By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
. . . one of His disciples said to Him, ’Lord, teach us to pray . . .’ —Luke 11:1
Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
“Ask, and you will receive . . .” ( John 16:24 ). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” ( Matthew 18:3 ). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.
To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Living Your Theology
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . . —John 12:35
Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” ( Matthew 6:23 ). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.
The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.
Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “. . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” ( Matthew 5:20 ). In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . . —John 12:35
Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” ( Matthew 6:23 ). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.
The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.
Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “. . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” ( Matthew 5:20 ). In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Are You Ever Troubled?
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you . . . —John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” ( John 6:63 ). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “. . . My peace I give to you. . .”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.
Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.
With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” ( Hebrews 12:2 ) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” ( John 14:27 ).
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you . . . —John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” ( John 6:63 ). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “. . . My peace I give to you. . .”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.
Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.
With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” ( Hebrews 12:2 ) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” ( John 14:27 ).
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Sacrifice and Friendship
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
I have called you friends . . . —John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if . . . !” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14 ). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . . .” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2 ).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.
“I have called you friends. . . .” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.
I have called you friends . . . —John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if . . . !” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14 ). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . . .” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2 ).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.
“I have called you friends. . . .” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
The Spiritual Search
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives . . .” (Matthew 7:8).
What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives . . .” (Matthew 7:8).
Monday, August 23, 2010
Prayer— Battle in "The Secret Place"
By My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers’
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “. . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . .” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “. . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . .” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Pardon: For Giving - Part 4/5
Written By Sheila Schuller Coleman
Today we are continuing in our series on "Spiritual Sustainability: Living The Lord's Prayer." You've been hearing the word sustainability, that new "go green" word that represents anything from fabric to architecture to foods to anything that can be renewed and continue to grow. Anything that is sustainable.
Don't we want that for our spirits, as well? To be spiritually sustained? And the secret to that is found in the Lord's Prayer. There are principles in the Lord's Prayer that will give you spiritual sustainability. And so today, we'll cover number four in a series of five. However, before we do, let's review the first three principles.
We begin the Lord's Prayer with praise: "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name." Praise. Beginning your day with praise and continuing throughout the day by living and praying with a God who has a can-do-anything attitude. He's a loving Father, a powerful God, a protective Father, a heavenly Father.
The order of these principles align with the order of the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus gave to us when His disciples asked Him, "How, then, should we pray?" He only gave one answer to that question and it's the Lord's Prayer. And the order is very important. Number one, begin with praise. Why? We thank God, we worship Him, we focus on Him, and we remind ourselves it's to Him that we pray. And that's important because we tend to forget about how big God really is. So begin with praise.
Then move on to permission, giving God permission. He doesn't need our permission, but we give it to Him anyway. You may remember that I used a rope to illustrate our daily tug of war with my will and my will. Do I want to go to the gym or will I stay in bed? Will I eat healthy food or will I eat junk food? Me and me. My will versus my will.
And then there's also my will versus Thy will, meaning I have a tug of war between my will and my spouse's will, my will and my child's will, my will and my friend's will. Those tug of wars, those clashes of wills.
Ultimately we talk about Thy will be done, my will versus God's will. I can give God permission. I can say to Him, "Thy will be done with my life. You do with me as you want to do," because, remember, I've just praised Him. I've just focused on who He is and I can trust Him with my entire life. And so we pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," in my life "on earth as it is in heaven." And we say, "What are You up to today, Lord? I want to be a part of it."
So, praise, permission, and then we have petition. After we have praised Him, after we've given Him permission and submitted to Him, then we ask Him for what we need this day. Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread." It doesn't say give us this day our day old, moldy, stale bread, but give us this day our fresh-from-the-oven artisan bread. God says, "Ask and it will be given to you" (Matthew 7:7a).
So praise, permission, petition. Today we get to pardon. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
I've brought with me today, to help illustrate this Sunday's message, a restoration bucket, that's what I call it. I'll put it right here. And I have lots of little illustrations in there on how this verse works. There are two parts to this part of the Lord's Prayer. The first part is "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Again, the order is really important. The first part is asking for forgiveness, and the second part is giving forgiveness.
