Matthew 6:9
1. we have 21 people flying down to Mexico today. They are going to spend 5 days in Vicente Guerrero working at an orphanage. Here they are on Father’s Day flying down to Mexico to love children in the name of Jesus who don’t have fathers.
2. I want to look at the Lord’s Prayer today with fathers in mind. I want to view it through 3 different angles. It begins like this – our Father.
our Father
1st angle – we are not alone
1. Jesus taught us to pray our Father in heaven. Our Father. Our is a 1st person plural pronoun. 1st person plural. This means more than one. More than 1 person calls God Father. In fact, hundreds of millions do.
2. we are linked through God to one another. God is my Father. God is your Father. God is our Father. We are God’s children. We are not alone.
3. this means that our journey here on earth is a communal journey. We seek God the Father TOGETHER not alone. Solo expeditions are out. NOT my Father BUT our Father.
4. it’s like running the Hood-to-Coast relay which I hope to do in August for the 1st time in 3 years. 12 of us runners on the team (annette vaughn, scott taylor, tammie volland, derek willis, dana tyler, sam gilmer, jack pendleton, del hemphill, karen archibald, debbie waalker & tony pizzuti). 1000 teams; 12,000 runners; 100s of volunteers. This small city moves in mass from Timberline Lodge to Seaside. We journey together, fight traffic together, fight sleeplessness together, fight sore muscles together, fight cramped vans together; fight body odor together; fight to find the shortest line to the nearest portapotty together. It’s a wonderful experience.
5. our Father. We pray this with others – Alliance people, Mennonite, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Four Square, Greek Orthodox & Quaker. We pray this together – Men, women, youth, children, senior citizen. We pray this with those from different cultures – Anglo, Hispanic, Russian, Peruvian, Chinese, Iraqi, Canadian & Hawaiian.
6. our Father. Every day the Lord’s Prayer is prayed by hundreds of millions of people from thousands of ethnic groups & nationalities. The Father unites us all in him & none of us are alone.
7. dads, what are we doing to introduce our children to the Father? How are we letting our children in on this great news? That there is a God. He’s our Father. And we are not alone.
2nd angle – we have an identity
1. our Father. We are children of God our Father. We are his, each & every one of us. From the oldest to the youngest. We are daughters and sons of God. The only way we can pray this prayer is by praying it as his children.
2. Darrell Johnson – we are not just creatures of the Creator. We are not just servants of the Master. We are children loved by a Father.
3. the 1st word in the Greek text is Father. I am a son made in the image & likeness of my heavenly Father. I derive my identity from him. I can be family-less, homeless, country-less, job-less & still have my identity. How? My true identity is in God the Father who transcends family, home, country & job.
4. 18 years ago this month Heather & I attended a Barton family reunion in Dodge City, Kansas. My parents grew up in Dodge City. I was born there. I still have a bunch of relatives there. It was fun to show Heather around –
® this is Trinity Hospital where I was born
® this is my great Aunt Leatha
® this is a bridge that my grandfather built
® this is the church my parents used to attend & this is a stained glass window in memory of my grandfather
® this is where my sister Janice is buried
® this is my Aunt Bonnie, my mom’s twin sister
® this is the wind that never stops blowing in western Kansas
5. I’ll never forget when it was all over. I flew out of Dodge City on a little puddle jumper headed to Denver. I looked out of the window & I could see all of Dodge City down below. I unexpectedly teared up & felt all kinds of affection for that little place. In some mysterious fashion my identity was rooted there. I felt like I was a part of that city.
6. but the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that our true identity is found in the Father. We are his & he is ours. Our Father.
7. dads, what are we telling our kids about their God-our-Father identity? Their heaven-home? That they have a Father in heaven that, unlike us, will never let them down?
3rd angle – we are daughters and sons of a Father who has revealed himself
1. in telling us what we should pray Jesus reveals to us what he knows about his Father. The Lord’s Prayer is a revelation of who the Father is & what he is like – a picture of God’s nature & character.
2. our Father in heaven. Heaven speaks of the reality that permeates life on earth. Heaven is where God is, so to speak. The control center of the universe. There’s a greater reality to life than this earth. Earth is encompassed in heaven’s realities.
3. hallowed be your name. God’s person & character are such that he should always be honored. God always acts in ways that are consistent with his character. God is to be stood alone above & beyond all else.
