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Feb 23, 2014

Do You Buy It? | Part 2

Passage: Matthew 6:9-10

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Upside Down Affections

Detail:

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew 6.  We are in the third part of our series on the Sermon on the Mount. For the next three weeks we’ll be looking at the Lord’s Prayer—one of the most famous passages of all of Scripture.  We’re going to look at each of these lines in depth to understand what these words mean for us.

Before we begin, I want to highlight some truths about the Lord’s Prayer that we need to recognize.  In His sermon, Jesus has been teaching us what it means to be kingdom followers who do the will of God in our everyday lives. The Beatitudes have taught us that our attitudes need to be different.  The end of chapter five told us that our actions—the way we interact with one another, the way we forgive, the way we speak to one another, the way we look to one another—are to be different from the world’s actions.

We are now in the part of our sermon series where we talk about our kingdom affections.  How do we interact with our God?  How do we show our love to Him?  We began by talking about our giving and service to God and how those are to be done for God, not so that others may see it.  Then we talked about how our prayers should begin in private then overflow from our hearts into public prayer as well.  Now we are going to talk about the affection of learning how to pray.

Luke’s parallel passage of the Lord’s Prayer begins with the disciples asking their Teacher and Master, “Lord, teach us to pray.” We need that today. We need our Lord and Savior to teach us how to pray because prayer is communicating with God, just as we communicate each day with one another.  We must recognize that we are communicating with the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End. We need an example of how to pray. What should we be praying? To Whom should we be praying?

Here are some general observations I want to make about the Lord’s Prayer before we even get into our text. 

  1. It is a pattern for our prayers.  In verse nine Jesus says, “Pray then like this.”  He doesn’t say, “I want you to pray these exact words,” or, “Repeat after Me the following.” No, He says, “I want you to pray like this.” It is a model, a pattern for us to follow.
  2. It shows us to Whom we should pray.  Who should be on the other side of our prayers?  One Person only—our Father in heaven.  Let us never get into the habit of praying to other individuals, whether dead or alive.  As wonderful as our Lord and Savior’s mother Mary was we are never called to pray to her, through her or by her.  We are to call out only to our heavenly Father Who is in heaven.
  3. It is a balanced prayer.  It balances praise, adoration, petition and our needs of daily provision. It talks about the bigness of God but also deals with the smallness of our daily needs.  It is a beautiful picture of the balance our prayers should have.
  4. It shows us how our prayers should be broken down. In essence there are three bullet points in this prayer:
    • Look to God.  We should focus our time and attention on our Father Who is in heaven, that we would hallow His name.
    • Look to ourselves.  We should show our dependency on the God Whom we’ve hallowed and Whose name is greater than any other name.  We are to spend some time focusing on our needs and giving them to our God—even as small as the need for our daily bread.
    • Look to others.  We are called to forgive. We are called to show love and mercy because we too are people who have had our trespasses and debts forgiven. It also reminds us we are in a battle—we need to resist temptation and be delivered from evil.

These are wonderful words.

Let me pause for a minute.  Some of you may say that these observations mean that any time the Lord’s Prayer is prayed in public, we should push it away. But I would say that there’s a balance to that as well.  Should we never say this prayer in public?  I don’t think that’s the case.  Here’s the thing—Jesus says, “Pray then like this,” and leads us in a prayer.  He doesn’t just give a set of bullet points for what we should pray.  He teaches us a very clear prayer that we can utter with Him.

I think it is all together profitable for Christ’s followers—whether as individuals or as a body of believers—to lift their voices in one accord with their Savior in heaven and utter these words just as they have been recorded for us in Scripture.

Now some may ask, “Wait a minute, Tim. Doesn’t reciting a prayer like this make it rote?”  It can. Praying this prayer should never replace the free-flowing and heart-felt prayers of the faithful. We should never allow it to become a mindless collection of words used in a religious scenario. To do so would be to profane the name of our God Whom we confess as Lord. 

  1. Finally, it should never be viewed as a magic formula for what we want. We should never think, “If I pray this enough times or with enough passion in my heart, these words will magically lead God to do what I want Him to do.”  In fact the exact opposite is true.  The Lord’s Prayer is a contrite and humble assessment of who we are in our spiritual and physical needs for forgiveness, mercy, protection and provision to the only One Who can provide it—our Father Who is in heaven.  This prayer communicates with our Dad that we trust Him as a loving and caring God. 

