We'll turn with me to Matthew chapter 6 and this evening we'll be looking simply at the first part of verse 9, but for context sake I'll go ahead and read verses 5 through 13. And so let's hear God's word from Matthew chapter 6 this evening. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this, our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So far the reading of God's word and also go ahead and turn to page 59 in the back of the Psalter hymnal and we'll go ahead and read Lord's Day 46 question and answer 120 and 121. But I do want to remind you that this is not the word of God. but simply a helpful summary of it for this part of the Lord's Prayer. And I'll go ahead and read that for us, question and answer 120. Why did Christ command us to call God our Father? At the very beginning of our prayer, Christ wants to kindle in us what is basic to our prayer, the childlike awe and trust that God, through Christ, has become our Father. Our fathers do not refuse us the things of this life. God our father will even less refuse to give us what we ask in faith. Why the words who art in heaven? These words teach us not to think of God's heavenly majesty as something earthly and to expect everything for body and soul from his almighty power. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, this evening we want to consider and think about the first part of the Lord's Prayer. Jesus tells us in this prayer to pray in a manner that acknowledges that God is our Father in heaven. And what we also learn from a previous Lord's Day about prayer is that it is the most important part of our grateful response to God. for His grace that He's so freely given to us in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And just very briefly stated, let's think about what prayer is here. Prayer is our communication to God. It's our communication to God through His Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so it's really important to recognize that. It's not God's communication to us. Prayer is not God speaking to us. It's the other way around. We are speaking to God. God speaks to us by his inscripturated word, not through our prayers and not during our time of prayer with a small, still voice, as many would like to think or teach. It's simply not the case. And so prayer is our communication to God. And we rightly acknowledge God as our Father in our prayers almost every time we pray, but sometimes, I think, we take this title for God granted, don't we? We can, if we're not careful, forget really how radical it is to address God as our Father and to pray to God in this way. So I hope that as we unpack this a little bit more and explore this a little bit, that the Lord will bless us and enrich us in our understanding of our prayers to God, our Father, tonight. So the introduction to the Lord's Prayer teaches us to acknowledge in our prayers these three things. First, that God is our Father. Second, that our Father is good. And third, that our Father is in heaven. So God is our Father, our Father is good, and our Father is in heaven. Those are our three points tonight. And so let's start by sounding out what it means to acknowledge God is our Father. in our prayers. So calling God father in Jesus's day was something that just wasn't done. It was really foreign to God's people at that time. And so we call him and call upon him as father so often that we might not always stop to consider that and to consider what a wonder it really is that Jesus called his father and addressed him as father and we get to also in him. So the Jews in ancient times didn't believe, they did believe in the fatherhood of God, but only in a very limited sense, you see. In the Old Testament, we find God being referred to as father a few dozen times, but not only though in reference to him being the father of the nation of Israel. That's really the emphasis of those passages. It's not so much addressing God as father by an individual. So the title of father may seem more impersonal than personal when we read the Old Testament. And so really nowhere in the Old Testament do we find examples of a God being personally addressed as father by an individual. And so, but when Messiah came, when Jesus Christ came, he addressed God as his father every time, except for one time when he was quoting Psalm 22. And so no one in the history of Israel had ever spoken or prayed like Jesus did. It was very radical in that sense. addressing God as his father. And as you may remember from the gospel stories, this made the Pharisees very mad, didn't it? This really caused the Pharisees to be enraged because it meant that Jesus, he thought of himself as being equal to God when he prayed to God as his father. Just as the Apostle John wrote and records in chapter 5, verse 18, this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. So his speaking and his praying to God as father indicated this amazing intimacy that he had between himself and God. And it was truly radical to the Jews of his day. And when his Jewish disciples then asked him to teach them how to pray, the first thing that he taught them to do in prayer was that they were to address God as their father. And this is how we're to pray also. And it's important for us to really try to recapture that sense of just how much of a privilege it is for us to address God as our Father. And that's because when we call God our Father, we're implying that we're children, that we're His children who have been accepted in His sight. Have you thought about that? And this really, when we begin to think along those