Matthew 6:8-9. The Model Prayer, Our Father. This message originally delivered June 2, 1996.
In Matthew, because it's not fair to start with the text that you don't understand, we really need to work our way up to it. In Matthew chapter, in the in the book of Matthew, I should say it is the gospel of Jesus king of the Jews. It is Jesus being the king. For instance, in chapters one and two, you have the birth of the king. In chapters three, you have the baptism of the king. In chapter four, you have the temptation of the king. And then in chapters five, six and seven, listen carefully, you have the message of the king. Here, the king stands up on the Sermon on the Mount, and he gives forth a message that he wants his subjects to No, this is the attitude you should have. In fact, in chapter five, he goes like this, you've heard that it was said by them of all he was talking about the religious teachers of his day, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. You know, they say this, but I say unto you, This and the chapter five, he just begins to dismantle us as if you know the Beatitudes, Blessed are the poor and spirit Blessed are they who mourn such. Well, in chapter six, he changes a little bit his direction, and he begins to teach. Here's what the king has to say about practical Christian living in particular, here's what the king has to say about piety or about spiritual disciplines, in particular, the way you give alms, or do righteous acts or give to the poor, the way that you pray, and the way that you fast. And so in chapter six, he says, Here is what the king says about how his subjects are to do spiritual disciplines. D Martyn Lloyd Jones makes this comment on the sixth chapter. Listen to what he says. I sometimes think that it is one of the most uncomfortable chapters to read in the entire scriptures. It probes and examines and holds a mirror up before us and will not allow us to escape. There is no chapter which is more calculated to promote self humbling and humiliation than this particular one. But thank God for the Christian should always be anxious to know himself. No other man truly wants to know himself. The natural man thinks he knows himself, and thereby reveals his basic trouble, he evades self examination, because no one's self is ultimately the most painful piece of knowledge that a man can ever acquire. And here's a chapter that brings us face to face with ourselves. We're getting to the Lord's model prayer. And believe me, my friends, when we study the Lord's model prayer, you're going to be shocked at how self revealing it is. But in this chapter, Jesus is talking and notice some things he teaches about the practical disciplines. Here's how the king says you should live. Look at verse one of chapter six. Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. Then he gives an illustration, he says, the hypocrites you know what they do? They blow the trumpet, you know, I'm about to give this big gift. Look at me, everybody. Don't do that. Don't do your don't do your giving to be seen by men, but just do it so that God your Father sees it. And then in regards to prayer, he says in chapter five, here is what you shouldn't do it. She shows me in chapter six. Here's what you shouldn't do. Look at verse five. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. It can imagine standing right in the middle of synagogue or standing on the street corner. What's this guy doing? He's praying, but he's not really praying to God. He's praying so that others will see him pray. Don't give gifts to the needy, so others see you and don't pray so that others will see you. And then he goes on to say And don't fast when you fast. Don't look, oh, god. Look at me. He's fast. He must be spiritual. Don't do that. Do it just as your God your Father sees you. In fact, look what he says in verse six. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen, than your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, don't keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. I want you to use the word babbling there is to repeat the same thing or the same phrase over and over. When you pray. Don't just keep repeating the same thing over and over. We have jokes in our family. Some of you may have do this in your family prayer time or dinner. If you ever notice that some of the prayers get the same thing. We used to pray a lot of times our family would joke about it Father, we thank thee for all things in life. I'm sure that that can be a sincere prayer but when you just say it over and over and over and over sometimes you'll wonder whether or not you're really being sincere when you say it. So don't just say the same things over and over and he also goes on to say this they think they will be heard because of their many words. This is this is a good translation. The idea just it's it's the word polis for many and low logos, many words. In other words, the pagans those that don't know God think that just by saying big, long, lengthy prayers, somehow that's going to get to God says, Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't be like them. Verse eight, your Father knows what you need before you ask him. But now that's what not to do in prayer. But now he says in verse nine, here's what you shouldn't do. So look what he says in verse nine. So here is how you should pray. Now, let me ask, Does anybody here need me to read this prayer to them? This model prayer, you see, it's the model prayer. It's not the prayer, the Jesus, Jesus never made this prayer. You know, we know that because in this prayer to ask for forgiveness of sins, and Jesus wouldn't need to ask that. The real Lord's prayer is in Luke is in John 17. This is the prayer that Jesus taught us how to pray. Okay, now listen to this, let's say together, can you do it? It may come out with a couple little NIV NASB King James a little sidetrack, but we basically can get it. You've seen enough movies even if you've never read your Bible, quote, this prayer, haven't you? Let's begin. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who you got it. Good. I just want to see if you know what I'm getting here goes and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Ain't that great? Now if I said, Ezekiel 16, verse five can Well y'all coat that together? Ready? Go. You wouldn't? You couldn't. But you see, we know this. You know what this is one of the most, if not the most famous passage in the entire Bible. Almost anybody, even non church goers at least can quote part of this. In fact, in churches Sunday, after Sunday, all around our country and for years all around the world. Churches repeat this prayer every single Sunday in their service, which I find somewhat interesting because the verse seven, don't just keep repeating words. Martin Luther, the great reformer, listen to what he said about this model prayer. He quoted it every day, he meditated on it. He prayed through it every day of his converted life. And he said, I have never been able to wear it out. Agustin one of the Church Fathers said this, there is nothing more wonderful in the entire Bible than the Lord's Prayer. He goes on to say this, I have always been comforted by this thought that whenever I may forget my in my whatever I may forget in my own private prayers. As long as I pray the Lord's prayer I have at any rate covered all the principles, unconditioned, of course, that I'm not merely mechanically repeating the words, but I'm really praying from my heart and with my mind with my whole being. at that lunch that I was at with weirds me with about 15 guys not too long ago, Warren, where's the author and writer and Pastor teacher? We asked him all kinds of questions about spiritual disciplines. He says, Phyllis, I'll tell you one thing I do. Don't tell this to everybody. But I'll tell you, he goes, I have made it my practice for years to pray through the model prayer on a daily basis. He said, You know what, Kim, there is nothing you can pray that isn't covered in that prayer. But even talking about it just just to even begin to show you what we're going to talk about this morning and tonight is essence this question, but you know, I'm afraid of this. I'm afraid we're so pathetically weak in prayer. And we've gone through so many steps of prayer, we've got our views of prayer like this, what you've seen on Christian television. What you've seen on heard on Christian radio, maybe even what you've read in books, or specially what you've seen when other Christians got together and your prayer life is basically made up of just a bunch of epitaphs just a bunch of repeating what other people have said. And I think it's quite possibly a people's view of prayer is so mixed up and really, we need to get back and find out Jesus now take some time to teach. He's the king. He's teaching his subjects. Here's the way you're supposed to pray. You know, prayer is one of the most difficult things in the world and prayer also reveals more about you than anything else. Do you Martyn Lloyd Jones makes this comment. The ultimate test of a man's true spiritual condition is his prayer life. There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life. Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer. It is not so difficult to give on some people can are just generous in their spirit they can do that. Others can discipline themselves who by willpower too fast and do this those kinds of disciplines. In fact, it's much easier to preach than to pray your comments. But prayer is ultimately undoubtedly the ultimate test because a man can speak to others with much greater batteries, then he can speak to God. Ultimately, therefore, a man discovers the real condition of the spiritual life when he examines himself in private, alone with God in real prayer. That's something we say, oh, there's so much wrong with the church. You know what I believe friends. Because the church doesn't pray. We see there's so much wrong in my Christian life. Even when I do try to pray. It's so frustrating because I just don't seem to get it. What is it? That's a phrase we all know where to sit back. I think you're gonna be astounded at what we learned from Jesus Christ. On this matter of prayer. Let's break this prayer down. Here's the prayer, you can all quote it to me all know it. Here's a quick overview, a breakdown of the model prayer and address Our Father which art in heaven. And by the way, that's all we're going to study this morning is just Our Father which art in heaven. Tonight, we're going to study Hallowed be thy name. We'll try to pick the pace up a little faster in the weeks to come. But that's how fast we're gonna go. Now watch this. There are six petitions the first three concern God directly about his glory, His name, how will be thy name. Or as I prayed this morning, first service hollow be thy name, Bad mistake, okay, His kingdom, His will, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Notice you're halfway through the prayer and you still haven't asked anything for yourself yet. Now watch. The second three concern man directly our needs aren't necessities, Give us this day, our daily bread. Our sins, lead us not into temptation. Or excuse me, our sins, forgive us our debts as we forgive those indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, and