4. your kingdom come. God the Father is also a King. The King of kings. The Father is active in our world setting up his rule. The Father defines his kingdom with things like salvation (forgiveness of sins), healing, deliverance, justice, peace, compassion, beauty, peace.
5. your will be done. God the Father has a plan. He is at work fulfilling his plan. He asks us to join with him in advancing his kingdom & doing his will.
6. here’s something on my summer reading list – It’s Not About The Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks by Howard Behar. Behar joined Starbucks as a senior executive when it had just 28 stores. He finished his career at Starbucks as President.
7. he writes about the Starbucks kingdom. He writes about how he motivated 1000s of Starbucks workers to accomplish the will of the company.
8. our Father leads a kingdom. He has a plan for that kingdom. And so Jesus taught us to pray your kingdom come, your will be done.
9. give us today our daily bread. Our Father cares about our needs. He’s our Provider. He’s not just a God concerned with our souls. Our bodies are important to him. He made them, redeemed them & will re-make them for eternity.
10. I love our Food Panty. We have the honor of living out the Lord’s Prayer by providing food for the hungry in answer to their prayers.
11. a mother with 2 children called asking for food this week. The 3 of them came to the church. I took them into the Food Panty. The kids were all smiles, like it was Christmas. The mother was weighed down, carrying a huge burden. What an honor we have to serve the needy.
12. think of Canby Cares on July 19.
13. forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. God the Father highly values relationships. He has a relationship within himself as Father Son Spirit. At the center of the universe we find Relationship. And that’s what we are made for. To live in community with God & each other. Summer talk on July 22.
14. God is a Reconciler, a Forgiver. He wants relationships to work. The Father is a Liberator who frees us from resentment, bitterness & an unforgiving spirit.
15. 15 years ago I visited the National Civil Rights museum in Memphis, the site of the old Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. As I left the museum I was greeted by a short, little African American woman. She was all smiles, loving, kind. I engaged her in conversation. Her deceased husband used to own a funeral home in Memphis. He provided cars for King when he was in town. He picked up King’s body after his assassination.I talked to her about that terrible time. About racism. About being a black American in the South. Terrible things had been done to her. I asked her about her joyful spirit. She said it flowed out of forgiveness. Forgiving her enemies who had deeply hurt her & her people.
16. and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. The Father knows our weaknesses. Where we are prone to sin. He knows that we face an enemy who seeks to ruin us. We have a Father who is our Protector. The evil one wants to fill every temptation we face with enough evil to trip us up.
17. dads, are we introducing our kids to the Father who is revealed in the Lord’s Prayer? His person? His character? His kingdom? His will for our lives? His forgiveness & protection?
Close in prayer.
Music i listened to while sermonizing – vineyard music; bill douglass; jon buller; neil young; cold play
Books i read & studied while sermonizing – the hiding place by corrie ten boom; the message of the sermon on the mount by john stott; studies in the sermon on the mount by martyn lloyd-jones; the shack by william p. young; communion with the triune God by john owen; romans by john stott; dogmatics in outline by karl barth
Sermons, podcasts I listened to while sermonizing – a prayer for friends & Jesus Christ the one Lord by earl palmer; dwelling in the gospel by tim keller
1. we have 21 people flying down to Mexico today. They are going to spend 5 days in Vicente Guerrero working at an orphanage. Here they are on Father’s Day flying down to Mexico to love children in the name of Jesus who don’t have fathers.
2. I want to look at the Lord’s Prayer today with fathers in mind. I want to view it through 3 different angles. It begins like this – our Father.
our Father
1st angle – we are not alone
1. Jesus taught us to pray our Father in heaven. Our Father. Our is a 1st person plural pronoun. 1st person plural. This means more than one. More than 1 person calls God Father. In fact, hundreds of millions do.
2. we are linked through God to one another. God is my Father. God is your Father. God is our Father. We are God’s children. We are not alone.
3. this means that our journey here on earth is a communal journey. We seek God the Father TOGETHER not alone. Solo expeditions are out. NOT my Father BUT our Father.
4. it’s like running the Hood-to-Coast relay which I hope to do in August for the 1st time in 3 years. 12 of us runners on the team (annette vaughn, scott taylor, tammie volland, derek willis, dana tyler, sam gilmer, jack pendleton, del hemphill, karen archibald, debbie waalker & tony pizzuti). 1000 teams; 12,000 runners; 100s of volunteers. This small city moves in mass from Timberline Lodge to Seaside. We journey together, fight traffic together, fight sleeplessness together, fight sore muscles together, fight cramped vans together; fight body odor together; fight to find the shortest line to the nearest portapotty together. It’s a wonderful experience.
