Of all the days in the year,
365 of them, this day they call Father's Day
is my unfavorite for more reasons than one. There's a difference between
giving honor where honor is due and praise where it's undue. First reason that I don't care
for these kind of occasions, Mother's Day, Father's Day. I
know that not everyone, and probably not everyone here right now,
had a good and godly father. I did, for which I'm very grateful
and thankful. I wished I had honored him more
while he was here. than I did. I'm thankful for
him, but I do realize that not everyone has that. And I've listened
to too many preachers in my time on mother's day and on father's
day, uh, humiliate the congregation by bragging on their own parents
for the whole sermon. And it's especially unpleasant. for those whose parents weren't
so great. So I'm not going there. This is Father's Day second.
It's the Lord's Day first. It's the Lord's Day. Another
problem I have with it, not just in church, but out of church
today, everywhere, the secular world, there'll be multitudes
of men honored like kings today. When really they've done nothing
but played the fool and brought children into the world that
they don't even love or care about. Don't have a clue what fatherhood
means. Another problem I have, this
is the worst one. I look in the mirror and see the poor excuse I am
for what God's word teaches a father ought to be. You see, God himself is the ideal. The rest of us fall a million
miles short. Some of us two million. Think
about how far that is. Well, If every preacher in this county
would open God's word and tell folks what God says about it,
instead of making a bunch of scoundrels feel good about themselves
on a day like this, I'm going to tell you what would happen.
95% of preachers would tote a whooping when they went out the door.
That's what would happen. You say, well now preacher, I
feel pretty good about myself. You've been reading a different
Bible than I've been reading. Here's the only bright side of
this whole thing. Christ said to us in this text,
you crawl off in secret and you address my father as your father. When you pray, you say, our father, our father. In this passage on
prayer, there is an emphasis placed on
the fact that God, our creator is more than creator to his people. He's got all sovereign in power
and authority. He's God all holy and all wise,
but he's more than all that to his people. And the emphasis is this, he
is our father. It'd really do us good to get
ahold of that. Note in verse six, it's thy father. In verse
eight, it's your father. And in verse nine, it's our father. And to think that someone as
holy as God owes creatures as unholy as you
and I access into his presence is absurd. He doesn't know it. No. And yet he's made it so. Prayer is by invitation only. We couldn't obligate him, but prayer is by invitation. He invites his children into
his presence. Three things he's done in this
respect. One, he has opened the way of access to himself through
the broken body, the shed blood, the crucifixion of his dear son. Hebrews 10, 19 and 20. having
therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest. How?
By the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way, not
like the Old Testament where they had to bring those animal
sacrifices and bring it to the priest and go through all that.
Oh, no, no. By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. You remember when he was crucified,
the Bible said the veil of the temple was rent entwined from
top to bottom. It was God's doing. Not from
bottom to top, but from top to bottom. A new and living way was opened
up. Two, he has appointed prayer
as the chief means of communication between himself and his people. Luke 18 one, Christ said, men
are always to pray and not to vain. First Thessalonians five
17, Paul, the apostle said, pray without ceasing. Philippians four and six. He
said in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving,
let your request. be made known unto God. He has
appointed prayer as a chief means of communication with his children. And three, three, he has given
us a pattern, a how-to here in this model prayer. Christ says
in verse nine, after this manner, therefore pray ye. Manner. That is, this is the pattern. Not meaning necessarily that
it's right or wrong to use these exact words. People debate over
that, but there's some principles here
to be followed. Now, you all know, this is commonly
referred to as the Lord's prayer. And it is that in the sense that
he gave it. But it's a model, a pattern for
us. It's not a prayer that he himself
would have prayed because there's mention in here about forgive
us our debts. Luke's account says, forgive
us our sins. Well, he didn't, he didn't need
to pray that ever. He had nothing to be forgiven
off. So it's a model prayer for us. Now notice in verses five
through seven, before the actual prayer, the Lord does not speak
of prayer for God's children as a possibility or an option. He does not say if you pray,
but three times, he says, when. Verse five, and when thou prayest. Verse six, but thou, when thou
prayest. Verse seven, but when you pray. Verse five is a warning against
