In this Manner, Pray

When Jesus Christ came and when He came, He stirred some controversy as He came to earth, because He certainly was going to talk about what the truth of the Bible is, what the truth of God's way of life is. And over the centuries that the Jews knew the Bible and followed it and kept some of the Sabbath days and the holy days, and the way that they had decided that they should be kept, He began to show them the things where they differed from what God said. And over the years, they had added things to the truth. They had determined their own way of doing things, kind of justified it to themselves. And after a while, when they did these things, they just became commonplace. The way that they kept the Sabbath, the way that they kept the holy days, the way that they had their governance, if you will, and the church structured, and they just kind of thought they were okay with God.

Jesus Christ came along and He began to show them that what they were doing was not right. While they had some of the basics of the things that they did with Sabbath day and holy days and whatever, there are many other things in their religion that just weren't right. And He came and as He began His ministry, He said, I didn't come to destroy the law and prophets. I didn't come to do away with the Old Testament. That's very important, what we did. That's foundational of what people that are following God's way live in and how they live.

But He began to show them what you're doing is different. Different than what God said. And He came to expand the law and He came to show them the way that God wanted to do. They needed a course correction. And He went back to the Old Testament and He showed them, this is what God said and this is what you should be doing. It's different. It's different than what you're doing. And as the people heard these things, the leaders, the leaders, and some of the people just didn't like it all, what they heard.

They didn't want to hear that what they were doing was wrong. They needed to go back and they needed to refresh their minds of what it is that God wanted and then be willing to follow what God said. But they didn't want to do that. And so many of them just didn't like Jesus Christ at all. They saw Him as a troublemaker. They saw Him as someone who was trying to upset the apple cart. They wanted their religion that had a semblance of what God had called them to.

But it wasn't His religion at all. And so Jesus Christ came to earth and as He came to earth, He began to reveal things to the disciples that God had called. And that were following Him. And He began to show them things, a number of things that you can go through the Bible and you remember if you list them all. One of the things that He revealed to them was God the Father. They didn't know who God the Father was. And as He began to speak to them in Matthew 4, 5, 6, and He would use the term God the Father, it kind of went right over their head.

But later they would understand who God the Father was. And today we know who God the Father is and we know what He does. Separate, I guess, if you will, if we can use that term from what Jesus Christ does. We know that God the Father is the one who calls people. We know that God the Father is the one who sends the Holy Spirit to people when they repent and are baptized.

We know it's God the Father who would resurrect Jesus Christ. God the Father will be the one who would send Jesus Christ back to earth when it's time for Him to come and set up His kingdom, whatever time that is going to be. No man knows the day or the hour, but God the Father. And so He began to reveal them to those things.

And the disciples, they would begin to hear these things. They didn't really fully understand what He was saying. They would listen to Him. And later they would understand. And this is three and a half years of Christ's ministry went by. And at the end, when He was talking to them before He was arrested, and He mentioned that He was going to God the Father.

And Philip, I believe it was, who said, Who is God the Father? Who is this God the Father you're talking about? And He would say, and He said, Philip, if you know me, you know God the Father. We are the same. We have the same plan. We have the same ideas. We are in perfect accord with one another. If you know me, you know Him. But He's in Heaven. He'll send the Holy Spirit to you. He'll do these things and whatever. And so we know who God the Father is, but they didn't. And the Jews didn't. Jesus Christ also came and He began talking about the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God. And He would use terms like the Kingdom of Heaven. And the Kingdom of God. One verse in Matthew 13, He says, The Kingdom of their Father, when He's referring to people. For it varying to the Kingdom and the people who would be in the Kingdom. And He would talk about these things and, you know, John the Baptist, when He came to earth, the first thing that He said that we have recorded in the Bible is, Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

Now to the Jews who would hear that at that time, they might have thought, what do we have to repent of? The rest of the world has a lot to repent of, but not us. We're the people of God. What do you mean, repent?

Well, Jesus Christ was letting them know, you're living differently than the standard that God would have had you live. They didn't understand it at that time. And the disciples probably didn't understand it at that time. They came to realize the difference. And then when they said, The Kingdom of God is at hand, the people listened, but they didn't know what it meant. And Jesus Christ, in Matthew 4, verse 17, you could be turning to Matthew 4. We'll go there in a second here. In Matthew 4, 17, He said, Repent. Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, or the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

And so He had the very same message to the people as He began His ministry, as He began the time when He went around to the people and talked to them. And was there to let the people know, this is the way you follow. This is who you follow. This is what the foundational principles of God are. If we pick it up in Matthew 4, and let's begin in verse... Let's pick it up in verse 23 of Matthew 4.

You know, as He began, it says, Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Now, this was different than what the Sanhedrin was preaching at that time, what the Pharisees were teaching, what they were teaching. If you told a Jew back in that time, what is the Kingdom of God, they would have thought the Messiah is coming to set up the physical kingdom on earth at that time. Just like they asked of Christ in Acts 1, verse 8.