then with the conclusion. So that's a quick overview of this prayer. And so let's start getting into this and see, Jesus didn't go he didn't give a big long, six pages on how to pray a very short little paragraph phrase by phrase, just six petitions. Let's find out now more about prayer. And I'll tell you it grows rich and deep, the more we think about it, let's start with word one. Our Oh, you are liquid it says our Father in heaven. The text does not say my father. The text says Our Father, is this some kind of mistake? Did Jesus just was going he's with a group of people. And he just said it. But he really didn't mean it. No, my friends, look at the personal pronouns. Look at verse 11. us look at verse 12. us look at verse 12, who we are. Look at verse 13. US it is something to notice, to be a Christian, the moment you begin to address God, there has to be a concept that is supposed to flood our minds that you're part of a body, that you're part of a family. This is not just about you going to God, this is about you with all of your brothers and sisters going to God. She this sort of grates against us, and we don't like it because we're so narcissistic. And we're so individualistic. And it's so much about I'm a lone ranger Christian on my white horse, right and off to serve Jesus. But you see, friends, the Bible calls us to be a part of a body to be part of a group. And Jesus specifically instructs us, it's our father. And the concept that you're part of a family needs to dominate your thinking as you begin to pray. This is no mistake. This is purposely given by Jesus again. And again, to think this corporately to think this way, I laugh as I think back to certain situations in life where people were praying, for instance, I remember being in high school, my senior year, I went to a Christian High School. And here you have a two Christian High Schools playing each other. And there's a basketball game and the score of 70 to 70. And there's one second left and the guy is foul, and he's on the line. So the other team calls timeout, this actually happens. And that what this what I'm talking about. So then there's tension in the room, the score is tied, there's a timeout, where everyone knows the guy is going to shoot a free throw with one second left. And so you got a group of cheerleaders, and I've seen it many times I have, and they're over here. I've been to high school games, and they're all circle around holding hands and they're sincerely praying that the guy would miss the free throw. And then you got over here, the same group and they're sincerely pray that the other end holy is fervently praying, you know, the ups and the other groups still praying, we better keep praying that they would make the free throw. Do you ever think of the tremendous pressure God might feel the moment like that? I mean, What's he supposed to do? Literally, that's too much of our prayer life. Our prayer life is so much like that our prayer life is so much about us, rather than about us about ourselves, rather than about the body of Christ, or even your family or even your local church. It's about us. The first thing about prayer friends, even when it gets to the personal request, it's what's best for all of us. And one of the reasons prayer may seem strange to you, and maybe it's such a hard thing is this concept has entered your mind and it's more of gimme, gimme, gimme, Lord, help me, help me, help me. Look at chapter five. Go back to chapter five. This is the same sermon. Look at verse two. Only three. Look what he says. In chapter five and verse 23, Jesus is still teaching the same sermon. And he says, Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift. Because you're going to worship, you're going to worship this way vertically, you're worshiping God. And as you get there to make your gift also, you realize, man, I had a terrible argument with my wife, or man, I had a terrible dad attitude towards that guy at work, or whatever it is. He says, stop what you're doing. Leave it, go get it straight with your brother, get horizontal righteousness down and then come back. That's all part of this when we go to address our father. I don't know about your house, but it's true to our house. That uh, here I am as the father of the house, the kids aren't getting along. Well, I'll tell you something, I step up and I say, look, and they say you want to do something with me, you're not gonna get to do anything with me until you go apologize, your sister. Later on, in the same book, listen, the story of the guy that is forgiven 11 million by the king. And he runs out and he finds the guy that was in $15. I mean, I don't know how many Sundays I haven't referred to that story in all my life. But you know, something. Listen to the conclusion that story, guys, forgive me 11 million in grabs guy, there was a 15 or six by the throat. He says, here's the conclusion. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. As you catch the terms brother and father. They're all through the Gospel of Matthew, this is part of the idea that it's not just our Christian life. By the way, friends, if you're a part of a body, you may be a finger. But when's the last time you saw a finger running down the street? We're all part of the body. So we got to be for each other. And even in our prayers, we've got to do this. And you know, I'm just shocked at how naturally suspicious we are. Even in Romans, when Paul writes, think about this, Paul was a Pharisee. Do you know what a Pharisee is? He was the guy that thought everybody else was going to hell in a handbasket except the Jews. I mean, he was so proud of himself. He was a racist to the max. And what does he write in Romans, I beseech you, therefore brothers, brothers who have received God's mercy, he calls Romans. Those were dirty, filthy Gentiles. He calls Romans brothers. The whole point of Romans is is it strikes a chord that all men are on equal ground because of the gospel. And he calls them brothers, and there's a sense in which he is concerned for others. Now I want to make sure you understand this there is scripture like this. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And there is no question about the fact that there is the very much of a concept where you must crowd God be merciful to me, a sinner. But I'm talking about the general course of prayer is to understand that we're part of a body. But notice the next word our Father knows what he says there chapter six, verse nine. Well notice again, our Lord's teaching us to pray, the king is teaching his subjects. This is then how you should pray. Our Father. Billy Bray, the famous Methodist preacher, when confronted with a difficult situation would often say, I must talk to father about this. This is the concept that's supposed to be in our minds that we're going to our Father. Now I've prayed with many people, I've done it myself. It's typical here the Christians pray and they say this dear Lord, Dear Jesus, Are we let our children pray? I've had a big argument with my kids for a long time and they're finally starting to see it you don't pray Dear Jesus, now you then can't come on your kid you're doing that to your kid. Come on, but the Jesus taught us how to pray. And when he teaches our praises this our father now I'm totally against the magical formula theory. Like suddenly there's some big tragedy in your life and you're and you're wondering, it's a life or death situation and you sit there going oh, man, if I can say the right words, you don't have to worry about that. God is so much bigger. And he is so much bigger than he's not there but but still, that doesn't diminish the fact that we're supposed to consider and learn how he taught us how to pray. And when it comes to praying, if you ever pray with me, and I hear you say Dear Lord, I'm not gonna stop you right there. Go heretic get out of here. I'm not gonna say that. But we are to understand that prayer is supposed to be to our father, gi Packer makes this comment, what is the Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God for his father. Can this be said of every man Christian or not? In fatica? Lee know, the idea that all men are the children of God is not found anywhere in the Bible. The Old Testament shows that Israel God was the father of Israel. The New Testament shows that those who received you Jesus Christ to those God gives the right to become the children of God. You have to become a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus. sonship is a gift of grace. And when this when Jesus is speaking in the room grown ruled the world and the Roman practice of adoption, was not that you would adopt a little baby, but that you adopted a an adult because you wanted to give your inheritance to someone who has you couldn't do it yourself and for whatever reasons. pegar went on to write this listen carefully. You listen how important this is, you sum up the whole of New Testament religion, if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one's Holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes it the thought of being God's child having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers, his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught us, everything that makes the New Testament new and better than the old, everything that is distinctively Christian, as opposed to merely Jewish is summed up in the knowledge of the father of God Father, is the Christian name of God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption. In fact, he says, The revelation to the believer that God is his father is in a sense, the climax of the Bible. So what it's all about? James Montgomery, boys, Pastor 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia makes this comment, do you know the God of the universe as your daddy? It is your privilege if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus. Now, I know there are times when you must come to him sadly, like a child who has just broken the living room window. But there are other times when you can come to him snugly as a child curls up on his father's lap at the end of the day, however you come you can never change the relationship he is yours He is your daddy. You say cameras aren't you make an awfully big deal about something here? No friends, I want you to see something. This is so important. throughout the New Testament, we're taught that God intends the lives of believers to be a reflection and reproduction of Jesus's own fellowship with himself. The fellowship between God the Father and God, the Son, the intimacy of the Trinity, is to be reproduced and reflected in his relationship with us. And I want you to see in the Sermon on the Mount, remember, it's chapters five, six, and seven, I want you to see in the Sermon on the Mount the importance of the word, Father, Go back with me and just look at some of these verses with Jim, look, verses back to chapter five and verse 16. It says, 15 on here, but we mean 16. Look at this. Jesus says, in the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven. Now go to 545 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, Delegate 548. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect sixth one near the end. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven, verse four, so that you're giving maybe in secret that your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you, verse six, pray to your Father who was unseen, then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. We've already then looked at verses eight and nine in this in this period, look down the verse 14 and 15. For if you forgive men, when they sinned against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. Look at verse 18. Faster only your father sees because your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Look at verse 26, friends of this chapter six, Look at the birds of the air they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. We get 632 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. It just keeps going. Are you getting the point? Look at chapter seven. And look at verse 11. If you there will be an evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven. And then down in 721. All through here you see an enormous emphasis and by the way, it's just not there. Every time Jesus Christ refers to God in the New Testament, get this every time he refers to him as his father, with the exception of when he's on the cross saying, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Conceptually in the mind of Christ, continually he referred to him as his father. There's this concept as as he teaches, he's teaching how can you miss the point? Look at how many times in the sermon, he refers to your heavenly Father, your heavenly Father, your heavenly Father, over and over and over again. It's something that's big that we don't want to miss. It's something that's to be important in our concept of going to prayer. If I don't want you to consider this what fatherhood means fatherhood, Listen, it implies authority. Jesus said, I came down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of Him who sent Me. In implies that we're going to a Father and the Father implies authority over the children. I'm not sure what it's like at your house, but it's this way at our house. If my wife was with the kids a lot during the day, and I come home, this happens, often, I will see them, I'll see my wife asked the kids to do something, they'll be very slow about getting it done. And there's the wear and tear of being there more. But when I come home, when I see that kind of behavior, I say, Hey, did you hear what your mother said, do it, you know, they go do it right now. They jump to it. And there is the sense in which this Fatherhood of God implies authority over us. And so we're going to him the one in our minds, part of this needs to be a thought of, there's a God that has authority over me, he's my father, I look to him, the one with all authority over heaven and earth. It also implies affection. The Father loves the Son all through the scriptures and emphasizes how the Father loves His children. John says, Behold, what manner of love is this, that we should be called the sons of God? Again, I tell you, I love it. I love my kids so much, I come home, if I get home late at night, and they're already in bed, I love to go into their bedroom, see them and they're all sleeping in different positions. You know, they're like this, I love to look down and see what they're like. If I come home, and we live on a block, it's about a quarter mile long, it's a cord. And if I come home, and I looked down the street, I think there's like 11 Girls on our block. And so with our three girls in there, as I looked down that block, I can look down whether they're rollerblading, riding a bike walking, or running, I can tell you which one is mine, even from a quarter mile away. Now, I love the other kids on the block. And I love the kids at this church. But I will tell you, not the way I love my own. When I see them, they go daddy, and I just love to hear that Daddy and I picked them up and we hug and how you doing? We roll around the floor and we tickle there's affection. And friends, you can be assured of this, if we being evil, know how to have affection for our children. How much more is our father have affection for us. So that needs to be if he wants us to be there. It also implies fellowship. I'm not alone. The Father is with me, Jesus says, And all through the Scriptures, you understand that there is fellowship, fellowship between the Father and the Son, between the Father and His children. God, even the whole basis of the covenant is I will be your God you shall be my people. There's this close emphasis of God wanting to be close to us. This ought to be in our minds as we seek God in prayer, that we have a God that wants to fellowship with us, He sent His Son into the world so we can be reconciled, become friends, be close to him. And there's the biddings of the scriptures come unto me and all the biddings of of pouring out your heart before me and laying out your burdens on me. I want to be there. I want to walk with you. I want to fellowship with you. It also implies honor, the Father loves to exalt the Son and the Father honors his children. Again, and again, that is true in the Scriptures. And of course, we can put human argument we can put human illustrations to all of these things. But I want you to see what they did in the Westminster Confession. Look at this. Here's a group of Christians wrote this years ago to try to get theology straight as they could as straight as an arrow. Look at all those that are justified, God vowed safe within and for his only Son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they're taken into the number and enjoy the privileges of the children of God, have his name put on them, receive the Spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness are enabled to cry Abba, Father, get this they are pitied, protected, provided for and discipline are chastened by him as by a father yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation. Utilize friends, if we would listen to what Jesus saying we just stop right now stop and think of how much faith will swell in your heart. When you just start off our father. And you just think about you're in the body of Christ. And you think about the fact that he is the father of those and he is your father and he cares that he's interested in you and wants fellowship with you as affection towards you wants to honor you is interested in your life. prints. I'll tell you just stopping right there, changes things, how this audit adds strength to our incompetence to our fading heart, thinking hard how to warm us and encourage us. Hello to build this up. We're not going to what if What if Jesus would have said, Now when you pray, pray like this Dear Almighty Judge of the universe. Now we could Jesus that would that have been true? Is God the Almighty Judge of the universe? Yes, he certainly is. There's many different aspects to God that we could bring about. But when Jesus teaches us to pray, he says you need to be thinking of your father, your Father in heaven. Now sometimes people today will say something And on this point, I say, Kim, but I had a terrible father. Let me tell you something that's modern psychology talking to you. You don't need to listen. You know why? You're saying basically, if you had a bad father, you can't think properly about God the Father, that's not true. You're saying basically, you only learn from one slice of the pie. I feel bad for you, if you did have bad parents, and well, I'm gonna read a quote to you in just a minute, which will help us understand the bad parents can really hinder their children. There's no question about it. But you can learn by contrast. You can learn from many other ways. And so we gotta say, oh, there's a father, not like the one I knew. But there's a father that that was wonderful and wants to be close to me. How about encourage us? Think about this friends. Social experts drummed into us these days, that the family unit needs to be stable and secure and that any unsteadiness in the parent child relationship takes its toll in strain, neurosis, and Arrested Development in the child himself. The depressions, randomness is an immaturity is that mark, the children who have broken homes are known to us all. But things are not like that in God's family. There you have absolute stability and security. The parent is entirely wise and good and the child's position is permanently assured. The very concept of adoption is itself a proof and guarantee of the preservation of the saints. For only bad fathers throw their sons out of the family even under provocation. And God is not a bad father, but a good one. When one sees depressions, randomness and immaturity and Christians, one cannot wonder whether they have learned the health giving habit of dwelling on the Fatherhood of God. Do you remember the story of the one guy that had the five talents, the one guy that had the two and the one guy that got the one and the master left, and he came back and the five, double his and the guy with to double his and the guy with one got scared, and he buried it? You remember what he said? When he came back? He said, I knew that you were shrewd and harsh and angry. And I was so afraid. And so I took my talent, I buried it. And what does the master say? The master said, You wicked, lazy servant. You thought I was that way. One of the points, my friends is this improper view of God is a violation of the second commandment, Thou shalt not make any any graven image, to look at God and always be in fear, and to back off and always say, Oh, you could never please and he's too hard to please, that may be an earthly father that you knew. But that is not our Heavenly Father, our heavenly Father delights in His children loves his children. And a concept that needs to be built in our minds is this. If you if your view of God makes it so that you can't do anything, are you back off doing anything, you could be called wicked and lazy one day, because Jesus Christ says when you pray, when you think about God, when you think about approaching the Almighty God, you call the almighty who put the billions of stars in space, who has all the billions of microscopic animals under the microscope, who has made us as humans, all very different, that God is your Father. And you can approach him as father will tell you, friends, this ought to impact us. This ought to help us look, just a pound this into our mind so that we cannot forget it. conscience, in our thoughts. Every time we turn to God and prayer is that we're beseeching Our Father, Who cares for us, who loves us, who knows us who wants what's best for us. So what this means several things, look here, it means prayer is not impersonal, mechanical. There is a very much a sense of this that needs to be understood. There's a boldness and confidence in prayer now in the New Testament that we know of, when I come home from work, and my kids are there, I those little girls say Alright, who wants to beseech me, you know, that's Reverend Kaufmann, Reverend Kaufman. He didn't worry about that. She goes daddy, and she runs up and she jumps in my lap. It's not impersonal mechanical. Your view of God is not to be some harsh judge or some mean guy or somebody that's watching this from a distance. But our view God is is it's not impersonal is mechanical. We're talking to our Father. We need to understand that look what else it can be free and bold. I like