hypocrisy. Be real or forget it. Verse six is an instruction concerning
privacy. Get along with God. Instead of
telling everybody else what you don't like, take some time and
explain it all to him. You might get him to understand. And verse seven is an instruction
concerning vain repetition. And verse eight said, that's
not how, that's how not to do it. Be not ye therefore like
unto them. Then also in verse eight, we
learned that prayer is not to inform the Lord of anything. Your father knoweth what things
you have need of. before you ask him. Listen carefully to this statement. I just jotted this down a few
moments ago. Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It's laying hold of his promises. It's not an effort to talk him
into doing what he's not going to do. That's what we try to
do, don't we? Prayer is not an effort to talk
him into doing what he's not going to do. It's communicating
with him concerning things he's promised to do. He's promised
to supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. Verse nine, after this manner,
therefore pray ye. This is how to start in Luke's account. Chapter 11,
verse two, Christ said, say, use your lips, your tongue, your
mouth. This is how to start say, this
is what you say. Use these very words. Our father. which art in heaven. All right, I have five thoughts
for a few minutes this morning about this address. Our father. Which art in heaven. Given to
us by the Lord Jesus Christ, he says. You say our father,
which art in heaven number one, acknowledge his position. Earthly fathers are in many cases,
no wiser than the children. Hello. But we have a father in heaven. The little phrase in heaven is
not so much to say where he is, but who he is. from the heavenlies. He is above
all, sovereignly ruling over all, sees all, knows all. We're not addressing the wisest
of earthly fathers. We're addressing the one and
only heavenly father. Acknowledge his position. He's all-wise, all-knowing. When you pray, you might not
know this, so listen carefully. When you pray, you're not talking
to a dummy. And you're not talking to a deaf
person. Our Father, which art in heaven. Your prayer is not informing
Him of anything. We read that. but it's him eventually
informing you. That's why we miss the value
of prayer. You might not get it immediately, but keep communicating. I hear preachers say, and I read
this sometimes, this don't give up, keep praying. You'll get
through to him after a while. No, no, he's got it. He'll get
through to you after a while. That's the mission. That's the
mission. But if we read and learn who
he is, sovereign in power and authority, gracious in compassion
to his children and merciful in our failures and forgiving
in our disobedience, acknowledge his position. He's our father. heart in heaven. Number two,
praise him for the relationship. Praise him for the relationship. Now, if you listen to a lot of
quack religion in our time, you might get this backwards. But
the truth is, if you belong to him, You know it wasn't you that took
him in off the street. It was him that took you in off
the street. The child don't choose to have
a father. The father chooses to have a
child. That's the order. And it's only
fool's religion that turns that around and there's lots of them
around this country. We ought to identify with Jesus,
try to bail him out. He's about to go under. No, no,
no, no, no, no. Got it backwards. Being our father now, get this,
our father means that he's the one that's begotten us. Find that word begotten. And the scripture is a good bit,
begotten. Way over in the early chapters
of Genesis, when it's got all those names you can't pronounce,
you will find so-and-so begat so-and-so, so-and-so begat so-and-so. It means he's the papa. He fathered
the child. And we are begotten of God. And he's begotten us on purpose. There's no accidents in the family.
Huh? He chose us. He's begotten us. The fact that God chose us to
be his children. Election. It's a hush hush subject
in a lot of places. You bring it up out here among
religious folks and they'll tell you right quick, we're not going
there. But I declare to you for God's
children, it is a healthy, a very healthy thing to understand and
feed on the blessed truth that God wanted you to be his child
before you wanted to be his child. That's healthy. Matter of fact,
if he hadn't wanted you first, you never would have wanted him.
Is that not what the Bible says? We love Him because He first
loved us. It's the reason and it's the
only reason you love Him or can love Him. It's because He loved
you. You say, well, I hope I love Him. If there's a desire to love
Him, if there's a heart to love Him, He gave you that. He became
our Father on purpose. James 1.18, of his own will begat
he us. Wasn't anybody said to the Lord,
why don't you decide to have a family? Wasn't anybody around to say
that? From the eons of eternity, he
purposed it. predestinated it, decreed it
of his own will, beget he us. He wanted it. He's more thrilled
about it than you are. Why did he do it? First Peter 1.3, according to
his abundant mercy. That's why. What kind of God would want the
likes of you to be his child? Couldn't he have done better?
