All right, let's read together from the New Testament.
Matthew 6, verses 9 to 13.
This is the Lord's Prayer.
Jesus said,
Pray then like this,
Our Father 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 also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
So tonight we are continuing with Jesus,
preaching his sermon on the mount.
He is up a mount preaching to many people.
And recently we've been thinking about what Jesus says on the mountain about prayer.
And Ryan helped us last week think about how prayer,
how our talking to God ought to be a regular practice in our heart and in our mind
where we know that God is the one that we pray to.
In prayer, you know, we find it so difficult.
I think as Christians we find it so difficult to do.
It's just about speaking simply and often to our God who is always ready and able to help us.
So what about the content of our prayer?
That's what Jesus gives us now.
This is probably the most famous prayer in the world.
Likely been said hundreds, maybe thousands of times across the world today.
And Jesus gives us this prayer as a model.
This is the model prayer given to steer our thoughts and help us to speak about God.
Last week we were saying Ryan was helping us see that it's not about the eloquence of our words.
Now we see that at the same time there is a guide which helps us to pray well.
If you have younger children or grandchildren, I think this is quite easy to see.
If your child or grandchild has fallen out with their brother or sister or friend, whoever it is,
if they've trapped their finger in the door, if they've fallen over,
you're probably quite used to them running to you in tears, just bubbling,
getting all the words at 100 miles an hour.
And you probably just about know what's going on.
But you need to take control of the conversation.
Where were you? What did they say? What did you say?
You hurt yourself. You know we can do something about that.
It takes you, the grown-up, to give that conversation a bit of a meaningful shape.
You might understand everything clearly, but you want to help your child calm down
and see things more clearly.
They need you to make sense of it.
And we find that as adults as well.
If you've had an awful day at work, you come home and you tell your flatmate,
your husband, your wife, whoever it is, how awful a day you've had.
And what does it take but for them to say, no, hold on.
Let's slow down a minute and think things through more clearly.
When you look at the Lord's Prayer, this model is there not to repeat word for word only,
but it's there to give your conversation with God a meaningful shape, it's been called.
So, you know, perhaps this week you can say, I feel alone and I feel lost.
Well, Jesus says, God is your Father.
So I can praise Him.
I can adore Him for that.
I don't know how exactly I'm going to cope with what I'm going through this week, this month.
Well, God promises to give you just enough for today, and then He'll do the same tomorrow.
So I should pray for that.
Tonight, maybe you could say, I feel awful about what I've said to this person or how I have acted.
But, well, God says there is forgiveness.
So I can run and ask Him for forgiveness.
We are children who feel so anxious and upset and down and way down.
And some days, you know, some days we hardly know what to pray about.
We hardly know what to say to God.
And we are like children running to their parents.
Because we need someone to give our conversation a meaningful, meaningful shape when we come to Him.
We don't need eloquence and loads of words.
God knows exactly what you need, what we need.
But at the same time, we are helped by this model to see clearly who He is and what we should pray for.
So, just this first line tonight.
Jesus says, pray then like this.
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.
The focus here in this first line, these first two lines, is on adoring God.
When you come to God in prayer, however often you do it, do you understand who you're coming to?
That's what Jesus wants us to think about.
Let your heart dwell on that reality.
So, let's just look at these three points.
When you pray, you pray to God who is your Father.
He's in heaven.
And so, we should pray, you should pray for His name to be hallowed.
So, when you pray, you pray to your Father.
What does that mean?
It's a word that we use all the time.
Our minister prays to our Father.
When you're at home, you probably pray to your Father.
You probably hear it so often that you don't register when you hear someone pray to the Father.
In John 5, Jesus meets this paralyzed man.
He's been paralyzed for years.
And he's lying on a mat.
And he heals him just by speaking to him.
The man is healed.
He gets up, picks up his mat, and walks.
And it's a kind of funny scene because the Jews, the religious people of that day, aren't so fazed at the fact that this man has been healed.
But what really annoys them is that Jesus has done this on the Sabbath.
And so, they get up.
They chase after Him.
They find Jesus.
They interrogate Him.
They say, you know, how dare you do this on the Sabbath?
How dare you heal this man?
How dare you perform this miracle?
How dare you heal this man?
In the Greek, just two seconds on Greek.
In the Greek, the word is pater, father, pater, where we get paternal from.
And that word was a very normal word used for your biological father, a very everyday word in the sense that you could be in your bedroom and you shout, Dad.
And he'll come to you.
Or maybe he won't.
But it's the same sort of word.
Everyday common language.
How dare he call God father?
That's the thought.
Who does he think he is that he's allowed to say that?
