The Village Church
Our Father Who is in Heaven - Audio
[BLANK_AUDIO] Anyone doing well this morning? >> Yes. >> Cool. [BLANK_AUDIO] During my days as a Chick-fil-A employee, myself and a fellow employee were driving back to Greenville from Atlanta. The day before we had to work at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. And so as we made our way down 85, her favorite rap song came on the radio. And she was moving ahead, she was nodding back and forth. And I asked her, I said, have you ever listened to the lyrics of that song? Have you ever listened to what this artist is saying in this song? She said, well, not really. I said, take for a moment and just listen to the words. Listen to what she's saying in this song. And when she listened, she looked at me and said, wow, that's awful. I said, yep, that is awful. And you see a lot of us approach the Bible the same way. We have our favorite passages in scripture, our favorite verses, John 3 16, Psalm 23. But when was the last time you actually sat down and listened to see what the Lord is truly saying in his word? Cuz you can read the scripture and not really understand what he's saying. When was the last time you did that? You see, last week we recite the Lord's prayer at the end of the service. And I know some of you memorized that prayer and sunny school when you were a kid or you memorized it later in life we became a Christian. But do you really have, when was the last time you actually sat down, read the Lord's prayer to understand what is Jesus really saying here? Is it just a prayer or he want me to get something out of this prayer for my life? Something that will enhance my own prayer life. You see, this morning we're gonna begin working our way through this prayer. And our aim and our goal is to enrich our own prayer life. As I said before, if we are not a praying church and we're not gonna really be why I believe God wants us to be in this community. Cuz we can coast along with gifts and resources and do good things. It's still not depend upon God. But I want us to be a church that is truly depend upon God, truly depend upon him to do great things through and us. Everything that's been done in this community came because people have prayed. People really prayed to God, was humble before God and God blessed it. And if we do the same, humble ourselves before God and prayer, he will use us for his kingdom, for his glory. Whether Jesus say him, and he says in Matthew 9 beginning to, Matthew 6 beginning in verse 9. Pray then like this, our Father in heaven, how will 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 forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, will deliver us from evil. Please pray with me. Well, as I always say every week, this is not about me. And I say that to remind myself that it's not about me. Because it's about you, it's about your kingdoms, about your glories, about your reputation, it's about your name, and my prayers for the spirit to come and push us closer to Jesus, push us closer to him. And so take these words that are preached and applied to our heart spirit, and ask that you create a revival in our own soul, and we'll fall more in love with Jesus. More in love without Savior. Do great things, Jesus. Crashed in my prayer. Amen. You see, at first glance, you know, you read through this prayer, and you say, well, there's nothing real special about the Lord's prayer. Alex, it's just a prayer. But as I studied this prayer this week, it dawned on me that the Lord's prayer is similar to the Ten Commandments. Have you ever noticed that connection? See, the Ten Commandments are divided up into two parts. The first five commandments deal with our duty to God. The second five deal with our duty to our neighbor. How are we supposed to treat other people? And see, in the Lord's prayer, you have six petitions. Six requests made to God. The first three are for God's glory. The last three is for the need of man. So that's how the Lord's prayer is divided up. God's glory and our need, how God provides for those needs. So I said last week that prayer is always depending upon who God is. It is. It's depending upon who God is, just like our faith. And what did I say? If the source of your faith is weak, then your faith is weak. If my source of faith is this chair, right here, then my faith is going to be weak. So this cannot be the source of my faith. And so because Jesus is the source of our faith, our faith is strong, because he's the source of our prayer, and our prayer is actually heard, because we always pray to him. In verse 9, Jesus says, "He tells us who God is." He says, "Our Father who are in heaven." If prayer is depending upon who God is and who is he, our Father who are in heaven. That's the first thing he wants us to see. You see, last week we introduced this concept of God's our Father, because last week Jesus says, "No, when we pray, we pray to our Father, and that our Father knows what we need even before we pray." And so knowing and understanding God is your Father is very important for your faith. One Christian even says, if you want to judge how a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being a child of God, having God as your Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayer, his whole outlook on life, it means he does not understand Christianity very well. If you don't understand what it means to be a child of God, having God as your Father, you don't understand your faith very well. How much do you make of that fact that you as a believer are a child of God? He calls you son. He calls you daughter. What do you make of that? What do I make of it? You know, what comes to your mind when you hear the term Father? What pictures come to your mind when you hear the term Father? Some of us have good pictures. Some of us have bad pictures. Some of us have no pictures at all. Why? Because I don't know why this is, why this is