The School of Prayer Part 9: The Lord's Prayer and Forgiveness

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Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. And here to infuse you with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. We'll be sending out our frontline newsletter shortly. It's full of inspiration, full of encouragement, edification from the Hebrew Word study to powerful messages that will really deeply impact you.

Great testimonies. It's free, it's digital. If you're not getting it, go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org and click subscribe. I want to take some more time as we've been teaching about the pattern of prayer that Jesus gave us in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, commonly called the Lord's Prayer. Again, it's something we can pray individually. It's something we can pray corporately, praying those very words. It's also something that we can pray as a pattern. We see prayer throughout the New Testament that does not follow those exact words or that exact pattern. So however it can be best used in your life, either as something prayed directly, prayed corporately as well. Even though we say our Father, it's a prayer we can pray privately, but we're always united with the body.

Ancient Israel always had a consciousness of being united. Now as Messiah's bodies, the Church, we are united as one. So we can pray it in that way. We can pray it as a pattern, as a template.

But I want to read it again and then I want to dig into this concept of the importance of forgiveness. So Jesus says we should pray like this, go in secret and pray our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, it will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. And then some manuscripts add, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen. And Jesus says this, for if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Now in Mark the 11th chapter, Jesus is teaching on prayer and notice what he says then. Mark 11 verse 22, have faith in God.

Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. This is tied in with prayer again in another context where Jesus is teaching on prayer.

Why is this so important? Okay, on the one hand we understand forgive us our debts, meaning our sins, as we've forgiven others. So we understand in God's sight we are constant debtors but the blood of Jesus has cleansed us and washed us. So on the one hand we are saved, cleansed, washed once and for all and coming to righteous standing before God. We have passed from death to life and in Jesus there is no condemnation.

We don't have to get saved every day. If I have an argument with Nancy, we've been married over 48 years, it's happened. If I have an argument with Nancy I don't have to say, will you marry me?

No, we're already married. What I have to say is, honey I'm so sorry, I acted stupidly, please forgive me. And we go on, and we go on.

So that is the first thing, that's where we start. That we know before the Lord we're saved, we're forgiven once and for all, but at the same time, at the same time in our daily walk with him our feet get dirty. It's like Jesus teaching in John the 13th chapter that when he tells the disciples he has to wash their feet, Peter says no, I've never washed my feet. Jesus said if I don't wash your feet you have no part in me.

He says, well all right then I want the whole thing and wash my whole body. And Jesus said no, those who are bathed don't need to be washed again. In other words, in the ancient world you'd go to the river, you'd go to the bath house in some places that had that, you'd bathe and then you'd walk home. You didn't have running water in your home, you didn't have a bath and shower in your home, so you'd have to walk somewhere, bathe, and then when you walk home your feet get dirty.

That's just the nature of it. So you'd have some water at home to wash your feet. So Jesus is saying once you're bathed, in other words once you're saved, once you're cleansed, once you're forgiven, that's done. You're now a child of God. You're now considered righteous in his sight.

You've been set apart to be holy. At the same time there's the relational daily forgiveness. Think of this, 1 John 1-7.

The word says if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. Well if we're walking in the light why is there sin? Because even on our best day we still fall short whether we're aware of it or not.

Even on our best day there are things we omit to do. There's things we don't do with the whole heart and there are other things that we might do that are wrong. So every day as we walk in the light when we realize we've been in error we turn back. We ask for forgiveness, cleansing. It's not the forgiveness of salvation.

We're already saved. It's the daily forgiveness of relational cleansing. So that's why it's fine to pray on a daily basis, Lord forgive us our deaths as we forgive others. Meaning I recognize that every day I need the cleansing and washing of your blood. I do not believe for a split second this idea that if you don't confess every last sin before you fall asleep at night if you die you'll go to hell.

No. What kind of God would that be? Plus it's completely unrealistic. We have no clue many times of the sins we may have committed in the course of a day or blind spots we've had that we gave place to or just where we're falling so short of God's stand that we don't even know it. You know we might have prayed three minutes and our mind wasn't even there and we're hardly even conscious of the fact we're neglecting God.

No. And this idea that if you can sin and you die before you confess your sin you go to hell it completely denies the power of the blood and the power of salvation. For someone to go to hell you have to reject God you have to reject the blood of Jesus you have to reject salvation and reject mercy. That's ultimately what's going to happen.

But please hear me. We do get cleansed and washed on a daily basis. That's a reality whether we're aware of it or not. And when we do fall short he doesn't condemn. He's not out to crush us. He's out to forgive and restore. What about the importance of forgiving others? Why is that so big and why can that in particular hinder our prayers?

Why? So let's think of a couple of things. One thing is the whole gospel at its very foundation is the gospel of forgiveness. The whole gospel at its very base is a message of love and kindness and mercy.

That's what the cross is. God having mercy on a sinning world. God sending his son to die for a sinning guilty word. That is the essence of the gospel. The message of redemption and love and forgiveness. So if we who have been forgiven don't forgive others it will really be a hindrance to our prayers and put up a block in our relationship with the Lord. I want you to consider Matthew chapter 18.

