Our Father in Heaven

The Lord’s Prayer is where we learn how Jesus prays. Every Rabbi or teacher had a prayer. So when the disciples ask teach us to pray what they really mean is teach us your prayer so we can pray it as well.

So this prayer simultaneously teaches us three things, how to pray, what to pray, and maybe most importantly, what is on God’s heart.

We have to understand that the Lord’s Prayer is pivotal to most of church history. This prayer has been recited all over the world billions of times. For many Christian’s it has been recited multiple times a day every day for their whole lives. It was said in good times to remind them of their reliance on God, it was said in difficult times to remind them to trust in the character and faithfulness of God. It is the easiest, most honest, fullest way to pray to God. Pray this prayer earnestly, listening to every word, several times a day and if nothing else is done, you will be on a good track.

’Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name is the part of Jesus’ prayer that we are going to read today.

But I want to give you a different translation that is a bit easier to understand.

“Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

That's it! That's all we are going to focus on today! Easy right? Thats like hearing you have homework and then you just have to sign your name and Turn it in and you’re done!

But it isn’t that easy. Because if this simple, small, overlooked sentence is understood fully? It changes everything. Everything.

Jesus, in these few words, is showing us, how we are to view God. God as father. Do you know how crazy of a statement that is? There is no other religion or faith where you are meant to have such a close relationship with God, with the creator. It changes everything

So here is the great big thing. If God is our father, that means what? That we are his children!

I want to flip to two passages elsewhere in the Bible to begin to get a grasp on just how crazy this idea of God being father is.

Starting in 1 John 3 “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

Even if you do not recognize it the world recognizes it. If you call yourself Christian’s, if you recite that creed, read that prayer, sing that worship, you are a child of God.

The letter to Galatia by Paul says the same thing in chapter 4 verse 6-7 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Time and time again we see in scripture this message. You are not just servants. You are not just created beings. You were created with a purpose, and that purpose was to become children of God. To go from outsiders, cast out of the garden, not apart of Gods family or inner circle, to be brought in, to become apart of his family…

.What a wonderful, amazing thing, right. Think about all of the benefits that an heir, a descendant of God receives. Why be a servant or a worker when you can be a child, an heir.

But, here’s the kicker., we do not just get the benefits of having a loving father. We don’t get to be a bunch of trust fund babies who mooch off of the father living the good life but doing nothing else of value.

We have the accountability and the responsibility of being children of the one true king. You are princes, you are princesses, you are heirs.. to the kingdom of God. You are divine royalty! But now you stand for something. Are you starting to understand? Are you getting the picture?

You share the same last name. To be christian is to be LITTLE CHRISTS. You are God's children, ambassadors to the kingdom of God,, you are his heirs here on earth.

So how you live, how you speak, how you raise your family, how you treat your workers, it all reflects back on him.. you share the last name. There is no getting away from it. Well now, instead of excited, I am a bit afraid.

Isn’t this how all things go? I want all the benefits, but I don’t want the responsibilities! I want to have a child who loves me, cares for me when i'm old, gives me hugs when i'm overwhelmed and helps out with chores, but i dont want to change diapers, discipline them when they are bad, or pay for college.

Can’t I have one but not the other? Of course not. To be brought into the family is to be brought into the family. You do not get to share in the spoils of being apart of Gods family without the expectations of being apart of the family.

But.. there’s another thing to remember, another implication that has to be shared.

If our father is in Heaven, if his kingdom is somewhere else, it is a reminder his children are only here temporarily. This is not their home. If that is true, if they are children of a different kingdom, their allegiance and their citizenship is somewhere else. You can serve only one kingdom. You can only be heirs of one kingdom.

When Jesus is being tempted by Satan in Luke 4 He takes Jesus up to the highest mountain overlooking all of Israel. He looks Jesus in his eyes and says, worship me and I will give you all of this. Everything you can see, everything on the horizon, is yours. (Luke 4:1-13

What an inheritance. What a promise. But.. Jesus recognizes his allegiance is to a different kingdom. A different king. And his kingdom is much much bigger.

Are you living your life in such a way that reflects the kingdom of God. Or some other kingdom? A kingdom of power, pride, and fame. A kingdom of money and wealth and consumerism. A kingdom of fill in the blank of your greatest desire.

But there's one last part we haven’t discussed. ? Well, it all goes together. let your name be made holy, implies the name is not currently holy.

His name is being diminished, ridiculed, and misunderstood. We like to think it’s those on the outside. But God does not need lawyers and defenders. His name is not diminished by those on the outside, it is diminished by those wearing the name.

When people hear the word Christian, many people shake their head. They scoff, they mock, they get.. angry. Because we have not done a good job of representing God. Look at the news for the church throughout history, or just in the country. You will see a lot of good. You will.

But you are also going to see a lot of hypocritical living, lying, fear mongering, And deception. Some of you here today likely have church trauma and hurt. Someone i met just today who I invited said he grew up in the church and was hurt a lot and can’t go back.

Church attendance has fallen off a cliff and one of the leading reasons is exactly that. People have looked at the church and the people inside of it and they have been hurt.

You are going to see a lot of manipulation. There's so much division in the church we have hundreds or thousands of denominations, we have denominational splits inside of denominations. We fight and bicker over the smallest of things and split the church, and fire the pastor, and mock the worship leader… all in the name of Jesus.

There’s A lot Of being on the wrong side of history.

It is awfully hard to talk to people about Christ because they can’t get past their image of Christians. this is why there is quote often attributed to Gandhi that says, ”I love your Christ, but hate your Christians.”

So the world looks at Christians and often sees people unable to bind their tongue who are sometimes prone to violence, hateful, love to name call, hypocritical gossips that do not apply their own Scriptures rules. Lets call it as it is, oftentimes the church looks way too much like the world and way too little like God.

The church I grew up in as a kid had some great people. It also had some divisive hypocritical people hellbent on destroying the church.

But when you live in a fallen world with fallen people thats a part of the experience isn’t? So right now we can’t worry about them, and whether that church represents Christ well or if that person does.

The only question that really matters, the only person we can truly judge, is ourselves. So Are we following In the ways of God?

Jesus said if you love me, you will do what I command.

God says Be holy because I am holy. Be compassionate because I am compassionate.

You see my friends, It is an easy prayer to say. It is a much harder thing to put into practice. It is easy for us to say we are christians. That we believe in the kingdom of God. but it takes accountability, discipleship, spiritual formation, discipline, and community to actually do it. We have a long ways to go, but together we can actually live out being citizens of heaven.