Well, even worse than that, now Jesus, a wee while later in Matthew 5 or Matthew 6, is saying, it's not just me who can call him father, but you can call him father as well.
You can do it as well.
It doesn't work like that.
Don't be cold with your words.
Don't be impersonal thinking you learned something.
No, when you pray, realize that you're coming to your father.
You're coming to your father.
The last two or three weeks, we have heard about German philosophers and German theologians.
And I think last week we might have got a German lesson on some words.
So I'm going to jump in and give you someone else who's a German footballer.
Thomas Muller.
This week, he's been playing for Bayern Munich for around 17, 18 years.
He was in the youth team before that.
So 20-something years.
There were reports that he planned to stay for one more season.
This week we found out that his contract is not getting renewed.
He's not going to stay with them for one more season.
And just like that, his career is over.
He'll probably be gone by the summer.
Whatever he is thinking is probably frustration.
He has dedicated his whole career to this club.
He's trained and trained and trained.
And he's given his life to Bayern Munich.
And with one year to go, they decide to end it.
You know, he's too old.
Maybe he's being paid too much.
But you see what it is.
Even for a legend like Muller, it's completely cost-benefit.
And so he's left thinking.
Either he is left thinking, I did not deserve this.
I've won 32 trophies with this team.
I've trained and trained and trained for these guys.
And now they're letting me go.
Or he is thinking, I'm in trouble because I'm too old and I'm not pulling my weight anymore.
I haven't worked hard enough to keep my place.
When Jesus says, don't heap up empty phrases.
Just call him Father.
He's saying that this relationship that you have as a Christian with God
is not based on you training harder and harder and harder.
Earn in your place with big fancy words.
This is simply about knowing that you are a child of God.
God looks at every believer and he says, son and daughter.
Tim Keller makes the point that if you pray just because you want something,
or you pray just because in the moment it's the right thing to do,
and you don't get what you want, or things go wrong,
you're in the same position as Thomas Muller.
Either you're left thinking, I did not deserve this because I've done my job.
I've done my duty.
I've prayed hard and I've prayed well.
Or you think, I am in trouble and this is what I get for not pulling my weight.
But when you come like a child to a father,
things might not always be how you want them to be.
You might not always get what you want,
but you know that the father, your father is full of fatherly love.
You can't earn that.
You cannot earn that.
Is this a relationship where you train and work hard for your place,
or is this a family, a family relationship?
Here's some clarity for you, Jesus says.
Think about who you're coming to.
When you come to pray, think simply about who you're coming to.
He doesn't want cold, clinical words.
You can't earn anything from him.
No, you are coming to your father.
You're coming to your father who counts you as treasure, Malachi says.
You are coming to your father who will never, ever, ever be ashamed of you, Hebrews says.
Do you believe that?
If you are a Christian, do you believe that?
That's how he sees his people, his children.
However insignificant you feel tonight,
the God who made all of creation looks at you and says,
my treasure, my jewel, my son, my daughter.
Okay, who gets to call him father?
Then Jesus had the right to call him father.
The people didn't understand that in John 5.
The people didn't see that.
But as the son of God by nature, he had that privilege.
How then can anyone else call God father?
Is God father to everyone?
And another question that we could ask,
which gets of the same thing is,
what does it mean to be a Christian?
And one thing we could say is,
this is all about adoption.
It means being adopted.
The Bible makes clear over and over that,
you know, if you read it and you turn page to page,
you'll quickly realize that no one is a child of God by nature.
Actually, Paul in Ephesians calls us the exact opposite.
He says, every single human is a child of wrath.
He says, we are children of wrath.
And humans ever since Genesis 3 have shaken their fists at the Creator
and have said that they want nothing to do with Him.
And, you know, perhaps you don't think of it that way,
but Paul says, without Christ, without faith in Christ,
without belief in Him,
that's exactly what we are doing.
Our lives are defined by the fact that we look at God our Maker
and shake our fists
and say we want nothing to do with Him.
So calling God father
is not a human right.
You know, tonight you might be curious
about Christianity tonight.
You might believe that there is a God
who is your Maker.
That doesn't give you the right to call God your Father.
What gives you the right to call God Father?
Adoption.
Spiritual adoption.
By nature, we are not His children.
By the act of adoption,
God says, you are my child.
You are my child.
In Galatians 4, Paul says this,
but when the fullness of time had come,
God sent forth His sons
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
The only person
who ever had the right to call God Father
came and lived and died
in order to clear your debts.
You know, no longer are you defined
by the fact that you've shaken your fist at God.
That slate is wiped clean.
