Sermon Series: “Get Connected” Sermon: “The Person of Prayer” Matthew 6:9 “This is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.” My mom and dad just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary, we had a little party at the nursing home. Monday is my day off, and that is when I usually go to visit. As I drive to St. Louis, I always pray that they will be having a good day. I also try to think of things to tell them, to talk about. They usually share what they had to eat, what entertainment came to the nursing home. (By the way, for any of you who go to nursing homes and sing, help with BINGO, or play an instrument, or give residents time, this is what my folks live for. If you do those things, you are doing the Lord’s Work.) Anyway, several weeks ago I went to visit them, and when I arrived, my dad pulled out a harmonica. “The nursing home gave this to me, and they want 5 of us to form a harmonica choir.” OK, I thought. And he proceeded to play “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and I clapped. And I went on to some other topic. But must not seem impressed enough, so Dad said, “I’ll bet you didn’t know that more people own a harmonica than any other instrument.” Nope. Didn’t know that. “And I’ll bet you didn’t know that Presidents Lincoln and Eisenhower played the harmonica.” No, I didn’t know that either. Anyway, he’s been practicing. And practicing. My brother took him to a doctor visit, and after they had dad in the car, Dad pulled out the harmonica and played it for the next half hour. (My brother thinks this is his way of paying us back for all of the trumpet and piano practicing that he had to listen to when we were kids.) And in fact, we realized how seriously he was taking the harmonica when he began to turn off the

St. Louis Cardinals game in order to practice. In fact, it sounds like his harmonica choir is pretty good. Last week was Father’ Day, and maybe we all need to be reminded that Dads come in all shapes and sizes, even ones who play the harmonica. Our goal for this “Get Connected” sermon series is to look at the Lord’s Prayer with New Eyes. So often we say that prayer without thinking, by rote. When we focus on the meaning of each petition, our peace with soar and our stress will decline. The Lord’s Prayer begins as we explore the words “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.” The disciples wanted Jesus to teach them to pray, and IMMEDIATELY Jesus breaks all the rules about prayer. Until this moment, people did not know God as a loving Father. In the Old Testament, there are only 7 times when God is called Heavenly Father. Only 7 times over hundreds of years! But in the Gospels, Jesus refers to His Heavenly Father over 150 times. Why does this matter? Jesus is clearly sending us the message that God is not some kind of Impersonal Force (none of this “The Force Be With You” garbage. God is a person, not simply a power. And you have personhood because you were created in the image of God. This is what makes you different from the animals. Our God is a personal God. He has the ability to be in a relationship with us. He’s a person, not a power, a Father, not a force. This is great news! I can’t relate to some nondescript Force, but I can relate personally get to know Him in the Bible. When someone says, “I believe in a higher power”, what exactly does that mean? But when we say God is our Heavenly Father,

we get that image. When we say He sent His only Son Jesus to take our sinpunishment upon Himself, we can understand that. WE have a relationship with God. I know that there are many people out there who have trouble with authority figures. For some, even the term “Father” is seen as negative. Part of the fallen world. A man named Dr. Paul Vitz did research on the psychology of atheism. He researched famous atheists like Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and many others. What these atheists had in common was that their earthly dad was either overly-demanding or non-existent. Dr. Vitz is Catholic and his thesis is that many people believe that God is just another authority figure who will disappoint or hurt them. That is so sad. Today, I want you to know what God the Father is really like! The first characteristic of our Heavenly Father is that He is a Caring Father. He loves you more than you will ever understand! You will never fully understand God, or His ways, but He cares for you. Can an ant ever understand a human being. But God is Love. And You would not exist if He didn’t love you and want you. Psalm 103 says, “As a father has compassion on his children, do the Lord has compassion on those who honor Him.” Do you believe those words, that God cares about you? It reminds me of the Bible story Jesus is with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is tired, so He falls asleep in the back of the boat. And while He sleeps, a storm comes up. Most of these disciples were professional fishermen, they knew about storms. But this storm freaked them out. It must have been like a Category 5 storm. And finally, the disciples go back and wake up Jesus. And there is a lesson here. Make sure when you go sailing, you have Jesus in your boat.

If you don’t want our marriage to sink, get Jesus in your boat. If you don’t want your career to sink, get Jesus in your boat. If you don’t want your life to sink, get Jesus in your boat. Well, they wake up Jesus and they ask Him a tremendous question, a question for the ages. “Lord, don’t you care?” Lord, don’t you care that we are going down for the last time? We ask that question a hundred different ways: Lord, don’ you care about how little money we have in the bank? Lord, don’t you care about how the kids are struggling? Lord, don’t you care that I have tears in my eyes? The answer is “YES” … He cares more that you care! He cares. He is aware. A promise in 1 Peter 5 is a verse we should all have memorized… “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” The word “CAST” literally means DROP IT. LET IT GO. To drop something doesn’t take energy. You just Let Go. It says, “Cast ALL you anxiety on Him…” I did a word study on this word. The word “ALL” means “ALL”. Does God care about your house payment? Does God care about your grades? Your sales quota? Your Health? Your kids? Call ALL On Him. Anything worth worrying about it worth giving over to Him. Do Dads want their kids to be worrying? NO.. Neither does your heavenly Father. Worry is kind of like a warning light on your car’s dashboard. When we start worrying, it means we don’t know how much God loves us! Another characteristic of a loving Father is that He is a CONSISTENT Father. This is important, especially when everything around us is changing. He is dependable. James 1 says, “ Every good and perfect gift is from God who does not change.” NOTHING LASTS in this world. Not wealth, not job, not, relationships, not you, not me. Everything is temporary. Your heavenly Father is consistent. He will

never go back on His promises. The #1 resentment that kids have toward their paretns is broken promises. God Keeps His Word. When my kids were young, when they wanted something, they didn’t say, “Hey Pastor Breite, I need this…” They said, “Hey Dad, I need this.” That’s why God says, Call me Abba, Father, Dad. Another characteristic of our heavenly Father is that He is a COMPETENT Father. Scriptures says, “Nothing is Impossible For God.” He planned, orchestrated, and carried out the salvation story. At just the right time, God sent forth His Son, born, of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. Jesus came, died and rose for our sins, and lives eternally. God did that. He is competent to handle anything else that comes our way. When you think about dads on TV, they almost always are portrayed as doofuses. Home Improvement. Everybody Loves Raymond. But not God. He is there to help in our time of need. And if we know who our Father is, and what He has done for us in sending His Son to die for us, then we can respond in trust. WE can respond in joyfully and thankfully using His name only in Prayer, Praise and Giving Thanks. Our society talks of God so carelessly, almost hatefully. It might be easy to forget (or to be misled) about how much Your heavenly Father loves You, He keeps His words and promises, because He is all-powerful to help in our time of need. If you doubt that, just look to the cross. Next week, we’ll see how Jesus teaches us to say in any situation, “Thy Will Be Done.”