The Lord's Prayer | This Present Kingdom | Week 7 | Donna Gaines

well hi ladies and welcome to week seven of our bible study this present kingdom we are so excited to have you joining us today whether it's right here on campus or online yes hey girls hey just like lauren said we are so excited to be back together with you this week whether you're here on campus online and if you're watching with us online whether it's today or any other day this week go ahead and share this video on your own feed so your girlfriends can join in with us absolutely and while you're there go ahead and follow us on facebook and instagram so you can stay up to date with our latest posts and updates and you'll also get our links to the podcast called the afterward yes okay lauren i know i say this every week but i absolutely love the podcast me too and i'm not just saying that and like trying to pitch it to you kind of way like we absolutely love the podcast for real yes i agree and actually ladies we have a special treat for you this morning we have a small clip from a few weeks ago of the podcast so we want you to check that out now so if we're facing persecution or we're facing a difficulty in our marriage or we're facing an illness or we're facing a rebellious child whatever the circumstance it is that's going on in your life if you're listening today i want you to know that through the power of the holy spirit god has everything you need and he is so merciful and he meets us at the point of our need if we just turn to him and call out to him amen well what a sweet reminder that god has everything that we need and he meets us like donna said exactly at the point of that need well you know it's a podcast so you typically won't get to see the video like that that's a special treat for you this morning but there is such great content on the podcast each week and so we really encourage you to check it out last week we had a special guest roz martin a lot of you know her and she did a great job so we want to encourage you to check out that episode yes and to hear her share how um she and her husband parent with a purpose i know i love that line i love that line you need some t-shirts yes i need a t-shirt a bracelet a mug i love it but basically it's my new slogan now to parent with a purpose yeah but to hear her share the ways that she strives in her family um to do that was so good and ladies i'm not going to quote the whole thing to you because you really need to go check it out yes but it was it was very sweet to have her this last week you know ladies paige is a really great note taker like really great she does detailed awesome notes and so i was trying to be you know i was doing my best page impression trying to jot down everything that was being said it was so good right right i mean i'm one of those that you know does really enjoy taking the notes and um working through things and you know just kind of speaking of that you know kind of skip forward a little one of our things that we love with the study is our kingdom exercises each week and you know how we talk about we have that fifth day in our study that takes what we've been learning that week to kind of break it down give practical steps and as many of you know uh this week we did walking through the lord's prayer yeah and just encouraging us to walk through it you know by each of the petitions to pray specifically through those things like lauren said i am a journaler and one of the things that really did help was taking the time to journal through that as i prayed and just encouraging ladies for y'all to do that as well because one of the fun things too not only does it help you focus in but you get to go back later and see what the lord did as he answered those prayers and so i absolutely and what a testimony to his faithfulness when you see those prayers answered and can remember how he just led you through those difficult times so uh ladies we know that paige can't be the only one with all the journals so anybody who likes journaling can i hear from you this morning you guys fans for me if i don't write it down i won't remember it so right i agree that it's important so yes anyway we want to also encourage you ladies to go to bellevue.org women if you haven't already registered for our study so that you will receive emails um as well as resources to help you through um each week of our study yes the link to the podcast yes lots of good resources please do but we are so excited to welcome back miss donna today and um like i said we've been going through the lord's prayers so today she's going to be teaching out of matthew 6 verses 9 through 15 which is the passage known as the lord's prayer yes and we also want to encourage you ladies to share uh with us how this study has been impacting you we received some awesome testimonies that just encourage us and you know we love getting to hear from you so go ahead and keep on messaging those emailing those two page when you receive an email from her and we'd love to keep hearing from you we do and i actually do pass those along and share when you send us prayer requests when you send us how the lord's working and you i love to pass that along to the ladies and we share that with you but ladies like we said we are so excited to have you back here with us today whether you're watching here on campus or online if you're with us online go ahead and share this on your feed so you can girlfriends can join in with us and get ready for some time of worship together and don't be afraid to sing at your computer because just know i will be backstage singing right along with you [Music] good morning and welcome to bellevue women thank you so much for joining us today for week 7 in our study this present kingdom the disruptive message of the sermon on the mount as we get started this morning would you just take a moment and pray with me father we ask you to flood all of the places that are in the sound of my voice in this room in other rooms in the building in homes wherever ladies have gathered together in your name father we ask you to flood those places with your life-giving presence fill us with your love surround us with your peace bless us with your joy we your daughters proclaim speak lord we are listening in your son's name the name of jesus we pray amen well this morning in our time of worship we're going to spend just a few minutes singing through the lord's supper the lord's prayer sorry not the lord's sabbath the lord's prayer jesus gave us a simple prayer to shape our hearts to help us to see and yearn for the things god desires and to