Four through, like, eleven. Yeah. So if you would like to, we would love to have you join our children's church group if that's you this morning. So amen. So Alright.

Take your Bibles, turn if you would to Matthew six. Matthew chapter six. And we're gonna begin reading in verse nine. You could follow along as well up here on the screen. This passage contains what is often termed the Lord's Prayer, and we do not recite this prayer or pray this prayer routinely in our church.

It was a sample that Jesus Christ gave to help teach his disciples how to pray, not something that Christ gave for us to repeat over and over and over and over again, but to help teach us how to talk to our father in heaven. But seeing it is the focus of our message this morning, I would like if you can to recite it together with me. If you have another translation in particular, you might want to read off of the screen up here so we are together. So in verse nine, it says, after this manner Christ said, therefore, pray you. And so if you would, let's read together.

Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

And let's go to the Lord in prayer again. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for this lesson that you gave your disciples and to us today as well. Lord, I pray that you'd bless us as we look at this prayer and the prayer to our heavenly father. Heavenly father who cares for us, who desires to hear our prayers, and who rejoices to answer them.

Lord, thank you for sending your son Jesus to answer the most important prayer of all, our need of a savior to save us from sin and hell. Lord, thank you for the gift of your son. And we pray, Lord, if there'd be one here today that is yet to receive that gift, that today would be their day of salvation. Thank you for being our father. Help us, Lord, who are fathers as well, to be more like you and help us all to be more like you.

In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen. I'm gonna take just a few minutes and go through this prayer this morning as Christ gave it. As it relates to the one who is being worshiped, who is being who is the receiver of this prayer today? Our father.

Our father. The word father as it relates particularly to God, is a term of origin. It tells us where we came from and to whom we belong. God is our father, is our creator. He is our maker, the one who made us.

We came from him and as our father, we belong to him. It is a term of relationship. Not only is he our creator, but we who have come to him through faith in Christ his son are thereby his children and he is our father. We have a relationship with the God of heaven, not simply as the sovereign Lord or as the judge of all mankind, but through Christ he has become my father and I have become his child. I have been born again into a new family, God's family through Jesus Christ.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. For all who will believe on and in the name of Jesus Christ, who died and has rose risen again, you have become part of God's family. You have become a child of God. It is a term of reverence, a term of respect, our father. And he is uniquely due our reverence and our respect as our creator, as the Lord of heaven, and as our father who gave his son for us.

It is a term of affection because he loves you as a child. It's his child and you ought to love him. What is the greatest commandment? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. In Galatians four six, it says this, and because ye are sons or children, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying, Abba, father.

The word Abba is a term of affection. Our father loves us and as children of God, we love him. It is a personal thing. It is not simply a religious thing. It is a personal thing, relationship we have with somebody who loves us and who deserves to be loved in return.

Our father. Our father which art where? In heaven. Our father which art in heaven. That's the place of his throne.

He is exalted above all. It is where Isaiah saw him in his vision, high and lifted up at his throne. He is above all. He created all. He observes all from his place.

Proverbs fifteen three says, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. And it is a place of authority. Why do the heathen rage? David says, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. He is an almighty God and he is a sovereign Lord. When we say our father which art in heaven, we're recognizing his sovereignty And we are recognizing his authority as the creator and God of all. As a God of authority and power sitting upon his throne, he is in a position to help us. He is also in a position to chasten us.

Fathers on earth have also been given and placed in their homes by God to be authorities. With authority also comes great responsibility. Praise the Lord, our heavenly Father, who sits in a place of such exalted power and authority, is also a God in whom we can trust. He loves us and cares for us. He always keeps his promises.

In Ephesians five, it tells fathers love your wives even as Christ loved the church. It says in Ephesians six to fathers, bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With that authority also comes great responsibility. Are we being the kind of authority that we ought to be as fathers. Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Now, what does the word hallowed mean? Well, another word for it is holy. Holy, sanctified is your name. The word holy means set apart. God is set apart.