Matthew chapter 18. Jesus tells a parable there and he speaks of a man a servant of the king who owed him a tremendous amount of money. So much there is no way he could ever he could ever pay it off. And the king is going to have him thrown into debtor's prison where you're basically going to rot. You stay there until you can pay off your debt. How can you pay off your debt if you're not working?

So it just makes it even more difficult. He deserves to be thrown into prison and he pleads for mercy and the king says I forgive your debt. Let's just say it was a hundred million dollars. I'm not saying that's the equivalent of the monetary value there in Jesus day in Matthew 18. Let's just say it was a hundred million dollars. How are you going to pay off a hundred million dollars?

Who earns a hundred million dollars in a lifetime or many lifetimes? So the king says I forgive you. Just forgive it? I forgive the debt. So the man walks out from there and some of it works for him.

He runs into it. This guy owes a hundred dollars. A hundred dollars. Again I'm just making this relative to drive a point home.

I'm not trying to give exact monetary values. And the guy says pay me now and he says well I can't. All right I'm throwing you in jail till you pay the last penny. He's just been forgiven a hundred million.

All right this is the picture here. He's just been forgiven a hundred million and he won't forgive this other man. He won't forgive this other man. Now a hundred dollars and when the king hears about it he says all right throw him in prison until he's paid off that hundred million dollar debt. He says this is how my heavenly father will deal with each of you.

It's an incredible verse. This is how my heavenly father will deal with each of you unless you forgive from the heart. Forgive from the heart.

This is a very very serious matter. It's a serious matter in the sight of God. This this failure to forgive as we have been forgiven. It is not just an assault on on the great on the goodness of God. It is a mockery of his kindness to us when we refuse to show it to others. It is a sign of extraordinary ungratefulness and unkindness. So it is absolutely absolutely absolutely essential that we walk in this light of forgiveness.

It will free you. You say but I can't you don't know what people have done to me. Sometimes in the natural it's very hard. Sometimes in the natural it's like a mountain that is too big to climb and yet and yet God's grace can be there. You can choose to forgive even if you don't feel it. In other words you can say all right I don't feel it in my heart.

I'm gonna have to get there. I'm still angry. I'm still bitter but I know that's contrary to your will God and ask yourself the question how does God forgive you? How does God forgive you? Oh it is a very very big question to ask.

How does God forgive you? I want to share something that happened to Nancy some years ago that changed her life and has changed many other lives as well as the result of what God did in her. I'll share that with you on the other side of the break. Let's hear what TriVita customers are saying. Dr. Bronner can't wait to tell you those supplements are absolutely amazing. My strength has gone up.

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Thank you so much for your amazing generosity to the line of fire and to our listeners and viewers and for your great wellness products which are a regular part of my own life. Okay the subject of forgiveness. What is the essence of the new covenant? That Jesus sheds his blood for us and that God remembers our sins no more. I was reading something a few weeks ago and a biblical scholar said it doesn't say God forgets our sins but remembers them no more.

Now I have to I did kind of a mental survey and that seemed to be accurate in the language. I have to have to see if the term forget does come up at any point. I mean Psalm 103 says as far as the east is from the west he's he's he's removed our sins from us and and you know heaven and earth that's the greatness of his mercy towards us and there's so many amazing verses about forgiveness and sin being washed away and sin being covered and sin being removed and being cast into the depths of the sea but God remembers no more. It's different than forget. It's like I don't try to remember but I can't. No he chooses I don't remember them. I don't I he chooses not to remember them. So in God's sight let's think of this in God's sight you've blown it you've come to him you you you you you've sinned and let's say you thought some evil thoughts towards someone and let those thoughts germinate you for a few days and then you said Lord I am so sorry I've sinned against you I've sinned against this person wash me clean wash me with the blood of Jesus I turn from this I receive your forgiveness. If you come back to him the next day to repent over the same thing even though you repented of it earlier and you're not walking anymore his response would be what sin? What what are you talking about? I forgave that.

I remember it no more. In that sense love keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13. But some years ago Nancy received a call from an old friend wanting to get together and this friend had really hurt Nancy very deeply probably about seven years earlier and we were friends as couples the husband and I and Nancy and the wife and we felt deeply wounded and deeply hurt and I had re-established a mild friendship with the husband it was not as deep as it used to be because of the the pain of what had happened and and between us but we were friends and Nancy said well that's fine just like that you got to kind of keep it from a distance and she's like yeah I've forgiven but you know I'm not interested in being friends again so the woman had had to see Nancy in about seven years and Nancy was in a time of day and night seeking God.

