Master's Prayer 3-7-08

The Finding Emet radio program helps people understand and live the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The Western Wall in Jerusalem is a special place of prayer for Jews and Christians. Thousands of people visit the wall each day to pray and leave written prayers in the wall. There are various ways to send prayers to the wall, including texting, emailing, or mailing them. The Lord's Prayer is a compilation of teachings on prayer and should not be recited mechanically. Prayer is a constant communication with Yahweh and can be done anywhere, not just at the Western Wall. Hello, and welcome to the Finding Emet radio program. Emet is the Hebrew word for truth. This program will help you understand and live the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The Finding Emet radio program features the teaching ministry of Brother Daniel Rendleman of Emet Ministries. Prepare your heart to receive the Emet, the truth of the scriptures. More audio lessons and teaching articles are available at the www.emetministries.com website. Please visit our site to find all things spiritual, including a free online Bible search program, or submit your prayer request. That's www.emetministries.com, or www.findemet.com. CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website. Let's welcome our teacher, Daniel Rendleman, as he helps us find the Emet. If you've ever been to Israel, or you've ever seen postcards from Israel, or pictures from Israel, you've probably seen pictures of a wall with a bunch of Jews in black garments and black hats, you know, going back and forth there praying at this wall. And you might have seen this and said, what is that? Could it be a special place? Indeed, this is called the Western Wall, also known in Hebrew as the Kotel. The Western Wall is a special place of prayer. It is the only remaining wall of the second temple in Jerusalem that was standing when Yeshua was at the temple. It is the only remnant left over. After the legions of Titus, we remember Titus, had destroyed the temple in the year 70 A.D., the Western Wall remained as a special place, and it remains today, and it forms the greater part of the religious site in Jerusalem. There Judaism, Christianity, and Islam come together in Israel, but at the Western Wall it's a special place of prayer for Jews and Christians as they come together. Throughout the centuries before Yeshua came, this was a special place of worship, of reflection. Now each day, thousands of people flock there to the Western Wall, or the Kotel, and they pray. And many write their prayers on little pieces of paper and stick them inside the stones or the rocks that make up the Western Wall. A prayer, a wish, a hope, better than a wishing well, this is the prayer wall, the Western Wall, the Kotel. Now you might have heard it called the Wailing Wall. That term is actually offensive to many Jews. They call it the Kotel or the Western Wall. Now in the Talmud, Shemot Rabbah, which is a bunch of information about the book of Exodus, here's what they say, Rabbi Acha, a 4th century scholar, said that even after the destruction of the Temple, the Shekinah of Yahweh never leaves the Western Wall. It's the lower part of what was the Second Temple, and it's a special place of prayer. It's a way to connect to Yahweh. So on Friday afternoon, beginning about 11, 12 o'clock on Fridays, it is flooded with more Jews than any other time as they get ready for the Sabbath, starting Friday night, and they're bringing these prayers that have been written, and they leave there to be there on Friday night. Now as believers, we believe in the power of prayer, amen, yes, okay, and we know that you don't have to go to Israel to have your prayers answered. But boy, it's nice when you do get to go, isn't it? But we don't have to go there. Now we're also believers in the 21st century. Did you know this? Instead of going there, you could actually send a text message to a specific number, and there's this Israeli-based company that will print out your prayer and place it in the wall on Friday afternoon. It's a 99-cent charge. You send your text message, and you can even go online and watch the video of them taking the prayers that they've had texted to them, and you can see the video of them putting them in the wall. Now if texting is not your thing, then guess what? Yahweh answers email. Yahweh answers email. You can email your prayer to Him, and this Israeli-based ministry will take your prayers, they will print them out, they promise not to look at them, and they will put them in the wall. So write this down, if you want to email Yahweh, here's how to get your prayer inserted at the Western Wall. Are you ready? Go to this website, and this website will tell you how to get your prayer, if not answered, at least placed there at the Western Wall. This is www.email, www.email, e-m-a-i-l, dash, not underscore, but dash, g-o-d, God, dot o-r-g, o-r-g, so www.email-god.org, www.email-god.org, and your prayer is going to go there. Now if