Rediscovering the Lord's Prayer: Embracing God as Father

1) "The Lord's Prayer has been important to the church for nearly 2,000 years. As I mentioned, it's been important because after the Sermon on the Mount, what I didn't know was that it was especially important to the church. The Sermon on the Mount was especially important to the church in the first few centuries. It also was important to the church because it was given by Jesus himself. And as Nije Gupta writes in one of his commentaries, it's somehow, the Lord's Prayer somehow captures something central to the Christian faith, particularly regarding the nature and theology of prayer and the Christian life." [16:57] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "We want to see, as we, the elders and the leaders, want to see Red Sea become even more of a church of prayer. It is a goal we are pressing towards, and we see the series on the Lord's Prayer as part of moving toward that goal. And as the church has done through the ages, we recognize this prayer's importance and relevance. Each age, including when Jesus lived, is a time when the world was full of evil, malice, greed, injustice, and hunger. And it is no different today. This prayer and the life of Jesus shows what the heart of God is and what he wants to accomplish." [28:32] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "Yahweh to include Father but in a different way than before because he said he only did what his father wanted so Jesus was implying that God was his father and he demonstrated this by his actions and by his words he demonstrated the heart of God he pushed back against the oppression and the tyranny of their powerful religious elite the chief priests he tried to explain how the kingdom of God worked to the Pharisees who thought the kingdom of God would only appear when Israel was blameless no wonder they were so condemning of people they viewed as sinners instead Jesus hung out with the sinners the most marginalized oppressed of Jewish society Jesus was demonstrating by his actions the heart of God his father he knew that the true exodus and liberation would only come by breaking the power of sin and the power of darkness that held God's creation in bondage and this would only come by Jesus being obedient to his father and Jesus death and resurrection Jesus also expanded the view of God as father in many of the passages and particularly in the Sermon on the Mount where he informed the hearers That God wasn't just their father, wasn't just the father of the children of Israel, wasn't just his father, but was their father." [37:35] (130 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "I see several parts to that invitation. It's an invitation, like Jesus, to begin to think and realize God as our Heavenly Father. That's the first part of the invitation. The second part of the invitation is let the Lord's prayer become part of our prayer life. To think of God as our Heavenly Father. Now I want to be candid here for a second. Because I realize that God as Father, for some of us, is extremely difficult. And in some cases, very painful. Their own earthly father was or is non-existent in their life. Or their earthly father is abusive. Abusive. Physically, emotionally, or both. For some, the term Father conjures up the image of God being male. And all the hurts they have experienced by males. That makes it hard. Either of these experiences are very difficult, make it very difficult to view God as our Heavenly Father. As being kind, accepting, and good. And delighting over his children." [41:25] (100 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "And so I want to encourage us to begin to look at God as Father by looking at the lens through which Jesus lived life because he displayed the character and the heart of God, his Father. So one of the reasons for us to begin to see God as Father, as our Father, is a call to be about doing the work of God until Jesus returns. It's easy when we read, see and read in the paper and watch, to see that God is doing more importantly or more likely on Instagram or some other social media device. It's easy to see all of the darkness and evil around us. And we want to withdraw. And Jesus doesn't want us to withdraw. Jesus left the glory of heaven to come and step into the kingdom of God." [44:45] (74 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "and to make a change by how he lived and died we too as children of god are called to step into the mess and the darkness and be salt and light by caring for the marginalized and the oppressed by being kind and forgiving and praying for our enemies by being a peacemaker by being a generous with our time talents and resources not just to those in the church but to those in need being a people who demonstrate to all around us how we how we live by how we live that there is hope and that god the father cares for them and the second part of the invitation is this you to let the lord's prayer become part of our prayer life i want to acknowledge that prayer is hard work it requires intentionality for some reason i have acquired the reputation that i am a person of prayer and i can't tell you how many times in the morning when i get up i have to be very intentional you about praying like you i just want to jump into my to-do list and my tasks okay i wanted to say that because that's where we all live we have to be intentional and so i want to encourage us to be intentional about the lord's prayer" [46:02] (107 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "i'm going to give us a couple a couple of ways in which we can pray the lord's prayer for us and i want you to pray for us we can incorporate the lord's prayer into our prayer life the first one is the time-honored tradition as using the lord's prayer as a model prayer effectively that's what luke said he said you know when you pray pray like this as a model and it's been used as a model probably ever since that day and so you begin your prayers we begin our prayers with acknowledging and thanking god that he is our father that he chose to adopt us and make his his children and by doing so give us an inheritance and also give us a brother who serves as high priest in the presence of god think about think about that mediating on our behalf his siblings so we can use it as a model of prayer and start by acknowledging god but then the rest of prayer goes hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil so you take each of these petitions and you think about it and you pray for that in your own life but also for the world and i'll give a few examples and i mentioned a few just a minute ago but we can pray that god's will will be done in our family in my life god's will will be done in red sea god's will will be done in our upcoming elections god's will will be done in the conflict of ukraine" [49:21] (140 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "as we pursue these invitations the one to make god and see god as our father my and and to pray my hope is that we will learn to appreciate you the wonder and challenge of being a child of god whose brother is jesus and that we learn to pray the lord's prayer with joy with comfort with a new sense of wonder and a deep deep conviction" [55:22] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "as we wrap up we're going to enter our usual time of giving receiving singing and praying if you want to give there's a black box in the back of the room where you can give you can also give through paypal and if you need directions on how to do that you can do that you can call me and i will walk you through that um zach's going to lead us in a few more songs of worship and if you are a follower of jesus if you're someone who calls god father i want to invite you forward to take communion by taking a piece of bread and dipping it in the juice and then eating and eating the bread and i want you to think about how how awesome god has called us to be his children and to be his children and to be his children and jesus his brother i have to admit that this week i i was reminded anew to think of jesus as my brother he wears multiple hats that's true" [56:02] (85 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)