Luke 11:1-4 - Soul Food

You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.

Our passion is to experience and express grace.

Join us.

Amen.

What a great song.

We love those songs from the Behold the Lamb Christmas program.

Y'all like those songs?

We should sing them here more often, shouldn't we?

You want to sing those more often, James?

How about Thursday, December 14th at 7 p.m., we could sing these songs together here?

Here.

In this sanctuary?

With the gentleman and scholar who wrote them, composed them on his own, Mr. Andrew Peterson.

Yeah.

So.

Can we bring our friends and the rest of Huntsville?

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

Most of them will fit in here.

I'll say this and then I'll leave.

He's gotten really popular.

And so we're telling you this now so that you all can get tickets.

Before everybody else does and then there's not any left for us.

So.

There you go.

I think you have the rest of it.

They will sell out quickly.

Southwood.org slash Behold the Lamb.

You can buy them today.

I encourage you to buy them today and buy some for friends you're inviting with you or whatever.

We do anticipate them going quickly and we're really excited.

It's been six years since they've been here to celebrate Christmas with us.

Thursday, December 14th.

They'll be back.

We have been talking about prayer as we make our way through the Gospel of Luke and have made it to the Lord's Prayer.

As we get back into that this morning, I just wanted to remind you in our guest center, there are a couple of really good books about prayer.

This one is Paul Miller's prayer.

Really good theologically, but especially good practically.

If you're looking for something like that.

This one is Tim Keller's book called Prayer.

When you're Tim Keller, all you have to do is title it Prayer.

Experiencing awe and intimacy with God.

It is really good practically.

It's especially good theologically.

If you're more bent in that direction.

Both of these are available in the guest center.

I just, I tell you that to encourage you that as we study this together, one thing you might want to do is take advantage of where God has us corporately.

As he's teaching us to pray and to study further on your own.

If you've ever wanted to do that, these books would be good tools for you to follow up more with that.

That said, let me read Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

The first four verses for us.

And then we'll study God's Word together.

This is God's holy, inerrant, infallible Word given to us.

Luke 11 at verse 1.

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place.

And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him,

Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.

And he said to them, when you pray, say,

Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins.

For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.

This is God's Word.

Let's pray and ask him to teach us as we look at it together.

Father, we do give you thanks for your Word.

Jesus, we thank you for teaching us to pray.

For showing us how we can relate to our Father.

And so we ask you again this morning that you would teach us to pray.

Teach us to trust our Father.

Might we see you as great and glorious as we've come into your presence,

worshiping you this morning.

And might it drive us to bring all of our needs before you.

Teach us as we look at your Word.

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

How many of you have eaten at G's Country Kitchen on Oakwood?

Yeah, ooh, that was some excited hands going up.

Yeah, if you've eaten there, you've probably eaten fried chicken,

mac and cheese, black-eyed peas, collard greens,

things commonly referred to as soul food.

And for many of us, comfort food.

And I'm going to stop talking about it because if the sermon goes too long now,

you're all going to start leaving for lunch.

So we love those things.

We enjoy eating them.

But Jesus is teaching us today about a different kind of soul food.

And that's forgiveness.

Father, forgive us our sins, Jesus tells us to pray.

And it strikes me that Jesus in this model prayer is telling us things we can always pray for.

That there's no reason ever to say,

I just don't have anything that I could pray for.

He starts with God-centered priorities about God's name and God's kingdom.

And then he turns to praying for things that I need.

And he says, pray for your daily bread.

For the things you need today, you always need to eat, right?

Is there anything else you always know you need?

Forgiveness.

I always need to eat.

I always need to be forgiven.

It's soul food for us.

Absolutely essential for me spiritually.

Without it, I die.

Why?

Andrew Murray said it this way.

As bread is the first need of the body,

so forgiveness for the soul.

And the provision for the one is as sure as for the other.

That's good stuff, isn't it?

The provision for one is as sure as for the other.

