Behind Powerful Prayer -Matthew 6:9-13 

A lot of people think they know the Lord's Prayer. 

It's recited before sporting events in locker rooms. 

Civic events, school events, community gatherings. 

You let them know if you don't have a prayer relationship in secret. Don't think you're accomplishing
anything in public. 

He said God looks at the secret closet of communication because you want a relationship with him. 

You just don't want something from him. You want to be with him. 

For prayer is relational communication with God. 

In Luke's rendition of the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11 one the disciples went to him and said, teach us to
pray. 

The Lord's Prayer, as it is known. 

It really could be called the disciples prayer because this is a prayer that Jesus could never pray. 

See, Jesus can't pray this prayer. 

Because it says forgive us our trespasses. 

And he would never need to be forgiven, so it's really not his prayer to pray. 

Is him teaching us how to pray. 

Now the Lord's Prayer is divided into. 

A very simple flow. Two halves if you will. The first half is concerned with God. 

Hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done. 

The second half is about us, Our Daily Bread. 

Our trespasses lead us not into temptation. 

So the first half is all about God, the second half is about you. 

And then of course he closes it with prayer about God again. 

Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. 

Amen, so it's God us God. 

What leads Jesus into this prayer from verse eight is his statement that God knows our needs. 

Your father already knows before you ask what you're coming to him to talk about. 

So prayer is not an informational session to inform God, he says, I, I already know. 

What you want to talk about? 

I just want to know, do you want to talk to me about it? 

Here is the key. 

Just because God knows something doesn't mean he. 

Will act on it. 

He has knowledge of everything, but some things he will not act on until there is relational
communication with him about it. 

So his knowledge does not equal his action. 

I know what you need, I just want to know do you want me or just do you want the meeting of the. 

Need prayer becomes an answer to that question. 

Jesus says pray in this way in verse 9. 

Pray like this. 

This is really not a prayer to be repeated word for word. 

It is really a framework, a guide. 

For praying. 

This prayer is one of the most empty prayers prayed by people. 

Some of you didn't need to look at the screen, didn't need to look at your Bible 'cause you know this
prayer, it's it's been prayed since you were a child. 

He says pray like this. 

In other words, follow this guide. 

Let let this be a uh governing premise as to how you approach prayers so. 

It's not something wrong with repeating it, but he doesn't want just meaningless or what he called in
verses 5 to 8 vain repetition, just talking 'cause you memorized it, but he says you can use this as an
outline if you will for communicating with God. 

Today we want to look at verse nine. 

That's all our time will allow for for verse nine is pregnant with principles for prayer. 

First of all, our father. 

Our father. 

Point you are not an only child. 

It's not just yo Daddy. 

It's our father. 

Why does Jesus say when you approach me? 

You are approaching an hour God and not just your God? 

Because you're not the only kid in the family. 

If you are a parent. 

And one of your children wants to act like they're your only kid. 

There's gonna be conflict not only with the other kids, but with Daddy who has to equally relate to the
whole family. 

So you can't be in a family of multiple people, multiple children, and function like you're the only child in
it. 

It's our father. 

This is why God has said there are certain things he will not do for one of his children if they, if they are
not connected to the rest of the family. 

So any unchurched uninvolved Christian is blocking the father from answering. 

Their personal needs because they don't want to be related to the siblings. 

So that's why God wants every Christian to be a functional, ministering. 

Part of a local church which the Bible calls the family of God. 

The household of faith. 

Scripture says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, all the one anothers in scripture. 

Love one another, care for one another. 

Support one another. 

Connect, connect with one another, assist one another. 

All these one and others in Scripture. 

Because God says you will get. 

More from daddy. 

If I see you relating to your siblings. 

So church involvement has to do with father engagement. 

One father, many children. 

So it's our father who is in heaven, not just your daddy. 

But he is father. 

He is father. 

Let's talk about that. 

You only have a father 'cause you got kids. 

That's what makes you a father. 

Everybody who has accepted Christ. 

John 112 has been made a son or a child or daughter of God. So you have a father. So when you
approach God in prayer, he wants you to approach him relationally, not just God. 

Way up there. 

But daddy. 

Up in here, he wants a relational communication as a father. 

