Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Lord's Prayer Part I - Talking to the Father about the Father, Part 13 of 50

TEXT: "In this manner, therefore, pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name'” (Matthew 6:9).

IDEA: God, whom we address as Abba, is also our Father in heaven.

PURPOSE: To help listeners realize who their heavenly Father really is.

How do you respond when someone prays to God in language that seems much too familiar?

“I love to talk to my big daddy upstairs.”

“When I think of God, I talk to him as my ‘great big papa.’”

Do you hear young people talk about their fathers in ways that make you cringe?

I. Do people have any biblical reasons to pray that way?

The Lord’s Prayer encourages us to speak to God as Abba. Why? Do we have privileged access to God?

Is our access to God exactly the same as Jesus’ access to God?

Jesus speaks to God as “my Father” 14 more times in Matthew in a way that seems to exclude others from that special relationship.

Jesus never speaks to God as “Our Father” in the way He teaches His disciples to pray.

How much of the way you and I speak with God grows out of our own backgrounds?

Does motive have anything to do with it? A student who had just graduated from seminary in the morning met me in the early afternoon and called me “Haddon.” What might have been his motive for doing that?

II. Do we have reason not to speak in too familiar a way with God?

What is involved in praying “Our Father who is in heaven”? In well over half of the references to “your father” in Matthew’s gospel the words “in heaven” or “heavenly” is added.

God is to be approached with the attitude of trust a child has in a good father, but also he is to be approached with reverence and respect as the Father in heaven who is all-powerful and sovereign.