to think of an illustration like this think of the generals of the armies. Here's the the head general of all the armies the United States of America. He says there's gonna be a there's gonna be an inspection of the troops and the Colonels Lieutenant Colonel's in this captains in the majors, they're all scared to death and they they're making sure everybody's got their boots polished and they're everything's lined up just exactly the way it supposed to be. All the guys who got their guns Polish exactly right. Everything's supposed to be perfect, and everybody's worried to death. Here comes the Gen Z armies as he walks through, yes, sir, I will show you how to do all that spooky stuff. I wouldn't know how to do it. But everybody's just exactly right. And the GIL Jeremy's walking walks down the Rhine is looking at the people going up and down wanting to make sure everybody's just right. And people are scared to death because of his authority. When we get to the end of the line, there's a three year old daughter and a little fluffy dress. Now all the other guys are scared and she goes, Daddy, she runs over jumps in his arms. I tell you, friends, this is the concept that Jesus is pounding into our minds, this concept that we're supposed to think about in prayer, you see, it already starts to help us. He's our father that we can go and beseech. So our sonship should be the controlling thought in our lives. Look at this, our entire Christian life has to be understood in light of it. And in fact, in this sermon, five, six and seven of this book, in the sermon, it's constantly talking about our sonship. The fact that we have a father should influence us look at this, I'm just going to take you we won't take the time to look at these I just want you to see in 516, he says be salt and light. Why? So that you can glorify your Father in heaven. Down in 544, he says, treat people properly and be holy. So you'll be like your Father in heaven imitate the Father. And then he's sorry, then he says in verses one through 18. In regards to spiritual disciplines of alms, prayers, and fasting, don't worry about what people think you please your Father in heaven. See, and then he says this, The whole basis of Christian prayer is our Father, which art in heaven. And then he says, the basis of the life of faith is that we have a father in heaven. Don't worry. He says, You don't have to run after all kinds of things like the pagans do, they don't have a father. That's what it says in this section right here. But you have a heavenly Father that already knows these things. And then I want to go over chapter seven, when they flip over to chapter seven, this is still the same sermon, I want you to see this. Look what he says in chapter seven. verses seven and eight is talking about asking and knocking. And verse nine says, Which of you, if a son asked for a for bread, we'll give them a stone? Over he asked for official give them a snake? If you then though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more? Will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him? You see the point he's making? If you've been if you're if you're human, if you're corrupted by the sinful flesh, and your child comes up and ask you for something, you're gonna do what's best. In other words, he doesn't always answer yes, or even the way we like, but he always will be sure to give us good gifts. You see, that's what a good parent will do. A good parent won't just say yes, every time the child asks. And so listen, when you go to prayer, you gotta remember something. You got a heavenly Father that loves you a whole lot more than you love him. And when you go, when you ask, Can I have this? Can I have that? He's may say to you, no, but it's not because he doesn't want your best. It's because he's got your best interest in mind. Some are thinking how much confidence this should give us. Because sometimes you say, you know, I'm praying, praying, God just doesn't hear my prayers, you ought to be thankful. So God loves us so much that He will give us what we deserve, not deserve. But what he wants us to have the best gifts. That you know what a good parent will do. A good parent will give you what you should have asked for rather than what you requested. You know that? Paul says, Take away my problem. I've got this thorn in the flesh taken away and his Heavenly Father says, No, Paul, your problem is best for you. I know what hurts you. I know it's agonizing. I know. It's troublesome. I know you want to get rid of that problem. But Paul, it's best for you to have that problem. And so the answer's no. Let me illustrate it. Let's say you've got a three or four year old little child and they break their leg. So there you got a three or four year old child with a broken leg and they go to the hospital and they get this great big cast on their leg and it's the summertime and that little child is home. And they don't fully understand everything because they're a child and they say Daddy, please this cast hurts me in inches. Daddy, I can't stand it. It's just so bulky and cumbersome I don't want to have it I don't want the three or four year olds gonna say cumbersome but they're gonna they're gonna they're gonna say just in right now what a loving parents say you know son or daughter you know that's true. You should mean old doctor putting that cast on you let me just cut it off. Cut right off. No parent their right mind would do it. You know what the parent would say? Son? I'll help you the itch to scratch is I'll go get a hanger don't don't use a hanger. I just had some medical people just go I don't do that. Alright, well, I'll try to help