The Lord's Prayer

If you have your bibles, open them to Matthew 6.

From the beginning of the Book of Genesis through the end of the Book of Revelation, Jesus’ primary purpose is clear: redemption. He came—fully God and fully Man—to live a perfect life and carry Man’s sin to the cross. Through His death and resurrection, He redeemed forever those who would put their faith in Him as the substitute bearer of their sin. His work alone reconciles us to God forever. This is of utmost importance, because Jesus’ death and resurrection is what gives us kingdom authority and power in our prayer lives.

One thing that comes out very clearly in the pages of Scripture is the fact that prayer can dramatically change situations, people, and sometimes even the very course of nature. It's been said, if you're swept off your feet, it's time to get on your knees. But listen, the thing that prayer changes the most is “you.” You change when you pray. 

The objective of prayer is not to change God or to get Him to do something different. The objective of prayer is to align yourself with the will and the purposes of God. But God will allow hardship and challenge and need and sometimes even tragedy. So He can reveal Himself to us. So He can put His power and glory on display. So He allows things to happen in our life. So we will turn to Him in prayer.

Why pray? Because we're weak. And maybe that's one of the reasons some of us don't pray more. We don't know that yet. We think we're so strong, we're so resourceful and that we usually regard prayer as a last resort. “Well, I've tried this. I've called all my contacts. I've pretty much done everything I can do. I guess all I can do now is pray.” When in reality, the first thing you should have done was pray and ask the Lord for His help, His direction, and even His provision.

But here's the interesting thing. When we see our own weakness, we have a greater glimpse of the strength of God. In fact, the weaker we see that we are, the greater we see that God really is. Paul put it this way. 2nd Corinthians 12:10: “I know it is for Christ good, and I'm content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  Paul was referring to the fact that he had this thorn in the flesh he asked God to remove. And the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for you. Paul said in so many words, “You know what? I'm OK with that. And I'll tell you why. Because when I'm weak, I'm strong because I see God's greatness in all of this. So if you are suffering, what should you do? You should pray.

If things are going really well, What? Again, you should pray. Because James 5:13 says, is any among you suffering? They should keep praying about it. And those that have reason to be thankful should continually sing praises to God.

The purpose of prayer is to glorify God’s name and to ask for help to accomplish His will on earth. This prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, begins with God’s interests, not ours: God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. It teaches us to put God first, then bring our needs. We should not ask God for anything that will dishonor His name, delay His kingdom, or disturb His will on earth. Every line uses “our” and “us”, not “me” or “mine.” This reminds us that prayer connects us to the whole family of God, not just ourselves.

If we put God’s concerns first, then we can bring our own needs. God is concerned about our needs and knows them even before we mention them (6:8). If this is the case, then why pray? Because prayer is the God-appointed way to have these needs met.

Let me read James 4:1-3 NKJV

[1] Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? [2] You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. [3] You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Prayer prepares us for the proper use of the answer. If we know our need, and if we voice it to God, trusting Him for His provision, then we will make better use of the answer than if God forced it on us without our asking.

So remember, no matter what state you're in, here's what you need to do, You need to pray. The example of prayer was Jesus himself. He would often spend long nights alone with the Father in prayer. So one day his disciples came to him and said, Lord teach us to pray. We want to pray like you Jesus. We want to understand what prayer really is. And he said after this manner. Therefore, you should pray. And it gave them what we call the Lord's Prayer or Disciples Prayer

The most familiar of all the praying which is associated with the Lord's name is that which we are focusing on, and that is the prayer we call the Lord's Prayer. Now I want to say at the outset that this cannot really be the Lord's Prayer because the Lord could never pray. forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are our debtors. We call it the Lord's Prayer because it is the prayer the Lord taught His disciples. In all reality, it is our prayer, or it's the disciples prayer.

As we introduce this prayer today, and as we think about some of the things the Lord said to introduce praying to us, it would be helpful to us if we would just pause for a moment and remember how very special this prayer is in our world today.

First of all, it is the earliest recollection of most every one of us as children. Maybe you remember when teachers would stand before their class in a public school and lead the class in the Lord's Prayer. We have come a long way, haven't we? And we've been going in the wrong direction.

The Lord's Prayer was known by almost every child, regardless of what their religious background might have been, for it was a part of our heritage. Often in weddings, the Lord's Prayer is either recited or it is sung. Very seldom do you officiate at a funeral or at a graveside service without the Lord's Prayer being a part of what happens there. I know some families that recited at meal time and others that say it before they go to bed at night.

Just 66 words in the King James version of this prayer, but ohh, how powerful and how wonderful these words have been.

We can pray a lot of prayers, and it is a good thing to be reminded that the disciples did not say., “Lord teach us a prayer.” They said. “Lord teach us to pray.” And the prayer is not something that we're just to say as they wrote prayer, but we'll get into that in a moment. But it is a pattern for praying and it is a wonderful outline for praying, and it has been given a great place in the history of the church.

Many of you understand that there's somewhat of a struggle with prayer for a lot of people. If I could be theological for a moment, there are two camps that have to do with the sovereignty of God. And let me try to explain this so that it's not complicated, because if it's complicated, I won't understand it. There are a group of people who followed in the train of John Calvin, and they're called Calvinists. Have you ever heard that word? Calvinists are really strong on the sovereignty of God. God is in charge. And then there's another group called the Armenians. Have you heard of those folks? Their followers of a man by the name of Arminius and they're very much into the free will of man. So you have the Calvinists and you have the Armenians. Well, the Calvinists believe that everything's up to God and nothing's up to man. Sometimes the Armenians believe that everything's up to man and hardly anything's up to God.

I read a story during this study that illustrates how some of these questions sometimes can even frustrate mature Christians. George Whitfield was a Calvinistic evangelist, John Wesley was an Armenian evangelist. And believe it or not, one time they were preaching together in a campaign. Rooming together in the same rooming house each night, actually staying in the same room. George Whitfield, the Calvinist and John Wesley the Armenian. After they had been preaching in this community for some time, they went back to their boarding house one night exhausted and we're preparing for bed and they were going to pray. Whitfield, the Calvinist prayed like this. Lord, we thank Thee for all those with whom we spoke today. And we rejoice that their lives and destinies are entirely in Thy hands. Honor our efforts according to your will. Amen. And he rose from his knees and got into bed. John Wesley, who had hardly gotten past the invocation in his prayer, looked up from the side of the bed and said, Mr. Redfield, is this where your Calvinism leads you? Then he put his head down and went on praying, and Whitfield stayed in bed and went to sleep. About two hours later Whitfield woke up and sure enough, there was Wesley still on his knees beside the bed. So Whitfield got up and went around the bed to where Whistley was kneeling, and when he got there he found out that John Wesley was asleep. And he shook him by the shoulder, and he said, Mr. Wesley, is this where your Armenianism leads you?

Somewhere between Calvinism and Armenianism is the real truth. And you know, there is no place in all of the Bible that puts that together better than the Lord's Prayer. For the Lord's Prayer is Thine is the glory, Thine is the power, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done. And in the middle is give us Our Daily Bread, forgive us our trespasses.

There isn't any conflict in the will of God. When we get to heaven someday. There's not going to be an Armenian part of heaven in a Calvinistic part of heaven, but the Lord's Prayer. Know what a balance it brings to all that we do and how we can learn not only to pray, but how we can learn about life by studying its words and following its pattern. It's found two places in the Bible, in Matthew Chapter 6 and in Luke Chapter 11, and through this series, we're studying it in the 6th chapter of the book of Matthew.

Hypocrites

Now before the Lord actually gives the prayer in the 6th chapter, he presents a couple of requirements.  And that we need to take care of these so that we understand that “the Lord said, after this manner, pray.” But then he said, “there's some things I want to tell you about prayer before you actually pray,” and the first thing he talks about is that our prayers must not be hypocritical. He actually uses the word hypocrite in the verse. Vs.5-6 “When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets. That they may be seen by men, and I tell you they have their reward.”

The day in which Jesus spoke these words, the Jewish Pharisees especially were committed to praying on the set hours of the clock.  Matthew 23:28 says, “Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”  It's not always true that what you see on the outside represents the reality of the person. Jesus wants us to know that it is not that we pray publicly that He cares about. Don't do this as the hypocrites do.  For hypocritical praying focuses not only on position, but hypocritical praying focuses on recognition instead of reward. You cannot impress God!

Folks, no man can at one and the same time be trying to impress men and be able to impress God. You can't do that and so Jesus warns us at the outset the prayer, the Lord's Prayer is not necessarily something we should fancy doing in public for attention. The Bible says that we are not to pray in that way.

But then the Lord adds another warning to us. He says don't pray like the “hypocrites do” and notice that the word hypocrite is in verse 5, but in verse 7 he said don't pray like the heathen do. Don't pray like the hypocrites and don't pray like the heathen. Well, that prompts another question. Do the heathen pray? Ohh yes they do. And Jesus describes one of the characteristics of heathen. It is vain repetition. It is coming to God as if we have to repeat over and over again the same kinds of words, almost like a spiritual Hindu song, for God to hear us. And it is possible for even evangelicals, maybe graduates of Christian colleges and Christian high schools, it is possible to fall into the vein of heathen praying.

Now in many churches, they have what they call a prayer book. And I am by no means saying anything against prayer books. Some of the greatest things you'll find are in some of the old, old prayer books that have come to us out of the history of the church. But a prayer book has a prewritten prayer. And if you get a good prayer book, you can get a prayer for anything your heart desires, any kind of occasion. Any kind of moment you will ever experience. So you just look in the index and find the prayer you want and open it up. And then you pray this prayer out loud. Now if the prayer represents the genuineness of your heart, then God will hear it and it will be acceptable to him. What He wants is a relationship with his people so that we come to him as we would come to a friend and we converse with him and it's meaningful in relationship.

Our prayer must not be heathen. Did you know that in Tibet there are over 1,000,000 who write their prayers down on paper and they use prayer machines and they put their little prayer requests in these prayer machines and they're like wheels and they turn around like sorta maybe like the Wheel of Fortune, they believe that every time the wheel passes in front of heaven that the prayers offered. So as many times as they can pass that wheel in front of heaven, that's another prayer and that's a vain repetition. That's the kind of thing we get into sometimes if we're not careful and Jesus warns against that.

One man has written that “one sentence burdened with a hearts desire is dearer to God than an hours rehearsing of words and phrases with no longing behind them.”

God wants our hearts and so these warnings are given by our Lord at the start of our prayer.

Now the interesting thing as you come to this prayer and we just want to kind of wet our appetites for it. As you come to this prayer, you begin to realize and dive into its meaning and you discover some great theology. I want you to look down at the prayer and notice the emphasis upon God in the first 3 petitions. Thy Kingdom, Thy name, Thy will. And then notice the second part of the prayer. And its emphasis upon the poverty of man. And I'm going to change the way the words are just so you can get the point. I want you to watch carefully in your Bibles and notice “us” give us daily bread. “us” forgive us, “us” lead us not into temptation, “us” deliver us from evil. In the first part of the prayer, it's thy thy thy. In the second part of the prayer, it's us us us. God has all the glory and all the power and all the majesty, and you and I have all the needs and all the wants and all the poverty. Isn't it great to come to a prayer where you can just say God I'm empty but ohh God, you're so full and you are my source and you're the one to whom I come. You are my father.