I'll have you know, I abhor house cleaning. Anybody else here feel the same? I just don't like doing it. And the worst part is cleaning the shower and the bathtub, don't you think? Scrubbing that soap scum. Nonetheless, I buckled down and cleaned my house from top to bottom. I even cleaned the grout in the tile. The house was beautiful; it was sparkling. There was no dust anywhere in the entire house. That was ten years ago. I haven't done it since. NOT! Really truly, if I only cleaned my house once in my lifetime, is that enough? No. I wish it were, but it's not. We have to do perpetual housecleaning, don't we?
That's why I love the fact that you can pray the Lord's Prayer every day. Every day you praise God. Every day you give Him permission. Every day you ask Him for what you need today. And every day, you do your housecleaning in your soul and in your relationship with God and with other people. And you do it by asking for forgiveness, which is pardon.
One of our biggest fears is the fear of failure. I truly believe that. You've heard Dad and others talk about the fear of failure to live up to our potential, to do the right thing, to pay what we owe other people, to pay our debts. How we fear that we might fail our families, friends, God. How many of you have ever dealt with the fear of failure? I have. I do. Yet every single one of us has already failed. Every one of us will fail. Probably we fail a little bit every single day. So you say, "Sheila, that isn't the positive message." Oh yes it is because, what if I were to give to you the antidote for failure? What if I gave you the antidote for the fear of failure? Would you love to have that, the antidote to failure, to the fear of failure? Well it's right here in the Lord's Prayer. The antidote to failure is forgiveness. Forgiveness. Jesus gives us the antidote.
You may think, Oh I failed. Oh, I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be. And I want you to know, you're in good company if you feel that way. King David was known as one of the greatest kings, if not the greatest earthly king ever to walk this earth. Remember, he was the little shepherd boy who took on the big giant Goliath and he built this great big empire for God. David is revered; people talk about him as this wonderful, successful king. Oh, to be a David, right? Yet David failed. Let me tell you about David, how he failed.
As a king. He had multiple wives and he had multiple concubines, many beautiful women that were his. Back then, this was okay. Yet he saw this one woman, Bathsheba, and thought, wow, she's good looking. He desired her. But she was married to Uriah, another man, a soldier in David's army. When Uriah was away, David took her. He took her and she became pregnant. Now wouldn't this make headline news in the newspaper that the king took somebody else's wife while the husband was away and got her pregnant? Would you say that's a failure on David's part? Absolutely. He failed God, he failed his country, he failed Bathsheba, and he failed Uriah.
So what was his response? What do you think he did? He continued to fail because, when he found out that Bathsheba was pregnant, he decided to cover up his failure. Now have any of you ever tried to cover up your failure? Or do you know anybody else who's tried to cover up a failure? Absolutely yes.
What David did was to send Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, to the front lines where he knew he would be killed. In essence, he murdered Uriah to cover up his adultery. So here he is, this great King David, who has committed adultery and has covered it up with murder. A failure. And yet the Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. When Nathan the prophet said David, "Look what you have done," David agreed he had failed. This is why David was a man after God's own heart.
David said, "Yes, I failed. Yes, I messed up. So, Father, forgive me." He then wrote a beautiful Psalm - Psalm 51. If you ever feel that you've failed, read David's Psalm because the antidote for failure is forgiveness. He wrote, "Have mercy on me, oh God. Have mercy on me. Because of Your unfailing love, because of Your compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sins and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow."
The next time you feel you've failed, or maybe today you feel like you've failed, I want you to know that it's just a sign that you're alive. It's a sign that you are a child of God and all you need to do, the antidote for failure and fear of failure, is ask for forgiveness. When we say, "God forgive me," He cleans our hearts. He's the great "Mr. Clean."
So, here in my restoration bucket is a Mr. Clean eraser. It's supposed to be able to erase any stain from your house. I also have in here a pink pearl eraser because, as a teacher, I love pink pearl erasers. If we make a mistake or if we have debt, wouldn't you love just to take this pink pearl eraser, erase that mistake or that debt once and for all, and get rid of it? I do hate debt, personal debt, especially. Most of us have debt of some sort or another, to either a credit card or a car loan or a mortgage loan or maybe a student loan for your child. This Bible verse says to forgive us our debts - to wipe us off, clean up that heart, make us whiter than snow. And God will do that. It's a gift. You don't have to pay for it, and when you accept it, there are no monthly payments. It's just a gift. No interest accrued. It's just a gift.