You can call Him Father
because Christ died for sinful, broken people
like you and like me.
The night before He died,
Jesus was in the garden
in Gethsemane.
And you know what He prays?
He says,
Abba, Father.
He just says Father twice
in Aramaic and then in Greek.
He's hours away,
hours away from being mocked by the crowds,
from being abandoned by His friends,
from being hung on the cross.
He cries out.
And now, because He suffered,
you can cry the exact same cry.
Abba, Father.
The Son of God suffered
so that we could be called sons of God.
His cry can be our cry.
Who can call God Father?
Those who are adopted.
How were you adopted?
You received Jesus
and all that He's done.
John 1, verse 12.
But to all who did receive Him,
who believed in His name,
He gave the right to become children of God.
Will you receive Christ
if you have not?
Will you believe in your heart
that Christ can save you
and call you His brother or sister,
no longer lost,
but a child of God?
Will your prayer simply be,
Father, Abba, Father.
Father.
Some things,
just maybe a couple of things
to think about this week
before we go on to our second point.
We don't always,
when we pray,
we don't always have to call God Father.
We don't have to say that.
You know, we say God, Lord, King.
This is a model prayer.
The point is that in your heart,
in your heart,
you know who you're coming to.
You're coming to a Father who loves you.
You don't need to fix yourself up.
That's one thing.
No, this is about knowing in your heart
that you're a child,
a child of God.
God looks at every believer
and says,
Son and daughter.
He counts you as treasure.
Know in your heart
who you are coming to.
Equally, on the other end of that,
it's probably fair to say
that we don't,
or we're not struck
by what it means
to be called God Father.
I'm not enough.
Would you pray this week
that it would strike you
to know that you're praying
to your Father?
The God who walked in the garden
with Adam and Eve,
the God who came to Moses
in the burning bush,
who gave his people food
and water in the wilderness,
the God who put the stars
in the sky
just by speaking,
he stoops down
and hears your faint cries
like a father
bending to a child.
He inclines his ear to you.
Would you come,
would you fix your heart
on that this week
as you pray?
Okay, secondly,
he's our Father,
and he is in heaven,
it says.
He's in heaven.
And again,
that means a lot.
He is our Father
in the deepest,
nearest sense.
At the same time,
he is eternal,
he is infinite,
he is unchanging.
Moses,
in Exodus 33,
Moses is up the mountain
and he asks God
if he can see him.
He says,
can I see your glory?
Can I see something
tangible here?
And God says,
never,
you cannot see me
and live.
God is too glorious,
too mighty,
too wholly different from us
that we could never
handle seeing him.
As our Father,
he is so near,
so close to us,
and yet,
as creator,
as maker,
as God,
he is too powerful,
too vast
for us to understand.
You know,
we're so finite
and we are so weak
as creatures.
That we couldn't
handle knowing
what God is like
in himself.
And so,
when we say that God
is in heaven,
we're not talking,
we're not talking about
God being in a different
place.
We're talking about God
existing on a completely
different level to us.
God is always ready
to hear our faint,
weak cries,
and at the same time,
he is completely
separate from us.
God is so far above us
that we could never
know him
if we tried to reach up.
Just one takeaway.
That means that God
is free from every
single struggle
and weakness
and temptation
that we are so prone
to as finite
creatures.
I know,
you know,
when you come to a verse
like this,
it speaks about God
being our Father.
I know that
fatherhood doesn't
fill us all
with the same amount
of joy
or fondness.
Some of us
here,
you know,
some of us here
maybe
have gone our whole
lives with absent
fathers.
We've gone most of
our lives with our
dads who have left
our homes
or distanced
themselves from us
or perhaps we have
grown up with a
father in the house
but who has let us
down in so many ways.
You know,
they lack interest
in our interests.
They don't support
us emotionally.
They have seriously
high expectations
that we can never
meet.
They are critical
of every single
thing that you do.
The idea of a father
who does not fill
us all,
you know,
with joy
fills us with
disappointment
or even resentment
and all that we
want to say to
that is that
for every weakness,
for every way
that your dad
has failed you,
for every memory
you have of your
dad neglecting
your good,
that loss
and disappointment
is healed
in having God
the creator
as your father.
what a promise
I think that is.
You know,
we might feel grief
and disappointment
for a long time.
We might never
lose that experience.
Here's what one
Christian writer
tells us to do.
Dwell on the fact
that there is no
better father,
no parent
more deeply committed
to his children's
welfare
than God
the creator.
You know,
if your picture
of fatherhood
is influenced
by your own
experience,
would you think
about that?
