Mm. The Lord's Prayer opens with two ordinary words: Our Father. But the power of those simple words is anything but ordinary. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah examines the deeply personal nature of God's love for you as a father loves his child.
If you didn't think the creator of the universe could love you individually, listen as David introduces today's message, the relationship of prayer. And thank you for joining. As you know, of late, I have been amazed at how many times the fatherhood of God is brought up in the Bible. We've been teaching on prophecy here recently and been reminded that one of the great names for heaven is the Father's House. And here in this prayer, one of the key ingredients for you and I to grab hold of is the realization that this is a.
conversation we have with our Father in heaven. The prayer begins, Our Father who art in heaven. We're going to talk about that today on this edition of Turning Point as we have called this the relationship of prayer. During the month of August, we're making available a beautiful, enhancing, and encouraging book on prayer called Everything to God in Prayer: Guided Prayers for Your Deepest Needs and Biggest Dreams. I wish it were possible for me to describe this adequately because it is really one of the most beautiful books we've ever produced.
It has a padded cover with beautiful, beautiful lettering, but most importantly, inside are many, many prayers to help you understand how to pray for different things in your life. The index will be your helper. And when you're going through something, maybe you feel like God hasn't been answering your prayer, so you find why does God take so long, or why God hasn't answered my prayer? And there'll be a section in there to help you understand that. Prayer is an adventure, but for many people it's also a mystery.
And we want to encourage you to get this book for your own library and to share with others. It's yours for the asking when you send a gift to Turning Point during the month of August. Just say, please send me the prayer book, and we'll do it. Right now, here's part one of the relationship of prayer from Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9. The prayer that our Lord taught his disciples begins with praise, and it ends with praise.
And in between are the priorities, the provisions, and the protections. God wants us to remember that prayer is first and foremost. a communication with God. And we're going to begin our study of the actual text of this prayer by looking at one phrase together, which goes like this. Our Father who art In heaven.
And there is more there than we can ever get our arms around in the few moments that we have. God is our Father. It is amazing to me that in all the years of my walking with the Lord in the church and as a pastor and as a student of theology. That I have heard so very few sermons on the fatherhood of God. We usually visit it once a year during Father's Day, but we very seldom talk about this truth.
the truth that God is Our father.
Now, men and women, it is no accident that God in His wisdom has given to us. a metaphor with which all of us can identify. Not long ago, I was reminded of the awesome responsibility that I have as a human father. To give my children an understanding of the love and grace and security that is found in the Father in heaven. I have counseled enough over the years.
to know that on Many occasions, people who have struggled with their human father have also struggled with their heavenly father. A person who grows up with a father who is abusive. Will have a very difficult time making the transition into a loving relationship with his heavenly father without some very good help. A person who may grow up with a detached or absentee father. Is likely to have in his own heart the feeling that God in heaven.
is detached and uninterested in him. It's an awesome responsibility, is it not? As Christian fathers, that to some degree at least, We are modeling for our children. A picture of Father God that will in some way. touch the way they worship.
and live. I remember reading some time ago some words that were penned that help us come to grips with this truth. My little boy came to me one day and placed his tiny hand in mine and said, Daddy, what is God like? And I said, God is love and sunshine and all the good things that you know. And he smiled into my eyes and said, Then, Daddy, God must be just like you.
I remembered that Jesus had said that God is like a Father. And I had to bow my head in shame that I, as a father, was so unlike God. End of quote. One of the greatest truths in all of the Word of God is the truth of the Fatherhood of God. And yet, it is misunderstood often by people who read the scripture.
As we talk about the person of our relationship, the person is God the Father. And it is interesting to trace that word throughout the Bible and to discover that in the Old Testament it was not as it is today. In fact, the writers of the Old Testament Had a much different concept. Of their relationship with God than we have in our church. Church age.
I am told that when the scribes who copied the Old Testament scriptures would come to the word for God. Which was put together in a form without any vowels. It is the word Yahweh. That having written that word, they would then throw away their pen, never to use it again for any other writing. For once, having written the word Yahweh, The pen was disqualified to write anything else.
