We didn't record this sermon since we were in the park, but below are the sermon notes.

CHURCH IN THE PARK
Aug 31, 2025

INTRO:

For the purposes of seeking to position you better to find more nourishment on
our Sunday gatherings, throughout Sept I’m asking us to try out a sort fo soft
liturgy - a pattern for our Sundays, and then later in in October I’m going to ask
for feedback on how it's helped you or not.

But the pattern is pretty simple:

Each Sunday - withn our singing - we’ll be saying the Lord's prayer, reading a
Scripture together that helps us then enter a time of quiet personal prayer, also
inviting time of ministry from one another at the ministry mic - (a place to bring a
burden from the Lord for our church, or a praises, or a prayers for us to pray
with you), and after a final song we’ll then conclude with the Nicene Creed.

This is mostly the way our mornings usually go. Really, what's new about this is
putting it all in a consistent, orderly fashion, and now the Nicene Creed. (The
creed and the Lord's Prayer are two elements that ostensibly churches have
used for the last 1700 years in most churches globally).

Now, Robin taught on the Nicene Creed a few weeks ago, so today I want to
talk a little about the Lord’s Prayer.

 

THE LORD’S PRAYER

To start, I want to ask a question:

If you could walk into a room where God was and say anything to Him, what
would you say?

You might ask Him a deep question about suffering; a nagging question about a
choice you made; a question about some theological mystery...

But I think - maybe being wise means saying:

“God, what should I say to you?”

Because He’s God after all, and He knows much better than you what you
should say to Him.

Now, of course, God wants us to say many different things. We can see Paul’s
prayers, and we see He prayed for love and faith, and insight for the churches
He ministered to. We quoted Psalm 68 again last week, where we’re called to
pour out our hearts to God.

But of all the things we can might say to God, we can know with certainty that
the words Jesus gave us to speak to Him daily - what we call “The Lord’s
Prayer” - are among them the most important and most needed and most wise
and most welcomed.

This prayer doesn’t have to be recited word for word; the important thing is to
understand and pray the ideas, the principles, however you word them.

But of course, if you can meaningfully pray the words - what a help! How sweet
it is to say to God the very words His own Son gave us to say to Him from our
hearts.

We all want effective prayers right? Well, when we pray the Lord’s prayer, we can
be 100% sure God is going to work towards its being answered.

For all these reasons, we pray this prayer just about each Sunday we meet. It is
a prayer we know by heart, and we want our children to know by heart so they
can pray it - or know and pray its underlying principles each day as the Lord
meant us to.

So briefly, this morning, I want to walk through the prayer line by line so we
might more fully appreciate it.

The Lord’s prayer is actually seven short prayers.

The first “prayer” of the Lord’s prayer is this:

“Our Father, Who art in Heaven - Hallowed be Your Name.”

Let’s think about “Our Father” for a moment...

First, because we come to God through Jesus Christ, we come as His children.

Now, this is a world-famous prayer, but it is not a prayer for all people, but only
for those who have placed their trust in Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

When we do this - when we acknowledge our sins and turn to Jesus, to be our
Savior from our sin and see Him as our Lord - He brings us into His family and
makes His Father, “Our Father”.

We’re so used to the language... but let’s really take stock of the unspeakable
privilege it is to call the Almighty infinite Holy God, the Eternal One, the Only
Creator and Sustainer of reality itself -

“our Father”

It's incredible beyond words to know Eternal Almighty God as “Father”.

After we address Him as such, we bring our first prayer to God -

“HALLOWED BY YOUR NAME”

This prayer is first because it is the most important prayer.

We don’t use the word 'Hallow' much anymore.

But its meaning is not too complicated

It means to make - or view - something as Holy ....or sacred.

It means to greatly honor something, to treasure it, to give something the
respect it deserves.

And so Jesus is telling us that the greatest need in the Universe - the need
above all needs for all people, and our most urgent need, - is that God’s name -
that is His very being, is to be honored and respected and seen as sacred and
holy as God deserves.