experience more of his presence in our lives as we enter into the throne room and come face to face with the one who loved us and sent his son to redeem us let's just take a moment right now and be silent before the lord as we prepare our hearts for the solemn time of worship please stand with me in honor of the holy one of israel join with us this morning as we worship him [Music] in the gospels the only time that jesus prayed and didn't call god father was when he was on the cross and he cried out my god my god why have you forsaken me on the cross jesus was separated from his relationship with his father so that we could have a relationship with god as our father and speak with him in a familiar trusting way as we pray our father who is in heaven [Music] our god is an awesome god he reigns from heaven above with wisdom with power and love our god is an awesome god our god is an awesome god he reigns from heaven above with wisdom with power and love our god is an awesome god our god is an awesome god our god is an awesome [Music] the first three petitions in the prayer are directed toward god father i ask that you will call your majestic name to be honored and reverenced above all other things in my heart and throughout the world hallowed be name [Music] holy holy holy [Music] lord god almighty early in the morning our song shall rise to thee [Music] holy holy holy merciful [Applause] [Music] blessed trinity [Music] father beginning with me [Music] may your glorious and sovereign rule have unobstructed dominion everywhere in the world your kingdom [Music] come [Music] [Applause] [Music] show you [Music] set your church [Music] father bring every human will on earth into submission to your will and cause your holy will to be done perfectly and joyfully all over the world the same way the angels do it in heaven heavenly father i yield myself completely to you your will be done on earth as it is in heaven have thine own way thou art the power and make me after thy will while i am waiting yielded and still have my known way lord have thine own [Music] till all can see christ only always living in me [Music] the next three petitions address human needs father i am completely dependent on you to supply what i need every day for life and breath to do your will i'm not asking for riches i'm only asking that in your goodness you would give us this day our daily bread god is so [Music] good god is so good god is so good he's so good to me god answers prayer god answers prayer god answered [Music] me forgive me of my sins in thought and deed and word because the shed blood of jesus has atoned for my sin have mercy on me and let me live in the freedom of your love make me a forgiving person i know that i don't deserve forgiveness and so i have absolutely no right to withhold it from anyone i let go of all offenses against me so that nothing stands in the way of my fellowship with you and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors [Music] what can wash away my sin nothing but the blood of jesus what can make me whole again nothing but the blood of jesus oh precious is the flow that makes me [Music] of jesus nothing but the blood of jesus nothing but the blood of our jesus [Music] father i'm so thankful for forgiveness but i don't want to sin in your amazing grace keep me from the entanglement of temptation so that sin has no attraction to me guard me from satan and all his ways and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from [Music] in evil how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me i was [Music] my chains are gone i've been set free my god my savior has ransom me and like a flood his mercy reigns unending love [Music] amazing grace [Music] father one day the kingdoms of this world will give way to the glorious kingdom of the lord jesus christ [Music] but until then grant me the ability to walk in your power and live for your glory alone may you be glorified forever we pray this in the holy name of the one who taught us to pray your son jesus for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever amen from whom blessings flow praise him all creatures heavenly host [Music] goes [Music] [Applause] thank you dana and praise team what a gift and what a blessing to be able to literally pray through the lord's prayer well good morning i am delighted to be here with you many of you do not realize just how delighted i am to be here with you because i'm out of quarantine as of yesterday my father was diagnosed with covid he's doing very well thank you um i don't want to alarm anybody he's had very mild symptoms but i was around him and he had been had an infection around his pacemaker had been in and out of the hospital and so when he started having kind of low grade aches and pains we thought oh no his infection's coming back so i went over and took food and spent time with them i didn't hug on him i mean i'm still trying to do the social distancing thing more for them than for me but i was excuse me i was in the same room with them um and so uh when he went to the doctor thinking maybe his infection had come back they said you know let's just go ahead and test you just in case and so they called and said he's positive for copen like what so i was actually at the church turned around went home moved everything upstairs had to quarantine from steve so it was quite interesting i have had now two negative tests my last second one yesterday and i was set free so i am excited i mean i want to come out and hug you guys you don't want to touch somebody you just don't realize how lonely you get when you're stuck upstairs and you know it was it was great for the first day it was kind of nice to kind of wipe the calendar clean be upstairs not have to do anything you know just sit and read i lit i sent a friend a picture of my bed i had books i was in bethany's old bedroom literally all around me and she texted back where are you going to sleep so it wasn't all bad but it got really old really quick we are created for relationship and that's part of what we're going to look at this morning as we talk about the lord's prayer and we look at what god has done for us in jesus christ so take your bibles open to matthew chapter 6 and i'm actually going to go back and we're going to look at verses 5 through 8 because it really sets the stage for christ telling us how to pray because he tells us first how not to and then he says now pray in this way this is how i'm going to show you to pray so beginning in verse 5 it says when you pray you're not to be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men truly