The Everyday Faith Steps:

• Born-again / Saved
• Water Baptized
• Holy Spirit Activated
• Healed + Set Free
• In Community
• Contributing
• Personal Growth
• Reproducing

Faith Scripture:

II Corinthians 5:7: For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Matthew 6:7-13

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name

10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread,

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

I want us to read the Lord’s Prayer as building blocks rather than standalone lines.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name."

The opening line of the Lord's Prayer is about acknowledging and honoring who God is.

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread."

This line is about recognizing and honoring what God wants done.

This is where we take action.

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Your faith in the action of forgiveness is the key that unlocks your freedom.

The word debt is a monetary term. When you are in debt with no way to pay back what you owe, you either die in debt, or someone has to make a deposit to credit your account.

We all have an overdue sin debt with God. We will either die in the debt, or we can receive the one who can credit your account.

Romans 4:22-24

22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses (debts) and raised for our justification.

The Action of Forgiveness: Receiving it and Giving it!

The consequence of unforgiveness keeps you chained down, tied up, shackled, and causes your own spiritual death.

Forgiveness - the term in a literal sense means to "turn loose," "to release," or to "let go."

An unforgiving heart magnifies just how much we haven't grasped the magnitude of the debt we have been forgiven.

Luke 7:47: (paraphrased) “he who has been forgiven much, loves much.”

Forgive Yourself:

I need me to forgive me! You need you to forgive you. I am quick to forgive others but have zero grace or forgiveness for myself. Too often we self-abuse what Jesus bled and died for. Abuses are things done too much or things that are hurtful that we self-inflict. For example, how you talk about yourself when you make a mistake or how you compensate to mask or numb the pain.

Move forward from abuse statements to faith statements. When we make a statement of faith in God, we are making a statement based on wholeness, holiness, and on God. Our trust is in God’s ability to accomplish it no matter how great the deficit.

Forgive Them:

Forgiving others is the key to your freedom, not the other person getting off free.

I have heard it phrased like this:

To forgive is to set a prisoner free, only to realize that prisoner was me.

If anyone has a right to hold unforgiveness, it is Jesus!

Listen to how Jesus ends the Lord's Prayer and how he immediately follows it up.

Matthew 6:12-15

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Now let's focus on this from a Jesus perspective! If Jesus, when he was on the cross, did not forgive, he would have disqualified himself as the sacrifice of God.

Luke 23:34: “And Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Here is the Building Block:

13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The greatest temptation of the enemy is to get you offended at the Father who can forgive you and bring you freedom.

Forgive God:

This is a theologically incorrect statement. It is incorrect because God has never done anything that would require forgiveness. He Is God. What it means is that you have held something against God or have taken offense at something and blame God. It is time to "turn loose," "to release," or to "let go."

John 6:60-61:

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?”

Offense - Greek - skandalizō - This refers to a trap, particularly the part of the trap to which the bait is attached, or to put a stumbling block in a person's way.

Offense is the craftiest tool of the devil that is used to bring people into captivity.

If the devil can tempt you to take the offense, you’ve trespassed into the devil’s playground. That’s why Jesus said, “deliver us from evil.”

Here is the power of forgiveness.

Romans 5:20b-21

“But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The power of Jesus is so great that he has not only forgiven your past but has set up a system called "Grace" that goes before you, so that forgiveness is waiting for you now and in the future, for when we miss it.