Speaker 1: 0:06

We're going to continue on in the Forward in Faith series, and I don't know of a better way to move forward in faith than to ponder the Lord's Prayer, because it's not simply about prayer, it's about life and it's about our whole outlook on everything really, and so it's a very powerful portion of Scripture. There's two places we find the Lord's Prayer in Scripture Matthew 6 and Luke 11. And in Luke's Gospel over there, it's fascinating. In verse 1, we're told that Jesus had been praying in a certain place, and after he finished praying, one of the disciples and my theory is it was probably Peter, because he usually spoke up first, but whoever it was said Lord, teach us to pray. It's as if they overheard Jesus praying with His heavenly Father, and as they heard Jesus praying it doesn't say it in the text, but you get the sense from the question they ask. It was as if they were so deeply humbled and felt like I had never, really ever, prayed before, and I most, or at least I most certainly, have not prayed like that, and I want to learn how to pray like that. I want a relationship with God like that between Jesus and his Father.

Speaker 1: 1:35

Rc Sproul points out the disciples did not simply ask Jesus how to pray, although certainly it includes that aspect. But it's interesting Lord, teach us to pray, to pray. They weren't looking just for some right techniques. Techniques have their place, they can be helpful things to help us hang our hat on, and so on and so forth but I really think they wanted to pray spiritually like Christ. Think they wanted to pray spiritually like Christ, not only his priorities, but just that intimacy that he had with God, the Father, praying for the right things, but with that relationship that was just life-giving and life-empowering that they sensed when they overheard Christ pray.

Speaker 1: 2:24

What's the first thing Jesus said when he taught his disciples how to pray? In a sense, when he's teaching them how to pray, like I said, he's really teaching us how to live. And the first words out of his mouth our Father, our Father. In both Gospels, that is, in Luke's Gospels and in Matthew's. It's interesting that after the Lord's Prayer is laid out for us, you see Jesus continue on to teach. And where does he take the disciples in His teaching? Right after he teaches them the Lord's Prayer, he teaches them what we could call a theology of God's fatherhood, emphasizing just how good God is, how eager he is to bless his children how deeply he loves us. Because we struggle to believe that God loves us like he does. We tend to be aware of our sin, especially as God's people. We tend to be aware of our sin, especially as God's people, and we forget that God's love for us is infinite and everlasting and unchangeable, and that's a wonderful and beautiful thing.

Speaker 1: 3:37

This morning I'm going to, just like last week have you remain seated? We are going to read through the Lord's Prayer, but I don't want us to just read it. I'd like us to pray it, which means I'd like you to pray it sincerely, from the heart, and ask God to imprint these things upon our souls and bear fruit in our life. Let's pray together. I ask you to join me. Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the, the power and the glory forever. Amen. Father, we come to your word this morning and we need your Holy Spirit to be our teacher in the inward parts. Open the eyes of our hearts, lord, to see the greatness of your love and the beauty of Christ and the privilege of being a child of God. Amen, our Father in heaven. We're going to focus on the preface this morning, and certainly this is the preface for praying, but, as I said, it's also the preface for living and forgiving.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Al Mohler, great theologian of our time. I like what he says when he says that our prayer life reveals what we think about God, what we think about ourselves, what we think about the world and I would like to add to his list there what we think about our neighbor and also Christ's church. How we pray reveals what we think about all these things, and so Jesus' first words in teaching the disciples to pray are these words our Father, think about how just that, right there, our Father informs our relationship to those other five things I just mentioned God Himself ourselves, god's church, our neighbor and the world. It changes everything, it informs everything. The Christian life is living our life out of the identity that we are children of God, and God is our Father. The value of these words cannot be overemphasized Our Father. There's several things. There's four major points and a few sub points among them, but I want to flesh out this morning about the Christian life.

Speaker 1: 6:26

In light of these words our Father, the first thing I want us to see is that the Christian life is one of self-denial. You'll notice, if you go to the bookstore today even a Christian bookstore you're not going to see top sellers that say how to best deny yourself for Jesus, or you know the greatness of self-denial. We live in an age of the exaltation of the self. Our society is exalts the self, self-expression, declaring who we are and you're just supposed to deal with it. I am, this is who I am. Deal with it. Everything is coming from the self outward at other people and there's a lot of pride in that. And this denial of the self that I'm talking about, it's the denial of a self-centered self, it's the denial of a self-focused life, it's the denial of the sinful self. That's the kind of self-denial that we're talking about.

