to come face to face with that which we had hoped was out of sight. Our will, our loves, our hold on people, their hold on us, our desires, our place in this world, this world’s place in us – they are all fully revealed to us if this is prayed honestly. This prayer lifts you up, turns you over, and shakes every last bit out of you.

Loose Change

Good, because one of the most important things that can happen to a Christian is to have God turn them completely over, upside-down, and shake every last living bit out of them. The problem is that most people are only willing to let the ‘loose change’ fall out of their pockets. ‘Loose change’ is what you are willing to give up – like a parent with a child when he asks for money. It’s easy to part with, as you can do without it anyway. It’s what most people give to God – their loose money, time, and energy. They call it a sacrifice, but it’s not. It’s their loose change. God wants more, because if all you give up is your loose change, then all you will get is a ‘loose change.’

If you pray this prayer honestly, if you are truly willing to give up all, then everything goes. And once everything is emptied out, He fills you with enough bread for today and throws you back into the world – the very world that you just disengaged from. You are now in a place of complete trust in Him and He tells you that His protection and His provision will be enough. And the bread that He gave you? Well, that is the bread that He wants you to give to others – because this prayer is not just about you – it is about the body. As He told Peter: “Feed My sheep.”

In The Body

In Exodus 4 we read where God sends Moses back into Egypt to confront the Pharaoh. In the OT, Egypt generally represents the world. We, like Israel, were drawn out of Egypt, and often, like Israel, have a desire to run back to it. So why would God ever send us back there? Moses must have felt this way. He probably wanted to stay by that burning bush, on holy ground. But God sent him back to Egypt. Why? Because that’s where the lost are. That’s where those who are still in slavery are waiting for redemption.

Sometimes I wish that He would simply save us and take us to heaven with Him. As Paul stated in Philippians 1:23: “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” But as Paul understood that “it was more necessary for you that I remain in the body,” we need to understand that it is more necessary for the lost that we remain in the body. So after we’ve been dusted off, we are thrown back in.

This is exactly what Christ prayed for in John 17. He had been His disciples’ covering while He was walking the earth with them. In verse 12 He says, “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name You gave Me.” (There’s ‘that name’ again.) Under His precious name, they were safe. But now He was going. Was He going to take them with Him? Were they going to think that they lost that covering, like Joseph’s brother’s thought would happen to them when Jacob died? No and no. He was not taking them and they would be covered, more completely than ever, because now His Spirit would come and enter them. The covering would be inside and out.

John 17:15 – 19 continues: “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth: Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”

Catch and Release

And that prayer sums up what He’s telling us to do when we pray in Matthew 6. He’s not telling us to get out of the world. He’s telling us to be sanctified under His name. He’s telling us to get under the name of the Father, to be identified, separated and sanctified under His name. He’s telling us to be empowered by His Spirit under His will. And then He releases us back into the wild, under the sanctification of that hallowed Name. Released to be His hands, His feet, His mouth.

These are desperate times, but God’s grace is still available for the whole world. In Revelation 14:10 we read that in the end days He will put out His fury, “which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath.” Right now is not full strength - the wine of His righteous anger is diluted with His marvelous grace. But when the Day comes, when Christ returns and the hedge is removed, His wrath will be poured out full strength. We don’t want to be around for that day, and we don’t want any of our loved ones, our neighbors, our co-workers to experience that either.

Come Around – Whether Or Not Your Season Comes Around

That is why this is such an urgent prayer. That is why it is so important that we are sanctified through and through by His name. And that is why we must be tossed back in. The lost need us. It doesn’t matter if we feel like it or not. We are to be ready “in season or out of season.” (II Timothy 4:2) In mountainous times or monotonous times. In other words, whether we’re on a spiritual high or not. This prayer is to be prayed consistently regardless of our emotional state. Some days you may feel like you’re ‘out of season.’ Too bad - pray it anyway. The lost don’t have the option of waiting for your ‘seasons’ to roll back around.

Jonah’s ultimate obedience to the Lord brought about a great revival in Nineveh. It must have been an awesome sight, thousands coming to God. But I often wonder about those who never had a chance to hear the message of repentance. Those who died waiting for Jonah to ‘come around.’

What Matters

Recently I was packing up from a vacation, getting ready to go home, and I kept looking at all the clothes I didn’t use on the trip. It was frustrating to repack them, they were just time and space wasters. I thought that it would be nice to know ahead of time what’s necessary and what’s going to end up being irrelevant, so I wouldn’t have to waste that time and space.

Jesus tells us what matters. What matters is that you are in His family. What matters is that you are content with your daily bread. What matter is that true forgiveness occurs – in your relationship with God and in your relationship with others. What matters is the you have victory, that God pulls you away from temptation. What matters is, that according to Romans 13:14 – you don’t even think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. What matters is that you sing your song of redemption. What matters is that you are delivered from Satan so that you can get your voice back. Because what matters is the lost.

This prayer will show you what matters.

And Deliver Us From Evil

The evil one . . . we ask to be delivered from Satan. Like the previous phrase regarding being led away from temptation, why should we even have to ask this? Isn’t it a given? Well, it must not be or we would not have to ask to be delivered from him.

His fingers are wrapped around our necks, taking our breath – our voice - away. You see, whatever has you has your voice. If Satan has you – like when the demons had the man from the tombs – he has your voice. As the demons spoke for that man, your demons will speak for you. And all can hear it - loud and clear. We think we can hide our ‘demons’, but they scream out from us, fooling no one. This deliverance that we pray for is a plea to get our voice back.

When God delivers you from this death grip, He now has your voice and you are free to speak about Him. That’s why this is last. When all is said and done, when you are delivered, you are now free to speak – and all that is done must be said. Your release is your message. But you obviously cannot speak it until you are released. We have too many people proclaiming the message of the Lord while secretly (and no so secretly) still living in bondage.

Psalm 51:13 “Then I will teach transgressors Your ways and sinners will turn back to You.”

After his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, David is confronted by Nathan the prophet, who reveals his sin. David then writes Psalm 51, pleading with the Lord to wash him clean, to restore him to his previous state of spiritual health. Not until then, David says, can he tell of the wonderful things that God has done. Due to his current, self-induced circumstances, he has lost his voice. He has no right, no power, no ability to proclaim the goodness of the Lord while he is steeped in sin. It is only ‘then’ – after he has been ripped open, cleansed and restored by God, will he be able to give a powerful testimony that will cause sinners to listen.