Well, you know that I don't like to clean my house. You may also like to know that I'm very dangerous when it comes to fixing anything that breaks in the house. So my husband doesn't like it when something breaks. He's always afraid that I'll try to fix it before he does, because this is my favorite tool. It's a table knife. It's always handy, and the handle works as a hammer. This part, at the blade, works like a screwdriver and it works as a wedge; you can pry out all kinds of things from the wall. Whenever anything breaks and I open the drawer, my husband says, "Put that table knife away!" So I put it away. Jim is Mr. Fix It. And he fixes things.
The first part of the Lord's Prayer is where we ask God to forgive us, to clean us up, to clean our hearts. The second part is where we ask God to help mend and fix our relationships with others. We take the forgiveness that we've been given from God, we accept that forgiveness that we've been given by God, and we pass it on to others who hurt us.
Jesus was asked, "How many times am I supposed to forgive my brother?" Most of you have heard this. "Am I supposed to forgive him seven times?"
Jesus said, "No, you're supposed to forgive him seventy times seven. That's how many times you're supposed to forgive him." And many, many more times. But beyond that, Jesus didn't stop there. In that passage, He shared this parable (Matthew 18:23-35, paraphrased):
There was a master who had a servant, and the servant owed his master ten thousand talents, a lot of money. And the master called the servant in and he said to him, "You owe me this money, and I want you to pay me. The servant didn't have the money. He couldn't pay his debt. The master said, "Where's the money?"
The servant said, "I don't have it."
The master said, "If you don't pay me back every penny, you, your wife, and your children will be my slaves. You will work off your debt. I don't care how long it takes you - probably the rest of your life. You will be my slaves for life. No longer will you be my servant where I pay you; you will be my slave."
The servant bowed before the master and he said, "Please, please, please have mercy on me. Forgive me my debt. Forgive me my debt."
The master showed him mercy and he forgave him completely. He said, "Because you've asked for mercy, I'm going to give you mercy. You may go. You're completely forgiven." So, off went the servant. Free.
He returned home and, when looking at his own financial records, realized that one of his sub servants, who worked for him, owed him a hundred denarii, not nearly as much as the ten thousand talents he had owed. So he called his sub servant in and he said, "You owe me money. I want it right now." In fact, it says in the Bible that he took his sub servant by the neck and choked him and said, "Give me my money. Pay me back immediately!"
The sub servant said, "I don't have it, I don't have the money."
So what do you think this servant - the one who had been graciously forgiven, his debt erased by his master - did? What kind of response do you think he had for this man who owed him money? He threw him in jail.
Well, Jesus let us know that God has forgiven us. He has completely forgiven us. He has erased our debt. We don't owe Him a thing. And all He asks for us in return is to take that forgiveness and give it to others who have hurt us and who will hurt us.
So we ask for forgiveness, and we give forgiveness. That is the antidote for all of our failures in life, and especially our failure in relationships. And, yes, there are many of us who have either strained or ruptured relationships, and the antidote for that is forgiveness.
I also have a trowel in my restoration bucket because it says in Hebrews 12, "See to it that no one misses the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up to trouble and defile many." In other words, the "bitter root" is "bitterness." You may, like Dad likes to say, "Nurse and rehearse those hurts." You may think that you have every right - and you probably do - to feel mad, to feel angry, to feel resentful, and to be bitter. But be careful because that bitter root will just wrap its tentacles around your heart, and choke the love and the joy right out of you. Bitterness is a spiritual and an emotional cancer. And so we say, "God, take Your trowel and lovingly, carefully, tenderly dig out that bitter root from my heart."
I want you to think about how you would feel if the following was your experience. Imagine someone murdered your entire family. Imagine that someone broke into your home and, before your eyes, tortured your children, murdered your husband, and then raped you. Then later that murderer was captured, put in jail, and quickly released by the warden. He sets him free, gives him pardon, and says, "Go home." And, what if he moves in right next door to you? You see him walk his dog. You see him when you go to the grocery store. You see him when you wash your car. How would you feel? Wouldn't that be hard? Wouldn't that be excruciating? Forgiveness? Sheila, you say you want me to forgive him?