5. our Father. We pray this with others – Alliance people, Mennonite, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Four Square, Greek Orthodox & Quaker. We pray this together – Men, women, youth, children, senior citizen. We pray this with those from different cultures – Anglo, Hispanic, Russian, Peruvian, Chinese, Iraqi, Canadian & Hawaiian.
6. our Father. Every day the Lord’s Prayer is prayed by hundreds of millions of people from thousands of ethnic groups & nationalities. The Father unites us all in him & none of us are alone.
7. dads, what are we doing to introduce our children to the Father? How are we letting our children in on this great news? That there is a God. He’s our Father. And we are not alone.
2nd angle – we have an identity
1. our Father. We are children of God our Father. We are his, each & every one of us. From the oldest to the youngest. We are daughters and sons of God. The only way we can pray this prayer is by praying it as his children.
2. Darrell Johnson – we are not just creatures of the Creator. We are not just servants of the Master. We are children loved by a Father.
3. the 1st word in the Greek text is Father. I am a son made in the image & likeness of my heavenly Father. I derive my identity from him. I can be family-less, homeless, country-less, job-less & still have my identity. How? My true identity is in God the Father who transcends family, home, country & job.
4. 18 years ago this month Heather & I attended a Barton family reunion in Dodge City, Kansas. My parents grew up in Dodge City. I was born there. I still have a bunch of relatives there. It was fun to show Heather around –
® this is Trinity Hospital where I was born
® this is my great Aunt Leatha
® this is a bridge that my grandfather built
® this is the church my parents used to attend & this is a stained glass window in memory of my grandfather
® this is where my sister Janice is buried
® this is my Aunt Bonnie, my mom’s twin sister
® this is the wind that never stops blowing in western Kansas
5. I’ll never forget when it was all over. I flew out of Dodge City on a little puddle jumper headed to Denver. I looked out of the window & I could see all of Dodge City down below. I unexpectedly teared up & felt all kinds of affection for that little place. In some mysterious fashion my identity was rooted there. I felt like I was a part of that city.
6. but the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that our true identity is found in the Father. We are his & he is ours. Our Father.
7. dads, what are we telling our kids about their God-our-Father identity? Their heaven-home? That they have a Father in heaven that, unlike us, will never let them down?
3rd angle – we are daughters and sons of a Father who has revealed himself
1. in telling us what we should pray Jesus reveals to us what he knows about his Father. The Lord’s Prayer is a revelation of who the Father is & what he is like – a picture of God’s nature & character.
2. our Father in heaven. Heaven speaks of the reality that permeates life on earth. Heaven is where God is, so to speak. The control center of the universe. There’s a greater reality to life than this earth. Earth is encompassed in heaven’s realities.
3. hallowed be your name. God’s person & character are such that he should always be honored. God always acts in ways that are consistent with his character. God is to be stood alone above & beyond all else.
4. your kingdom come. God the Father is also a King. The King of kings. The Father is active in our world setting up his rule. The Father defines his kingdom with things like salvation (forgiveness of sins), healing, deliverance, justice, peace, compassion, beauty, peace.
5. your will be done. God the Father has a plan. He is at work fulfilling his plan. He asks us to join with him in advancing his kingdom & doing his will.
6. here’s something on my summer reading list – It’s Not About The Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks by Howard Behar. Behar joined Starbucks as a senior executive when it had just 28 stores. He finished his career at Starbucks as President.
7. he writes about the Starbucks kingdom. He writes about how he motivated 1000s of Starbucks workers to accomplish the will of the company.
8. our Father leads a kingdom. He has a plan for that kingdom. And so Jesus taught us to pray your kingdom come, your will be done.
9. give us today our daily bread. Our Father cares about our needs. He’s our Provider. He’s not just a God concerned with our souls. Our bodies are important to him. He made them, redeemed them & will re-make them for eternity.
10. I love our Food Panty. We have the honor of living out the Lord’s Prayer by providing food for the hungry in answer to their prayers.
11. a mother with 2 children called asking for food this week. The 3 of them came to the church. I took them into the Food Panty. The kids were all smiles, like it was Christmas. The mother was weighed down, carrying a huge burden. What an honor we have to serve the needy.