He's set apart from all in his person and in his nature. He is set apart wholly in his person as deity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, The Trinity, the three in one, all equally God. He is set apart holy in his attributes for he is without sin. Sad to say, for all of us have what?

Sinned and come short of the glory of God. But not our maker, not our creator, not our father who is in heaven. He is without sin. He is without error. He is set apart from any flaw.

He is holy in his attributes. He is holy in his dealings with mankind. He always does the what? The right thing in our behalf and for us. He is righteous.

He is just. Revelation sixteen seven, it says, and I heard another out of the altar say, even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. God is a righteous God. In his dealings with mankind, he always does that with his just and right and fair. Hallowed be thy name.

He is a God who does not make mistakes. He is honest in all his ways. Oh, that we would be honest in all our ways. He never changes. He is faithful.

Therefore, you can count on him. You can count on a holy God. Fathers, can our children count on us? Can they count on us to do the right thing? Can they count on us to set the right example?

Does our heavenly father set the right example for us? Yes, he does. And he expects fathers here to do their best by his grace to set the right examples for their children also. He is there when we need him, and we ought to be there when they need us. And I don't believe that part ends when they turn 18 or 21.

We should still be there when they need us like our heavenly father is there for us. Praise the Lord. Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Yes, your heavenly father has a will. He has a will and a plan for this world.

And it's called the plan of redemption. Back in the Garden of Eden, Satan robbed God of his most precious treasure, Adam and Eve and humanity. When he deceived them into sinning and to rebelling against their God and their maker. But God in his love and in his omniscience already had a plan to bring us back, to restore the relationship with his children that was broken by sin and Satan through sending his son Jesus Christ to take our place on the cross, to rise again from the dead, and to offer all who come to him in faith salvation. That he might restore us to his family, that we might become the subjects of his kingdom and not the kingdom of Satan and sin.

God has a plan for you. He has a will for you. It starts with he wants you to be saved and that's why he sent his son. And then he wants to change you and he wants to to make you like his son Jesus Christ. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son.

What that means is if you've been saved and you know Christ as your savior, what is God's will for you? He wants to make you like who? Like Jesus Christ. He says, be ye holy for I am holy. If the only reason God saved you was to take you to heaven and it is a reason, but if that's the only reason, where would you be?

You'd be in heaven, but you're not. You're here. What is he doing? He's working in you today to change you into the image of his son, to make you more like Jesus, to bring glory to the one who has saved your soul and is changing your life. His will is good and it is not past finding out.

What that means is this, you need to find out what it is. And it starts with you getting saved and it starts with you reading your Bible. As you read your Bible and come to church and serve the Lord, you found out more and more what God wants for your life. As you spend time in prayer, God answers prayer because, well, he created you unique and he has something specifically for you. And it's good and it's perfect.

It says in Romans twelve two, and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know what is that good and perfect will of God. You can know his will and it is good and it is acceptable and it is perfect. I left out the word acceptable in my quote. Your heavenly father does have goals for you. Are you interested in them?

Are you interested in his goals? I hope you are. Are you searching for them? Are you living accordingly? Fathers on earth, do you have goals for yourself?

Do you have goals for your life? Do you know what you want to accomplish? Things you need to do, particularly as it relates to your family and to your children? Do you have goals for your family? Do you have some goals for your children especially when they're young?

Do you communicate those goals? Is that the responsibility of a father? I think it is. I think it is. As a father and as a parent to encourage, to train up your child in the way he or she should go.

That when they're old, they will not, what? Depart from it. I think God teaches us that as parents, particularly as fathers, to set goals for our families, for our children. Goals that are in keeping with whose goals? Our father which art in heaven.

Give us this day our what? Our daily bread. In Genesis twenty two fourteen, it gives God this name, Jehovah Jireh. What that means is this, it means the Lord who provides. The Lord who provides.