So here in this prayer is everything that we need to do when we pray. The Lord's Prayer is a model prayer.

1.  The prayer starts with praise. And the Bible tells us that we're to enter into the presence of God with praise and Thanksgiving. It says hallowed be thy name (depending on your translation). Basically, that means we come to God and the first thing we do is we honor him and we worship him and we praise him. How many of you know how easy it is to rush into the presence of God? And you got your grocery list and you're halfway down the list and all of a sudden you realize you haven't even said a good thing about God from the start of your prayer. I find that tendency because what motivates us, what drives us? The things we feel in our hearts, the needs. And God wants us to come first of all and open the prayer gate with worship and praise.

But I found that when I praise Him first. If you come to God with your long grocery list of needs and most of us have one, and you first do not see him high and lifted up in all of his greatness and power, you won't have the confidence in your prayer, which is what you should have. Make God big in your prayer before you do anything else.

Praise Him first and then after praise comes priorities. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What in the world would happen in your life if God's will was done on earth as it is in heaven? How is God's will done in heaven? Absolutely, perfectly, completely.

2.  And so it's a good thing, secondly, to just bring your life before him and say, Lord, here's my priorities and I've told you what my priorities are. I go over these over and over again.

I'm first of all a person before God and have a relationship with him. Then I'm a husband with my wife and I have a relationship with her. And then I'm a parent for my children and I have a relationship with them.  I’m a deacon and I direct our senior adult ministry and I have a relationship with you. The church is #4. We need to be #4 because my relationship is first with God, then with wife, then with my children, and then to the work.  Now what would happen in your life if every day you came to God and you said thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven in my relationship with you? And my relationship with wife and my relationship with my children and in my leadership and relationship in this church. Pray through your priorities.

3.  First of all, there's praise and then there's priorities, and then there's provision. How many of you have any needs? Give us this day Our Daily Bread. And some of you are thinking. There's two kinds of bread, Larry. Which kind are we talking about here? Both kinds. Whatever kind you need for this is a symbol of God's desire to meet our needs, His providing for us.

4.  Start with praise and then you work through your priorities and then you bring your needs. Notice you don't bring your needs until you focused on your priorities. And you focused on who God is, and then you talk about provision. And then when you get done with your provision, then you talk about personal relationships. And I want you to notice this. This is about forgiveness. But as we're going to see, this is the only part of the prayer that is repeated for emphasis later. Forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those who trespass against us. And when you get to the end of the prayer, it says if you don't do that, your Father in heaven won't forgive you either. I mean, it's an awesome thought that here in this prayer is the key to our relationships with each other as we pray through the prayer, as we follow this outline, we're praising God, we're sorting out our priorities, we're asking God for the provision that we need, the things we need in our life, and then we're talking about relationships. Lord, is there somebody in my life that I haven't forgiven? Because you said you want to forgive me in the same manner in which I forgive others, and so you deal with the relationship. Isn't life full of relationship challenges, friendships and sometimes family relationships and working relationships? (Humor) How many of you know that you could pray about relationships every day? And it would be helpful to you. Amen. It's right here in the outline.

5.  Now let's remember, you praise God, you deal with your priorities. You ask God for what you need, You talk about your personal relationships, and then you ask God for protection. Lord, lead me not into temptation. But deliver me from evil. Lord, protect me today. Do you know being a Christian today, it's like walking through a minefield every day. You know, you don't know what you're going to step on and if it's going to blow up in your face. You just need to ask God to help you not to walk in the path where evil is and you ask for his protection.

6.  And then it all ends where it began. Back in the throne room again for thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. The glory and the praise of God are the bookends of this prayer. And if you start with praise and you end with praise in between, everything you need you can bring to God following the outline of the Lord's prayer. Someone might say today, “I'm sure glad you got around to my prayer because this is something I'm “really into” the “Lord's Prayer.”  I've been saying the Lord's Prayer for as long as I can remember, and I'm glad we’re studying this. It's about time.

My prayer, the Lord's Prayer.  Is it really?

7.  Allow me to share these thoughts with you. And you do your own grading. You take the test, you keep your own score. Here it is.

a.  Can I say Our? - if my religion has no room for others in their need.

b. Can I say Father - if I do not demonstrate this relationship every day I live?

c.  Can I say who art in heaven - if all my interests and pursuits are on earth?

d. Can I say hallowed be thy name - if I, who am called by His name, am not holy?

e.  Can I say thy Kingdom come - if I am unwilling to give up my own sovereignty and accept the righteous reign of God?

f. Can I say thy will be done - if all I care about is my own will and I'm resentful of having it pushed on me in my life?

g. Can I say on earth as it is in heaven, - unless I am truly ready to give myself to serve Him on earth?

h.  Can I say, give us this day Our Daily Bread  - without expending honest effort for it or by ignoring the genuine needs of my fellow man?

i. Can I say, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us?  - if I continue to harbor a grudge against my neighbor.

j. Can I say, lead us not into temptation -  if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I'm likely to be tempted?

k.  Can I say deliver us from evil  - if I'm not prepared to fight in the spiritual realm with the weapon of prayer?

l. Can I say thine is the Kingdom - if I don't give the King the disciplined obedience of a loyal subject?

m.    Can I say thine is the power - if I fear what my friends and neighbors are going to say about what I do?

n.  Can I say thine is the glory - if I'm always looking to get praise for myself?

o. Can I say forever - if all I care about is today?

p. Can I say Amen - unless I honestly say cost what it may? God, this is my prayer.

Don't own this prayer my friends, just because you memorized it.  You will see that if we get gripped by this prayer, it will do more than give us something to say when we bow our heads, but it will cause us to walk in fellowship with God.

(Emphasis)

The most complete and powerful expression of man's submission to God is the Lord's Prayer.

Folks, you can't pray the Lord's Prayer if God is not your father. And you say, well, isn't everybody in the family of God? I'm afraid not. There are two families in the world. And if a person has never been born into God's family, if they've never trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, they are not a child of God and God is not their father. So they shouldn’t pray a prayer that doesn't belong to them. This prayer is for the people who have trusted Christ and are a part of the family of God through being born again, spiritually into his family. The door is always open.  The invitation is always at hand. Jesus loves us no matter our past. God desires a personal relationship with His children.

Only if time…

One occasion, Father Manning, a Catholic priest, was called late one night and asked if he could go to the hospital. And when he inquired about it, he was told that there was someone there who was very ill. They thought he might not make it through the night, and they didn't know who to call. He wasn't a Catholic, but could he come? And Father Manning went. When he got to the hospital, he found a man. In the hospital bed and there was a chair next to the bed. As he got acquainted with this man who was so seriously ill, the man said I had to talk to someone. I had to talk to some clergyman tonight because a few months back someone told me that if I really wanted to experience genuine prayer, if I really wanted to feel like I was talking with God and I was struggling with that, maybe what I should do is just set a chair up in my room and just believe in visualizing my own mind that God was there and talked to him. And he said, you know, people have been coming through the hospital and they think I'm crazy because I've been talking to God by the hour, especially in these last days. Sometimes I talked to him for two hours. And since, I began to realize that this is a conversation. A personal thing. I've just grown so much in my love and my fellowship. Is that all right? Is that all right, Father? He said, you know what, I think God would be honored by that. Honored that you wanted a personal, intimate relationship enough to really understand that what you were doing is what you should do. That God wants you to talk with him. He cares about you. He is not some person distant from you. He's close to you and he cares and he wants your intimate personal fellowship. And they prayed together, and Father Manning left. He came back and was not surprised to learn that this man had passed on to the next life. And when he talked to the nurse, she said, you know, there was something very strange about this man in his death. Somehow before he died, he got out of bed and when we found him, his head was laying in the chair.

And I have to believe that man discovered what it was like to really communicate with God. He knows you, He loves you. He wants you to talk with him. You don't have to be some spiritual giant to do it. You don't have to take some class to do it. What you got to do is just understand. He's your Father, your Father in heaven. Open your heart to him. Tell Him what's in your heart, and He will hear you and He will answer you. And the Lord's Prayer will help us learn how to do that better.

Pray with me…

Gracious and Loving Father,

You are worthy of it all. We praise you and adore You. How thankful we are for Your goodness. For Your provisions and Your protection.  We thank You for this time together as we focus on Your Word and for the powerful truth found in the prayer Your Son Jesus taught us. You have reminded us that You are holy, that Your kingdom is coming, and that You invite us to trust You daily for all we need.

Help us to live out what we have learned—not just to say this prayer, but to pray it with our lives. Teach us to depend on You, to forgive as we have been forgiven, to walk in obedience, and to seek Your will above our own.

As we leave this place, go with us and let Your peace guard our hearts, Your Spirit guide our steps, and Your love flow through us to others.

May Your name be honored and Your will be done in us and through us.

We pray all this in the precious name of Jesus,
Amen.

If you have your bibles and/or devices, our focus today will be Matthew 6:9. The Lord’s prayer begins with praise and ends with praise, and in between are the priorities, the provisions and the protections. God wants us to remember that prayer is first and foremost a communication with God, and we're going to begin our study of the actual text of this prayer by looking at one phrase together which goes like this, “Our Father who art in heaven.” And there is more there than we can ever get our arms around in the short time we have. God is our Father.

I’m probable safe in saying that most of us have heard very few messages on the Fatherhood of God. We usually visit it once a year during Father's Day, but we very seldom talk about this truth, the truth that God is our Father. Now it is no accident that God, in His wisdom has given to us a metaphor with which all of us can identify.

We will never fathom the sovereign grace and security that is found in the Father in heaven. There are people who have struggled with their human father causing them to also struggle with their Heavenly Father. A person who grows up with a father who is abusive will have a very difficult time making the transition into a loving relationship with his Heavenly Father without some very good help. A person who may grow up with a detached or absentee father is likely to have in his own heart the feeling that God in heaven is detached and uninterested in Him. It's an awesome responsibility, is it not, as Christian fathers that to some degree at least, we are modeling for our children a picture of Father God that will in some way touch the way they worship and live?

So lets talk about the Person of the Father

One of the greatest truths in all of the word of God is the truth of the Fatherhood of God. And yet it is misunderstood often by people who read the Scripture as we talk about the person of our relationship. The person is God the Father, and it is interesting to trace that word throughout the Bible and to discover that in the Old Testament, it was not as it is today, in fact. The writers of the Old Testament had a much different concept of their relationship with God than we have in our times. The men and women who worshipped God in the Old Testament had a great sense of fear and reverence for him.  But the other side of the picture was that there was very little personal intimacy or personal relationship with the Almighty God. It was done through the instruments of the Tabernacle and the temple, but there was not that “coming into the presence of God” as we have in this side of the cross experience. In fact, if you go through the Old Testament, you will discover that the word Father as it relates to God is used fewer than 14 times. And in every situation that commentators have recorded, it is used of God being the Father of Israel, that Israel is the Son of God to the Father, but it is not used in the personal way that we find it in the New Testament.