12. think of Canby Cares on July 19.
13. forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. God the Father highly values relationships. He has a relationship within himself as Father Son Spirit. At the center of the universe we find Relationship. And that’s what we are made for. To live in community with God & each other. Summer talk on July 22.
14. God is a Reconciler, a Forgiver. He wants relationships to work. The Father is a Liberator who frees us from resentment, bitterness & an unforgiving spirit.
15. 15 years ago I visited the National Civil Rights museum in Memphis, the site of the old Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. As I left the museum I was greeted by a short, little African American woman. She was all smiles, loving, kind. I engaged her in conversation. Her deceased husband used to own a funeral home in Memphis. He provided cars for King when he was in town. He picked up King’s body after his assassination.I talked to her about that terrible time. About racism. About being a black American in the South. Terrible things had been done to her. I asked her about her joyful spirit. She said it flowed out of forgiveness. Forgiving her enemies who had deeply hurt her & her people.
16. and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. The Father knows our weaknesses. Where we are prone to sin. He knows that we face an enemy who seeks to ruin us. We have a Father who is our Protector. The evil one wants to fill every temptation we face with enough evil to trip us up.
17. dads, are we introducing our kids to the Father who is revealed in the Lord’s Prayer? His person? His character? His kingdom? His will for our lives? His forgiveness & protection?
Close in prayer.
Music i listened to while sermonizing – vineyard music; bill douglass; jon buller; neil young; cold play
Books i read & studied while sermonizing – the hiding place by corrie ten boom; the message of the sermon on the mount by john stott; studies in the sermon on the mount by martyn lloyd-jones; the shack by william p. young; communion with the triune God by john owen; romans by john stott; dogmatics in outline by karl barth
Sermons, podcasts I listened to while sermonizing – a prayer for friends & Jesus Christ the one Lord by earl palmer; dwelling in the gospel by tim keller
1. when our family went to Europe 5 years ago we visited the Corrie Ten Boom House in Haarlem, Holland, about 60 minutes from Amsterdam. The family ran a watch business on the 1st floor & lived in rooms above the shop.
The Ten Boom family were devoted Christians. During WWII their home became a hiding place for Jews & others hunted by the Nazis. Corrie, her father Casper, and her sister Betsie risked their lives in this act of non-violent resistance. They saved the lives of over 800 Jews from the Nazi holocaust.
On February 28, 1944 the Gestapo raided their home. Casper, Corrie & Betsie were arrested. 6 people escaped detection. They were hiding behind a false wall that had been built in Corrie’s bedroom - the hiding place.
Casper (84) died 10 days later in prison. Corrie & Betsie spent 10 months in 3 different prisons. Their last stop was the infamous Ravensbruck Concentration Camp located outside of Berlin where Betsie died but Corrie survived.
At age 53 Corrie Ten Boom began a world-wide ministry that took her into more than 60 countries in the next 33 years. Forgiveness was one of her messages – God will give us the love to be able to forgive our enemies.
2. after the war at one of her speaking engagements she looked out into the crowd & saw the face of a woman guard who mistreated her in prison. She was immediately filled with anger & hate. She prayed to God for strength to forgive this lady. Then she went up, introduced herself, and forgave her tormentor.
3. in my 25 years of pastoral counseling I’ve learned that few things are more critical to healthy relationships than forgiveness. We can’t live without forgiveness.
forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors
1. the words forgive & debts are used twice. Both words come from the business world. They are not religious words. They are found in a MBA textbook NOT a seminary lecture.
2. Debt is something that is owed or due to someone. In its narrowest sense the word refers to a financial debt. I am thousands of dollars in debt to Wells Fargo Bank for the mortgage on our house. I owe them money.
3. forgive means to cancel the debt; to wipe the slate clean. Forgive means receiving a letter from the Wells Fargo mortgage division informing me that out of the goodness of their heart they have canceled my debt. Fat chance!
4. Jesus brilliantly takes these 2 words and gives them a new meaning. He turns marketplace words into kingdom of God words. The debt owed is not money. The debt owed is spiritual & moral. All of us carry a spiritual & moral mortgage on our lives. The question becomes – who are we in debt to?
who are we in debt to?
1. one of the early church fathers helps us here. Origen is his name. He lived from A.D. 185-254. He wrote about the 3-fold nature of our debt.