Speaker 1: 7:39

And see, when we say our Father Jesus is teaching us right out of the gate that we're made for relationships with God and for other people. Our Father, he didn't teach us pray like this my Father, who art in heaven. Now, of course, if you're a child of God, we can say God is my Father, yes, amen, it's included in the our. But the fact that he said our Father all of a sudden it takes a self-centered view of life and throws it out the window before we even got past the preface of the prayer.

Speaker 1: 8:19

In the very first word hour, jesus is telling us we were not created simply to pray for ourselves, and that's because we weren't created to live for ourselves. We weren't created just to give to ourselves. We see this in Christ, right, how he laid down his life in love for others, and he's our elder brother if we're in the family of God. But you see, we're not supposed to simply think about ourselves or to live this self-centered life, and our culture is encouraging you to do that. That's the way of death, not life. In other words, jesus is teaching us to live for something bigger than ourselves, much bigger than ourselves.

Speaker 1: 9:13

And so when we pray, whether we come together in corporate worship and prayer, in a large group such as this, or maybe in a smaller group, setting a Bible study, or with a few of your friends, whatever the case might be, or with a few of your friends, whatever the case might be, or if you go into your prayer closet by yourself, it doesn't matter. Jesus says pray like this, our Father. Even when we're praying alone, we're to be mindful that our life is not to be self-focused. There's bigger needs. We're part of something larger than ourselves. We're to have this loving concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ and our neighbor, for other people. And, of course, as we pray through the Lord's Prayer, we see that in the first several petitions we're to be concerned about the glory of God, his name and His kingdom and His will, and we'll get to that in the weeks to come.

Speaker 1: 10:08

But it is interesting to me that in Scripture there are times and they are rare, you won't see it much, but there are times where this image of God as being fatherly it's Him as our common creator, in Malachi the prophet the Old Testament prophet, the second chapter, verse 10, says this have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another? Isn't that interesting? God has created us all. Why then are we not faithful to one another? We're all created by the same creator. If we understood the implications of all being created by the same God, we would treat each other faithfully rather than faithlessly. That's what Malachi is saying here, and so Malachi is reminding God's people how they're to treat one another, because we're all created by the same Father, god and Creator.

Speaker 1: 11:10

Each one's made in the image of God. That's what we're told in the very first chapter of Genesis, the 26th verse, and that simply means each one of us is stamped with a certain heavenly royal dignity, every human being stamped with a certain heavenly royal dignity, every human being. How we treat the images of the king is how we treat the king himself, and we're fearfully and wonderfully made by our creator. Psalm 139. We're a marvel. Science is catching up to the Bible once again. Isn't that wonderful. We're realizing just how complex a human being is, just how complex the DNA, a single cell, all these things.

Speaker 1: 11:59

So we need to remember these things and think about we're all created by God and let that inform how we treat one another and treat other people. It ought to humble us before God. We need to remember, as we come into prayer and live our life, as we sacrifice and give, that we're created by God and it's in him. Paul says in Acts, chapter 17, that we live and give, that we're created by God and it's in him. Paul says in Acts, chapter 17, that we live and move and have our being. Think about that. We're like a fish in the water, and the water is the sustenance of God, sustaining our every breath in life. In him, by the very fact that he's present in this room, because he is life himself, we have life. Without him, there is no life. We live and we move, and we have our very being in our creator, god. We owe him everything. We are not our own. Are we thankful for life? Are we thankful for other people that God has created? And so, secondly, let's think about the Christian life this way that it is the greatest privilege. The Christian life is the greatest privilege. It's not only one of self-denial, it is the great privilege of privileges.

Speaker 1: 13:37

Our Father, think about who was teaching the disciples to pray. Who's saying these words? When they were first written? It's Jesus. Who is Jesus? He's the very Son of God incarnate. This must have shocked the disciples.

Speaker 1: 13:58

Jews, as individuals, typically did not have that kind of intimacy with God, our Father. The Father is the Father of the Lord, jesus Christ. God, the Father is our Father. Jesus is saying. He's saying it to His disciples, those who know God. And so this is a stunning thing because Jesus being the very Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, is the Son of God. And so this is a stunning thing because Jesus being the very son of God, the second person of the Trinity, is the son of God, a son by nature, equal with the father and power and glory, as well as the Holy Spirit as well. But God, the father, is the father of the Lord Jesus Christ by nature, from all eternity. He's been God's Son within the life of the Trinity, within the life of the triune God. And yet Jesus, he comes incarnate as the Son of God, puts on flesh and bone, and he's given His disciples this privilege to call God our Father. Now he's given this privilege not simply to those who were created by God. He's giving this privilege to those who know the Father by faith as a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ, through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 15:21

That's how we get faith. God gives us, makes us a new creation, he makes us something we were not by birth. And so this prayer is the great privilege of God's children who are adopted by grace alone. The Lord says in John 1, through the Apostle John, but to all who did receive him, that is, to all who did receive Jesus Christ, who believed in his name. That's what receiving means, or that's what faith is. It's receiving Faith, when we get saved, does nothing but receive.

