The Lord's Prayer

We're in a series right now called the Sermon on the Mount.

Um, that is uh kind of the moniker given to this series and group of compilation of teachings that Matthew delivers in Matthew's 5, 6, and 7 in uh those three chapters.

Um chances are that Jesus didn't just teach all of this in one shot at one time, these were themes that Matthew observed on a firsthand basis.

He walked beside Jesus.

He was a close friend and ally of Jesus, he was one of his disciples.

And so he heard Jesus go village to village, community to community, and to teach these concepts.

And he pulled them together in Matthew 5 through 7.

Um, what I want to do before I get too far in is I want to uh turn this just for a moment into a classroom and do a little bit of academic work.

If if we were in Bible school, right, if we were trying to get our degree in biblical studies, we would start with take a class called hermeneutics.

And what hermeneutics is basically how to study the Bible uh so that you are interpreting it as well as you possibly can.

We say this often here, but bad interpretation leads to bad application.

So if I'm reading the wrong thing, I'm gonna apply the wrong thing, okay, it's still wrong.

And so hermeneutics would start to talk about things like this.

The Bible is a pretty unique, complicated book.

Because it's not a book, it's 66 books.

It's written by over 40 authors.

Like when's the last time you read a book that was written by 40 people?

Uh, by the way, written over 1,500 years.

When's the last time you read a book other than the Bible that was written over 1,500 years?

Okay?

It's it's a pretty unique book.

And it is a work of literature, so to speak.

Don't get weird on me.

I'm not saying it's not God's holy word.

It absolutely is.

But the two are true at the same time.

It is a literary work, and that's why you would need to study the genres.

Because we know this.

Uh, you don't interpret a lab report the same way you interpret a poem.

You have to understand the structure, you have to understand, uh, especially when you get into uh more poetic literary works, you start to understand the structure, you understand the point better.

And if you don't understand the structure, you're much more likely to miss the point.

So I'm gonna give you something today, I hope, uh, because I'm just gonna scratch the surface on it, but I hope you get super curious about it.

And I hope that you go study it and look it up and get really curious because what I'm about to show you is all over the Bible from beginning to end.

Um I'm gonna start with the word chiactic.

Chaiactic.

Or actually we'll call it chiastic.

Um chiasm or a chiastic work is a is a literary structure.

A chiastic structure is it deals heavily in the number three, so it deals in threes.

And it follows a pattern, it could be, there are different variations of chiastic structures that would be A, B, C, and then it could go A, B, C, C, B, A.

Or it could be A, B, C, A, B, C.

The one we're gonna look at in a moment is gonna be A, B, C, A, B, C.

But I'm gonna, let me give you one example, and this would be a very fundamental, like single verse chiastic structure.

So I mentioned it a moment ago, a scripture.

You A do unto others, A, B, C.

You do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

Okay, that's a chiastic structure.

Um you when you uh study the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, those are structured chiastically.

The one of the big things about that is that in a chiasm or chiastic structure, the center of gravity is in the middle.

So if we think about most of our literary works, they build to a crescendo and a climactic ending, and then there the point is revealed, and everything builds up to the end.

But in a kayactic structure, the main point is in the middle.

It's in the center of gravity.

Now we're gonna apply this right away because we're we're looking at the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is a kayactic structure.

It's verse chapter 5, 6, and 7.

And in the middle of this kayactic structure, we're gonna go today to chapter 6.

So if you have your Bible, you can go to Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, you have the Lord's Prayer.

So it's the center of gravity.

Um, but what's interesting about the Lord's Prayer is it's in the middle of another kayactic structure, which you're gonna see when you look in Matthew 6.

Um, three of the premier spiritual rituals are laid out.

So they talk about giving, praying, and fasting.

Okay?

So you have a chiastic structure of the Sermon on the Mount, in the middle of that, you have a chiastic structure of giving, praying, and fasting.

In the middle of that, you have the Lord's Prayer in the middle.

Does that make sense?

