SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine trying to get a meeting with the President of the United States?
SPEAKER_00: You know, you couldn't simply walk into the Oval Office whenever you wanted to.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Everyone knows that.
SPEAKER_00: You would need all types of things.
SPEAKER_00: You would need security clearances, you would need appointments, you need approvals, if you even got that far.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine if the president had a little child.
SPEAKER_00: That child doesn't need credentials.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't need an appointment.
SPEAKER_00: He can simply walk into his father's office and come to him.
SPEAKER_00: What's the difference between that child and us?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the difference isn't necessarily importance.
SPEAKER_00: The difference is relationship.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he could have taught them to begin by saying, Almighty God or sovereign Lord, but instead he chose a word that emphasizes relationship.
SPEAKER_00: He chose the word Father.
SPEAKER_00: That one word changes the way that we approach God.
SPEAKER_00: Last week, we looked at this question that Jesus was asked by one of his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, teach us to pray.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples wanted to learn the right way to pray.
SPEAKER_00: They were already learning from his example, but the disciples wanted to know what they should include in their prayers.
SPEAKER_00: How should we address God?
SPEAKER_00: What should or we shouldn't we ask for?
SPEAKER_00: What are some things that our God wants to hear from us?
SPEAKER_00: These are great questions, and they're questions that each one of us as believers should want to know because, like the disciples, we should have this desire to pray the right way.
SPEAKER_00: And thankfully, Jesus has given the church those answers, answers to those questions.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the model prayer that we know as the Lord's Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We find it in Matthew, but we also find it here in the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, we will begin looking at what Jesus teaches us to include in our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Lord's prayer is not simply to be prayed word for word every time, although at times it's good to pray it word for word as a reminder of how we should pray.
SPEAKER_00: We include it, as you know, in our liturgy for that reason.
SPEAKER_00: However, the model is just that.
SPEAKER_00: It is a model for how we should pray.
SPEAKER_00: There are certainly more that we can say in our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't want to pray vain prayers.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to pray vain repetitions.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want just to repeat phrases without truly meaning them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus actually gives us a warning about this in Matthew chapter 6, verse 7, where he says, And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is ultimately a heart issue.
SPEAKER_00: This is why, as I mentioned last week, it's good to have our hearts and our minds shaped by the scriptures, shaped by the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we should allow our prayers to be led by his word and to be led by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 6 18, we read, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication, to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a spiritual thing, which means that we need the Spirit very much involved in our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we're not just repeating words and we're not just repeating phrases.
SPEAKER_00: We are praying in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We need the Spirit to lead us in our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: We need the Spirit to empower us as we pray.
SPEAKER_00: And even, as Paul says in Romans 8, to intercede for us in our weaknesses when we don't know what to pray for.
SPEAKER_00: So as we begin looking at this model for our prayers, don't neglect the Spirit's involvement in them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let us go to what we should include in our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: I titled this sermon, Addressing the Father.
SPEAKER_00: This is the part of the prayer we're going to be looking at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Before getting to the petitions and what we are to include in our prayers, Jesus teaches us a way to approach God.
SPEAKER_00: And he teaches us to approach God as Father.
SPEAKER_00: As he says, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first thing that the Lord teaches us.
SPEAKER_00: He teaches us how to pray and come to God as Father.
SPEAKER_00: The question for us is why?
SPEAKER_00: Why Father?
SPEAKER_00: Of all of the titles attributed to God, why this one?
SPEAKER_00: Why not Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Why not Maker?
SPEAKER_00: Why not Most High?
SPEAKER_00: Why not King?
SPEAKER_00: Of all the titles, why do we begin our prayers addressing God as Father?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer to that question is what I want to spend our time on this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I want to answer why we address God as Father.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I want to point out.
SPEAKER_00: When we address God as Father, number one, it establishes his position.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, it reveals his character.
SPEAKER_00: And number three, it draws out our reverence.
SPEAKER_00: It establishes his position.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals his character.
SPEAKER_00: And it draws out our reverence.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at that first one.
SPEAKER_00: It establishes his position.
SPEAKER_00: By addressing God as Father, we are establishing his headship.
SPEAKER_00: Just as a father is the head of the family, God is head over all.
SPEAKER_00: He is first in order.
SPEAKER_00: He is first in rank.
SPEAKER_00: There is no creature or being that is above God.
SPEAKER_00: In our prayers, we are acknowledging that all things come from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: This is why before we even get to petitioning our requests, we acknowledge who these requests that we are asking for will come from.
SPEAKER_00: And that nothing will come to us unless they come from Him.
SPEAKER_00: James 1.17 says, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
SPEAKER_00: So when we open up our prayers, addressing God as Father, we are not only acknowledging his position, but we are also acknowledging our position.
SPEAKER_00: It establishes the creator and the creature distinction.
SPEAKER_00: It sets forth who God is in the relationship.
SPEAKER_00: How tempted we are to think that we are self-sufficient, that we can obtain all things on our own, that we have the power within us to accomplish everything that we need to need to.
SPEAKER_00: We are so quick to set ourselves up in the place of God.
SPEAKER_00: But by addressing him as Father, we are reminding ourselves who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And we are reminding ourselves who we are, that he is the Father, and we are the children, that he is the creator, and we are his creation.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi 2.10 tells us, have we not all one Father?
SPEAKER_00: Has not one God created us?
SPEAKER_00: Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 2.7 says, Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
SPEAKER_00: It was God the Father who gave us life.
SPEAKER_00: He breathed life into us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a humility that comes with knowing that you are a created being.
SPEAKER_00: Because to be created means something.
SPEAKER_00: It means that you are not dependent, uh, that I'm sorry, that you are dependent for someone else, for your existence, for your very life.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you wouldn't exist without someone else.
SPEAKER_00: And in a sense, we we we understand that by way of birth.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are probably old enough to remember that old saying, I brought you into this world and I'll take you out.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say that anymore, they'll call the police on you.
SPEAKER_00: But as a kid, you can argue with that because you know it's true.
SPEAKER_00: Because we know that we didn't give birth to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We have our mom and dads to thank for that.
SPEAKER_00: But yet, our mom and dads were also birthed.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever birthed them were also birthed.
SPEAKER_00: And it says we could keep going back until we reach the first man ever created, and we can give God creation credit there.
SPEAKER_00: However, that kind of makes God seem uninvolved.
SPEAKER_00: As if he just set things in motion and let them be.
SPEAKER_00: But God is not only our creator, he is also our sustainer.
SPEAKER_00: He also directs everything, all things according to his own sovereign will.
SPEAKER_00: As Psalm 135, 6 says, whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps.
SPEAKER_00: The text says, Whatever the Lord pleases, he does.
SPEAKER_00: Not whatever the Lord pleases, he has done.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father is an active father.
SPEAKER_00: He's not, as some people would call, a dead-be dad.
SPEAKER_00: And as Colossians 1:16 says, all things were created by him.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, even the birth that was given to you by your parents is a result of God's created work.
SPEAKER_00: Theologians speak of first and secondary causes, first and secondary causes.
SPEAKER_00: God is the first cause.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It simply means that nothing happens unless God says so.
SPEAKER_00: If God wants something to happen, it will happen.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna happen, and He will make it happen through various means.
SPEAKER_00: Staying with this birth analogy, you were born because God said you would be born.
SPEAKER_00: He is the first cause.
SPEAKER_00: Again, nothing happens unless God wants it to happen.
SPEAKER_00: You were born because God wanted you to be born.
SPEAKER_00: The secondary cause was your mom and dad.
SPEAKER_00: He used them to make it happen.
SPEAKER_00: But never think you were born out of the pure will of your mom and dad.
SPEAKER_00: All things, even you, were created by him.