you're old-fashioned, and would rather mail Him a letter, you'd like to go the snail mail, did you know that the Israeli Post Office receives hundreds, hundreds of letters each week, which are sent and postmarked with this, either to Yeshua, or Jesus of Nazareth, or to God, or to Yahweh, His address, Western Wall, Jerusalem, comma, Israel. You can actually send a letter that way, and it will be taken to the Western Wall on Friday afternoon by a group of Orthodox Jews, and placed in the wall. Now there is, of course, the traditional way of communicating with Yahweh, which is just speak through prayer, but if you'd like to go out, if you can't get on an airplane and go to Israel, you want to send Him an email, a text message, or a letter, you can also do that. Today, we're going to review and talk about the formula that Messiah Yeshua left on how to pray effectively, and today we're going to use the sacred name of Yahweh, found in the Bible more than 7,000 times, behind the capitalized letters L-O-R-D and G-O-D, and we're going to use the name of Messiah Yeshua, His Hebrew name, given to Him in Luke, Chapter 2, by the angels. So as we're talking, we're going to see that you don't have to go to Israel. Anytime, anywhere, and we're going to look at what's known in Christendom as called the Lord's Prayer. We're going to look at what's called the Lord's Prayer, and here's something interesting. We're going to see that the Lord's Prayer, what's called in Catholicism Pater Nostra, was nothing new. Even though we said, oh, well, here's Yeshua's new teaching on prayer, this is nothing new. But we're going to find out that it was a compilation of various teachings on prayer that were floating around the temple during Yeshua's time. We're going to see that this Lord's Prayer, we'll call it the Master's Prayer, or the Model Prayer, is, you know, it's greater than something just to simply recite. There are many, many churches that on Sunday morning say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, and they say it and they go on to the next part of their service. They say it during Sunday school class. I remember as a child, we played Little League, and before our games, we would all get together and we'd kneel down at a baseball bat that our coach would hold, and we would all say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You know? We've got groups that do that. Now, did you know that not everybody is familiar with the Lord's Prayer? There were two men walking out one day, and a guy, you know, he was talking to his buddy about how religious he was and how much he'd been going to Sunday school and learning some things, and his buddy said, If you're so religious, let me hear you quote the Lord's Prayer word for word. I'll bet you $10 you can't do it. I'll bet you $10 you just can't do it. So the second guy says, I'll take your bet. I'm going to say it right now. And he says, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Well, the other guy, he pulled out his wallet, he fished out a $10 bill and said, Man, I didn't think you could do it. So not everybody's familiar with it. But as we discover this prayer through Hebraic lenses, through a renewed mind, Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, that we need to have our lives transformed by the renewing of our mind, it can be a life changing experience. How many know there's no microwave magic in prayer? You know, a mechanical recitation is empty and meaningless. Yeshua said, Do not keep babbling like the pagans who think they will be heard because of their repetitive prayers, Matthew chapter 6, verse 7. He didn't say not to pray. He said, Don't babble and think because you say it 400 times, it's going to get answered. Yet I guarantee you that there are many, many, many, many believers out there today who do this. They think, Oh, if I can just beg him enough, he'll finally answer my prayer. And there's probably something in that person's life that's stopping their prayer from being answered. Yahweh had already answered it, but there's some hindrance, there's some roadblocks. Now some consider prayer to be a parachute. They're glad it's there, but they hope they don't have to use it. Yet in prayer, we should rely upon Yahweh, amen, and it should become our steering wheel, not necessarily our spare tire, if you could say. Now as we are returning to the true faith, as we're learning the Hebraic worship, as we're having our mind renewed, we need to research and review pretty much everything, don't we? I mean everything, and look at it through the lens of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Look at it through the lens of the Tanakh, the Older Testament. Look at it through the lens of Yeshua returned to his Hebraic roots. Look at it through the lens of the Hebrew language. And as we do this, how many know we're surprised? You've been surprised before? You've taken off your socks before? Prayer is nothing more than constant communion, communication with Yahweh, amen? You don't have to be at the Western Wall. You