Sermon Brief
Date Written: February 12, 2014
Date Preached: February 12, 2014
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: A Study on the Lord’s Prayer
Sermon Title: Who is in Heaven… (Sermon 3)
Sermon Text: Matthew 6:9-13 [HCSB]
Essence of the Text: Jesus wanted His disciples to know how to pray…
Essence of the Sermon: Jesus wants believers today to know how to pray…
Objective of the Sermon: Prayer is vital for the believer, but prayer is not so much in the words as it is in the attitude behind those words. This model prayer lays forth a template that guides the believer in the direction of their prayer and the attitude of their heart.
Introduction:
The first week we looked at prayer from an overall perspective, that it was not FOR God but it was for us to draw into a more intimate time and relationship with God.
He knows what we need and what is going on in our lives, so we don’t have to TELL Him to let Him know… BUT we do need to tell Him so that we are in communion with Him and learning to trust Him and lean on Him.
Last week we looked at the object of that prayer. We looked at the term, “Our Father” and we saw how the Father figure is an important figure in the lives of humanity… the view people have of God is often based on their view of their human father. Sometimes that is a good thing and other times it can be a hindrance to someone trying to grow closer to God.
This week I want to speak about WHERE the object of our prayer is located. Yes God is omnipresent and everywhere at all times, but we have a locale that we place God in for a purpose… that locale is Heaven.
We have a tendency as humans to centralize a dwelling place with home. We have our ‘home’ we go home to…a place where we live, sleep and eat and we tend to associate heaven as God’s home.
But where is heaven? What is heaven? Is it a place? Is it a condition of life? Is it another dimension of being? Is it far away? Is it right in front of our noses? I believe ALL of these questions are legitimate questions and deserve honest answers…
As believers, we are FAAAR too vague when it comes to the spiritual realties we speak about every day. If God is in heaven, then we should know something about heaven… right? If God is our Father and heaven is His natural environment, it stands to reason we should have some understanding about what that realm is really like!
In reality God’s abode… or God’s home is ALL of space and time as He is all present, and all powerful… There is NO one location that can contain Him! BUT here Jesus wants us to connect with God on an intimate level and the focus of our prayer is TO God ‘in heaven’…
The fact of the matter is that God dwells EVERYWHERE and there is really no words to ANY language that can articulate the location of God, so what Jesus does here is gives us a central focused location… one that is spoken about throughout Scripture… that is HEAVEN…
The word ‘heaven’ is derived from an Old Anglo-Saxon word heave-on which means to be lifted up or uplifted. It implies the thought of a place or a state of being which is above the common life we live here on this world.
In the Bible, heaven is used to describe 3 pretty distinct places or realms. First, we find the word heaven used with reference to the earth’s atmosphere (…the heavens…)
It is used to describe that protective shield that covers the earth and prevents deadly cosmic radiation from killing us all! The formation of clouds are said to be formed ‘in the heavens’… rain, hail or snow is said to come FROM the ‘heavens’
We normally associate LIFE with the atmosphere; as Isaiah said in Is 55:10, “…for as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not return, but waters the earth and makes it to bring forth buds that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater…”
Second we can see heaven from a MUCH broader sense of when we see the word ‘heaven’ or ‘heavens represent all of outer space. We have the things we can see with our eyes and directly affect our lives like the sun, moon and stars, but the immense nature of how HUGE our universe is… simply boggles our minds!
But there is a third viewpoint and it is that heaven is the realm of God… at times in Scripture it is described as a definite place, such as the “New Jerusalem”… a HOME specially prepared by God FOR His believers!
But Paul wrote of a man who was lifted up into what Paul describes as the ‘third heaven’, but Paul refused to speak about it or even write about it any further. But John while exiled to the Isle of Patmos took great pains to describe what he was seeing in the place he calls ‘heaven’
Now this is just 3 particular locations many people may even think about when it comes to heaven, and when we think about these 3 places we need to ask ourselves several questions.
Does this mean that God can be everywhere in our atmosphere? YES
Does it imply God can occupy Outer Space? Absolutely yes!
Does this say that God is spirit and can be anywhere at any time? YES!