Satan knows this, that’s why he attacks the ‘voice’ of the Christians. I don’t feel that Satan can enter into a believing Christian, but I do believe, as Scripture says, that he is prowling around us “like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (I Peter 5:8) Since he cannot get into our brain, he tries to get into our head. So he watches us very closely to see if we will reveal our doubts and weakness to him by actions and words. He wants to know what tempts us, what causes us to fear, what we are drawn to - and then he will find a way to feed that. If he can do to us what he did to David, then he can take away our voice. If you’ve ever been caught up in sin, you know that the last thing you really want to do is tell others about the victory found in Jesus Christ.

We need to be very careful about what we say, about what we watch, about what we laugh at, etc. Do not betray yourself to him. Pour yourself out to God and God alone. Satan is watching, and he is ready to pounce on whatever you reveal to him. He wants to take away our testimony – our voice – so that we will be ineffective and unproductive, so we can’t give him the ammunition.

This last phrase, “deliver us from the evil one,’ is asking God to allow us to keep our voice. If we have truly been redeemed, if we have prayed this cleansing prayer with a clean heart and pure motives, then we need to say so. We need to let others see the hope that He gives us in this dark and chaotic world. The end result of this prayer being prayed honestly before the Lord is that we will be emboldened to be powerful witnesses to the world. It is not a selfish prayer – it is a prayer to regain our voice, so that others will find Christ.

In Revelation 14 we read of the 144,000 who have been redeemed by the Lamb. They are singing a song of redemption. “No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth . . . they follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They were purchased from among men.” They understood a unique redemption so they sang a song that only they could sing. We can’t force people to sing songs of redemption. Only the ones who ‘get it’ can sing it. Psalm 107:1, 2 says: “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this.”

To “learn” means to “hear deeply.” Only a saved person can sing a song of redemption. Only one who has been plucked from the fire, pulled out of the muck and mire and filth of this world, can deeply hear the songs of redemption. The others sing along, mouth the words, enjoy the choruses, but only the redeemed can truly sing from the depths of their hearts. All of the great saints had songs of redemption.

Exodus 15 – Moses sang a song of redemption when they came out of Egypt.

Judges 5 – Deborah sang a song of redemption when they defeated the Canaanites.

II Samuel 22 – David sang a song of redemption after being delivered from all of his enemies.

If you have been redeemed, you have a song and Satan is trying to take it away from you. But you can stand him down – resist him and he will flee from you.

“Heaven is not the place to learn that song; it must be learned on the earth. You must learn here the notes of free grace and dying love; and when you have mastered their melody, you will be able to offer to the Lord the tribute of a grateful heart, even in heaven, and blend it with the harmonies eternal.” (Spurgeon)

The old time hymn writers knew this. They had a song and they expressed it in beautiful ways. Some of my favorite verses in the entire hymn book talk about that moment when you were delivered from bondage:

How Great Thou Art: “And when I think, that God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died, to take away my sin.”

It Is Well With My Soul: “My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, oh my soul!”

And Can It Be: “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.”

They strike so deep because you know that they were written out of the depths of someone’s heart. These three verses are just a few of the many that I sing as songs of my redemption. I know it. God knows it. And it’s hard sometimes to explain to someone else. In Psalm 66:16-18 we read, “Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what He has done for me. I cried out to Him with my mouth: His praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”

The Lord’s Prayer ends with this same sentiment. Deliver us from the evil one. If I am cherishing sin, then I have no voice. But if I have been redeemed, then come and listen to my song. I will sing it fearlessly and powerfully.

I fear, however, that the Christian church in general has lost their song, their voice, due to our compromises with the culture around us. We need to pray this collectively: Lord, deliver us from the evil one. Give us our voice back. Help us to be the ones that impact the culture, and not the other way around.

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

We casually pray this phrase, as if ‘of course, lead me away!’ It’s often one of the throw-away lines. But really . . . we have to think this one through. The things we are praying about are temptations to us because we love them, we are drawn to them. And we don’t like to stay away from the things we love. We hover around them, and come back to them time and again because we find such a natural comfort in these things.

So when we pray this, we are asking Him to get us away from everything – people, places, things, thoughts – that we are drawn to. It’s easy to proclaim victory over the things that don’t draw us. I don’t smoke, so I can proclaim victory over cigarettes! – and feel pretty good about myself. But in this phrase, we are asking Him to unbend us from the things that we love, that we are naturally leaning toward. Let’s be honest – we often will spend nights wrapped in our bitterness, envy, lust – rocking ourselves to sleep as we allow them to turn over in our brain. When left to our own devices we turn to these things – because in our natural man, we love them and find great comfort in them.

When we pray “Lead us not into temptation” we are saying “Take me away from the things I love.” Talk about radical! It’s not as simple as saying “Take me away,” however. That’s not victory, that’s avoidance. What we are really saying is ‘Change me so that I don’t love these things anymore.” We have a bent toward things that will eventually kill us, driving us face first into the mud, if we would let them. This ‘bent’ must be removed. We must be straightened out or we will die as our organs are crushed beneath the weight of our body bending lower and lower to the things of the world.

Don’t Give Me a Cane – Straighten Me Out!

In Numbers 22, Balak sends messengers to the prophet Balaam, asking him to curse the Israelites. Balaam wanted to – he wanted the gifts that would come by doing this, he wanted the honor that would come by being with these princes. So he asked them to “Spend the night,” probably hoping for permission from God to go with them. However, in the night the Lord told him that he couldn’t do what Balak asked and the next morning Balaam reluctantly relayed this back to the messengers. He told them, “Go back . . . for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.”

Thus his bent was revealed. He desperately wanted to go – and it was only because God said ‘No’ that he didn’t. Balak, like Satan, was smart enough to see through this, and he sent more men, more money, more pressure. Balaam had revealed his heart’s true desire, so Balak kept hammering away. Eventually God did allow Balaam to follow his ‘bent,’ as He will with us as well. (Romans 1:24 – 26) If we push hard enough away from Him, He will sadly give us our way, along the broad road to destruction.