We are going to begin looking at this prayer under the heading “Do You Buy It?”  In other words, do you believe the Lord’s Prayer to be that model? Do you believe the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer to the God Who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than you could ever ask or imagine?

One of the biggest reasons many evangelicals don’t like the Lord’s Prayer is because they see so many unbelievers praying this prayer. If this prayer is not prayed in faith, the words are simply words.  But when they come from a desire to pursue and honor God, prayed by faith-filled hearts who believe that God can do what we ask of Him, God says these prayers can move mountains.  So it is not enough for us just to know these words; we must buy into them by faith and believe in them.

Even more important than buying into Christ’s words placed before us is the need to buy into, believe in, trust in and put your hope in the God to Whom we pray these words.

Before we look at our specific passage of Matthew 6:9-10, let’s recite the Lord’s Prayer together as a body, praying the written Word of God—the model He has given us to pray—to our Father. Matthew 6:9-13 says:

9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

   on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread,

12 and forgive us our debts,

   as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from evil.

Let’s pray.

Lord, we come before You to learn how truly awesome You are.  We are going to be brought front and center to Who You really are.  As we get to know You more, it should cause us to look at our hearts. If I believe You are all that You say You are, then why don’t I pray more?  If I believe that You hold this world, the universe and all it contains in Your hands, then why don’t I put my needs for daily bread, protection and forgiveness in Your hands?  If You are the God Whom You say You are, then why don’t I lift Your name high and set it apart above all others?

So Lord, as we explore this prayer word by word and phrase by phrase, I ask that we would encounter You. I ask that it would make our private times of prayer and our prayers in public gatherings far more heartfelt. I pray that our prayers would be deeper than a surface level list of needs.  I ask that they would follow Your pattern and model of prayer so that You might be glorified and praised in our prayers.  Lead us now in this time of study. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen. 

Prayer is a difficult thing for us as people. Just as our children have to come to grips with learning language to communicate, so we as Christians have to learn how to communicate with our God.  We have to get to know our God and understand Him; we need to learn what He desires. We need to grow in our vocabulary as we communicate with Him.

My five-year-old does a great job of communicating for a five-year-old, but not for a 35-year-old.  So he has to continue growing in his understanding of what it means to communicate with the world around him.  Likewise we as Christians must always be evolving and growing in our communication with our God.  If we find ourselves communicating with God the same way we did when we first came to know Him, then something is wrong.  If we never move past the things we learned about our God early on in our lives, then our relationships with Him will grow stagnant. We need to be growing as a people. The model for prayer that God gives us will help us in developing a robust and mature communication with Him.

Prayer like this takes discipline and hard work. It doesn’t come naturally to us. Prayer in and of itself seems like a very natural thing.  Think about it for a moment.  The words Jesus shares with us here are all words that anybody can understand.  They’re easy.  We could pray these words as if we were talking to someone else.  The Lord’s Prayer is an incredibly natural, human and earthy type of activity. 

But I need to pause for a moment and recognize that if there is an unbeliever in our midst—someone who has never been a part of the Christian culture before—he or she is probably thinking, “Earthy? Human?  Normal?  Prayer is none of that!  You are talking to Someone you have never seen, Someone Who isn’t here.  You are talking to Someone Who is not verbally talking back to you.”  By the way, if He has—I want to hear from you.

What we do when we pray as Christians is totally abnormal.  When we see people having conversations with an invisible friend, we want to get them medication. So while the words that Christ has laid before us are incredibly human and easy—after all, they’re things that my three boys can readily understand—it takes faith to believe that they are truly what they claim to be.

So as we approach prayer, faith is a huge part of what the process.  To pray is to be a person of faith.  If you have no faith you will not pray because there’s no reason to pray.  There’s no reason to waste your time. But if we are filled with faith, then these words will roll off our tongues.  We will have a great desire in our hearts to see what God shows us in this prayer come about and be made manifest in our own lives.