The men and women who worshiped God in the Old Testament. had a great sense of fear and reverence for him. We would do well to learn some of that in our day of easy relationships. But the other side of the picture was that there was very little personal intimacy or personal relationship with the Almighty God. It was done through the instruments of the tabernacle and the temple, but there was not that coming into the presence of God as we have in this side of the cross experience.
In fact, if you go through the Old Testament, you will discover that the word Father as it relates to God is used fewer than 14 times. And in every situation that I have been able to research, It is used of God being the Father of Israel, that Israel is the Son, God is the Father. But it is not used in the personal way that we find it in the New Testament. For instance, in the book of Exodus, we read: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
And the children to whom he refers are the children of Israel. He mentions it again in the 64th chapter of Isaiah. And verse 8, but now, O Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay, and thou art potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. And it's again a relationship between God the Father and the nation of Israel. Isaiah understood that the nation of Israel had a son relationship to God, but it was national, not personal.
What a tremendous difference there is when you cross over the threshold into the New Testament. While I understand the eschatological implications of the Gospels, You cannot get past. Matthew. Before you are introduced to a whole new understanding of the fatherhood of God. For instance, in the sixth chapter of Matthew, where the Lord's Prayer is recorded.
In chapter 6, verse 1, we read that there is to be no reward of our Father if our alms are done for the wrong reasons. In verse 4, we are told that the Father who seeth in secret Rewards openly. In verse 6, we are told that we are to pray to the Father who is in secret, and the Father who is in secret will reward us openly. In verse 8, we are told that the Father knoweth what things we have need of. In verse 9, we are told to pray, Our Father, which art in heaven.
And in verse 15, we are told that the Father will not forgive us if we do not forgive those who have sinned against us. Over and over again, in that section of Scripture, right across the threshold in the New Testament, we see a whole new approach to the Fatherhood of God. It is no longer national, it is now individual and personal. In fact, the word father occurs some 17 times in the Sermon on the Mount alone. If you widen the context, Of the Sermon on the Mount to the four Gospels, you will discover that Jesus Christ Himself referred to the Father more than 70 times.
Now what made the difference? Why is it different now than it was then? Why do we have? not a national relationship with Father God, but a personal relationship. I'm glad you asked.
Because I was going to answer it whether you asked or not. And I want you to take your Bibles, if you will, and I want to show you a wonderful scripture that will help us understand that truth. Galatians chapter 4 is the text. And I love this passage of Scripture because it glorifies the relationship that God has provided for those who love Him. Galatians chapter 4.
And I want you to notice in this passage of Scripture What took place that put us into this new relationship? Have you got your Bibles open? All right. Notice Verse 4, and follow along as I read. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born unto the law.
To redeem those who were under the law that we might receive.
Now, watch this, the adoption. As sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out. Abba father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave.
But a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ. Do you get the picture? Until God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, in the fullness of time. Our relationship was different. It wasn't like it is now.
When that veil was torn, when Christ died on the cross, a whole new way of approach to God was opened up to us. And whereas before we are classified as slaves or servants, God has now changed that whole status and He's made us sons and He's put His Holy Spirit within our hearts so that now you and I can call God Father in the most endearing term in all of the word of God. We are Sons. of the Father. In the Old Testament, We were servants.
In the New Testament, we are sons. In 1 John 3:1, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. That we should be called. the sons of God. When I think about looking up into the face of a loving heavenly Father who cares for me and cares for me more than the most intense love I know as a human, I can say with John, what manner of love is that?
What an incredible thing that is. The fatherhood of God and our relationship to Him has a bearing on a number of doctrines in the Word of God. For instance, the incarnation in Galatians 4, that whole relationship took a change when God sent forth his son born of a woman. But then he mentions the Holy Spirit. Not only is the Incarnation involved, but the day of Pentecost is involved as well.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit changed everything. When the church was born, the Holy Spirit came to live within us, and because of that, we are now able to call God our Father. He is our Father. And Jesus Christ always referring to God as my Father. shows us the way of the relationship between a son and his father.
Our father. who art in heaven.
