Matthew:6:9: After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Lu:11:2: And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
The Lord’s prayer starts with praise and ends with praise. This verse is one of praise. The rest of the prayer is one of petition.
Ephesians:6:18: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
We are told here in Ephesians that there are different kinds of prayer. The Lord’s prayer consists of two kinds of prayer. The first one is the prayer of praise and worship. The second one is the prayer of petition.
Three things about God as our Father.
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God is our Father.
The Lord’s prayer is in the plural. He says “Our Father” not my Father. He says “Give us this day our daily bread.” He says “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive.” He says “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Eight plural pronouns. Some people think it is in the plural because his disciples asked him to “teach us to pray”.
But let’s read what Jesus said about prayer before this.
Matthew:6:6: But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly.
Jesus is being very personal here. We all should have a personal relationship with God. But here in the Lord’s prayer, it reminds us that we pray for others needs as well as ours, that we belong to a family.
Ephesians:3:14-15 14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
The family of God or the body of Christ is not only our local church, but the entire church body worldwide.
Matthew 18:19: Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
Again notice the plurality. They shall ask…two agree.
Jesus refers to God as our Heavenly Father fifteen times in the Sermon on The Mount. With Jesus, “Father” was his favorite term for addressing God. It appears on his lips some sixty-five times in the Synoptic Gospels and over one hundred times in John. He is showing us the importance of our realizing that the Heavenly Father is not just Jesus’ Father, but also our Father.
Paul also uses the term our Father for God in the beginning of every epistle he wrote. In the Pauline letters God is described as “Father” over forty times.
Romans1:7: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Greek language, Father literally means nourisher, protector or upholder. The Bible presents the concept of fatherhood in several ways: (1) headship-generating and establishing a household; (2) feeding – nourishing or protecting his offspring; (3) maintenance – upholding that which he established.
God has shown His Fatherhood to us in a direct manner by creating all things and establishing man, and by establishing a covenant with His offspring.
2. Satan is the bad father.
There are two fathers in the world, the bad father and the good father. When we accept Christ we become part of the family of the good Father. Many people have a bad image of father because their natural father was a bad father. Anything you saw in your earthly father that was good he got from the Father God, but everything bad you saw in your earthly father came from Satan. Many people think that out of the trinity the Father God is the mean one and the Son Jesus is the nice one, and the Holy Spirit is the weird one.
John 8:38-45 38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do that which you have seen with your father. 39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus says unto them, If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now you seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 41 You do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, your would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand my speech? even because you cannot hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.45 And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not.
The devil is their father. Two things about the father devil is that he is a murderer and a liar. There is no truth in him.
The father of the unredeemed is the devil. He is a murderer. He is trying to kill everyone. He is trying to kill your family, your health, your finances. If there is a thought in your mind that contradicts the word of God it is a lie of the devil. God is not angry with you. God loves you and has forgiven you. Satan is always lying about you.
3. God is the Good Father.
James 1:13-17 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.15 Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
This is saying not to be deceived. Everything evil in your life does not come from God. God cannot be evil.
Tempted in these verses all are the same word which means to be enticed or drawn away, except the one where God cannot be tempted with evil. This word means that God cannot be touched by, approached by or be in close proximity to evil. If there is some evil in your life it is not from God, but is there because you have been drawn away into that evil.
1Corinthians 10:13: There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.
God makes a way of escape from temptation, and he will not even allow us to be tempted above that which we are able to take care of.
God is a good God. Everything good in our life is from God, and everything bad is from Satan.
Our Doctrine should be: God Good. Devil Evil.
Prayer is talking to the Good Father about what the bad father has done to you. Prayer is saying, God, I got messed up and was listening to the bad father which messed me up. Prayer is telling on the devil.
Psalms:119:68: You are good, and do good; teach me your statutes.
God is so good that he can make bad things good in your life when you pray.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Some people say that the lights are stars, but God created stars, he is not their father.
Philippians:2:15: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
God is the big light and we are little lights. He is the Father of lights. He is our Father.
Variableness or variation is only here in the New Testament. It means there is no possible way he would change. It is because He is good.
The Lord’s prayer begins with Our Father. This is because every bondage we have in live comes from a bad father relationship. We react with a rejection that we are born with. Because we are born rejected from God because of sin. We have become accepted in the beloved. All have father wounds that need to be taken care of. These wounds are either from our natural father or spiritual father.
Jesus in John 14, 15, and 16 tells the disciple from now on to refer to God as father.
John:20:17: Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
Our Father in the Lord’s prayer refers not only to our Father as a believer, but also Jesus’ Father. Jesus was claiming them as part of his family, telling them even before his death, that they were part of his family. Jesus died so we can be part of his family. When we pray we need to remember this.
Galatians 4:6-9 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7: Wherefore you are no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 8: Howbeit then, when you knew not God, you did service unto them which by nature are no gods.9: But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, where unto you desire again to be in bondage?
We get to talk to our Father about our problems. Prayer is conversation with our Father. You have been adopted into the family by a good Father. You can talk to him at any time about things that are bothering you and he will listen. And he will not think evil about you because he only has good thoughts of you.
Romans:8:35-39: 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36: As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37: Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.38: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,39: Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2Thessalonians2:16: Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
God is the owner of the universe. He is the one who is really in charge. It may look like the devil is control of things. But with God on your side, you are the victor.
Which art in heaven
Matthew5:16: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Matthew:5:45: That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew5:48: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Matthew 6:1: Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Matthew7:11: If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
This reminds us that he is Lord of all. He is above the earth and therefore is Lord of the earth. He is above all, he sees all, he is Lord of all and therefore I can relax.
Hallowed be thy name
The word hallowed only appears in the New Testament twice. The word in the Greek is translated in other places 26 times as sanctify. So this means sanctify thy great name. It is always used in the Bible to show the opposite of profane. Hallowed means that God is set apart from all evil that may be in your life. He is not set apart from us because he sent his son to bridge that gap between him and us. Our Father is not causing the evil that is in our life. He is apart from the profane that is in our life.
In these words hallowed be thy name, (1.) We give glory to God; as that, the Lord be magnified, or glorified, for God’s holiness is the greatness and glory of all his perfections. We must begin our prayers with praising God, giving glory to God, before we expect to receive mercy and grace from him. (2.) We fix the end to our prayer, and it is the right end to be aimed at, and ought to be our chief and ultimate end in all our petitions, that God may be glorified. (3.) We desire and pray that the name of God, that is, God himself, in all that whereby he has made himself known, may be sanctified and glorified both by us and others, and especially by himself .
Most of the time that you see hallowed or sanctify in the Old Testament you also see the word profane.
Leviticus 22:32 Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you,
God wants to set us apart from the evil that is in our lives.
Ephesians:2:6: And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
He not only resides in heaven, but also has placed us there in Christ. We are set apart along with Jesus. So when we speak out hallowed be his name, we are declaring that because we are in Christ we are also separated from the evil.
Philippians:3:20: For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:
We need to have a conversation of heaven. We need to separate our tongue from the world as well.
Philippians:2:10: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
God’s name is hallowed because of the work of Jesus on the cross. As we speak his name into our lives every evil thing must bow to that name.
John17:9-11:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.10: And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.11: And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
Goode Christian: learning how to be a good Christian in today's world. 