lines that went by praying to him in such a manner that we are implying and we understand ourselves to be his children and part of his family accepted in his sight, this leads us really to an awesome thing for us to consider and sort of camp out on for a moment or two from the Word of God, and that's the doctrine of adoption. The Bible teaches us that Christ has redeemed the people for himself so that they might become the children of God. And so really, though, what we have to acknowledge and recognize right away and first here is that we're not children of God naturally, are we? In fact, by nature, God is not our father. In fact, by nature, God is our enemy when we come into this world. We're naturally born spiritually dead in our trespasses and our sins and we're actually separated from God. And so even Ephesians 2, it even tells us that we are by nature slaves to sin and children of God's wrath apart from Jesus Christ. But yet through the gospel, through the good news of Jesus Christ, we've gone from slavery to sonship. And how did we get there? To be able to address God as our Father. Well, as we heard in the call to worship, Galatians 4, verses 4 through 7, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son. You see, this is how God did it. He sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that's us, that's you and me, trusted in him, so that we might receive adoption. as sons, we who by nature are God's enemies and outside of his family, he sent his son so that he might bring us into his family, so that we might become God's adopted sons through Jesus Christ. And because you are sons, Galatians continues, 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. And that's wonderful good news for us. So God sent His Son to become just like one of us, but yet thankfully not with our sin. And He came and He obeyed the law of God, all of His commandments in our place. And He came to die on the cross to take away our sins and to rise again on the third day for our justification so that we could be adopted by God and become part of His family and call him our father, even though in and of ourselves, we don't deserve to. You see, that is good news. That is good news for us. But let me pause for just a moment here and talk about that word, Abba, Father, the word Abba in particular, because as we're talking about addressing God as our Father, and yet so many people that we might know address God as Abba, Father, and it's good because that's, you know, Scripture says that we cry out, Abba, Father, but we really should understand what that means, you see. It's often abused in prayer to our Father in Heaven out of ignorance. And that phrase, Abba, Father, is only found three times in the New Testament. And that word Abba is often thought to mean Daddy. Perhaps you've heard that before. And some people will address God the Father, the maker and the sustainer of the universe as Daddy, my Daddy. in a very informal, casual way that really can border on presumption before a holy God. But it doesn't actually mean what we think it means. And to quote a rather funny movie, I do not think it means what you think it means. Your holy father isn't your casual daddy. Reformed commentators are quick to point out that Abba really means something more like dear. or dearest, not daddy. And so there's actually another word, a specific word in Greek for the term daddy, but that word is never used in relation to God the Father in the scriptures. And so the Holy Spirit is communicating this blessed closeness that we have with the Father because of Christ by using the word Abba in Scripture. But since Abba is always followed by the word Father in the New Testament, it isn't meant to be prayed by us in this casual, sort of immature way, like Daddy. We're to use it in relation to understanding that He is still still our holy God, our holy Father, and yet at the same time, though, recognizing that He cares deeply for us because of His Son, Jesus Christ, and His work in our place. And so really, I think the best way to interpret that phrase, Abba Father, is dearest or dear Father. And so we receive this wonderful sonship through faith alone, don't we? In Christ alone, as John 1, 12 says, And Galatians 3, 26 says, And so God is no longer our enemy. God is no longer our enemy. He is now our Father and He loves us in His Son as His own children. We can now call Him Father. What a privilege that is for us. And so when Jesus taught His disciples to pray our Father, He was not only teaching that He was able to call upon God as Father because He's the unique, eternal Son of God, but He was teaching that those who trust in Him have that very same right because of their adoption in Him. And as one commentator wrote, this is a relationship that was merited and purchased for us by the perfect obedience of the son who received an inheritance that was promised to him from the foundation of the world, which inheritance he shares with his brothers and sisters who are in him. This is why Jesus is our elder brother. We are his siblings. And so listen to John chapter 17, a couple of verses, 23 and verse 26, for just a moment. And perhaps you've not read that recently, but listen closely to how Jesus prays here. He prays in His high priestly prayer to the Father, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them, listen to this, and love them even as you loved me. This is Jesus, the son of God, praying to his father that we would know that God loves him and he loves us as he loved his son. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." Let that pounce around in your head for a second here. This is Jesus in the Word of God. He's the Son of God. It's telling us, the voice of Christ tonight is telling you, if you've trusted in Jesus, that God the Father loves you as He loves His own eternal Son. You've been adopted into God's family through the work of Jesus Christ. It's glorious news for you tonight. Be encouraged, loved ones. Do you doubt that God loves you tonight? Do you feel so far away from God and guilty because of your sin that there's no way that God could still love you? But I want to declare to you the word of God declares to you, I love you even as I love my son. And so confess your sins. and receive afresh the good, pure news of Jesus Christ, that God is for you and not against you. He's your father. Jesus is your brother. You are in his family. And so every time, congregation, we pray to God as our Father or speak of Him as our Father, we should remember these things. We should remember our adoption, that we've brought into this amazing family relationship with God through His Son, a relationship with God that we, by nature and of ourselves, don't deserve. But nonetheless, we have it. because God has had mercy and grace on us sinners. As our catechism asks and answers, why did Christ command us to call God our Father? At the very beginning of our prayer, Christ wants to kindle in us what is basic to our prayer, the childlike awe and trust that God through Christ has become our Father. So because we call upon Him as our Father by virtue of our adoption in Christ, and because we are so loved deeply and richly by God as a result, we can be confident, loved ones, that our Father in Heaven is good. And that's our second point tonight. Our Father is good. Absolutely good. And when we recognize and believe that God is our Father because of our adoption in Christ, we don't have to live in fear and dread of His wrath, do we? As Romans 8, 15 says, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. He is now our Father. He is good to us. He is for us and not against us. Listen to another place in Romans 8, verse 31 and 32. And so if we know that these things are true, about God. How can we not but desire to turn to Him and to trust Him and to pray to Him knowing that we're His children and asking Him for what we need. He's good and He hears us. He hears us, not for our own sakes, but for our elder brother's sake He hears us. And we're His children. He doesn't reject us, He doesn't cast us away, He will never cast us away. And in order for our Father, loved ones, listen to this, in order for our Father now to cast us away, He would have to cast away His only begotten Son. And that's impossible, isn't it? It's impossible because the Son is the second person of the Godhead and cannot be separated from the Father. So go to Him. Go to Him, loved ones, go to Him. He is a good Father who will hear you. He will hear you. And our earthly fathers, they know to give us what we need, and they love us enough at times to give us good things, and they delight to do so, or at least they should if they don't. God, our Father knows and loves and delights to give us what we need even more so. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 7. What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Loved ones, ask God for the bread. Ask God for the bread. You will not receive a stone instead. Ask him for the fish. You won't receive a scorpion instead. Go to him and ask for a hint of what you need. Ask Him for the good gifts. Ask Him for those good things. God, your Father in heaven, loves you and He is good. And He not only knows how to give good things to you, He desires to give the good things that you need. And there's the clarification. He gives you the good things that you need. As our catechism says in question and answer 120, our fathers do not refuse us the things of this life. God our father will even less refuse to give us what we ask in faith. Loved ones though, but I know some of us have a difficult time referring to God as father. And some of you at times may have a tremendously hard time receiving God's goodness and love as a father, even though you desire to, and that's because of an earthly father who's hurt you or failed you in some way. But before I go any further, and there really just is no easy, clean way to say this, but we have to hear this. Let me take a moment here and very boldly and firmly speak to some of you, speak to parents in our midst here who may be abusing their children or one another. And I need to say to you that if you are physically abusing your children or your spouse or sexually violating them or verbally and emotionally abusing them or all of the above, you're committing a profoundly detestable and destructive sin against them and against God. You're doing something terrible and wicked in God's sight. You might be in denial. You may be able to hide it from all the people around you, but you can't hide it from the all-knowing, all-seeing, holy eye of God. You're doing something worthy of the fury and wrath of God. And so I call on you now to repent. If you are doing this, repent and turn back from your evil ways. while you still can, and confess your sin to the Lord, and ask for his mercy and his forgiveness in Christ, and confess your sin to your family, and ask for their forgiveness, and stop your abuse, and get the help that you need and that your family needs because of you. So if you are here tonight and you are having a hard time receiving God's goodness and love as a father, even though that you desire