true, but our earthly fathers, our lack of earthly fathers, shape or taint our opinion of the concept Father, even when it comes to God as our Father. The reality is that whatever kind of relationship we have or did not have with our earthly fathers, many times impact your relationship with God as your Father. What do I mean by that? I mean, you begin to transfer things from your relationship with your earthly father onto God. If your daddy was hard to please, if he was never satisfied with anything you did, when you become a believer, you'll believe God treats you the same way. I don't measure up God. You know what I need to do to have you accept me for who I am. If your Father was never there, when you become a believer, at times you would feel of being abandoned by God that God is going to abandon you. If your dad was a pushover, sometimes you think I was a pushover. I can get away with anything. Our fathers shape our opinion of this attitude, shape our opinion of this concept Father. Shape our view of what a father truly is. And God has to come into our life, use his spirit to transform our opinion of Father. He does that through his spirit. See when I was in elementary school, I'm sure some of you did this too. We used to have a school yard debate of about my dad is bending your dad. Every kid did that growing up, especially the guys, where my dad's more than your dad, where my dad's stronger than your dad. My dad's cooler than your dad. The list goes on and on and on. You see when it comes to your heavenly dad, there's no debate. He's better in every way and in everything and you never see that if you don't know him. You never see that if you don't live in a growing relationship with him. Your heavenly dad is better in all things and all times and all ways. Because when we open up the scriptures and they tell us that God's our Father, what is that telling us? It's saying that he's personal. He's a personal God and a Father is a person. He's a person. And the one Christian professor said to be a person implies the capability of being in a relationship. That God is capable of being in a relationship. And it's true, we see that in the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's a relationship there. So God is personal and relational and we as his people creating his image, we're also personal and relational. When you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you enter into an intimate relationship with God, a Father-child relationship. You do. No longer are you a servant, but you are a child. You see, we can't depersonize God, make him into nothing but an idol, made of stone. He's not that, nor is he passive or absent, but he's always there. He's involved in your life. He wants to be involved with your life. He wants to be in a relationship with you. The question is, do you want to be in a relationship with him? If you don't have a relationship with him today, do you want it? You see, I've said this before, Mark Stearns has said this before as well. Our creative purpose in life is to know God. That's why we were created. We weren't created to be the Savior's or the universe. We weren't created to fix people. We were created to know God and everything else flows out of that. Everything, the life you live for God, the things you do for God, flows out of your relationship with God and not vice versa. So the more you know him, the more you love him, the more you live for him and sacrifice for him, because you are in a relationship with him. The same way I'm in a relationship with my wife and my kids and my parents, we need to be in that same relationship with our God, our Father. You see, Garth Brooks says he has friends in low places, friends in low places, but when you're in interrelationship with God, do you have a friend in the highs of all places? Highs of all places. That means a lot, a lot. That's why this one actually has friends in low places, and that's us. In our relationship with God, we have a friend in the highs of all places, and that counts as a lot. That means a lot for us as God's people that his fatherly care over you is unwavering, unshaking. It means when you mess up, he's not surprised by it. He's not surprised by it. He always welcomes you back, he always forgives you. That's what I mean. He's consistent, always true, always faithful, and so one day, I picked Madison up from day care, and as soon as she spotted me, she rained toward me and leaped into my arms. Why? Because she knows that I am her daddy. No, it's funny, when I picked her up this Tuesday, the other kids spotted me, and they said, Madison, your daddy's here, Madison, your daddy's here, and then Madison looked and she rained toward me. You see, God is here in your life. Sometimes other people can spot it before you can, but when they tell you, your daddy is here, he's here, even when you can't see it. He's working in your life despite your circumstances, and the better you know him, the better you know him, the more you will leap into his arms and prayer. The more you will bow down, say, Father, Father, I need you, Father, I don't understand what I'm going through, but your word says you are faithful, so I cling to your promises. If you haven't experienced that, you will, and so you have a direct line to your father through prayer, use it, our Father, who art in heaven, and so when you become a believer, you are actually adopted into God's family, into his kingdom, and that means we are fully sons and daughters, fully sons and daughters. He's not going to give us a plane ticket and send us back to where we came from because we messed up, but his adoption of us is final, that he puts up without mess, he puts up with us not always listening to him because he loves us. He loves you, and one Christian says adoption is the bestow of a relationship. God wants to be in relationship with you, he wants to know you, in spite of you, do you want to know him that