And then we're gonna look at the middle of that, but don't get ahead of me here.

All right?

Everybody following me?

One of the things you're gonna notice when you start to now think this way, you're gonna wanna look at how all of these things that are on the ends uh in chapter five and chapter seven, how they're flowing into a big idea or a huge atomic point that Jesus is making.

So let's look at something real quick.

Chapter five.

Let's look at the ends of the chiasm.

In chapter five, verse 17, we've brought it up several uh weeks at a time.

Jesus says, Don't misunderstand why I've come.

I didn't come to abolish the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets.

So I didn't come to abolish the law and the prophets.

I've come to accomplish their purpose.

This is gonna sound like what I'm teaching you is new school stuff, but he's like, it's not new school.

This is what God intended all the way back at the beginning.

And so he's like, I've come to fulfill the law and the prophets.

What's the law and the prophets?

Well, if you open your Bible and you go, everything left of Matthew is the law of the prophets.

That's all this.

Okay?

So he's saying, and he's coming to a group of people who are taking the law, which is the Torah, 613 laws, but in order to honor it, they added more complexity and more specificity.

So they went to the now added 2,000 oral laws and eventually another 3,000 oral laws, and a couple hundred years after Jesus, they wrote all that down.

But but it was part of their culture.

They had created a culture that took the law and the prophets and expanded on it.

That's in chapter 5.

He says, I came to fulfill it.

Now look at chapter 7, okay, the other end of the chiastic structure.

Matthew 7, 12.

Matthew 7, 12, if that rings a bell, it's because it's the golden rule.

Okay, if I just sprung it on you, if you came in today and I was like, hey, real quick, pop quiz, what's the golden rule?

How many of you, by a show of hands, let's just participate, be honest.

How many of you, how many of you, if I sprung it on you, what's the golden rule?

You could answer that.

All right, most everybody in the room.

And you would say, okay, if I said, what is it?

You'd say, do unto others, as you would.

Right?

That's what we said a moment ago.

Now, that's another chaotic structure, but notice most of you, if I said, Where is the golden rule from?

You'd say, the Bible.

I was like, right.

Do you know where in the Bible?

Probably a few go, ah, Matthew.

And it was like, okay, do you know what part of Matthew?

Matthew 7.

Do you know it was a Sermon on the Mount?

Do you know that it was part of this Chaotic structure?

Do you know that it's all filtering into this?

Do you know what the rest of the verse is?

Because pretty much nobody quotes the full verse.

Everybody just says, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but pull it up.

Matthew 7, 12 says, do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.

Now look at this next part.

This is the essence of all that is taught in the left side of your Bible.

Some of you have an interpretation that says it's slightly different.

Some of your interpretations, they say, this is the law and the prophets.

So catch what Jesus is doing here.

He's taken a group of people who took 613 laws and added 5,000 commentaries, 5,000 traditions, 5,000 rules to that to try to get more on the nose.

And Jesus says the essence of all of the law, the whole Torah, and all the stories that the prophets told gets down to a practice of treating others the way you'd like to be treated.

Do you like being cheated on?

You probably shouldn't cheat on other people then.

Do you like being manipulated?

No.

Then don't manipulate people.

Do you like being lied to?

No.

Don't lie to people.

Do you like being in a relationship with a person where you're trying to figure out which mood they're in today?

Don't be moody.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

So Jesus brings this incredible simple, like seriously, at some point, I want you to sit it with the weight of Matthew 7, 12.

This is the law and the prophets.

And what Jesus is saying is ultimately God is taking the conversation simpler but deeper into what how our relationship with Him spills out in the relationship with other people.

Let me stay here for just a second and then we'll get into our text for the day.

Think of it like this.

Let's think of a law that we have.

Let's think of the speed limit.

All right?

35 miles an hour.

You're driving down the road, speed limit's 35.

The government only cares about a few things.

One, that you go 35 into 35.

They care about that.

The other thing they care about is that you control the vehicle and you don't get distracted and lose control and hurt somebody else.