For instance, in the book of Isaiah 1:2. We read, “Hear, O heavens and give ear, O earth, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.” And the children to whom he refers are the children of Israel.

He mentions it again in Isaiah 64:8, “Isaiah 64:8: But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.” And it's again the relationship between God the Father and the nation of Israel. Isaiah understood that the nation of Israel had a son relationship to God, but it was national, not personal.

What a tremendous difference there is when you crossover the threshold into the New Testament. You cannot get past Matthew before you were introduced to a whole new understanding of the fatherhood of God.

For instance in the 6th chapter of Matthew, where the Lord's Prayer is recorded in chapter 6.  Verse 1 reads: "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.”  Here we read that there is to be no reward of our Father if our good deeds are done for the wrong reasons.

And there is more:

Ø In verse 4 we are told:  “that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.”

Ø In verse 6 we are told that we are to pray to the Father who is in secret. And the Father, who is in secret, will reward us openly.

Ø In verse 8 we are told that the Father knows what things we have need of.

Ø In verse 9 we are told to pray our Father, which art in heaven.

Ø And in verse 15 we are told that the Father will not forgive us if we do not forgive those who have sinned against us over and over again.

Ø Right across the threshold in the New Testament, we see a whole new approach to the fatherhood of God. It is no longer national. It is now individual and personal. In fact, the word Father occurs some 17 times in the Sermon on the Mount alone, if you widen the context.

Of the Sermon on the Mount to the four Gospels, you will discover that Jesus Christ himself referred to the Father more than 70 Times. Now, what made the difference? Why is it different now than it was then? Why do we have not a national relationship with Father God, but a personal relationship? I'm glad you asked because I was going to answer it whether you asked or not.

I want you to take your Bibles, if you will, and I want to show you a wonderful scripture that will help us understand that truth. Galatians chapter 4 is the text. This passage of scripture glorifies the relationship that God has provided for those who love Him.

And I want you to notice in this passage of Scripture what took place that put us into this new relationship. And as we read, where the scripture uses the lower case word “son or sons” refers to followers of Christ, i.e. sons and daughters.  Notice verse 4 and follow along as I read. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born unto the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive (Now watch this) the adoption as sons to redeem those who were under the law.” (that we might receive the adoption)

As sons now watch this, “and because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba Father. Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ.

Isn’t that wonderful news! Until God sent forth his Son, born of a woman. In the fullness of time, our relationship was different. It wasn't like it is now. When that veil was torn, when Christ died on the cross, a whole new way of approach to God was opened up to us. And whereas before we are classified as slaves, their servants, God has now changed that whole status and He's made us sons and He's put His Holy Spirit within our hearts so that now you and I can call God Father in the most endearing term in all of the Word of God. We are sons of the Father. In the Old Testament we were servants. In the New Testament we are sons.

Now to put the icing on the cake, look at 1 John 3:1-3, “[1] Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. [2] Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. [3] And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  When I think about looking up into the face of a loving Heavenly Father who cares for me and cares for me more than the most intense love I know as a human, I can say with John, what manner of love is that? What an incredible thing.

So we know God the Father in person

What about the the Place of the Father

So when we get over here on this side of the cross, we get into the intimate part of our relationship with our Father. “Our Father who art in heaven,” he's in heaven. And that reminds us that the earth is His footstool. And that he is a God of majesty and might who is worthy of our praise and of our worship. He is the glorious King. He is surrounded by the angelic host in whatever way you wish to imagine it. He sits on the throne of majesty, and at His right hand is His Son, Jesus Christ. He is ministered to by all the creatures of glory. Think of all the splendor and the most royal setting that you know on earth, multiply it by 1000 * 1000, you haven't even begun to approach the glory and majesty of the Father who is in heaven. He's in heaven. I don't know about you, but that's gives me goosebumps!

You might remember years ago, John F Kennedy was the president, and Life magazine published a whole series of photos of his children.  Do you remember those pictures of John and Caroline playing with their toys on the floor of the Oval Office. Do you remember that? Those captured the hearts of the American people like nothing ever that has come out of a president's family before or after. Why? Because I think in some ways, it bridged the gap between these two thoughts. Here was the president of the United States with his two little kids playing with toys on the floor of the Oval Office. No other kids would have been allowed to do that. But his kids were. Why? He was their father. He was a president of the United States. That was his domain.  He was their father.

Well God is in heaven. He's my Heavenly Father. That's the way it is with the Father in heaven, isn't it? When you became a son, when you were adopted into the family of God as the Son of God, he opened up for you through his Son's death on the cross, a way of fellowship and relationship that makes it possible for you to bypass going to the temple with an animal sacrifice and talking to God through a priest. You can go right into the presence of God Almighty and he will hear you. Because you're his son, you're his daughter, and he's your father. What an honor and privilege we have to converse with the creator of the universe and all that is within it.

There is a verse of Scripture that puts that all together. Isaiah 57:15. Let me read it for you: “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones..” Wow, do you get that? He says. Thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. Whose name is holy? Who dwells in the high and Holy place? Ohh, and by the way, also with those who are of a humble and contrite spirit with you and me. Incredible. He is our father who is in heaven and your relationship to him should be built like that. God does not crush the brokenhearted person who repents. Instead, He restores them spiritually.

I should just pause for a moment to say that there is enough in this little phrase to destroy atheism, for it says Our Father who art.  And in that phrase alone, atheism is finished. I can't imagine an atheist ever praying the Lord's Prayer. You know, one of the sad things about being an atheist is, who do you thank when something goes good? I mean, what do you do? This prayer does away with atheism and it brings into a relationship God's children. Can I hear an Amen!

Isaiah 57:15 teaches a profound truth:

• That God is infinitely great and holy. Yet He chooses to dwell with humble, repentant people.

• That He restores those who come to Him with a broken heart over sin.

Implications of the Fatherhood of God

If you notice in your outline, there are four things that we want to remember because jf He is our Father and we are his sons and daughters, then:

1.  We have a new relationship, don't we? It's a whole new thing that happens when we're saved. The Holy Spirit comes to live within us and we are born into the family of God. Romans 8:39 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We are His eternally, we belong to Him. We are born into His family and we can't be unborn. He is ours. Nothing can separate us. Read Romans 8. Look at the whole list that is presented there of the things that might potentially separate you from the love of God. Nothing can separate you. You have a relationship that is eternal with God the Father. His love for you is unconditional.  No matter what you do, He will love you.

2.  But God's love goes beyond a whole new relationship. It says in Galatians chapter 4 that we are heirs of God and we will receive a whole new reward. Romans 8:17 says we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Remember the Family of God song.

Joint heirs with Jesus

As we travel this sod

For I'm part of the fam'ly

The family of God

Listen, if you are part of the family of God, you are in His will. He wrote us in His will, He put us in as an inheritor, and when Jesus Christ died, the will was executed. We are just waiting for our inheritance and He will never write us out. One of these days, because we are His children, we are going to inherit everything that is ours by virtue of the fact that we belong in the family.  We've got a whole new reward to look forward to because we are His sons and daughters and He is our father.

3. And then Galatians 4 also brings this truth that we have a new resource because the Holy Spirit now lives in our heart. He lives within us. When you stop and think about the Holy Spirit lining inside you, it quickly becomes uncomprehensible, hard for us to fathom the idea that something so magnificent resides in us. As you remember it, Christ came into the world, He died, He was buried, he was resurrected, and a few days later he ascended. And before he ascended, he said, “Before I ascend, I want you to know that I'm going to send another comforter who is not only going to be with you, he's going to be in you.” And he sent the Holy Spirit to come to live within his. Because I am His son, I have a resource now. I have the Holy Spirit living within me. You know what he does? He helps me to be what a son should be. He helps me to walk and live and talk like a son of God. I couldn't do that if the Holy Spirit weren't within me because the criteria is far beyond anything I could ever, ever produce. But ohh, one day when Christ came to live within my heart, He put his blessed Holy Spirit in here.  And now I've got this power to live in a way that's beyond anything. When the Holy Spirit came to live within you, when you accepted Christ into your heart, you got the blessed Holy Spirit to come and give you the inward strength and power to live in light of who you really are as a son of God every single day. I've got this resource because he's my father.

4.  And then there's one last thing, and I hope you'll hear me on this because this is so important. I got a new relationship and I got a new reward and I got a new resource, but I also have a new responsibility, right? Our father. I'm not in this thing alone and neither are you. I have an earthly brother and all of you are my brothers and sisters in Christ. And because now I'm in the family and you're in the family, we're all in the family together. We can't have any sibling rivalry here. We've got to be in the family together.

Listen, we're going to spend eternity together. We're going to live in God's house forever and ever, according to Psalm 23. And we're going to be there with our brothers and sisters who have the same heritage we have. We're sons and daughters of God Almighty. And when we pray our Father, if we're having squabbles with each other, it mitigates against the reality of our prayer. And it's almost like a check when we ever come to this prayer or we pattern our prayers this way. As soon as we say the word “our”, we have to back away and see if everything's all right.

I mentioned to you this before, but I don't want you to forget this because it is quite important that there's only one thing that our Lord repeated after the prayer for emphasis. Do you remember what it was in the prayer? He said, Forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those who trespass against us. And then in verse 15, he takes another shot at that truth and he says if we don't do that in some way, we get into the relationship we have with our Father and we mess it all up, i.e. if we don't take care of relationships with each other, it ends up messing up the relationship we have with the father.

I remind you again, there are two families in this world. The Lord Jesus on one occasion said to someone, “You are of your Father or the evil one, and the only way you get into God's family so that He the Living God  becomes your father, you have to go through the adoption process. You've got to be born again through the new birth, through trusting Jesus Christ.

He gives you the privilege to be called the Son of God, and you were born into his family then. For the first time in your life, you can lift your voice to heaven and say, Our Father, my Father, who art in heaven.  

But He is not your Father until you have accepted His Son Jesus Christ as your Savior.

Our lesson is focused on Matthew 6 verse 9. Verse 9 has eight words.  The first part of the phrase, we discussed in Lesson 2, “Our Father in Heaven.” Lesson 3 today we are studying the latter part of the phrase, “Hallowed be Thy Name.”

According to Pastor Adrian Rogers, "Hallowed be Thy Name" in the Lord’s Prayer means to revere, recognize, and rely upon God’s holy name.  Hallowing His name is certainly the foundation of prayer, focusing on God's glory rather than personal desires, and it signifies worshiping Him as Father while recognizing His power, holiness, and sovereignty.

Pastor Rogers described these key aspects of “Hallowed be thy name”

a.      We Exalt His Name!