The only true victory over these desires is found in a complete change of heart. We must come to a place where we honestly pray, “God, don’t give me a way to cope with this desire, take it away from me.” Most of the time, we’re simply praying for a cane to help us with our bent. This prayer demands more – it demands an inner change.

In Psalm 73:22 the writer says that when he lusted and envied after the things of the world he was like an animal. “Senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You.’ In our natural state we gravitate, like an animal, to the things of the world that tempt us. So when we pray this phrase “lead me not into temptation” we are asking God to change us from the inside-out. We are asking Him to change our desires so that they are no longer temptations. We are not simply asking to be kept away from them, for that is not true victory. We are asking Him to transform our mind from that of an ignorant, lust-driven animal to a Christian with a sanctified mind who is no longer drawn to them.

Many of us settle simply for some techniques that will allow us temporary victories in our walk. But this prayer asks for much more than that. It asks for a release from the things that bind us, not a way to get through it. Our goal, as stated in I Thessalonians 5:23, is that we are sanctified “through and through.” That our “whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So how is this accomplished? By trying extra hard? By making a checklist each morning and keeping it to the best of our ability? By a technique? No – we must be changed.

We Need a “You Turn”

If you continue reading through I Thessalonians 5, you will think that you are reading a checklist: “Live in peace . . . warn the idle . . . be patient . . . try to be kind . . . be joyful . . . pray continually . . . give thanks in all circumstances . . . avoid every kind of evil . . .” And on and on. It sounds like a to-do list. To-do lists are Christian killers, as they make it seem like our success is up to us.

But when you get to the end, to verse 24, we are given the answer: “The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.” There it is. All that He asks us to do – He will do for us. In fact, He must be the one doing it or we will fail. We need a “You turn.” By that I mean, we need what the psalmist prayed in Psalm 119: 36, 37: “Turn my heart toward Your statutes . . . turn my eyes away from worthless things.” He must turn us, we cannot turn ourselves. And it must be a complete u-turn, 180 degrees. Anything less, even 179 degrees, still allows us to head back in the direction of the world. We must be turned around and changed by Him.

But many may ask, “How do we know that He has changed me, that He has given me the victory, that He has turned me?” The answer is simple: Take Him at His word. One of the most important moments in my own spiritual walk came when I simply said to God, “Okay – I believe You.” He told me that if I confessed my sins, He would forgive me of them and cleanse me. So I believed Him. He told me that I was a new creation and that the old things had passed away. So I believed Him. I took Him at His Word.

Psalm 130:5 says, “In His Word I put my hope.” He has made promises in His Word and I believe them, and so I am finally able to move ahead. Pressing forward, forgetting what is behind me. Satan wants to focus on all the stuff I used to do, what I used to be like, how I used to think – he can have it. “Get behind me, Satan.” You can have your fill of all that’s in back of me. And anyone else that wants to dig through that trash, you can have it, too. I’m moving on. Or more appropriately, I’m being led away.

Forgive Us Our Debts - As We Forgive Our Debtors

Hmmm……Now this is a very dangerous part of the prayer.

So let’s ask the question . . . “How do you want to be forgiven?” Completely? Fully? No record kept? No remembrance? With total reconciliation? Without it hanging over your head, ready to drop back on you at a moment’s notice if you slip up again? How about this one: Friends again?

You see, we tend to hang ‘guillotines of forgiveness’ over the heads of those in our lives. We remember. We withhold. We don’t reconcile. We don’t fully extend the hand and embrace the forgiven. Forgiveness – okay. Forget – probably not, but we’ll see. Friends – never.

This small phrase should give us tremendous pause. If I pray this, then I am asking Him to forgive me in the exact same way I forgive others. Am I sure I want to pray this? Because I better get it right. Eternity hangs in the balance. My eternity depends on His forgiveness of my sins, His willingness to forget them, and His love for me that is so deep that He now calls me ‘friend.’ (John 15:14, 15). That’s crucial – because to be called His friend means that His forgiveness has reached its natural end.

Forgive – Forget – Friends.

The real goal of Matthew 18 is more than forgiveness – and it’s not there to simply supply us with “Scripture Separation Stones” that we can toss at each other (the preferred use of this passage). The real goal is to ‘gain the brother,’ not to find an ‘out’ for separation, and for moving on and away from him. It’s certainly not there to allow us to publicly humiliate one of our brothers.

When a splinter or some bacteria invades the body, a pus-filled covering is immediately placed over it so that the healing can take place within. This is how a church should approach a ‘splinter.’ A covering of love should be placed over the offense – not to ignore it, but to protect it so that within the covering the problem can be dealt with. The goal is not to humiliate and then destroy – though we seem to prefer that method. The goal is to protect and bring healing – so that the brother is regained. The last step in Matthew 18 is the public pronouncement of separation, not the first thing that is done. Why is it that so many Christians like to go straight to separation, without any attempts at reconciliation? Where is the deep love for our brothers that makes us desperate to get them back?

Joseph Wept

In Genesis 50:15 - 21, we read one of the most touching passages of the entire account of Joseph and his brothers. Years after Joseph had forgiven and received his brothers, their father Jacob dies. They start to imagine that their ‘covering’ is now gone. They are afraid that Joseph will now exact revenge upon them, as if he's been secretly holding it in all this time, waiting until 'dad' died. So they write a letter expressing hope that he will honor Jacob’s wishes, and maintain the forgiveness that he enacted earlier. "Dad says you have to keep your promise!"

There are basically Five Acts to Forgiveness:

Act I – Forgiveness is Eternal

What Joseph’s brothers didn’t fully grasp is that his forgiveness was forever, and the passing of Israel was not going to change that. (We aren’t protected by the Law anyway!) Hebrews 10:14 says that “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Only under the blood of Christ does God see us perfect, and this is forever. Nothing will ever change that. This covering is eternal and will never be removed. That’s why Joseph wept, his brothers didn’t understand the completeness of his forgiveness, and the thought that they were still ‘looking over their shoulder’ made him weep for them. Christ must weep those same tears every time we question whether our past is really gone.