Aside from that, they don't care what's going on inside the car.

They don't care if you love the car next to you.

They don't care if you're cussing every car out as you drive down the road and you just hate everybody.

They don't care if you hate everybody, that's not against the law.

Go 35 into 35 and keep this thing on the road.

You could be yelling at your spouse, your spouse yelling at you, you're yelling at your kid.

I mean, it could be mayhem in there, man.

It could be the worst culture ever.

Doesn't matter to us, as long as you're going 35 into 35, 55 into 55, and don't drive into anybody.

And so that's how they thought.

They thought that God was like the government, that God just cares, okay, if I do these things according to his Torah, and Jesus takes the conversation deeper and is like, God cares a lot about what's going on inside the car.

God cares a lot about your motives.

Tremendously.

God cares about your intentions.

This is why he says, hey, you've heard it said, don't kill.

But I say, if you're angry with someone, you better be really careful because when you're angry, you could create death.

You could burn somebody alive in the valley of Hanoom and they'd be walking dead.

And you go, but I'm cool, I was driving 35 and I kept it on the road.

No, inside there was something that corrupted inside of you that then corrupted in somebody else, and we're good on the law, except it's not good.

And so he's like, this is the fulfillment.

You see what I'm saying?

Jesus keeps taking it deeper and deeper and deeper into the heart.

Okay, so now what he's gonna do is he's we're we're gonna look at structurally.

I'm gonna show you the kayactic structure of what he does with giving, praying, and fasting.

And he's gonna start the A is gonna be action.

He's gonna start with an action, and then he's gonna highlight a motive, and then he's going to go to a reward.

And he's gonna start with how to do it wrong.

And then he's gonna go right back A, B, C again.

He's gonna go action, motive, and reward.

And he's gonna now show how to do it right.

And then in the middle of the middle, he's gonna do the Lord's Prayer.

Alright.

It's about to get good here.

Here we go.

You ready?

Matthew 6, 1.

Watch out.

Don't do your good deeds publicly.

Now he's gonna use the term, you're gonna see three times.

He's gonna say public and private, public and private.

Don't think of public and private as a location.

Think of it as a motive.

So he's not saying you shouldn't do anything good that people see.

Okay?

He's not saying that people shouldn't see your good work.

He's gonna use public as a motive to impress people.

And what he's gonna do is talk about private as a motive that you're not doing it to try to please and impress people.

Okay.

So he says, do your good deed, uh, don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others, for you'll lose the reward from your heavenly father.

Now here we go, ABC.

Ready?

When you give to someone in need, when you give to someone in need, that's the action.

That's A.

Is that a good thing to do?

Is that a noble thing to do?

Is that an honorable thing to do?

Absolutely, it's a great action.

It's a great practice.

He says, if you give to someone in need, don't do it as hypocrites do, blowing trumpets.

Now here's what he's doing.

He introduces the word hypocrite, which is the Greek word for actor.

So we hear hypocrite, if I was to ask you, what is a hypocrite, you would probably say, or most of us would say, someone who says one thing and does another, right?

That's what we tend to think, but that's not what a hypocrite is.

A hypocrite is an actor.

It's someone who does, says they're gonna do something, does the thing they said they were gonna do, but they do it for the wrong reason.

They do it for the wrong motive.

So for example, Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites, but they didn't, uh they did what they said they would do, they just did it for the wrong reason.

So this is what he he highlights here.

He says, so when you read hypocrite, they heard actor.

So he says, when you give to someone in need, don't do it like an actor does.

And then what he does is all three times he says hypocrite, he adds, he plays off the metaphor, he plays off the idea of an actor, and he uses a visual that would have been um would have been part of the acting culture.

So he says, um, don't do it like hypocrites blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity.

So this is what would happen.

In that day, um, when an actor came to town to put on a play in the theater, the way that they would do publicity is the actor comes to town and they they they blow a trumpet.

This is a true story.

I I I went for that first service.

I had no idea how it was gonna go.