Speaker 1: 15:59

Once we're in the Christian life, faith cooperates and works. But when we get saved, all faith does. It's like a beggar receiving bread, all it does but receive. Once we're in the Christian life, faith cooperates and works. But when we get saved, all faith does. It's like a beggar receiving bread, all it does is receive. It receives the gift. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, god gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You see, this saving grace comes to us through faith in Christ. That's how we become a child of God Simple faith, receiving what God has for us, as the Holy Spirit says to the apostle Paul in Galatians 4, listen, but when the fullness of time had come, god, that is God, the Father, sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. So that? So that what? Why did Christ come? So that we might receive adoption as sons and sons in the ancient context. Here it applies to daughters as well. And because you are sons, god that is God, the Father, has sent the spirit of a son into our hearts, crying Abba, father. So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God than an heir through God.

Speaker 1: 17:29

What do you think the highest privilege is in life? The highest privilege on earth and in heaven is to be a child of God, to have the everlasting love of God upon you and within you, in His very person, secure in His eternal love. You who know Christ, would you give that up for anything in the world? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? There's no greater privilege than being a beloved child of the living god, our father. And it comes and here's the kicker not through anything we accomplish. That status is received by faith. That's it. It's received based on what Christ has done for us. The whole world scrambles to try to climb the top of the ladder, to try to prove themselves, to try to gain an identity and project an image. Well, are they happy? I think not. Will it last? No, wasn't it, rockefeller? How much is enough? Just a little more.

Speaker 1: 19:11

If we're not satisfied in God, we'll never be satisfied with anything in life, no matter how much, because only God can satisfy the human heart. And the greatest privilege we have is that God loves us as his own adopted children and that he will never let us go. Is there anything sweeter to you? Do you know that when you pray to God, he has an infinite love for you? When you pray to him, do you realize that he has a love for you, dear Christian, just like he loves his own son, jesus Christ, because he sees you in his son, united spiritually to his son. What a glorious thing that is. Do you know? Our Heavenly Father loves to hear us pray to Him, to talk with Him, to sit and listen to Him through His Word and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Even when we have messed things up, his love is unchangeable. It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing, and so the Christian life is the highest privilege. But the Christian life comes with the best of care.

Speaker 1: 20:43

I want to spend a little time here. What do we do when we pray? Well, we take the family promises that God gives us in the Scriptures. And then Jesus says this Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you'll find, knock and it will be opened to you. Now, of course, he's talking here about prayer to the Father, but why should we be confident that if we ask it'll be given, if we seek we'll find, if we knock it'll be opened? And then Jesus tells us why Listen, which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who's in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? Do you realize God is more eager to bless you than we are even to ask? He is more eager to pour out good things upon us and within us than we are to ask.

Speaker 1: 21:48

Now, of course, we have a lot of confusion about what the good things and the best things are, but that's another matter. We have the best of care. We have the care of good things. Best of care, we have the care of good things, and God gives his children the best things at just the right time in just the right way. And the best thing, if we understand the pattern of this prayer, is that we would be granted grace by God to do certain things to glorify and enjoy him, that is, to glorify and enjoy His name in all of life. That we would have the grace to be a part of building His eternal kingdom in our own generation on earth. What a privilege to help build the kingdom of God for the King. And that he would give us the grace to know the joy and satisfaction that only comes through obeying his will and honoring him in all that we do and all that we think and all that we say on earth, here as it is in heaven. And then to know that we can depend upon him for our daily bread, that we can depend upon him because he's an ocean of mercy for the forgiveness of our sins that only comes through Christ. And to know that, even though the devil could eat us for lunch, that he will protect us in our temptations and even when we find ourselves in a difficult, dark spot, he will deliver us from evil.

Speaker 1: 23:22

Isn't God good? This is our father. Our world is trying to confuse us as to what the good life is what the best life is. The best life is right here in the Lord's prayer. Jesus is telling us this is the good life. Jesus is telling us this is the good life. To be on God's agenda is the most satisfying life. It's the life the Father rewards, it's the life that will bring us the most joy. Yes, there'll be suffering, but at least suffering for eternal significance.