SPEAKER_00: This is important to keep in mind when we petition him for things because he doesn't just create us, he creates everything around us.
SPEAKER_00: He created the sun and the moon and the stars that give us light.
SPEAKER_00: He creates the air that we need to breathe every day.
SPEAKER_00: He creates the fertile ground that produces our food that we need to eat.
SPEAKER_00: He creates the materials that we use to shelter us and close us.
SPEAKER_00: We are dependent creatures, dependent on our Heavenly Father for everything.
SPEAKER_00: Just as children are dependent on their fathers for provision and for care.
SPEAKER_00: The creatures of God are dependent on Him for every need.
SPEAKER_00: From the biggest need to the smallest need.
SPEAKER_00: When my children were little, they certainly needed me for the big things.
SPEAKER_00: They needed dad to provide shelter for them.
SPEAKER_00: They needed dad to provide food for them to eat every day.
SPEAKER_00: But they also needed me for the little things.
SPEAKER_00: They needed me to pick them up and put them in the car seat and buckle them in, even though it took me a while to understand that concept.
SPEAKER_00: They needed me to teach them how to hold a pencil and how to tie a shoe.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, we need our Heavenly Father for all things, for the great things, for creation, for creating us, for salvation, but also for the little things, for the things that we take for granted every single day.
SPEAKER_00: We need God for today and for tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: We need God for the body and for the soul.
SPEAKER_00: We need it for the temporal and the eternal.
SPEAKER_00: When we begin our prayers with Father, what we're doing is we are establishing that we are little dependent children coming to our Father who meets needs.
SPEAKER_00: We are saying, Father, there is nowhere else to go.
SPEAKER_00: There is nowhere else to turn.
SPEAKER_00: There is no one who is more able or sufficient or powerful or capable to meet my needs than you, Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we open up our prayers in the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, addressing God as Father reveals his character.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's interesting that Jesus said to address God as Father rather than creator and rather than Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in the Old Testament, rarely did the people of Israel address God as Father.
SPEAKER_00: Now it would be an overstatement to say they never did, but we do see a shift in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Not a shift in God's character, because he's always been the same.
SPEAKER_00: He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
SPEAKER_00: He never changes, but a shift in his revelation.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, God was called by names like Yahweh, which means Lord, or Elohim, which means God, or El Shaddai, which means Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: These names emphasize his holiness and his sovereignty and his covenant faithfulness and his majesty.
SPEAKER_00: But in the New Testament, we get a fuller revelation of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is he those things, but he is those things.
SPEAKER_00: He is holy, he is sovereign, and he is majestic, but he is also loving and caring and personal.
SPEAKER_00: So personal that Jesus says, we can address him as father.
SPEAKER_00: Now maybe you didn't grow up with a loving and caring father.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your father was absent.
SPEAKER_00: In the worst case, maybe your father was abusive.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he was just distant.
SPEAKER_00: So for some of us, it might be a little difficult to see the goodness of fatherhood.
SPEAKER_00: And I do want to be sensitive to that.
SPEAKER_00: But God is not like that.
SPEAKER_00: God is the ideal father.
SPEAKER_00: God is the father of all fathers.
SPEAKER_00: God is the father to the fatherless.
SPEAKER_00: In God, we see what a father is supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: In him, we find a loving father.
SPEAKER_00: Every good father knows the love that they're filled with when they see their child for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: There is a love that wasn't there before until we go into that room and we hold that infant in our hands, and we don't know where these feelings are coming from because I didn't have this love yesterday, but today I'm holding this infant in my hands, and I have this newfound love.
SPEAKER_00: And the moment you set your eyes upon that newborn child, you have this newfound love.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in Ephesians 1, we are told that God chose us before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, in love, he predestined us, which means that God didn't have to find love.
SPEAKER_00: He always had love.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't stumble upon loving us.
SPEAKER_00: He has always loved us.
SPEAKER_00: And his divine love is greater than any earthly love.