The God of heaven
is completely,
he is completely
opposed
to every single
hurtful act
or word
that you've
experienced.
he loves you
so deeply
and he is
completely
committed
to your good.
Maybe,
maybe on the
other end
of that,
and I hope
I don't get
in trouble
for saying
this,
but maybe
on the other
end of that,
you've had
a great
father.
I don't
want to get
in trouble
for saying
that your
dad's not
perfect either.
if you think
about your
dad
and
who has
loved you
well,
who has
disciplined
you fairly,
who has
taught you,
who gives
you good
things in
life,
who really
does care
for you,
thank God
for that
and know,
know that
when you look
at your dad
and see those
good things,
know that
those good
things are
fully realized
in God
the Father.
He loves
you so much,
he hears
every cry,
he knows
every need,
he knows
how to
correct you
in the
most loving
way.
He gets
it right
every single
time,
even more
than your
father down
here.
Would you
take joy
knowing that
the God
of heaven
is so high
above us
in every
single way,
stoops down,
calls us
children,
and loves
us completely.
Last point,
really quickly,
Jesus tells
us to pray
that God's
name would
be hallowed.
Thomas Watson,
he was a
17th century
preacher,
minister,
he gave
about 20
ways in
which we
can hallow
God's name,
so this was
almost a
23 point
sermon.
one simple
way,
one simple
way out
of many
that you
can hallow
God's name
or make
holy his
name,
would be
to set
God high
in your
thoughts
and really
deeply
trust him.
We hallow
God's name,
we lift him
high in our
thoughts
by really
believing in
our hearts
that God
is infinitely
good.
We honor
God when
we dwell
on the
fact that
he is not
far off,
he is not
uninterested,
he doesn't
drop us as
soon as we
mess up.
And now
this week,
this week
or month
might be an
especially hard
time to think
about that.
You know,
God is
infinitely good.
I don't
see that
right now.
Earlier
on this
week,
I saw
this short
video,
it was
just of
an older
man talking
about
Christianity
and not
a famous
guy,
I don't
know who
he is,
he just
came up
on my
phone,
but he's
obviously
been going
to church
for many
years,
and I
don't know
his whole
experience,
but I
just want
to read
a few
words,
this is
what he
said,
no health
prayers
answered,
no career
prayers
answered,
no spousal
prayers
answered,
not a
single
prayer
answered
in 60
years.
Is this
what following
Jesus is
all about?
What a
mistake.
That's what
he says,
what a
mistake.
When you
receive
Christ
and
believe in
him,
and you
become an
adopted
child of
God,
you don't
get everything
you want.
Don't be
like Thomas
Muller who
trains and
gets dropped
at the
last season.
Your life
is not
founded on
you earning
a reward
for doing
the right
things and
praying really
hard.
It's founded
on God
being your
father,
Christ being
your brother,
the one who
died for you.
That will
never change
and it's a
test of
faith.
It really
is a test
of faith
to pray
that God's
name would
be hallowed.
We pray
that we
and those
around us
would learn
to lift
him high
in our
hearts
and trust
him even
though the
world comes
crashing down
around us.
This theme
will come up
again in the
Lord's Prayer
later on,
so we won't
say much
more,
but we can
close with
this.
Our greatest
need is to
have more
of God
and to
know more
and more
that he is
our father.
If right
now,
if tonight,
if God
gave you
everything that
you wanted,
would you
ever run
to God
your father
again?
Would you
ever cry
father?
The valley
in Psalm
23,
it's a place
of despair
isn't it?
It's a place
of job
insecurity
and poor
health.
It's a place
of broken
relationships.
God takes
his children
through the
valley for
us to learn
that all we
have, all
we have is
our father
and eventually
we will be
with him.
Set him high
in your
heart.
Trust him
for your
good.
You can't
earn anything
but you
your life
is the
way it
is.
And you
will be
kept safe
even in
trouble
because Christ
who is your
brother has
died for you
and risen
again.
And because
the God of
heaven who is
your father
hears your
cries,
stoops down
and who loves
his treasure.
Will you cry
Abba Father?
Will that be
enough for you?
Let's pray.
Father,
we acknowledge
tonight who
we are coming
before.
We thank you
that you're a
father who
stoops down,
who hears our
cries.
and we
think of
ourselves and
our friends
who are being
brought through
valleys.
We pray
that they
would remember
that the
God of
heaven who
is their
father is
free from
all weakness
and he is
infinitely good.
And so
when we
can only ask
why things
are the way
that they
are in
our lives
in this
world,
Lord,
would our
cry,
would our
prayer be
Abba,
Father.
Make that
our prayer
this week,
we ask for
Jesus'
sake.
Amen.