Our Father (21 of 32)
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Robert Dawson
Matthew 6:9
A children’s Sunday School teacher became concerned about teaching her children the Lord’s prayer especially after listening to one little boy pray, ‘Our Father who is heaven, Howard is your name.’
Most of us know the words to the Lord’s Prayer a little better than that. If not, then by the time we finish with this series I hope that we will. More than simply knowing the words we will do something many have not done and that is stop and consider the meaning and potential impact they could have in our spiritual lives.
Jesus is not simply giving us a prayer to recite. He does not tell us to pray these words but to pray in this manner. It is not so much a prayer to recite as it is a recipe for prayer. He gives us the ingredients that should comprise a vibrant prayer life but also should characterize our relationship with God.
That is after all what this prayer is and prayer itself is really about, a relationship with God.
1. Prayer’s purpose is not to impress others or make us feel good and spiritual about ourselves.
2. It is not to manipulate God into doing what we want or giving what we ask (magic formula).
3. Prayer is not about getting request granted but pursuing a relationship.
That is what the very first words of this prayer teach us. Sometimes we get so familiar with something that we are no longer awed by its beauty.
Have you ever noticed that us flatlanders and sea/ocean deprived people love to go to the mountains or the beach. We run off to the mountains - where many of you will be headed soon I know - and we see them in a way the people who live there year in and year out fail to see them. We run to the beach and see the beauty and power o the ocean and are amazed and those who live there rarely even go.
The same can be said of the great truths of the Bible. Because we are familiar with them we think they no longer hold wonder and beauty for us. ...
Series: Sermon on the Mount
Robert Dawson
Matthew 6:9
A children’s Sunday School teacher became concerned about teaching her children the Lord’s prayer especially after listening to one little boy pray, ‘Our Father who is heaven, Howard is your name.’
Most of us know the words to the Lord’s Prayer a little better than that. If not, then by the time we finish with this series I hope that we will. More than simply knowing the words we will do something many have not done and that is stop and consider the meaning and potential impact they could have in our spiritual lives.
Jesus is not simply giving us a prayer to recite. He does not tell us to pray these words but to pray in this manner. It is not so much a prayer to recite as it is a recipe for prayer. He gives us the ingredients that should comprise a vibrant prayer life but also should characterize our relationship with God.
That is after all what this prayer is and prayer itself is really about, a relationship with God.
1. Prayer’s purpose is not to impress others or make us feel good and spiritual about ourselves.
2. It is not to manipulate God into doing what we want or giving what we ask (magic formula).
3. Prayer is not about getting request granted but pursuing a relationship.
That is what the very first words of this prayer teach us. Sometimes we get so familiar with something that we are no longer awed by its beauty.
Have you ever noticed that us flatlanders and sea/ocean deprived people love to go to the mountains or the beach. We run off to the mountains - where many of you will be headed soon I know - and we see them in a way the people who live there year in and year out fail to see them. We run to the beach and see the beauty and power o the ocean and are amazed and those who live there rarely even go.
The same can be said of the great truths of the Bible. Because we are familiar with them we think they no longer hold wonder and beauty for us. ...
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