It went really well, and I'm like, I can't wait for second service.

And I held it a little longer for you guys.

Um so what they did when they blew the trumpet, it was a publicity stunt.

So what would happen is when you heard that trumpet, you knew a big time famous A-list actor came to town.

You're like, oh, who's who's here?

Who's here?

Oh, it's James Hicks is gonna be here.

They're like, oh, James Hicks is here.

James Hicks is here, and they blew the trumpet, and now everybody's so fired up because everybody's there's buzz.

Now there's buzz.

Who's James?

Oh, oh, James Hicks is here.

Yeah, everybody goes, buys the ticket to the theater, and they made this big um it was it was a marketing publicity move with the trumpets.

So he says, hey, when you're doing a noble thing, when you're giving to someone in need, he said, don't blow the trumpets and turn it into a publicity stunt.

Don't make it some marketing tactic.

Don't do it something everybody's like, oh, who did, oh, look what they did.

He's like, don't do that.

Uh you're putting on a show.

He said, don't do it to call attention to it.

He says, I tell you the truth, they have received all the C reward they will ever get.

Well, what reward do you get for making a big, huge production of how charitable you are as you impress people?

They admire you.

Oh my goodness, you know how noble they are, you know how great they are.

Okay, he's like, yeah, that's it.

That's what you get.

Congratulations, hope it feels good.

No wonder when we live this way.

And look, I do not stand here in judgment.

All of us at some point want to be admired.

If we're gonna get the full weight of the application of this personally, you need to think about the people, the community, the group who you really frankly want to reward you, you want them to elevate you, you want them to celebrate you, you want to impress them.

And we all have them.

Those are the areas you are most prone to acting.

You are most prone, I am most prone to hypocrisy with a group of people that I really want their approval.

I really want their admiration.

I want them either tangibly or intangibly to put me up on a pedestal.

And so he says, when when you when that's your motive and they give it to you, that's all the reward you'll get.

And you know this if you've done any living at all.

And if you ever tried to impress people, and they it maybe it gave you a momentary feeling that you were something important, but it is so shallow.

It's so hollow.

It's just, it you just go right back to needing and craving their attention again and needing and craving to be celebrated and elevated by them.

It's it really, it's it's it's not deep.

It doesn't quench the thirsting of your soul.

And so he says, hey, that's all the reward you'll get.

Now he goes back, he says, now he goes back to ABC, action.

Verse 3.

But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Give your gifts in private.

Again, private here is not about location, it's about motive.

And your father, who sees everything, will reward you.

Now, here's what's interesting.

If I do the right thing with the wrong motive, and my motive is to impress people, my reward is I impress people.

If I do the right thing for the right reason, and my motive is to honor God and to be seen by God, what is my reward?

It says your heavenly Father will reward you.

With what?

It doesn't say.

So, in other words, what I'm doing is I'm building my life on the belief that whatever the affirmation and the celebration and whatever reward that people can give me through my acting skills is not nearly as good as the rewards and the blessings I get from God if I allow him to actually shape my character and my motives.

And he gives no tangible explanation of what that reward will be.

I'm trusting it in the hands of God.

If I'll purify my motive and do the right thing for the right reason, it's not enough to just do the right thing, but I gotta do it for the right reason.

And so I invite God into my motives and do my best to discipline and purify my motives and to do it whether you see it and approve of it or not.

Okay, so he goes to the next one, prayer.

He says, When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, don't be like the actors.

Now here comes another acting analogy.

He says, who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them.

Okay, so what is he doing?

When he says street corners, again, this was back to uh the culture around acting.

It's like if you've ever been to like a really big city, you're walking down the street, and you have people just spring up and start acting or doing stuff, right?

And what are they doing?

Ultimately, they're setting up a show for later, right?

You just like you're just walking down the street in New York, okay, or Chicago or LA, whatever, you're just walking down the street, and all of a sudden there's a bunch of people gathered around them, create a big spectacle, and they start popping and locking.

You know what I'm saying?