Hey, it's according to his abundant mercy. That's why in the prophet
Ezekiel chapter 16, it's a very lengthy and ignored book of the
Bible. Ezekiel 16, God said you were
like a newborn. that nobody wanted and you were
cast out into the field naked. And he said, I passed by and I saw you polluted in your
own blood. And unlike everybody else who
said, I don't need to get involved with that. He said, I had compassion on
you. What do you think you'd be this
morning? If the Lord hadn't come your
way. You may be here this morning
and don't know that he has come your way, but he's got you here.
He's got you here. See. According to his abundant
mercy, you didn't know the shape you were in. Dying, helpless. How has he begotten us? Peter
continued, 1 Peter 1. He hath begotten us again, not
physically, but spiritually, unto a lively hope, which means
an ever-living hope. How? By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. from the dead. God wanted me
to be His child to the extent that He came into this world
in the person of His Son, Emmanuel, God with us. And He died on a
cross of shame and it was a deliberate work. He did it on purpose. the relationship. First John
3.1, behold, that word behold means look at it, listen up,
behold what manner of love, what quality of love, what incomprehensible love to
us, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God." Wow! Wasn't there any better
prospects than me? He's not into better prospects. They said about Jesus, this man
receiveth sinners. If you can put yourself in that
category, there's hope for you. You see, most people are not
too bad to be saved. They're too good to be saved. I don't need a savior quite that
bad. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Praise him for the
relationship. He did it. He did it deliberately. He's begotten us. Somebody said,
boy, I'm glad I decided to get saved when I did, like God had
nothing to do with it. His children know better. I know
better. You know better. Number three,
praise him for his provisions. Our father, our father. Our father
don't leave his children to make it on their own. You see a lot
of that in this world. But our father don't leave his
children to make it on their own materially or spiritually. Later in this same chapter, Matthew
6, Jesus talks about material things. And he said, look at
the birds out here flying around, lighting in the trees and on
the power line and all, the fowls of the air. And he's saying this to us now.
Initially, he was saying it to the disciples, but this book
is divinely inspired. So he's saying it to us this
morning. Your heavenly father feedeth them. He takes care of these birds. And you're proud enough to say,
Oh, I feed the birds around my house. I've got bird feeders. Did you make the seed? Who really feeds them? And then he said, consider the
lilies of the field. I don't know what kind of lilies
that was in Palestine in those times. Yesterday I saw a bunch
of these old orange ones that grow wild, orange blooms. Look real closely at one of them. Jesus said that Solomon, the
king, in all his glory, in his $10,000 suit, he is not arrayed,
which means dressed. Like one of the common lilies
that God put out in the field. Maybe nobody ever looks at. That's
physical, but our father provides for his children spiritually.
And his children love it and enjoy it and say, thank you,
father. and rejoice to wear the robe
of righteousness, Christ's righteousness that's given us. That's how we're
dressed. And rejoice in what he puts on
the table, the bread of life, his son. Oh my, I've had my fill of this
bunch of church hoppers that gets bored Like they've exhausted
the Bible. Preacher, we feel like we ought
to look for something else. Yeah, I know. Goats love garbage. God's sheep love the true bread
come down from heaven. God's sheep like the lilies of
the field love being clothed with the perfect righteousness. It's not how I look to anybody
else. Our Father says you're beautiful. Because He's not looking
at you in you. He's looking at you in His Son.