We talked last week about God's fatherly care and provision for us.

That he meets all of our needs.

That we can trust him in everything.

The same is true with the forgiveness that we need.

Jesus says, pray for daily bread and ask your father for forgiveness.

I want us simply to look first at the focus of the petition that we need to be forgiven.

And then we'll notice briefly the comment attached to it that we also need to be forgiving.

First, let me ask you, are any of y'all friends with Mavis Wanzik?

Anybody?

Nobody?

That's too bad.

Mavis lives in Massachusetts and this week she bought the winning Powerball lottery ticket for $758 million.

And it just struck me, I was thinking about this, that maybe if you're friends of hers and you didn't mind getting lottery money,

which of course the Bible would have a few things to say about,

but theoretically she could probably wipe out your student loan debt.

Probably handle your credit card debt.

Probably handle most of our mortgage debts.

And it would cost her something, but I think she could handle it now.

When the Bible speaks of forgiveness, it uses a number of different images.

We've celebrated some of them this morning.

Cleansing, covering in the sacrifices, releasing.

But in particular in this passage, it's the idea of being set free from debt that is featured.

The words used for forgive and indebted in the second line of this petition bring those legal monetary pictures into play.

So we're asking God to release us from the debt that we owe to Him.

What are we really asking when we pray that?

And maybe you gloss over this petition in the Lord's Prayer sometime as though it were no big deal.

Yes, God, forgive me my sins.

I know I'm not perfect.

I always ask for forgiveness.

Yes.

But let me tell you, it's a bigger deal than we often stop to calculate.

Even Mavis and her $758 million can't touch this debt for you.

Stop and think, what do we owe God?

God created us to live in relationship with Him.

A relationship where we desire His glory all the time.

Where we trust Him, obey Him, enjoy Him, and therefore perfectly reflect His image in all His creation all the time.

In other words, we owe Him lives of consistent, unfailing perfection for the sake of His glory all the time.

He has told us we're to love Him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.

So we owe Him our emotions and our affections too, not just our actions.

He's told us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

So we are to take advantage of every opportunity to demonstrate His kingdom and His grace to everyone we could possibly tell and show it to.

Now sometimes we rack up debt by specific violations of God's law.

Those are probably the easy ones to think of.

We lie.

We covet.

We worship idols.

We harbor bitterness towards our kids.

We lust.

We lose our tempers with our spouse.

And we could keep going on and on and naming things you know are our sins.

If we had calculators and memories good enough, we could add up a big debt.

But when we think of all that we owe God, much of our debt is actually what I was talking about a moment ago.

We often overlook it, but it's those sins of omission.

It's our failures to speak when we should have spoken, to act when we had the opportunity,

to reflect God's perfect image to everyone around us all the time.

We start adding those in and our tab is ridiculously high, isn't it?

We can never pay it, which is the point of a parable that Jesus tells where God ends up forgiving a debt

that is absolutely unpayable.

No one ever could live long enough to work hard enough to pay it off.

Have you stopped to reckon your account before God?

To consider what you owe Him?

Have you considered not merely the sinful actions and attitudes you have,

but just as certainly the times you failed to act?

Neglected to pray?

Failed to trust?

Neglected to speak?

And you might have thought this petition was smaller than,

hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come.

Those were the big things.

No way.

This is a huge request.

Every time we ask it, every single one of those sins has earned us eternal death.

We have a debt we can never repay.

We say we're spiritually bankrupt.

That's the truth of who we are.

And that's where the good news, the glory of Jesus, meets us.

We've already been celebrating that this morning, what He's done.

And we've seen it through the Gospel of Luke.

Remember, as we've gone through Luke,

Jesus is promised as the one who is coming to forgive sins.

He's going to bring forgiveness and freedom.

He's forgiven the sins of a paralyzed man in one encounter.

He's forgiven the sins of a sinful woman in another story.

He has told us recently that He has set intensely on going to the cross

where He will purchase the forgiveness of sins,

and that's a priority for Him.