As we approach the Lord’s Prayer we need to ask ourselves some questions.  Do we buy what God is telling us about how prayer truly changes lives?  Do we believe that prayer is communicating with the Almighty? Do we believe that God wants to hear us? Do we believe that God wants to answer our prayers?  Do we believe these things by faith?

If we do, we need to make some very important decisions. Here are three decisions that I want us to look at today:

Acknowledging the Person of God
Affirming the Preeminence of God
Accepting the Program of God

 

1. Acknowledging the Person of God

If you want to see the Lord’s Prayer lived out in your life on a daily basis, then you have to acknowledge the Person of God in your life. Jesus begins His famous prayer with the simple line, “Our Father in heaven.” What can we learn from this?

Jesus quickly articulates that we are to be praying to a specific Person.  Also, notice that He starts with the word “our.”  We shouldn’t gloss over that important word.  Jesus doesn’t say, “My Father in heaven.”  He doesn’t say, “Pray then like this: ‘His or Her Father in heaven.’”  He says, “Our Father in heaven.” 

The plural word “our” is a reminder that I am not alone in my life of faith and that you are not alone in your life of faith. The Lord’s Prayer is not a private prayer for there is no “I” or “me” found anywhere in it.  Inherent within this word “our” is a conscious reminder that we are bringing our personal requests, desires and concerns to our God. I am not an only child. You are not an only child. We join with hundreds of thousands of people who are bringing their requests before their God just as we do.

We Live in a Community

The Lord’s Prayer is a reminder that we are involved in a community with others.  It is a communal prayer.  It is a prayer that we need to live out in our own lives but also with an awareness of those around us. As we approach the throne of grace with confidence, we do so knowing there are others as far away as the other side of the world who pray likewise. There are those who have gone before us and are no longer with us who have prayed according to this prayer. It is a reminder of the heritage of faith that we have as followers of Jesus Christ.  This has been the prayer of the faithful for so many years.

Jesus gives us a sense of identity with this prayer. When we pray collectively as a body we no longer pray as individuals.  When a leader in the church prays as part of the church service, your job is not to listen passively but rather to pray to God with your leader as well.

For example, in our service today you should have been praying, “God, I lift up Pastor Mario and his family with the death of his mom. I pray with my elder and friend Al Gonnerman that we might lift up and encourage those who are hurting.” We should be in agreement with prayers like this.  It is not so we can hear another pray; it is so in one voice we can all bring our prayers and petitions before God. 

We Are Part of a Family

We are part of this community because of the next line in the text, “Our Father…” We don’t have a community just because we’re connected in our prayer life.  We are actually connected via relationship because we’re in a family. Jesus says, “Our Father in heaven.”

When we pray together here at Village Bible Church, our commonality is not found in our race or our backgrounds. We don’t meet together because we all have the same political ideals, occupations or even social/economic statuses. We gather together to praise, pray and preach one common truth.  You and I—who are incredibly different—are in fact the same because we all worship the same one and only true Father Who is in heaven. 

This prayer reminds us that we are not doing this alone. We’re doing it together under the watchful eye of our Father Who resides in heaven.  Many of us will say, “So what?  Yeah, I’m a child of God but I’ve known that.  I already knew that God is my Father.”  That’s a truth that each of my children would be able to articulate too.

But in first century Palestine it was somewhat scandalous for Jesus to say we should pray in such a way.  It was unheard of in Jesus’ day to name God as your Father. It was only seen a few times in the Old Testament.  There are only 14 references in the Old Testament of God as Father.  The vast majority of them speak of God being the Father of the Israelite nation, not the father of a particular person. 

So Jesus brings this fresh, new and scandalous idea that we have allowed to become commonplace.  As we explore the words of Jesus we learn something so incredibly important. When Jesus says “Father” He uses the Aramaic word “Abba” which literally means “Daddy.”

One commentator has said that this word “Abba” makes a natural division between the Old and New Testaments. There are 14 references to God as our Father in the Old Testament; in the gospels alone the word “Abba” is used 60 times. Jesus turned our relationships with God upside-down.  He says, “You’ve known God to be transcendent and untouchable; you’ve been taught that you cannot approach this God.  But I want you to know the God of the patriarchs and prophets is your Dad.”