That is exactly what happened in Rwanda with the genocide in 1994. Nearly a million people were tortured and killed. Forty thousand murderers were thrown in jail, and then pardoned, and then released to live as neighbors beside those they had hurt. And do you know what the country of Rwanda is teaching the rest of the world? How to forgive. They're learning to forgive, and this is what the bishop of Rwanda has said: "A murderer able to accept forgiveness? Impossible! A victim of such atrocities able to give forgiveness? Impossible. But remember, men and women, that what is humanly impossible, with God all things are possible." He says there is no greater grace than the grace that is in Rwanda, and that grace comes from the cross of Jesus Christ.
I go through the day and, every now and then, somebody will say something that hurts my feelings. Any of you ever have that happen to you? And right away, you go ouch, oh, ah! And you harbor a little anger towards them. But I have trained myself to, most of the time, think of Jesus hanging on the cross with the people who put Him there standing down below Him. What did He do to deserve that? Did He deserve to have nails pounded into His hands? Pounded into His feet? Did He deserve that? No. And yet He looked down on these same people who did that to Him, and He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
And so when I get those little twinges and those little hurts, I think of that and I immediately say, "Father, I forgive them. They know not what they do."
So much of hurt is resentment. So many fractured relationships with our Heavenly Father and with others come from broken hearts. And so I want to ask you, what would you do? What would you use to mend a broken heart?
So, let's look in this restoration bucket - these are my husband's tools. So, would you use a hammer and a nail to mend a broken heart? Would you? Actually, that is exactly what God used to mend our broken hearts. He used a hammer and a nail. Hammers pounded nails into the hands of Jesus. A hammer pounded nails into the feet of Jesus because God wanted to mend your broken heart. He wants to mend your broken relationships. He loves you so much that He would send His Son to die so we can be mended, we can be pardoned, our debts can be paid when we pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
Please stand with me. Let us close in prayer. And we're going to do our hand motions as we've been doing so we remember. It helps us remember through the week. So we start with praise, right? Hands up, faces lifted up and, with Crystal Cathedral gusto, repeat after me: "Our Father, Who art in heaven (Our Father Who art in heaven)." A little more gusto. "Hallowed be Thy name (Hallowed be Thy name)." Now we're going to do permission. Take your hands down and open them up. "Thy kingdom come (Thy kingdom come), Thy will be done (Thy will be done), on earth as it is in heaven (on earth as it is in heaven)." Now we put them together in petition and we ask Him, "Give us this day our daily bread (give us this day our daily bread)." And, Lord, we ask not for day-old, moldy, stale bread, but for daily bread.
And now we're going to do the pardon and this is American sign language for Jesus; you just put a nail in the hand. Repeat after me: "Forgive us our debts (forgive us our debts) as we forgive our debtors (as we forgive our debtors)." Lord, I ask You, today, to forgive me (Lord, I ask You, today, to forgive me). Forgive me for thinking I don't need You (Forgive me for thinking I don't need You). Forgive me for holding grudges (Forgive me for holding grudges). Forgive me for hurting that person I really do love (Forgive me for hurting that person I really do love). Amen (Amen).
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Today we are continuing in our series on "Spiritual Sustainability: Living The Lord's Prayer." You've been hearing the word sustainability, that new "go green" word that represents anything from fabric to architecture to foods to anything that can be renewed and continue to grow. Anything that is sustainable.
Don't we want that for our spirits, as well? To be spiritually sustained? And the secret to that is found in the Lord's Prayer. There are principles in the Lord's Prayer that will give you spiritual sustainability. And so today, we'll cover number four in a series of five. However, before we do, let's review the first three principles.
We begin the Lord's Prayer with praise: "Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name." Praise. Beginning your day with praise and continuing throughout the day by living and praying with a God who has a can-do-anything attitude. He's a loving Father, a powerful God, a protective Father, a heavenly Father.
The order of these principles align with the order of the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus gave to us when His disciples asked Him, "How, then, should we pray?" He only gave one answer to that question and it's the Lord's Prayer. And the order is very important. Number one, begin with praise. Why? We thank God, we worship Him, we focus on Him, and we remind ourselves it's to Him that we pray. And that's important because we tend to forget about how big God really is. So begin with praise.
Then move on to permission, giving God permission. He doesn't need our permission, but we give it to Him anyway. You may remember that I used a rope to illustrate our daily tug of war with my will and my will. Do I want to go to the gym or will I stay in bed? Will I eat healthy food or will I eat junk food? Me and me. My will versus my will.