They're like, ah, okay, and they get they're passing a hat around, people are throwing in money, and they start handing out invite cards, okay, to the things so they can upsell you.

You know what I'm talking about?

They didn't make that up in New York, man.

That was happening in Jesus' day.

And and and so Jesus, when he talked about actors in the theater, what would they do?

Well, they're not waiting.

For you to get to the theater, they go to the street corner and whet your appetite with some of the moves from the play and then sell you a ticket.

Okay, so they blew a trumpet, they did a little something on the street corner, it's all part of their sales technique.

It's acting.

So he says, when you pray, he said, don't go out and do it on the street corner, some huge, big production and trying to get everybody's attention.

Okay, he said, um, he said, I tell you the truth, that's all the reward you'll ever get.

You go out and pray these big lofty prayers to get everybody's attention.

For everybody to go, whoa, man, that's a that's a deep prayer.

You know, I talk to people sometimes who will tell me and almost say it embarrassed.

You know, they're like, I don't know why, but I don't I don't like to pray out loud.

I don't like to pray out loud.

And by the way, I don't feel any pressure to try to make anybody pray out loud.

That's I mean, I'm fine, it's just between you and God, and that's cool.

But often I'll ask, like, why is that?

You know, why do you struggle with that?

And usually it gets down to there's some sort of anxiety, some sort of almost performance anxiety around.

If I start praying this prayer, I sound like an idiot.

I start praying this prayer, I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about.

I'm talking to God in front of people and I feel self-conscious.

And somehow they have this like profile of what a holy prayer would look like, that it would have just the right language, and that it would sound, I don't know, in the king's English or something like that, or it's got to be impressive because now I feel like I'm being analyzed by the people around me.

And here's what I would say I don't care if you pray out loud or not, it doesn't really matter to me.

Jesus says, go ahead and pray in private, that's fine.

But I think it'd be I think it would be amazing if you got to the place where you could pray out loud in English, in your words, and not give a rip what anybody else thinks about it.

Not it doesn't have to be pretty at all.

Help me, God, I don't know what I'm doing.

Help me, God, I don't know what to do.

Help me, God, I'm losing, I'm losing it, God.

I'm losing, I don't even stammer, stutter your way through it.

It's fine, it doesn't matter.

Your motive is what matters.

This is coming from your heart, or are you doing it to impress everybody?

Lose track of everybody, it doesn't matter who's in the room, you can listen in or not.

This is between me and God.

And so to pray out, and he goes, you know what, these guys are going out in public and they want to be seen as pious and holy, and so they make a big production out of it, and it's it's all the reward they get.

You impress somebody.

Hope it felt good.

Then he goes back to A B C.

So he said, When you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and go pray to your father in private.

Again, it's not about location, it's about motive.

And he said, Then your father who sees everything will reward you.

Let's jump to the last one, fasting.

He said, When you fast, fast being, you know, not eating and setting yourself aside to pray, he says, don't make it obvious as the actors do.

For they go get into the hair and makeup chair and they try to look as miserable and disheveled as they possibly can, so that people will admire them for their fasting.

They fast.

Now, these people actually were fasting.

They were missing meals and going into times of prayer.

But it's like they're getting up in the morning and messing up their hair and trying to look as you know beaten down as possible, you know, so as they're just walking.

Oh Pastor Ford, are you okay?

My stomach's really been growling because uh I've been fasting.

I'm sorry if I look a little disheveled.

Haven't really even showered recently because I've been consecrating myself, setting myself aside to spend time with the Lord and to plead for you.

And I've been interceding on your behalf.

Just me and God.

You know, certain people of a certain echelon do some fasting.

I don't know if you notice Jesus did it in the wilderness.

I've been going a while.

I don't know how long I'll keep going.

I just will wait on the spirit to tell me when to stop.

But um, you know, don't go ahead and finish your meal.

You guys go out, you keep eating.

I understand some people need to indulge the flesh, and others of us are.

If anybody needs me, I'll be over here fasting.

