The Father's Character & Kingdom

So simple a child can do it, literally almost before you can speak, you just sort of do this.

Yet, the most profound and mysterious and complex thing we could ever imagine, prayer, would you agree?

Prayer, it's just so simple, yet incredibly complex, communing with a being who is eternal and all-powerful and all-knowing and everywhere present, as a being whose glory outshines the most magnificent scene we could ever see in creation.

Talking to God, prayer.

Listening to God, complaining to God, asking God, praising God as Father, our Father.

So, this morning, we begin a three-week series in The Lord's Prayer, and Lord willing, we will cover, today, the Father's character and kingdom.

Next week, Ben will be preaching on the Father's provision and forgiveness, and then the third week, the Father's guidance and protection.

What is your experience of prayer?

I have found that I go through seasons of prayer and a greater sense of revelation and even commitment.

Would anyone else agree that sometimes, sometimes it feels a little dry?

Anyone else?

Prayer is, I think it's fair to say, hard, easy at times, but it's a complex thing that we engage in.

Well, we're studying the Lord's Prayer, and it comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the greatest teaching that any human being ever gave.

And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches about the kingdom of God, his, really, his favourite topic.

And so it would make sense that he starts out the Lord's Prayer talking about this, the kingdom of God.

I'd like to start in chapter 6, 5 to 10.

Actually, chapter 6, verse 1, we're gonna get to 5 to 10.

So, we're gonna think about what Jesus teaches about prayer, about God, and about the kingdom.

So, in those three sections, what does he teach about prayer, about God, about the kingdom?

But the lead up to the Lord's Prayer is from verse 1 of chapter 6, where Jesus says, Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others.

To be seen by them, if you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven.

So, when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others.

Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Jesus has been watching people for a really long time as the word of God.

And he's noticed that people, no matter when they live in history, people love to impress people.

Human beings have this problem.

They want to feel a little bit puffed up, and they think that they will get that affirmation most powerfully from other people.

They want to impress others.

At least this is very common.

The Apostle Paul talks about this desire in Colossians 3 22.

And it's a really interesting Greek word, ofthalmedulia, eye service.

Eye service.

Doing things for the eye approval of others.

Now, so Jesus has just taught not to give to the needy in a way that is seeking the approval of others.

To do it carefully and in a way that is secret, because God the Father wants to acknowledge that and reward you and honour you for what you do that comes from the heart and is done in secret.

And so this theme is kept rolling as he teaches about prayer.

So giving, do it in a way that's not looking for attention.

And the same thing is true with prayer.

When you pray, Jesus says, don't be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.

Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen, then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

So let's think what Jesus teaches about prayer.

Prayer, first idea.

Prayer is not a performance.

Prayer is not a performance.

For a Jew of the first century to demonstrate piety, you would pray.

The pious prays.

And so there's a sense of being affirmed by the community to let others know that you are that pious Jew.

And so commonly, people would pray three times per day, morning, afternoon, and evening.

Of course, that's what Daniel was doing back in Babylon.

So some people would find themselves in a place where they could be noticed, and that's okay.

But others are doing it to push for this approval in the synagogue and on the street corner.

The inner motivation is this same idea, ofthal medulia, I service.

Why is it that we are so needy as human beings?

We go out of our way to impress people that, let's face it, often we don't care that much about.

We spend a lot of money so that we look good in front of others who maybe we don't really even know.

But it's something that we struggle with as human beings.

Prayer is not a performance, but in Christian community, it feels like it is sometimes.

Courtney, did you feel the pressure of writing a good prayer today?

I thought you did.

You did.

You wrote an amazing prayer.

But it's an interesting idea, isn't it?

We want to do a good job.

I want to do a good job preaching, but it's not a performance, but sort of it's something that you've prepared and you're speaking out publicly in front of others.

And so it's a little bit hard.

Sometimes you can get caught up in prayer being a bit of a performance.

Has anyone borked at praying in a small group because you're like, I hope this goes OK?

I saw a few nods.

Yet we want to get, thank you Kerry, we want to get to the place where prayer is not a performance at all.