Now the problem is, many of us have had. 

A bad relationship with Father. 

Some of you have had no fathers, others of you might as well have had no fathers 'cause he was there
and not there. 

Others have had bad fathers or abusive father. 

And the temptation is to start with the father on Earth and let him define your view of the father in
heaven. 

So you if you had a bad deal with the father on Earth, it may have colored your view of your Heavenly
father, but the idea is to start. 

With the father of there, and let him define Father Hood down here. 

So for all you men who happen to be fathers, let's find out what the father is like. 

So you and I can know the kind of father you supposed to. 

Me first of all he is father by position because in the scripture the father was the head of the home. 

I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

The breakdown of the Father God always did his covenants through the father because the father held
the post of responsibility. 

So if you are a man here, God holds you an ultimate place of responsibility for your home by position
and for your children. 

Maybe you didn't know that, but every man here needs to know in the Bible it is the father's
responsibility to raise the children, not the mother. 

The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6 verses, one to four fathers raise your children. It is not the
mother's job to raise their children. It is the. 

Father's job to raise their children. The job of the mother is to help and fill in the gaps. When the father
can't be there because that is your role. The Bible tells the fathers to teach their sons. The Bible gives
the father the responsibility. 

So if the father doesn't own it, you may be farther by title, but you're not farther by position because
you're not carrying out the rearing responsibility that belongs ultimately, certainly with the help of the
wife, but ultimately belongs in the hands of the man. 

So if you were the devil, what would you do? 

Get me the fathers out of the home because by getting rid of the father, you've cancelled the position,
creating an extra burden on the mother and perhaps damage the kids so the devil has gotten fathers
away so that people can be messed up about what our Heavenly Father really look. 

It's like so there is a position to be held. 

The beautiful thing is if we start with our Heavenly Father, he takes responsibility for all of his children
and for all of us who name the name of Jesus Christ he owns that God owns that because that's what
fathers do. 

In addition to that position. 

In the children, his job is to provide God told Adam before he gave him a family. 

I'm going to make you a provider and I'm going to provide for you, so I'm going to provide for you so
that you can provide for them. 

'cause I'm your daddy, I want you to be their daddy. 

In addition to the position and the provider. 

Was the protection he says you are to guard the garden and if you guard the garden under me, I'm
gonna guard you. 

I'll guard you while you guard the garden and you cover the family so it was. 

As God fathering Adam, Adam was to father the family and Adam was to get his clues of fathering from
God. 

If you start with your human father and your human father wasn't a father worth following, and you
transfer that to God, you have a bad attitude toward God because. 

You had a bad situation with your human father, so you're not an only child, but you do have a father
and he says you start your prayer recognizing that there is this relational connection with God even in
ministry. 

I am pastor by position. 

But Paul says that your role in first Timothy is to farm of the flock. 

So I don't. 

I'm not just to occupy a position, but I am too far the lives of those who he has placed under me under
our pastoral staff. 

Too far. 
That is, to care for your well being. 

'cause that's what. 

Fathers, do they don't just show up to eat, they show up to care and so our Heavenly Father has a
position. 

He is a provider, he is a protector. 

And that's who you talk to when you pray. 

Our father, second thing you need to know is our father who art in heaven translation. 

Our father, who's not on Earth. 

Your father is a heavenly Father. 

This is critical. 

Because you and I live on earth. 

And on Earth we operate by our five senses. 

And we are limited by time and space 'cause we're earthbound. 

Let me tell you something about your daddy. 

Your dad. 

Is not subject to the limitations of time and space because your daddy's house is in heaven. 

Daniel 426 says heaven rules over earth. So what you need to know when you pray to your unseen
father? 

Is that he's very much operative. 

He's in heaven and heaven overrules earth, so therefore the limitations of your earthly father are not
the limitations of your heavenly Father, 'cause you're. 

Earthly father is as bound to earth as you are, but your heavenly father is not. 

Therefore, if you put all of your marbles on your earthly father with their limitations. 

Since you're gonna miss out on the potency of your Heavenly Father who is not subject to this world
order, I'm glad to know that earthly fathers don't have the last word. 
So if you were raised without a father, if you were raised with an abusive father, if you were raised with
a neglected father, I want you to know right now that that earthly father doesn't have the last say. 