Are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel? They didn't get what He was talking about. We understand, but they didn't understand at that time, but He went around preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. He was getting their attention by the things that He said that were different than the religious leaders of the day, different than the things that they heard in the Bible, or the Old Testament as they were being taught by other leaders in the synagogues.

God got their attention by healing all the people that came to Him. Verse 24 says, His fame went throughout all Syria. Everyone knew who Jesus Christ was. This man teaches something different. This man heals all that come to Him. This man has answers. He doesn't speak like the people, the other people that we've heard. And they paid attention. And He became notorious in the right sense of their word back at that time.

His fame went through all Syria, and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics and paralytics, and He healed them all. Great multitudes followed Him. He had a following. What He said, He spoke with authority. He was talking about things that were right there in the Bible, even using the Law and the Prophets, the Old Testament.

As we've talked many times, here's a New Testament concept buried in the Old Testament, and Jesus Christ would bring that out. You know, Jesus Christ, or God, you know, wanted you to obey physically, but as He goes into the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5, 6, and 7, He says, but it's more than that.

You know, you don't even... You may not kill people physically, but the commandment is you don't even hate someone. The commandment is about loving people, even if they do you wrong, even if they do things differently than you do.

You don't harbor hate. You harbor something else. So in chapter 5, it says, verse 1, "...and seeing the multitudes, Christ went up on a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him, and He opened His mouth and taught them, saying..." And it's the Sermon on the Mount, the very first sermon that we have recorded us by Jesus Christ. And in this Sermon on the Mount, He gives foundational principles for every Christian. Those who would follow God, this is kind of a textbook, an abbreviated textbook, that every word means something in here, and He tells what a New Testament Christian, a New Covenant Christian will behave like.

And as He talked to the disciples that were there that day, they probably were listening to His words, but these were things that they were hearing for the first time. He would give the Beatitudes, "...blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." They didn't understand that probably that day, but they would understand that later. And He would go through the Beatitudes. He would talk about, like in verse 11, "...blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake." This is the beginning of His ministry.

There were people that were flocking to Him at that time. These were people, He was famous. People were coming to listen to Him. They weren't persecuting Him, they weren't reviling Him at that time. That came later. When the leaders of that day thought, we don't like what this man is saying. We don't like how He's upsetting the apple cart. We don't like the fact that He's tampering with what we've set up and what it means for us. So they would hear these things, and He would say, they're going to revile, they're going to persecute you, because you're going to believe what I believe.

Which has a basis, you know, theirs is a basis in the Bible, but I'm going to teach you the truth. What you're going to say is going to run up against them the wrong way. They're not going to like what you say, just like they won't like what I say. So they would hear these things, and it would be later on that they would understand those things. And as He would go through the sermon, He would tell them, you're going to be lights to the world. Not the Jewish religion of the day. Not doing the things the way the Pharisees did it and the Sadducees did it.

You will be lights to the world. You will be salt of the earth. You'll follow Me, and you need to follow Me, because the foundation is in the Bible. But the Jews have gone away from it. They've added their own flavor to it. They've made their own compromises. And that has become truth to them, but it's not the truth of God. And so He would go through the Sermon on the Mount, and He would talk about, you know, He hasn't come to do away with the law.

He's come to magnify it. So it's no longer just a physical obedience to the law, but a spiritual concept as well. He would talk about divorce and how it's not of God, that He wanted people to stay together. And we made a commitment that we are to stay together for all times. He would talk about how God provides everything, and that we need to follow Him and rely on Him for clothing and food and the necessities of life.

And that He would provide, if we sought first, His kingdom. He would talk about judgmentalism and looking down on other people and trying to condemn them for the things they do, when maybe we don't even look at ourselves. But we're ready to point the finger at someone else, but we don't really point the fingers at ourselves too often. And He would talk about all those things. And as you study the Sermon on the Mount, you see that there's things that we, even those of us who have been around 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, might go back and look what Jesus Christ said and measure ourselves against the words He said.

Do we do and do we follow what Jesus Christ said? Well, we look at what He said on the Sermon on the Mount. Are we the type of people that He described? Or have we added a few things in? Have we made some decisions along the way that this is okay with God? He's okay with this as long as I'm doing this. And perhaps in 20, 10, 20, 30, 40, or even less than that years that we've been in the Church, maybe we've made excuses for ourselves and pat ourselves on the back and say, God's okay with that.

He understands. Maybe we've done something of what the Jews have done, and we can go back and we can look at every word that's here in the Sermon on the Mount and measure ourselves against the standards that God would have us measure ourselves against. And I include myself in this. You know, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ even touches on something that every single Christian has to do if they're ever going to have a relationship with God.

Right there in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, He addresses a situation for the disciples at that time, for the disciples today. And it's something we've talked about before, many times, but something I don't think we could ever talk about enough because it indicates and it's an indicator to God of where our relationship with Him is. If we look at Matthew 6, Matthew 6 and beginning in verse 5, He addresses a situation here with the disciples who were there that day, a situation that we all have and something that we absolutely all of us have in common.

