Key Truth: Our primary concern should be our ability to glorify God given that He who is truly other than us has adopted us as our Father.

Introduction:

Q: Would you describe your walk with God as more individualistic or communal?

“This address lends a twofold character to the entire prayer. On the one hand it pervades it with a childlike trust (‘Our Father’), on the other hand, with reverence and an awareness of distance (‘in heaven’). Such a frame of mind grants God the honor that is His due and grants the person praying the certainty that he will be heard.”

Herman N. Ridderbos, Matthew

Invocation: Part 1: Our Father:

Matthew 6:9a

“Every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, every time we open our mouths and say, 'Our Father,' we should be reminded of our adoption, that we have been grafted into Christ and have been placed in this intimate relationship with God, a relationship that we did not have by nature.”

R.C. Sproul, The Prayer of the Lord

Q: How is God near and personal to you? How are you experiencing Him as a Father?

Invocation: Part 2: In Heaven:

Matthew 6:9b

“Just to pray to a God who is “in heaven,” is a warning against contemporary domestication of God. Here is a God who is not some pale image of ourselves and our best aspirations. This God doesn’t live here in our country, is not housed within our sanctuaries. God the Father rules from heaven.”

William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life

Q: How is God truly different from and other than you? Why is this a good thing?

6:9c: First Petition: Hallowed be Your Name:

“(I)f we take the risk of calling (God) Father, then we are called to be the people through whom the pain of the world is held in the healing light of the love of God. And we then discover that we want to pray, and need to pray this prayer….Our Father in heaven, may your name be honoured. That is, may you be worshipped by your whole creation; may the whole cosmos resound with your praise; may the whole world be freed from injustice, disfigurement, sin, and death, and may your name be hallowed."

N.T. Wright, The Lord and His Prayer

Q: What are some of the ways in which you are actively working to hallow God’s name? What is the result of God’s name being glorified in both the now and the not yet?

Application:

“(The glory of God) is the purpose for which the world was created. It is the end for which the saints are called and converted. It is the chief thing we should seek….”

J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Vol. 1: Matthew-Mark

Jesus teaches us in Matthew 6:9 that:

- we are adopted as children by God the Father

- God is truly other than and above us evidencing His Lordship

- our primary concern in the Christian life should be our ability to glorify God

Benediction:

Psalm 115:12-15