Speaker 1: 24:10

God gives us his best. What does he do? Well, the father plans in love to save us before the foundation of the world, the Bible says. And then he gives us his best provision. Not only his best plan, but his best provision, which is what he gives us his only begot. Not only his best plan, but his best provision, which is what he gives us, his only begotten son, jesus Christ, to go into the pit of hell for us, for our sins, that we don't have to fear with terror, the judgment, the final judgment of God. And then he gives us his best presence in the Holy Spirit, who doesn't just check in on us. Once in a while, he indwells in us.

Speaker 1: 24:50

God gives us the best because he gives us himself. There is nothing greater than God himself, and so he cares for us. He us good things, the best things, and we also get the care of compassion when you've really messed things up. When you have a week where you're just riddled full of guilt and shame and you come to your heavenly father, how do you think he's looking at you? Jesus tells us. The Bible tells us he looks at you full of compassion, my friend. He sees you as his child because you are, if you believe in Christ. He sees you in Christ. His heart is always with you. He has compassion on you. He cares more deeply about the sin in your life than you do, more deeply about the pain and disappointment and life's wounds and all your guilt and shame than you and I do. And he does something about it. He helps us, he saves us.

Speaker 1: 26:21

Psalm 103,. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Fear him. Here is an old. It's a way of saying worship him Full of reverence and awe and love and adoration and just rejoicing in his goodness. It's all packed into that word fear. It's an intense love, for God is what it is, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. You see, god knows we're often weak and his heart is with us even when we fail. He gives us also not just the care of compassion but also of protection. We can pray confident of his protection, both in this life and in death and even in the life to come.

Speaker 1: 27:18

Psalm 46, god is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble I love that it doesn't say a very present help only after trouble A very present help in trouble. God's with you in all your troubles. Therefore, we will not fear. The psalmist says though the earth gives way. Says though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling, the world can be blowing up and falling apart, god's people can know they have a refuge in god. He's a very present help in trouble.

Speaker 1: 28:07

Psalm 23, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me. What does he say? Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Even when we die, we win. God is with us, he's for us and he's in us. And so we have also not just the care of protection, the care of infinite wisdom.

Speaker 1: 28:55

Our father says is in heaven. This means he's almighty god, means he's transcendent. Space and time have not bound him, although he comes and he works in history and in space and time. But but he's not bound to space and time like you and I, and so he can see it all, he knows all things, he can see all things, he's above it all. And so when we're baffled, we're called to trust our heavenly father and his infinite wisdom and in his perfect plan, even though we may not understand it. Of course, that's what the book of Job is all about, isn't it? What's the whole question of the book of Job?

Speaker 1: 29:40

In all of our suffering, is God worthy of our trust, even when he's incomprehensible, when we cannot get to the bottom of it or understand him, and we look at the cross and we say, oh yes, he's worthy of our trust. We may not understand what he's doing, but the God who will go into the pit of hell in my place and suffer for me there, I can trust him in my sufferings and in my darkness place and suffer for me there, I can trust Him in my sufferings and in my darkness. And so, in all of our losses and crosses and afflictions and pain, we look at the cross of Christ and there's where we get an understanding that, yes, my Father loves me, even though I don't get all this other stuff here that's going on. We serve a God who saves sinners and raises the dead and brings beauty out of ashes, and he shines light into the darkness, because this is the God who created all things out of nothing, and this is our father and this is our father.

Speaker 1: 30:49

Father, every kid wants to show off how strong his dad is, and I think I mentioned to you before but Spurgeon had it right Unlike the devil, our father saves his best for last. You remember this, young people. The devil will always give you his best first, but he runs out of gas pretty quick and he's got nothing left in the tank at the end. Your heavenly father will always give you the best last and it will last forever. It's the greatness of our God and we also have the care of His sovereign grace because our Father in heaven. Heaven is where God's throne is, it's where he rules from, it's where he exercises His sovereignty.

Speaker 1: 31:41

After Christ rose from the dead. He sits at the right hand of God, the Father, and so the Lord established His throne in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all Psalm 103. Or you could say, his sovereignty rules over all. Same thing here. Well, most kings of the earth, if you go into their chambers and you disturb their breakfast or their afternoon nap, or if they don't, you mess up their mood, it could be your life.