You know, how do we pray? Verse 5, He says, You, disciples, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. So He looked around at the society that day and you had people standing on the corners.

They were praying, probably had their hands raised in the air, and they were just out there, here, look how holy I am, look how righteous I am. I'm praying to God, look what I've done. And God, in Christ, said, that isn't the way. That's not what God had in mind when He said, pray. That's exactly the opposite of what He had to say, pray. This is done for show of men. And He says, you know what? These people who are doing it because they want to be seen by others and look how righteous I am, they've got their reward.

They were seen by people and that's all it was going to mean. He says in verse 6, but when you pray, go into your room. When you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. When you pray, do it between just you and God. You don't have to announce it to the world.

You don't have to parade it around to people. Just do what God wants you to do and do it in private. Do it for the right reason. Not for any other motive except that you want to converse with God. And not just because you have to check off a box that day. I have to pray and so I will spend my 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, whatever minutes it is, I will do that.

Because if that's all we're doing, it's just checking off a box, then we've checked off the box. No different than what the Pharisees who would stand on the corner to be seen by people, that they would, they got their reward. Verse 70 says, And when you pray, don't use vain repetitions as the heathen do. I don't know what the heathen did at that time. I guess they had prayers. A lot of people just recant, you know, sayings or whatever to their gods.

Don't use vain repetition as the heathen do, for they think they'll be heard for their many words. Therefore, don't be like them. And verse 80, you know, goes on, and he says, For God knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. He doesn't need you to ask for Him. He knows exactly what we need. He knows what we need before we know what we need.

Sometimes it takes a while for us to realize, I've got to ask God. I need what God can give me. He knows, but He's not going to just automatically give us everything, because there is something important about asking Him.

And recognizing that we need Him, and we need what we have from Him. Something very important about that. And then he goes into a pattern of prayer that he talks about. And you know, probably most everyone in this audience can sit here and repeat verbatim, verses 9 through 13 to me. Very famous prayer, religions in the world know it. You know, for the first three years that I was in grade school, I was in a Catholic school, and believe me, we had the Our Father prayer drilled into us daily.

We also had something called the Hail Mary prayer, that I have absolutely no recollection of, except the title, but I always have known the Our Father prayer. And I never thought of it much when I was there, but you know, when you're in Catholic school, you go to Mass every single day, and you are taught that you know you come before the priest, and you offer your confession to Him, and you're supposed to do that.

I forget if it's every week, or every couple weeks, or whatever. And as a young person in the first, second, and third grade, you don't even have an idea what sin is, so a lot of times you just make up something. I disobeyed my parents, I, whatever. And that's kind of what you would do. And the priest would say, you know, he bless you, my son, you know, say, five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys, and your sin is forgiven you.

So as a dutiful young person, you would take your little rosary, you know, and you'd go out there, and you'd kneel down, and you'd count off one by one, okay, Our Father, just kind of repeat the words that you had memorized, counted off five times on the rosary, five times the Hail Mary, and you walked away thinking, well, did my job. God's forgiven me. I didn't even know what the word repentance was, but God's okay with me now.

I did, I said the magic words, and it's all over. And the sad thing is, there's adults all over the world who do that, and they think that's all you have to do is just say these magic little words here, and God is okay with it, puts him in an attitude, a servitude to us. I've said the words, therefore, God, now you have to do it.

And that's not what verses 9 through 13 is. It's an automatic words that we give to God that puts him in a matter of dead indebtedness to us. We are always indebted to him for what he does. But Jesus Christ here, in verses 9 through 13, he says, here's a manner of praying.

He doesn't say memorize this and repeat this every day. In fact, just before that, he said, don't do the vain repetitions. Don't say this all the time. Our prayers are supposed to be with God conversationally, or fervently, or whatever it is we're coming from.

Sometimes our prayers are simply thankful. You know, maybe after the hurricane passed, you were very grateful for what God had said, and your prayer was all about gratitude to him for everything he had done, and that's appropriate. Other days it may be fervent. You know, there's something, someone needs something, or there's something facing you, and you need to have God's intervention, and you pray differently to him on those days.

Maybe the prayer is for someone else in intercessory prayer, or maybe it's mixed with all sorts of things that you pray that day. But Christ says in verse 9, in this manner, pray. In this manner, pray. And then he says these few words in the next five verses. You know, as you look at those words, and sometimes when we look at the Bible, and things are so familiar with us that we could repeat them, and the words just flow off our mouth, that might be the time we want to go back, and we want to look at the words that God says individually.

And we might want to look and see how we pray. We might want to see, are we praying in the manner that Jesus Christ said to pray? Because he gives us a few words here, but there's more than words that he's looking for us in prayer. In this short prayer, manner of prayer, pattern of prayer, outline of prayer that he gives, he shows us there's attitudes that we should be coming to God in prayer. There's ways of life that we should be doing if we come to him in prayer.