i say to you they have their reward in full but you when you pray go into your inner room close your door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you and when you're praying do not use meaningless repetition as the gentiles do for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words so don't be like them for your heavenly father knows what you need before you ask him so what is he saying what are his prerequisites for prayer well first of all he says don't be a hypocrite and literally that means don't be a play actor now what was he he's talking about the pharisees who loved to play pray on the street corners why they wanted to be well thought of it mattered to them what others thought of them much more so than what the lord thought in fact to be a hypocrite means that our prayers are indicative of the fact that if you only pray in public you're probably not praying privately that's what a hypocrite would do a hypocrite would only pray in public so if you're praying in public to be seen by men it's more than likely you're not spending time praying in secret because anyone who prays privately will not boast publicly and if you don't pray in secret but only in front of others you don't love christ supremely you know the greatest command is for our greatest good to love the lord with all of our being because it is only in loving him that way with our entire being that we experience wholeness and healing and purpose it's only found an absolute surrender and abandonment to the lord by choosing to set our affections upon him so what we do in secret reveals what we adore the most and tim keller said in a message on adoration hallowed be thy name what you adore most will cause you to pray only when that thing is at stake the consistency of your prayer life will tell you who your god is when we're in a crisis we have a bad health diagnosis we have a strained relationship whatever the crisis we fear we're going to be passed over for a promotion whatever our crisis whatever is most valuable to us if that thing is threatened what do we do well we get people to pray for us right and we start praying and we get more diligent about it but once it's passed we have a tendency to kind of slide back into coasting once again and that shows us if that is indicative of our prayer life that that thing whatever it was that became a crisis for us when it was at stake we began to pray that is more important to us than christ we actually adore that thing or that person more than we adore christ if we are faithfully praying and spending time with him it's because we love him it's because we desire to be with him and it should be out of that desire to spend time in his presence and with a sense of expectation that he is going to answer our prayers because what does it tell us your father who is in secret he is there waiting for us he is waiting to meet with us to reveal himself to us to speak to us primarily through his word but also through promptings in our inner man what do you think you must have you know sometimes our limited re perspective is revealed in the way we respond or react when that thing is threatened i love staying with our grandchildren i absolutely adore them every one of them i could literally eat them with a spoon you know i loved my children but i could oh my goodness i could just eat up my grandbabies i just think they're perfect in every single way i am just amazed at them well i was supposed to keep bethany's two ainslie and grayson a few weeks ago and they were coming to my house they love to come to my house and my sister who doesn't have grandchildren yet thinks i'm a little over the top you know with the kitchen and the barbie house and the toys and the bunk room that we turned an attic space into i said you just wait if you want them to come to your house you will have some stuff and you want them to have fun when they're at your house and you want to be able to play with them when they're at your house because you adore them you focus on them you want to spend time with them and so they were supposed to come to my house well grayson developed a little bit of a runny nose and kind of a low grade fever thought it was connected to teething but weren't sure so i was kind of afraid to expose him to steve because you can't be around them without touching them hugging on them them climbing all over you so i decided to go to their house and stay with them instead well when bethany broke the news to ainsley ainsley's three grayson's not quite two ainsley threw herself in the floor and said it's ruined it's all ruined because she wanted to come to my house but i thought immediately lord how many times do we do that when you don't answer our prayers the way we thought or in the time that we anticipated and we go it's ruined it's all ruined it didn't happen the way i had it pictured in my head you know as we grow we should develop and trust in relationship with the lord and recognize that when things take a turn that he is sovereign he is in control and we can trust him our oldest daughter lindsay and her husband ryan were looking for a home to move to that had a flatter yard for their children to play in they're getting older they are now getting into soccer and all that kind of stuff so to have a place where they could practice they live on a really steep hill in the backyard just kind of drops off so they've been looking for home well they found one that they just fell in love with and you know how that is when you see house you like it it was on i don't know two or three acres of land so it had extra space the house was a little bit larger than they thought they had needed but hey your family will grow into it they can have extra people over house needed some repairs um but they were excited about it so they put a contract on it contingent on their house selling and the man gave them a verbal acceptance basically said i'd love for your family to have it this i'm willing to wait well then somebody else comes along and gave him a contract that wasn't a contingency and he took their contract well initially you're thinking now wait a minute we thought we found our house well this one was almost 20 minutes away from church and school and the things that their kids do and they're getting into more extracurricular activities so it's important how far you are from school and church and they started looking again so they found the neighborhood just like three minutes away there was a house for sale there they looked at the house it didn't quite meet their needs but as the lord would have it a person who lived in the