PASTOR'S CORNER

  Matt 6:1-18   This prayer closes, concludes, with a lesson that reminds the listeners the important teachings of forgiveness from (v12).  Why does Jesus go back or amplify this statement?  First! To help us answer that question there is something we need to understand; as we look at what Jesus is saying in light of the gospel.  This portion of teaching is not speaking about the “salvific power” of God in our redemption.  This request is certainly not a prayer for forgiveness in the same sense when we first believed the gospel. That was done at the cross.  Otherwise! Passages like Jer 31:34 “remember their sins no more” or Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west” would be meaningless if that was that kind of forgiveness Jesus meant.  See!   Christ came as the great Peacemaker not only to reconcile us to God, but to one another.  God demonstrated His love first through the gospel; and this act of love, is what causes us to show mercy in return.  This act of forgiven

  Matt 6:1-18 The world is a dangerous place and we all wished that it wasn’t.  Evil lurks around every corner and we like to imagine that evil is distant and far away from us, but the reality is… “Evil” is everywhere.  And where evil lurks….. Sin and Temptation are creeping around every corner as well and the danger is the appeal of sins temptation can be in the Christian life.  As Al Mohler said “Sin and temptation are harsh masters.”  Sin doesn’t want a minor role in a movie it wants to be the main star, the focus, the story, and the ruler over your life.  The temptation begins when we entertain its fakery because we are enticed by what it offers.   We saw that in the book of beginnings. Everything was perfect and tranquil until when? Chapter three reveals the main villain. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?&qu