That's where He's headed.

So the one who teaches us to pray this way

is the one who Himself provides the forgiveness

that our souls so desperately need.

He says, ask for it, and I'm going to purchase it for you.

It's why we sing, Jesus paid it all, right?

All to Him I owe.

He paid for the whole debt.

All the things we just talked about.

Specifically, first, He paid for the penalty

of all those sins we committed when we violated God's holy law.

Colossians 2 talks about Jesus' death on the cross in these terms.

You were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

but God made you alive together with Christ,

having forgiven us all our trespasses.

How did He forgive us all of those?

By canceling the record of debt

that stood against us with its legal demands,

this He set aside,

nailing it to the cross.

That record of debt would have been a legal document,

a piece of paper that you would have had

that showed what you owed to someone in this day.

And Jesus takes that record of our debt

and it is nailed to the cross.

Jesus on the cross is famous for saying many things.

One of the ones that is sweetest

is that Jesus on the cross says,

it is finished.

Tetelestai, He cries out.

That's actually a legal accounting term.

It is finished.

Paid in full.

Stamped on your document,

the record of your debt to God.

What's the sin that you think you could never pay for?

What's the sin that you think about it

and you feel guilty

and you think this keeps me at a distance from God.

He couldn't possibly love me because of this.

Jesus says,

paid in full.

It is finished.

God no longer demands payment from you

for that sin that Jesus pays for fully.

The debt is forgiven by the death of Jesus.

That's why we're saying,

what mighty sum paid all my debt

when I a bondman stood

and has my soul at freedom set

to His Jesus' precious blood?

But what else do I owe God?

We've said it's actually more than those violations of His law, right?

I need a perfect record of righteousness,

perfect obedience,

perfect reflecting of God's image

for all the times I've failed.

I can't go back and redo them all.

I can't go back and redo them all.

I can't make my record perfect

and I'm required to have that.

I owe it to God.

And 2 Corinthians 5 says,

God made Him who knew no sin

to be sin for our sake

so that in Him, in Jesus,

we might become what?

The righteousness of God.

Romans 4 talks about God crediting to our account

righteousness that is not ours originally.

The righteousness of Jesus credited into our account.

Jesus pays this part of my debt too, right?

The need for righteousness.

Every year I go online

and I transfer some funds

from my savings account

into my daughter's college accounts.

And we've been doing that for a few years.

Hope to continue to do that.

I haven't started the wedding fund

for three girls

because that's a little scary

and intimidating to me.

But here's how this college fund

is supposed to work.

Many of you are living in this right now.

You understand this.

You make the payments in

and then if Caitlin goes to college,

she'll rack up a tuition debt

and that debt that she owes,

this money will come out of this fund

and pay that tuition debt, right?

Let me keep dreaming for a minute.

Then there's gonna be some left.

And that just brings her up to zero.

She just doesn't owe them for tuition

but she's gotta live, right?

While she's in college.

And so in this dream world that I'm in

where all this money has accumulated,

she says, dad, I need books

and I need to eat

and I need something to wear

and I go in and I click transfer

and a thousand dollars shows up

in Caitlin's account

and she can live.

And she didn't contribute a dime

to this account.

It's only hers

because she's connected to me, right?

Because she's my daughter,

she gets these benefits coming to her.

Debts forgiven.

Even.

Active righteousness,

what she needs to live provided for.

That's what Jesus does

when we're connected to him.

He pays the penalty

for losing my temper,

for lusting over someone else's family

or home or body,

for lying about my homework.

Jesus pays that penalty

and at great cost to himself

brings my account to zero.

I'm back even.

Then he makes the righteousness transfer.

Speaking God's truth to my neighbors

as I'm called to.

Quoting scripture to resist

the temptation of the devil.

Humbly trusting God in pain.

And those things start showing up

in my account.

Who did those?

Jesus.

They start showing up in my account.

Things that I need.

And that's the full picture

of what my soul needs.

The forgiveness for the debt

and the righteousness credited.

I need both

and Jesus has provided them for me.

So why does he tell me

to keep praying about it?

This is not just Jesus talking about forgiveness.

This is Jesus teaching us to pray

and he says,

when you pray,

pray,

Father,

forgive us our sins.

It's another thing

that Jesus has already accomplished.

It's already secure

that he tells us to pray for

in this prayer.

You know by now why,

don't you?

Why does Jesus keep telling us

to pray for things

that are secure already?

What's prayer about?

It's about the relationship,

isn't it?

The relationship

with the one we're praying to.

We've said it over and over.

Our Father wants relationship with us

and forgiveness

is the very basis

of that relationship.

As we come to pray to him,

when I come to talk with my Father,

I'm remembering that I do so

only through the blood of Christ

that pays my debts

and brings me into relationship

with God.

It's absolutely essential

or otherwise I can't pray to him.

I can't talk and have relationship

with him.

Forgiveness is needed

for my every sin

and my every failure.

See, this is an ongoing prayer

for Christians,

isn't it?

Not just some of y'all

need to pray this once.

This is how Jesus teaches

his followers to pray.

Always praying for forgiveness.

Always remembering our need

for forgiveness

and laying hold

of what Jesus has done.

God knows we're still sinners.

And the full debt for our sins

has been fully paid by Jesus.

So what's this?

This prayer is another chance

for us to experience

his grace personally.

Every day.

To experience in our lives

that account transfer.

Transfer.

The funds are there

from an account

that will last

well beyond any account

Mavis ever has.

It will never run out.

They've been credited to me

by faith.

But when I pray this,

I'm laying hold

of that reality

practically for me.

For my specific debts.

debts.

I'm opening my account page

and recognizing again

where my righteousness

comes from.

That's experiencing grace.

It's for me personally.

It's why someone once said

that Jesus died on the cross

is history.

That Jesus died for sin

is theology.

That Jesus died for my sin

is Christianity.

I need to remember

and revel in Jesus

paying for my debt

over and over.

Just as surely as I see

God provide my daily needs

one day after another.

Remember the provision

for this need

in my relationship with God

is just as certain.

This forgiveness

is soul food for me

in my relationship with God.

I'm at peace with him.

And forgiveness works

the same way

in other relationships too.

It's soul food for others

in my relationship with them.

This is the second part

of the petition.

Not only do we pray

about being forgiven,

but also we pray

about being forgiving.

See, the kingdom of God

is one characterized

by this lavish grace.

forgiveness full and free

where Jesus pays

a high price

and I am released

from my debts.

And if the kingdom

is going to come

in my life,

it also,

my life also,

must be characterized

by lavish grace.

Forgiveness full and free

where I in turn

pay a high price

and release others

from their debts

to me.

That's why we talk

at Southwood

about our mission

being to experience

and express grace.

We can't forgive

others' debts

unless our account

is paid up

and full of credit.

But once it is,

and as it is continually

in our experience of it,

we're to be passing

that blessing along

with the same lavish generosity,

I might add.

Over and over,

the money transfers in.

We experience grace

and over and over

we're told to express

that grace to others.

In this case,

the grace of forgiveness.

For we ourselves

forgive everyone

who is indebted to us.

Wonderful.

God, I've got a great idea.

You forgive me

at the same rate

I forgive everybody else

in my life.

Be as generous

in my account

as I am in theirs.

You good with that?

That cool?

You comfortable?

Feeling good

about the forgiveness

you need for this?

You know how we are.

I mean,

really gracious

if you like them

and a bit stingy

on the days

they're really getting

under your skin.

full pardon

for the little things

but breaking off

the relationship

altogether

when they really hurt you.

Immediate release

from the debt

sometimes

if they're really sorry

but probation

for a while

if you're not sure

they're really

going to change.

Right?

Sounds like forgiveness

to me.

