Mathew 6: 1-15

Matthew Chapters 6 verses 1-15

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

Mathew chapters 5, 6, 7

 

Please read through Matthew 6:1-15

These verses Matthew: 6:115 will cover giving and praying verses 16-18 will cover fasting. 16-18 will be in my next blog.

Mat 6:1-2  Jesus is warning not to practice you righteousness (good deeds etc.) just to be noticed. What is the point of this? If you forgive a person or other good deeds like giving to a family in need. Don’t go around puffing up your chest and saying what a good boy/girl am I. If you are taking all the credit then you are denying that God gave you the good fortune to be able to do that deed. The second verse indicates that if you do that you are all ready compensated. I would rather have Jesus say Well done my good and faithful servant than get the accolades of man. Matthew 5:16 tells us to let you light shine. You could take that verse and say that it indicates that you should tell someone. That verse is referring to your Christianity and not denying it. Not the good things you do. Even non believers do good things.

Matthew 6: 3-4 These two verses are emphasizing that you should keep your good deeds to yourself and you will be rewarded in heaven. Mathew 16:27 and Revelations 22:12 point out that you will receive your rewards and when you will get them. I also noted in verse 12 of revelations that the rewards are variable depending on your deeds. That is a bit scary to me. I think of some of the great Christians. Check out George Müller, what this man accomplished through prayer is beyond belief. If you do not believe there is a God than read about this man. But we do not do these deeds for reward we do them because Christ asked us to. It is part of what makes us who we are as Christians.

Mathew 6: 5-13 These verses ares how how to pray and are within these verse. It is a model of how we should pray. The first two verses 5 & 6 are showing you how not to pray. Most of us have heard someone who prays just to be heard. They are not praying in humility they are doing it for show.

Matthew 6:7-13 are the  “Lord’s Prayer”or a model of how we should pray. I will try to explain some of the meaning (remember this is how I see it.), but research on your own would be helpful also. The prayer goes like this: Taken from the NKJV prayer is in red

Our Father in heaven,    We are acknowledging where God is and that he is our Father
Hallowed be Your name. Holy is your name, that is one reason it is a sin to take his name in vain, it is holy and sacred.
Your kingdom come. May Jesus return is how I interpret this.
Your will be done We should always strive to be doing God’s will he is outlining some of that in the beatitudes.

On earth as it is in heaven. Since Heaven is our final home we should strive to make it on earth as close as it will be in Heaven,

Give us this day our daily bread. Our spiritual needs and out physical needs

 And forgive us our debts, Our sins
As we forgive our debtors. Their sins
And do not lead us into temptation, Places that we may sin of be tempted to sin.
But deliver us from the evil one. Protect us from Satan
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen We are acknowledging that this is his kingdom and he is reason it exists and may he be glorified forever.

Amen. That means it is so; so be it (used after a prayer, creed, or other formal statement to express solemn ratification or agreement). When someone prays and you say amen, you are in total agreement with them. If for some reason you do not agree don’t say it. You are addressing God. Christ has set the standard. we need to remain in those standards as much as possible. If the prayer is for something that you know is not what Jesus think about it but do not agree until you have prayed about it.

This is a prayer format and does not have to be unuttered this way but the substance of your prayer’s should have praise, acknowledgement of God, repentance of sin and forgiveness of others who have sinned against you, and finally protection for Satan.

I am sure there are those that read this that have issues with a lot of this. Example: I prayed for healing for Mr. Jones and he died anyway. The reasons for things that are horrible, like wars, death, sickness, hate, etc. Is something that you should take to your pastor. There are answers but they are very hard and difficult to explain. If you have had a horrible experience I empathize with you. We all have had something in our life that did not go as we planned. I am sincere in having you seek council on those issues. If you are not a Christian you will find the answers even more difficult but really give thought to what the pastor says. It is important

The last two verses Matthew 6:14-15 are straight forward. If you forgive those who have sinned against you God will forgive you. If you do not God will not either.

Agape

Dave