Speaker 1: 32:16

I always think of Esther. She was going to go in and see the king. There was no guarantee she was coming out alive, so. So what did she say? And if I perish, I perish. Now, what kind of a throne room does our father have? The Bible calls it the throne of grace. Hebrews 4.16,. Let us, then, with confidence, draw near the throne of grace that we may find mercy and grace to help in time of need, because our father's on that throne, the one who loves us. He's not sitting there ready wanting to destroy us. He loves his children.

Speaker 1: 33:08

So why can't we come confident to God, our Father, in prayer? Because we don't just come in our own name, we come in the name of Christ, our Savior. When we put our trust in Christ, we're united to Christ, and so everything that's ours is Christ and everything that's Christ's is ours. And he's already dealt with all of our sin legally, and so we can come do business in confidence to our Father in the name of Christ. We don't just pray in our own name, we pray in the name of Christ. We don't just pray in our own name, we pray in the name. Do you think the name of Jesus Christ gets the Father's ear? That's a very, very powerful thing. That's where the power of prayer comes from, not from us. From Him we come in our elder brother's name. We come forgiven of our sins, united to him. This is what makes our prayers pleasing to the Father.

Speaker 1: 33:56

And more than that, the Holy Spirit helps us pray in our weakness. Sometimes we don't even know how to pray. We're not even you ever been in a place saying Lord, I'm not even sure how I should pray here. This is such a mess, I don't even know how to pray. He helps us in our prayers. He'll take our groanings and even our confusion and our sighs. It's been said by the old Puritans our tears are some of our best prayers, because the Holy Spirit takes that and, in Christ, presents that before the Father and he understands and He'll act on that, and, in Christ, presents that before the father. And he understands and he'll act on that. Sometimes our groanings are too deep because life is so painful we're not sure always how to pray, but God understands what we're trying to say and he helps us in our weakness, isn't he good? This is our father.

Speaker 1: 34:48

William Edgar says that this phrase in heaven. It opens up an entire supernatural realm. Why? Because Christians live by faith, not by sight. And so when we remember that God is our father, then we hear verses like Romans 8, 28,. And we know that for those who love God, that's the condition. And we know that for those who love God, god works all things together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

Speaker 1: 35:25

God used that verse in my conversion. It made me weep. God is so great he can even use all the things I messed up and somehow take all those lemons and make lemonade out of that Somehow. God is powerful and loving. It doesn't make sin good, it's just. God is greater than all of our sin and he takes all the hard things in life and he uses them. He doesn't waste one drop of suffering on his children, would you? No matter what God sends into our life or the life of our church family, let's remember that our God is in heaven. He's the sovereign one, he's the one. To him is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. What kind of a God can use death to conquer death? Only God. God is so great he can use death to conquer death. Just when you think he's defeated is when he's going to show you his greatness. And it's true in our life too. We give up on God way too easy. Our father's doing wonderful things even when we don't realize it. He's doing good things and giving us his best even when we don't understand it.

Speaker 1: 36:49

Let me give you an old prayer from a apparently it was taken off a dead Civil War soldier's body, but I want you to hear it because it's Romans 8, 28, where the rubber hits the road in life. Listen, I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak. That I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of others. I was given weakness. That I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything that I had hoped for, almost despite myself. My unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all people, most richly blessed. This is our God. He's doing a good thing in your life, dear Christian, and in the end you will praise Him for it, even though you may be baffled now. The last thing I just want to tell you is and I preached a whole sermon on it, so I'll keep it short that the Christian life is a journey home.

Speaker 1: 38:38

If you could go up into heaven this morning and look into the face of God for one minute, would you want to come back? If you could look into the very source and fountain of all goodness and beauty and truth and love, how would you look at everything different when you came back? How would you pray different? How would you and I treat one another different? How would we look at the things in our life that God has blessed us with different? How would we look at the things in our life that God has blessed us with different? How would we look at our neighbor different?

Speaker 1: 39:14

The apostle Paul got to go up into the third heaven. I think God showed him that to strengthen him, to suffer for him. Francis Schaeffer says what would the praise of the world be worth when one had stood in the presence of God? The wealth of the world, what would it look like beside the treasures of heaven? And lastly, jim Elliott says remember him, the Christian missionary and martyr from the 1950s. Elizabeth Elliott was his wife. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Because our God is a great rewarder of his people. He rewards us even when we do our duty. That's our great God. He will make everything we pray for and live for and give for in the name of Christ, he will reward us. And when God rewards us, I ask you this do you think it will be worth it? Let's pray and ask God to help us understand.