He alone is glorious, infinite, eternal, righteous, pure, and just. It means we know that he is above all other things. It means that we acknowledge that there is no one else like him. It means we don't try to whittle him down to size. When we say "hallowed be your name," we're asking that God be set apart as holy in our lives. In verse 9, Jesus starts his prayer with these familiar words: "Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name." Fathers, I'm not saying that you should expect your children to keep your name hallowed! Instead, this verse reflects the most basic priority you have as a father: for the name of God to be hallowed in your life. But the first word I want us to look at-priority-teaches us how to be fathers by telling us how to treat our true Father in heaven. Three words we will examine-provision, pardon, and protection-show how we learn to be fathers by imitating our Father in heaven. Our heavenly Father shows us how to be an earthly father, making it so much easier for our kids to come to God and say that word-"father." We can sum up what this passage teaches us about fatherhood in four words: priority, provision, pardon, and protection. And in this prayer, we learn not to judge fatherhood by our earthly fathers, but rather to judge it by our heavenly Father. In this prayer, then, we're told what is reasonable for a child to expect from his or her father. In this prayer we're told what a father is to do. In this prayer we have a model of fatherhood. That's why I want us to look again at the prayer that Jesus gave us in Matthew 6:9-13. The spiritual fallout of confused fathers is a generation of people who are at best ambivalent about the fatherhood of God. It conjures up images of rejection, anger, absence, and even abuse. For them, the word "father" is hardly a term of endearment. We know that whenever Jesus prayed, he called God "Father." We might say, "Well, of course did! He was God's Son! What else would he call him?" But not only did Jesus call God "Father," he taught us to call God "Father." In Matthew 6, he said: When you pray, say this, "Our Father, who is in heaven."īut there are a lot of people in our society who have a hard time thinking of God as a father-much less calling him that. One of the consequences of this confusion is spiritual in nature. The adjustment of getting married was nothing compared to the adjustment of becoming a father!" He was expressing what a lot of fathers feel, and most of the difficulty he speaks of comes from simply not knowing what to do. He's now a father, and he came up to me one day and said, "I think we should require pre-parenting counseling and not just premarital counseling. Some time ago I had done the premarital counseling for a young man and his wife. What is a father supposed to do? I think there is a certain amount of confusion in our society over this question. Specifically, I am going to talk about the responsibilities of fatherhood. I want to speak to fathers and about fathers. I confess that I often allow Father's Day to pass without preaching about fathers. For a batch of fresh illustrations on fathers and fatherhood, click here. Father's Day is just around the corner (June 21), and should you decide to offer a message for the occasion, Mark Mitchell's look at a portion of the Lord's Prayer might provide some helpful direction for your preaching.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |