I. Introduction
A. A golfer is playing a round of golf with his buddies. On the sixth hole, a hole over water, he proceeds to flub nine balls into the water. Frustrated over his poor golfing ability, and about ready to hit somebody, he heaves his golf clubs into the water, and begins to walk off the course. Then all of a sudden he turns around and jumps back in the lake, his buddies apparently thinking he is going to retrieve his clubs. When he comes out of the water he doesn't have his clubs and begins to walk off the course. Then one of his buddies asks, "Why did you jump into the lake?" And he said, "I left my car keys in the bag."
1. Lets turn to the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13
Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. {10} Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. {11} Give us this day our daily bread. {12} And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. {13} And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen
2. I used the King James Version because it is the one I grew up with
a. And suing the version is just less confusing for me
3. Now we have been through Jesus teaching on how not to pray
a. Who not to follow as an example of how to pray
b. We won’t go into the details of how not to pray
B. Here Jesus teaches His disciple how to pray properly
1. Lets take what Matthew wrote a little at a time and see how to pray
C. This is called the Lord’s Prayer
1. It should be called the disciple’s prayer
2. This is what is called a rabbinical model
3. It takes the disciple through each stage of a model prayer
4. This can be used as a template for prayer
a. Matthew 6:9
II. Body
A. Our Father
Matthew 6:9 (KJV)
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
1. I took this from another preacher, Pastor Mark Driscoll
2. There was no prayer, until Jesus, in the Bible to God as Father.
3. Once Jesus comes he says, “Pray like this. ‘Our Father.’”
a. Now the word here is Abba.
b. It means dad. Dad.
c. This to me is amazing,. God’s not impersonal he’s personal
d. He’s not a force, He has a name
e. He’s not angry, He’s loving
f. He’s not far away, He’s close
g. He’s not negligent, He’s involved in the life of his children
(1) Couple things I’ll say on this idea of God as Father
(a) Turn to Numbers 23:19
(2) First, God is not gendered as we are
(a) Now just the first few words of Numbers 23:19
Numbers 23:19 (KJV)
God is not a man
(3) The Bible says God is not a man, right?
(a) God is spirit, God the Father is spirit
(b) Jesus entered into history in a body, But God the Father is spirit
(c) Jesus tells the woman at the well, well turn to John 4:24
John 4:24 (NKJV)
"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
(4) So that means that God the Father is not anatomically male or female
(5) But it does mean when God chose to reveal himself he reveals himself as Father
(6) This means we don’t pray to God as mother
(7) We worship God not goddess
(8) Because Jesus taught us to pray to God as Father
4. Now the reason some of you are gonna struggle with this is because of your earthly father Okay?
5. Pastor Mark went on, Last week after I preached on praying to God as Father, after every service I was praying for people
a. And I had multiple people, particularly young women in their late teens and twenties saying, “I have a really hard time understanding God as Father
b. My dad left. He abused. He abandoned. He raped. He beat. He divorced my mom
(1) He walked out on us
(2) He won’t return my phone calls
(3) He won’t have any contact with me
(4) He’s just a horrible man.”
(a) Turn to Psalm 68:5
(5) What I would say is this, do not judge God by your earthly father, judge your earthly father by your Heavenly Father
Psalms 68:5 (KJV)
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation
(6) So maybe you don’t even have a dad
(7) Forty percent of kids go to bed tonight without a dad. But you still have God as your father
(8) And rather than saying, “My dad was a jerk; I guess God is a jerk.”
(a) Say, “God is wonderful
(b) There’s no excuse for my dad to be a jerk
(c) He’s ruining the name, the title father, dad, that he shares with God.”
i) Back to Matthew 6:9
B. Our Father which art in heaven
Matthew 6:9 (KJV)
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
1. This really differentiates just who we are talking to
a. Do we really need to do that?
b. Well turn to John 8:44
John 8:44 (NKJV)
"You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it
(1) There is another called father in this world
(a) Satan, the father of lies and liars
(2) Just for a moment turn to Matthew 23:9, Jesus said
Matthew 23:9 (NKJV)
"Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven
(a) I guess in some cases, a paternal parent might just be called a sperm donor
(b) I would never call the man who was my paternal parent, dad or pop or father
(c) In the main, he was just a sperm donor
c. My Father is in heaven, Lord of the universe, creator, and God
2. The very first part of our prayer identifies who we are addressing
a. Our heavenly Father
b. No question about that
c. The next step is to meditate on just who God is and your relationship to Him
(1) God has chosen to be identified as our heavenly Father
(a) He is the Almighty
(b) He is sovereign
(c) He is the creator
(d) He is the savior
(e) But He has chosen to be our heavenly Father
(2) How have we chosen to be identified with Him
(a) Am I a son
(b) Am I a slave
(c) Am I in some other relationship with God
(d) Think about that
3. Now the very next phrase is Hallowed be thy name
(1) Turn to Psalms 33:1
b. Immediately after the address is praise
(1) Holy is your name
(2) And we pause and consider the praise we ought to utter to the Father
Psalms 33:1 (NKJV)
Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful.