The word “Abba” is one of familiarity not formality. This word “Abba” is what I hear when I walk into the door and my five-year-old son―he’s the only one who does it anymore but praise God that he still does it―yells, “Hey, Daddy’s home!”  It is not the idea of a stiff child coming and saying, “Oh yes Father, you are here.” It is the idea of a child running at high speeds to grab onto my leg and say, “Dad, it’s good to see you!”

Jesus wants us to know that the God of this universe wants us to run to Him, put our arms around Him and say, “This is my Dad! I can talk to this Dad. I’m familiar with Him. I don’t have to worry about anything or cower in fear before Him.”  He is a Dad Who loves to hear from His children.  He is a Dad Who longs to hear our heartbreak stories.  He is a Dad Who longs to help us in our hour of need.

Where did we learn to talk to our Dad like this? We learn it from Jesus. Any time Jesus addresses His Father in His earthy ministry He uses the word “Abba”—except for once. On the cross Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).  That is how sinful our sin was: the only time Jesus spoke to His Father in terms of His God rather than in terms of His Father was when our sins were placed upon Him on the cross.  He could no longer call His Father “Dad” because His fellowship had been broken.  In His last prayers here on earth, He cried out, “Abba, forgive them, for they know not what they do…Abba, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” 

God wants us to approach Him. Not only that, but He wants us to approach Him as Jesus did.  If that doesn’t kick your prayer life into high gear then don’t listen to the rest of this sermon because nothing else will work.  We get to approach God as Jesus did—with all our sin, frailties, mistrust and struggles.

But this idea of “Abba” is so very important. When I was preparing this message, Amanda told me, “Move along in your first point.”  I lovingly said to her, “But that’s the crux of the whole message.” If we miss this idea, then we miss everything. 

The word “Abba,” reminds us that we are loved. I know some of you had lousy relationships with your earthly fathers.  Maybe your father was a jerk.  He didn’t show you God in any way.  Maybe your father is more like the devil in your mind because of what he did. But I want you to know that God is a loving Father.  He is a kind, merciful and patient Father.  He cares for us. Our God loves us and wants to hear from us.

This loving God is also a forgiving God. He doesn’t just love us when we do right; He loves us when we do wrong.  One of the greatest parables Jesus shares is the story of the prodigal son and his loving father in Luke 15:11-32.  The son went to his living father and said, “I know you’re not dead yet but I want my inheritance.  Give it to me.” What a disrespectful and dishonoring thing to say to your parents.  He was saying, “Give me that which is not mine.  I wish you were dead.”  So the sinful son took the money, went off and lived wildly.  He squandered the money and then found himself in a time of desperation and famine because he had nothing left.  He was reduced to tending pigs and he was so hungry that he wanted the pig food. This is the absolute quintessential picture of rebellion, sin, self-indulgence, pride and arrogance. Let me remind us, it is a picture of ourselves.

Finally the son came to his senses and said, “I could do far better if I was a servant in my father’s house.  I will go back to my father and ask him to give me an opportunity to be one of his household servants.”  So the young man returned.  While he was still far off, his father saw him and ran to him. This was unheard of in Jesus’ day. Fathers didn’t run to their sons; sons came to their fathers.  But in Jesus’ story the father came running.  He didn’t give words of reprimand or anger.  Instead he wrapped his arms around the sinful, indulgent, arrogant, prideful and rebellious son who wanted him dead.  The father put his arms around his son and said, “Let’s throw a party! That which was lost is now found.”

This is the God to Whom we pray. He does not hold our sins against us. He does not beat us up repeatedly for the wrongs we have done.  He is a God Who absolutely loves you and wants to reveal that in His communication with you.

We Are Under Authority

Some of us have taken this familial relationship with God too far.  There’s too much casualness in our prayer.  You may be thinking, “Of course Tim, God is my friend.  ‘Oh what a friend we have in Jesus.’  Yeah, that’s how I communicate with Him.”  When our prayers are incredibly casual our sin becomes casual too. We think that because He’s a God Who forgives then it doesn’t really matter if we sin.  Jesus takes care of it for us.

Jesus says, “Our Father—our Abba—is in heaven.” When we see the phrase “in heaven” we need to remember it is Jesus saying that God is a God of authority. We are part of a community and part of a family but let us never forget that when we pray to our Father He is the One Who is in authority. 