Rogers taught that when we start the conversation by calling Him "Father," we are setting the stage for adoration.

b.          We Recognize His Holiness! 

"Hallowed" means set apart; it is a declaration that God’s name is holy and to be treated with absolute reverence.

c.          It’s a "Prayer That Never Fails": 

Dr. Rogers often stated that when our reason for praying - the glorification of God's name - matches God’s reason for answering, the prayer is always answered.

Dr. Rogers taught that when you come to God by acknowledging His name as holy, you are aligning your will with His, allowing you to pray with confidence and power.  

___________________________

The Lord Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray, and as he teaches them, we are learning as well. We learned that we address our Father who art in heaven. And today the phrase, which is before us, is this one: “hallowed be thy name.” Of the noted statements in the Lord’s Prayer, we know the least about this one, “Hallowing the name of the Lord.” When we say the word hallowed, it's an archaic word. It's a word we don't use in our vocabulary today, but the translators of most of the various translations of the New Testament have kept the word in the prayer because of its very special nature. Actually the word hallowed comes from the Greek word haggiag ezo (hog-e-ot-so) which is a very important word in the Bible. For the noun, hagios means holy. Literally we could say as we pray this prayer, Our Father who art in heaven, holy be thy name. The word means to be sanctified, or set apart, or to be praised.

John Calvin said it this way, “that God's name should be hallowed is to say that God should have his own honor, of which he is so worthy, so that men should never think or speak of him without the greatest sense of reverence.” We should hold his name in the sense of the holiness which it represents. The deep and sincere desire of all who know the Lord should be that men and women everywhere would revere His name, and in so doing we would recognize and honor the one that name represents, for he alone is worthy of our adoration.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray “hallowed be thy name,” He didn't specify which of the names. He just said the name, and behind that name is all that God is. We know that we're to bring honor and glory and describe holiness to the name of God, but how do we do that. When we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,” what does that mean? How do we enact that?

I.              When we hallow the name of the Lord, we do so by rehearsing who He is.

And the Lord Jesus said, when you pray, pray like this, “Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,” each one of the names of God gives us a little glimpse of something about God that is not only important for us to know, but it's important for us to know about us and how we relate to Him.

The Lord is my shepherd. Do you see? Every part of the name of God, every name that is given does not reflect all that he is, but reflects a little of who he is. And as we focus on the names, we come to know who the person is behind the name.

I want to pause and direct your attention to the screen.  The video you’re about to watch is one of my favorites and expresses the names of God in a very reverent way.

"HE IS" VIDEO

Thus we say, Hallowed be thy name! Hallowed be thy name!

God’s majesty and greatness makes me shutter knowing that we, everyone of us, have the honor and privilege to converse through prayer with the Creator of the universe.  And to see all of those names certainly emphasizes reverence and obedience.

How thankful we are that He hears our prayers and already knows our needs before we ask them because He knows everything!

You know you can’t surprise God and tell him something he might not know, or, let Him in on a secret.

You know that nothing occurs to God,

that he never “just remembers” something.  

He never has a new thought “pop” into his mind.  

He never has an old one slipped from his memory.  

He never racks his brain to figure out what to do.  

He never wonders about anything.

He is never surprised.

He instantly and eternally knows every fact about everything, everywhere, forever and he knows it perfectly, completely, and unerringly.  

God has never learned anything. 

He cannot learn anything.  

You know it may be startling to say that God has never learned, and, cannot learn.

But if God could learn something that he didn't already know, He wouldn't be infinite.  

He wouldn't be perfect.  

He wouldn't be eternal.  

And he couldn't be God.

God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. 

You know he has the cure for cancer, for alzheimers, for Lukemia, for all of them.  He knows the cause an effect of the very first cell that develops into a horrible disease that takes millions of lives.  He knows how disease starts, how it progresses, how it ends, and how to stop it from ever forming. There is nothing he can learn.  Wouldn’t be nice to use His pharmacy. Well guess what, He gave us a prescription to fill. You know! Prayer. Through prayer, we have hope.  Through prayer, Jesus hears our calling.  Through Jesus, we have eternal life. Someday, no sickness or sorrow!

When the Lord said, when you pray, pray like this, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” He wants us to not just know the name God, but He wants us to know all we could know about God so that when we worship Him, we can lift back up to Him praise for all that the Word of God reveals Him to be.

When you come to the New Testament, we discover that the greatest of the names is Jesus, the God man. And then a whole new list of names comes through, doesn't it? He is the bread, He is the way of life, He is the truth. He's the resurrection, the Good Shepherd, the Vine.  And all of the New Testament is filled in the Gospels with names to help us know the one we worship. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

And here are the things about God that we know from the names that have been given us. Dr. Jeremiah said, “I have on occasions selected just one little name of God and tried to think about it for a whole week Jehovah Jyra the Lord provides.” How many of you know that God provides. That he does! Isn't that a wonderful thing and just for one week, just say Lord, “this week I'm going to hallow your name and I'm going to consider, for my own praise, what you have done to provide for me, You are Jehovah Jyra.” the Lord provides. And everyday focus on some time to reflect on His provision.

II.           Not only do we hallow His name by rehearsing their meanings, but we hallow His name by respecting His greatness.

God is uncommon. He's extraordinary, He's unearthly, He's separated from sinners, He's undefiled, and the Bible says He's holy.  And we are to speak of God in reverence.  We are to sanctify Him. To hallow His name means to hold His matchless being in reverence, so that you will believe what He says, and you will obey Him, and you will honor His name.

We are given here in this prayer a wonderful tension, so that we don't go off in some crazy direction. When we talk about our Father who art in heaven, and remember He's ABBA Father, He is according to the New Testament language, He is our daddy. That is intimate. But in the same sentence, we're told our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  And God is not pleased when we forget that He is the great and majestic One to whom we come, He's the creator of the universe, and he deserves to be treated with respect and honor. So whatever we may do, whatever we may say that would in any way diminish his greatness, we ought not to do. We ought to hold him up with great reverence and respect. We hallow his name by respecting his greatness.

III.        Thirdly, we hallow his name by relinquishing control over our own lives.

Martin Luther said, “How is God's name hallowed among us when both our doctrine and our living are truly Christian?” We hallow the name of God, by the way we live. When we give ourselves totally to Him and allow Him to control our lives. When we say hallowed be thy name, we are praying like this, “May the whole of my life be a source of delight to you, and may it be an honor to the name which I bear, which is your name, Hallowed be your name.”

Psalm 19:14 is a prayer that we sometimes pray in church - It goes like this: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, Oh Lord, my rock, and my Redeemer.” That ought to be the prayer of each one of us every day. Lord, I hallow your name by giving you the control of my life and living in obedience to you.

IV.   Fourthly, we hallow His name by recognizing His presence in all of our lives.

We hallow his name when we are constantly aware of his presence. David said in Psalm 16:8 “I have set the Lord always before me.” That's the key. We live our lives in the presence of God and we honor and respect him. And when we come into his presence, not flippantly, quickly, just sort of with a “O by the way Lord,” we come into His presence, we prepare our hearts to come and to pray and to honor His name. And I want to say to each of you that if we learn to pray as Jesus taught his disciples, it will make an incredible difference in the way we live. That God does not wish us necessarily to always be rushing into His presence with our grocery lists of things. God wants to be worshipped. The Bible says He seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. And when we come to Him, we need to bring our gift of worship to Him first before we ask Him to fill our hands with other things.

I am so confident that this is a critical part of where most of us are in our spiritual walk with the Lord. And I'm still just learning. I describe myself as a baby in diapers at the infinite knowledge to be learned about God’s written word.  What we hold the Bible in our hands, we hold a masterpiece X 1,000,000.

V.  I want to share 6 things that entering into the presence of God with worship, changes in everyone's life. It will change your life just as it's changing mind.

We're all in the growing process. We're not there yet, but hopefully we're on the road toward understanding more and more about who God is and how He works in our lives everyday. And here are some of the things that we should reflect upon.

#1 When we worship, when we come into the presence of God with “hallowed be Thy name,” worship enhances our appreciation and our love for God.

We are caused to see Him as He is. Is God's greatness changed by my worship? Not in the least. Can I add or subtract one width to who He is? Not at all.  But when I reflect in my own heart upon His greatness and I pray, something happens. The greatness of God is impressed upon me so that I see Him and I understand a little bit more about who He is and the greatness of God brings on a whole new meaning.  

And then the day comes and we're allowed to go into His presence, and for one moment we see Him as He really is, and all of a sudden our whole expression and appreciation for God changes.  That’s what worship does for us! God is magnificent.  He is our all in all.

#2, When we worship, worship expands our vision.

You know, one of the things we're prone to do is to look at life in terms of our own limitations. That's the way the average person does. When I worship God, I begin to see life not in terms of what I can do, but I begin to see life in terms of what God can do through me. I thought of my dear friend Steve Price as I read that statement.  Steve lived out this very vision.  His limitations never changed his thoughts as to what he could do or not do.  But he did see life in terms of what God could do through him. There's a big difference, folks. I am a very, very, very limited, flawed human being, and if it's just me doing my thing for God, it's not going to accomplish very much. But when I worship God, something happens within me. It expands my vision to think about what God can do through me, what he can do through you. I'm reminded often of one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament about the spies who went into the land. You remember that story. It's like a lot of things that happened. The majority report came back and they all said we can't do it. That's the way a lot of majority reports come back. You know, we've gotten the idea that majority is always right, but a lot of times in the Bible the majority was wrong. And the majority came back and they said we've been into the promised land and we've checked it all out and we want you to know what our appraisal is. Our appraisal is like this. Those are some big people. Those giants were 8 feet tall and taller. The Anakim, they're called, and the majority report came back and they said we checked them out and we checked them out and you want to know what our appraisal is? We are like grasshoppers before them. And we don't think we should mess with them. We don't think we should go in. God had told him to go in. They said, no, we don't. We saw them. We saw us. We're like grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb, the minority report. They came back and they said, you know, we were in the same land, walked down the same streets. Saw the same giants, saw the same situation. But. What we want you to know is those are some big people, but they are no match for God. And the only difference in the majority report and the minority Report was the comparison. The majority compared themselves to the problem and the minority compared the problem to God. A large group had a small God. The small group had a large God. And what happens when you worship my friends, when you come into the presence of God, and you say, my Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, and you reflect upon his greatness, all of a sudden you begin to see things in a much different perspective.

#3. Worship not only enhances our appreciation and love for God and expands our vision, but thirdly, worship eclipses our fears.

One night uring a group gathering, everybody was standing in the parking lot looking up at the sky. And nobody had told me this was happening, so I didn't know what it was. And I walked down and I looked up and sure enough, up there you could barely see the moon. You could just barely see the little edges of white around. It was totally covered. When I worship God, that's what happens to my fears. Any of you ever have any fears? We're all fearful people to some degree, aren't we? We can talk about our bravery, but we have these fears in us.  Sometimes life kind of piles up on you during the day, you don't really think about it too much except you sort of take it to bed with you at night. And it sort of works on your subconscious. And then you wake up in the morning and you wake up with this spirit of fear about the day, the appointments, the sickness, the problems, the difficulties, whatever.