don't even have to send them an email. However, we know that written prayers have been passed down for thousands of years, used as the liturgy, what we would call in the synagogues, Hebrew prayers. And let me tell you something, there is nothing wrong with the prayers of the synagogue that were used when Yeshua was here. Many, many, many of these prayers are effective for us to use today, but not just to recite and hope, the more I say it, the faster Yahweh will answer me. How many know it's important that we pray the Scriptures? We need to pray Yahweh's Word. And 99.9% of the prayers in the Siddur, or the Hebrew prayer book, are nothing but Scriptures. Indeed, every time you look at a prayer in a Siddur, it's mostly Scripture. There's nothing wrong with that. And there's nothing wrong with praying those every day. It helps renew your mind and get your mind off the world. Now Yeshua, our Messiah, taught us a traditional, biblical, a Jewish prayer method. So if we were to title today's teaching, you could say it's restoring or understanding the Jewish background of the Lord's Prayer. That's what we're going to do. You see, in Luke chapter 11, verse 1 and 2, the Talmudim, or the disciples of Yeshua, came to Him and they said, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. Each rabbi, then and now, had a specific focus or prayer language that they would use and say, pray in this way. It went directly along with the prayers of the day, the traditional prayers of Israel, but they would have certain ways that they would pray. And John, Yochanan, had taught his disciples his way of prayer. That's what a rabbi does. He says, pray in this way. And we see here, they came to Yeshua and said, teach us your way to pray. And Yeshua answered by giving what's called the Lord's Prayer. Now we'll say the Master's Prayer. Hebrew word for Lord is actually Baal, like Baal. I don't want to call it Baal's Prayer. Why don't we call it the Master's Prayer? We could say Yeshua's Prayer. Amen? So let's read it a little bit so that we can understand it a little bit. And we're going to read it in English and then we're going to look at it in Hebrew as well. So let's turn to Luke chapter 11, Luke, Luke chapter 11, they came to Him and said, you know, teach us how to pray. Verse 2, Luke 11, 2, And he said to them, when you make tefillah, when you pray, when you approach Yahweh, say this. Now, one thing about this was He didn't mean that you are to say this every single time you approach Yahweh. He was giving us a formula for prayer. Amen? He's saying do it in this fashion, in this mode. But I think it's important, if Yeshua says to do it, we need to do it. And if He says to do it A, B, C, D, E, then we need to do it A, B, C, D, E. So He says here, Our Father who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And in Matthew it has, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. That is not in the Gospel of Luke. Now, in Hebrew it says, Our Father who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Our Father, which in Hebrew is Avinu. Or quite literally, Abba. Our Father. Now, the term Abba or Avinu was quite common in Jewish liturgy before Yeshua came. It's quite common today. On Rosh Hashanah, which is Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, there's even a prayer that is said called Avinu Melkeinu. Avinu Melkeinu. Now, this is interesting because I was taught that the Jews would never approach Yahweh with Father. They would never call Him their Father. I was told that. I was told that by my pastor. And in truth, that is an error. That is wrong. It's actually anti-Semitic. Because I was taught that it was blasphemy to call Yahweh your Father. Were you taught that? I was taught that. But the truth is that was accepted. This is a prayer that has been spoken for thousands of years. Let me read it to you. Avinu Melkeinu. Kanenu. Vanenu. Kayin Banu. Ma'asfim. Asei Imanu. Zedakah V'Chesed V'Yoshi Einu. Our Father, our King, be gracious to us and answer us, for we are unworthy. Deal with us in compassion and faithful love and deliver us. Did that not start, Our Father? Avinu. That's called the Avinu Melkeinu prayer spoken every year by the Jews on the Feast of Trumpets. So there's one thing that we've got to relearn. The Jews called Yahweh their Father. And we can call Yahweh our Father. Yahweh is our Father. He's our Daddy. And guess what? We are His children. Now, many of us had a father that wasn't perfect. Maybe your father took great care of you. Maybe he spent a lot of time with you. Maybe he loved you. But maybe not. Maybe your earthly father abused you. Maybe your earthly father took advantage of you. Spent no time with you. Maybe your earthly father does not bring back good memories for you. Well, let me tell you. Yahweh is different. Yahweh is greater and bigger and better than any earthly father we could have. He's better than Cliff Huxtable, the Cosby Show. Guarantee you that He's better. We are His children. In Deuteronomy chapter 32, we see this being made very clear. We are born into this world as children of the enemy, of HaSatan, the word tells us. And yet we are born again into the kingdom or as children of Yahweh. Amen? We are born again into the family of Yahweh. And we have all, as being born again, have been grafted into the vine of Israel, into the commonwealth of Israel. In Deuteronomy 32, verse 6, it says, Are these the things you return to Yahweh, O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father that has bought you? Has He not made you and established you? Verse 7, very important. Deuteronomy 32, 7. Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your Father and He will show you your elders and they will tell you. Here He's telling us to remember the days of old. We are to remember what it was like when Yeshua came. We are to remember what it was like when Moshe was here. We are to remember what it was like when Abraham was here. And who are we to ask? Our Father. Avinu. Our Father who art in heaven. If you are open to what Yahweh is going to show you, He will show you great and mighty things. Amen? He says in Jeremiah 33, 3, Call unto Me and I will answer you and I will tell you great and mighty and unsearchable things that you do not know. But how many know? Most people don't want to know. They don't want to ask. They don't want to know about things yesterday. They want to know about how it is today and how Jesus took away the law. But we have taken that step to ask Yahweh, Show us the ancient past. Remember the days of old, Abba Yahweh. We are your children. And it makes it clear again in Exodus chapter 4. In Shemot chapter 4, verse 22. Exodus 4, 22. You shall say to Pharaoh, This said Yahweh, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. Verse 23. And I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. And if you refuse to let him go, See, I will slay your son, even your firstborn. We are Israel. We are the firstborn, Bakor in Hebrew, of Yahweh. He has set us apart. He has called us out. He has blessed us with a double portion blessing. Amen? Our Father has not changed. Many out there teach that, you know, the God of the Old Testament was angry. And that He changed when the Savior came. That is not true. We know, we are mature enough, and we understand that Yahweh is a perfect Father. Amen? And He balanced out chesed, or grace, loving kindness, and gevurah, or strictness and sternness. He's a good Daddy. And He loves us. Our Father. We might need to have our mind renewed to our Father. Let's look real quick to Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 through 13, back at the Master's Prayer. Mattityahu 6, 9 through 13. Our Father who is in heaven, holy is your name. Matthew 6, 9 through 13. This is the prayer, the Master's Prayer. And it begins with, Our Father who is in heaven. This is extremely similar to one of the most ancient prayers in Israel. One of the most ancient prayers of Judaism parallels the Lord's Prayer almost word for word. It's called the prayer of Kaddish. Not Kaddush. Kaddush is like the prayer of sanctification over the wine. Kaddish. The prayer of Kaddish. This is the prayer for the dead. Interesting. The Kaddish is the prayer for the dead. And it is directly parallel to what we call the Master's Prayer. The Kaddish in English, the prayer for the dead, is repeated by mortars. From the day that someone dies for every day for 11 months, the mortars will repeat this prayer thanking of Yahweh. And then on each year, on the Yatseret, or the anniversary of the death, it is custom to repeat this prayer. And then on the 10th of Tevet, which is the Hebrew month, the 10th day of Tevet, every citizen of Israel is to stop and repeat the prayer of Kaddish. Every citizen of Israel, on this day, the 10th of Tevet, is to do that. And what we're going to see by reading this prayer is it has nothing to do with death. It has nothing to do with dead people. It has nothing to do with someone making it from purgatory to heaven or so, but it is a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to Yahweh. And what has happened is, in Judaism, it's become a tradition to say it during the death to remind you that no matter what you go through, Yahweh is great and greatly to be praised. There is no reference, not even a word about death here. The theme is the greatness of Yahweh. And that when you are mourning, the only thing that will comfort you is His greatness. Isn't that awesome? Isn't that awesome? Here it says, May His great name be magnified and sanctified according to His will in the world which He created. May He establish His kingship in our lifetime, in our days, and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel, speedily and soon. May His great name be blessed forever and for all eternity. May He be blessed for all eternity. May the name of the Holy One, blessed is He, be lauded, glorified, exalted, raised, honored, uplifted in praise. He is above all blessing, song, praise, and words of consolation recited in this world. May there be great peace from heaven and life for us