In fact there is nothing we can look at in all of Creation that should NOT take us back to the reality of God the Father and that we are His creation and we live in HIS creative blessings!
He is everywhere and all present and He makes himself apparent in many different ways, but the trouble is that many of us are NOT focused enough on Him to see it… to appreciate it… we are so caught up in our own petty desires and seeking after what we want that we miss out on the glory of what is God’s blessing!
It has been said that the level of a man’s spiritual character is measured by the degree by which that individual can detect and know God from the simplest of things or people that surround Him!
With that being said God is very much the God of this planet, but HE is also the god of this our atmosphere, our universe and of HIS realm! Trying to understand God in his realm we can use Scripture (2 Cor 12:1-7)
It is strange, but we are not told as much about heaven as we would like. I believe it to be because of a lifelong conditioning we receive to grasping onto and holding firm to the life we have here in this world!
It is like someone from the upper mountains of Colorado attempting to describe the clear and beautiful icy lake and grand mountains to several school kids from the inner city… they can imagine but they simply cannot understand the beauty or richness of that beauty.
But when we try to comprehend God’s natural abode… we believe it to be the home that has always been his desire to share with us! This is because God owns it all. We can know that IN heaven we will be freed from somethings and others will become like 2nd nature to us!
First this is that those who make it to heaven, they will be set free from the assaults of the Enemy and the sinful nature that drags us down so often! The temptations of the Evil One will seek another option…
We will no longer be tied to our pain, suffering and anguish. We will no longer have tears of sorrow or mourn death. Death cannot hold sway over our lives any longer. However the one thing that stands out to me is NOT the freedom from such things but the freedom to enjoy and expect the wondrous spiritual and physical liberty that will be ours to have!
When God’s new heaven, new earth and New Jerusalem are unveiled we will discover our own eternal home AND that there is NO place we know now that will compare!
No church, no temple, no sanctuary, no formal structure of any kind… there will be nothing but delightful and relaxed freedom to fellowship and worship with all of God’s people before the God we surrendered to serve! No more doctrinal divisions, no more racial divides, no more ethnic separation… all will be unified under the banner of heaven!
We need to remind ourselves often that THIS is God’s realm… this is what heaven is going to be like! Heaven is NOT so much a place where God is… but it is that God is there and that makes it heaven!
We have been taught in Scripture that Christ is pleased to come into any life who calls upon Him for salvation! Jesus will take up residence in a heart that is black with Sin and He will cleanse it and make it clean and whole! And when he takes up residence in that heart… in that soul… do you realize what that means?
Well if our logic holds true it means that where God takes up residence… THAT is heaven! I believe that when Jesus was teaching His disciples about heaven that He was NOT teaching them about a place that was remote and far from them, but Jesus was referring to the abode of God… referring to where God dwells!
The phrase, “Our Father who is in heaven…” is in our hearts and to know heaven and what it means brings about a new dimension and a new outlook on serving God here in this world. In Lk 17:20-21 Jesus said when asked where heaven was… “It is within you!”
Once God’s sovereign reign is established in any heart, it becomes His dwelling place and therefore…heaven! So when Jesus was instructing his disciples to pray “Our Father who is in heaven…” he was NOT referring to some remote location in the far reaches of our galaxy, but rather the location where God abides… and when that is in our heart… then that is where heaven is!
Let us now pray to our Father who dwells in US!
Pray for…
The believers of Oak Park Baptist Church, their walk with Christ and their witness to the community around us!
The ministries of Oak Park Baptist Church, their focus on Christ and the message they bring to our community around us!
For the JoEllen Ministry
For the Parc Fontaine Ministries
For our Wellness/Body&Soul Ministries
For our Outreach ministries
For our Sunday School and small group ministries
For our Corporate worship and praise ministry
For the image and stature of our church and our members within our community
For our fellowship and ministering to one another
For our fellowship and the unity of spirit among that fellowship!
The staff of Oak Park Baptist Church, in their focus on submitting to God’s will and serving those to whom God has placed them in leadership over.
The lost and dying within our community, those who do NOT know God, who do NOT have a relationship with Jesus!
The sick and hurting of our congregation and of our community.