Act II - Being Made: Forget

But while we are covered forever, what happens beneath that covering – the ‘being made’ part – can be difficult and painful. This is where the reality of forgiveness is worked out. The consequences, the broken relationships, the pain that was caused, must be dealt with. To our benefit, God works out these imperfections in us, (again, under the covering of perfection). We may not like it at times, it may reveal those ‘inconvenient truths’ – but it is necessary to work out the imperfections that caused the separation in the first place. The splinter still needs to be removed. We need to get it out so we can forget about it.

This is the second part of forgiveness, the part of working it out. It’s hard to forget when the problems linger. If we are asking God to forgive us ‘as’ we forgive others, then we better be prepared to take this step as well. We can’t simply say that we forgive, without trying to work out the imperfections that caused the separation in the first place.

Act III – Friendship

There is a great ending to the story of Joseph, in Genesis 50:21: “And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” He wasn’t content with simply forgiving. He wanted his brothers back. So he took the step of reassuring them, and speaking kindly to them.

That’s true forgiveness: reassurance (“perfect love drives out fear”) and speaking kindly. It seems that we don’t seem to like the ‘speaking kindly’ part. We don’t really want to regain that brother. We just want some kind of Scriptural justification for not having to reconcile with them. We want Christ to give us some steps that will allow us to comfort ourselves in the fact that we tried, and now we can move on without guilt. But He doesn’t give us that ‘out.’ He wants us to take the higher road, to press on to reconciliation – to friendship - to regain that brother that He loves and that He died for.

So when we pray this phrase, when we ask God to forgive us as we forgive others, we are putting ourselves on the spot. We are claiming that we will offer not only forgiveness to someone who has offended us, but forgetfulness as well. And not only forgetfulness, but friendship. We will reassure our brother and speak kindly to him.

Act IV – Move On

In Hebrews 10:18 we read, “And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.” One way to look at this verse is that if someone rejects the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, then they have rejected their only way to forgiveness. There is no other sacrifice, not even self-sacrifice, that will take away their sins.

But another aspect of this verse is for the believer who has allowed the sacrifice of Christ to cover their sins completely. There is nothing more that needs to be done – so move on. “It is finished.” We are not to be crucifying Christ - or ourselves - over and over again. Until we truly grasp this, it is impossible to move on. That is why forgiveness is so important.

In Matthew 7:9 Jesus says, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” Of course we wouldn’t, but for some reason that’s what we think God does to us. We think that if we ask Him for the bread of forgiveness, for Christ, that He will drop a stone of remembrance on us, reminding us of all that we have done in the past. But God is not in the stone-delivery business. According to Isaiah 5:2, He takes us, His vineyard, digs us up, and clears us of stones. All of those things in our past - the stones that are killing us - are removed, not replaced.

Act V – The Result: Satan Denied

In the two letters to the Corinthians, Paul deals with a man who is living an immoral lifestyle. He tells them in the first letter to break off fellowship with the man so that he might repent and come to his senses. The good news is that it appears that the man does become sorrowful and repentant. Now, in the second letter, Paul asks them to remove that burden and bring him back. The goal of discipline is restoration, not destruction. And he concludes by saying that this act of forgiveness thwarts the schemes of Satan (II Corinthians 2:10, 11). Our ability and willingness to forgive stops Satan dead in his tracks. He is so evil that he cannot fathom forgiveness at all.

Forgiveness is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us to advance His kingdom and to batter the gates of hell. When we personally recognize, according to Psalm 130, that God doesn’t keep a ‘record of sins’ and that with Him ‘there is full redemption,’ we feel a strength that empowers us to press forward. There is something unlocked deep within our soul that lifts the weight off of us. We have those same keys in our hands to forgive others and help them with their burdens.

Satan simply cannot understand this and he has no answer for it. He is so self-centered, so self-deceived, so full of hatred, that he could never wrap his mind around the concept of forgiveness. He can’t forgive. He can’t forget. And as the Father of Lies, his own deceitfulness will never allow him to be friends with anyone. So he uses this same mentality against us. But when we forgive from the heart, we deny him one of his greatest tools.

It’s time to wield the powerful sword of forgiveness that cuts right to the heart and brings true healing. It’s time to pray “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” the way it’s meant to be prayed.

Give Us Today Our Daily Bread

This is the only line of petition in the entire prayer, which is strange because if you ever listen to any prayer time, most of it is spent in petition. We pray for people, for things, for events . . . We ask and plead and demand. Yet this is the only mention of our needs, and it goes far beyond the ‘stuff’ of this world. It’s a prayer of total trust in Him.

I must totally trust that He has tomorrow already taken care of. I must live on today’s manna. I must accept today’s word from Him. I must take this moment and indwell it fully. Not with an eye to tomorrow or a regret of yesterday. I will be totally satisfied with this moment from Him. One of the neat things about this is that age now becomes irrelevant – all that matters is today. This is His birthday ‘present’ to us.

As stated earlier, when God revealed His name to Moses, He said “I Am.” He is a ‘present – tense’ God, and we need to embrace the fullness of that. He is always about today. His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:23) He gives us strength for this day. (Deuteronomy 33:25) He tells us that today is the day of our salvation. (II Corinthians 6:2). He is all about today, about embracing this very moment that we are living in.

Paul knew this. He knew that secret of his contentment, in Philippians 4, was to trust totally that he could do all things – present tense – through Christ who gives him strength. Present-tense strength. Whether he was in plenty or in want, he was fine. Because the bread of Christ was sufficient for that day. God is always about today.

A Word for Today

On a personal level, the release of this phrase has also helped me immensely as a preacher. I must be totally willing to allow all of His word – His bread – to be broken and spoken through me each week– and then gone, if that is His will. No eye toward long-term book deals or sermon series that inspire generations for years to come. A word for today – this person, this group – at this moment. Then gone, like the dew in the morning sun. I must surrender completely to Him the use of my voice. Bread for today – for this congregation. And then, like the manna, to be used no more.

This concept released me in a way that’s hard to explain. I can dig through the Scriptures and prepare this week’s sermon, this week’s Bible Study, without wondering if they’ll be anything for the next one. This allows me to empty the jar every time, knowing that the next time I lift the cover, there will be oil enough for that message, with no thought of personal gain or praise. I’m working on His agenda, not my own.

