Sermon Tone Analysis

February 1, 2015

*Intro* – An elderly couple came across an old lamp, rubbed it and got a visit from a genie who gave them 3 wishes.

They were discussing how not to squander this opportunity as the wife put dinner on the table -- stew.

The man hated stew and without thinking blurted out, “I wish I had a good Polish sausage.”

Voila!

The sausage appeared in the middle of his plate.

Well, that set his wife off.

“You old buzzard.

What a waste of a wish!

I wish that sausage was on your nose.”

Voila!

Attached permanently.

Couldn’t pull it off, cut if off or eat it off.

It was just there!

Finally, in exasperation the wife exclaimed, “I sure wish that thing was off your nose.”

Voila!

Back on the plate.

But three wishes squandered.

Nothing to show but a Polish sausage.

So, a disciple has asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Jesus gives a simple answer consisting of 5 petitions.

Simple – yet a profound opportunity that we can squander or use in a powerful way.

So I want us to understand these requests as thoroughly as possible so our requests are informed by God.

These break down into two kinds of petition: needs related to God; needs related to us.

*I.

Needs Related to God*

First note who is addressed.

“Father.”

Honestly, my favorite part of the prayer.

To address our Creator as Father – priceless!

Believers have that right by adoption.

Paul says in Rom 8:15, “but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba!

Father!” Abba – the sound of a child trying to learn to say, “Papa”.

That’s how God invites us to come to Him – with total trust and confidence.

Like a little child who climbs into Dad’s lap.

Starts to tell him something, then gets distracted and heads off for another adventure.

Does Dad say, “Wait a minute.

Get back here and finish the thought!”?

Does he? No!

He rejoices in those moments he had with his child.

He knows the limitation of that child.

That’s how God receives us.

Father.

So, can we pray to Jesus or the HS?

Of course.

All are prayed to in the Bible.

But all prayers eventually end up on the desk of the Father.

You might as well start there.

There is no precedent in Scripture, BTW, for praying to saints or anyone else.

We have access directly to the Father, and God encourages us to use it.

Why a go-between when you can go straight to the top?

You know, when it’s time to ask the boss for a raise, it can be scary, right?

We feel a little intimidated.

We call him Sir.

We sure don’t call him “Daddy.”

That person may like us and still shoot us down quickly.

It’s a whole different feeling from going to ask Dad for something, isn’t it?

And for those of you who didn’t have a great human father, or you lost him early in life, you still know what a father can and should be.

That’s who we address in prayer.

Our heavenly Father.

So come with reverence, but come with confidence.

He is our Master, our Savior, our Guide, our Shepherd, our Provider, our Helper.

But what I love most of all is that He is our Father; He wants us to address Him as such.

That says a lot right there.

“Father.”

So 2 needs related to God.

*A.

Hallowed Be Your Name*

This may sound like adoration or praise.

It’s neither.

It’s a petition for God’s name to be exalted.

“Hallowed” is a form of the word αγιαζω, “to make holy.”

It could be translated, “Let your name be made or declared holy.”

[not love – holy]!

Names were meaningful in antiquity.

It represented his whole nature or character – it defined him.

This first request in Jesus’ model prayer, #1 on the list, is that God’s holy character will be known to the world -- that God’s reputation will be lifted up – that God will be known for who He really is and not whittled down to some manageable size and shape by man’s reason.

That He will be known for who He is, not who we’d like Him to be.

“Holy” speaks of two things – God’s otherness and His moral perfection.

That is the basis for morality.

Sin is not evil because it violates a law; it is evil because it violates God’s character.

This request is that God’s character be foremost in our minds.

For most of us, that’s a long way down the list.

But as we grow in Him, we will long for Him to be known for who He really is.

Now, since God is beyond our sensual perceptions, the only way we can possibly know Him is by His own self-revelation.

We can’t define Him; we must accept His own self-definition.

But while people still overwhelming believe in God’s existence, what most really believe in is a God of their own definition.

We have made Him what we want Him to be as opposed to what He really is, do you see? Philosopher Blaise Pascal identified man’s arrogance in this regard when he said, “God made man in his own image and man returned the compliment.”

He’s right.

Our culture largely believes in a God they have created as opposed to God who really is as revealed in His Word.

One onerous example is found in Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

The untimely death of his son caused Kushner to question his faith.

He reasons that God must have been powerless to prevent the tragedy.

He concludes, “I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it, more easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die.”

In other words, I can only worship a God who conforms to my own sense of morality, whether or not that corresponds to His own self-revelation – which it certainly does not.

We can sympathize with Kushner’s grief.

But his solution – to define a diminished God in his terms and worship that God is nonsensical.

Jesus raised the widow’s son in Luke 7.

That means God could have kept him from dying in the first place, but He allowed it for some greater good.

And if the rabbi needs an OT reference, God, through Elijah raised the widow’s son in I Kings 17.