I'll be fasting and praying.

And sorry if my appearance is off-putting.

It's some of us don't care about such shallow things as that.

So these people are fasting, but they're disheveling themselves.

They're getting into character, they're putting on costume.

What do they do?

Because they want to be seen as holy, they want to be seen as right.

Oh, Pastor Ford, he's so sacrificial.

Oh, sister so-and-so, oh, she's just on a whole new level of.

Okay.

He goes, Man, if you've done that, you've impressed people.

Congratulations.

That's what you get for it.

They think you're cool, they think you're holy, they think you're whatever.

He said, Hey, listen, when you fast, verse 17, comb your hair, wash your face, brush your teeth, gargle some Listerine, put on your deodorant, go ahead and put on some nice iron your shirt.

All right, go and no one will notice your fasting except your father who knows what you do in private.

Back to motive.

And your father who sees everything will reward you.

All right?

So you see the power of the kayak structure.

Now, what's in the middle of this is the Lord's Prayer.

The Lord's Prayer is at the center of the center of the center.

Um, okay, go ahead and open up verse 9, chapter 6, verse 9.

Here's the Lord's Prayer.

It says, Our Father, pray he says, pray like this.

Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy, may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, and don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Now, in Matthew's account of Jesus teaching this, he does it in the monologue of the Sermon on the Mount, right?

So Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount just teaches one continual string of thought.

When Luke presents Jesus' teaching on the Lord's Prayer, it's part of a dialogue.

So let's look at it in Luke 11:1.

Luke 11:1

It says, as Jesus was, he was praying, he was in a certain place praying, and as he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.

So in this account, it's Jesus responding with the Lord's prayer from a request of how to pray.

Now, what you got to understand is that they're not asking how to pray because they don't know how to pray.

So it wouldn't be like your little nephew or niece or somebody coming to you going, hey, Aunt, uh, uh, Aunt Joanne, teach me how to pray.

Okay, well, they don't know how to pray.

Or if you have a friend who's never never practiced faith of any kind, they don't even know what to do.

And okay, that's not this.

Jesus' disciples prayed all the time, prayed every day.

In fact, um, one of the things I want to show you is what's called the Amidah prayer.

The Amidah prayer is a prayer still practiced today by Orthodox Jewish people.

And um, over the years, there have been many, many amendments and variations.

It's gotten longer and shorter and changed over time, but archaeologists found versions of the Amidah prayer that predate Jesus.

The Amidah prayer was a prayer that they would do as a standing prayer.

So imagine this every day at noon, ten of us get together and we recite the Amidah prayer standing on our feet midday.

So Jesus' disciples prayed this prayer all the time.

So when they came to him and said, Teach us how to pray, they were looking for some new formula of prayer.

They were looking for some prayer that was closer to God.

And what Jesus does is he starts to quote the Amidah prayer.

So this is this is a real um version of the predating Jesus Amidah prayer.

You ready?

This is it in English.

Our Father, the one who dwells in heaven, may your name be holy.

May your kingdom come as we do your will here on earth as it's done in heaven.

Give us today the bread of today, and deliver us from the evil one, cursed be he.

So Jesus essentially says, Hey, don't overthink it when you're wanting me to give you some new formula to pray.

But did you notice, as I was quoting the Amidah prayer, anything that's left out?

So go ahead and bring that bring up that slide.

We're gonna put these um next to each other.

Um I'll tell you what.

You look at the Lord's Prayer, so you go to Matthew 6, if you have your Bible, go ahead and bring up the Lord's prayer.

Oh, it's back here.

Good job, guys.

Can you guys see this?

Alright, so these are stacked on each other.

I'm gonna read the Amidah prayer, and I want you to look at the Lord's prayer.

Can you see it?

Go ahead and bring it on the lower third as well.

Bring up the Lord's, just the Lord's prayer on the screen.

So I'm gonna read the Amidah prayer.

Go ahead.

Bring up uh Matthew 6, starting in verse 9, uh, on the lower third.

Good.