So over your life over your recovery over your stability over your provision. 

'cause your daddy got a dad. 

Who is in heaven? 

That is, he operates out of a whole different realm. 

Now when Jesus was on Earth. 

He prayed to God as his father every time Jesus prayed. 

He prayed relationally. 

In fact. 

The only time that I've seen in scripture where Jesus prayed and called his father God was when he died
on the cross. 

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me every other time he calls him father. 

The reason he has to call him God on the cross is he's covered. 

So there's no fellowship with the father, so he got to have him way out there as the transcendent God. 

But when he was walking on earth, he called him father. 

This is why I love John chapter 20, verse 17, because John verse 20 chapter 20, verse 17 says. 

He tells us disciples, I am going to my father. 

He's getting ready to leave Earth and go to heaven. 

I am going to my father but then he says and you're. 

This oh wait a minute. 

I'm not only going to my daddy I'm going to your daddy too now why do you need to know that you
need to know that because what Jesus was telling them that he's telling us is the same help that my
daddy gave me when I'm on Earth now that I'm leaving he makes available to you. 

'cause you're as much of his kid as I. 

The Bible says that Jesus Christ is seated on the right hand of the father in heaven. And guess what it
says in Ephesians chapter 2, verse six, we are seated with him. So the same level of intimacy based on
God's will that he had with Jesus. He says he wants to have with you if you relate to. 

His daddy. 

Some of us have gotten such bad teaching. 

That we might as well be praying. 

Our judge who art in heaven. 

Because we walk around feeling this hammer over our head. 

That's what legalism does. 

It puts a hammer over your head. 

God is always out to get you. 

God is always out to judge you. 

Now God does have a standard, but that's not the relationship he wants you to pursue. 

He wants you to pursue an intimate relation with him so that you feel sense and experience his. 

Love not as discipline 'cause good fathers do discipline so it's our father. 

He is your father. 

Now you're going to have to grow into this. 

You're going to have to. 

You have to grow into this, but when you do, when you experience him on the father level. 

Not the judge level, although he does judge not the way out there level talking. 

King James English. 

You know English, you would never use him human discussion, yet you get private with God. 

Oh God. 

01 who lives in the 3rd heaven? 

One who put the stars in space. 

OK, you don't talk to your daddy like that. 

Old father who goes to work every day. 

Old father who who brings home the bacon. 

Old father. 

You don't talk to your daddy that way. 

Because that's stranger conversation. 

He wants to talk to one of his kids. 

Prayer is a kid talking to his dad. 

And now it becomes a conversation. 

Not just this ethereal discussion. 

Our father. 

Who is in heaven? 

Who operates out of that realm? 

But I'm praying because I need you in this realm. 

And then he comes to it. 

Here it is. 

How would it be done? 

Hallowed be that name. 

The Greek word hallowed means to be sacred, separated and unique. 

Is to treat as one of a kind. 

Is to treat a special. 

A class by itself. 

It's from one of the cognates of the word holy to be separate unique special. 

There's nobody like you. 

If you've been around him for some time from time to time. 

You hear me talk about my dad. 

He's in a nursing home now and I fly up as often as I can given everything else that's going on to spend a
few days with him in the nursing home. 

It's a joy for me to talk about my father. 

It's a joy to me to talk about my father. 

Because I know the price he paid. 

For our family. 

A father dropped out of high school because my grandfather was not able to make ends meet. 

To help my father make my to help my grandfather make ends meet, he dropped out of school. 

And then when he could went back to night school so he could finish. 

When he had the four of us. 

He was a longshoreman working on the. 

On the in the Baltimore Harbor. 

And some weeks he wouldn't have work to do of loading and unloading boats. 

Sometimes it went on for months that they didn't call him for work. 

So I remember now if you were to go to the basement in the home that I grew up in, you'll see all of this
stuff to old TV. 

's already owns because to make ends meet he would go down and he would try to fix the neighbors
ready or the neighbors television to just get a few dollars so we could eat. 

As most of you know, I don't eat fish. 

Can't stand fish. 

But there's a reason I can't eat fish and don't eat fish, because when my father 

Didn't get work and couldn't make ends meet. 