SPEAKER_00: It is a love that doesn't come from what we do or how we look like or how cute we are or who we are.
SPEAKER_00: But it is a love that comes from who he is.
SPEAKER_00: See, love with God is not something that needs to be stirred up.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have to be moved to love.
SPEAKER_00: He is love.
SPEAKER_00: He is not drawn to love, but he bestows his love, the love that he is by his own free will.
SPEAKER_00: And he has chosen to bestow his love on his children.
SPEAKER_00: That's you, if you're a believer.
SPEAKER_00: John, 1 John 3, 1 says, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God, and so we are.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a child of God, you know him.
SPEAKER_00: Like the world doesn't know him.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this important to know in our prayers?
SPEAKER_00: Why does it even matter that we know we are speaking to a loving God before we even petition him?
SPEAKER_00: Because we can be assured that our loving Father has our best interest in our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: We can be assured that He will only give us good things.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to give us things that are going to harm us.
SPEAKER_00: You know, He's not going to give us things in our prayers that are going to drive us, that are going to drive the children away from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So we can have full confidence that even when our prayers are missing the mark and we're asking for the wrong things in love, our Father will keep some things for us because he intends us no harm.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 7, verse 9 says, or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone.
SPEAKER_00: Or if he asked for a fish, we'll give him a serpent.
SPEAKER_00: If ye then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to compare our earthly fathers to our heavenly father because, as the text says, earthly fathers tend to do evil.
SPEAKER_00: But God is good all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Even the best of earthly fathers can have an evil day.
SPEAKER_00: Earthly fathers may have good days, but there is no millisecond when God the Father is not good.
SPEAKER_00: So we have this confidence in our prayers, as 1 John 5 says, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
SPEAKER_00: His will is always good.
SPEAKER_00: Ours might not be, but his is.
SPEAKER_00: And if he only gives us things according to his will, it means that he will only give us things that are good or that are for our good.
SPEAKER_00: And we're saying, well, it doesn't seem good, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: How are you giving me this thing, this trial, this tribulation, or how are you not, how come you're not taking away from it me?
SPEAKER_00: How come you're not taking this away from me in my prayers?
SPEAKER_00: It seems like you're not answering my prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we can trust that whatever he's doing, we might not understand, but whatever he's doing, because he's a good and loving Father and intends us no harm, that he is doing it somehow, some way for our good.
SPEAKER_00: We address God as Father.
SPEAKER_00: We have this confidence.
SPEAKER_00: This confidence that he's good and he's loving.
SPEAKER_00: But also this confidence that he's approachable.
SPEAKER_00: By beginning our prayers, addressing the Father, we're reminding ourselves that God has given us, his children, this free access to him.
SPEAKER_00: That we have the freedom to come to the God of the universe, the God who created things out of nothing.
SPEAKER_00: The God is that is so transcendent and vast and great.
SPEAKER_00: We have access to come to this God like a child does a father.
SPEAKER_00: My children don't have to make appointments to speak to me.
SPEAKER_00: Neither do they have to ask for anyone's permission.
SPEAKER_00: They can just come.
SPEAKER_00: That is the relationship that the children of God have with their father.
SPEAKER_00: It's the relationship that every Christian has with God.
SPEAKER_00: We can just come.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to wait until we get to church.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to wait for a mediator.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to wait for a priest.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is our priest and mediator, and he has made it possible for all God's children to come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 10 19 says, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
SPEAKER_00: Because of Christ, believers, Christians, have no need to approach God in fear.
SPEAKER_00: We have no need to approach God in uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to wonder, will God accept me?
SPEAKER_00: Will God hear me?
SPEAKER_00: But we can come to him with conf full confidence, joyful confidence.
SPEAKER_00: We can come to him with sincere hearts and complete assurance that we are accepted by him.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8 15 says, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry, Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: There are some fathers in this world who make their the their children afraid of them.
SPEAKER_00: Now there is a healthy fear that children should have of their fathers, but there's also an unhealthy fear that some children have of their fathers.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't want us to fall back into fear, as the text says.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, you haven't received a spirit of adoption.
SPEAKER_00: You can cry, Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about this word Abba in scriptures is that it's left untranslated.
SPEAKER_00: It's an Aramaic word, which is the primary language that Jesus spoke in his day.
SPEAKER_00: However, some of you may know this.
SPEAKER_00: Authors of the New Testament didn't write the New Testament in Aramaic, they wrote it in Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Yet they left this word Abba untranslated.
SPEAKER_00: They left it in its original Aramaic form.
SPEAKER_00: This word Abba means father.
SPEAKER_00: Theologian Robert Stein comments: the presence of the Aramaic word in letters that were written in Greek indicates that Jesus' use of the title and the early repetition of the Lord's Prayer were so meaningful that the Gentile church continued to call God Abba even though it was a foreign word to them.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Abba became a cherished expression in the early church.
SPEAKER_00: Because this word was associated with Jesus' very own words.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said this.
SPEAKER_00: So we want to say this.
SPEAKER_00: And essentially it's saying, this is what Jesus called his father, and because I am also a child of God, I'm going to call him that as well.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to use Abba.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is my father.
SPEAKER_00: And because God is your father, not only can you come to him, he desires for you to come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Every good father is pleased when their children come.
SPEAKER_00: When their children are around the dinner table.
SPEAKER_00: When, you know, in the summertime we get the kids get a little busy with some things and the boys are working.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes our our our family family dinners are kind of broken up.
SPEAKER_00: We're missing one, we're missing two, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because they're at work or they're off doing something.
SPEAKER_00: So it feels a little different.
SPEAKER_00: But when they're all together, when when all of the children are home and we're we're around the table, it feels full.
SPEAKER_00: The father, it makes the father feel good.
SPEAKER_00: And this is how God the Father treats his children.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to come to the table.
SPEAKER_00: Let the children come to God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, last point.
SPEAKER_00: Addressing God as Father, in addition, hallowed be their name, it draws out our reverence to him.
SPEAKER_00: As we open up the prayer, we are told not only to call God Father, but to also ask for his name to be hallowed.
SPEAKER_00: This is really the first petition in the prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We are to pray, Hallowed be your name.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a proclamation, it's a petition.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek form of the verb can literally be translated, let your name be sanctified.
SPEAKER_00: Or may your name be regarded as holy.
SPEAKER_00: We are asking God to do this.
SPEAKER_00: God, do this of your own name.
SPEAKER_00: Make your name hallowed, make your name holy among the earth.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for his name to be holy or sanctified?
SPEAKER_00: It simply means to be set apart.
SPEAKER_00: It means that we are asking God to reveal to the world and to us his otherness, his holiness, his glory by his name.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a request for God to be something that He already is.
SPEAKER_00: He's already hollowed.
SPEAKER_00: But we want His name to be hollowed in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a prayer for God to do something in Himself, as much as it is for God to do something in us, and for God to do something in the world.
SPEAKER_00: A.W.
SPEAKER_00: Pink says, it's a desire that God's matchless name might be reverenced, adored, and glorified, and that God might cause it to be held in the uttermost respect and honor, that his fame might spread abroad and be magnified.
SPEAKER_00: In the scriptures, we are told that God's name is to be honored and his name is to be referenced.
SPEAKER_00: We even have a commandment, right?
SPEAKER_00: One of the commandments says, do not take the Lord's name in vain, because his name reveals who he is.
SPEAKER_00: When Moses asked God for his name, God replied, I am that I am.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, why would you need to ascribe to me another name as if there is another God?
SPEAKER_00: Now, me and you, we need to be identified by names because there are a lot of people in this world.
SPEAKER_00: But there is only one God.
SPEAKER_00: So no need to ascribe to God a different name.
SPEAKER_00: He is God.
SPEAKER_00: To have the name God should speak for itself.