Just doesn't

sound like

Jesus' forgiveness.

forgiveness.

Forgiving others

is hard

isn't it?

The reason for that

is that forgiveness

is costly.

Someone has to

absorb the cost

when a debt

is forgiven.

Ken Sandy

of Peacemakers

says it this way

forgiveness can be

a costly activity.

When you cancel a debt

it does not just

simply disappear

instead

you absorb

a liability

that someone else

deserves to pay.

Similarly

forgiveness requires

that you absorb

certain effects

of another person's sins

and you release

that person

from liability

to punishment.

That's hard.

You have to choose

to absorb

the cost.

But that's the essence

of forgiveness.

Right?

Absorbing the cost

of someone else's

debt.

The payback

you could have

demanded

rightfully.

The weeks

of housework

you could have

held over your husband.

The weeks

of cold shoulder

you could have

used to make

your wife pay.

The weeks

of favors

you could have

demanded

from your friend.

Whatever it is

you're

forgiving

that

debt.

Now to be clear

forgiveness

doesn't always

remove all

consequences.

You may forgive

and still need

physical separation

for your own

protection.

You may forgive

and still take

the person to rehab

for their own

good at the same

time.

But forgiveness

means you absorb

the cost that the

offender owes

to you.

And that is so

hard to do

because it is so

much easier to be

bitter

and distant

or hateful

in your heart.

Isn't it?

Who are you

thinking of

right now

when you think

of forgiving

others?

It's so hard

to absorb

the cost

of those

debts

but it's

so Christian.

Sandy

concludes

this way

this is

precisely

what Christ

accomplished

on Calvary.

The absorbing

certain effects

of another

person's sin

to release

them

from

punishment.

It's exactly

what Jesus

did for us.

He set us

free

from our

debt

at great

cost

to himself

right?

It hurt.

It wasn't

easy.

And that's

how he has

forgiven us.

And so

Jesus is now

saying

that forgiven

people

forgive

people.

It's not

that you're

forgiving

others

earns

your right

to be

forgiven

by God

but rather

if you

don't

forgive

others

you

evidence

the

reality

that

you

have

not

received

the

greater

gracious

forgiveness

of God.

This is

why it's

so important

regularly

to calculate

our debt

to God

the unpayable

debt

that cost

him

his only

son

because

no debt

anyone owes

us

is that

great.

And what

does the

gospel say?

that

unpayable

debt

has been

forgiven

us

by God.

No holds

barred

no strings

attached

running

off the

porch

counter

cultural

throwing

your arms

around

the

prodigal

son

kissing

him

kind

of

forgiveness

that we've

received

right?

That's how

God forgives

us.

He's not

waiting

to see

how well

we perform.

He's not

hedging his

bets on

how sincere

we are.

He's

running

to forgive

us.

And then

he tells

us

that's how

you forgive

others.

It's the

very essence

of Christianity

of our

relationship

with our

heavenly

father

that he

loves

and delights

in us

the way

that father

delights

in the

son who

has deeply

sinned

against

him.

Do those

who've

offended

you who

are indebted

to you

feel that

kind

of

love

from

you?

And if

they did

imagine

that they

begin to

feel that

from you

wouldn't it

transform

your

relationship?

Wouldn't

forgiveness

like that

make your

relationship

with them

entirely

different?

Couldn't

it transform

even a

seemingly

hopeless

marriage?

Couldn't

it transform

even a

community

with diverse

people

and a

lot of

wounds?

Couldn't

it transform

our fractured

world

these days?

Ten years

ago in

Lancaster,

Pennsylvania

Charles Carl

Roberts

broke into

an Amish

schoolhouse

and out

of anger

at God

took hostage

several

elementary

aged

schoolgirls

and shot

and killed

five of

them before

killing

himself.

It was a

horrific

event,

you may

remember it

from the

news.

For that

Amish

community

the grief

was intense.

A quiet

old fashioned

Christian

community

broken

into

by the

evil

of murder.