Some years ago when I was in high school I was working with my dad for the summer.  I had come to really enjoy my relationship with my dad.  One day we were on a job where my dad was being ribbed playfully by some of the customers.  They were long-time customers of my dad and had known him for a while. One of the customers said to my dad, “Oh Bill, you’re just a good ol’ camel jockey from Iraq!  Yeah, we love our camel jockey.”  My dad laughed, the customers laughed and I laughed. I thought it was funny.

On the way home from the event we were having a great conversation.  My dad said something and I responded, “Oh Dad, you’re just an old camel jockey.” He didn’t laugh and I knew I had crossed a line.

My dad looked at me and said, “Son, you’re my son. You’re not my friend. You’re not my peer. You’re not my customer. You don’t talk to me that way.”

I was thinking, “But why Dad? We’re family.  We’re friends.”  It was because my dad carries a position of authority in my life.

When we approach God we can never forget that the same Jesus and heavenly Father Whom we pray to as our Friend is also the immortal, invisible God.  Hebrews 12:29 says, “For our God is a consuming fire.”  We have to hold in tension the immanence of Jesus as the second Person of the Trinity—our Friend—and the transcendence of a holy God.

Let me illustrate this for you. The Apostle John was the youngest of all the disciples.  Many scholars believe he was a cutie pie.  He was far younger than the late twenties most of the disciples were.  He was probably a young teenager or maybe even younger than that—ten or 11 years old.  We believe he was this young because he outlived all the other disciples by many years. So either he took the right supplements or he was much younger than the others were.  This may be why John was the disciple that Jesus loved. There’s something endearing about a young person—about their innocence and their desire to learn and grow.

During the last supper on the night Jesus was betrayed, John reclined at the breast of Jesus. He leans back on Jesus. This is a picture of upmost intimacy. This is up close and personal. So we get the idea that Jesus and John have a close relationship.  If we only had the Gospel of John we might think the only two points we have to worry about are the community and the family.

But let’s remember that John wrote another book—the Book of Revelation.  In Revelation 1 John meets the same Jesus Whom he reclined against. When he sees Jesus, it is very different from the up close and personal relationship in the upper room.  John says in verse 17, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”

Wait a minute!  What happened to John leaning against the breast of Jesus? What happened to that close and personal relationship?  The same God Whom we serve is the God we can cuddle up to but let us never forget He is also the One Who causes us to fall on our faces as if dead in His presence.

So let’s not play games with God. Let’s not take His desire for us to be close with Him as an excuse for us to grow comfortable.  He’s our authority.

 

2. Affirming the Preeminence of God

As we acknowledge the Person of God, we must also affirm the preeminence of God.  Once we’ve identified to Whom we are praying we must ask the question, “Is He worth praying to?”  If God is Who He says He is, then it is only natural for us to dedicate ourselves to a life characterized by prayer.

So many of us struggle with prayer. If we took a moment to compare reasons why we struggle with prayer, you and I would list many of the same things.

I’m busy.  As a father, businessman and pastor, I’m often coming and going without knowing which way is up.  It’s hard to take a moment and pray.

Some of you might say, “I’m just not gifted in the area of prayer,” as if prayer is a spiritual gift.  It’s not. 

Maybe you say, “I have ADD.  I get distracted every time I try to pray. I can’t get my mind focused on it. It’s a struggle for me, so it’s not my fault that I don’t pray.”

Jesus says we don’t pray because His Father in heaven is not preeminent in our lives.  That’s it. You’re not hallowing the name of our Father in heaven.  He’s not that important to you. Television, social media, our jobs, our kids and everything else in our lives are far more important. So instead of praying to God we do whatever is truly most important to us.

Your priorities will always rise to the top. If God is your first priority, then you will pray.  I can assure you of that. If He’s not number one, then you won’t pray.

So we need to ask ourselves, “Do I affirm with Jesus that I serve a Father in heaven Whose name is to be hallowed?” Let’s begin with looking at what the word “hallowed” means.  We don’t hear this word very often.  It doesn’t mean hollow or empty.  So what does it mean? The word “hallowed” (hagiazō) means to set apart or treat something as holy; to revere something above all else. 