(a) But we are to praise and not flatter
(b) Praise is real, genuine
(c) Flattery is false and hypocritical
c. We can praise God for the things we know about Him
(1) His love
(2) His justice
(3) His wisdom
(4) His compassion
(5) His fairness
(6) His mercy
(7) And His grace
(a) Turn to Psalm 30:4
4. There are 14 passages in the Bible to link praise and thanksgiving
Psalms 30:4 (NKJV)
Sing praise to the LORD, You saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name
a. Genuine praise is beautiful
b. But, God also desires and honors gratitude
(1) There are so many things we should be grateful for
(a) Our friends
(b) Our families
(c) Our homes
(d) You know more than I do what you are grateful for
(2) We should be grateful for His salvation
(a) His provision in the world
(b) And in the world to come
(c) For His Son and His Spirit
i) Now, lets examine Matthew 6:10
C. Thy kingdom come
Matthew 6:10 (KJV)
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
1. The kingdoms of light and darkness are at war in this world and one day God’s kingdom will completely crush and replace the kingdom of Satan
a. Until that day, we are to pray for God’s kingdom to show up on the earth in such things as love, peace, racial unity, forgiveness, and generosity for all, especially the poor and marginalized
(1) To marginalized means to relegate to an unimportant or powerless position within a society or group
(a) Turn to James 1:27
(2) Many of us have been marginalized
(a) Scripture talks of widows and orphans
James 1:27 (NKJV)
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world
(b) Scripture also talks about the poor and destitute
(c) We can become part of the answer to this situation
(d) Through charity
(3) We are to pray for God’s kingdom to show up on the earth in such things as love, peace, racial unity, forgiveness, and generosity for all
b. For that to happen, we must pray for our own will to align with the Father’s will.
(1) We must be kingdom servants who do not just pray for the Father to do as we ask, but more importantly pray "your will be done" and trust whatever our heavenly father would have as his will for our lives
2. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven
a. This is a very simple concept
(1) We are praying that God’s will is to be done here on earth in the same way His will is done in heaven
(a) God is the sovereign of everything and everyplace and every time
(b) In heaven, God’s will is carried out by His servants, we call them angels
(c) In the garden God placed Adam and Eve and they were to be His servants Doing His will here or earth just as the angels do His will in heaven
i) But, we know what happened, Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord’s command
ii) And ever since, the will of God has been ignored here on earth
(2) And so our prayer is for the earth to be filled with the servants of God just as heaven is filled with the angels, the servants of God
b. Prayer is not about making God do something
(1) Prayer is about you and I aligning our will with God’s, aligning our lives with God’s will
(2) And being able to trust him enough to say, “Your will be done.”
(a) You may get cancer
(b) You may lose your job
(c) You may struggle
(d) You may suffer
(e) You may be abandoned by your family and friends
(f) You may be betrayed
(g) And when you’re in the middle of it it’s okay to say, “God, please fix it.”
i) Turn to Matthew 26:39
(h) But in the end our prayer ought to be like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
Matthew 26:39 (NKJV)
He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
(i) Joni Erickson Tada must have prayed over and over again, “God please fix it.”
i) Turn to James 1:5-8
ii) She and her husband are must likely praying that still
iii) But their prayers must be like Jesus, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will”
3. Pray believing
James 1:5-8 (NKJV)
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. {6} But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. {7} For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; {8} he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
a. Over and over again in Scripture it says to pray believing
(1) But then our heavenly Father could say, OK
(a) In that case what we pray is granted
(2) He could say, NO
(a) In that case we must be like Paul and accept that answer
(b) It may be that God has something better for us
(c) Garth Brooks sings about unanswered prayer, but its not unanswered prayer, the answer was, “No, I have something better for you.”
(3) Again, God’s answer just might be, “wait.”
(a) Its coming, but not now, later.
D. We are not going to make it all the way through the Lord’s prayer this morning, but we will continue next week with Matthew 6:11
Matthew 6:11 (KJV)
Give us this day our daily bread