much, do you want to know him that way? And so we pray as sons and daughters, we need to be, as I said last week, confident when we pray because we're walking into the room with our dad, not with a Terminator God, not with a God who's far off, not with a guy who's a dictator, but someone who actually wants to hear from me, who doesn't push me to the side because he's busy, no, he says son, daughter, can sit up in my lap, let's talk, let's talk, what's on your mind, what are you dealing with, tell me, I want to know, I want to know, our Heavenly Father is everything we earth and fathers are not, and he will always be everything we're not, because he's perfect, he's righteous all the time, in every way and every moment, he's always loving, he's always patient, he's disciplined us in love as well, all the time, 365 days a year, God is good to his people, 365 days a year, God is good to you, all the time, do you believe it, can you see it, the prophet Isaiah says, he has engraved us on the palm of his hands, you have been engraved on the palm of God's hand, he holds your life in his hand, Zachariah says he dances over you with shouts of joy, do those words comfort you, do those words change your opinion of who God is, they should, you should feel secure, you should feel comfort, you should feel well taken care of, in spite of what you go through, 'cause he's there, Psalm 2710 says, "For my mother and father has forsaken me, for the Lord will take me in, my mother and father have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in, his comfort, his assurance, that when all else fails, when people let me down, when friends dial me in the back, there is one who always take me in, who always would give me an ear, who always listen to me, that's God your father, he holds the universe in his hands, and it's not the other way around, you see, it's true God is like us, he is a person, he is personal, but he's not a pushover dad, okay, he's not a pushover, who can be tricked and deceived, I can be deceived, I will be deceived by my kids, but I can't deceive God, I need to kill you, Jesus says God is our father, but he is in heaven, but what's going on there? You see, on the one hand, God is like us, he's personal, but on the other hand, he is not like us, he is in heaven, he is in heaven, and what does that mean? It means he's not weak, he's not inadequate, he's not inefficient, he is great. You see, all of us are limited. We have limited knowledge, we have limited understanding, we are limited abilities, limited power, we are bound by space and time, because why we are finite beings, we're just human, but God has no limits, he's infinite, he is not bound by limited power or limited knowledge because he's all powerful and all known, you see what Jesus does with that one phrase, our father who are in heaven, he has shown us, God is personal, but hey, he is God, he is true, he is perfect, he is infinite, he's all knowing, he's all powerful, he's both of those things and one being, and when you're approaching, you're approaching as both, the guy who is personal and the guy who is all powerful, all powerful, he is above all, he made all, he is the source of all, she think about it, we are codependent beings, all of us, all of us are, even if you think it not, you are, because we depend upon other things for our existence, you do, we use cars to get a point A to point B, we have to live in houses, we have to drink water, I mean think about it, if you didn't eat a drink water, what would happen to you, you would die, if there was no gravity on this earth, what would happen to us, roll the way, you see, we are codependent beings, but God is completely independent, he does not depend upon anything else for his existence, he does not, and if he did, he would cease to be God, he would cease to be God, so what does it mean for us, it means God can be known, but he cannot be fully comprehended, that's what it means, you can know God, but you never fully understand him, because he is God, Paul says in Romans 11, oh the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how impossible it is for us to understand his ways, that's our God, we could know him, man we can't fully understand him, and so it's not a relationship of equals, that's what it is, it's not a relationship with equals, it's a relationship between someone who is limited and someone who is not limited, and when you pray to God, your prayer to your personal father who is also all powerful means he would get things done, he is a source of all things, he is a controller of all things, and so that builds that confidence that I said last week, confident and prayer, God will make things happen in your life, when it says God is eternal, you know what that means, he sees things as complete, he sees things from point A to point B, he sees time, he sees how things are going to play out in the end, he sees how your surfer is going to actually be good for you, that's what it means for him to be eternal, he's not just bound by a circumstance, he sees the whole picture, the whole picture, you see, if this paper here represented all knowledge, all we are is a little specks because we limited, but God comprehends all knowledge, all power, all authority, he controls it all, we are just little dots limited by our circumstances, limited by who we are as human beings, but God has no limits, no limits, he is personal and all powerful, you see, just like a child should have intimacy with their parents, they should also have respect for their parents, see all parents want to have an intimate relationship with their kids, but not to the point where the kid doesn't respect them as their parent, I'm bending their authority, meaning I'm going to be my kid's best friend, I'm not going to parent them, there is a difference in the relationship, there is a sense of authority in that parent-child relationship, and the child should never have