I remember the first church that I was on staff at, excuse me, one of the guys had this lovely way of praying in King James language.

Everything else was normal until you started to pray.

And then, oh, holy father, thou, thy, thou, thy.

And it sounded cool.

But prayer over the years is something that becomes a performance very easily, would you agree?

And so I don't want to sort of pick on any style, but we just know it.

I think it's fair to say, when you use the name of Jesus, and with all due respect to the Lord, Jesus.

And then go around the...

It can be a performance.

And I was chipped on this years ago.

Not that I was walking around, but I was just praying in a church that we were at, and I had my eyes shut and I was using my hands.

And a very conservative brother came up and said, do you have to use your hands when you're praying?

It's not a performance.

Okay, I'll do my best.

Clasp the hands.

So that's certainly something that Jesus says.

Prayer is not a performance.

And secondly, it's not a magical incantation.

When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Some of the men are doing a Daily Sevens devotions study of the kings of Israel.

And recently we came across Elijah, and when he had that showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, and they're praying to either the one true living God or the multiple gods of the Baal worshipers.

And they're praying for God or gods to send fire on the sacrifice.

And we read in 1 Kings 18, the prophets of Baal continued from morning until noon, crying out, cutting themselves, babbling constantly in a magical incantation, saying the same thing over and over again.

Jesus says, you don't need to do that.

Isn't that good to know?

You don't need to do that.

I think we can easily get into the habit of just, if I could just fill enough sound with words, and say sort of the same thing over and over again.

Maybe that would manipulate God, but clearly Jesus is just saying, excuse me.

It's not impressed or moved by babbling and manipulating magical incantations.

About prayer, the third idea we see here that Jesus tells us, is prayer is a dynamic of request.

Do not be like them, for your prayer, your father, knows what you need before you ask him.

Jesus is expecting, in this great example of prayer, that we will be asking God for what we need.

But he knows that, and he's absolutely fine about us asking.

And this links nicely to what Jesus teaches in chapter 7, where he says in verse 7, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened, for everyone who asks receives the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks the door will be opened.

Jesus is not here saying that God will give us everything we ask for, but he's encouraging us to ask.

Because the kingdom of God is about asking.

The way the world is designed is designed to run on the dynamic of request.

And people or God will either deny your request, and my request, or they will accept it.

People can always be influenced.

That's what the Bible teaches.

The key to kingdom relationships is such, or is that such direction is neither manipulative or controlling.

It comes from simply asking.

Would you agree?

Did you know that asking is the great law of the spiritual world through which things are accomplished in cooperation with God and yet in harmony with the freedom and worth of every individual.

This stuff is actually incredibly profound and so important.

As Delos Willard said, I'm going to read a quote, which I hope is up on the screen.

When I ask someone to do or to be or to give something, I stand with that person in the domain of a constraint without force or necessitation.

We are together in the asking.

A request by its very nature unites.

A demand by contrast immediately separates.

I came across that years ago and it's always struck me as, I'm not sure many of us get that.

That we're meant to ask people for what we need.

Because when you ask and you don't push them, manipulate them, be passively aggressive, maybe, and sort of steer them without being up front, you're trying to control them.

But when you're up front and you just ask, you stand with them and you say, what do you reckon?

There's an issue?

Could we solve it together?

You're allowed to say no.

There is power in asking.

And I've mentioned this before, but consider the power your dog wields when it sits looking at your sandwich.

There's power, isn't it, in someone saying could you please?

So asking is the way things are designed to be built around in the kingdom.

And the question is, can we ask God for anything?

And what do you reckon the answer is?

The answer is yes.

And he won't always say yes.

Maybe he'll say no.

But in asking, what does it do?

It brings you and I honestly into God's presence in relationship.

And that's only good.

That's why this is so important that Jesus talks about it in the Lord's Prayer.

Ask.

Ask.

Talk to God for all the things that you need.

And he'll steer you towards what he wants to give you.

And you need to receive.

So that's some of the thoughts that Jesus gives us about prayer.

What about God with regard to prayer?

Well, about God, Jesus says, Our Father.