Now The father part of that phrase is all about intimacy. That's the person. But the place that is mentioned here kind of puts a different twist to it and brings to the passage the tension we always find in the scripture. Have you noticed that? that God by His Holy Spirit has built tension into the Word of God.
In a magnificent way, so that we never go off in one direction too far, but the truth is held together in a kind of insoluble relationship so that we are held at the right place. For instance, If I am only taught that God is my Father, Then I have a tendency to move over into that realm of flippancy, that kind of extra familiarity, the slanguage that is often developed up around religion and personal relationship with the Father, such as the big Dodger in the sky. or the man upstairs or whatever. I don't like those terms because I don't think they reflect the true majesty and greatness of who God is. But when we get over here on this side, my Father, we get into the intimate part of our relationship, we might have a tendency to do that.
if it were not coupled together with the rest of this truth. Our Father Who art in heaven? He's in heaven. And that reminds us. That the earth is his footstool.
and that he is a God of majesty and might. who is worthy. of our praise and of our worship. He is the glorious king. He is surrounded by the angelic host.
In whatever way you wish to imagine it, he sits on the throne of majesty and at his right hand is his son, Jesus Christ. He is ministered to by all the creatures of glory. Think of all the regality that you know in this world, the domain of the kingdom of this world, and multiply it by 100 times 100, and you haven't touched anything of the glory and majesty of the Father who is in heaven. He's in heaven. I don't know about you, but that strips my gears.
How do you do that? I mean, you just get on telling me he's your father, and now you tell me he's up in heaven? One time you say, I think he's approachable, the next time I wonder how I'm going to get through. How many of you remember? Years ago, when John F.
Kennedy was the president. And Life magazine published a whole series of photos of his children. Do you remember those pictures of John and Caroline? Playing with their toys on the floor of the Oval Office. Do you remember that?
Those captured the hearts of the American people like nothing ever. that has come out of a president's family before or after. Why? Because I think in some ways it bridged the gap between these two thoughts. Here was the President of the United States with two little kids playing with toys on the floor of the Oval Office.
Now, I don't think your kids would have been allowed to do that. Nor am I. But his kids were. Why? He was their father.
He was a president of the United States. He was their father. He's in heaven. He's my father. That's the way it is with the Father in heaven, isn't it?
When you became a son, when you were adopted into the family of God as the Son of God. He opened up for you through His Son's death on the cross. A way of fellowship and relationship that makes it possible for you. to bypass going to the temple with an animal sacrifice. and talking to God through a priest.
You can go right into the presence of God Almighty and He will hear you, though I don't understand how He does it. If it all happens on Wednesday, He will hear you. He will hear you. Because you're his son, you're his daughter. And he's your father.
There is a verse of scripture. That puts that all together, and I'd ask you to look it up, but I don't want to lose you.
So you let me read it to you, all right? I want you to hear this: Isaiah 57 and verse 15. Listen to this verse. For thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity. Whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place.
and with him also that is of a contrite and a humble spirit. Wow. Do you get that? He says, Thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. Whose name is holy.
Who dwells in the high and holy place. Oh, and by the way. also with those who are of a humble. in contrite spirit. With you and me.
Incredible. He is our Father. Who is in heaven? and your relationship. to him.
should be built. like that. I should just pause for a moment to say that there is enough in this little phrase to destroy atheism. For it says, Our Father who art. And in that phrase alone, atheism is finished.
I can't imagine an atheist ever praying the Lord's Prayer. You know, one of the sad things about being an atheist is: who do you think when something goes good? I mean, what do you do? This prayer does away with atheism and it brings into a relationship God's children. Did you know that one of the names that is used for this prayer, I think it's a Latin word, it's the word paternoster.
P-A-T-E-R-N-O-S-T-E-R, Potter Noster. You know what that is? That is the first two words of the prayer, Our Father. It's almost as if the name of the prayer has been taken. in that little word to describe our relationship with God.
Let me ask you a question, class. Do you relate to God like that? Are you in fellowship with him? You know, my fathering has changed a lot. How many of you know that just when you figure out what it's supposed to be like, they're all gone?