neighborhood whose house was not on the market contacted their realtor and said you know what i really need to downsize i'm willing to sell my house if somebody's interested but i don't want to put it on the market and i don't want to hassle over the price here's the price if you know somebody's interested just let me know well so they went to look at that house guess what they loved it they loved it and so now it is they closed on it friday which is so exciting because now they're going to be three minutes from the church and school and all the things that their family do and they are so excited about that well do you see the turn in the road they thought they wanted that first house and yet it's 20 minutes away and i told her i said as your kids get older you're going to be going back and forth so much to school and church that you're going to want to be a little bit closer than that and having kids over and friends after school all that goes into that so they were so excited now about this house but we see how god does that sometimes he protects us from ourselves when we're praying about a specific thing because we may think this is the way we want things to go and god says no wait a minute i'm closing this door because i'm going to open a better one for you besides that when god places us in a neighborhood it's never even just about us i mean there are people he wants you to befriend there are people he wants you to share the gospel with their neighbors that he wants you to get to know because they're going to impact you and your family and you're going to be there for them as well so there's always much more to every decision we make than we are aware of most of the time so we have to trust him and see him in secret and place our affections on him so he tells us don't be a hypocrite don't be a play actor don't just pray in front of people pray privately spend time with the father do it not for man's acclaim but what does he say your father who's in secret will see you and he will reward you do it for the reward of the father and for the intimacy of the relationship that he is offering go to that secret place and don't use meaningless repetition you don't have to pray a certain way it doesn't have to be beautiful and i know all of us have heard some people who are just articulate and when they pray you just feel like you're lifted into the heavenlies because their language is beautiful and lofty in fact steve has been reading this year in his devotional time morning and evening by charles spurgeon and his language is lofty and beautiful he has a way with words that just captures your heart and is able to express something with such meaning that you go yes that's it that's exactly the way i would have said it if i could speak like that and steve read something to me last night and he said who talks like this anymore who writes like this anymore it's so beautiful that is not what god is listening to if we didn't get anything out of the beatitudes we know that he's looking at our heart he's wanting our heart's affection to be set upon him for our hearts to be undivided in devotion to him and if our hearts are focused on him he is listening and looking at our heart not just our words so don't think you have to pray a certain way or you have to repeat it so many times that is not what god's looking at he's looking at a heart full of love and faith that focuses on him and trusts him ultimately so now that we know how we're not to pray let's look at the model that christ gave us let's pick back up in verse 9. he says pray then in this way our father who is in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen and then he gives some commentary one of the things we prayed he says for if you forgive others for their transgressions your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others then your father will not forgive your transgressions pretty serious so we begin by saying hallowed be thy name now to hallow something means to revere it to honor it set it apart as sacred it's a word we don't use much anymore it's an old english word but they're really even most of the modern translations still use the word hallowed when translating the lord's prayer because there's not an english word that's really equivalent it is too set above everything else his name is preeminent it is above all it is holy so we are to hallow his name in fact martin lloyd jones in his book the sermon on the mount said there is a sense in which you we should take off our shoes whenever we use the name you know the jews would not even pronounce the name and we pronounce it yahweh just because we don't really know how else to pronounce it they wouldn't even put put um vowels in they just used the consonants they wouldn't say the name out loud because his name was so hallowed so holy and other that they wouldn't even speak his name now i've given you a list of some of the names of god as they are given to us in scripture elohim is god almighty it's the creator god that's given to us in genesis chapter 1. in genesis 2 verse 4 we're actually first given yahweh jehovah the lord our god yahweh elohim in genesis 2 verse 4 before it's actually revealed to moses at the burning bush in exodus where the god reveals to him i am that i am is sending you when they ask you who's sending you i am the god who is the self-existent one and when you're reading your bible it'll be in all caps all caps l-o-r-d that is the name for yahweh or jehovah they're the same name then i've given you the compound names that have been given to us as god has revealed himself to us in scripture he begins and he just rolls out his names revealing to us his character who he is he is jehovah jireh the lord our provider he is jehovah rapha the lord our healer he is jehovah neesee the lord our banner who goes before us and is over us he is jehovah shalom he is the lord our peace he is jehovah ra he is the lord our shepherd he is jehovah syd canoe the lord our righteousness he is jehovah shema the lord who is present there are seven of them i would encourage you to take a name a day this next week and when you hallow his name if you use the lord's prayer as just an outline for walking through your personal prayer time it's so important that we pause first and hallow his name recognize he is the god who is in heaven he is the exalted one it prevents us from rushing into his presence it causes us to pause and prepare our hearts to be in the presence of this holy one so jesus is saying the most unmistakable way to tell that your christianity is real not just external is to look at your secret