And we get used to that, don't we?

Our Father.

Which is strange because Jesus has just made the point that we should go into our closets and sort of pray by ourselves.

But here he says, well, you do it without performance, but pray knowing that you belong to a family.

And this is what will be completed in the full work of Jesus when the church is established through the full life, death and resurrection, where we are filled with the Spirit by faith in Christ and we know we are children of God and we have a father in heaven.

But he's anticipating that saying, pray our father.

He doesn't say our creator.

Isn't that interesting?

In this great prayer, he doesn't say our God, our boss, our redeemer, our sustainer, our controller, our ruler, our master, our commander.

He says our father.

Isn't that a wonderful truth?

This is how you should pray.

You feel a bit guilty.

Our policeman, our judge.

You go to that judge who's so ready to...

No, no, he's a father.

You come to him in relationship through me.

Our Abba, our daddy.

Jesus is the only one who truly is the son of God, yet through faith in Christ, we are invited to come and say our father.

And our father, importantly, is not just here with us like a normal father.

He is with us, so close.

He's above us, but he's in a different realm.

So Jesus teaches our father in heaven.

The heavens are described in scripture as being in the air, the sky, but it's actually more so here, present with us.

When we think of the heavens, often you think up there, don't you?

Somewhere in the clouds.

But biblically, the heavens is the realm of where God is, and it's here.

That's why Jesus in his 40 days after the resurrection could come in and out of being visible.

Makes sense, doesn't it?

He's sort of going through the portal of this realm into the supernatural realm.

The kingdom of the heavens is both in the spirit and here in the flesh.

But there's an idea of the heavens are right there.

Jesus was able to go, I see thousands of angels right there.

They're there.

So it's not a long way away.

The idea of the heavens.

And so when Jesus says, pray to your father who is in heaven, he's right there with us.

But he's in a space that is eternal.

So from that place of eternality, he has all of time to answer your last minute prayer.

Does that make sense?

So the heavens are right here and God's in it and it's eternal.

So he's outside of the constraint of time.

And so we say, Lord, I don't know how you'll do it, but could you answer this prayer?

And he's like, I've got you covered.

I'm a father who is in heaven in eternity and I've got all eternity to answer your last minute prayer.

I think that's a wonderful truth.

We pray to our father who is close yet in the heavens, who is all powerful.

And what Jesus wants us to have top of mind when we come into this relationship of prayer is his name is holy.

Our father hallowed be your name.

The purpose of hallowing a name is the name in the first century and around that time signifies the person.

He is holy.

And we pray that God might be set apart, sanctified in our midst.

He is holy among all people in all of his actions.

He should be treated with the highest honor.

And this is in essence an extrapolation from the first three commandments, isn't it?

If we go back to Exodus 20, you shall have no other gods before me, Jesus said to the people of Israel, you shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything.

You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

There are three commands that are all about the hallowed name of Yahweh.

And if you know anything about the history of the people of Israel, they found that they believed and they were so challenged by the holiness of their God, they often didn't act that out in the right ways because of sin and idolatry, but they would just whisper the name of Yahweh.

They would say Yahweh, because it was such a holy name.

The name of the one true living God is holy.

And Jesus is reminding us that we need to be reminded of that.

Amen?

When we come to him, we come confidently because he's our father who is in heaven.

Yes, powerful, eternal and also holy.

His name is to be hallowed.

So that means that, you know, when he's answering the prayer, it's always holy.

Amen?

What does that mean?

Holy is perfect.

So it's perfectly righteous.

He's holy.

He never stops being holy.

A holy, eternal being like our God has holy timing.

Amen?

There's not much agreement in this room, Lord.

I'm doing my best.

I'm asking for us, so be it.

But you just think about it.

What does it mean that he is hallowed?

He's holy.

He is holy in all of his punishment or discipline.

As a great father, in fact, a perfect father who disciplines his kids.

He's pristinely correct.

He cannot sin.

And that's a great thing for us to know.

We don't need to make him holy, do we?

Hallowed be your name, as though we're just pushing up your holiness.

We're all helping.