I finally figured out fathering and now my kids are all gone. And I learned a lot about being a father, and my fathering has moved into a whole new realm. I'm fathering long distance.
Now if I'm like that as a Earthly Father with limited resources. How do you feel? About the Father in heaven who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, he'll pay for it all. And he's waiting for you. To walk into His presence in prayer.
Our Father. who are in heaven. If it is true that he is our Father, And we are his sons. Then there are four. things that I want you to remember.
because of that. If He is our Father, And we are his sons and daughters. And number one, we have a new relationship, don't we? It's a whole new thing that happens when we're saved. The Holy Spirit comes to live within us, and we are born into the family of God.
And Romans 8:39 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We are His eternally. We belong to him. We are born into his family and you can't be unborn. He is ours.
Nothing can separate us. Go and read Romans 8. Look at the whole list that is presented there of the things that might potentially separate you from the love of God. Nothing can separate you. You have a relationship that is eternal with God the Father.
I have said to my children, each of them individually and probably all of them together, on more than one occasion: our love for you is unconditional. No matter what you do, We will love you. You cannot do anything to destroy our love. It is unconditional. And that is human love, but God's love goes beyond that.
It's a whole new relationship. Number two. It says in Galatians chapter 4, that we are Heirs. Oh God. Romans 8 says, We are joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
Listen to me, friends. God put me in His will. He wrote me in his will. He put me in as an inheritor, and when Jesus Christ died, the will was executed. I'm just waiting for my inheritance.
And he'll never write me out. One of these days, because I'm his son, I am going to inherit everything that is mine by virtue of the fact that I belong in the family. I've got a whole new reward to look forward to. Because I'm a son. And he's my father.
And then Galatians 4 also. Brings this truth that I have a new resource. Because the Holy Spirit now lives in my heart. He lives within me. I don't understand this completely, but review with me for a moment the progression of truth as you remember it.
Christ came into the world, He died, He was buried, He was resurrected, and a few days later, He ascended. And before He ascended, He said, Before I ascend, I want you to know that I'm going to send another comforter. Who is not only going to be with you, He's going to be in you. And He sent the Holy Spirit to come to live within us. By virtue of my sonship, I have a resource now.
I have the Holy Spirit living within me. You know what He does? He helps me to be what a son should be. He helps me to walk and live and talk like a son of God. I couldn't do that if the Holy Spirit weren't within me because the criteria is far beyond anything I could ever, ever produce.
But oh, one day when Christ came to live within my heart, He put His blessed Holy Spirit in here. And now I've got this power to live in a way that's beyond anything.
So that when people see me, if I'm living in the power of the Holy Spirit, they say, He must be one of his sons. She must be one of his daughters. Do you see it? When the Holy Spirit came to live within you, when you accepted Christ into your heart, you got the blessed Holy Spirit to come and give you the inward strength and power to live in light of who you really are as a Son of God every single day. I've got this resource because He's my Father.
That's power. I think one of the things that happens often when we teach like this is that some people who listen have not had good fathers, and so it's very hard for them to understand the beauty of the fatherhood of God. I had a good father. I hope I've been a good father. But I know fatherhood is very important, not only in life, but in understanding the Scripture, because He's Father God.
And throughout the Bible, we'll find many illustrations of how the Father treated his children that help us understand how we should deal with our children. It's a tremendous study. And the Lord's Prayer is part of that study. I hope you'll stay with us as we continue our journey through the sixth chapter of Matthew and Prayer, the Great Adventure. Don't forget to ask for your copy of this month's resource.
It is a beautiful book on prayer called Everything to God in Prayer. It's yours for a gift of any size during this month. And we'll see you right here next time on this good station. For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's series, Prayer the Great Adventure, please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points magazine and our daily email devotional.
Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call us at 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book, Everything to God in Prayer. Guided prayers for your deepest needs and biggest dreams. It's yours for a gift of any amount.
You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King James Versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study. Get all the details when you visit our website, davidjeremiah.org slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Prayer the Great Adventure on Turning Point with Dr.
David Jeremiah.