SPEAKER_00: We are to honor and glorify that name.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 8.1, O Lord, O our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 34, 3, O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 72, 18 and 19.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be his glorious name forever.
SPEAKER_00: May the whole earth be filled with his glory.
SPEAKER_00: The Westminster Shorter Catechism has a section on the Lord's Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And in this petition, it says that we are to pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in everything he makes himself known by, and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.
SPEAKER_00: So when we start our prayers here, when we start our prayers petitioning that everything that we ask for be directed to the glory of God, we are rightly ordering our petitions.
SPEAKER_00: We are saying, Lord, let your kingdom come, that your glory might be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this daily bread, that your glory might be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us our sins, that your glory might be revealed, and lead us not into temptation, that your glory might be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: The end is not us.
SPEAKER_00: The end is not our happiness, but the end is God, and the end is his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And when we order those things properly, then we can rightly pray.
SPEAKER_00: Then our prayers won't be self-serving and they won't be in vain and offered up from a desire to gratify our flesh.
SPEAKER_00: It is also a petition for him to make his name known everywhere, throughout the earth.
SPEAKER_00: It is a prayer that he will be lifted up among the nations.
SPEAKER_00: In many ways, it's a prayer of praise.
SPEAKER_00: It is acknowledging his goodness, and it is giving him glory before we do anything else.
SPEAKER_00: We start here.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 100, verse 4 says, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.
SPEAKER_00: Give thanks to him, bless his name.
SPEAKER_00: Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: It is the doorway into God's presence because it acknowledges that everything we have comes from him.
SPEAKER_00: It is saying, Lord, the reason that I have this spouse and this home and these clothes and this food is because you answered yesterday's prayers.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm coming to you again.
SPEAKER_00: I am bringing you my petitions once more because I have seen your goodness in the land of the living.
SPEAKER_00: I have recognized your providence all over my life, and I know where everything I have in this sad world comes from.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from your right hand.
SPEAKER_00: So we thank him and we praise him and we glorify his name even before we get to those other needs.
SPEAKER_00: We say, Lord, here is my greatest need.
SPEAKER_00: My greatest need is you, because my daily bread would be a rock without you.
SPEAKER_00: My cup would be bitter if you were not there, because you are there.
SPEAKER_00: I am going to start by asking that your name be hallowed and glorified and magnified throughout all of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, let that begin in my very own heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be the first one to offer you praise from my lips.
SPEAKER_00: Allow me to glorify your name as I enter into this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: When we look at it from this perspective, then the order makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: We can see why Jesus teaches us to start our prayers by addressing God as Father and praying that his name be hallowed.
SPEAKER_00: Because we want everything that we ask for directed to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: And his glory will always result in the good of his children.
SPEAKER_00: As we close, there's one important truth that we must consider when praying to God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: You must ask yourself if he truly is your father.
SPEAKER_00: Because despite popular belief, God is not everyone's father.
SPEAKER_00: He's everyone's creator, but he is not everyone's father.
SPEAKER_00: John 1.12 says, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
SPEAKER_00: According to this verse, what does it take to be a child of God?
SPEAKER_00: You need to be given a right.
SPEAKER_00: What does it take?
SPEAKER_00: How do we become, how are we given this right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it doesn't just take existing.
SPEAKER_00: That's what many people think, because God created them and God made them.
SPEAKER_00: They believe they can come to God as a child does a father.
SPEAKER_00: But as John one says, it is those who receive him.
SPEAKER_00: It is those who believe in his name who have been given this right to become his children.
SPEAKER_00: Who is John speaking of here?
SPEAKER_00: Receiving and believing who?
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Only those who receive Jesus, only those who believe on his name can call God Father.
SPEAKER_00: It's a right that one must be given, and we're given this right when we receive and believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to receive Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: It means to receive the truth.
SPEAKER_00: The truth that he is Lord, the truth that he is savor, that he is redeemer, the truth that he can set you free.