There's a whole lot more than saying, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. It means a whole lot more than that. And if God's going to hear our prayer, Jesus Christ was showing the disciples, this is the manner. This is the manner. This is how you pray. You know, Luke 11, he repeats these same words at that occasion, whether it's the same time or another time, the disciples asked him, Teach us to pray. You know, maybe they saw Jesus Christ as he was praying, and they thought, the way he prays is different than us.

When he comes back from praying, he seems different. Teach us to pray, and he answers their question with the very same words we find here in the Sermon on the Mount. So today I want to drill down into the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father Prayer, the manner of prayer, the pattern of prayer here, and look at what God is telling us in this, and maybe look at the way we pray and say, What Jesus Christ has said here, is this the manner that we approach God?

Is this the manner that we pray in? Are we doing what God wants us to do? Because, you know, later on in the Bible, in the New Testament, well, even Jesus Christ said, Whatever you ask in my name, I'll do. And yet we know, not net everything we pray for. God does. Maybe we're missing something, and maybe we need to look at Jesus Christ's words in this foundational teaching that he gave on prayer of what he means by it. So let's put our little spotlights on, and let's look at verses 9 through 13 here, and go through some things that God would have us look at here.

Let's begin with the first two words. Our Father. Our Father. Now, when we look at every word that Jesus Christ says, it has meaning to us. Every meaning, every word has something to us. And he doesn't start off by saying, My Father, Your Father, or just Father.

He says, Our Father. Focus on the word, our. O-U-R. When we say our, what does that mean? If I say, This is our church. To my family, this is our home. This is our time. It's inclusive, isn't it? We all are sharing the same thing.

And he's saying, Our Father. Christ knows he's his Father, and he's returning to him. Our Father. He's showing the disciples, and he wants us when we come together with him. You are a family of God.

You are together with him. He has called you out of the world. He has given you his calling, his Holy Spirit. Once your repentance are baptized, our Father. He is our Father. It's an inclusive word in that. You can keep your finger there in chapter 6. Let's go to Matthew 12 and verse 50.

Jesus Christ, as he's teaching one day or talking there, his physical brothers and sisters, or physical brothers and mother, came to him. And on verse 48 of Matthew 12, he said, Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? And he stretched out his hand toward his disciples, and he said, Here's my mother and brothers, for whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. They're my family. They're the ones. He's our Father. And so he starts that off not just by Father, but our Father. And he uses the word Father. He didn't say Yahweh. He didn't say Creator. He didn't say Sustainer. He didn't say Savior. He said, Our Father. Our Father.

Now, when the word Father is said, there's probably things that conjure up in our minds. If we had good fathers on earth, we'd probably think of some of the good things that they did, the things that fathers should do. They provide for their children and their family. They love their children and family. They would sacrifice for their children and family. They appreciate them, and they look for the talents in their children and family. And they want to develop those children, those talents in those children. So when they grow up, they are productive, happy members of society. They're able to find and make for themselves in their world, in the world that they live in. Fathers are the spiritual leaders of the house. They're also the physical leaders of the house. Importantly, they are the spiritual leaders in the home. They should be the ones teaching the way to go. They should be the ones teaching the way of God when they know it and understand it. They're the ones who discipline when it comes time for discipline because parenting, as you know, those of us who have done it, it isn't all about patting someone on the back and saying, great job, great job, great job. There's times for that. But there's other times it's like, you know what? There's an attitude here that's not right. You know what? What you did was flat out wrong. You know, you need to change that. That aspect of your personality is going to cause you problems down the road. You need to change that. If fathers love their children, if fathers love their families, they are doing those things. They're working with them and they are schooling them. And it takes mom and dad working together in that and being in unity in that to raise a family that is the way that we want them to be, the way that God would want them to be. Our Father in heaven does all those things. He provides for us everything. He provides the spiritual truth. He provides the spiritual encouragement. He provides His Spirit that binds us all together because it's His Spirit in us. That binds us together as family. That helps us see things the way God sees. That helps us to understand the Bible and the truth that He gives. It's Him that binds us together. It's Him that leads us. And in Matthew 6, later on in the chapter, He said, you know what? It's God who provides those things, but you've got to do these other things first. You've got to show that you believe in the Father's plan and that you support the Father's plan.

We know when there's conflict in the family between Father and Son, Father and teenage Son. It's a lot of times teenage Son doesn't want to do what the Dad wants to do. He doesn't want to believe that Dad knows the answers or sees the things. And so there's this conflict that arises. And hopefully in time it wears itself out with patience and with talking. And sometimes even as age passes on and experience goes on.

When there's conflict between us and God, there's a problem. And God wants that resolved. We have to believe in God's plan. It has to become part of us, not just something we can recite and say, yeah, that sounds like a good plan and whatever. God is looking for much more than that in us.

And so Jesus Christ says, He's our Father. He's our Father. And as these first two words of the prayer, when we begin with that, and most of the times if you listen to the opening and closing prayers at church, and as you pray, I'm sure you always address our Father in heaven. But those words can kind of just flow off our mouth and they don't read our lips, and they may not mean anything at all.

But if you think about what we're saying, the attitude that Christ instructs us to have when we come before God, those two words set the tone. He's supreme. He's sovereign. He's the ultimate authority. We owe Him all the respect in the world.

He's the first commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and no other God besides Him. Christ said when you begin your prayer, come to Him with that thought in mind. Our Father. And all the good things and all the things that that means, it should conjure up in our mind of a God who loves us and who wants the best of us and for us and wants to give us eternal life, who wants to give us things beyond we can even imagine.

Our Father. And then He goes on and He says, which art in heaven? I guess the old King James says which art in heaven. I'm looking at my new King James here and it says, our Father in heaven. But He says here, you know, remember where He is. We have physical fathers, but we have a heavenly Father. He looks down. He's capable of hearing all our prayers. He's capable and He knows all our weaknesses, all our strengths, all our needs before we ever ask Him.

As He watches our lives, He thinks this is what you need. You don't know it yet, but you need to be asking Me for it. And if we follow Him and if we are yielded to Him, we'll eventually realize, look to God, right? But He's in heaven. You know, as Christ talked about fathers, He even gave a religious instruction. Don't call any other religious figure, Father. There's no religious figure on earth you should call Father. You have one Father in heaven. We have physical fathers, but one spiritual Father, and He's God in heaven, who fills that role. But Jesus Christ, or God, when He's in heaven, people don't understand sometimes exactly what heaven is.

You know, I think back to, again, third grade, and I don't remember thinking this when I was in third grade, but as I listen to people as they come into the church, and I remember, oh, you go to heaven. If you obey God, you go to heaven. I don't remember ever hearing one thing, and I don't remember ever seeing one thing in the years since of what the world says happens in heaven. What do you do in heaven? Do you just sit on a cloud and play a harp? Just look at God's eyes, or look on His whatever and be happy?

They don't realize that in heaven, there's a lot going on. There's a lot going on. There's plans, there's beings, there's a lot going on. Our Father is in heaven. And there's a system in heaven and a government in heaven and a way of life in heaven that we need to remember and that we need to remember who we are. When God calls us and we respond, and we repent of our sins and we commit our lives to Him and say, forever, forever I commit myself to you, and I want to be baptized into your name, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, we're committing to what is going on in the government that God has given us in this Bible, but what is going on in heaven?

Because that's where He is. That's what we're committing to. And when we commit to God, we know we need to continue living in the world. We need to continue working. We need to continue doing the things we need to do. We need to be very good employees. We need to be very good students. We need to be very good neighbors. We need to be very good at everything we do, and we need to be honest, above board, that when people look at us, they say, they're someone different.

But our citizenship, even though we live in America, even though we live in Florida, even though we live in Orlando, our citizenship is here physically, but our ultimate citizenship is not here. We give that up. We give that up, and it is superimposed by this real citizenship that we have when we commit to God. Let's go to Philippians 3.

Philippians 3, verse 17.

Paul writes to the church at Philippi, he says, Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. He tells him something important there because it's like, you know the Bible. You know the pattern of what God wants you to do. Follow those who you see doing the same things, because he said in verse 18, For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping. They're the enemies of the cross of Christ. Their words may sound very good, but their words don't match the Sermon on the Mount. When you look down at what the details are and their foundational principles, it's not about the Sermon on the Mount. It's not about serving God at all. It's not about our Father in heaven and His will be done. It's about something else. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly. They have their own interests at heart. They're looking for something that they want. And he says, beware of that. Who's end is billion, whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. Verse 20, For our citizenship is in heaven, where our Father is.

From which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is in heaven sitting at the right hand of God, our Father in heaven.

Over in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, verse 13, the author here is here, he recounts the lives of people who died in the faith, who died living in accordance with God's law.

He says, these all died in faith, verse 13, not having received the promises, God's given us promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Do we confess that we're strangers and pilgrims on the earth? Do we see our citizenship in heaven? We live here, we work here, we walk about here, God designed that we would live here, but is our citizenship truly in heaven, and is that the order to which we march? Do we see ourselves as that or is it secondary to what we do every day? Now we know on earth that the citizenship we have in Romans 13 falls very clear, obey the laws of the land, as long as they don't conflict with the laws of our Father in heaven. Verse 14, For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And if you look in the concordances there, they say that could be translated Fatherland. They're looking for their Fatherland, where their Father is. That's what they aspire to. That's where they see themselves and their citizenship. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, because when God calls us, He calls us out of the world. He says you're going to continue to live in America, you're going to continue to live in Orlando, you're going to continue to live among these things, but you're no longer going to see yourself primarily as that. Now you're a citizen of heaven.

Come out of her, my people, God says. Live there, make your way there, learn God's way there, but live as if you're a citizen, well, live the way you are, a citizen of heaven. Surely if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country.

Our Father, our Father which art in heaven. And when we begin to pray our prayer in a manner of attitude, in a prayer that comes before God with the right motives and the right mindset that Christ is talking about here, how pleasing is that to God? When he sees you come before him, kneeling, standing, sitting, whatever it is you do when you pray, which varies according to the times and circumstances, when he sees us approach him in that manner, not starting off the prayer, our Father in heaven, give me this, give me that, our Father in heaven, I recognize you.

I recognize who I am and what you are doing with me. I recognize where I'm going. I recognize what I've committed to you to do. And I come before you as the God of the universe, our Father, who loves, who corrects, who chases, but who leads and who wants us to be in his kingdom, our Father, which art in heaven.

And you know the rest, but let's turn back to Matthew 6. As we continue there, the last line in verse 9, hallowed be your name. Now, maybe the only time we ever use the word hallowed is if we're thinking about this verse. I was trying to think, when do I ever think of the word hallowed? It's when I think about this verse. I'm sure there's probably another verse in the Bible.

Hallowed be your name. And again, the words kind of just fly off our lips. You know, the newer translations, when you go back and look at it, the newer translations have it, let your name be kept holy. Let your name be kept holy. Hallowed be your name. Now, we have to pause for a moment when we say that to God. We know His name is holy. Whose responsibility is it to keep His name holy? Is it God's responsibility? Is it Jesus Christ's responsibility to keep God's name holy? Or is it our responsibility to keep God's name holy? Hallowed be your name. You know, if we have a name, and our Father has given us their name, and, you know, if it's a good name, it's our responsibility as children and as sons and daughters to keep that name in good respect.

None of us want to find ourselves in a position that others look at and say, you know what, His dad, His dad was a good guy, but look what this kid has done. He's ruined the family name. None of us would ever want that to have happen. You know, I think I said before, when I was in college one year, my dad got me a job at American Oil up there in Whiting, where he was, and I was always impressed when I went there that everyone had something good to say, not only about him, but his brothers.

It was the only place I've gone in life where everyone knew how to say my name, right? Not just Cheers, but in... because they all grew up there. So they all knew what the name Shaby was, and they all had a story to tell. I never heard one negative thing about them. And I felt the responsibility that how I worked there that year, despite the grind, the dirt, the heat, and everything else that went on, I had to live up to that name. And we should all feel that responsibility to our physical families.

How much more do we live up to the name of God? It's our job to keep His name holy. Jesus Christ kept His name holy. Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled what God's will for Him was. When we took God's name on ourselves, when we said, I want to be baptized and you were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, you took His name on you. And from that time forward, it's our responsibility to keep His name holy. And when God hears us say these words, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, He wasn't just looking for words. Words are cheap. We can say anything we want.

Jesus Christ wasn't saying, just come before God and give Him this little verse here, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. It was like, you have a lifestyle commitment. You said that you would do this. When you come before God, you should be living the way of life you committed to. That I don't have to listen to just your words, but I look at your life and I see.

He's hallowing my name. He's keeping my name holy. The things that He's learned, the things that I teach Him, the things that He sees in the Bible, He's doing it. His life is keeping my name holy. When people look at Him, they think. He's honest. He's straightforward. When He says He's going to be there on time, He's there on time. When He says He's going to do something, He does it.

I don't have to worry about Him stealing. I don't have to worry about Him whatever it is, every commandment we have. Look at that guy even in the storms of life. Look how calm he remains. What is it about him? He keeps God's name holy. And the attitude we have before God when we have Him is if we've done that, God sees it. He sees the manner we come before Him and we pray.

Our Father in heaven, let your name be kept holy. Hallowed be your name. You know, we can look in the Bible and we can see examples of people in the Old Testament. We can look in the New Testament, too, who kept God's name holy.

Now we can look at men like Abraham. He was the only one on earth he and his family who were keeping God's way during that time. And you remember what God said to Isaac. You know, I know your Father. He's going to keep my commandments, my statutes, my judgments. And I know He's going to order his family in the same way. He's going to teach them to do the things. He's keeping my name holy.

He teaches and He lives exactly what God said. When people see Him, they know who God is. And you know, you read the reports of the people around Him. The kings of the earth loved Him. They didn't understand God. They didn't necessarily want to follow Him. But they got it. Abraham's God, He follows Him. And Abraham's God, He keeps His name holy. He follows and when He's taken that name, He does the things that said it said it.

It sets Him apart and it makes Him different. We look at men like Joseph. Joseph found himself in an untenable situation in Potiphar's household. And here he is a young man and Potiphar's wife came onto him and probably every fiber of his physical pain said, you know, why wouldn't I lie with her? Who is going to know? What did he say? I won't besmirch God's name by doing this. I've got to keep His name holy. This is who I am.

This is who I propose to be. This is who I want to be. I can't do that because if I do that, I'm not keeping His name holy. We look at men like Daniel. Second in command in Babylon. Thrown into the lion's den because he sat there and he prayed to God.

He didn't let it worry him. He didn't compromise what he believed. He didn't say, well, okay, you know, would it have been wrong for Daniel to not pray in front of the window anymore? Probably not, but he wasn't going to change his manner of what he prayed to compromise with what man said. He kept God's name holy.