The problem of selfish ambition and personal agendas is killing today’s churches. A prayer for daily bread removes any ideas of personal gain – for personal gain always has an eye to the long-term. We want people to think amazing thoughts about us and our church. But if we are praying, as a Christian worker, for just enough for today, that removes any chance of desiring to become the next Spurgeon or Moody or Billy Graham.

Spurgeon himself writes: “We do not need tomorrow's supplies; that day has not yet dawned, and its wants are as yet unborn. The thirst which we may suffer in the month of June does not need to be quenched in February, for we do not feel it yet; if we have enough for each day as the days arrive we shall never know want. Sufficient for the day is all that we can enjoy.” He’s right – anything else reveals a lack of gratitude to God.

The Power is Not in the Tool

Too many churches are trying to feed off yesterday’s manna, and instead of keeping in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25) they are always one step behind Him. I remember one day I was out with Luke, and we were working on the yard. We had a rake, a broom and a shovel as we tried to clean out an area next to the driveway. Every time I started to do some work, he asked me for the tool I was using, because to him, the ‘tool’ seemed to be doing the work. He was missing the point – it was the fact that the tool was in my hands that it was doing something. I was supplying the power. When it was put in his hands, it became useless again. But he didn’t understand. He wanted the tool.

This is exactly what we do as churches. We look at the manna God has given some other ministries and try to grab that ‘tool’ and see if it will work in our hands. The problem is that it was God that was doing the work at the other church, not the ‘tool’ that they were using. We need to be satisfied with our daily bread, the bread given to us and to our church, and look for Him to give us something of our own.

Oswald Chambers writes: “Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God”

Content – Yet Expectant

There is another part of this phrase – and it is something that is often overlooked. Inherent in asking God for just enough for this day is that we are asking God for new bread, new experiences. We are not content with living off yesterday’s victories or tomorrow’s possibilities. We are asking Him for a new experience. Too many of us are content with living off of yesterday’s bread. But this is not simply a ‘contentment’ verse – it’s an ‘expectant’ verse. We are asking for new manna, something fresh for today.

I’m not saying that we are to be relying on our emotional experiences – but they should occur. Any good relationship is an emotional relationship with new experiences happening on a daily basis. In Psalm 40:3 it says that “He put a new song in my mouth” – but many of us are still singing the tunes from our childhood or our early walk with God. Where are the ‘new songs’ that He promises? It’s certainly not His fault, for as we know, He is a present-tense God. He is the great “I Am,” the God of right now. But we tend to be Christians of yesterday. We shy away from emotional experiences, because Satan has managed to take that very normal aspect of Christianity and make it look crazy. However, emotional experiences are normal in any vibrant, dynamic relationship. This prayer for ‘daily bread’ asks God to give us a new song!

The Daily Bread is Found in His Word

Every emotional experience, however, should drive us straight to the Scriptures. Lives change when we encounter the unchanging truth of His Word. Lives change when we get into His Word. Because what ultimately is our ‘daily bread?’ Is it not His Word? John 6 is a difficult chapter for many people, as Christ says that we must “eat His flesh and drink His blood.” But He is saying that we must consume Him on a daily basis. He is our daily bread. As you consume something, it enters your bloodstream and it becomes the source of energy and matter for your cells – it literally becomes you. It’s the same with Christ – when you consume Him, He literally becomes you.

40 Days of Doctrine

Before His ascension, Christ spent 40 days with His disciples, filling them with His Word. Then He told them to wait in Jerusalem until His Holy Spirit was poured upon them. At this point they were to pour forth into the world, invading every land, filling every void with the testimony of the risen Lord. But the method was clear: first they were filled with His Word, then His Spirit. The “40 days of doctrine” were necessary to have a solid foundation when His Spirit empowered them to move.

Every “explosion” – every “awakening” – was preceded by immersion in the Word. The great revival of Josiah was prompted by the discovery of the Word as they repaired the Temple. Martin Luther was inspired by his readings in Romans, leading to the Reformation. Jonathan Edwards preached nothing but the Word, week after week, year after year, followed by a great ‘awakening.’ You want a revival? Preach the Word. You want a personal awakening? Dig into the Word - truly make it your daily bread.

Of all people, the disciples after Pentecost would have the right to be the ones to rely on the awesome experience that they just had in the upper room. But what’s the first thing they did? They went deep into the Word to both verify that their experience was truly within God’s expressed will, and to solidify the experience as one that they could trust forever because it was based on His written Word. When they hit the streets, the message that they preached was not this great experience, but the Word. When they hit tough circumstances, they relied not this experience, but on the Truth of the Word.

Objective proofs, testimonies and doctrines are vital to a vital faith. We think of a vital faith only as experiential. But the objective and the subjective go hand in hand. The great heroes of the faith had a healthy balance of both. Men and women with sound doctrine, reasoned arguments, rational beliefs – and a vibrant, living, powerful, joyous faith. “Normal” people, full of the knowledge of God and the raw power of His Holy Spirit.

We are told to be ever-increasing with our understanding of the Word and our ability to use it effectively. Many people who downplay doctrine are simply using it as an excuse for not digging into the Word. Do not fall into this trap. If you want the ‘experience’ of God, get deep into His Word. Those who hunger and thirst for Him will be filled. Pray with a desperate heart, “Give us this day our daily bread!”

On Earth AS It Is In Heaven

“As” = “in the very same way”

Be very careful with this part - you must think about what you are actually praying. You are praying for His will to be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven. In the exact same way. How is His will done in heaven? Immediately – He thinks and it is done. There is no delay caused by an obstructed channel. To His glory – He alone is worshiped. There is no shared glory in heaven.

So when we pray this, we are saying that we want His will to be done in the exact same way that it is done in heaven. This means that we are out of the picture. We are empty vessels that allow Him to flow unhindered into this world – bringing all glory to Himself. When we pray this, we are asking Him to empty us out and we won’t care if no one ever notices us. He is working through us so perfectly that only He gets noticed.

This addresses what I believe to be one of the areas that is quietly killing our churches – Christian competitiveness. We are constantly one-upping each other as we look around – who has the biggest congregation, the best youth ministry, the newest technology, the most professional worship, the coolest Youth Group, etc. The comparisons and the competitions are endless and it is killing the unity that Christ pleads for in John 17. (This is somewhat amusing, because all of the ‘competitors’ are people who have simply chosen to go to these churches. This makes them a better Christian . . . how?)