prayer life do you praise god in secret do you enjoy him do you hallow his name because what we do in secret reveals what we value so we need to go to praise before petition before confession first because praise is supposed to frame the others it's to dominate and saturate the others all the problems we're having relating to the world or ourselves are really problems of adoration if you don't hallow god the problems will show up in petition and confession well then we move from our father let's just pause right there too on our father the fact that we can call this one whose name is hallowed and is so far above all others father abba because of what christ has done for us we're in the midst of holy week how awesome that we can reflect on the lord's prayer that christ has given us access to the father because of easter because of his willingness to go to the cross to die be buried and be raised from the dead conquering sin hell and death for us so that god can be our father but it also means that if he is my father he is also the father of all who call on him in christ so it doesn't matter what nation you live in what language you speak what color your skin is if you call on god as father you are my sister or my brother and if you are in the family i embrace you i love you i accept you and i am excited to get to know you and learn from you because god has gifted us and placed us in the body so that we edify and build up one another and if you're not in the family i invite you in through jesus christ that's how we love our neighbor as we love ourselves it is to reach out in love and share the gospel and invite everybody to be able to know god as their father and learn to hallow his name and then to submit before him and to say lord your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven you notice there's a logical order a progression in these petitions they follow one another by kind of inevitable divine necessity martin lloyd jones says i want you to take your workbooks if you have them and open to page 152 because we're asking that god's kingdom would come and his perfect will would be done and we talked about this week the world narrative and kingdom narratives and how we have to tell the right story we have to know what the truth is and we gave you a couple of false worldly narratives and then countered them with the kingdom narrative one i am alone well you're actually never alone jesus has said he will never leave you nor forsake you what about the feeling that i must be in control at all times i must be in charge that's completely false we know we're not in charge of anything but jesus is and god the father is good and everything he does is good and we can trust him we can place our trust in him because he is in control and if we will take those false narratives those lies and replace them with what is true and start setting our mind on things above we will then have the kingdom narrative the narrative of god's kingdom that we're praying will come from heaven to earth and it literally is in prayer that god's will comes from heaven to earth we don't truly understand prayer except that it is the vehicle that god has chosen through which his will comes from heaven to earth that's why we pray so we get in on what he is doing prayer changes things but it also first and primarily changes us it gets us in line with his will that's what we're doing when we call him father we recognize his holiness we hallow his name and we submit to his perfect will we are lining our will up with his will so that then we can ask whatever we wish and it will be done for us because we're asking according to the will and the word of god i pointed out a woman harriet tubman and if you've not read a biography on her the one that i actually shared a quote from is called bound for the promised land and i shared this week i actually wrote the week's study that when my girls were in town one night and we got a bunch of the the babies to bed we watched the movie harriet it's fabulous they actually did a really good job portraying her faith in the lord and how god spoke to her and directed her and literally what she was able to accomplish is it's miraculous it is absolutely miraculous but even after personally rescuing over 70 former slaves she eventually became the first american woman ever to lead an armed raid into enemy territory it was through serving in this capacity that she saw over 700 slaves come to freedom and in 1896 tubman purchased 25 acres to establish a home and hospital for indigent aged and sick african americans a woman who walked by faith a woman who saw injustice and could not be silent could not be apathetic could not be complacent do you know why because of her great faith because she had an intimate prayer life she was in line with the will and the heart of the father and god commissioned her he called her and because he called her she stepped out in faith and she believed in fact i love the quote at the bottom because it says one of the people said it never seemed to strike her at all as stranger mysterious her prayer was the prayer of faith and she expected an answer she knew when she prayed god would answer and she was listening and waiting for that answer and consequently god was able to trust her and to use her mightily and so part of what i am praying is that god will raise up spiritual harriet tubmans who will be i mean focused and excited and passionate about sharing the gospel and seeing people set free from the slavery of sin and come into the life of freedom and wholeness that we have because we're in christ jesus but then to go after others and to see them come to christ and then to meet tangible needs to minister to the least of these that's exactly what harriet did and it's exactly what jesus christ has called all of us to lay down the burden that you believe you know what's best lay that burden down and trust that your heavenly father not only knows what's best but has your best at heart and if you will surrender to that as you surrender to his will he will call you and he will do in you and through you exceeding abundantly beyond all that we can begin to ask or imagine when we move from that after we've aligned our hearts with the father into petition and he says then you pray give us this day our daily bread um nt wright said god not only wants what's best for us by asking us to focus first on him he shows he cares about our daily struggles by focusing on our daily needs we are now given the green light to give attention to ourselves when we pray and it goes on in chapter six to say