We've spent a little time because of providential reasons, but we're back in Matthew 6 and we're continuing our exposition on the model prayer. We still find ourselves tonight in Matthew 6 and verse 9, as we consider tonight the subject, heavenly-minded prayer. Heavenly-minded prayer. Matthew 6 and verse 9. Now that you've sat down and gotten comfy, we'll stand back up and let us read verse 9. Pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Our Father in heaven, we pray that our prayers would be more heavenly minded. We pray that we would consider tonight what it means to think of you as in heaven. Lord, that we would think about your great sovereignty and power and majesty and the great distance that is between us and you and how Christ is the bridge that crosses that gap and brings us nigh to our holy and awesome God. We pray that You would help us to be a people of prayer. And to pray, not only to pray, but to pray rightly, with the right heart, the right spirit, thinking through the way that we pray and what we pray and why we pray for what we pray for. Lord, too often I know in my own life we neglect this great weapon, this great means of grace you've given us in prayer. Let us be like the song says and regularly take. Our joys and troubles and trials and sorrows and encouragements and all things to our God who hears prayers. And we pray that this would be pleasing in your sight and for Christ's glory. We pray in His name. Amen. You may be seated. Our Father in heaven, you know this. You probably learned this when you were younger. In verse 9, there's a little bit more emphasis. than the way the ESV translates it. So the text reads in Greek, kind of stumbling through it, if you're going to translate it something like, Father of ours, the one in heaven. The one who is in heaven. So our Father which art in heaven, our Father who is in heaven. Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father in heaven. Now this brings two questions to mind. The first is, where is the God that we pray to? All right, children, you think about this for just a minute. I want you to hear this too. Think about it. Where is the God that we pray to? Now, Jesus says here that we are to pray our Father in heaven. So, is our Lord Jesus denying the precious doctrine of the omnipresence of God? Of course, the answer is what? No. No, God is everywhere. The universe cannot contain Him. Heaven itself cannot contain Him. God is in all places at all times. He's omnipresent. So, then the other question I have, and this is going to get us into the outline. The other question I have is, if God is everywhere, omnipresent, all places, you never have to wait on God. He's already there. So the other question is, why are we directed to think of God in heaven? Why? Well, I have six answers to that question. Before I walk through that outline, let me give you the overarching point and encouragement. When we pray, when you pray, You remember what we talked about this morning? We have the battle that you see on the outside. On the inside, you have things God doing, the rattle. You don't see that realm. But when we pray, in a sense, we step out of this world and into that eternal realm. Thomas Watson puts it this way, prayer is the key of heaven and faith is the hand which turns it. So, all of you tonight, you have a door before you into the realm of majesty and glory. And how you open it is with the key of prayer and the hand of faith that turns it. This ought to encourage us. When we preach on prayer, it ought to not beat you up. Now, if you need to repent of prayerlessness, you should do so. But you ought to be encouraged about this great privilege and power and weapon we have in prayer. So, tonight, here are six reasons that we're directed by our Lord Jesus to think of God in heaven. Six reasons. First, First reason, Jesus says, pray then like this, our Father in heaven. Number one, to recall His deity. Okay? Number one, to recall His deity. So, think about this for just a moment. The God that we pray to is our Father in Christ. But He's not like an earthly Father. He is our Father in heaven. He's not merely Father, but God. When we think of God, our Father, as in heaven, it reminds us of His deity. Arthur Dent writes, God as touching His essence is no more in heaven than in this inferior world. But He is said to be in heaven because His glory and majesty doth there most clearly shine out. And so when we think of our Father in heaven, we are recalling His deity. Jesus directs us to consider God in heaven in order to consider His glory and majesty. When you pray, listen now, when you pray, you're praying to the God who is high above us. There's an important implication here I'm going to bring out also about images. So for example, we don't need a statue of Mary to pray to God. We don't need a crucifix to pray to God. We don't need a painting or any kind of earthly object or beads or any like that in order to pray to God. Why? Because our Father is not... He is here with us, but we're to consider our Father as in heaven because He's God. He's not an image. He's God. It's idolatry. when we try to pray in this way. Earthly images don't get us a view of this God. That's a violation of God's commandment. But also let me tell you this, let me encourage you to think along the lines of J.L. Packer who said this, imagining God in our heads can be just as real a breach of the second commandment as imagining Him by the work of our hands. So, in verse 9, when Jesus says, pray then like this, our Father in heaven, He's not instructing us to have a mental picture of God, that's not what He's teaching us. Rather, He's instructing us to consider our Father in His heavenly dwelling so that we may recall His deity. He is God who is in heaven. Ecclesiastes 5.2 says, Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. Now, Solomon is not teaching us to pray less. But it is a command to consider that God is God and we are not. He is in heaven and we are on earth. And though we may speak to Him as a friend in Christ, we may not speak to Him cavalierly, flippantly. Does that make sense? He is God in heaven. We're on earth. Let us recall His deity. Secondly, why does Jesus teach us to pray to our Father in heaven? Secondly, so that we may recognize His dominion. To recall His deity. Secondly, that we may recognize, to recognize His dominion. Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father, the One who is in heaven, so that by remembering Him in heaven, we may recognize His dominion over all. Psalm 115.3 says, our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. So the fact that God is in heaven does not mean that He is uninvolved or disinterested with the things on earth. It means rather that He is in complete control of it all. He's in heaven. He's high above. He's the authoritative one. This brings great comfort to the people of God. So when we pray, We're praying to the One above who has full reign over all things below. We pray to the One who has authority over all things. We come to the very God above all things and we make our petitions known to Him. We bring our weak and poorly worded prayers to the God of heaven and as He pleases by a sovereign authority, He uses our prayers, the prayers of His people, the weak, pathetic, lame, half-hearted sometimes prayers we pray, God is pleased to use those in His sovereign plan to bring about His purposes. Jesus reminds us our Father is in heaven so that His people will remember that He is a sovereign God. You understand? He's sovereign. Our Father is not away on some diplomatic trip, He's not sleeping, He's not in a foreign land, but He is in heaven. And what is He doing in heaven? He is doing all that He pleases. He is ruling over this feeble earth. This ought to make us remember His power, right? His power. Nothing, Jesus tells us, nothing is impossible with God. So what is it that you could bring to God in prayer and ask Him in faith that He is unable to do? He is the God who is in heaven. At the same time, we have the faith, we ought to have the faith to trust Him. That whatsoever He does, it pleases Him to do. He does all that He pleases. And if He does grant our petition in the way we ask, Amen. If He does not grant a petition in the same way that we ask for it, it's only because it pleases Him not to do so. Not because He's not powerful. But all that He does is for His glory and for the good of His church. Trust Him. Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father in Heaven so that we recall His deity and recognize His dominion. He is the God who reigns. Jesus teaches us to pray, our Father in heaven, to remember our doorway. So, to recall His deity, to recognize His dominion, thirdly, to remember our doorway. Now, what do I mean by this? What I mean by this is that heaven is high above us. Where is heaven? Well, we often think of heaven as far away and high above us. Here's something that you need to think. God being high above us and holy and separated from us, not really by distance, but if we think about separated from us in His holy majesty, how could we have such access then to the throne room of God? The answer is Jesus is our doorway. This is true both of salvation and prayer. In fact, turn with me just for a second to Hebrews 10. Hebrews chapter 10. And I'm going to consider verse 19 through 22. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Do you know what the author of Hebrews is saying there? What Jesus has done is that the way to God, the way into the throne room of God, the doorway into heaven is through the blood of Jesus Christ. How could you, a poor, miserable, wretched, blind, Unregenerate sinner, ever find yourself in the very presence of God, in His grace, in His kindness, in His favor? The answer, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has opened the way to heaven. Not just salvation, but the very access to God. by His perfect life, by His righteousness, by the song that we sang, His robes for mine. You remember that one parable that Jesus says and the man gets into the wedding garment and the master of the house says, friend, or he gets into the wedding but he doesn't have a garment. He says, friend, how are you in here? How are you here without a garment? And he's speechless and he casts him out. Okay, when we go to the throne room of God, we've got a garment. You know who it is? It's the robes of Jesus Christ. It's the righteous robes of Jesus. I am able to access the prayer room of God, the very throne room of God, the Holy of Holies, as it were, not because of my own way, not because of my own works, but because of what Jesus has done. How can a me, a man on earth, get to heaven? Answer, it's Jesus. His perfect life. His vicarious death, His resurrection. We have no access to heaven apart from Christ. We do not have the ear of God without Christ. Without Christ, we are at enmity with God. But in Jesus, the opposite is true. In Jesus, we have it all. By His righteousness, credited to our account, we enter heaven. By His perfect life, we enter into the presence of God. By