This is THE issue above all issues. This is THE battle of all battles.

Will God be rightly seen and treated as He deserves or not?

All problems find their root in this: God is not valued and treasured - and so He is
not believed, dependent on, trusted, and followed as He deserves to be.

And all problems find their solution in this: His being hallowed as He should.

Think about what it would mean if God were hallowed, treasured, and honored as
He should be - above all things by humanity. If all people everywhere hallowed
their divine Creator:

Wars between nations would cease as presidents and prime ministers trembled
at the thought of slaughtering men, women, and children made in the image of
their creator.

Poverty would be wiped out as all people would trust the never-ending riches of
their God to supply all their needs so that they could be radically generous with
their neighbors in need.

Racism would be a non-factor as we sought to honor the God who made us all
from Adam, each of us in His very image, in all the varieties our artist God
designed.

Lust for sex or money or control would die as we came to treasure the incredible
honor of having God as our very Father - dependable to give us only good things
and the right time - and as we saw Him as He is - more desirable and more
enjoyable and valuable than any of His generous and good gifts of romance or
riches or position.

Marriage and families would heal: Out of reverence for God’s honor and
pleasure, husbands would use their leadership to serve and not exploit their
wives. They would lay down their lives for them to image Christ in the Gospel.
And out of trust in the Lord, wives would follow the imperfect leadership of
imperfect husbands as they sought to lead them with love and not selfishness.
Kids would realize it is God who has given them their parents as gifts to guide
them, and that when they honor their mom and dad, they honor God and can
expect His reward.

And for you and me - regardless of how others treated us or our circumstances,
there is nothing we could not walk through this very day without hope and
strength if we gave God the trust and love and obedience He deserves.

I could go on and on. As we even saw in Romans 1:18 and come back to again
anf again to anchor the right solution in the right problem: The Scripture is clear:
our main problem is not anything less than that we don’t value God as He
deserves - and this is what Christ came to restore to us: Seeing God as He
really is; treasuring Him and honoring Him and delighting in Him as He deserves
- above all things.

Knowing God as He really is - hallowiung Him as He should be - this is salvation
and eternal life itself as John 17:3 tells us!

“3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent.”

In fact, this entire Lord’s prayer is really different expressions of what it means for
God’s Name to be Hallowed.

And so Jesus puts this prayer in first place in instructions for our prayer.

NEXT, we’re to ask :

Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...

Heaven is a dimension of reality in existence right now where everything that
happens is in full harmony with God’s will. There is no sin, no rebellion, no
cruelty, no selfishness allowed to dwell there.

God’s good rule is perfectly expressed there. This is what makes heaven heaven
above all: The good God of all love and righteousness rules without any
defiance.

That is not happening here. And Jesus is well aware of that or He would not have
come to die for our sins against God’s will.

And so He calls us to ask for God’s rule - the reality of the rightful King having
His way - His kingdom to spread more and more in our hearts and in the hearts
of all people.

This is a prayer not just for our hearts to be more in line with His will - it is that!

But it is also a prayer for more and more people to come to Christ and even -

For the fullness of His Kingdom to come in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
On that day, this prayer will be answered as never before. And that is what we’re
asking for each day we pray this prayer.

Give us this day our daily bread...

Finally, we come to our material needs -

Many of us in America have a hard time feeling a need to ask God for food for
the month or even year, much less our day, but Jesus knows who is really in
control of our survival - including our food supply.

It’s not our paychecks or our jobs or our parents - God uses all that, but it all
comes from Him.

If we don’t have the power to hold the Universe together. To keep the fabric of
space and time and matter together at this very moment, we should not pretend
that we can guarantee our next meal will come.

And so Jesus tells us to embrace the humble place we occupy and acknowledge
both our need and God’s generous supply.

He is our ultimate source of everything good we have and need every day.
And notice that wonderful word daily! That word tells us how often we should be
asking for this and everything else in this prayer. Every day.