The best anecdote to battle fear is worship. When you put your trust in God to handle your fear, He will.  May not be on your timetable.  But remember this! God knows your life from the beginning to the end and everything in between.

#4. When we worship, worship not only enhances our appreciation and love for God and expands our vision and eclipses our fears, but worship energizes our work.

Every time I walk to my office to begin to think through the things that are critical to get done and   the meetings I have scheduled. Some days are busy. Somedays we struggle.  Some days not so much. What about my evening? Things to do at home, or, perhaps a baseball game or a volleyball game. There’s always a multitude of things that need to be crossed off my list, and mostly they're all things I like to do. And I struggle, and this is the struggle. I'm busy today. My agenda is full today. Maybe I should pray. One commentator said, “Lord, I got so much to do today I'm going to have to spend twice as much the time in prayer than I had planned.”  I read that statement several times. I think he had something there.

I recommend you begin your day with God.  Put your trust in Him and you hallow His name, and your day will be different and will be better in some way.

#5 When you hallow his name, when you worship, worship will encourage your spirit.

The Bible says it like this. You can trade in your spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise. You can literally see your own spirit encouraged.

#6 And then the last one is my favorite because I know this is to be true in all of our lives. Worship exhausts my enemy.

Did you know that the one thing that Satan doesn't like, just about more he doesn't like anything else. He doesn't like worship.

Dr Jeremiah stated, “I used to be confused because when I started studying the Book of Revelation, I thought it was one of the greatest books. I don't think it was real hard to understand. Is it's sort of self interpreting, but it's amazing how many people don't read the Book of Revelation and they've been told that you can't understand it and it's a tough book and they've kind of been mesmerized by it.

One day it suddenly dawned on me that the enemy was behind all that. Because you see, the Book of Revelation gives the final record of what's going to happen to Satan, tells you about him. And so he didn't want you to read that, so he'll keep you from reading it. Will sell you all kinds of stuff about not reading because it's the story of his demise. I always loved what people said. You know, if Satan's bugging you about your past, you tell him about his future. Isn't that a great thought? You know, that's a great thing.

One of the things Satan loves to do is to harass God's people. But I want to tell you something. He does not know what to do when he sees one of God's children on their knees in prayer and in praise. I read that one commentator said. “I sang the doxology and dismissed the devil.” Satan is allergic to praise. So if you want to do spiritual warfare, I can tell you about the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and the shield of faith and the armor and all of that. But I don't hear very much about this, but I know it's true. The Bible says that worship is warfare, and when you worship God, you do battle with the enemy. And I love to think about it this way. It just exhausts him. Because he has to work 10 times as hard to get anything done. Praise God, let's wear the old buzzard out. One of the ways you do that is with praise and worship.

Worship is a serious matter. We need to learn how to worship God because someday that will be our eternal occupation.

True worship matters because it keeps the church centered on God, changes hearts, and fuels a life of obedience—not just a moment in a service.

Your choir and musicians here in our chuch take worship very serious.  True worship in the church isn’t mainly about music style, order of service, or even how many people attend—it’s about a real response of the heart to God. Its importance runs deep because it shapes both the individual believer and the entire body of Christ.  We are not here to impress or to perform.  True worship centers on God—not us.

In John 4:23–24, Jesus says the Father seeks those who worship “in spirit and truth.” That means worship is both sincere (from the heart) and grounded in truth (rooted in God’s Word). Without both, worship becomes either empty or a dry routine.

True worship aligns our hearts with God. When a church genuinely worships, people are reminded of who God is—holy, loving, sovereign—and that reorders priorities, attitudes, and decisions.

Worship is for God, not an audience

Worship is participation, not observation

Worship is surrender, not entertainment

Worship transforms lives. 

Real worship leads to repentance, gratitude, humility, and obedience.

Listen, genuine worship moves people beyond attending church into living faithfully throughout the week.

When believers focus on God together, differences fade and unity grows. Worship becomes a shared declaration: God   is    worthy!

And it’s not limited to Sunday.  According to Romans 12:1, worship includes offering our whole lives to God. Sunday gatherings should reflect a lifestyle already being lived daily.

Let me conclude with this:

Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Let's hallow his name. And let us not forget this important lesson from the lips of our Lord that we come into His presence first of all with praise in our hearts.

Our bible study is focused on verse 10 of Matthew chapter 6.  Throughout this study of verses 9-13, our study has been learning to pray the Lord’s way.

Let me share the definition of prayer. Prayer is the Holy Spirit, finding a desire in the heart of the Father, and putting that desire into our hearts and then sending it back to Heaven in the power of the cross. Prayer is the Holy Spirit, finding a desire in the heart of the Father, putting that desire into our hearts and then sending it back to Heaven in the power of the cross.

Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s rule and purposes to be carried out in our lives and in the world. True prayer is surrender—asking that our desires align with His and to ask forgiveness of our sins.  This is why “The Lord’s Prayer” is actually an example or outline of how to pray thus called “The Disciples Prayer.”

Using the Disciples Prayer as an outline, we have learned to praise God for who He is, Hallowed be Thy name, and His authority.  An important take away from studying this prayer is when you pray, remember to begin your prayer with praise and end your prayer with praise.  Let’s read together the Lord’s Prayer.

[9] Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

[10] Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

[11] Give us this day our daily bread.

[12] And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

[13] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

Today in verse 10, were going to shift our prayer from praise to priorities.

The disciples came to Jesus and said “Lord, teach us how to pray.”

Ø  Prayer is convicting, it's sometimes confusing. Sometimes there’s a need or concern and your thoughts might be, “will I say the right thing.”  Or, I have a loss of words.  Or, I can’t think fast enough. Time goes by in your Christian walk and you are asked to pray on occasion. Sometimes we begin to feel obligated. You might think “I know I'm supposed to pray.” I don't feel like praying, but I'm gonna pray because I'm obligated to pray. I am a Christian. I need to be more responsible. So I'm going to pray more.

Ø  And then I've noticed as we get older, and I won't talk too much about age, but as we get older we start to hit a few bumps in life. Maybe we run into a couple of walls here and there. Prayer begins to take on a "little" different perspective. We've tried a lot of other things and so we start to pray and then prayer becomes sort of a, not an obligation, not a responsibility, but a real necessity in our life. You know, I got to pray, I got to pray, I got to pray, just to get through this thing, and we pray like that, and if we're not careful, we learn to pray in a way that robs God of the glory he deserves and cheats us out of the good that could come to us through learning to pray in the proper way.

When the Lord taught his disciples this prayer, he gave them not a prayer that they should repeat, but He gave them a very important outline of how to pray. So far we've learned that when we pray, we're to know who we're talking to, our Father who art in heaven.

One of the great theologians Martin Luther viewed Matthew 6:10 ("Your kingdom come, your will be done...") as a prayer of surrender against human selfishness, urging believers to ask God to break their own wills and advance His kingdom.

Ø  So the kingdom of God is the kingdom of God’s government. “Thy will be done.”

Ø  it is not only the kingdom of God’s government, but it is the kingdom of God’s grace. Listen to Hebrews 4:16, “Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace.” Don’t you love that!  A throne! It speaks of His kingdom. It’s speaks of His rule. Where does He rule from? What kind of a kingdom is it? What kind of a throne is it? Is it a throne of law? Is it a throne of judgment?

NO! It is a throne of grace.

Ø  When you’re praying for His kingdom to come, not only is it a kingdom of God’s government, it is the kingdom of God’s grace. It’s not a throne for receiving tribute. It is a throne for dispensing grace. And, you see, the grace of God does not do away with the sovereignty of God, God’s government, it only magnifies it. We come to a throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

When we pray, we are praying to a mighty God, a majestic God, He is our Heavenly Father. Creator of all things.  And we as His children are His masterpiece. Our human bodies are incredibly magnificent. How we are made is unthinkable. We are unique (hold on to that word unique – we’ll come back to it) we are unique in many ways.  We are perfect.

Now there are days I might disagree with that a little when I get up and groan and bones pop and muscles ache, and there’s always something not feeling the way it should. Setting aside our aging bodies, again we are his masterpiece. 

After He made us, you remember what He said. He had finished His work, He confirmed all of His creation. in Genesis 1:

[31] Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was “very good!”

Let pause for a minute and allow me to share an article I read a while back that stuck in my mind talking about our Creator, the almighty, magnificent God we serve and His “very good” creation. The article was about our world population.

According to a 2026 report generated by demographers, our current world population is about 8.3 billion. Hold on to that number for a minute. Let me go further.  Since the creation of Adam and Eve, demographers have estimated the population to be about 117 billion.

Allow me to humor you for a moment.  I did some calculations to put this in perspective. Let’s assume every human since Adam & Eve had their picture on a letter size piece of paper and you were to lay those pieces of paper end to end. The distance in length for 117 billion people would be equal to 86 times the distance to the moon.

Now remember I ask you to hold on to the word unique.

Did you know according to scientist, there have never been two identical fingerprints alike recorded or found, not even twins, triplets, etc.. 117 BILLION PEOPLE – ALL DIFFERENT.  Oh and don’t forget, there’s not just one fingerprint, we each have 10 of those buddies and no one has a match.  That’s a ratio of 1:117 billion finger for finger.  Wrap your thoughts around that for a moment.  I like to see an atheists explain that creation! How and where do you even begin to debate God’s creation of his children from the uniqueness we all have times 117 billion. Our completeness and perfect bodies created by God are beyond our comprehension.

Only the holy God we worship, honor, and praise can make life happen! Only the God of the universe could create such magnificence. Only God can keep each of our fingerprints unique.

And His creation is ongoing.  Based on the latest United Nations population estimates, about 363,000 +- 1000 babies are born worldwide every day.

• While we are sitting here having lunch today, more than 15,000 babies were born into this world and added to the world population

• That’s 250 babies every minute

• Or About 4 babies every second

Everyone is perfect and formed according to God’s plan, even those with complications. Psalm 139:13-16 NLT

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. [14] Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-how well I know it. [15] You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. [16] You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”

We are unique in every way and wonderfully made.  This is not surprising to us as Christians.

So we stand in awe of God’s perfect creation and perfect plan. And we’ve learned that when we come into the presence of our Father who is in heaven, we do so first of all, with praise on our lips. We come saying, hallowed be thy name, and we talked about how important it is that we begin our prayers in that whole aspect of worship and praise which is so often neglected. Many times when we pray, we don't praise Him like we should and we miss out on honoring God for who He is and all that He is. God has given us an inspired outline for praying here. If we follow it, our prayers will be what they ought to be.

So we begin by praising God in our own simple way. We’ve talked about the names of God and how we can understand what it means to exalt the Lord and lift him up as He is.

