1. we’re looking at the Lord’s Prayer these days.
3. the Lord’s Prayer is the richest source of prayer in the whole Bible. It lays out how Jesus wants us to pray – This, then, is how you should pray – with these words, for these things.
4. this morning I want to look at the 1st 2 verses of the Lord’s Prayer (9-10). Jesus teaches us to make God’s concerns our top priority in prayer.
God’s Fatherhood, name, kingdom, will
1. notice that the 1st half of the prayer is all about God – his Fatherhood, his name, his kingdom & his will. Our Father…hallowed be your name…your kingdom come...your will be done. The Father’s concerns are to be given top priority in our prayers.
2. there is nothing that we need more than to NOT look at ourselves. The 1st order of business when we pray is God’s business. This does not seem natural. By nature we are self-focused, self-centered, self-intoxicated.
3. a few months ago Hannah & I were at Powell’s Books in Portland. We were leaving the coffee shop, excitedly talking about books. All of a sudden I kicked something. I looked down & it was a crawling baby. And over to my right the baby’s father had his nose to a shelf of books, intently reading book titles, totally oblivious to his wandering child.
4. that experience for me is like a picture of prayer. That father should have been focused on his baby instead of on himself & a shelf-full of books. His baby was far more important. Lesson – when I pray I find it so easy to focus on myself rather THAN to focus on who is most important – God.
5. Jesus teaches us to plunge ourselves into God as we begin to pray. We are to think about him until our hearts are dazzled, awe-struck & consumed by his majesty.
God himself
1. our Father. Father is the language of relationship & intimacy. He’s a personal God. God of love & power. Fully revealed by his Son Jesus Christ.
2. he is our Father in heaven. He is infinite & transcendent. He is not bound by space & time. There is something/Someone more to this life than we can see. Heaven reaches down to earth.
6. his name is to be hallowed. God’s name refers to God himself as he is & as he has been revealed. God is holy. He is separate from all his creation. He is exalted over all that exists.
7. to hallow his name is to treat God as holy. To pray that God’s name, God himself, would be given honor in our lives, in the church, and in the world that he made.
8. your kingdom come. The kingdom of God is God’s rule, God’s reign. God is already reigning in absolute sovereignty over creation, history & his church. He is King.
9. when Jesus came he announced a new & special in-breaking of the kingdom of God that Mike Higgs spoke so eloquently of 2 weeks ago. Jesus proclaimed the salvation of the kingdom & all its blessing. He also announced the demands of submission to that kingdom.
10. to pray that God’s kingdom may come IS TO PRAY that God’s kingdom would grow & advance & invade our lives, our churches, our communities, our state, our country & our world in an ever-increasing manner.
11. your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God is infinite in knowledge, love & power. To resist God & his will is to be a fool. But to desire & do God’s will is to be wise.
12. to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven IS TO PRAY that our life on earth may come closer & closer to approximate God’s life in heaven.
Praying like a parrot
1. it’s so easy to pray this prayer like a parrot. To rattle it off – memorized, empty words without heart, desire, resolve.
2. we are constantly under the pressure of our self-centeredness. And the pressure of our secular, postmodern culture. It’s far too easy to be concerned about our own little name, our own little empire, our own silly little will.
3. Jesus reminds us in the Lord’s Prayer that our top priority is NOT our name, kingdom & will BUT God’s. John Stott – whether we can pray these petitions with integrity is a searching test of the reality & depth of our Christian profession.
Our Father
1. some of us have difficulty relating to God as our Father. The humanity, failures or absence of our earthly fathers get in the way. I have a story for you from someone in our congregation who has struggled with this. Listen –
For me, each time the word "Father" is used brings a sting. Father's Day is hard for me. Using Father God in a sentence does a little jolt to my soul. My father sexually abused me from my early childhood years to approx. l2 years of age. The silence, deceit and manipulation from a man, who to me represented values assigned to God the Father, was very confusing. This was particularly so since our home was a very, very religious one with strict rules. My father was a pastor. My earliest impression of God the Father...strict, strict, strict and if God didn't get you, the Communists would!
As is common in sexual abuse, I acted out, did some cutting, was a frequent runaway, and was hospitalized in a suicide attempt. I was insecure in myself and understandably so, insecure about God.
When I was in junior high my youth leader, who was one of the very, very few men I trusted, noticed the conflict but didn’t know what was causing it. BUT, he very wisely recognized my insecurities and reaffirmed to me many times the verse, "He that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out......"
That verse has been implanted in my heart and brain and I hold fast and tight onto it knowing that God will not leave me - never. God will not abuse me. He may allow circumstances to enter my life, but at that point, I have to make a decision about how I am going to respond, to either let them draw me closer to God or farther away from him. It was a conscious decision on my part that no matter what, I would remain faithful to God.
I have learned that forgiveness is the process of releasing the anger that had gripped my heart. I have learned to recognize the buzz words, the negative thinking and to immediately give them to God, one buzz word at a time, one negative thought at a time & not let them store up in my heart to create the intense bitterness that so easily results.
Six months ago I visited my father’s grave for the first time. I dried rose petals from my own yard and took them out of state to where his grave was and sprinkled them on his head stone. I asked God to release the last grip of anger. This act has changed my thoughts about God as my Father. Releasing the anger and giving him his own peace and peace to me.
2. we live in a wonderful/terrible world in which wonderful & terrible things happen to us. Even in the church. Even in Christian families. If any one here this morning is being abused, don’t stand for it. Tell someone who can help you. Don’t hide the secret any longer.
3. God in heaven did not look down & see somebody who was a good father and say, I want to be like them, I’m going to start calling myself Father. No. We learn our fathering from God; he doesn’t learn his from us. Our image of fathers needs to flow downward from the nature, person & work of God into our lives & circumstances.
4. the Lord of the universe loves you like a father. God is the Father we have all longed for. We are to measure our human fathers by the standard of our Heavenly Father & not the other way around.
5. 2 books – A Father for All Seasons by Bob Welch & To Own a Dragon: Reflections on Growing Up without a Father by Donald Miller.
As you go
1. Our Father in heaven
hallowed by your name
your kingdom come
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
2. beginning today, when you pray, make God’s Fatherhood, name, kingdom & will your top priorities. There is nothing that we need more than to NOT look at ourselves.
Music i listened to while sermonizing – mark knopfler & emmylou harris; chris tomlin; charlie hall; david crowder band; coldplay
Books i read & studied while sermonizing – God’s big picture by vaughn roberts; the message of the sermon on the mount by john stott
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