but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things food and drinking clothing will be added unto you we can lift those petitions to him but then we leave them with him because when we're seeking first his kingdom that is our father's job to provide those things as his child we don't have a care or a worry in the world we simply desire to obey him and to fulfill his purpose and his plan we move from that into confession and it tells us and forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors ouch do i really want to be forgiven as i forgive others that's exactly what he's saying here and that's the portion he went on to give commentary on in verses 14 and 15 for if you forgive others for their transgressions your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive others then your father will not forgive your transgressions wow that's a tough one for a lot of us because there are some of you who have a very deep wound possibly abuse betrayal abandonment rejection but i can tell you whatever it is is not worth holding on to take that person that incident off your hook and hand it to your father who loves you when i mention my children and my grandchildren you know if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give what is good to those who ask him he's perfect i am evil and fallen and i have a sin nature and i loved my children and i would have done anything i had to do to make sure they had everything they needed that they didn't worry about where their next meal would come from or that they had the things they needed for school i would do it and i feel the same way about my grandchildren it wouldn't matter what i have to do and boy you better not cross one of them you want to see the mama bear come out right um don't cross one of our loved ones that's that's what he's saying here is you've got to step back take your hands off and give that person that situation that wound to the father because he loves you more than you can imagine and he will fight for you that's one of the reasons i love mary of bethany so much we see her at jesus feed the three times she is specifically discussed in scripture and all three times she's at her feet two times people are complaining about her she doesn't have to say a word jesus comes to her defense what did god say you don't have to seek your own revenge leave vengeance to me vengeance is mine says the lord i will repay you can be certain the god of all the earth the righteous one will do what is right but it's in his eyes not in mine and when i roll that burden over onto him suddenly i'm set free and i'm no longer dealing with bitterness and opening up that old wound again and reliving it over and over because not only is he able to give me the power to choose forgiveness he also through his holy spirit as i release that to him will come in and bind up my heart and heal those wounded places he's the only one who can do that and we move from that choosing forgiveness as an act of our will because none of us ever feels like choosing forgiveness but we choose it out of obedience and when we do as we're going to look at in a moment some of these spirals whether we're spiraling down or up it all depends on what we do with god's word if we choose to obey it and i can promise you from personal experience if we will choose forgiveness and sometimes it's moment by moment day by day until suddenly we realize one day it doesn't hurt like it once did i've been able to release it i haven't thought about it because god is coming in and he's bringing healing and that there's somebody here today probably more than one somebody's or somebody listening today that you need today to choose forgiveness just tell the father i don't feel like it i don't know how i'm going to do it but about obedience to you and because i want to be forgiven i choose forgiveness and if you will choose forgiveness and trust the father i promise you this your feelings will eventually line up the lord will come in and he will bring healing as only he can and we move from forgiveness then into spiritual warfare because we're not going to be able to stand against the enemy as long as we've got ground in our own life we've given the enemy topaz or ground in our lives to come in and wreak havoc that's why we've got to confess we've got to be clean and it's daily confession it's daily choosing forgiveness and then we move into and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil since jesus disciples cannot completely escape temptation in this life jesus taught them to pray not only for protection from temptation but for protection in temptation but deliver us from the evil one is literally how it can be translated it's one petition with two elements each clause helps in interpreting the other lord lead us not in temptation and deliver us from the evil one deliver us from the influence of the evil one god always provides a way of escape he's never going to allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able because he's given us the holy spirit who enables us to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy now i want you to turn in your workbook to page 161 and 162. it's where we were looking at the spirals and we know that it begins with a thought and then we either spiral down or spiral up based on what we do with that thought and sometimes those thoughts don't originate with us many times they're fiery darts of the enemy or they're a wounded place we haven't let go of unforgiveness that comes back to the surface it can be a a worldly desire that we have that the enemy is using to get us focused on so that our our adoration is of that thing that we think we need rather than on christ and we get our perspective off and then the enemy wreaks havoc with our thoughts and we find ourselves in that dark place of spiraling downward now think about it just a moment i want you to ask yourself even over just the last couple of days are you spiraling up into transformation or are you allowing the fiery darts of the evil one to send you downward into darkness discouragement and despair as we look at this i want us to walk through okay let's start at the top of page 160 and we're looking at the downward spiral so let's just say our errant thought is i can't forgive i'm nursing or hurt so what will my emotion be anger betrayal reliving the incident over and over which leads to that fixation on the thought and emotions and then what's my sinful reaction going to be anger primarily directed at that person or that incident but isn't it interesting how that anger spills over onto everybody else around us the people we