and for all Israel. And He who makes peace in the heights, may He make peace upon us and upon all Israel. What a beautiful prayer. What a beautiful prayer. Kaddish means sanctification. And when Yeshua came, this was not the prayer of mourning. But this was the prayer recited after the rabbi would give a teaching praising Yahweh for the word that was just given. But it is turned into this. And notice how it begins. May His great name be magnified and sanctified according to His will in the world which He created. So we say our Father, Abba, who art in heaven. In the Gospels, Yeshua speaks of Abba in heaven many, many times. So what is heaven for us? In Hebrew, it's shamayim. Shamayim. Avinu Shabbat shamayim. Our Father who art in heaven. Heaven is the throne of Yahweh. It is the place where His voice is heard. Remember that the Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit, descended from heaven. Who else came from heaven? Shamayim. Yahweh. And He will one day, Yeshua will one day, descend again from the heavens. Amen? We know that this is our homeland. Philippians 3.20 it says. There are blessings, rewards, and hope there. Our Father who is in heaven is another common expression in Judaism. Yeshua said this in Matthew 5.45. He said, So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good. And He sends rain for the righteous and the unrighteous. The Father in heaven does that. Right? Well, one of the great rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Abba who said this, The day of rain is greater than the resurrection of the dead. Because the resurrection of the dead benefits only the righteous. But rain benefits the righteous and the unrighteous. Now that gives me a whole new meaning on the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Because I've always thought, Oh, well the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Must be punishment for them and blessing for me. But here He says, He sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. But His blessings abound. And yes, the curses do also. But yet the rain benefits the righteous and the unrighteous. When we look to Yahweh as our Father in heaven, we understand that we've got a Father and Son relationship. Amen? That Yahweh is in heaven looking out for us. I'd have a problem if we were praying our Father who is on Mount Sinai all the time. He's our Father in heaven. He gives us a heavenly perspective. If you've ever flown before, when you go up in the sky, if you look down, it looks like a patchwork on a quilt. It's beautiful. What's interesting is you get so high, you can fly over a mountain and you don't even realize it. Yet if you're walking and you're right there at that mountain, it seems so big and so huge. But yet from a heavenly perspective, the mountain is nothing. You can't even tell it's an elevation. That's what Yahweh says to us. Though our mountains may seem big, though we may have impossibilities, Yahweh says from a heavenly perspective, it's nothing. Doesn't He say this for the righteous? I will make the low places high and the high places low. Do you know what that means? That when we're walking with Him, it's straight. We don't have to go through mountains and valleys. We can walk the straight path, the highway of holiness with Him. He is our Father, and He loves us. Holy is thy name. Yikadesh shemokho. Holy is thy name. Yikadesh is Hebrew for your name, or excuse me, your holiness. Kadosh is the Hebrew word for holy. Just like Kadesh meant to sanctify. Holy in Hebrew means to be set apart. We're saying set apart is shemokho, your name. The name of Yahweh is set apart. Now Judaism teaches that there are two things you can do with Yahweh's name. It tells us that you can either Kedushah Hashem, or you can Helul Hashem. To Kedushah Hashem means to sanctify the name. To bring it glory and honor and praise by your actions. If you Helul Hashem, you are profaning the name. You are bringing the name to naught. You are kicking it down in the dirt. Now according to the Torah, His name can be sanctified, or Kedushah, or it can be profaned. It tells us in Leviticus 22, verse 31 and 32, it says, observe therefore my mitzvot, my commandments. Put them into practice. I am Yahweh. Do not profane my name, because I am holy, kadosh, in the midst of the children of Israel. Does that make it clear for us? That we sanctify His name, we Kedushah His name, we make His name set apart or holy by our actions. You know many times we think prayer is all about Yahweh doing it. When we actually see here in the Master's prayer, a lot of it goes back to us. The responsibility is on us. That's a tough message, because nobody likes to know, hey, it falls back in your court. We like this picture of a God in heaven who's got His hands over His shoulders, or just, you know, He's crossed His hands and He's holding things back, or He's blessing us. When Yahweh says, you set apart my name, you sanctify it. Note the two words here. Observe that I am holy. Observe, do not profane. Observe, therefore, my commandments. Put