Praying to Our Father in Heaven
Prayer: The Most Important Part • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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As we have been going through this sermon series on prayer through the lens of the Heidelberg Catechism we began by noticing that Prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. And we saw that God gives his grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly, asking God for these gifts and thanking him for them.
The Catechism begins its section on prayer by noticing what the Scripture teaches: prayer is central to our relationship with God. Prayer to the Christian is as breathing to the human body.
When Jesus’ disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray”....he taught them the Lord’s Prayer....or what we might call, the disciples prayer....and this morning we begin by reflecting on what is often called the prelude to the prayer. “Our Father, who is in heaven.”.....our Father.....in heaven.
HC teaches that the opening of the Lord's Prayer is designed to create a healthy tension in our praying. And I really do mean "healthy tension". Tension often thought of as negative. So I underline "healthy tension." [Eg. Good sportsmanship involves a healthy tension between and genuine care for and respect for the other team AND a competitive spirit.. . . when you care for the other team you want them to do their best.. you care about how they play etc.. . but you also want to win.. . be better than the other team.. .SO care for the other team AND a competitive spirit are in tension.. . . If you emphasize on or the other.. . .You don't end up with good sportsmanship. And so good sportsmanship involves healthy tension between competition and caring.
The catechism teaches that prayer must also flow out of a healthy tension. . . . Father . . . heaven..
A healthy prayer life recognizes that God is both near and far.. . .. . Our prayers are unhealthy, argueably unbibilical when we pray to God as either too distant, or too close by.
OUR FATHER
1. [Let's Read Rom 8: 14-17a again for a moment]
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
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Passage we read in Romans 8 captures an amazing truth.. . .It really is amazing isn't it? Unfathomable. A lifetime to come to appreciate and understand that the Almighty Lord God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, has adopted us as his children.
Jesus calls him "Father". . ..and he has made it possible for us to call him 'Father.'. . . in fact the Catechism says that the beginning of this prayer is intended to kindle in us the childlike awe and trust that God has become our Father.
In fact, this notion is basic to our prayer.. .Want to dwell on this for a moment.
[Illus. Internship, I prayed "Oh God.". . . DeBolster asked why not "Our Father?" he shared with me the image of his Father.. . . His big hand holding his little hand.. .]
God is near.. . In Christ we may call God father. A term denoting intimacy.
When in Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, I was struck by this fact when I heard a young boy calling out to his daddy, ABBA! . . .
A loving earthly father cares deeply about their children. They want the best for them. They'll do anything for them. They care about all aspects of their daily life. They would do anything they can to protect their children.. .
And the Bible says,
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
In fact the apostle Paul writes that the very reason Jesus came is:
4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
In fact, in his book, Growing in Christ, J.I. Packer writes,
Growing in Christ Adopted
Only those who look to Jesus as Mediator and sin-bearer, and go to God through him, have any right to call on God as his sons.
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Already, early in the OT, we find the kind of Fatherly love that God has for his people...
22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son,
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
19 “I myself said, “ ‘How gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’ I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me.
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Jesus, brings us near to the Father. As we read from our passage in Romans, the Holy Spirit brings about our adoption and sons and daughters of God. The Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are God’s children…and because of that we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
In order to encourage us in our prayers, Jesus says in Matt. 6:8
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
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And one more important thing to say: Our Father…plural..... when we address God as Father, we also find ourselves in community with the children of God....we are part of a family.
This is that aspect of God as NEAR
IN HEAVEN
The Catechism says about this part of the prelude, “We must not think of God's heavenly majesty as something earthly.”
1. First tendency is to think of God within the limits of our own thinking and thereby create him in our own image. God is infinitely bigger and grander and more majestic and mysterious than anything we human beings can imagine in an of ourselves.
We all grow up with mental images in our minds of who God is and what God is like, don't we. Distant, judging, harsh? . . . .and quite frankly oftentimes our early images of God are very much connected to experiences we have of our own earthy fathers....