Thank you.

All right.

Amidah prayer.

The one they prayed every day at noon, standing up, groups of ten.

Our Father, the one who dwells in heaven, may your name be holy.

May your kingdom come as we do your will here on earth as it's done in heaven.

Give us today the bread of today, and deliver us from the evil one, cursed be He.

You notice anything weird?

What's left out?

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

To get the full weight of this, if we are the disciples and every day we pray the Amidah prayer, and Jesus quotes the Amidah prayer, except in the middle, he adds in, forgive us our debts, forgive us our trespasses, forgive us our sin.

As we forgive those who sin against us.

In the cultural consciousness of that day, the idea of us being a part of each other's forgiveness process is not how they thought.

Some of you will remember last year I preached a message on apologizing.

I was like, guys, it's kind of crazy.

I scoured the Bible and I could only find one good apology.

There's lots of groveling to God, there's lots of repentance to God.

David, when he sinned with Bathsheba, took another man's wife, he was in a power position, she had no choice, impregnates her, and then kills her husband, and then she miscarries and he grieves.

Go read his prayer.

God, I'm so sorry I've sinned against you.

God, I'm so sorry that I've dishonored you.

Forgive me, Lord, for how I've treated you.

What about Bathsheba, bro?

What about Uriah, her husband, who's dead?

We have no record of David going and asking Bathsheba to forgive him.

And that is that pattern's all over the Bible because the conscious, the consciousness, the culture was forgiveness is from God and God alone.

So when you're reading stuff like in the book of James, it says, confess your one your sins one to another that you may be healed, those are new concepts.

And what's Jesus doing?

He's deepening in this.

By the way, the one great apology in scripture, the only one I can find, is the one Jesus made up.

It was a fake one that he made up at the story of the prodigal son.

Remember the prodigal son dishonors his father and he's at rock bottom and he's about to go home and just beg to be a slave?

And he goes, and he practices.

He's like, Father, I've sinned against heaven and I've sinned against you.

That's the only place in the Bible.

Because Jesus is introducing this concept that it's not that all of a sudden God now wants us to participate in forgiveness.

He's always wanted to.

But at the center of the center of the center of the chiastic structure of the Sermon on the Mount is prayer, and at the center of that is the Lord's Prayer, and at the center of that is to forgive.

And to not act our way to forgiveness, but to actually allow a transformation of the heart.

Why is this the center of the center of the center?

Because it's the center of the center of the center of the gospel.

That God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.

And what we have is the center of gravity that says that when we receive forgiveness, it should transform us from the inside and should spill over into not only how we see and think about people, but ultimately how we treat them.

I'll prove it with this last thing that this is the point Jesus is making right after the Lord's Prayer, you know, rescue us from the evil one.

Look at verse 14.

He goes right back to his point.

He says, if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

But if you refuse to forgive others, your father will not forgive your sins.

So what what's happening now, friend, when we look at it in the structure that it was meant and we see the center of gravity, now all of the things from Matthew 5 and 7 start to spill into this.

And stuff like what he said in chapter 5 when he was like, Look, if you're presenting a sacrifice to God and you're in the holy place and have no other gods before me, and you're in the middle of that, and all of a sudden you realize that you owe someone an apology and that you need to work it out with somebody, leave your sacrifice sitting here.

God can wait.

Go ahead and go.

God himself, Yahweh wants you to press pause on this and to go deal with that.

Now it makes sense.

It's all funneling into the center of gravity, which is what God does in our hearts between him and us is designed to spill over into each other.

That's it.

You don't have to like it, but that's what Jesus taught.

This is what he wanted us to know.

So let's take a moment.

Let's take a moment.

Let's feel the gravity.

Let's take a moment to first of all receive the grace, the mercy of God, the forgiveness of God.

A moment ago we took communion, and it's just a do this in remembrance of me.

Remembering what?

Remembering his grace.

So maybe for some of you today, this moment of opening up your heart to God is to receive his grace fresh and new.

Let's do that.