Wanted to share a few thoughts from The Hype last night, some which focus on our lesson as we work through the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, and some which have nothing to do with that. I shall begin with the latter:
1. A few weeks ago, I challenged the students at The Hype to learn the Lord’s Prayer and commit it to memory. Scripture memorization is something that has always been encouraged for kids, but seems to drop off once they reach jr. high. We’ve had a handful of students recite it and even more who are still working on it. This makes me a very happy youth pastor.
2. When I issued the challenge, one of our jr. high girls named Autumn told her small group leader (Brandy) that this would be very difficult for her because she is blind. She can’t simply buy herself a Bible because braille Bibles are much more expensive. So we challenged the youth group to raise money to buy Autumn a braille New Testament ($200). They raised it in one night in the offering at The Hype. Last night, we presented her a 9-volume set of braille books which make up the entire New Testament. I have never experienced something quite like seeing her receive it or seeing her read through the Lord’s Prayer with her small group after the lesson. Priceless. More pics and video to be coming soon…
3. New song for worship last night begins with the words, “Grace, what have you done? Murdered for me on that cross.” Brilliant lyrics.
4. A few thoughts from the lesson on “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors,” from Matthew 6:12:
– Two relationships are the focus of the text. First, the vertical relationship between us and God (Forgive us our debts…) and second, the horizontal relationships between us and those around us (we have forgiven our debtors).
– Luke’s version of the prayer uses the Greek word hamartia, which is translated sin or trespass. Matthew uses the Greek opheilema, which is translated debt. Our sin causes us to be indebted to God. Jesus understood that the debt is too large to ever be repaid or even decreased. Thus, when teaching the disciples to pray, he doesn’t instruct them to ask God to reduce the debt or even make them better followers in order that they could repay the debt in full. Jesus emphasizes grace by instructing them to ask God to forgive the debt completely. When we come humbly before God (Blessed are the poor in spirit…), God is fully willing to forgive the sins that have put us in his debt.
– We require a change in attitude when we become aware of the size of our debt. Rather than trying to become a better person in order to be acceptable before God, we must instead understand that only God is capable of ridding us of our debt. This drastically changes the way we are, the way we behave and the way we understand God.
– Forgiving others is the evidence of our receiving forgiveness from God. If we are truly aware of the great debt that God has forgiven, then our response to that forgiveness is to forgive others when they are in our debt. When people sin against us, it’s often difficult to be able to offer forgiveness, but when we see their debt compared to the debt we owed God, forgiveness becomes much more possible.
– One of the excuses given for not forgiving others is, “I’m working through it.” In the Lord’s Prayer, the words, “as we have forgiven” are very important. It’s past tense and it’s something that is expected. Not if we have forgiven, but as we have forgiven. Scars and baggage take time to work through, forgiveness does not. When we come to God for forgiveness, it happens immediately. He doesn’t work through it or need time to process the request. We should strive to be like him even in this regard.
– Have we recognized the weight of the debt that we owe our perfectly loving, just, merciful and gracious God? Have we ever humbly come before him and ask that he wipe out the debt? Have we allowed that forgiveness to change our attitude toward those who have wronged us?
– The Pastor
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