authority over the parent, ever, and the same is true in our relationship with God, we're intimate, there's an intimate relationship, but not to the point where God ceases to be God, and God ceases to be our parent, you see, we do not, one Christian says we do not live an intimacy with God in a way that destroys our reverence for God, destroys our worship for God, we don't, because you have to understand there is a difference, there is a sense of authority in that relationship, we say a prayer is dependent upon who God is, so who is he, he's your dad, don't underhand, he's infinite and holy and majestic, and because of that, the first petition says, "Hollow be your name," our Father who are in heaven, "Hollow be your name," because you are personal and because you are majestic and all powerful, "Hollow be your name," what does that mean, I mean you treat it as holy, because his name represents himself, we are to honor God as God, Psalm 77 says, "Your way, O Lord, is holy," why, because he is holy, and the question for us and for myself, whose name is "Hollowed in your life," what is "Hollowed in your life," is it your name, is it someone else, or is it some stuff, is it ministry, "Hollowed be your name, God," is God's name "Hollowed in your life," do you pray that way when you pray, God, "Hollowed be your name," not my name, not my reputation, not me, you see, if, what would happen to me if I took credit for someone else's song, like the Garth Brooks song, you know, "Friends and Low Places," what if I went out and said, "This is my new song that I wrote, and it's called "Friends and Low Places," I just wrote it yesterday, what would happen to me if I went around doing that, what would happen to me, I get sued, why, yes, because it's not my work, I didn't create it, and that's what we do, we walk around our lives taking credit for the things that done in our life, we're taking credit from God, because he is the author of everything that's going on in your life, and he will not yield his glory to another, not even to his people, not even to his ministers, not even to his leaders, he is a jealous God for his glory, and he will not yield it to another, you know, Psalm 115 says, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and faithfulness." See, our desire for God's name, we should desire God's name to be honored and praised in your life, in your ministry, whatever you do, I will be his name. God told Moses what, "I am who I am," that's who is sinning you, "I am who I am," he says, "El Shaddah, God Almighty," as we sung earlier, "Jehovah Joar," my provider, "Jehovah Nisi," the banner over me, "Yauwe Elohim," he said, "God at his, the Lord who is always present, he is our shepherd," and his name is to be hallowed, "at all times, at all moments, in every area of our life." When you, this will enhance your prayer life, when you have this balanced understanding of who God is, our Father, who art in heaven, that he is like us, because he's personal, and he's unlike us, because he's infinite, all powerful, all known, together in one God, intimacy and respect at the same time, for our Heavenly Father. You see, the first time, the first time my dad told me he was proud of me, I was a freshman in college, and that meant a lot. That's the first time he ever told me, "Son, I'm proud of you." My dad was a tough dad, stoic, don't show weakness, don't show need, don't cry, I'm a man's man, so he wasn't very soft, affectionate, affectionate growing up, he wasn't mushy, and so when he told me that, that meant a lot to me, because I valued my dad's opinion of me, even to this day. And one of the things I never forget, I never forget this, you know, when I graduated from seminary, you know, he sent me a card, and he wrote in his card, he said, "Alex, you are the man I wish I could be." And you know, that rock tears to my eyes. My dad said, "Alex, you are the man I wish I could be." He said, "I'm 33, and my father's opinion of me still matters to this day. Even, he ain't my opinion of my imperfect father's opinion matters to me. How much more should I Heavenly Father's opinion matter to us? God's opinion of you is a lot greater than you realize, a lot greater than you realize. He cherishes you, he cherishes you, he dances over you, he enstribes you on the palm of his hands. That's his opinion of you. Have you read that? Do you live in that? Do you cherish those promises? Do you make them your own? Does it bring a smile to your face when you read "I will never forsake you"? Does it bring a smile to your face when God says that to you? It should. It should. Let us pray. I thank you, Father. Your Word says that you are mindful that we are but does, and that you still love us. You know what we're going to do. You know we're going to fail. You know we still battle sin, but your opinion of us never changes because of Christ's blood over us. We are sons and daughters. Help us to meditate upon those promises, Father, how you view us. You don't see what we see. As we heard a few weeks ago you love us and spite of us. And when you see us, you see Christ's righteousness over us. When we look in the mirror, we see the issue, the failures, the shortcomings, but not with you, Lord. You see my son. That's my son. That's my daughter. And they're always going to be my son and daughter. So wherever you are today, Father, whatever we're dealing with today, wherever you are, without understanding of who you are as our Father, help us to understand it better. Let it give us confidence in our prayer life. Let it give us confidence in this life that we live, that our Father is in heaven, that you love us, you will take care of us, you're going to provide for us, you're going to come and help us. You're always on time. You always give. You're always merciful. And you love us. You like us. Drilled that into our hearts. Drilled that into our minds. You are our Daddy who art in heaven. Thank you.