Even shining people shoes. 

He would go fishing. 

And he would go out and take a net. 

And kept parrying. 

Now, hearing a little fish with a billion bones. 

OK, he would catch her in by the hundreds. 

We had. 

Herring and eggs for breakfast. 

Herring mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch. 

Herring and greens for dinner. 

And herring and ice cream for dessert. 

I mean. 

We got overwhelmed with Harry. 

I hate fish. 

Because for some reason that thing created a negative thing, but my point is he would do whatever he
had to do for his family. 

He wouldn't give excuses, he wouldn't say it's tough out here. 

He wouldn't blame racism. 

All of those things were real, but he had a responsibility to take care of his family. 

And so when it comes to Earth. 

I hallowed be his name. 

I celebrate his name. 

And there is no convenience. 

There is nothing I'm not willing to do that I'm able to do. 

'cause I know the price he paid. 

When you know the price God paid for your salvation for your deliverance, it should be a problem
hallowing his name. 

That means to put it in a class by itself. 

He's not to be treated like just another deity or just another greater no. 

You are diminishing his name. 

That's why the third Commandment says don't take the name of the Lord in vain. 

That means don't not hollow his name. 

Don't treat his name as ordinary. 

Don't treat his name as something regular. 

We dealing with super unleaded here, not regular. 

They take the great name of God, and they desecrate it. 

That's not to hollow his name. Maybe it's not something that radical. 

Maybe you knew you were lying, but you said so help me God. S o you used his name to back
up your lie or your deception. 

It's not bad enough, you lied, but to put his name on it. That's why when you go to court. 

Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? 

Now, why do they make you do that? Because what they're saying is if you gonna lie after having put
your name with God name, you have perjured yourself. 'cause once you do that now when you bring
God name into it, you shouldn't be lying attached. 

That's how serious in principle they use the hand on the Bible and the so help you God because you can
profane the word vain means empty with no real reason that they're there. 

You're just throwing it out and not recognizing the significance of it. 

OK, I've said this before, but to understand this idea of Hallowed sake making it sacred, treating it like
it's like it's unique. 

Those are dirty dishes. 

That's the reason I'm washing them when I wash the dishes, they're no longer, hopefully profane. 
That I've gotten the dirt off the dishes. 

Then the dishes after they dry. 

Have to be put up in the cabinet in the kitchen. 

Those are regular dishes. 

Those are the dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so they're profane. 

If they're in the sink. 

'cause they're dirty. 

But then that they're clean in the cupboard. 

But they're regular. 

'cause you use those all the time. 

But in this whole separate room. 

Called the dining room. 

Are the untouchables? 

These are the dishes you better not touch. 

Unless it's a birthday, Christmas anniversary or you got special guests over you. 

Don't touch those dishes, they're off limits. 

Because those are special dishes accompanied by special silverware. 

That is to be used for special purposes. 

Those are holy dishes. 

Those dishes get their own room on glass cabinet. 

Oh, Christmas. 

No, those dishes are not treated. 

You know, you know the few times we get to use them. 

I I tiptoed with them things I I tipped her with them things 'cause those are hollow dishes. 
These dishes have been separated as unique. 

God certainly doesn't want to deal with the profane, but he doesn't want you treating him with the
regular either he wants. 

You're putting him in a class by himself. 

Now we had some folks at first service. 

The only reason they were at first service is 'cause the Cowboys planned at 12. 

I talked pointed him out. 

I pointed him out. 

I just pointed folk out who I knew was we're not here ever at the early service, but when I found out the
Cowboys was playing 'cause they hollowed their name. 

See they treated them so special that they were willing to do something they don't normally do and get
up for somebody that may or may not win. 

Even some of you here today who didn't skip service think you fooling me by having your phone low. 

Making me think you're reading along with me in Scripture. 

But I know you don't have to read along with me 'cause I'm just doing verse 9 and you just quoted it. 

So every time, every time you lift down, I know what you're looking for. 

'cause you hollow their name. 

Where if you go hollow the name of somebody that may or may not win may or may not be successful. 

What you think you ought to do for the King of Kings and the Lord of Laws? 

Who is your daddy?