Jesus is just so aware.

Our memory is terrible as human beings.

We forget the goodness of God, and we forget the deceitfulness of the enemy.

We forget the good stuff and the bad stuff.

And Jesus is simply saying, you should remember that your God is holy.

His name is holy.

So we are told clearly, don't misuse the name in any way to say God.

That's not the way we should live because His name is holy.

Amen.

It's not a cuss word.

It's not like as the Americans would say, it's just not a name to be used in any other way other than with great reverence because His name is holy.

And we accept as Christians, we accept sacrifice and hardship, we carry a cross for the honor of God's great name, ultimately expressed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

And when we worship together, are you filled with the desire to express to God that His name is holy?

I think it's really easy to walk into this room and forget that we think as Christians, we are worshiping the living God who is holy.

And you think, I'm sure you do every now and then, when you come into the presence of something of great honor, your posture matters because I don't get to live my spiritual Christianity out of anything other than this body, do you?

Do you get to do it?

This is not a throwaway thing.

This is all I've got.

I don't live over there.

My spirit doesn't live over there.

It's here.

So if I want to express honor to the one who is holy, for me, I often, my right hand shakes a bit sometimes, so it's hard to raise it.

But I go like that as a salute of honor.

Some of us receive, don't we, with our hands?

You can worship anyway you want.

But if you ever wonder why would someone raise a hand?

It's because Paul says, I want you to lift holy hands in prayer.

And it's a sense of surrender.

Surrender to the goodness and the holiness, the glory of God.

That's what Jesus teaches about God.

And then he teaches about the kingdom.

He says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Thank you to the band for playing that song for us.

It was so nice to sit in the words of the Lord's Prayer.

The whole sermon on the mount is about the kingdom of heaven.

Which is the same thing as the kingdom of God.

There's no difference.

The kingdom of God is the reach of God's effective will.

What do you think about that as a definition?

The reach of God's effective will.

It sounds like it's not big enough.

Doesn't he have, isn't his effective will anywhere he wants it to be?

What do you reckon?

May your kingdom come.

I think this part of the beginning of the Lord's Prayer is reminding us your will needs to be submitted to the greater will.

It's what Jesus prayed, isn't it, at the garden before the cross?

We are invited to pray for the kingdom reign of God to be manifest around us and through us and amongst us.

And what does it look like?

This kingdom?

It's clear if you know the sermon on the mount, the Beatitudes beautifully describe the kingdom come.

We are meant to pray.

May your kingdom come.

And when the kingdom of God comes in power, poor and blind are accepted, the Beatitudes.

The hungry and thirsty are filled because where the king is allowed to reign, he brings his good rule, amen?

The kingdom of God comes in power.

And the kingdom of God is an upside down kingdom.

The last are first and the first are last, and the greatest is the servant of all.

And when the kingdom comes, I think this is so important, the teachings of Jesus from his sermon on the mount are followed because it's about how to live in the kingdom, isn't it?

So you imagine the kingdom coming in power means people by God's grace release others who are in their box of contempt, because that's what we learnt in the sermon on the mount.

We're not holding on to anger because by grace, and remember grace is not just something passive, Titus 2.11 says, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people.

It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions.

So, it's the grace of God that is enabling us to live kingdom lives.

And so, inappropriate worldly passions means inappropriate lustful desire is being restrained as the kingdom comes in power.

Cheeks get turned when the kingdom comes in power.

And kindness overwhelms violence.

Burdens are carried for others an extra mile when the kingdom comes.

Amen?

Where the reign of God is manifest.

God the Father is generous to his core.

He is so kind, loving, gracious, and patient when his kingdom comes.

When life is the way he designed it to be, enemies are loved, aren't they?

Oaths are kept because words matter, as does character.

Jesus says, You should pray.

You should pray in this, that is called the Lord's Prayer, but really it's called the Disciples Prayer, probably, isn't it?

Well, he prayed it himself, and he is a disciple of his father.

Jesus says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is a statement of the obvious.

When the will of God is done on earth, the will that is from heaven, in heaven, there's no power of contrary choice.