We're clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Number
four, petition Him for restoration. We constantly need restoring. because we constantly fall. I got to quit telling y'all what
I'm sick of, because I know it gets old, but I'm going to do
one more. I'm sick of a lot of folks that's always on top of
it. I mean, they never mess up. And they'll tell you, oh, in
the perfect will of God all the time, Got all the sin out of
my life and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We constantly
need restoring because we're constantly falling. When did you make it through
a day without messing up? Isaiah 64. Verse 6, but we are all. It's
an unclean thing. And all our righteousness is. Or is filthy rags? Not not our
sins, not not our worst, but our best. Our righteousness. Or is filthy rags? And we do all fade is a leaf. By the way, those filthy rags,
some say, are the stinking discarded lepers' bandages by the side
of the road. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. And we do all fate as a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And the next verse says, and
we don't even care. And there is none that calleth upon
thy name. People tell me, oh, I'm going
to get my life straightened out sometime on down the road. No,
you're not. There is none that calleth upon
thy name, stirreth up himself to take hold of thee, for thou
hast hid thy face from us. We can't find him. He'll have
to find us and has consumed us because of our iniquities. but you're our father. You're
not just our God, our judge, you're our father. The next verse
Isaiah 648, but now, oh Lord, thou art our father. There it is. We are the clay and thou our
potter. And we all are the work of thy
hand. We've made such a mess of our
lives. Thousands just like you and I
live and die every day. And in a month's time, there's
no remembrance in this world that we ever existed. Father, do something for us. Only you, Father, can make our
lives count for anything. Without you, Father, as earthly fathers, all we can
do is produce in our sons more failures like ourselves. But our Father, which art in
heaven, help us. Be merciful to us. The next verse
nine, be not wroth, very sore, O Lord. Neither remember iniquity
forever. Behold, see, we beseech thee. We are all thy people. We've blown it, yes. But you're our father. You're
our friend. Friend that sticketh closer than
a brother. A lot of fake friends in this
world. A lot of sorry earthly fathers in this world, but not
our heavenly father. He's a real friend. He'll be there. Let me let you in on a little
secret. You can afford to tell him everything. You can trust him with the whole
truth about yourself. You can pour out your heart to
him in secret. Be honest with him about the
whole mess. We have to say with Paul, the
apostle, Oh, wretched man that I am. Father, what a fool I've
been in so many ways, so many times. And we have to say with Job,
Behold, I am thou. I can't even think right. Pray and say, Our Father. Our Father. Say it a thousand
times. Our Father. Our Father. When that prodigal came home
in Luke 15, You've all read the story. He
had it all planned out. He said, I'm going to ask for
a job like one of the hired servants. I won't even mention, claim to
be part of the family. They probably won't recognize
me anyhow. I'm just going to go there looking for a job as
one of the hired servants. But he messed up. He messed up. His very first word was, Father. And it was over. Finally, number five, acknowledge
the family. Acknowledge the family. Now we
need about a month on this one, but I'm only going to take three
or four minutes. Okay. Acknowledge the family. I'm talking about earthly family,
your heavenly family. And look what Jesus says here,
before you call him father, this is verse nine, before you call
him father, don't let that be your first word. Acknowledge
that he's our father. He's not my father any more than
he's the father of all the children in his family. That'd be good for some of us
to get a hold of. I've heard men pray in public
meetings. My father, I guess they thought that was spiritual,
but we're never told to pray my father. It's our father. So what's the
difference? Well, for one thing, If I'm mad at you and I would
disown you and I would kick you out of the family and I would
not consent that you're my brother or sister, I can't pray at all. Because Christ said for us to
pray our father. I've got to include you. I can't
pray for myself without praying for you. So I can't pray at all if I've
kicked you out. I can't even expect him to hear
me if I've kicked you out. It's our father. Acknowledge
the family. You remember Luke 18? A Pharisee and a publican, the
Bible said, went up to the temple to pray. And the Pharisee, he
said, This was in his prayer now. I'm glad I'm not like this
public. He was worse than the public
thought he was better. He might've been more moral.
Probably was certainly more religious, but the public couldn't went
back to his house. Justified. The Pharisee didn't. So it's always our father. If you run out of anything to
talk to the father about, don't talk to him about how much better
you are than some folks. Talk to him about how much worse
you are than some folks. It's our father. Well, this is
my father's day message. We have a heavenly father worthy
of the name. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. But in the beginning of this
model prayer, Jesus said, don't miss this. Don't miss this. You
address him. Our Father. You say, but I feel
like the lowdownest worst child he's got. That's the way you're
supposed to feel. You say, I can't even hardly
bring myself to call him father. Oh God, dear Lord. The man upstairs. No, please. That's blasphemy. You make yourself, Jesus said
it, address Him, our Father, which art in heaven.