Today we come to the first of the petitions in the prayer.  Actually there are two of them here welded together. For in the 10th verse of the 6th chapter we read that when we pray, we're to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, and then in verse 10, your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

If hallowed be your name is praise in the prayer, then your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, is priorities in prayer.  And the Lord Jesus here is teaching his disciples that there's a way to pray God's priorities into our lives. There's a way for us to pray that the priorities of heaven will become the priorities of earth, that the priorities of God will become the priorities of each one of us.

How do you know what your priorities should be? Well, the Lord said, when you pray, you should pray like this. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done. The first prayer is one that is somewhat theological in respect to its wording. Thy Kingdom come. It is a prayer for the priorities of God in His reign over the earth. There's much discussion among theologians and pastors and Bible students over this whole concept of the Kingdom of God, what it means.

In the first words of the Gospel concerning the Lord Jesus, the first words of Christ and teaching recorded in the book of Mark concerned the Kingdom of God. Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Saying time is fulfilled.

And then some of the last words that he spoke on this earth had to do with the Kingdom of God. This gospel of the Kingdom is preached throughout the whole world and then comes the end. One of his last acts on this earth as the Son of Man and the Son of God was to welcome someone into the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom is something that is very much a part of who you are and a part of who I am as as believers. So I want to talk about the Kingdom in three ways.

1.  First of all, let's talk for a moment about the Kingdom of God that is within us. And that's a very scriptural concept because the Bible says in Luke 17:21 that the Kingdom of God is within you. Listen to what he says…

Luke 17:20-21 NKJV  [20] Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; [21] nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."

So what could that mean? Well, it simply means that when you become a Christian, Jesus Christ comes to live within your heart, He's the King.  And the King is in residence in your heart. So if the King is there, the kingdoms there. If you're a Christian, you don't have to wait for the Millennium or the great Kingdom that's coming someday when Christ reigns for 1000 years to get in on Kingdom truth. The Kingdom of God is in our hearts, and so much of this truth is for “us” individually today. So the Kingdom is present within you, and you need to live like a child of the King. You need to live like a Kingdom person.

There's a wonderful scripture in the book of Deuteronomy 30:11-14, and if you have your bibles or devices, you can turn to it, but let me tell you what it says concerning one of the good commandments of the Old Testament, in the 30th chapter of Deuteronomy verse 11-14, we read.

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 NKJV

"For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. [12] It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' [13] Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' [14] But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

That's really true about the Kingdom of God. It's not up in heaven that we have to go and get it and bring it down. And it's not across the sea that we have to go find it and bring it back. But the Kingdom of God for a Christian is in our mouth, and it's in our heart that we might know what to do. The king is alive in our hearts, and the Kingdom of God is within us.

The Kingdom is within us and then. If you study carefully, you'll discover that the kingdom is around us. How many of you know that the kingdoms around us. For instance, if the King's in my heart and the kings in your heart and all of our hearts, when we all get together, we're having a Kingdom party, aren't we? Because the kingdoms here. Now, I know better than to say the church is the Kingdom. I know that's not true. But listen now, when God's children get together, when children of the King start to do things, we're doing Kingdom things, aren't we? And so there is a sense in which the work of the church is Kingdom work, and when we sing, and when we worship and when we teach, and when we minister, whatever we do for the King, that's the Kingdom around us. And it's a wonderful thing to know that the Kingdom is being represented here in this world.

Do you ever feel like you're the minority? Are we making any difference? I know we're the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and we're Kingdom children in the Kingdom that is not of this world. But listen, the Kingdom works are important and the things that we do with the Kingdom around us. That all is affected by this prayer. So the Kingdom is around us and we have much work to do, because it sure seems our world and society is going the wrong direction.

And then this is what most people know about the Kingdom, and I'll just put it this way. The kingdom is before us, isn't it? It's not only within us and around us, but the kingdoms before us. One of these days the king is coming back. The Bible says the next event is the trumpet. The trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them, and together we shall be ushered into the heaven. That's called the rapture. There's nothing has to happen before that. It could happen right now before I get through with this next sentence. There's no events that have to take place. The rapture is immediate. The rapture is imminent.

As soon as we begin to pray thy Kingdom come within us, around us, and for us, you can count on it, you're gonna have some interesting days. Cause do you know there's more than one Kingdom? Do you know that in fact the Lord says my Kingdom is not of this earth and there is another king (with is splled with a lower case “k”) who is kind of in residence right now. I know people, especially Christian people have a hard time with this because we know that God is ultimately in control. He's sovereign, but he's allowed Satan to have his little time. He's on a long leash, but he's sort of running things. He's the Prince of the power of the air. He's the kind of the lower case king right now. Is there any evidence of that out there? I mean, God isn't running things day-to-day. He's let Satan have his thing. One of these days he's going to reel him in and cast him down and he'll be gone forever and then Jesus Christ will be King in residence. But as soon as you sign on to have the King reign within you and you get excited about what He's doing around you, and you start looking forward to what's coming in front of you, you're going to have a fight on your hands.

And that's why the Scripture says this. Do you know this verse? Matthew 6:33? Listen to the text in Matthew 6:31-32.

[31] Don't worry. Saying, what are we going to eat and what are we going to drink and what are we gonna wear? [32] These are all the things that the Gentiles or the world seeks for. Your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things.

What are you supposed to do about all the daily needs of the problems you have here? He says this is what you do. This is priority stuff.

Matthew 6:33  [33] “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

In other words, if you're a Kingdom child and the King is living within you and you're working with the Kingdom around you and you're looking forward to the Kingdom who's coming, then what you need to do is you need to put the King first – “Seek ye first, the Kingdom of God,” get your priorities straightened out. That's what he's saying. I think we can all agree that's a lifetime task, Putting first things first, the Kingdom first.

Alright, now that's sort of the theology or the focus of this prayer, Thy Kingdom come. But that's not really where the rubber meets the road in praying this prayer every day. So let’s talk to you about my priorities and the “rule of Christ” because the next part of the prayer isn't a theological discussion, it's a personal discussion. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Lord, I want your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

David said, “I delight to do thy will, oh God.”

In John 6:38-39, Jesus said…

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. [39] This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

Let me prompt you with one other question. How is God's will done in heaven? How is it done?

Do you think the angels say you know Father? I know you asked me to do that, but I think Gabriel will be better at that than I am.

Or

Oh yeah, I'll do that. I've been looking at all the angelic things I got on my list. I’ll have some time next week.

No. Do you know how the will of God is done in heaven? Listen carefully. The will of God is done in heaven immediately, unconditionally, without any argument, without any discussion. When God speaks, his will is done.

Let me just ask you this, if God's will has been expressed, wouldn't it make sense just to do it? Why would you want to make it harder? You know! Why would you argue with him for six months and then do it? Because it's His will and there isn't going to be any change. God's will is perfect. You can't get better than perfect. And if you want God's will, and he expresses his will, do it on earth just like it's done in heaven. Yes Father. I’ll do it right now, without question.

Again verse 10: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

The Lord invited His followers to pray for more than their own needs. In this verse, He calls believers to align their hearts with God’s purposes.

               “Your kingdom come” reminds us that God’s reign is not only future—it is something we desire to see growing in our lives today. Every time we choose love over bitterness, forgiveness over resentment, or obedience over selfishness, we allow God’s kingdom to be visible on earth.

               “Your will be done” is a prayer of surrender. It means trusting God’s wisdom above our own plans. While we often pray for God to bless our desires, Jesus       teaches us to seek God’s desires first.

               “On earth as it is in heaven” points to the perfect harmony of heaven—where God’s will is fully honored and joyfully obeyed. As followers of Christ, we become part of God’s answer to this prayer when our lives reflect His character in the world around us.

According to scripture, after the rapture, there's a period of seven years when tribulation is on this earth. All of God's children are up in heaven, but all hell breaks loose down here. Some of you think we're getting close, some of you think we're already there, but we're not. It'll get worse!

And then after that, the Bible says that King Jesus now is going to ride out of heaven on the White Horse, and all of the angels and all of God's people who've been raptured to be with them are going to come back and take control of this earth. And for 1000 years, King Jesus is going to reign supreme over the whole earth. It's called the Millennium, the reign of peace.

You say, what is it going to be like? It will affect everything on this earth. The Bible says that during that time nations will learn war no more. In fact, the Bible says that the people are going to take their swords, their military implements, and they're going to melt them down and make plowshares out of them.

Did you know this Old Testament scripture, specifically Isaiah 2:4 is the scripture inscribed into a monument near the United Nations Headquarters building in New York City.  

Isaiah 2:4 NKJV  “He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.”

Now I know the relationship with United States and United Nations is currently strained due to world peace and security differences. Perhaps the UN has drifted away from the meaning of the verse which is to allow God’s authority to bring true righteousness and peace.  Nevertheless, agree or disagree, God will prevail.

This verse is saying that the military world will become an agricultural world.  Isaiah is describing the peace that will exist when God's kingdom is fully realized—when people follow His ways and His justice governs the earth. Isaiah 2:4 promises a future time when God’s rule will bring perfect justice and worldwide peace, and humanity will no longer prepare for war but will live in harmony.

So in other words, the military world will be no longer, there'll be peace on earth because the King of peace will be reigning and ruling on this earth. And it even is going to affect the animal Kingdom. It says that the lions and the wolves shall lie down with the lamb. It says that little children will lead them. When King Jesus comes to set up his Kingdom on this earth, men and women, you cannot imagine the glory and majesty of it all.

Do you know that the old Puritans used to do this? Let me tell you how they lived. They used to get up every morning and go to their windows, throw the window open and look up into the heaven and say, “maybe today, Lord, maybe today, and the last thing before they go to bed at night, they'd go into that window again and look up into the eastern sky and say, “maybe tonight, Lord, maybe tonight.” What were they doing? They were praying that the Kingdom would come.

As we get older, our prayers start “coming together” and we start praying for the Kingdom. 

Do you start your day in prayer praising God and for His guidance through out the new day?  Ask God about His priorities for you.  Let Him be your all in all.  Pray for His Kingdom come and reside in your heart.

Listen, Jesus said, when we pray, we're to pray, “Thy Kingdom come. Within my heart and all around me.

Revelation 22:20; “And Lord, yes, even come, come, Lord Jesus.” It is the last prayer of the New Testament.

Lord. Let your Kingdom come. Within me, around me, and then ultimately before me. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

As we close this time in Your Word, our hearts pray “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Teach us to live each day with eyes lifted toward Your return, with hearts surrendered to Your purposes, and with lives that reflect Your grace. Thank you Jesus for teaching us to pray, may Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Rule in our hearts. Reign in our lives and our homes. Work through Your church. Let Your truth be seen in our words, Your love be shown in our actions, and Your hope be carried into a world that desperately needs You.

And until then, may Your amazing grace sustain us, Your Spirit guide us, and Your countless promises anchor us.

Come, Lord Jesus.
In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Our  lesson today is focused on verse 11 of Matthew Chapter 6

 “Give us this day our daily bread”

What if everything you needed for today could fit into one simple prayer?"