When that will comes here, we are living in submission, giving over our power of contrary choice to be obedient children following our father.

Does that make sense?

That's what it is.

With the will of the father, in heaven, where everything is perfect, and there isn't people, you know, rebels, no power of contrary choice, and he's saying you can live like that here as you allow the spirit, Romans 8, to control your mind and heart, which is life and peace.

Our father, Jesus says, in heaven, holy is your name.

Your kingdom come, your glorious reign on earth, just like it is in heaven, your will be done here.

Meticulous Providence is an idea that God's will always just gets done.

And some people, you might be a believer in that here, and that's fantastic.

It's massively high sovereignty of God.

And people tend to be like, you know, we don't need to do too much because God's in charge, and, you know, hey, he's the sovereign ruler.

It's an odd thing that Jesus says, you pray that his will be done.

You pray for his kingdom come.

He is in a macro level gonna get what he wants done in the history of this world.

The father is gonna bring it all together under the son.

But there is a mysterious union of our involvement demonstrated from this simple prayer, may your will be done through me, through us, on earth, here, in this little location, as it is in heaven.

So I wonder how many of us pray the Lord's Prayer regularly?

You don't have to raise hands or anything, but how many of us pray the Lord's Prayer regularly?

I go through seasons, like I said, where I pray it every single day, but I don't always pray it every single day.

I find it really helpful.

What I tend to do is I pray this idea, the Father's character and the Father's kingdom, pray for it to come and the Father's provision and the Father's forgiveness to be known and experienced, the Father's guidance to be received and followed by those I interact with and in my own life and my family, the Father's protection to be provided and appropriated.

How about you?

Do you pray the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray?

Isn't that a silly question to ask a bunch of Christians?

But I'm almost certain not many of us would say, I just assumed that he's the smartest person who ever lived, so when he said, you should pray like this, I just do it.

There aren't that, we don't have enough primary school concrete relation, concrete relational people in the world as adults, do we?

We go, maybe, Jesus, does he know what he's talking about?

I don't feel like it.

And Jesus, they're going, pray that way.

You can pray in other ways, pray that way.

Why, Lord?

It will go well for you.

That's a good way to pray.

So, Neville Ridley Smith got me onto an app called DBTC.

Did you break the chain?

DBTC.

Anyone come across that app?

DBTC.

It's a free app.

DBTC.

Did you break the chain?

It is a really helpful app, because all it does is you set up in it what you want to do every day.

And I want to ask you, apparently, there's a dynamic of request that is how the kingdom runs.

So, I'm just going to ask you to consider in October, praying the Lord's Prayer morning, noon, and night.

There's no devotion that goes with it.

There's no big teaching or anything.

It's just in the midst of all of your other prayers and all the things you do in your spiritual formation.

And we're not going to have a WhatsApp group.

That's one good thing.

I'm just encouraging you to, together as a church, why don't we do what Jesus said?

Pray morning, noon, and night, the Lord's Prayer.

And I think this idea of the Father's character, kingdom, provision, forgiveness, guidance, protection is helpful.

But I wonder what might happen.

And it's not because it's magical.

It's just good sense to do what Jesus suggests.

And we'll just see if we learn about prayer.

Because if there's one thing that we haven't got quite sorted at this church, I don't think we've got prayer sorted.

Individuals do.

But we're just caught up in the busyness of stuff.

And so we've got some work to do, I think, together to get better at praying the way the Lord wants us to pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, Jesus said.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today 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 the evil one.

Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for your prayer that you taught the disciples.

And as a church, we would love to, in the next couple of weeks, in the next month, move more deeply into how powerful that prayer you taught us to pray is.

Lord, we're sorry where we have been neglectful of prayer.

Lord, we confess, we find it easy to get carried off in other directions and distracted.

Thank you Lord Jesus for the Lord's Prayer.

We need your instruction as a church.

I thank you Lord that, Lord God, you are our Father.

You are all-powerful in the heavens, and your kingdom is so good, and your will is so pure and holy, and so wonderful for our lives and our communities and our world.

May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And all the people said.

Amen.

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