And then there's also my will versus Thy will, meaning I have a tug of war between my will and my spouse's will, my will and my child's will, my will and my friend's will. Those tug of wars, those clashes of wills.
Ultimately we talk about Thy will be done, my will versus God's will. I can give God permission. I can say to Him, "Thy will be done with my life. You do with me as you want to do," because, remember, I've just praised Him. I've just focused on who He is and I can trust Him with my entire life. And so we pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," in my life "on earth as it is in heaven." And we say, "What are You up to today, Lord? I want to be a part of it."
So, praise, permission, and then we have petition. After we have praised Him, after we've given Him permission and submitted to Him, then we ask Him for what we need this day. Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread." It doesn't say give us this day our day old, moldy, stale bread, but give us this day our fresh-from-the-oven artisan bread. God says, "Ask and it will be given to you" (Matthew 7:7a).
So praise, permission, petition. Today we get to pardon. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
I've brought with me today, to help illustrate this Sunday's message, a restoration bucket, that's what I call it. I'll put it right here. And I have lots of little illustrations in there on how this verse works. There are two parts to this part of the Lord's Prayer. The first part is "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Again, the order is really important. The first part is asking for forgiveness, and the second part is giving forgiveness.
I'll have you know, I abhor house cleaning. Anybody else here feel the same? I just don't like doing it. And the worst part is cleaning the shower and the bathtub, don't you think? Scrubbing that soap scum. Nonetheless, I buckled down and cleaned my house from top to bottom. I even cleaned the grout in the tile. The house was beautiful; it was sparkling. There was no dust anywhere in the entire house. That was ten years ago. I haven't done it since. NOT! Really truly, if I only cleaned my house once in my lifetime, is that enough? No. I wish it were, but it's not. We have to do perpetual housecleaning, don't we?
That's why I love the fact that you can pray the Lord's Prayer every day. Every day you praise God. Every day you give Him permission. Every day you ask Him for what you need today. And every day, you do your housecleaning in your soul and in your relationship with God and with other people. And you do it by asking for forgiveness, which is pardon.
One of our biggest fears is the fear of failure. I truly believe that. You've heard Dad and others talk about the fear of failure to live up to our potential, to do the right thing, to pay what we owe other people, to pay our debts. How we fear that we might fail our families, friends, God. How many of you have ever dealt with the fear of failure? I have. I do. Yet every single one of us has already failed. Every one of us will fail. Probably we fail a little bit every single day. So you say, "Sheila, that isn't the positive message." Oh yes it is because, what if I were to give to you the antidote for failure? What if I gave you the antidote for the fear of failure? Would you love to have that, the antidote to failure, to the fear of failure? Well it's right here in the Lord's Prayer. The antidote to failure is forgiveness. Forgiveness. Jesus gives us the antidote.
You may think, Oh I failed. Oh, I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be. And I want you to know, you're in good company if you feel that way. King David was known as one of the greatest kings, if not the greatest earthly king ever to walk this earth. Remember, he was the little shepherd boy who took on the big giant Goliath and he built this great big empire for God. David is revered; people talk about him as this wonderful, successful king. Oh, to be a David, right? Yet David failed. Let me tell you about David, how he failed.
As a king. He had multiple wives and he had multiple concubines, many beautiful women that were his. Back then, this was okay. Yet he saw this one woman, Bathsheba, and thought, wow, she's good looking. He desired her. But she was married to Uriah, another man, a soldier in David's army. When Uriah was away, David took her. He took her and she became pregnant. Now wouldn't this make headline news in the newspaper that the king took somebody else's wife while the husband was away and got her pregnant? Would you say that's a failure on David's part? Absolutely. He failed God, he failed his country, he failed Bathsheba, and he failed Uriah.
So what was his response? What do you think he did? He continued to fail because, when he found out that Bathsheba was pregnant, he decided to cover up his failure. Now have any of you ever tried to cover up your failure? Or do you know anybody else who's tried to cover up a failure? Absolutely yes.
What David did was to send Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, to the front lines where he knew he would be killed. In essence, he murdered Uriah to cover up his adultery. So here he is, this great King David, who has committed adultery and has covered it up with murder. A failure. And yet the Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. When Nathan the prophet said David, "Look what you have done," David agreed he had failed. This is why David was a man after God's own heart.