[Recall conversation with Corrie Walhout.... ]...... was a very independent and quite resourceful woman… Story of "someone" thinking that God wanted to give them broad shoulders to carry all of their burdens.. . . Would not could not pray. Lord please carry my burdens.. . .
Image of our God is like the way we think of our parents.. . or the way we think as parents.. . . Our earthly parents want the "best" for us.. . and for most of them that means.. . good job, nice home, good car on the road, nice family, nice clothes to wear.. . and we think that our Father in heaven wants the same things for us.. . . being a pastor is one of the most special callings in this life.. . my sense is that there are not too many parents encouraging their children to be pastors, or missionaries.. . . Not many are encouraging them to be garbage men.. . . But maybe our Father in Heaven is calling us to give up that kind of life.. . to sell all that we've accumulated to go.. . .. He does that with people in the Bible all the time.. .
[The Catechism says about this part of the prelude, “We must not think of God's heavenly majesty as something earthly.”]
We can so easily get locked into a very earthly way of thinking about God.. .often our thinking is shaped by our earthly relationships to significant people in our lives. Mother, Father, Pastors, Teachers, etc.. . .
[Story of girl at Seminary who for a time could only pray to God as "Mother" because her earthly memory of her father was too painful. . .]
2. Second tendency is not really believe the promise that God can do infinitely more than all we can ask or imagine.
Don't expect to many great things from God. Don't expect a big harvest of souls. Don't expect that this or that person will change much.
Sometimes I sense it when people say something like.. . . "but after all we're only human.. . . Or we're all sinful.". ... sometimes it can be an excuse against change.. ..but sometimes it can result in a sort of defeatist mentality.. .people are people and they don't really change much.. . . We can think that way about certain people.. . .
But look at Paul's life.. . was persecuting the church, then became it's greatest ambassador.. . . Story of alcholic who sat on the steps of Holy Trinity Brompton, Nicky Gumble tells the story.. . . At the age of eighteen, Billy Nolan ran away from the merchant navy. He was an alcoholic for thirty-five years. For twenty years he sat outside HTB drinking alcohol and begging for money. On 13 May 1990, he looked in the mirror and said, ‘You’re not the Billy Nolan I once knew.’ To use his own expression, he asked the Lord Jesus Christ into his life and made a covenant with Him that he would never drink alcohol again. From that day on, he didn’t touch a drop. His life was transformed; he radiated the love and joy of Christ. I once said to him, ‘Billy, you look happy.’ He replied, ‘I am happy because I am free. Life is like a maze and at last I have found the way out through Jesus Christ.’]
[Recall story of Nams....about to take her own life....]
Our Father....loves us dearly and has drawn very close to us through Jesus Christ.... is in heaven and his heavenly majesty and power and glory bring us to our knees in thankfulness and dependence.
Growing in Christ Chapter 4: Which Art in Heaven
The invocation of God in the Lord’s Prayer draws us into just such an awareness. “Our Father” speaks of the quality and depth of God’s love to Christ’s people—all the sustained care and concern that a perfect father could show. “Which art in heaven” sets before us the fact that our divine Father is great—eternal, infinite, almighty: thus it makes us realize that God’s love is unchanging, unlimited, unconquerable in its purpose, and more than able to deal with all the needs we bring when we pray. Prayer shaped and supported by thoughts like this will not be dull
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One dutch writer (Sillevis Smitt, Onze Vader die in de Hemelen Zijt) writes an extended commentary on this opening phrase of the Lord's Prayer.
"Our Father. in heaven. Cure us from our habits of forming you after our own image. Cure us from bringing you down from the heaven of your glory to the narrowness of our conceited commonality. Lead us to envision your stature, to expect all things from you, to rest ourselves in you, to live only for you and to place our trust in you alone. Lord teach us to pray . . Our Father . . in heaven."