That small word ‘as’ blows this mentality out of the water. We are asking God to minimize us – and our ministry/church – to make us nothing more than an empty vessel that will allow Him to do His will in the same way that it is accomplished in heaven. Again – there is no shared glory in heaven, but still we scramble for it on earth. Not any more. This prayer tells us to make sure that all eyes are fixed on Him. We are the ‘drink offering’ – poured out on Him yet keeping all eyes fixed on Him. We are part of the aroma of Christ, identifiable, but not identified. We are not the focus of anyone’s attention – not even our own. The sacrifice must always be what people are centered on. As the drink offering, we are poured upon and burned into the sacrifice – the precious Lamb of God, and we are burned into Him.

As John the Baptist said, “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30). If we are to have any advance in our spiritual walk, we must be minimized without regret or even the tiniest bit of self-congratulatory feelings, as if even our self-sacrifice will somehow bring us praise. We are in a very mature place if we can honestly pray “on earth as it is in heaven.” Christ and Christ alone must be magnified. When we magnify something, we don’t make it bigger, we see it bigger. We can never make God bigger than He is, but we can certainly see Him bigger.

The Land of the Living

The wonderful thing is that this is to be done on earth. The expectation of Christ in this prayer is that His kingdom will advance here, that victory will be won on earth, that He will prevail in this present age. David says in Psalm 27:13, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” This is a present-tense prayer, with victorious expectations for today. What God accomplishes in heaven, is to be accomplished on earth – in the same way! This is more than just a hope for heaven – this is battering the gates of hell on earth.

One of the verses that changed my life was Titus 2:12 “(The grace of God) teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” It hit me like a ton of bricks - this is about victory here on earth – right now. The same grace that saved me will be the grace that fills me with power today. The things that hold me can and will come down. Not by my effort, but by that powerful grace that brought me salvation.

Herods Die

There are strongholds that must come down, Herods who are trying to destroy your Christian testimony and the power of the church. But remember this: Herods die. They fight, but they have limited power and a limited shelf-life. The sorcerers of Pharaoh mimicked the plagues of Moses – to an extent. They did not have the staying power to keep up with God. His kingdom can and must advance . . . on earth.

This Time = His Kingdom

In Acts 1, just before Christ ascended, His disciples asked Him if at “this time” He was going to establish the kingdom on earth. They had been up/down so many times to this point that it’s totally understandable, their desire for the earthly kingdom to be finally set up. But the response of Christ speaks volumes. He doesn’t either rebuke them or correct them - He simply sets them straight.

He does this by redirecting their thoughts. “This time,” He said, is still about His Kingdom. It was an odd situation: they couldn’t take their eyes off of the skies when He went up, but they were still caught in their little earthly kingdoms. They had earthly thoughts and heavenly eyes, when they needed heavenly thoughts and earthly eyes.

The disciples were stuck in their own personal agendas, advancing their own earthly kingdoms. They were still waiting on Jesus to lead an earthly revolution. And when He went up, their eyes stayed up where He went. When they were being told to look up they looked down. When they were told to look down they looked up!

They were told to wait for the power to advance His kingdom on earth. To be His witness in Jerusalem, Judea/Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. They were instructed to look beyond their little agenda of Jerusalem. The power of the Holy Spirit is not a power to advance earthly kingdoms with heavenly power. It is a power to advance heavenly kingdoms on earth. On earth – as it is in heaven. May that still be our prayer.

Your Kingdom Come

After establishing ourselves as the ‘receiver’ and recognizing God as the only one that is holy, we allow our will to be removed from us as we settle into a position that most don’t think comes until at the end of a long struggle: total submission into His will.

You see, most people imagine that the ‘act’ of prayer is like a ‘play.’ We moan, we cry, we petition, and we ‘act’ out our part. Then, after a reasonable and noble amount of time of ‘kicking against the goads’ we finally stop resisting and melt into complete surrender. It sounds very noble. But the problem is that the nobility is ours. When we place ourselves in struggle of wills, we place ourselves in the position of a warrior. We are in a ‘battle’ and therefore we have power and honor, so we place ‘Your will be done’ at the end of our prayers. It’s the final part of the ‘battle.’

Jesus, however, goes straight to the heart of the matter. He calls for an immediate surrender of the will, and only then does the prayer follow. He does not allow us to be put in a position where we are honored for our struggle. He says surrender now – forgo the struggle, especially if you think by wrestling you are bringing some kind of honor upon yourself. Our nobility will be found in submission to Him, not in our struggle.

He is asking us to open up our hands as we pray. A clenched fist – how most of us seem to pray – is a position of fighting. An open palm, raised high to the Lord, is a position of surrender and submission. You can literally feel the difference in your body, in your posturing, in your frame of mind, when you close your fist or open your palms up to the Lord. You can’t fight someone with an open, uplifted palm; it is a position of surrender. He is asking us to open our hands before we offer our pleas and petitions.

When Christ was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, the battle was won, in a sense, when He said, “Your will be done.” It is the key point, the turning point, of that prayer and of any prayer. All victory comes after it. Jesus stood up after praying, and then stood down His betrayer and those who had come to arrest Him. As Christ shows us here, complete victory can be won at the beginning of the prayer.

Your kingdom. Your will. Not mine. Not that of the church. Not that of the deacons or the congregation – even if it is by a 2/3 vote. Not the trends of the culture. Not the traditions of the past. It is certainly not based on how we feel at the moment. We are asking for His will - right now.

We have an interesting tendency in our churches. We hold meetings in which we open in prayer, asking for His guidance. Then we proceed to make all of our plans. Finally we close our meeting and ask Him to bless those plans. We, as individuals and as churches, need to surrender to His will throughout every moment of every meeting. Every prayer is to be a place of submission. And as we will see in the next phrase, it is about His Kingdom, not our own earthly place of ministry and personal agendas. His kingdom come, His will be done.

Hallowed Be Your Name

In Exodus 3 Moses was charged to give the message of redemption to the Israelites. He was concerned that they would say, “Who said so?” So he asked God what he should say when the Israelites asked him who gave him the authority of this message. He wanted to go to them with power, with a reason that they should believe him. The response from God was clear and to the point: “I AM.” That was enough. He is holy so His name is holy, and all authority is therefore imbedded in that name.