But as

intense as

their grief

was,

their grace

was equally

intense.

By the

afternoon of

the shooting

members of

that community

were praying

and crying

with the

widow of

the shooter

and her

family.

They began

to make

public

pronouncements

of their

forgiveness

of the

shooter.

And they

demonstrated

tangible

reality of

that forgiveness

by inviting

the widow

as one of

the few

outsiders to

the funeral

of these

girls.

And by

setting up

a fund

to provide

for her

children,

not just

their own.

This

widow,

her name

is Marie

Monville

now,

thought for

sure she'd

be leaving

this area,

needing to

move to a

different community.

She stayed

there and

lived,

never had to

leave.

she's since

written books

about the

Amish grace,

the incredible

forgiveness she

was shown,

that she

says,

and I

quote,

helped to

provide the

healing we

so desperately

need.

Gifts

you've given

have touched

our hearts

in a way

no words

can describe.

Your compassion

has reached

beyond our

family,

beyond our

community,

and is

changing

our world.

now you

might not

have realized

that many

criticized the

Amish for

this whole

situation.

This

forgiveness was

ridiculous,

they said it

denied the

reality of

the evil

that had

taken place,

they forgave

too quickly

and too

thoroughly,

but they

knew it

was quite

the opposite.

Forgiveness

like that

doesn't deny

the reality

of evil

or sizable

debt,

quite the

opposite.

It rather

acknowledges

the reality

of debt

and says

there is

nothing

that can

pay a

debt like

this other

than the

blood of

Jesus.

It requires

his payment

for this

to be

covered and

it chooses

to say

that God's

grace is

bigger than

the debt

that is

owed.

That even

though the

Amish had

lost their

own children,

their God

had forgiven

them a debt

at the cost

of his

very own

son.

How could

they not

also

forgive?

And forgiveness

like that

really does

change the

world.

It's soul

food for

you

and for

the one

you forgive,

healing your

relationship

in a way

nothing else

can,

giving them

something to

share with

others as

Jesus has

given to

you forgiveness

to pass

along.

And so

we pray

regularly,

Father,

forgive us

our sins

for we

ourselves

forgive all

those who

are indebted

to us.

We pray

that God

would forgive

the evil

we do,

the good

that we

neglect

to do.

We pray

God would

continue to

allow that

grace to

change us

and flow

through us,

that the

very forgiveness

we experience

would be

expressed to

many others.

Let's spend

a minute

reflecting on

our own

hearts,

confessing our

personal sins

and then we'll

join together

in praying

for God's

forgiveness.

Pray silently

for a minute.

Sometimes

two

rest

ago

to

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fingers

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join me in your hearts as I pray

and then join me aloud

in the responses each time

it's the same response

forgiving father

God of grace

mercy and forgiveness

we confess our sins in thought

word and deed

the evil we have done and the duties

we have left undone

father forgive us

we have not loved you with our

whole heart mind and strength

nor our neighbors

as ourselves

father forgive us

we confess our

self-indulgent appetites

and ways and our exploitation

and neglect of other

people

father forgive us

we have been prideful

self-righteous

and hypocritical

looking down on others

while minimizing our own

wickedness

father

forgive us

we have neglected your word

your worship

and prayer

and so failed to seek first

your kingdom

and our relationship with you

above all else

father forgive us

we confess our intemperate love

of worldly goods and comforts

and our discontentment

with your fatherly provision

father

forgive us

we have been indifferent to suffering

and injustice in our world

and harbored uncharitable thoughts

towards those who are different from us

father

forgive us

we have pursued our own pleasure

and success

at the expense of those

you have called us

to love

father

forgive us

and we have failed to forgive others

and so been ungrateful

for your abundant forgiveness of us

father

forgive us

let's continue to confess

our sin

and cling to our father's

abundant forgiveness

as we stand and sing

God

be merciful

to me

David's words

from Psalm 51

stand and sing

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