love most will be the ones who experience that anger and it really most the time had nothing to do with them and then what happens the relationship is chipped away or destroyed and it impacts other relationships around me as well or think of another one for instance in the midst of founding a rise to read i can remember waking up some mornings thinking i am in so far over my head i have no idea what i'm doing i'm not a business person i can't write grants i can't i can't i can't anybody ever been there and so if i do that what do i do then if i don't take that thought captive what's the next thing the emotion that hits me is anxiety and i start to feel overwhelmed and then what happens then i have a barrage of other thoughts that follow telling me how inadequate i am and how i am in over my head and this isn't going to work and it's going to be a failure and i'm not going to be able to provide for the employees and so what's the sinful reaction typically i would pull back then if i'm anxious or fearful about something i'm not going to step out in faith i'm going to pull back i'm not going to obey the lord i'm not going to do what it is he's calling me to do because i'm saying i can't do it as if i can do anything because apart from him i can do nothing i know that from john 15. but if i listen to the lie if i listen to the narrative of the world and of the enemy and i begin to believe it i start that downward spiral and then what does it do it quenches the flow of the holy spirit and i'm unable to hear the voice of god because i'm not walking by faith and it's impossible to please god without faith so i'm not pleasing the lord and i'm leaving myself in bondage so let's jump down to okay let's stop the thought all right so if that thought comes replace it you know the one i use so often is fear because that was the one that had me in its grips for so many years and i'd written out in here you know the errant thought is fear anxiety maybe let's just go back to my thing with the rise to read your you know the fear and the anxiety of not being able to do it of being a failure of not being able to do all that needs to be done to provide to find donors to get volunteers trained and into the schools if you think about all the details you can get overwhelmed but my life first is ephesians 3 20 now to him who is able he's able i don't have to be because he is he's able and if he calls me he will do it so what do i do the moment i have that anxious thought i say i refuse that thought i take it captive to the obedience of jesus christ and i say no god has not given me a spirit of fear but of power and love and astound mind second timothy 1 7. i can do all things through christ who strengthens me philippians 4 13. greater is he that is in me than he is in the world i start speaking the truth to refute the lie and then i choose a behavior god i'm going to obey you i don't care what my errant thoughts and feelings are doing they're flailing around out here all over the place i'm not going to listen to my emotions i'm going to choose to obey you this is what is true and i will take the next step of obedience trusting that you are more than able and i i can tell you eventually those feelings that are flailing around out here start lining up as you choose god's truth over your emotions over the lie and you speak keep speaking the truth remember what we said every time the enemy hits you with what if you hit him with what is it is written that's how we respond to all the what ifs the enemy hits us with and so when i do that and i take that thought captive and replace it with truth my emotions eventually come in and then i experience his life and peace that's exactly what philippians 4 6 and 7 says be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god turn them into prayer and then the peace of god which passes all comprehension will guard our heart our emotions and our mind our thoughts in christ jesus it literally builds a fortress around our emotions and around our minds we have his peace his life the mind set on the spirit is life and peace and then there's transformation we're transformed and our faith is boosted because we have seen god come through again we've seen his ability over and over because we choose to place our faith in him remember what the biographer said about harriet people were so amazed because she prayed and expected an answer do you know why she was doing god's work she had been called by him and if god calls us and we know he's called us to take the gospel to the nations we know he's called us to make disciples of all the nations we know were to love our neighbors we love ourselves we know where to adore him above all if we will do what we know to do ladies it's simple not easy but it's simple it is not complicated we complicate things it is really simple but it will require a struggle because we have to crucify our flesh we have to take our flesh to the cross so that it dies so that christ's resurrected life comes forth from our innermost being and he will bring forth literally rivers of living water that will quench us and every person that it splashes on then we become the salt and the light that we talked about in matthew chapter 5. then our light shines before men in such a way that they see our good works and they glorify our father who is in heaven and that is our desire to sow hallow his name to so trust him and adore him that others are drawn to jesus because of our lives he has given us everything we need for life and godliness and i want to encourage you if you didn't work through the spirals this week whatever the lie is you saw that list of lies that pastor's wives submitted at these retreats for pastor's wives now if the enemy is assaulting these leaders with these lies he's having a heyday with all of us he's doing it to everybody so don't think you're the only one who's ever felt like any of these things find your lie whatever it is whatever is at the root of the emotion that seems to be driving your life go back in your family what wound did you receive in your childhood what what lies what false narrative did the enemy begin to feed you many years ago that you've continued to allow him to speak you stop it because now you are a daughter of the king you belong to him who can go into the king at three o'clock in the morning for a glass of water his child his child you are his he loves you so much he sent his darling son into this dark sinful broken world to make everything untrue true to make everything right again it's what we're about to celebrate this weekend it's what the christian life is