SPEAKER_00: It means to receive his grace, it means to receive his mercy, it means to receive his kindness that leads you to repentance, to receive his faith that he has granted to you, to believe.
SPEAKER_00: It means to receive his lordship over your life.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, have you received him?
SPEAKER_00: And have you believed in him?
SPEAKER_00: It's not a question of do you believe the story or do you believe all of the facts?
SPEAKER_00: Do you agree with all of the facts about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: It's do you believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that you're a sinner and that Jesus is the only one who can save you?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that he is mighty to save?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that if you confess your sins to him, that he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins?
SPEAKER_00: And do you believe him enough to follow him?
SPEAKER_00: That's key.
SPEAKER_00: Because there are plenty of people who encountered Jesus in the scriptures in the Bible and said they believed.
SPEAKER_00: They believed in his miracles, they believed in his power.
SPEAKER_00: They even believed that he came from God, but they didn't believe him enough to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't trust him enough to give up their lives for him because they love this world too much to let go of it.
SPEAKER_00: They said they believed.
SPEAKER_00: But their refusal to follow Jesus only proved that they did it.
SPEAKER_00: If you examine your life this morning, can you truly say that you're a follower of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking, do you agree with the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: Or I'm not asking, do you get emotional at the thoughts of him?
SPEAKER_00: Plenty of people do that.
SPEAKER_00: But the question is, do you follow him?
SPEAKER_00: If you can answer yes, if you can answer in the affirmative, then Christian, he's your father.
SPEAKER_00: And through faith in him, you have been given the right to become a child of God, as the text says.
SPEAKER_00: So the question becomes now, how are you exercising that right?
SPEAKER_00: This right that you have been given to become a child of God, how are you exercising that right?
SPEAKER_00: Do you take advantage of the privilege that it is to be a child of God?
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 4, verse 4 says, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
SPEAKER_00: And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: So you are no longer a slave, but a son.
SPEAKER_00: And of a son, then an heir through God.
SPEAKER_00: Our union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is that when we come to faith, we are joined to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 3.20 says, I've been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_00: Our union with Christ gives us the advantages of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that Christ, Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: We know that Jesus is loved and Jesus is favored, and Jesus has the freedom to come to God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're in Christ, so do you.
SPEAKER_00: Your union with Christ has granted you the love and the favor and the care of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He will no more harm you than he will his own son.
SPEAKER_00: And the only time he did harm his own son, he did it for you.
SPEAKER_00: So that your sins would be paid for on that cross.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we often talk about how we fail to take advantage of the freedoms that we have living in the West and how other countries don't have the right to do some of the things that we do.
SPEAKER_00: We can gather and we don't take advantage of that, and we can share our faith, and we don't take advantage of that.
SPEAKER_00: But what about this freedom?
SPEAKER_00: Do we fully take advantage of this freedom?
SPEAKER_00: The freedom to come to, again, the God of the universe, creator, God, transcendent God, majestic God.
SPEAKER_00: Do we take advantage of this freedom to come to God as a child does a father?
SPEAKER_00: Father is key here.
SPEAKER_00: Because there are many religions who will pray to a God.
SPEAKER_00: Even more than Christians do.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to do it three times a day.
SPEAKER_00: Close up their shops to go pray.
SPEAKER_00: But the key here is father.
SPEAKER_00: They don't come to God like a child comes to a father.
SPEAKER_00: Even if they they wanted to, it would be impossible without coming to Him through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So they're not assured if their father seeks their good.
SPEAKER_00: They may know of a God who really is no God, but they don't know God as Father.
SPEAKER_00: They can never experience the fatherly love of the Christian God.
SPEAKER_00: They can never have an intimate relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Believer, this is your privilege to know God and the love of God and the care of God and the providence of God and the protection of God.
SPEAKER_00: To come to him with the confidence of a child and to address him not just as Lord, not just as King, not just as majesty, but as Jesus says, you can call him Abba.
SPEAKER_00: You can call him Father.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.