Then we have to ask, “What are we to hallow?” We are to hallow the name of God. Why are we to hallow God’s name? In Jewish times the name articulated all of who you were and that which you were called to be.

I love being the son of a Middle Eastern father because names are important.  When I was born, my parents gave me the name Timothy Daniel.  Why Timothy?  It wasn’t because it sounded good or all the good-looking men of the time were named Timothy. That’s the American way of thinking about names.

The name Timothy had incredible symbolism to my parents. Timothy in the Bible is Paul’s disciple. He was a young man born into a mixed family.  His father was Greek and his mother was Jewish.  Timothy was taught the ways of the Lord at a very young age.  My parents looked at me as a little bundle of joy—much smaller than you would ever think I could’ve been—and said, “We’re a mixed race couple but we agree about the name of the Lord.  We’re going to raise this kid to know the Holy Scriptures from his infancy.”

Then I was given the middle name Daniel. My father wanted a name that would remind us from where he had come.  Daniel was a young Jewish man who—early in his life—was taken from his home where God’s name was honored and brought into bondage in a land where God’s name was profaned. Daniel served that God Whom he had known from a young age even amidst one of the vilest empires. Daniel was taken from Jerusalem and brought to Iraq.  He changed his culture from the inside out.  He did so in a land where the government said, “You can’t do any of that.”

God has allowed me to be a part of some things in our community that has made my dad really excited.  I have made it my goal in life not just to be your pastor but to be a presence for the gospel in my community.  My dad says, “You’re living up to your namesake, Son.” Daniel could have just sat idly by and watched his culture go down the tubes.  Instead, he chose to encounter it.  He approached it in a hands-on way.  I am so blessed to be affirmed in this by my dad because my desire is not just to preach to a bunch of Christians but also to influence the community around me from the inside out. 

When you’re able to connect your mission to your name, it’s life changing.  It affects you. Maybe your name doesn’t have a lot of significance but that’s okay.  You can write a new history and a new name so that when your name is spoken it reminds people of the faithfulness of God.

God reveals Himself in His name. He’s El Shaddai, Adonai, Jehovah Jireh (God will provide), and Jehovah Tsidkenu (the Lord is our righteousness. The name of God is one that we can trust. David says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lordour God” (Psalm 20:7).

Jesus’ mission on earth was to make known the name of His Father in heaven.  Jesus says in John 17:25-26, “Oh righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known.”  We are to hallow the name of God, which means we are to hallow all that He is and all that He does.

Then we need to ask, “When are we to hallow His name?” The Greek word “hallowed” (hagiazō) is in the aorist tense.  This means that the hallowing took place sometime in the past but has ongoing and forever implications.  So at some point in eternity past, God’s name was hallowed. The moment God created something else in the universe and existed with something else, He hallowed Himself. It was long before the heavens, the earth and humanity.

Every time He creates He continues to hallow His name. When the angels were created, He hallowed Himself amongst the angels.  When the universe was created, He hallowed Himself.  He set Himself apart from creation.  As He made humanity He set Himself apart from us. He continues to set Himself apart from us for all of eternity.  He will forevermore hallow Himself apart from all other things.  He is setting Himself apart because He is magnificent, beautiful, powerful and more than we could ever imagine or think. He is indescribable.

So then what are we going to do with Him? There are three things we need to do.

Determine if God Is Going to Be #1

We need to determine if He’s number one. Now that Jesus has declared Who our God is and that His name is to be number one in our lives, then we need to ask ourselves. “Is He?  Is He number one in my life?” Is God your priority? Is He first above all other relationships? Does God excite you? Is God Who gets you up in the morning? Is God the One Who brings you the supreme joy and passion in your life?  Is God the reason you live your life?  Is God your only reason for living?

If He’s not, then He’s not hallowed in your life. No doubt we all have conflicting issues in our lives.  Our family, friends and occupations are all to be secondary to the one relationship we have with our Father Who is in heaven.  We are to hallow His name.

This leads us to what young people these days call the “DTR.”  The DTR is when two people are dating and have to “define the relationship.”  Some of us have been hanging around Jesus for a while and He is saying, “You need to define this.  Who am I in your life?”