to because of an earthly father or mother who's hurt you or failed you in some way, oh dear one, I just want to encourage you. I want to encourage you to consider and focus on something here. Focus on that word that we find in this prayer just before the word father. The word our, you see there's an important word there for you and I to consider that within God's family here in the church, our Father, our Father isn't your earthly Father. Please hear that and know that. Our Father is not the one who's hurt you or abandoned you. Our Father is the Father in heaven who never abuses or abandons his people. And so he says to you tonight, if you've trusted in Jesus Christ, I love you like I love my dear own son. You belong to me. You are mine. I am for you. I am not against you. I am your father in heaven. And so all of us loved ones, I encourage all of us to look to the scriptures and to the gospel to define or redefine our understanding of fatherhood. And so loved ones, may the Lord be near to you and heal you and cover you under the shadow of his wings. And so may our Father in heaven, by his word and by his spirit, aid you to receive his love and to adore him as your Father, as part of this family of God. And so when we pray, our Father, let's remember that God is our Father through Christ. and that he is good, and that in his goodness he desires to hear our prayers and answer us for Christ's sake, because he loves his children. And not only do the opening words of the Lord's Prayer teach us that he is our Father and that we can freely come to him because we know that he's good to us, these opening words also teach us to recognize that he's in heaven. And that's our third point. God, our Father, in heaven. And so we're called by these words when we pray them to set our minds on things above, to call to remembrance that we not only have a God who is near to us and loves us as a father because of our union to Christ, but we're also to call to mind that he is above us, he is distinct from us, and that he is holy. And also these words, our father who art in heaven, call us to come to him with a mixture of joy, knowing He is our Father and loves us, and reverence, knowing that He is heavenly and holy. Psalm 68, verse 3 says, but let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God, yes, let them rejoice exceedingly. And Hebrews 12, 28 says, therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. In Psalm 2, verse 11 says, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. You see, these are the things that come to mind for us when we pray our Father who art in heaven. And so praying our Father who is in heaven, it teaches us to recognize the majestic holiness of God. As question and answer 121 communicates this well, why the words in heaven? These words teach us not to think of God's heavenly majesty as something earthly. He is not like us, and so we ought not have earthly thoughts of our Heavenly Father. And thinking of our Father as dwelling in the majestic glory of heaven, it's also meant to evoke something within us, an understanding that He knows what we need for this life, and all that we need for godliness to this side of heaven. He knows what we need. He's our Father in heaven who knows all things. For your Father knows what you need before you ask him, Jesus says in Matthew 6, 8. So look at the birds of the air, Jesus says. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Therefore do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things." And there's a great comfort in knowing that he is our Father in heaven who knows what we need in this life. So we can find much comfort, and I encourage you to find much comfort in the knowledge that our Father in Heaven knows what we need, even before we ask Him. So, loved ones, let that fill you with boldness. Let that fill you with boldness in your heart to go to Him and to ask Him for what you need and to even ask fervently and confidently, knowing that He hears you because of Jesus Christ, His Son, and that He also desires to answer us and give to us what we need according to His will. What a blessing, what a privilege that is for us. And so go to your Heavenly Father. Go to Him. In conclusion, loved ones, our Lord, He gave us this wonderful guide to our prayers when He instructed us to pray, our Father who art in heaven. So loved ones, consider that profound privilege that you've been given in Christ to address the true and living God as your Father, even now. The God of heaven and earth, he has rescued you from your sins through his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And this same God, who is now your Father in heaven, has pledged himself to be faithful to his promises to you in all things. You're his children. He's gathered you into his house. And so, therefore, when we pray to him, let's remember these things and be emboldened to run to him quickly. run to him quickly and to run to him more and more for his glory and our good amen let's pray heavenly father we thank you for your word tonight and we thank you that we can call you our father because of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for adopting us into your family, even though we don't deserve to be in your family, but we deserve still to be left in our sins and misery as your enemies. Thank you for your great grace. Fill our hearts now with your love in Christ. And Lord, help us, help us to rely more and more upon you in our prayers, giving you all things. For you deserve all the glory and the praise and honor and dominion, both now and forevermore. Amen.