all about don't live it in the flesh die to your flesh that the spirit of god may take over and he is more than able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that you can begin to ask or imagine according to his power that lives within you it's his power not yours it never was ours it is his power living and flowing out of the crucified life that enables us to do those things we could never begin to dream of doing or accomplishing for his glory for his namesake and then we close with praise for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever we've laid our petitions at his feet and we leave them there trusting that our good heavenly father will do what is best for us and we leave adoring him which boosts our faith and puts our focus rightly back on him before we go out into our day ian bound says it's only when the whole heart is gripped with the passion of prayer that the life-giving fire descends for none but the earnest man gets accessed to the ear of god choose him choose him choose to set your heart's affection on him adore him above all and whatever is competing for your attention for your love for your adoration doesn't mean that you have to get a do away with that thing be a relationship it could be a dream or a desire all i'm telling you is don't give it first place don't let it be that thing that can devastate you or make you throw yourself on the floor like ainsley and say it's all ruined it's all ruined it's never all ruined because we have a god who loves us he was given us his holy spirit same spirit that spoke all of creation into existence the same spirit that raised jesus christ from the dead that spirit lives within your physical body there is nothing nothing he cannot accomplish in you and through you when you surrender to him so i encourage you this week if you've not done it before take the lord's prayer as an outline and just use it to kind of walk through but be sure to pause and hallow him and adore him and submit to his will before you rush in with all the things you're wanting him to do it's amazing how adoring him setting our hearts and minds on him changes our perspective let's pray heavenly father we love you and lord we thank you that jesus has modeled for us how to live and father it's not about externals it's about our heart so father would you speak to each one of us today at the point of our need and show us anything that has taken your place in our life and help us to adore you above all father it is as we fix our eyes on jesus that we're able to run the race that you have marked for us and we're able to do it with the fruit of your spirit with great love and joy and peace with your light shining in us and through us so that others see our good works and they're drawn to you our heavenly father not to us god we do not live for the acclaim of man we live for you we live every day for that day the day we see you face to face when our hearts are laid bare before you [Music] father help us today help the woman here this morning who is feeling like it all sounds too good to be true who's struggling right now with feeling overwhelmed by life who's been wounded or hurt and is struggling to father would you open spiritual eyes to see what is true and would you give us ears to hear your word and would you empower us through your holy spirit to say yes to jesus yes to your word yes to obedience and father we will see your kingdom come and your will be done in our individual lives in the life of your church and in our world and father that's what we're asking for we're asking that you be glorified in us and through us and we offer ourselves to you and i thank you for each one of these precious women and i pray a blessing over them and i pray that each one of them will prosper and be in good health even as their souls prosper that you will fill them to overflowing with your spirit and father they will leave this place today knowing they belong to you you are their father and they can come to you in childlike faith and trust knowing you will meet every need they have you will never leave them nor forsake them and you are more than able and more than enough how we thank you how we praise you father accept our worship in jesus name amen ladies would you stand as we respond in worship i cast my mind to calvary where jesus bled and died for me i see his wounds his hands his feet my savior on that cursed his body bound and drenched in tears they laid him down in joseph be entranced by heavy stone [Music] messiah still and all alone oh praise the name of the lord our god [Music] foreign [Music] is the kings [Music] oh lord our god we shall return in robes the blazing sun shall pierce the night and i will rise among the saints [Music] on jesus [Music] [Music] well ladies thank you for joining us today i pray that your spirit has been strengthened and renewed as you have met with the savior today as you have been washed by the holy word of god i want to encourage you to spend some time in the next few days and the lord's prayer the kingdom exercise this week was to walk through those petitions the six petitions in your own prayer life i encourage you to do that you know one of the beautiful things about the lord's prayer is that it's so simple that it's really easy to understand but yet it is so profound that it goes to the deepest places in our spirits and ministers to us there so i encourage you i hope that you'll do that over the next few days look forward to seeing you again next week let me close us in prayer father we ask you that you would make us lord's prayer people daughters who know how to pray the way your son taught us to pray lord i pray that we wouldn't just say the prayer [Music] not and not that we wouldn't just pray the prayer but father that we would believe it that we would live it that we would share it with others and that you would use us to make an eternal difference in your kingdom as a result father plant those words deep in our heart may they become our continual prayer so that your glory might become our good in your name we pray amen [Music] you

Channel: Bellevue Baptist Church

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Keywords: The Lord's Prayer, This Present Kingdom, Donna Gaines, Women's Bible Study, Sermons for Women, BellevueChurch, Bellevue Church, Bellevue Church Memphis, BellevueMemphis, Bellevue Memphis, Bellevue Church sermons, Steve Gaines, Steve Gains, PastorSteveGaines, Pastor Steve Gaines, Pastor Steve Gains, Steve Gaines Bellevue Church

Id: ug9TENubhl4

Length: 72min 34sec (4354 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021