Day and night in the presence of God. In a season where she was meeting with him in ways she never had in her life she just turned over work responsibilities in our school of ministry to others and she just had more time to pray and she was in the presence of God and and when she received the invitation to see this woman she hadn't seen in several years she was she was hesitant and she basically told the Lord look I forgave her you know but that's we'll leave it there and the Lord spoke to her how did I forgive you. Now I never do this justice when I explain that it's so much more powerful when Nancy does but she only doesn't like to speak in public but when she shared it privately it's been so intense and the Lord asked her the question is that how I forgive? How do I forgive people? And she just began to think about it and she just even went to a dictionary to look up forgiveness and what it entailed and and then began to meditate on scripture of course on how God forgives, remembers no more, he doesn't hold the thing over your head, he doesn't bring it up over and over and over and over again if there's been true repentance and you receive cleansing through the blood of Jesus it's dealt with it's done and he doesn't bring it up and harp on it well 20 years ago you did well six months ago you said you're going to fast you didn't very well you downloaded porn that one day and I know you repented with tears but and oh okay well you you were nasty to your kids well you you weren't diligent on your job and yeah but Lord I repented of that and you forgave me he that's not who he is he doesn't harp on it bring it back up so the Lord did something supernatural in Nancy's heart I cannot describe how deeply it impacted her and changed her in the most remarkable way so she said to the woman sure we can get together the next day they got together for lunch Nancy did not bring up a word about the past not a syllable she just loved her and was a friend and talked about the Lord I get a call from the husband later that day and he said what did your wife do to my wife she can't stop crying it was this manifestation of God's goodness and God's love pouring through Nancy and it changed her it changed her nature changed her personality I was there when it happened about 17 years ago I've been a witness to it ever since and again I don't do justice to the full revelation of forgiveness as God expressed it to her and she expressed it to me and others but ask yourself the question how has God forgiven you now I met with David Berkowitz the son of Sam serial killer in prison many years ago he is rightly in jail for the rest of his life for multiple acts of cold-blooded murder in jail as the son of Sam serial killer the most notorious serial killer in New York City history literally paralyzed the city with fear literally subways were empty places the lovers lanes where people hang out they're empty for fear of where he was going to strike and I remember seeing a picture of him when he was arrested thinking he's a monster he's a monster and then I heard about I heard about getting him getting saved in prison I thought not him not David Berkowitz too evil too evil I thought that's just another jailhouse conversion for convenience or for a story or trying to get out early or something and God convicted me okay I wasn't a serial killer but look at the sin that was in my life and the evil and the wretchedness that was in my life before I was saved and if we're honest even some of the evil and righteousness that's in our lives after we're saved and God challenged me with that did I forgive you oh so your sin was really bad but not as bad as his I can forgive someone for shooting heroin and stealing money from his father and breaking into a doctor's office and lying to his friends and being immoral and full of pride and anger I can forgive that but I can't forgive a serial killer so God dealt with me about my attitude years later I spent time with David one of my friends had become very close with him and here he is in prison singing hymns with us together full of the joy of the Lord in the midst of a hellish difficult life and when he first came up for parole he wrote to the governor he wasn't going to get it anyway he wrote to the governor and said I deserve I deserve to to be behind bars for the rest of my life I I deserve that I shouldn't be released but he's forgiven but he's forgiven by God he's forgiven by God his conscience is clear because of God's grace and mercy so there are sins that can be committed that have consequences if you rob the bank you can ask God to forgive you he will but you got to bring the money back to the bank and you probably do some prison time but you do it as a free person God does not hold our sins against us it's it's the foundation of the gospel so how does God forgive you the things you did before you were saved does he bring them up to you again oh yeah you slept around a lot oh yeah you got drunk and beat people up oh yeah you got drunk got in a car wreck and injured somebody how how about that how about that does he bring it up to you all the time no why because you're forgiven by the cross well the same thing with sins committed after the cross meaning after we came to salvation in our lives when we truly come to him and and recognize our sin and guilt and confess it and turn from it there's that fresh flow of forgiveness and God doesn't hold it against us yes there are consequences we reap what we sow in different ways if you've been financially negligent for 20 years and now get on the right track it may take some years to to get out of debt and get financially whole of course we understand all that but God forgives and remembers no more and he treats us as if we never sinned he treats us as if the past is the past and we relate to him as his children even when we're going through times of divine discipline where in his love he disciplines us even when we go through that we're intimate with him Abba father sometimes that's the closest we ever come to him in seasons like that so how did God forgive you that's how you forgive others and it'll free you walking bitterness walking anger it doesn't help anyone it certainly doesn't help you and many times when you forgive someone from the heart even before they've repented even before they've asked your forgiveness a spiritual release comes to them and change comes to them but for sure it will come to you so Jesus makes a big deal about this that's what we're spending time on and those of you who really don't know God's forgiveness I encourage you to read everything in scripture about the love of God the love of God the goodness of God and don't look to yourself because we always fall short look to the cross look to the cross look to the cross God remembers our sins no more may he give each of us grace to truly forgive from the heart so that when we go to pray our prayers won't be hindered all right we're going to continue on subject to prayer classes are still in session this is Dr. Michael Brown thanks so much for tuning in just a reminder that we are listener supported if we have been a blessing to you if you're being enriched in the word and prayer in your own walk with God through this broadcast then stand with us so that we can reach many many more and bless many many more together friends we're making a difference so go to thelineoffire.org thelineoffire.org and click donate