Most of us spend our lives worrying about next week, next month, or next year. Yet Jesus taught His followers to pray for only one day at a time: 'Give us this day “today” our daily bread.' Why would the Lord of heaven tell us to focus on today's bread instead of tomorrow's pantry? Because Matthew 6:11 is not just about food—it's about learning to trust God for every need, every day.

Before electric refrigerators became common, many households used an icebox and received regular ice deliveries from an ice man.

My Father and Uncle delivered ice as teenagers.  They would go early in the morning to the ice house down here on West Main.  The truck would be loaded with a slab of ice scribed in various weights. And they would go door to door delivering ice based on the weight the customer needed which was usually displayed in the window or some other form of notification.

To let the ice man know how much ice they needed, families typically placed an ice card in a front window (often near the door or porch). The card had different numbers on it—such as 25, 50, 75, or 100 pounds. They would rotate the card so the desired number faced outward, signaling the ice man how much ice to deliver.

In some communities, people might also place a sign or marker on the porch, but the window ice card was the most common method.

Typical estimates:

• 25-pound block: often lasted 1–3 days

• 50-pound block: often lasted 3–7 days

• In hot summer weather, ice melted much faster.

• Well-insulated iceboxes and careful use could stretch the ice longer.

Many families received ice deliveries two or three times a week, while others might need daily service during very hot weather.

This dependence on the iceman is a similar illustration to our dependence on God for His provisions. Just as families depended on the ice man to bring fresh ice regularly, God's people are called to depend on Him daily. The icebox was not filled once for a lifetime; it required continual replenishment. Likewise, Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us today our daily bread," reminding us that God's provision is often given one day at a time.

"When was the last time you asked God for something as simple as a loaf of bread?"

"We live in a world of warehouses, refrigerators, and savings accounts, but Jesus tells us to pray like people who need God every single day."

"If God stopped providing tomorrow, would today's blessings be enough?"

"The shortest request in the Lord's Prayer may be the hardest one for us to live."

"What do manna in the wilderness and your grocery list have in common?"

All of these questions lead into a lesson on dependence, trust, provision, contentment, and God's daily care. Everything we need depends on God providing that need.

This section to which we are turning to today in Matthew chapter 6 is the section that moves us from the spiritual to the material.  Someone has said that the prayer starts and ends on the highest of mountain peaks. It starts with our Father who is in heaven, glorified, and it ends with Kingdom and glory, and in between is the valley where most of us live, the journey between the two places. We live in the place of the need for provision and the need for protection. And it's here that we begin to deal with these issues in our lives.

Jesus has taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray for spiritual things, for God's Kingdom to come, for salvation, for God's will to be done. Remember the song I played last month, “Come Lord Jesus, come soon.” And I'm pretty sure he did that on purpose. Because more often than not, when we pray, when I pray, when you pray, “sometimes” the first thing we start praying for is stuff - for physical things. But when we start off by praying for the spiritual, it gets us in the right frame of mind to pray for what Jesus encourages us to pray for. 

In the phrase or petition, “Give us our daily bread,”  there are many lessons for us to learn.  In spite of the fact it's just one little simple phrase, here we will find many of our questions answered.

1.For first of all, this petition encourages dependence upon God.

When the Lord instructed us to pray for Our Daily Bread, He reminded us that all of us, no matter who we are, no matter what chapter we may occupy in this life, we are all totally dependent upon the Lord for the daily supply of our needs. It doesn't matter who you are, how wealthy you may be or not be, we are all dependent upon God for daily provision.  This petition implies our dependence on God for the supply of our wants. As we are dependent on him one day as much as another.  It was evidently the intention of the Savior that prayer should be offered every day. 

In the 104th Psalm there is a statement of this dependency, we are reminded by the Psalmist of the universal dependence of man upon God.  Listen to these words taken from the NLT:

Psalm 104:27-29 NLT

They all depend on You to give them food as they need it. [28] When You supply it, they gather it. You open your hand to feed them, and they are richly satisfied. [29] But if You turn away from them, they panic. When You take away their breath, they die and turn again to dust.

What does that say? It says that each and every one of us, no matter who we are, whether we like to acknowledge it or not, we owe our next breath to God. We owe our next meal to God. Whatever it is that we have comes from God. God is the one who feeds the mouths of human beings in this world. It doesn't matter which mouth it is or where that mouth is located, God is the one who does that.

The Bible tells us that God is even concerned to provide the needs of the Sparrow. Someone has estimated that every day God's provides enormous resources just to feed the hungry mouths of the sparrows. God does that. He is our source, the one to whom we go.

Perhaps you know someone who may be independent and self-made and all of that, and they would say, “That isn't true? I went out and you “just don’t know” how hard I worked this week. Man, I put in some heavy duty hours. I went myself and got the bread. Don't tell me God got that bread for me, I bought it.”

In the New Testament there's a verse that says that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And we usually, especially in Matthew 4, we take that phrase, that passage, to speak of the priority of the spiritual over the material. That you don't live by the material, you'll really live by the spiritual.

But think about it. Think with me back through the process of God's provision of your bread.

>  What is it that causes bread to meet the needs of the human body?

>  How is it that the things which grow from the earth, which we put on our tables and then put into our bodies, how is it that those things provide the energy and the strength for us to exist and to grow and to be healthy?

How is it that that happens?

It is due to the word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,

He spoke those nutrients into the seed.

He spoke that energy into the food.

He's the one who makes bread, the nourishment that causes us to grow and to thrive as human beings.

God did that.

If God hadn't spoken in the creative process, the nutrients into the seed and the nourishment into the ground and the sun and the rain, and there wouldn't be any food, would there?

I saw this little saying as I was studying this lesson…

Back of the loaf is the snowy flour, and back of the flour is the mill, and back of the mill is the wheat and the shower and the sun and the father's will.

Someone  would say, “Well, I got that bread.”

Well, where did they get the bread that you got from them?

Well, they got it from the mill.

Well, where did the mill get what they got to make the bread?

Well, they got it from the farmer.

Well, where did the farmer get what He got, to give to the mill, to give to the store, to give to you?

He got it from the ground.

Well, where did the ground get it?

He put it in there.

What did He put in? He put in the seed.

What's that?

That's God's miraculous provision for your need, isn't it? God did that. Every step is God in it’s entirety.

I am fascinated with the farmers. 

The massive land they cultivate, the investments they have in machinery, tractors, and technology. 

Did you know that farming is going on 24/7.  Tractors plowing fields at midnight driven by GPS coordinates technology.

Have you ever driven through farm country and noticed how straight the rows as far as you can see.  Straight as an arrow.  Manless tractors plowing, planting, cultivating miles and miles using GPS technology.

Well where did GPS come from.  Everything is from God and God alone.

Your daily bread comes from Him and whenever you stop to think about that the next time you sit down to a meal and it's wonderfully provided, just look around and thank God for all of the things on your dinner table. Whatever you’re eating came from God’s miraculous creation.

Most of us don't really appreciate that because we've never really had our food supply challenged, have we?

A true story from a man who lived up in the northern states recalled an occasion when times were scary. Many times the winter snow would come and cause everything to just shut down. One winter was unforgettable. He said I'll never forget it. We got the worst blizzard you'd ever seen. I mean feet of snow. Out in front of my house was this two lane highway that was a main artery to feed all of the housing projects out there. And it was closed. I mean, you couldn't even see where the road was. All you could tell was the telephone poles on each side kind of outlined the road, but you couldn't see the highway. There was no traffic.

Someone had taken their snow shovel and they had shoveled right down the center of that highway. And I looked out at a site I'll never forget.  People pulling their little sleds down that little slit in the highway to the grocery store and pulling it back home. And then all of a sudden, the word got out that the trucks couldn't get to the grocery store. Have you ever been in a grocery store where nothing was on the shelf? I got there a little late. I could not believe it. The shelves were getting empty, the bread was almost gone. Milk was history, eggs weren't there. People had come and gotten everything they could, put it on their little sled and pulled it down the road back to their home and hunkered down for a long winters night. Sound familiar? Remember Y2K? Remember COVID? Shelves were emptied?

That was kind of scary. But you know, whether it's a storm or whatever, every day we are dependent upon God? Every day when you pray “Our Father, Give us this day Our Daily Bread” it eliminates pride and it causes you to focus on your dependence on Him!

2. Then secondly, notice this, this petition examines the discipline of our lives.

This prayer doesn't say give us this day, our daily wants. You don't have to have 14 sacks of bread, you just have to have your need. Isn't that the way a lot of us live? It's sort of self-centered.  And the Bible does not tell us that God will meet our daily wants, but he will meet our daily needs.  Give us Our Daily Bread -  It is a reminder to us of what Paul said to Timothy when he wrote that, godliness with contentment is great gain.  If we ever sat down and put down what our needs are, they're pretty basic.

In fact, if you have your bibles open to them to  Matthew 6:31 and notice what it says. Jesus is speaking,  he says,

Matthew 6:31-33 NKJV

"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' [32] For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Now Jesus kind of alludes to what our basic needs are.  Someone has said,

>  it's what we put on - our clothes,

>  what we put in our mouth - our food,

>  and what we put over our heads - our house.  

Food, clothing and shelter, and God says you ask for your daily bread.

By the way, did you ever notice that in the New Testament in that passage in

Matthew 7:7, where it says, “Ask and it shall be given unto you, Seek, you shall find, Knock and it shall be opened unto you.“

That if you go back and put all those 3 petitions down in order, it's ask, seek, and knock, almost as if God is saying, “ask, ask, seek, knock, ask. We don't have because we don't ask.  Somebody could say, “I don't have my daily bread.”  Well, we'd have to talk about that because first of all, is it “your daily bread” or “your daily wants?”

And too, this is the most critical, when did you ask for it last time? Some folks that go around grumbling because God doesn't supply their need and they never ask. And of course the reason they don't ask is cause you gotta show up. You gotta show up for prayer once in a while in the morning. How can you ask God for your daily bread if you're working on a week's plan? You know. Ask for your daily bread.

3. Thirdly, this petition eliminates the disease of worry.

I love that!  Anybody here worry. Some of you may worry about worrying. That's true. What you want this prayer to say is, “give us this day, next week's daily bread or next month's daily bread.” Or Lord, I'd like to check in on how I'm going to be fixed for daily bread at the end of this year because I'm a little worried about this year.

This prayer does away with human pride. It brings all humanity before God to request bread. And it not only does away with materialism, as we're reminded it is for our daily bread alone that we are to pray.

But I'd like to encourage you with the truth that it does away with worry. The Bible says that our concern is to be that we pray every day for every day's need. We don't have to pray for tomorrow's need.  And the older I get and the more I get bumped around in life, the more I hear myself saying, I just have to take this one day at a time. I just have to deal with this one day at a time. Life was so daily. Aren't we all there -  just one day at a time? We try to worry about tomorrow's thing.