2. 1st the debt we owe to others – to love our neighbor as ourself, parents, poor, those in authority.
3. 2nd the debt we owe to ourselves – to care for our bodies as the temple of God, to not abuse our bodies, to grow our minds, to watch over our souls
4. 3rd the debt we owe to God – to love him with our heart soul mind will strength, to serve him, to trust him with our needs & worries
5. the bad news is that we have failed to pay these debts to God, others, self. In fact, we don’t have the moral or spiritual capital to make our payments. We are in serious trouble. We have run out of favors. We have extended our loans as long as possible. In reality, we face foreclosure. We are spiritually bankrupt.
6. all we can do is pray AND pray is the best that we can do. Father in heaven, Creator & Judge, forgive us our debts, cancel our debts, all of them. The debts we owe to you, to others, to ourselves. Please cancel them, all of them.
7. how does this work?
ephesians 4:32
1. here we are commanded to be kind, to be compassionate & to be forgiving to one another. Kindness, compassion & forgiveness are the lubricants of human relationships. They overcome our abrasiveness & selfishness.
2. the most important phrase in the sentence comes next – just as. Kindness, compassion & forgiveness are not exercised in a vacuum. Paul doesn’t just pull them out of thin air. They have a context. And the context is the life of God himself.
3. just as in Christ God forgave you. This is a reference to the cross of Jesus Christ. God sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins – our spiritual & moral bankruptcy – and to rescue us from the punishment that our sins deserve.
4. on the cross Jesus applied the sinless perfect spiritual capital of his life to pay off our debts. Debts owed to God, to others, to self.
5. the One who teaches us to pray Father, forgive us our debts is the one who takes our debts upon himself, goes to the cross & dies to wipe the slate clean. The moral/spiritual mortgage on our lives has been forgiven.
6. out of the kindness of God, the compassion of God & the forgiving heart of God. To be kind, to be compassionate, to be forgiving is to be God-like. Which is what Corrie Ten Boom was to the guard who used to persecute her in prison.
the movement of forgiveness
1. the 1st movement is God to us. Just as in Christ God forgave you. The Bible calls this salvation or the gospel or entering the kingdom of God.
2. we admit that we are spiritually & morally bankrupt. That we can’t pay off our debts. That we’ve run out of personal capital. That our lives are being foreclosed upon.
3. and then we cast our eyes upon Jesus, the Divine loan officer who comes seeking us. And he offers to pay off our debt by the funds of his own life. He applies his assets of righteousness & perfection to us.
4. we say ‘yes’ to Jesus for the canceling of our debts. We call him King Jesus. We invite him into our lives. We let him set up his office in every room in the house of our lives. He buys us with the price of his shed blood on the cross. He liquidates our debts.
5. this is the 1st movement of forgiveness. God to us. The 2nd movement is us to others. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other. As we have been forgiven, so we forgive. As the grace of Jesus has come to us, so we extend that grace to others. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
6. the forgiven become the forgiving. John Stott – forgiving others doesn’t earn us forgiveness. God forgives the penitent. And 1 of the chief evidences of true penitence is a forgiving spirit.
7. not long before she died in 1988, in a moment of surprising candor on television, Marghanita Laski, a well-known secular humanist and novelist, said, 'What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."
8. If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; If our greatest need had been medical, God would have sent us a doctor; If our greatest need had been food, God would have sent us a farmer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
questions
1. have you been forgiven for salvation? This is saying ‘yes’ to Jesus as your Savior. Asking him to forgive ALL your sins. Inviting him into your life. Becoming a Christ-follower.
2. have you been forgiven for your daily sins? Once we say ‘yes’ to Jesus for salvation, then every day we need to examine our lives, confess our sins, & keep an up-to-date relationship with him. I John 1:9.
3. who do you need to forgive? To be forgiven is to forgive others. Is there someone in your life that you need to forgive today? Maybe you need to forgive yourself for something in your past.
4. we can’t live without being forgiven & forgiving others.
Music i listened to while sermonizing – jon buller; bruce springsteen; harry nilsson; chris tomlin; david crowder band; chris hall; matt redman
Books i read & studied while sermonizing – the hiding place by corrie ten boom; suffering & the sovereignty of God by john piper; the message of the sermon on the mount by john stott; studies in the sermon on the mount by martyn lloyd-jones; a passion for God: the spiritual journey of aw tozer by lyle dorsett; the shack by william p. young