His shed blood for our sins, we are forgiven. This perfect life, this death on the cross, atoning for our sins, this glorious resurrection, this gospel, it is the only way. And Jesus directs us to remember our Father in heaven. is a direction to remember our doorway. How do we get from where we're at here to be able to speak with our Father in heaven? It's Jesus. This means, think through this, church. This means we don't just add in Jesus' name to the end of our prayers. And by the way, We've been guilty, I've been guilty. If we do that carelessly, that's a violation of the third commandment. You shall not take the Lord your God's name in vain. So if you pray and then you're like, okay, I've got this formula. Every time I pray, I pray and then I got this little formula at the end of Jesus name, amen. That's a violation. You're not carefully thinking about the name of our Lord Jesus. Now, it's not wrong to say in Jesus' name, Amen. We should put that at the end of our prayers. But it is wrong to do it flippantly. But the overarching point I'm making here is that our whole prayer, not just the end of it, we don't just stamp Jesus' name at the end. Our whole prayer from beginning, middle to end, the entire thing is in Jesus' name. Why? Because it's by the Gospel and because of the Gospel that we pray. You understand? the righteousness of Jesus, His obedience to the law, the death of Jesus under God's wrath, the victory of Jesus in His resurrection. Friends, this is the means by which we approach the God who is in heaven. And let me remind all of us here tonight. Children, adults, Sunday night, I understand, but you need to know there's access to God that is available. To who? Who? To me? Yes, to you. To you, to all who will call upon the name of the Lord. There's access to God, but it's only those who call upon the name of the Lord, only those who go to God through Christ. You want access? to God? You want access to heaven's throne room? You want salvation? You want freedom from your sins and forgiveness from the tyranny and slavery of sin? You want the righteousness of Christ imputed to your account? Go to God. Call upon His name in Christ. Repent and believe the gospel. Why does Jesus bid His people to pray this way? Our Father in heaven? To recall His deity. To recognize His dominion. To remember our doorway. Fourthly, to reprioritize our duties. Later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says this, look down at verse 33, chapter 6 verse 33. Jesus says, but seek first, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. By remembering our Father in heaven, Our minds are drawn to our priorities. There's a poor saying. Please don't say this. There's a poor saying. It goes this way. Well, you know, don't be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. OK, I don't I want to try to be kind like I don't 100 percent know what that means. It's poor theology. When Christians place their priorities on the earthly, we only mess things up. This does not mean that we move out of society and we live like hermits. It's the exact opposite. Those who seek the Lord in heaven above all will seek to bring Christ to bear on this world. by proclaiming the law and the gospel to those around them, and by seeking to live holy and consecrated lives in this sin-stained world, and by prioritizing and being active parts of the local church. We're the most earthly good when we are heavenly-minded. The reality is we are too often derailed by earthly thoughts. We are too often anxious about earthly matters. We are too fearful about what's worldly implications. We are too distracted by carnal inclinations. But Jesus here reminds us to pray to our Father who is in heaven in order to reprioritize our duties. My obedience, my duties, my allegiance, my priority. It's not the things here on earth. It's not even my boss or even my children or even my marriage. All of this is important, by the way, even my country. All of this is tremendously important, but we have to prioritize it. I do all those things through obedience to God first. Hey, there's a big billboard in our town. I kind of like it, to be honest, to remember the life of Charlie Kirk. And on that, it says a quote from him. I'm going to make sure I get it right. God, family, country. In that order. There's something to be said about that. Friends, there is a priority here. It's not that our family and our country is not important. It is important. It's that we have a priority. We seek God first above all else. Jesus reminds us that we pray to our Father who is in heaven in order to reprioritize our duties. Think more of the next world in order to be the best benefit for the world at present. I'm just going to tell you, I think about, I don't know, maybe you guys just think I'm some sort of steel warrior and I'm just impervious to pain and sorrow. I've cried a lot in the last couple of days. Death hurts. I know where Bob's going, right? You know where he's going, but it hurts. Death hurts. But I'm going to tell you something. Here's something you don't want to have happen to you at the end of your life. You don't want to have happen at the end of your life, thinking back over your life and regretting that you were too fearful of man and not fearful enough of God. So listen to me. Apply this to your work tomorrow. Apply this to your Thanksgiving dinner next month. Apply this to the school board meeting, whatever it is that you need to. Think of heaven above all else and let that seep deep into every other relationship that you have. We may make decisions that disappoint others. We may disappoint extended family. We may disappoint friends. But so long as we are in the will of God, then who we disappoint ultimately in eternity, it will not matter. The Gospel takes us to heaven, but when we pray to God in heaven, we are reminded that we have work to do here on earth now, so we must be busy with the Lord's business until He comes. And the only way that we know that we're busy with the Lord's business is by constantly reprioritizing our priorities, as it were, through the Word and prayer, and aligning ourselves with His will. Okay, I've probably covered that enough. We pray to God in heaven so that we'll reprioritize our duties. Two more. Number five. Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father in heaven to help us rest in our dependence. To rest in our dependence. I remind you here in verse nine, this is a command. Pray. Pray. It's in the imperative mood. It is a command. Jesus says, pray. Maybe pray, or if you get around to it, pray. But He commands His people to pray. And so prayer is one of the means by which God sustains His people. Prayer is one of the means by which God provides for the physical needs of His people, by which He nourishes His people spiritually, by which He furthers His kingdom. God is doing all these things. Isn't it amazing that He would use our prayers in this way? And Jesus commands us to pray because we need God. He commands us to pray because we need God. We are far more desperate for the grace that prayer supplies than the amount of time that we spend in it. We must pray. But Jesus reminds us that since God is in heaven, we can rest all of our dependence on Him. He has all power, He has all authority, He has an infinite storehouse, infinite storehouse of blessing for His people, all procured by the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. You are going to the God with unlimited resources. Well, how come sometimes He doesn't supply my needs? I'm going to tell you the sobering truth. It may be hard to hear, but I hope you find it encouraging too. And I need to hear this. Stephanie knows this. Do you know why God doesn't supply your needs sometimes? Because you don't need it. Because you get your needs and your wants confused. God supplies for his people. The problem is sometimes we ask for things that we just don't need. But prayer drives us to dependence on God. Do you think, child of God, do you think that God is in heaven and He's looking down on you and He's just thinking, I have all ability to grant this request, but I do not because I want to see my child hurt? No. The reason that God does not grant certain requests for His people is so that they will increase their acknowledgement of their dependence on Him. And then sometimes there are infinite reasons that I and you and I, we can't wrap our minds around what God is doing, but we know that he is the God of all love, and we know that he is the God of all power, and we know that he is willing to provide for his people the things that we need at the precise time that we need it. And so if you don't get it, you don't need it. That's one way to consider Jesus doesn't say here, when you need something, go down to the local bar and see if they'll help you. He doesn't say, when you need something, just go to the government and let them see if you can get help. Rather, He says, pray to your Father in heaven. And that ought to be a huge encouragement to you. Thomas Manton says, When you say, Our Father which art in heaven, you profess your dependence upon him who sits upon the throne, who doth whatsoever he pleaseth. You can take comfort tonight that our Lord Jesus directs your heart and your minds, not to things on earth, but to our Father in heaven. Why does He teach us to pray this way? To recall His deity, to recognize His dominion, to remember our doorway, to reprioritize our duties, to rest in our dependence, and finally, to rejoice in our delight. To rejoice in our delight. Pray then like this, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. When I was younger, I started drinking coffee like this. I don't know if this is a parable in some way, but I had to drink coffee with cream and sugar. That's the only way I liked it, right? No comment, Monty. Drink coffee with cream and sugar. The older I got, I'd try a little less cream and sugar, until eventually I got to a point where I enjoy, I actually enjoy coffee with nothing in it. The blacker it is, the better. If it's hotter and blacker, that is the way that I want to drink coffee. I enjoy it. It is an acquired taste for black coffee. It tastes good and enjoyable to me. But listen, here's the analogy. In a far better way, Prayer recalibrates our affections. Heavenly-minded prayer increases our delight in all things that are heavenly. So, by the Holy Spirit, this is what has happened, the Holy Spirit has given the believer a new heart. This new heart has new affections. It loves the things of Christ now, and it loves the Gospel, it loves the means of grace, it loves heavenly things, it loves the church. And what heavenly-minded prayer does is it cultivates these affections. You know one reason that I just can't stand, I know we've talked about it a lot recently, but one reason I just can't stand the idea of your best life now, and all these things, declare it and it'll be so, and you'll have the new parking job, and the new raise, and the new mansion, all those, because all these things, these things numb and callous your affections for