Jesus did this with the disciples when He said, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” (Luke 9:18).

The disciples said, “This is what they say, Jesus.”

But Jesus pushed them further and said, “But who do you say that I am?  Let’s determine, let’s define this relationship.”

Peter responded, “You’re the Christ of God.”  Peter articulated, “You’re Number One.  You’re it. Everything else is secondary.”

Declare that God Is #1

In Martin Luther’s catechism, he asks the question, “How do we hallow the name of God?” To summarize, Luther said, “When one’s life and doctrine are fully Christian.”  When we choose to hallow the name of God we declare that God is number one. When He is number one we will speak about Him in such a way that tells others He is preeminent in our lives. That’s why we need to be careful that we do not take the Lord’s name in vain or swear falsely by His name. We must always speak of God with reverence.

This will change the way we worship. Worship will not be something to enter into casually when it feels right or we feel like doing it. Rather we will enter into this place with thanksgiving and joy in our heart, praising the name of the greatest One in the entire universe.

When we hallow the name of God, we believe the right things about Him.  Some of you are willing to have an infantile understanding of your God but God says, “I want you to know Me.  I want you to know all that I will reveal to you.”  You might say, “But theology is boring.  Theology only puffs up the human mind.”

Look at it this way.  I love Amanda and I know that’s not a surprise to you. For the rest of my life, I want to get to know her to the best of my abilities.  Why?  Because I love her. If we love God, do we not desire the same thing?  We should desire to know Him and relate to Him—not just on a surface level but to the depths of who we are.

Many of us choose to allow the name of God to be nothing in our lives because we choose to limit our understanding of God. God will only be as big as your beliefs and your theology.  Your theology limits your worship of Him.

Demonstrate in All Ways that God Is #1

I like to examine both the positive side of a command and the negative side.  In his book on the Lord’s Prayer, Ray Pritchard says there are many things we do in the twenty-first century that don’t hallow the name of God. He says:

God’s name is not hallowed when…
Over a million babies are killed through abortion every year in America.
Crack cocaine is sold like candy on the street corners.
Homosexuality is celebrated as a “natural” and “normal” way of life.
The divorce rate nearly equals the marriage rate.
We laugh and giggle at sex on TV when instead we ought to blush.
God’s people think nothing of attending filthy movies.
We take God’s name in vain and laugh at dirty jokes.
We cheat on our income tax and joke about it.
We expect our leaders to lie and are surprised when they don’t.
Spiritual leaders fall into sin and our hearts are not broken.
Christians keep quiet in order to avoid persecution on the job.
We secretly envy sinners who do things we are forbidden to do.
The Bible has become a closed book and prayer a heavy burden.
We tithe to the mortgage company instead of to the Lord.
Christian teenagers are encouraged not to consider missionary service.
We value the approval of others more than the approval of God.
Social drinking is winked at, and the standards of yesteryear derided as legalism.
We gossip about the sins of others instead of mourning over our own sins.
We criticize our brothers and sisters for failing to live up to our own expectations.
We hold grudges for days, weeks, months and-God knows!-even years.

The Lord’s Prayer is a high standard. Commentator Helmut Thielickesays, “You have not learned to pray the Lord’s Prayer unless you pray it against yourself.”  In other words we have to pray against our own tendencies to elevate self and instead lift high the name of God.  When we pray, “Hallowed be Thy name,” we can’t say, “Hallowed be Your name but not in my business, my finances, my leisure, my friendships, my sex life, my thought life, my speech, my desires, my plans, my schedules or my priorities. God, You have all of it—but You can’t touch any of it.”  To do so is not to hallow the name of God but to sin and rebel against His Spirit. So we must decide if we are going to affirm the preeminence of God in our lives.

 

3. Accepting the Program of God

Once we affirm God’s preeminence, Jesus says we will then pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It means we will accept the plans of God with open hands.  Far too many of us are struggling with the things of God because we don’t see Him as sovereign and good.  Job was able to say, “The Lordgave, and the Lordhas taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).  He was saying, “It’s Your will, God.  It’s Your plan, Your kingdom.  Do as You will even if it means I have to take some losses in this life.  I’m willing to do so with praise in my heart.”