David said, "Yes, I failed. Yes, I messed up. So, Father, forgive me." He then wrote a beautiful Psalm - Psalm 51. If you ever feel that you've failed, read David's Psalm because the antidote for failure is forgiveness. He wrote, "Have mercy on me, oh God. Have mercy on me. Because of Your unfailing love, because of Your compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sins and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow."
The next time you feel you've failed, or maybe today you feel like you've failed, I want you to know that it's just a sign that you're alive. It's a sign that you are a child of God and all you need to do, the antidote for failure and fear of failure, is ask for forgiveness. When we say, "God forgive me," He cleans our hearts. He's the great "Mr. Clean."
So, here in my restoration bucket is a Mr. Clean eraser. It's supposed to be able to erase any stain from your house. I also have in here a pink pearl eraser because, as a teacher, I love pink pearl erasers. If we make a mistake or if we have debt, wouldn't you love just to take this pink pearl eraser, erase that mistake or that debt once and for all, and get rid of it? I do hate debt, personal debt, especially. Most of us have debt of some sort or another, to either a credit card or a car loan or a mortgage loan or maybe a student loan for your child. This Bible verse says to forgive us our debts - to wipe us off, clean up that heart, make us whiter than snow. And God will do that. It's a gift. You don't have to pay for it, and when you accept it, there are no monthly payments. It's just a gift. No interest accrued. It's just a gift.
Well, you know that I don't like to clean my house. You may also like to know that I'm very dangerous when it comes to fixing anything that breaks in the house. So my husband doesn't like it when something breaks. He's always afraid that I'll try to fix it before he does, because this is my favorite tool. It's a table knife. It's always handy, and the handle works as a hammer. This part, at the blade, works like a screwdriver and it works as a wedge; you can pry out all kinds of things from the wall. Whenever anything breaks and I open the drawer, my husband says, "Put that table knife away!" So I put it away. Jim is Mr. Fix It. And he fixes things.
The first part of the Lord's Prayer is where we ask God to forgive us, to clean us up, to clean our hearts. The second part is where we ask God to help mend and fix our relationships with others. We take the forgiveness that we've been given from God, we accept that forgiveness that we've been given by God, and we pass it on to others who hurt us.
Jesus was asked, "How many times am I supposed to forgive my brother?" Most of you have heard this. "Am I supposed to forgive him seven times?"
Jesus said, "No, you're supposed to forgive him seventy times seven. That's how many times you're supposed to forgive him." And many, many more times. But beyond that, Jesus didn't stop there. In that passage, He shared this parable (Matthew 18:23-35, paraphrased):
There was a master who had a servant, and the servant owed his master ten thousand talents, a lot of money. And the master called the servant in and he said to him, "You owe me this money, and I want you to pay me. The servant didn't have the money. He couldn't pay his debt. The master said, "Where's the money?"
The servant said, "I don't have it."
The master said, "If you don't pay me back every penny, you, your wife, and your children will be my slaves. You will work off your debt. I don't care how long it takes you - probably the rest of your life. You will be my slaves for life. No longer will you be my servant where I pay you; you will be my slave."
The servant bowed before the master and he said, "Please, please, please have mercy on me. Forgive me my debt. Forgive me my debt."
The master showed him mercy and he forgave him completely. He said, "Because you've asked for mercy, I'm going to give you mercy. You may go. You're completely forgiven." So, off went the servant. Free.
He returned home and, when looking at his own financial records, realized that one of his sub servants, who worked for him, owed him a hundred denarii, not nearly as much as the ten thousand talents he had owed. So he called his sub servant in and he said, "You owe me money. I want it right now." In fact, it says in the Bible that he took his sub servant by the neck and choked him and said, "Give me my money. Pay me back immediately!"
The sub servant said, "I don't have it, I don't have the money."
So what do you think this servant - the one who had been graciously forgiven, his debt erased by his master - did? What kind of response do you think he had for this man who owed him money? He threw him in jail.
Well, Jesus let us know that God has forgiven us. He has completely forgiven us. He has erased our debt. We don't owe Him a thing. And all He asks for us in return is to take that forgiveness and give it to others who have hurt us and who will hurt us.
So we ask for forgiveness, and we give forgiveness. That is the antidote for all of our failures in life, and especially our failure in relationships. And, yes, there are many of us who have either strained or ruptured relationships, and the antidote for that is forgiveness.