the things of the other world. for the things of holiness, for the things of God. These things creep back into the old man, and it's a lust for self, and for power, and for wealth, and for health, and all these things. And it actually slows down, if you are a believer, your sanctification. No, get rid of those things, and direct your mind and your thoughts to your Father who is in heaven, because as we pray in a heavenly-minded way, it's actually cultivating our affections for holy things. That's not a great analogy about the coffee. I get it. You know, heaven's an acquired taste or whatever. I'm not, you know, that probably falls apart a little bit. But the point is, as we pray for heavenly things, God is pleased to increase our delight in them. There is a sense in which we pray so little because we pray so little. We allow our misplaced priorities and distractions to keep us in little prayer and we are impeding our growth for heavenly delight. Heavenly minded prayer readies us for heaven. The momentary communion we have with our holy God increases our desire to commune with Him all the more like that for all eternity. Again, this does not remove us from this world, but it does help us work to, where we can, see God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's part of this prayer too, we'll get to. It also makes us, by the way, delight in things like the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's Day, Sunday, all the more. Because when our affections, let me just tell you this, people who pray much and pray rightly, They love, they love the Lord's Day. They love to gather with the church. Why? Because the church gathers, when the church gathers, this precious time of gathering with God's people is the closest foretaste that we have, the closest taste of heaven that we have, the foretaste of heaven. The overarching point is that Jesus teaches us to pray to our Heavenly Father, reminding us of His heavenly dwelling, so that we may rejoice in our delight, that our spiritual taste buds, as it were, would ever increase in the delight of the things of the Lord. I don't know if you want another silly analogy. When I was younger, I didn't like mushrooms mom maybe put mushrooms and spaghetti or you got much and whatever i get these are gross now i'm like grill one of those up i'd like to have it with my stake right put it on the spaghetti i don't care put it on my ice cream doesn't matter right i enjoy it okay listen when we pray we're increasing our love for prayer and our love and affection for things heavenly. Again, I think about Brother Bob, the end of his life, maybe even very soon to take his final breath. When he stands before the Lord, enraptured in the glory of Christ, he will not say, I promise you, he will not say, wow, Now that I'm here and I see, I really spent too much time praying. He won't say that. Now listen, when a person gets to the end of their life, and it's in God's sovereign timing, and it's time for them to pass from this world on to the next, to cross that final river as it were, there's nothing that they can go back and do. It's all over. They can't undo. They can't redo. It's over. But as we consider death among one of our members, it is right for the church to assess our lives. And to think, well, I'm not crossing that river yet. And so what things in my life do I want to make sure are right for whenever the Lord sovereignly calls me from this world? Well, one of those things, I believe, that we are going to want to increase is heavenly-minded prayer. That's where I land the plane tonight. Are you a heavenly-minded prayer? Where are your priorities in prayer? Would you be willing to listen tonight to the Lord Jesus? Pray then like this, our Father in heaven, would you repent, anyone that needs to, of any lack of prayer? Would we seek as a church body to increase in this gracious duty? Maybe there'd be someone here tonight. Let's close maybe a... It's not really a harsh word, but sobering. Let me just say it to you this way. It's possible that there's one who sits among us. You know why you don't love prayer? You don't have a regenerate heart. You're not born again. You have no appetite for the things of heaven. You have no appetite for the eternal things. No appetite for God. Now, would you look at your life, if that's you, would you look at your life and say, that is me. That is me. Well then, we need to go back to Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, the way that Jesus begins this sermon. He says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Okay? So you need to take assessment of your life and you need to realize, I've got nothing. I've got nothing to offer God. I've got nothing of myself to bring God. If I could pray the most loftiest of prayers, it would not even deserve a counsel with God. In fact, the loftiest of prayers that I could pray would only condemn me all the more. I've got nothing. Where do I turn? I've got good news. Turn to Jesus. Turn to Christ. Look to Him. Repent. believe the gospel, and then may we be a people of prayer together to our Father in heaven. Father, we thank you for your word tonight. We pray, O God, that we would be a people who take right assessment of this text. And that we would not just see what Jesus teaches us as some formula to add on to something, but we would understand that Jesus teaches us very particularly and specifically why we should pray like this. And help us to remember you in heaven and direct all our hope and prioritization and comfort from this truth.