That word tells us our focus is not to be on tomorrow, but to let tomorrows worry
about itself and to keep our focus on seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness
in the day at hand, knowing that “everything else will be added to you as well”.

Now - this next prayer -

“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Jesus elaborated on this prayer right after he finished the entire prayer in

Matthew 6, saying:

Matthew 6:14 15

[14] For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will
also forgive you, [15] but if you do not forgive others their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (ESV)

Do you see how important forgiveness is to God?

NOW - this is important: It’s worth noting that after the Cross, the Holy Spirit -
through Paul - tells us, “that we must forgive one another, just as God in
Christ has forgiven you.”

In light of the Cross and the justification and forgiveness we already have now
before God, we’re not to seek to earn forgiveness, but to stand on the
forgiveness we have so that we find the power to forgive others.

But the One who has torn up our record against Him with the blood of His very
own Son will not be pleased if we keep records against each other. As our good
Father, He will discipline us and confront us with our lack of forgiveness.

I am not saying He will judge His saved children as a judge and return our sins to
us, but I am saying He will not allow His gift of forgiveness to be dishonored by
our harboring bitterness towards others. He is jealous for His honor, and He is
jealous for us having a forgiving heart like His, and so we can expect His fatherly
discipline if we deliberately go on holding others’ wrongs against them.

Instead, we need to plead with Him for grace to forgive as we’ve been forgiven,
knowing God will not be mocked.

For if we claim to be the God of forgiveness as our very Father, we must be like
our Father, be a people of forgiveness.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil - or evil one.

These two prayers are very connected. The devil is no problem for God. Egypt,
Assyria, Rome.. never a problem with God. It was also His people’s sins that
were the problem.

And at every temptation we give in to, so too we invite evil - and the work of the
evil one - into our lives. And so, the greatest way to keep us from evil is to
protect us from falling into sin.

It seems strange to ask God not to lead us into temptation, right? James tells us
God does not tempt anyone to evil. But I believe Scripture makes it clear God
allows us to into times of testing when choices are put before us to hallow His
Name or not.

Remember that just after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, in Matthew, we
read the strange verse that immediately, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the
desert to be tempted by the devil.

The devil was no match for Jesus.

But we aren’t Jesus. We aren’t fully like Him yet, and so we ask God to protect
us from times of great temptation from whatever means it may come.

And of course, we ask to be delivered, rescued, and saved from sin and Satan’s
grasp in all their forms.

You know, when I think about this plea here, I remember that James says (J 4:2)
that at times we have not because we do not ask.

Can you imagine anything more foolish than being able to - and being called to -
ask God to protect you from evil and Satan and sin each day, but not othering?

Why do we ignore this prayer??

How many troubles are we kept from because we did ask God for His protection,
and how many spiritual troubles did we possibly needlessly face because we
simply left this daily prayer on the shelf so many days?

CLOSE:

Finally, I said at the beginning that God being hallowed and treasured is what this
whole prayer is about.

What does it mean when God is HALLOWED - when He is treasured and valued
as He should be?

It means His Kingdom rule extends to the deepest places of our hearts.

It means we treasure Him and trust Him and depend on Him as our Father who
provides all we need each day.

It means we treasure the gift of forgiveness through His Son’s blood so much
that we extend that gift of forgiveness to the undeserving - just like us.

It means that we run to His all-mighty arms and believe He is strong enough to
defeat all our spiritual enemies - be they sin or death or Satan.

SO let’s make this prayer part of our daily routine. Not a rote recitation without
thinking, but use it as a way to dwell and meditate and really plead its meaning.

Let's say it with our kids and our husbands and wives and with our brothers and
sisters.

And let’s hallow God’s Name by believing Him when He says He will answer
prayers according to His Will (see 1 John 5:14-15)

For what could be more aligned with His will than the very prayer He calls us to
pray to Him?

Let us pray.