I saw this while studying.

“Better never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you. For you only make your trouble “double trouble” when you do.”

How many of you know that when you worry about tomorrow, you get tomorrow's trouble today.  Isn't it true? Why don't you just take the bread, God's promise for you today, and live on that. Get the energy out of it. Do what you need to do with that bread, and then realize that when you get up tomorrow, you will have enough energy immediately to worry about tomorrow. But never trouble trouble, unless trouble troubles you, because if you do, you get double trouble. That's what worried does. So you don't have to worry when you know God's in control.

We want to talk about tomorrow's bread and the illustrations of the Bible are so profound. Elijahs experience, for instance, with the miraculous provision that God made for him.  Every day he came back and the flour was just where it had been the day before. It didn't get used up. Why? Because the supplier is God and he doesn't run dry. He has what we need.

And I love this story about the Israelites out in the wilderness and how they got that crummy old bread they didn't like – you know - that manna. You remember what that word means? The word manna means, “what is it?” That's what the word means in the Old Testament language, “what is it?”  So every morning they get up and go out and say there it is. What is it? “What is it?” And every day they go out and get the “what is it?” And every day they could collect only enough for that day. Remember, in fact, God said if you collect enough for the next day, what you don't eat today that you thought you were going to save tomorrow when you get up, you're going to say,”what is it” all right!”  Because it's going to be spoiled.  And it'll stink – so don't do it. And God provided that every day through the week, with the exception of the sixth day, they could collect enough daily bread for that day. And on the sixth day they could collect enough for two because they weren't allowed to collect on the Sabbath day, remember? So they could collect enough for two, and for some reason on the Sabbath the bread didn't spoil. But you tried doing the Friday thing on Monday, get ready for some stinky what is it. God says one day is all you get. Certainly a test of obedience.

Life pushes us in that direction to live one day at a time. I'm not talking about not planning long range and all of that. I mean, I understand that and we should.  But there is no guarantee for tomorrow.  All we have is now.  Give us our daily bread.

4. Finally, this petition enlarges our duty to pray.

Please note that the text does not say, Give me this day, my daily bread. The pronouns in the plural, isn't it. Give us this day, Our Daily Bread. And if that is true, and this prayer is the answer to pride and materialism and worry, it's also the answer to selfishness, isn't it? I've reminded you many times that Christ did not write in the hearts of His disciples this prayer. Give me this day, my daily bread. But give us.

Whenever we pray for Our Daily Bread, we should be concerned about the daily bread of others too. Do you see the people on the corners with the signs? Does that ever get to you? That their daily bread might be something God would want you to have a part in helping.  And you got to be careful and you got to let the Spirit of God motivate you. But you know what? It doesn't mean you have to respond to every need, but it means you have to be ready to respond every need, doesn't it? If you care about the daily bread of other people while you're praying for your daily bread, you pray this, right? God's going to make you sensitive about the daily bread of others, and when they have a need and you're aware of it, you realize that God might just use you to be the answer to their prayer. Isn't that true?

Several years ago, my wife Pamela was instrumental in forming our Backpack Ministry here in our church.  During the school year, bags of food are taken to 3 or 4 campuses within NISD.  These bags of food are put into specific children’s backpacks at the end of day on Friday as the leave to go home.  Enough food to help sustain them during the weekend in homes  where families are perhaps struggling and food may or may not be available. A wonderful ministry and such a need.  There are children on every campus that go to a home with no food assuming they have a home.  Are there are some where their home may be the backseat of a car.  That’s right.  Right here in our fair city.  School counselors identify these kids and know who  needs help.

Trey and Lindsey Turner now direct the ministry.  Preston and Kathy Lamar and many others assist in the preparation of these bags of food every week.

God does His best work through people. Have you noticed that?

Do you have a need today? God delights to meet your needs. It gives God honor to meet your needs. It is really a dishonor to the heavenly Father if He does not meet the needs of His children.

So we’ve discussed the “why” we pray. What about the “how” to pray for daily bread.  This question could be divided into 4 steps.

1. Most importantly, you must establish a proper priority.

Notice the priority in this prayer. Look again in verse 9: Our Father, which art in heaven hallowed be, watch it, thy name. Kingdom come, Thy will be done. Do you see that? Thy name, thy Kingdom, thy will. And then notice how the prayer changes in verse 11.

First of all, there is God's name, God's Kingdom, God's will, and then our need. Now if you don't get that priority straight, you'll never have power in prayer. God is not some sort of a heavenly bellboy of up there running around to meet your needs. And prayer is not some sort of a place where man gets his will done in heaven. Prayer is the way that God gets His will done on earth. That's so very important that we understand this.

One of the keys to understanding it all is the way the Lord Jesus Christ summed it up in Matthew chapter 6:33.  And that is an incredible verse. Look in verse 33, our Lord sums it up by saying this,

Matthew 6:33 NKJV  “But seek first the kingdom of God (that's the priority) and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will, and our bread, our debts, our temptation. Do you see it? There must be a priority established. Can you say from your heart, dear God, the desire of my heart is first of all is your will. And then you see, you're asking God to give you bread. Now why?

What is bread for? What bread is to strengthen and nourish your body. When you eat bread, the chemistry of your body turns that bread into strand. What is strength for? For activity. Why should God give you more strength to serve the devil? Good question. Why should God give you body strength if you're not going to use that strength to serve him? So you must pray, “Lord thy will,” before you pray “our bread.”

There's one place that God will not work and that is second place. The Bible says in all things He must have the preeminence. God does not want to place in your life. God doesn't want prominence. In your life, God demands preeminence. Seeking what? First The Kingdom of God. Seek ye first, the Kingdom of God. So if you're praying for bread or praying for any need, there is your priority that must be established.

2. All right now let's move on to the second thing. Not only should you should you establish a proper priority, but then you must express you're prayerful petition.

Jesus taught us to pray this way. Give us this day Our Daily Bread. May I tell you why some people don't have their needs met? They don't ask. It's that simple. They don't ask.  Turn over to Matthew 7:11.

Matthew 7:11 NKJV  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Look in verse 9,

Matthew 7:9 NKJV   Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

Lord, give us some bread. We need some bread. When you establish the priority, you express the petition, you just simply say, Lord, I have a need. You know what James said, the apostle James and James chapter 4:2

James 4:2 NKJV  You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

Did you know that you deny yourself when you don't pray? Did you know that prayer is the key that unlocks Heaven's treasure? One very important 3 word statement we all need to hold dear to our heart: God answers prayer. God answers prayer.

Remember this verse from VBS

Lets read Nehemiah 1:6

Nehemiah 1:6 NKJV  please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have sinned.

The one who created the universes? The great eternal God will hear me! I can talk to Him! Then I can call upon Him, and He will answer me and show me great and mighty things. But if God does answer prayer, let's pray. If we don't learn to pray, you’ll have not because you asked not.

I wonder if someday when we get to heaven, God's not going to take us on a tour of our heaven. Then he's going to say, by the way, just stop right here. I want to open this closet door. I want you to look in there. Do you see all those things? Those were yours, but you never asked for them. Those were blessings I wanted to give you. I wanted to help you. I wanted to bless you, but you did it your way, didn't you? Those were the blessings you could have had, but you did not have, simply because you did not ask.

Folks, after a priority, then there comes a petition. Give us this day. Bread sufficient for us. That means that God is going to meet our need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19.

Philippians 4:19 NKJV   And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

It doesn't say God's going to meet our greed. God is going to meet our need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus.  Our Lord taught us. Pray for bread, not for cake necessarily sometime. Times we want things we don't need and thats true and sometimes we need things we don't want.

3. There's a God that reigns in the heavens and many times we have not because we ask not. That is the third thing. If you would pray for daily bread, not only must you establish a proper priority, not only must you express a prayerful petition, but also you must exercise a personal performance, and this is very important. Prayer is not a substitute for work. It is not a substitute for diligence. Somebody says, well, you know I'm not going to work. God just feeds the fowls of the air. Well, He does feed the fowls of the air. Chapter 6:26.

Matthew 6:26 NKJV   Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

You say, well, God feeds the birds, then God will feed me. Well that's true. But how does God feed the birds? Does God throw it in the nest? No, they get out and scratch for it. How is God going to feed you? You want God to give you bread? Let me give you some verses.

Genesis 3:19.

Genesis 3:19 NKJV   In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."

Here's another verse, 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 NKJV   For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.

It's not cruel.

Listen to Proverbs 20:4 

Proverbs 20:4 NKJV   The lazy man will not plow because of winter; He will beg during harvest and have nothing.

Then you won't have anything to eat proverbs 28:19

Proverbs 28:19 NKJV   He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, But he who follows frivolity will have poverty enough!

You just sit back and do nothing and say, well, I'm going to show my faith by doing nothing. To the contrary, you will show your faith by doing something.

The Bible says you pray for bread, I will give you bread, God says. But he also says, if a man will not work, neither should he eat. And so there is a performance that we are to exercise.

4. One last thing. Enjoy a present provision. Now notice the prayer.

Give us this day. Our Daily Bread. Not tomorrow. Just today. Just today. And Lord help me to enjoy what you've given me today, whether it be little or whether it be much. If you've not learned in whatsoever state you are to be “content,” you will never be content. Be content with a little and don't worry about tomorrow.

The Bible says let us be content. Now I know what I want. I know what you want. I want to have enough that I don't have to depend on God. I want to have some money in the bank, you know, and I want to have something there - so that when tomorrow comes, then I don't have to worry about it. Isn't that what we want? Security. Question. Is that really security?

Give us this day. Our Daily Bread and we, we want to have it all laid up. You know, the Bible says don't trust in uncertain riches that can take wings. You say money talks. That's right. It says goodbye. I mean, it's gone. You say, well, I've got it all. Well, you may not have it all.

Just stay connected to God. Just stay connected to him. Your source is not in the bank, Your source is above you. Our Father give us today Our Daily Bread.

And then last of all, dear friend. There is a provision. A daily provision to enjoy this day. Just thank God for what He's giving you this day.  Has God taking care of you today, then don't worry about tomorrow.  The Bible does not tell us not to plan, but the Bible very clearly tells us not to worry.

One last thing, listen. Jesus said. In Matthew chapter 4:4.

Matthew 4:4 NKJV   But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"

Man shall not live by bread alone. Isn't that what he said? That's what he said.

Now he says in 6:11, give us this day Our Daily Bread. But he also said man shall not live by bread alone. And then he said, I am the bread of life. Oh, there's more than one kind of bread.

Every piece of bread that you eat, in order for you to eat that, a corn of wheat had to fall in the ground and die in order for you to eat that bread.

Jesus is heaven's bread for earth's hunger. And Jesus the Son of God came, died, and was buried and raised again and became the bread of life.

We may enjoy our meals. But if you don't have Jesus. There's a hidden hunger that will never be satisfied till it's satisfied and the Lord Jesus Christ.  His name is Jesus. And I know that I know he will be sufficient for tomorrow.