In this case, it was for an outcast lady with her little child. And God comforted her by telling her, I am the Lord who what? I am the Lord who provides. He is the Lord who provides for us, who is the Lord who provided the lamb on Mount Moriah to take the place of Isaac, Abraham's son. He is the Lord has provided this this world for us to sustain us.

The air that we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the pews you sit on, they're made of wood and some other stuff. But where did all of that come from? Came from God who made it all. He is the Lord who provides for us. He delights to give us our daily needs.

He says, ask and it shall be given. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be open unto you. For he that asketh receiveth, he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. God says, I don't give grudgingly, I give bountifully.

If you'll ask. Our heavenly father desires to meet our needs. He is able to meet our needs if we'll ask. He is a good God and he is a wonderful father. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the Bible says.

He has everything at his disposal. Philippians four nineteen says, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. God is able to help provide. He provides in different ways. Sometimes, provides by just giving us what we need.

Sometimes he provides by giving us a job that we need. Sometimes he provides by giving us a friend that we need. He provided for us spiritually by the Holy Spirit that he have given us and the word of God that we can hold in our hands and read for ourselves. He provides grace and strength in the times of trials. He provides patience and strength of character even through those trials.

But you can trust him because remember he is a holy God and he is your father and he cares about you. He says in Matthew six thirty three, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. God says, if you will seek me first, my will, I will just I will bless you and I will see to it that you have what you need. That was his promise to his disciples. They were concerned.

They left their businesses behind. Now, God doesn't ask everyone to do that, but he did ask them and they were concerned. And Jesus said, don't don't worry. What I have asked you to do, I will enable you to do. Whatever God has asked you to do, he will provide for it.

You can trust in him. He is your what? He is your father. It is given to fathers on earth to see to it that their families are provided for. Now, the Bible speaks about wives and mothers providing too.

They provide many things even at times work, jobs, and money. But I do believe, first Timothy five eight, God expects fathers to see to it that their families are provided for. First Timothy five eight, but if any not, provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith as worse than an infidel. Fathers, God has given us the privilege and responsibility to provide for our families with the help and partnership of our wives. But I believe God will hold us accountable.

Why? This verse. I believe what God's word says. God, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our what? Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

What kind of God does that tell us we have? What kind of father in heaven do we have? We have a forgiving and a merciful father in heaven. He forgives our sin. For the Lord thy God, he is a what?

He is a merciful God. Where would we be if he wasn't? I know. I either wouldn't be here at all or I would be on my way to a place called hell in the lake of fire. But I'm not.

And if you know Christ, you're not because God sent his son for you. Because he wanted to make a way despite your sin that you could one day go to heaven. That you could be forgiven. Why? Because he is a merciful and a compassionate God.

Lamentations three twenty two and twenty three, it is of our Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Praise the Lord. We serve a merciful God and a merciful savior.

He forgives over and over and over again. How many times has he forgiven you? Can't count that, can you? Can't count that. But that's who he is.

He is a merciful and forgiving father in heaven. Full of compassion. He is patient with us. Is he not? He is loving and tender.

He is good and he is kind. That is our father in heaven. And that is the kind of fathers that God expects us to be. He expects us to be what? Merciful.

Your kids never need mercy or forgiveness. Right? If they haven't, they will. I know that my parents learned to be merciful and forgiving or at least I helped them to learn to be merciful and forgiving a whole lot because I needed a lot of it. And I thank the Lord that I did have parents who are merciful and forgiving.

They were also disciplinarians. They were not permissive. But I knew when the day ended that I had been, what, Forgiven. Forgiven. And we know in Christ we have been forgiven.

And your children should know that they have been and can be forgiven, that they have a compassionate, patient, and forgiving parent. They desperately need that. So many children do not have that. They need that from their moms and also from their dads. Praise God, we all have that in our father in heaven.