When we ask for the kingdom of God to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, Jesus is expecting us not to just pray for the small things.  The ushering in of God’s kingdom is no small task.

When we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done,” it is a cry of conviction. “Come kingdom of God! Come will of God!” We are yearning for the kingdom, will and plans of God to come so that He may be glorified. Even if it means we have to change who we are, we will do all that we can to be in the center of God’s will, His plan and His kingdom.

That involves seeing God at work in four different areas.

This Involves Seeing God at Work Personally

What do God’s will and kingdom look like in your life? It means you will be satisfied solely in Him.  John Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Do you want to understand what God’s will is for your life?  His will is that you would be totally satisfied, that you would taste and see that He is truly good. 

It also means that you are fully sanctified. Each day you ought to be endeavoring to become like Christ, to be filled by His Spirit.  You should be striving to turn away from sin and ungodliness and put your life in His hands.  God’s will and plan lead to us being fully secure.  Just like the prodigal son, nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ.  That which He saved, He protects until He calls us home.

This Involves Seeing God at Work Corporately

There is a will and plan in God’s kingdom for us corporately as the church.  The Bible says God’s kingdom is not a matter of talk but a matter of power and He demands that His church be a place of power.  God’s will for His church is that we would exalt the name of Jesus together, encourage the timid, exhort the wayward, equip the saints and evangelize the lost all while knowing that the gates of hell shall never be able to take it away from us. 

This Involves Seeing God at Work Globally

So if God is for us, Who in the world can be against us?  God’s kingdom is to be seen globally.  We are to take the gospel to the four corners of the world so that from every tribe, tongue and nation, God will make a people unto Himself.  On the day of God’s choosing, all the people of this world will one day bow the knee and praise the name that is above every other name, the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:9-11).

This Involves Seeing God at Work Celestially

God has a plan celestially, too. He is going to bring this earth, this solar system, this galaxy, and the many galaxies that no human eye can see—every star and every molecule—all together one day.  At the culmination of all things, this God Who is in heaven—Whose name is to be hallowed—will call for all of His creation to praise His name. In one celestial voice and in one moment all will be called upon to celebrate the glory of God in one eternal crescendo. Glory be to the name of the Lord when that happens!  Then God will say to His Son, “Rest your foot on the footstool of the universe.”  At that time we will praise the name of Jesus in one voice forevermore.

I’ve learned a lot about prayer this week and I hope you have too.  I’ve learned that my self-righteousness and self-reliance are sin.  I’ve learned that I need to depend on the only God Who has the answers, the God Who has invited me to pray and the Son Who has taught me how to pray.  I must let that prayer burn deep within me so that I might pray as God intended. I must buy into that prayer by believing and trusting in faith that all God says is true and that He is able to hear and answer all my prayers.  As I do these things I bring glory and praise to the God Who deserves it.

Let us live lives of prayer.  Dedicate yourself to the God of the universe. Believe Who He is and live by that belief so that you might not only pray the right prayers but also live the right prayer—the Lord’s Prayer.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we come before You and we’ve learned much about Who You are through how You modeled prayer.  You have shown us how to encounter our Father in heaven. Let us set apart God as number one in our words and deeds.  Let us not only do it in the pews of this church on a Sunday, but let us also do it every day of every week in every place.  Let us do this because we know that Your plans cannot be thwarted. Your plans will be brought to fruition. On that great day of the culmination of human history, all eyes will be on You, all knees will be bowed and every tongue will confess that You are the Lord.  You have revealed this truth by Your Spirit so let us live by this truth so that Your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven by the angels and saints of old.  Let us live with You being number one in our lives.  Let us pray and live in that way so that we may glorify You.

Jesus, send us forth from this place now with Your Spirit empowering us so that we may be salt and light in the world. Help us show the world what it’s like to live in relationship with the Alpha and Omega and to be the children of the most high God.  We love You and we give You all the praise for this service.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

 

Village Bible Church |  847 North State Route 47, Sugar Grove, IL 60554  |  (630) 466-7198 |  http://www.villagebible.org/sugar-grove/resources/sermons

All Scriptures quoted directly from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted. 

Note: This transcription has been provided by Sermon Transcribers (www.sermontranscribers.net