Seeking the Face of GodUsing the Ancient Prayer

Jesus Gave Us

“Our Father In Heaven”The Gospel of Matthew 6:5-14

The Season of Lent 2015

What comes into your

mind when you think of

“God”??

Moralistic

Therapeutic

Deism

“What comes into our minds when we think

about God is the most important thing about us.”

Seeking the Face of GodUsing the Ancient Prayer

Jesus Gave Us

“Our Father In Heaven”The Gospel of Matthew 6:5-14

The Season of Lent 2015

1 the revolutionary invitation

2 the radical implications

Be on the lookout for...

5 And when you pray, you must not be

Matthew 6:5-13

like the hypocrites. For they love to standand pray in the synagogues and at thestreet corner, that they may be seen byothers. Truly, I tell you, they have receivedtheir reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door

Matthew 6:5-13

“…and pray to your Father who is insecret. And your Father who sees insecret will reward you. 7 “And when you pray, do not heap upempty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for theirmany words. 8 Do not be like them, for

Matthew 6:5-13

“your Father knows what you need beforeyou ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.10 Your kingdom come,your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:5-13

11 “Give us this day our daily bread,12 and forgive us of our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Leader: This is the word of the Lord!People: Thanks be to God!

Jesus’ way of prayer is a revolutionary invitationI

Fruity Monkey

1 Jesus invites us to view ourselves before

an audience of One

2 Jesus invites us to view God as “Father”

“Father”

OT: 39 books = 14x

“Father”

OT: 39 books = 14xNT: 4 gospels = 60x

“You sum up the whole of [the] New Testament…if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father….

‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.”

3 Jesus invites us to view God as

“our Father in heaven”

Jesus’ way of prayer has radical implicationsII

Fruity Monkey

1 As our heavenly Father, God is always gracious

~ The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:3

“Blessed be the God and Father of the

Lord Jesus Christ.”

~ The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:1 & 3

“And you were dead in trespasses and sins in

which you once walked…and were by nature

children of wrath like the rest of mankind.”

~ The Apostle John in the Gospel of John, 1:12

“But to all who did receive him, who

believed in his name, he gave the

right to become children of God.”

“There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every

point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that

no discovery can now disillusion him about me, in

the way I am so often disillusioned about myself,

and quench his determination to bless me.”

2 As our heavenly Father, God is always personal

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under

the law, to redeem those who were under

the law, so that we might receive adoption

as sons…

~ The Apostle Paul in Galatians 4:4-7

“And because you are sons, God has sent the

Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying,

“Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave,

but a son, and if a son, then an heir through

God.”

~ The Apostle Paul in Galatians 4:4-7

“…you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit bears

witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow

heirs with Christ….”

~ The Apostle Paul in Romans 8:15-16

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God; and

so we are.”~ The Apostle John

in 1 John 3:1

3 As our heavenly Father, God is always wise

“You can come before God with the confidence that he is going to give you

what you would have asked for if

you knew everything he does.” ~ Tim Keller, Prayer: Experiencing

Awe & Intimacy with God

Summary

Jesus invites us into a relationshipwith God that entails the privilege of

addressing and experiencing the Creator of the universe

as “Father.”

“If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s

child, and having God as his Father….

“If this is not the thought that prompts and

controls his worship and prayers and his whole

outlook on life, it means that he does not

understand Christianity very well at all.”

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