Lead us not into temptation. Proverbs three five and six says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. What kind of path is he going to guide and lead you on if you let him? On a way that leads to life, on a righteous path. Psalm twenty three three, the twenty third Psalm, Speaking of our shepherd, our savior, he restoreth my soul.

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. In Psalm one thirty nine, it says this, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand should hold me. Our father in heaven is our guide. He will guide us in the way of life. He will guide us on the path of righteousness if we will what?

If we'll follow. If we'll follow, he's leading and he will never lead us astray. Now, sadly fathers, we are not perfect and we sometimes make big mistakes. Praise God. We have a merciful father in heaven.

But one of the responsibilities God has given us as fathers is to be spiritual leaders in our homes and to our children. That sadly in this day and age sometimes seems to be just given over fully to mom. Mom is the spiritual leader and mom's you ought to be a spiritual leader, but fathers, you should be too. Spiritual leaders in your homes, leading your children on the paths of righteousness, Leading by example and by word. Leading them to know the Lord and serve him.

Praise God we have And all who will come to Christ have a father in heaven that does that for us. But I do believe God also expects that of fathers in their homes on earth. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Our father in heaven is our deliverer. Our father in heaven is our savior.

Our father in heaven is also our protector. He is our mighty tower, David says. He is our refuge. He is our strength. He is our shield.

David uses a dozen different metaphors for God's protection. He is that that fortress, that tower in which if we run into, he will keep us what? Safe. Put on the whole armor of God that he may quench all the fiery darts of the one, Of the wicked one. Who is our deliverer, our strength, our protector?

Jesus Christ, our savior, and our father who is in heaven. We have a an enemy, a roaring lion who roam with the bound seeking whom he may devour. But greater is he that's in us than he that's in the what? That's he that's in the world. God will deliver his children like he delivered Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego in the fiery furnace.

He will deliver us from the fires of hell for all eternity if we will accept him as Lord and savior. But he will be there also and is there to protect us and deliver us in our time of need. He invites us to come boldly before the throne of grace that we may seek and find help in our time of need. He says in his word, I will never what? Leave you nor forsake you.

That is who our father is. He sticks with us through thick and thin and he will be there to help us when we need him. Even sometimes when we don't realize we need him. Trust him. He will deliver your soul from hell if you'll come to him in faith.

He will help you as his child and deliver you through many difficult times and temptations. He's just that kind of father. As fathers on earth, God has also given us the responsibility of being protectors of our families and of our children, and we should be. We should be there when they need us. We should make it our responsibility in life to be there for them and to help deliver them in their time of need.

It would be nice if they never needed, but they do. And that doesn't end the day they turn 18 or 21. They will need us still, just a little differently than they did before. Be there. Be a father like your father which is in heaven And trust in him.

He will help you to be that father. And if you're here today and you've not trusted Christ as savior, he wants to save your soul. He wants you to be able to say, Abba, father. He wants you to know him. He wants to be there for you.

But you must do what? You must accept his offer to be your savior, to deliver you from sin and hell, and for you to be his child. For as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons or the children of God, even to them that believe on his name. Have you done that today? If you haven't, we're gonna give a hymn of invitation in a moment.

I'll meet you down here if you'll come. I'll share with you from God's word how you can be saved today and know it. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ our savior and we thank you, dear heavenly father, for the opportunity to know you, to have you for our father. Not only our maker and our creator, but our personal Lord and savior who we get to go spend eternity with someday, who will guide us and direct us, protect us and watch over us, provide for us and help us in this day and in the next.

We thank you, Lord, that you're our father. Pray, Lord, as earthly fathers, us that are, that you would help us to be more like you on this earth and for our children and our families. Thank you, Lord, for the fathers that you've given us. I thank you, Lord, for a father who did his best to be the kind of father that I needed. And, I pray that you'd help me to do the same.

And, Lord, I pray that if there'd be one here that's yet to come to you in faith to become your child, I pray, Lord, they'll come as we give this hymn of invitation today. In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen.