I would like to read a passage to you from Matthew 6. This passage is sometimes called the model prayer, or the Lord’s Prayer. I want to read through some of these verses, and then we are going to go back through a do a little commentary on this portion.  “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” I want to give you some definite points concerning this prayer. I came up with seven points. I realize that as you read it and study it, you may come up with more or less.  Basically I grouped these seven points into two groups.  The first group has three, and the second group four points.
Thy name, Thy Kingdom, and Thy will
The first group of thee points includes the name of God, the Kingdom of God, and the will of God. It says, “Thy name be sanctified (or hallowed).”  Then it says, “Thy Kingdom come”.  Then it says, “Thy will be done.”  In this first little section we have three “Thy’s”:  Thy name, Thy Kingdom, and Thy will.  These three points, I believe, are very crucial in this prayer. There are four points in the second portion of prayer and these points relate to us.  It is interesting—the first three points relate to God:  Thy name—the name of God; “Thy Kingdom come”, the Kingdom of God; “Thy will be done”, the will of God. The last four points relate to us:  Give us this day our daily bread. In other words, God, give us today, what we need to live on for today. Then it says, “Forgive us”. In other words, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who have done things against us. Then it says, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  So there are four points there.  Give us our daily bread. Then you have, “Forgive us our debts”.  Then you have, “Lead us”, and finally, deliverance. Those four points cover that second section of the prayer.  That prayer can be divided into two sections—the first section related to God. Notice the prayer does not begin with our needs—God I need this, or deliver me from evil and so on, but it first starts out with God: the name of God, the Kingdom of God, and the will of God. So this prayer begins with God and then it ends with petitioning God for the things we need—supply us, lead us, deliver us, forgive us, and so on. That sequence, there, of God first, reminds me of another verse in the book of Matthew where it says, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” The context, there is us being concerned about what we need to live from day-to-day, the cares and concerns we have regarding ourselves, our family, our city, nation and things like that.  But there it says to seek first the Kingdom of God. Then it says all these things we need will be supplied to us.  That is the same sequence we have in this prayer. This prayer starts out with honoring the name of God, then praying that God’s Kingdom would come, and third, praying that God’s will would be done on the earth just like it is in heaven. Then it finishes up with, “Lord, give us what we need”, “Forgive us”, “Lead us”, and also, “Lord deliver us from evil.” Now let’s go through this prayer piece-by-piece and point-by-point and I will show you how this prayer references, I believe, other places in the Bible.