them into practice. I am Yahweh. Do not profane my holy name, because I am holy, in the midst of the children of Israel. If we look at the Kedush, it begins with, may His great name be magnified and sanctified. Doesn't that sound like, holy is your name? Sounds similar to me. And this parallels for us, Ezekiel 38. So it turns me to Ezekiel 38. And I will magnify myself and set myself apart. This is Yahweh speaking. And I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am Yahweh. Sanctification of the name. Setting apart the name. Making holy the name. It tells us again in Ezekiel 36.23. Ezekiel 36.23. This is really good. And I will set apart my great name, which was profaned among the Gentiles, which you have profaned in the midst of them. And the Gentiles shall know that I am Yahweh, says the Master Yahweh, when I shall be set apart by you before their eyes. Verse 24. For I will take you out from among the Gentiles, and gather you out of all your countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you. A new spirit will I put inside of you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit, Ruach HaKodesh, inside of you, and cause you to have a walk in my ways, and you shall guard my commandments and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your Elohim. And I will save you from all your uncleanliness, and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no more famine upon you. Isn't that awesome? And he says, how is he going to do that? He says, this is going to happen. Look at verse 23. It says, when I shall be set apart by you before their eyes. When we are set apart, and we set apart the name of Yahweh before the eyes of the nations, that's when Yahweh will sanctify His name. Isn't that powerful? We're waiting on Him, and He's waiting on us. He's given us the name of Yahweh Yeshua to set it apart, to speak it, to know it, to bless people with it, and here He says that He will do these things. He will be set apart by you before their eyes. This is prayer. Not just petition, but praise. This is Yahweh doing a great work in our midst. Philippians 2, verses 8-10. And Yeshua, being found fashioned as a man, notice that, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on the execution stake. Philippians 2, verse 9. Therefore, Yahweh has exalted Him and given Him the name, which is above every name, that at the name of Yahshua, every knee should bow of things in the heavens and on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Yahshua is Master to the glory of the Master Abba Yahweh. People might not want to say Yahshua's name today, but let me tell you, they're going to say it one day. They're going to bow the knee, and they're going to call upon the name of Yahweh Yahshua to the glory of Yahweh our Father, who is in heaven. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall confess His glorious name. Tovah Makhuto. Yehi Rezonecho. Tovah Makhuto. May your kingdom come. The kingdom of Yahweh, or in Hebrew, the Makhut Hashamayim, is the rulership or the recognition of Yahweh. Yahweh is king. And it's not just something for later. It's not just the Messianic kingdom coming later, but it's now. Matthew 4.17 Yahshua said the kingdom of Yahweh is near. Matthew 12 He said the kingdom of Yahweh is among you. Among you. Among you. Psalm 80 verse 7 It says, Yahweh our Elohim, bring us back. Let your face shine upon us, and we shall be safe. The Kaddish again says this. It says, May His great name be magnified and sanctified according to His will in the world which He created. And may He establish His kingship in our lifetime, in our days, and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel. That His rulership, His kingdom, should come in our days. Isn't that what we want? Don't we want Him to return soon and very soon? The kingdom of Yahweh is continually being established and it's being established in our hearts as a person accepts the authority of Yahweh. And this was the central teaching of Yahshua. See, we were taught that the gospel message is, you know, accept Jesus and you'll be saved. But what did Yahshua say? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. His message was, repent, turn from your sins, turn to Yahweh. I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14, 6. No man comes to the Father except by Me. The kingdom of Yahweh is what Yahshua was all about. Not building a church, but being the set-apart people. Too many folks are focused on building their churches or their buildings. I've got to go there. I heard a church is building a Christian water park to finance their new building. I just wonder, they've got to have like, you know, you slide down Jonah's lower intestine or something and you go down. I don't know, but Jonah and the whale. What craziness. Yahweh says, Be about My kingdom. He says, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Yehi rezekenu. Ki yasher b'shamayim v'chim b'eretz. Rezekenu, rezeko, is the word for will. Yahweh has his rezon, his will. Razon, his will. And it says, Ki yasher b'shamayim. In the heavens. In the heavens. V'chim b'eretz. As it is in the earth. B'eretz. Eretz is the name for land or earth. And we see in Exodus chapter 25, verse 9, Yahweh is talking to Moshe about building the tabernacle. And in Exodus 25, 8, He says, Let them make Me a set-apart place that I may dwell among them. Now didn't we just read that we've got to be set-apart so that His name is set-apart? Now look at verse 9. It says, According to all that I show you, after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments in it, even so shall you make. He told Moshe, Make the earthly tabernacle after the pattern that you see in heaven. Because I'm going to dwell with you and make you set-apart. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Was He not just going back to here? Was He not saying, Let's look to the pattern in heaven who is what? Yeshua Himself. Yahweh and His Word. And make it that way. According to the pattern. That's Yeshua. In Psalm 40 verse 8, which is good. It says, In Psalm 40 verse 8, it says, To do your will, O Yahweh, is my desire. Your law is within my heart. Yahweh's will is the Torah. Psalm 48. To do your will is my desire. Rabbi Gamliel, who was a famous rabbi before Yeshua came, Rabbi Gamliel said this. He said, Do Yahweh's will as if it were your will. The sense is to defer to Yahweh. What does Yahweh say? Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. His kingdom comes when His will is done. Amen? His kingdom comes when His will is done. And here's something interesting. The three sentences. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. And thy will be done. All deal with one subject. The rule and reign of Yahweh. The divine pleasure of Yahweh. Then it says, Give us today our daily bread. Yom is the Hebrew word for day. Lechem is the Hebrew word for bread. You've got Bethlehem, which is the house of bread. Give us this day our daily bread. This is an actual quote from Proverbs chapter 30. We don't see it in the English, but it says in Proverbs chapter 30 verse 8, it says, Feed me with the food that is needful of me. Or it says, Give me neither poverty nor riches. Grant me only my share of daily bread to eat. Nothing new again. Rabbi Eliezer said, Whoever has a piece of bread in his basket and says, What will I eat tomorrow? Is a person of little faith. His daily bread. Yahweh will take care of us. Amen? When we seek first the kingdom of Yahweh and His righteousness, what does He say? All these things shall be added unto you. He will always meet our needs. No matter what we need, He is the answer. No matter what our problem is, He is the solution. David said, I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging for bread. Then why do we make it so hard? It comes down to us believing, does it not? We can make it a vain repetition and say, Give us today our daily bread. Or say, Why don't you give me my daily bread? Or we can believe what Yahweh says and believe that He has already given it. Matthew chapter 6 says that your Father knows your needs. Seek first the kingdom of Yahweh and His righteousness and everything will be given unto you. Here is something interesting. In John chapter 6, Yeshua says, I am the bread of life. So we can see when we say, Give us today our daily bread, we could say, but that is telling us to give us today a better revelation and a better understanding of Yeshua. The bread of life. Amen? Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us of our sins. As we forgive those who sin against us. And forgive those who sin against us. The Amidah, which is the Shimon Esrei, it's a collection of 18 prayers, spoken every day, three times a day, by Orthodox Jews. It was around before Yeshua came. Here's what it says. Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned. Pardon us, our King, for we have willfully erred. One rabbi said, in 200 BCE, or 200 years before Yeshua came, here's what this rabbi said. His name was Samuel the Small. Samuel the Small. He said, As we forgive those who sin against us, he said, if your enemy falls, do not rejoice. If he trips, do not let your heart be happy. But Yahweh would see and turn his eyes and remove from him his wrath. He said, We have to forgive those who sin against us. How many know that Yahweh forgives our sins as we show forgiveness to others? On Yom Kippur, we are told by the rabbis that the sacrifices of Yom Kippur do not atone for your sins against other people. We are told that the sacrifice of Yom Kippur only atones for your sins against Yahweh. And that for your sins against your brother, your sister, your aunt, your uncle, somebody you saw three years ago, or your wife, you have to go to them and ask their forgiveness. Didn't Yeshua say that how can you expect forgiveness if you don't forgive those who sin against you? The responsibility again goes back to us. Who do we need to forgive today? Who do we need to forgive? Who's hurt us? Who's damaged us? Who's come against us? Who's spoken against us? We need to forgive them. We need to forgive them. On the tree, Yeshua said, Luke 23, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. In an ancient Jewish work called the Derech Eretz Zuzah, it says, to whom is sin forgiven? To him that forgives. Yeshua said this, Whensoever you stand praying, forgive. If you have ought against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven may also forgive you of your sins. We have to forgive others. We have to let go. We've got to learn to let go. Or we can't walk in forgiveness ourselves. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. I think the word temptation here is a bad translation. I think it's a better translated trial. Because the word tells us, Yahweh does not tempt us. Isn't that what it says? He does try us. He does test us. Here's the difference between a temptation and a trial. A trial or a test will push us closer to Yahweh. A temptation is going to do what? Push us away from Him. Psalm 58.1 It says, Rescue me from my enemies, O Yahweh. Protect me from those attacking me. In this verse is an instance of what's called Hebrew parallelism. It's a poetic form used throughout the Bible which basically the first verse echoes in the second verse. The second line reinforces what the first line says. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Well again, Yahweh says, it's up to you. Don't place yourself where you might be tempted. Don't place yourself where you might sin. Resist it. Stay away from it. What does it say in the book of James? Submit to Yahweh. Resist HaSatan and he will flee from you. We've got to resist. In the Jewish morning prayers it says almost this, word for word. In the evening prayers it says this, Be a shield for us. Remove our enemies, pestilence, sword, famine, anguish. Remove the adversary from before us and behind us. Prayer of Judaism sounds an awful lot like the master's prayer. We've got to resist it. We've got to resist it. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, and the glory unto the ages of ages. This is a doxology that is used in the synagogue upon the opening of the ark. When they go to remove the Torah scroll from the ark. It's not found in Luke, but it's found in Matthew. And if we were to turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 29, verse 11, we will see this word for word. 1 Chronicles 29, 11. Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, the victory, the majesty. For all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom. Is that not word for word? For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory? 1 Chronicles 29, 11. Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, and you are exalted as head above all. The prayer begins with praise, and it ends with praise. It starts with our Father, which is in heaven. It ends with how great you are. Yet if we were to look back at Matthew and Luke, we see that this was not the end of Yeshua's prayer or teaching on prayer. Many times it says, oh, you know, we read it, we say, you know, teach us how to pray. And we just look at the Lord's prayer. But then it goes on and it explains it further for us what Yeshua taught about prayer. Look at Luke 11, verse 5. Right after the Master's prayer, verse 5, he said, Which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight saying, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. For a friend of mine is on his journey, has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, the door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give you. I say to you, if he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as much as he needs. This shows us the primary purpose of prayer which is fellowship with Yahweh. Building our friendship with Yahweh. And the truth is as we spend more time in prayer, praising and giving thanksgiving, we will soon discover that we don't have as many needs as we thought we did. Amen? We have a different picture of prayer here. And what we see here is a contrast, not a comparison. Let me say that again. A contrast, not a comparison. Yeshua was not saying that Yahweh is this Father who is holding back bread. Yeshua is contrasting. He says, you've got a friend that won't give you bread. But we've got a Father in heaven who says if you ask him for bread, he's not going to give you a stone, he's going to give you what you need. Let me show this to you again. Look at Luke 11. Look at verse 11. If a son shall ask for bread from any one of you that is a father, will you give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will you give him a serpent? If he asks for an egg, will you offer him a scorpion? If you being evil, wasn't this friend evil that was asleep with kids in his bed? Know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more shall your Father give the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit the Ruach HaKodesh? See, we've been taught that you've got to be persistent in prayer. You've got to just keep begging and begging and begging. There's a parable about a lady that goes to a judge. Begging the judge for justice and mercy.