I also have a trowel in my restoration bucket because it says in Hebrews 12, "See to it that no one misses the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up to trouble and defile many." In other words, the "bitter root" is "bitterness." You may, like Dad likes to say, "Nurse and rehearse those hurts." You may think that you have every right - and you probably do - to feel mad, to feel angry, to feel resentful, and to be bitter. But be careful because that bitter root will just wrap its tentacles around your heart, and choke the love and the joy right out of you. Bitterness is a spiritual and an emotional cancer. And so we say, "God, take Your trowel and lovingly, carefully, tenderly dig out that bitter root from my heart."
I want you to think about how you would feel if the following was your experience. Imagine someone murdered your entire family. Imagine that someone broke into your home and, before your eyes, tortured your children, murdered your husband, and then raped you. Then later that murderer was captured, put in jail, and quickly released by the warden. He sets him free, gives him pardon, and says, "Go home." And, what if he moves in right next door to you? You see him walk his dog. You see him when you go to the grocery store. You see him when you wash your car. How would you feel? Wouldn't that be hard? Wouldn't that be excruciating? Forgiveness? Sheila, you say you want me to forgive him?
That is exactly what happened in Rwanda with the genocide in 1994. Nearly a million people were tortured and killed. Forty thousand murderers were thrown in jail, and then pardoned, and then released to live as neighbors beside those they had hurt. And do you know what the country of Rwanda is teaching the rest of the world? How to forgive. They're learning to forgive, and this is what the bishop of Rwanda has said: "A murderer able to accept forgiveness? Impossible! A victim of such atrocities able to give forgiveness? Impossible. But remember, men and women, that what is humanly impossible, with God all things are possible." He says there is no greater grace than the grace that is in Rwanda, and that grace comes from the cross of Jesus Christ.
I go through the day and, every now and then, somebody will say something that hurts my feelings. Any of you ever have that happen to you? And right away, you go ouch, oh, ah! And you harbor a little anger towards them. But I have trained myself to, most of the time, think of Jesus hanging on the cross with the people who put Him there standing down below Him. What did He do to deserve that? Did He deserve to have nails pounded into His hands? Pounded into His feet? Did He deserve that? No. And yet He looked down on these same people who did that to Him, and He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
And so when I get those little twinges and those little hurts, I think of that and I immediately say, "Father, I forgive them. They know not what they do."
So much of hurt is resentment. So many fractured relationships with our Heavenly Father and with others come from broken hearts. And so I want to ask you, what would you do? What would you use to mend a broken heart?
So, let's look in this restoration bucket - these are my husband's tools. So, would you use a hammer and a nail to mend a broken heart? Would you? Actually, that is exactly what God used to mend our broken hearts. He used a hammer and a nail. Hammers pounded nails into the hands of Jesus. A hammer pounded nails into the feet of Jesus because God wanted to mend your broken heart. He wants to mend your broken relationships. He loves you so much that He would send His Son to die so we can be mended, we can be pardoned, our debts can be paid when we pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
Please stand with me. Let us close in prayer. And we're going to do our hand motions as we've been doing so we remember. It helps us remember through the week. So we start with praise, right? Hands up, faces lifted up and, with Crystal Cathedral gusto, repeat after me: "Our Father, Who art in heaven (Our Father Who art in heaven)." A little more gusto. "Hallowed be Thy name (Hallowed be Thy name)." Now we're going to do permission. Take your hands down and open them up. "Thy kingdom come (Thy kingdom come), Thy will be done (Thy will be done), on earth as it is in heaven (on earth as it is in heaven)." Now we put them together in petition and we ask Him, "Give us this day our daily bread (give us this day our daily bread)." And, Lord, we ask not for day-old, moldy, stale bread, but for daily bread.
And now we're going to do the pardon and this is American sign language for Jesus; you just put a nail in the hand. Repeat after me: "Forgive us our debts (forgive us our debts) as we forgive our debtors (as we forgive our debtors)." Lord, I ask You, today, to forgive me (Lord, I ask You, today, to forgive me). Forgive me for thinking I don't need You (Forgive me for thinking I don't need You). Forgive me for holding grudges (Forgive me for holding grudges). Forgive me for hurting that person I really do love (Forgive me for hurting that person I really do love). Amen (Amen).
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