God rewarded him. God rewarded Joseph. God rewarded Abraham. We can look in the New Testament and you can recount the people who kept God's name holy even when it meant maybe something very uncomfortable for them. Let's go back to Leviticus 24 and look at an event here back in the Old Testament where God accentuates for us what his name is. The same thing that Jesus Christ accentuates here in the manner of prayer when he says, keep your name holy.

And he's talking about the Third Commandment, don't take his name in vain. In Leviticus 24 we find an event here beginning in verse 10 where God makes his way known in how important and how reverent we are to keep his name and how we are to keep it holy and never minimize it. Leviticus 24 verse 10. The son of an Israelite woman whose father was an Egyptian went out among the children of Israel and this Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. Now here we have some conflict.

Here we have some probably anger occurring. Words being said, verse 11, the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. And so they brought him to Moses. He blasphemed God's name and he cursed. Two things. Now we read that word blaspheme. We read that word blaspheme and it's an awful word. Blasphem is an awful word, it's not anything we ever want to be guilty of.

When you look up what blaspheme means in Hebrew, it means to drill holes into. To kind of minimize, kind of weaken, kind of make common. It no longer has the strength as a board, a strong board, but when you drill holes into it, it doesn't have the same strength and the same presence that it did before. And so God says, or in this verse it says, This Israelite woman's son, he blasphemed the name of the Lord and he cursed. Now it's a problem that he cursed. If we curse God's name, we should know what's going to happen, but blaspheming God's name is important, too. Well, in verse 12 it says, They put him in custody, that the mind of God might be shown to them. And God spoke to Moses, saying, Take outside the camp him who was cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

Those are harsh words. This young man, I don't know if he knew what he was doing and maybe just losing his temper and anger said some things. Probably all of us have said some things in anger that we wish we could take back. Maybe he thought he could wish that he could take those back. But God said, everyone that heard him, you know what? This can't go on. This can't go on. He needs to be put to death. We can't have this sin among Israel. People need to know how important this is.

Then you shall speak, verse 13 or 15, to the children of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. As well we should. Verse 16, And whoever blasphemes the name of the eternal shall surely be put to death.

Now, remember what blaspheming means. Cursing is one thing. Blaspheming is making it weak.

Blaspheming is putting holes in it. Not the substance, strong name that it was before. Making it common, making it weak. Not the strong edifice it was before. Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him, the stranger as well as him who was born in the land. And he blasphemes the name of the eternal. He shall be put to death.

That's how important that God wants us, the importance that he wants us to put on his name.

So we live in a world that constantly blasphemes God's name. Constantly. We hear it every day. Even if we don't go out of our house, if we ever turn any TV show on, you hear God's name blasphemed day and night. People minimizing it, people making it common, people firing holes through it. It's no longer a name that means anything. People hear God, and they just think it's an expression you do when you're surprised, angry, mad, or whatever. Oh, this and oh that. No longer when you hear the name God, creator, savior, Jesus Christ. Do people think, here's someone to be respected, here's the savior of the earth, here's the God who is our Father, who provides everything that we should have respect and awe from, and you and I fall into the same category. We hear these things, and I hope it does like you. Every time I hear it, it presses my heart, and it presses my nerves to hear it.

That people would minimize God's name and cheapen it the way they do and make it so common. It shouldn't be among God's people. And Jesus Christ said, when we come before Him in prayer, how are we living our lives? Are we keeping His name holy? Do we make excuses for ourselves and think, oh, you know what, it's just a common expression. I don't mean anything with it. When I say that, I just heard everyone that I work with say it. I hear it on TV all the time.

I didn't mean it. No, we better be very cautious as God's disciples about what we do with His name, what we say, how we use it, cautious that we are holding it up, keeping it holy the way that God intended, and living that part. And when Jesus Christ said, hallowed be Your name, it's more than words. It's more than words. It's the attitude. It's the life.

It's what we do when we come before God. He knows before we ever kneel down before Him whether we're hallowing His name or not. Are we doing things His way, or have we feathered it? Have we cheapened it? Are we making allowances for ourselves that you can't find those allowances in the Bible and how we live and just thinking it's good enough? It wasn't good enough for the Jews. Jesus Christ told them, no, no, no. What you've done, you've departed from the Word of God. We need to keep God's name holy so when people look at us, they know who we are. They know what it is that God has called us to and the way we live our lives and to be consistent in it. Let's go back to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4, 14.

Peter, speaking to you and me, his disciples, people who have chosen to take God's way of life and to take His name upon them, he says, if you are reproached for the name of Christ, people will think badly of you. People start making fun of you. People start mocking you. People start saying things like, what? You think in the 21st century you have to keep like 24 hours of that Sabbath day holy? What about if you just go to church? Isn't that two hours enough? Does God really expect you that you would just cut out 24 hours of your life and dedicate it to Him? Not doing your own pleasure, not doing your own things? Yes, that's what He expects. You mean really, God holds you accountable for what you say and whatever and that you can't do this and you're not supposed to do that? And whatever? Yes, He really does. Yes, He really does. If you're reproached for the name of Christ because when we take the name of God, we take the name of Jesus Christ and we live the way He lived, if you're reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you. Blessed are you. Because He said, the world will revile you. They'll persecute you. They won't like what you've done just like the way they didn't like what Jesus Christ said.

Blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part, He's blasphemed. They minimize Him. They don't want to hear what He has to say. They make fun of it. But on your part, He's glorified. Our responsibility, our responsibility, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Look at the attitude that God expects that we come before Him in prayer. Not just words, words that can remind us of how we come before Him, but things that we do every day of our lives. If He really has taken His name, if we really do see Him as our Father in heaven, and He goes on to say the next word is, Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom come.

Now, I'll be honest with you. I often ask God for His kingdom to come, but over the last several months, I've had to ask myself, Do I really mean that? Do I really mean your kingdom come? Is it a burning desire in my mind that your kingdom come? Are I kind of satisfied? Am I kind of comfortable in the life I have right now? Not that I doubt you, not that I doubt your word or promises or anything like that, but do I really have a burning desire in my heart for His kingdom to come?

Because Jesus Christ did. The disciples did. The kingdom in heaven has a burning desire for Christ to return and for His kingdom to come to this earth. You can't read through Revelation and see anything else as the tribulation begins, as the trumpets begin to sound that we'll be talking about here just at the end of this month. You can see the excitement. You can feel the excitement. You can feel what's going on in heaven. Thy kingdom come.

It's time for you to return. It's time for you to claim what you've done. It's time for the nations to come together for you. It's time to put them out of their misery on what they've done. Do we feel that way? Do I feel that way? Or do I just say the words because I know I'm supposed to say them? Well, that's something we can think about and I've been praying about. Thy kingdom come. Because you know when Jesus Christ came to earth, as I mentioned before, and he said, thy kingdom come, the people didn't understand what that meant. Our Father is in heaven.

And they don't know today. The people don't know what goes on in heaven. We know what goes on in heaven. There is an order in heaven. There is a government in heaven. There are beings in heaven. There are people who are united in purpose. All following their Father, who has set the plan for mankind, and their focus now is on Jesus Christ coming to this earth, Jesus Christ setting up the kingdom because it's the best thing for mankind, and it's part of the plan.

You know, when Jesus Christ said, you know, the kingdom of heaven is among you. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He meant the kingdom of heaven is at hand. His part, what we talk about and what we observe at Passover, He came that that plan may be further, and He came and He gave His life. We look ahead to the fall of Holy Days. Trumpets, when Jesus Christ will return, when Satan is bound. The Feast of Tabernacles, the Millennium on earth, when God's government is on earth as it is in heaven.

All those things that we'll be picturing, all those things as we go and observe the upcoming Holy Days. It should have meaning to us. So when we come before God, Jesus Christ said, pray, thy kingdom come, you come with that attitude. That you're just not satisfied in which the world was as is, would go on for the other 20, 40, 50, 100 years, or as long as I live, thy kingdom come. I get it.

I get it. You know, Jesus Christ, and even in the Old Testament, the kingdom of God was being established on earth. Those were things that God did that began showing that the kingdom of God was being set up on earth, anticipating the return of Jesus Christ. Let's go back to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 7. 2 Samuel 7, verse 12. God's speaking to David here. A man after his own heart. A man that we read will be resurrected and that he will be king over Israel. He says in verse 12, 2 Samuel 7, when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I'll set up your seed after you who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

He'll build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I'll be his father, and he'll be my son. And then he says if he commits iniquity, he'll chase in him, but he will have mercy on him. Verse 16. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.

God was about to begin setting up a kingdom and a throne that would last forever. Second—not second—Isaiah 2. You know, back in the Old Testament, he established Jerusalem as the city, the city of God, the city of David, the city that Jesus Christ would return to. And Isaiah 2, speaking of the time when Jesus Christ would return to earth, words that you'll doubtless be hearing, at the Feast of Tabernacles this year. And Isaiah 2, verse 2, says, it'll come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house will be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people will come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. They'll be seeking his ways then.

Not something the world looks at today. They don't want to hear what God has to say today. They want their own ideas. They want to do their own things. But in that day, in that day, they'll be seeking him. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. We already know Jerusalem is the city of God. He established it.

It'll be the capital of the world. At the time of the kingdom, he loves Jerusalem. He tells us, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Jesus Christ will return to the Mount of Olives.

We see the beginnings of that. Let's go forward to Isaiah 9.

Isaiah 9, verse 6.

Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given.

And the government, how things are done. The administration of how things are done. The way of life. The laws people live by. The standards that they will adhere to. The government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God.

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Verse 7, of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom.

The government that we hear about, I guess probably week in and week out, every time we come to Sabbath services. The government that we read about in the Bible. The government that we should be living at home. That should be setting the standard for the way we live. That government that we should be living by and that should become commonplace in our homes. That our children should be seeing. That they should be adopting. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom. To order it and establish it with justice and judgment from that time forward, even forever. And notice the zeal. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this. His zeal.