What’s in a name? Your character, who you are, is tied up in your name. Moses was to go back and say that the message can be trusted because God can be trusted. Nothing more needs to be said regarding His name. It is set apart. When we pray ‘hallowed be Your name’ we are agreeing with this statement. The fact that He is God – that’s enough.

I’d like to think my name could be trusted that way – Jesus Himself said that’s the goal. My ‘yes’ should be ‘yes’ and my ‘no’ should be ‘no’ and no amount of swearing on anything can add or subtract from it. Your word will be as good as your name.

That’s what’s so powerful about this – His Name can be trusted in everything, because He is the same – yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) When Christ tells us to pray in His name, He’s not saying that we should tack it on at the end like some magic formula of success. He’s saying that we should pray in Him – because His name is who He is. Our prayers should be deep in Christ, in His will, under His protection.

Philippians 2:10 says that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” – because His name represents who He is. That name is to be exalted above every other name, because He is to be exalted above everything. The neat thing is, in Revelation 3:11 – 13 we are told that if we overcome He will write this very name upon us. We will be forever identified with Him and set apart under that very name that we are hallowing.

Name It and Claim It

One last thing about names – in Revelation 2:17 we are told that one day we ourselves will be given a new name, known only to us, that will be written in stone. The One who knows us best will name us. Can you imagine that? People go through their entire lives wondering who they are. They buy books, go to self-awareness seminars, seek counsel, and ask friends, “Who am I?” To know who you truly are is a great gift. - and God, the only one who can truly answer that question, will nail it right on the spot. We will know, by that new name, who we are and it will be there for eternity.

He removes the ‘mask’ for us and lets us know exactly who we are – with just one name. When we hear it, we will know just what He is saying – we will get every implication within that name. That’s why it’s just between us – no one else would ever understand. He will then write His name upon us as well. Our true self will be revealed and upon that will be written His name. When we pray “Hallowed be Your Name” we are in a sense hallowing our own name, as it is written under His hallowed name. He, who knows us better than we know ourselves, will claim us as His very own, for eternity.

Father In Heaven

We call Him our ‘Father’ – and by doing so we disconnect our affections from the world and stake an immediate and irrevocable claim to be a child of God. We establish at the outset that our ‘citizenship is in heaven.’ Not simply above this world – but out of this world. Even our most precious earthly relationships are released. He is our Father and His name is hallowed, holy, set apart from all the rest in our life.

This is a radical start to a radical prayer. We begin the entire prayer by severing all ties to this world – every single one of them - and attaching ourselves to Him. Thus we too are set apart – made holy by Him, under His name, in His family.

To Ur is Human

Abraham understood this total separation. When he was asked to leave Ur and head toward Canaan, he severed all ties, every security that he had lived under his entire life, and went out as a pilgrim. He never went back to Ur, the place of his father’s family. To turn back to Ur would be a very human, natural response to any tough circumstance that might arise. But we are of a new nature – a spiritual nature – and we do not have to respond naturally any more.

Also, by praying this we immediately place ourselves in the ‘child’ position. He is our Father - not our peer, not our friend, not our servant, not our child. Because believe it or not, many Christians somehow manage to place God in the child position and place the expectations of a child upon Him, and their prayers reflect this. He must, like a child, behave in certain ways that we expect Him to behave. He must bend to our rules, our standards, our sense of justice and fairness. In other words – His actions lean on our understanding.

The world has the same mentality. They say that they don’t believe in Him, but if they did, they know exactly how He should act and what His standards would be. They impart their own personality onto what He would be like. They know what mercy looks like. They know what is fair. They know what is right. Then when experience doesn’t match their ideas, when the Truth doesn’t fit their model – they reject Him.

As you can see, one of the problems with our prayers is that we like to place ourselves in the position of the father - of already knowing what is right before we even pray. So we lay out our petitions for Him in such a way that we already know how He should respond. And when He doesn’t – we can’t handle it. We lay out our plans and our agendas and then, at the end, ask Him to bless them.

But by starting with this phrase, by calling Him ‘Our Father,’ we are submitting, humbling, yielding ourselves to the place of total dependence. The rules are His rules, the justice is His justice, and how He responds to our petitions and our cries is totally up to Him. We are the ‘receiver’ – nothing more – of all that follows. We don’t dictate any of the terms; we don’t bring anything to the table. He does not bend to our rules or our will, we bend to His.

The Mark of a Father

Another aspect of calling Him “Father” is our willingness to be identified with Him. We are not ashamed to have His name clearly written on our foreheads, for all the world to see. There are a lot of Christians who aren’t able to do this. They love Him, but in the quiet of their own homes or the comfort of their church. However, they shy away from being identified with Him when they’re out in the world. But when you call Him “Father” – you are marking yourself with Him, and like most children, desperate to please Him.

I think deep down we all are desperate to please our fathers. My earthly father doesn’t really know it – I probably don’t show it – but his approval is definitely one of my main motivations. I played basketball because he played basketball. I grew to love it because he loved it. I played football, which I didn’t love – because I knew it meant a lot to him – so I played to please him. I care deeply what he thinks about me, and I want to prove that to him, while I still have a chance.

This World is My Proving Ground

I have those same desires for my heavenly Father. I remember a while back I was thinking about the Rapture and I said to myself “Please not yet!” Not for the desire to live on this earth any longer, but for the ‘free will’ decisions of my life. I feel like I haven’t totally proven to God my love for Him and my desire to please Him. I want to get to certain ‘places’ here on earth – certain spiritual places of victory that show Him that I love Him out of my own free will. I love Him just because of who He is. I love Him in the face of all the persecution of this world.

I want Him to see this deep love before Heaven, because once there it seems like we go a little on auto-pilot and I want to please Him in my free will. This earth is my proving ground, my only real chance to show Him how much I love Him before He puts me into my spiritual body and mind – before I don’t have the chance to prove my love for Him.

Satan understands this desperate desire that children have for their father’s approval, so he tries to break the whole thing apart. He tries to convince us that our earthly fathers are not important, that they are useless accessories to a family, and he is desperately trying to break the traditional family unit apart by removing them. If he is successful, then he will try to move on and show us that our Heavenly Father is useless and unimportant. Even worse – he tries to show us that our earthly fathers simply don’t care – and in turn he hopes that we will see our Heavenly Father in the same way. He is successfully minimizing the role of father, moving it to the point of irrelevance.

So, as you can see, the simple title of “Father” is much deeper than it first appears. We are proclaiming to Him and to the world that we not ashamed to be His child in a world that is trying to make that look foolish.

Our

This Is Not About Me

Right from the opening word He rips your heart out and says: this is not about you. If you understand that before you even get started, then you will be far beyond the millions who have uttered these words in hopes of some special dispensation from God, those who have made this prayer all about them. They take this as some personal prayer that will somehow grab the ear of God specifically for them, to bless them and their works.

A lot of the phrases in this prayer are plural, or better yet, communal. From the very first word He takes our eyes off of ourselves. In the Sermon on the Mount, as demanding as it is, we are actually being released by Christ. He is freeing us from the burden of making everything revolve around us. We can go an ‘extra mile’ because we don’t have to worry about how it affects us. We can give the ‘outer coat’ because we don’t have to worry about their motivations. We can “love our enemies” because we don’t have to bear the weight of their imperfections and even their hatred. We can forgive as Christ forgives, because their burden is not on us, it’s on Him.

Intruder Alert!

One of the things that wear us out is when we feel that we have to take on the burdens of other people. It’s not the person that wearies us; it’s all the things that go along with them. But in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ releases us from these thoughts. Their baggage is on Him – we can leave it there with our own. I’m not saying we are no longer concerned about them, just the opposite. Our concern deepens because we can see through all the ‘stuff’ that they bring with them – the things that we usually focus on. Their imperfections. Their failures. We can see them the way He sees them, and love them the way that He loves them.

We can allow the lives of others to interfere with our own lives. The intrusions that exhaust us, the people that weary us, the failures that weigh us down – they’re not on us anymore – they’re on Him. We can bear them because we are released from the burden of having to figure everything out. We are free to love without questions, forgive without restrictions, and witness without feeling the burden of judgment.

The burdens of the standard are upon Him. We are free to be messengers of grace and reconciliation. We can simply help them without having to judge them. That’s on Him. We can hand over the extra coat (or dollar). We can walk the extra mile (or phone call) with them.

Why? Because of that opening word “Our.” Right from the start, we declare that this is not just about us. That’s the biggest release that He gives – released from the weight of always making everything about us. There is an incredible lightness that comes when we take our eyes off of ourselves and fix them on Jesus.

The “Our” of Intercession.

The other thing about “our” is that it brings in the intercessory aspect of prayer. When I first began studying this prayer, it bothered me that it seemed somewhat self-centered. Not completely, of course, but there seemed to be no intercession – which I have always considered to be one of the most important parts of prayer.

Then it struck me – it’s imbedded in the entire prayer. The word ‘our’ is all over the place. We are to be lifting others up as well as ourselves. In everything: identification (“Our father”), needs (“our daily bread”), forgiveness (“our sins”), group responsibility (“as we forgive”), deliverance (“deliver us from evil”), etc. It permeates the entire prayer.

Intercession seems to be one of the things that God honors. He Himself interceded on our own behalf when He sent His Son to die in our place. He always seems to be looking for someone to stand in the breach. In Psalm 106 we read that “He said He would destroy them – had not Moses, His chosen one, stood in the breach before Him” (v. 23) and that “Phineas stood up and intervened and the plague was checked (v. 30). He honors those who stand up for the weak, for those who cannot stand up for themselves. He even does it for us.

“In the same way, the Spirit helps in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” (Romans 8:26). When we are at our own end, so distressed that we can’t even come up with the words to pray, He Himself stands in the gap for us. He picks up the baton and says, “I’ll take it from here.”

Intercession is a holy calling, and it permeates the Lord’s Prayer. We are to be lifting up our brothers and sisters every time we pray. Every hour of prayer should be an ‘our’ of prayer. Psalm 41:1-3 says “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; He will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.” When we intercede for those who are weak, the Lord will honor that and watch over us.

In other words, if all we do is lift up prayers of intercession for others, if our prayers are loaded with “our” and “us” – then He Himself will take care of our needs, He will be our protection and He will be our deliverance. The things that we need will be added unto us as we put the needs of others first.

The World's Most Dangerous Prayer

For the next few blogs I will post a phrase from the Lord's Prayer and then expound brilliantly upon it!

Matthew 6: 9 – 13

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed by 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.

Warning This prayer contains an underlying power that will expose you completely – revealing exactly who you are – down to the dirtiest detail, exposing the true motivation of your heart, the unrestrained desires of your soul. It is not some magic formula for success, to be repeated until He blesses you. It is a prayer of death and life. Emptiness and power. Slavery and release.

Be very careful when considering this model. Christ doesn’t simply throw out a soft prayer to the heavens when He teaches us how to pray. He never does anything soft. As He does throughout the entire Sermon on the Mount, He turns everything upside-down and inside-out. He knows the importance of prayer, it was His very lifeblood - and when He tells us how to pray, we better listen carefully. This is a radical prayer that’s been unfortunately mainstreamed to the point that it’s become diluted of its life-changing power.

In reality, this is a prayer that disconnects us from the world, pulls us completely into God, takes our own will from us, cleans us out, dusts us off, then re-engages us into the world as sanctified, forgiven, released, protected and powerful disciples of Christ. Men and women who truly love the people of this world – enough to forgive without any conditions, but have no desire for the things of this world. Men and women who are truly satisfied with God – with this moment with Him – and do not look beyond it for their own gain or personal security. Men and women who are willing to be released from the things that they love in their own flesh and blood, including their own flesh and blood, to find true deliverance in God.

An Inconvenient Truth

In Acts 24, Paul was brought before some officials who wanted to hear him speak. He proceeded to talk about ‘righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come’ - not very popular topics those days, or any days. Felix, the governor, spoke for countless generations when he said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.”

I have news for Felix – it’s never convenient. So be careful with this prayer. It will rip you open and reveal who you really are, and as I said, there is never a convenient time for that. This removes the irrelevant and the irreverent from your life and places you right into the heart of God.

Be very careful about entering into this prayer, because with the very first word, He rips your heart out. But don’t worry – the donor heart is a pretty good replacement. This donor actually offered up His heart for you.