you some scratches. Get you some Benadryl or something. Okay. I'm gonna tell you that's how God deals with us. This automatically starts to help us understand prayer, we back up and we say, oh, now I'm starting to understand, I may ask for things that aren't right. And therefore he's gonna be helpful. Lastly, friends, lastly, I want you to see this. Let's finish the verse that we're going to cover this morning, our Father, what's next? In heaven? Boy, I'll tell you something, this is a lot bigger than you may have first thought. Did you notice how many times we just written the sermon? The Father in heaven, the Father in heaven? The Father in heaven? Did you notice that? Listen, my friends. If I talk to somebody I haven't talked to in a long time, you know what I asked them? My old friend, Danny calls me, Danny, how you doing? This is really you Danielle? Daddy, where are you? So I asked. And they're very much is in our mind. As you address somebody you think of where they are. You do that is very, actually very important. Jesus Christ prayed like this. The Bible says He looked at his hands and he looked up towards heaven, and he prayed father, like this. Now showing you the contrast that just a bunch of words, you know, badly, badly, badly, badly, just going through words, that doesn't reach heaven. What reach heaven is we stop and think I'm on Earth. I'm in this fallen world. I'm to look up to the sovereign Father who is in heaven. But he rules all any is overall it is in all. In fact, friends, I'm gonna tell you what this has done for me. Afterwards, we challenged me and I heard it from Lutheran, those other guys, not personally from them, but it read read their books. I've heard it from them. And when we said to prisoners, I decided I'm going to do this on this vacation. And can I tell you, my uncle died in February and it's sad to think of him gone still yet. But here I am praying every morning and I'm going through this prayer. And I'm trying to be sincere as I take my time and meditate and think through this prayer, stop and think of how it forces you to think of the next world. You address your Father in heaven, our Father in heaven. And then listen, you pray, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And one of the reasons for our prayers is like little kids that can't see the big picture. And they want to play in the streets or a little kids that want too much candy or little kids that don't want to understand why they're being disciplined. We don't always see but when we pray this prayer, and we address our the body of Christ is there our Father God that personally cares about us, it's interest us, and he's in heaven. We start realizing this friends, one day we're not we're gonna either be in heaven or hell. We start to realize that we're talking about our Father in heaven. That's what we're going and we start praying now Alex, thank Your will be done on earth isn't heaven, I like to think of the angels in heaven. Anticipate here's the super super creatures, and they're created beings looking at the looking at each other, could I be next to deliver that message to Earth? And there's joy and honor to be able to do the will of God. And I stopped I think they the angels, he says, Alright, Gabriel, send this message. I'll give you you get to go, oh, Gabriel, what is so great, you get to go serve the King of kings, the Lord Almighty. And Gabriel with a delight is it to do the will of the Father races down to earth to deliver a message. And I stop and I think in my own life, how much I begrudge the will of God at times, I stopped I think as a pastor, how many times I've looked across the desk at a man or a woman who doesn't want to get back with their spouse, or doesn't want to sit back have a grudge is if the will of God was some horrible thing. I think of how much we need to learn about our own lives from this prayer. He is our Father in heaven. He's rules overall, this world is all complicated, but he's not here. He's up there. And we're addressing him and he's over there. And one day we'll be there where things will be made, right. So we have a father in heaven that we need to seek with all of our hearts. Right here I hope friends that you're already starting to get encouraged as we see that this prayer contains intimacy father, it concerns adoration in heaven. We're praising him in the concerns fellowship is our So tonight, we will continue and next week but tonight we'll continue with how would it be Thy name? Let us pray. Our Father, we love you. We are so thankful that in this world so full of trial and difficulties and things that we're not sure of, we can't count on people. Yet we have you a father that we can turn to and we can trust. A father that we can beseech and a father that cares for us and sincerely from all bottom of our heart. We praise you and we thank Thank you for being so good and and giving us this instruction thank you for the richness and the encouragement that we get just from these first thoughts of our Father in heaven we pray this in Jesus name Amen. Would you stand together with me at the after this benediction just let me slip down the aisle and I can shake your hand out of the door and then I will dismiss you. If you would like to talk about your spiritual life, a condition whether or not your sins are forgiven or anything like that. We'd love to set up a time to talk with you sometime this week. It may not be me but it will be somebody on staff we'll see it gets to you. Maybe the God Himself the God of peace sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit soul and body be kept blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.