This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you back to day two of our look through the first part of
Matthew chapter six. We're going to look at verses nine and ten today. In fact,
let me begin by reading those verses.

Matthew six, nine and ten. Jesus said, "This then is how you should pray. Our
Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. " Now, many of
you may know this is the start to the Lord's prayer.

In fact, maybe if you're alone, you even want to say this with me right now or
say it in your mind. You remember this prayer. Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this
day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us.

When you hear this prayer, for some of you, it's a little deja vu kind of
moment. There's something that's going on and like, whoa, I remember doing that
when I was a kid. You may have repeated this prayer in church when you were
younger.

I certainly did. It's a very familiar prayer, almost too familiar sometimes
because it's so familiar. We think of it as something rote.

But in the beginning, Jesus said, "No, this is a model. This is how you do it. I
want to show you how to pray.

" This familiar prayer holds the keys for a brand new way of living. It's not a
magical prayer, like you pray this prayer over anything and you're going to get
what you want. It's a model prayer.

It's Jesus saying, "Here's how to do it. " The Lord's Prayer reveals how to talk
to God in a way that makes your relationship with God vital. And it also reveals
to us that the way that you relate to God is vital to the meaning of the basic
needs of your life.

Look at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer. Jesus teaches us when you pray, you
start with the relationship. The way that you talk to God is vital to your
relationship with Him.

So you start with the relationship. In fact, you see, at the beginning of this
prayer, there are three relationship building statements. "Our Father in
heaven," the first one, "Hallel be your name and then your kingdom come.

" Your will be done. These three statements, let's just take a quick look at
these together today. First, "Our Father in heaven.

" That's about your relationship with God. When you think about prayer, it's not
about methods and forms. It's about a relationship.

Sometimes when people pray, they make it about methods and forms. It's like
filling out a tax form. You've got to put the "Our Father" in the right place
and the "Amen" in the right place and the "In Jesus' name" in the right place
and then it's going to work.

No, it's a relationship. If you tried to communicate in a marriage like it was a
form and you had to put all the words in the right place at the right time or
"I'm not going to listen to you," would that work? Of course not.

And if "Father," the word "Father" is just a form at the beginning of the
prayer, it doesn't mean anything. But it's when it expresses a relationship.
It's when it expresses a relationship that it means everything.

These first few words of direction that Jesus gives us about how to pray, they
help us to think seriously about what kind of relationship with God that we
have. "Our Father in heaven. " First, "Our.

" There's a question behind each of these. "Our. " The question here is how
small is your God?

Some people have a God who is so small he can only fit into their world. So it's
my God. Not our God.

It is my God. I want you to notice as we go through this this week, there are no
I's, me's, or my's in the Lord's prayer. It's all ours and us's.

It's all recognizing I'm not the only one depending on God. There's a lot of
other people depending on God around me. And if you limit your relationship to
God with to just you, it is between you and God, but if you limit it to just you
and God, and you forget all those other people, your God is too small.

You're not recognizing the greatness of how God wants to work in this world.
"Our Father. " The question behind that one is how close is your God?

The closer you get to God, the real God, the closer you get to real life. And I
know a lot of people, they start to feel at times in life like their prayers
just don't get above the ceiling. And there may be a lot of reasons for that.

Sometimes it can be physical. Sometimes it can be some depression that we're
going through. But sometimes it's a matter of our relationship.

We've forgotten that God is our Father. We've forgotten how close he is to us.
How do you get closer to God?

One of the simplest ways is you talk to him knowing that you are close to him
because in Christ he has come close to you. He's your Father. Our Father and
then in heaven.

And the question behind that one is not how small is your God or how close is
your God, but how big is your God. He's our Father in heaven. Heaven, that
doesn't mean far away.

That means the place of power and control. That means the place where everything
is taken care of. This is like the guy in the mail room having a hotline to the
CEO of the company where you can call at any moment and ask for anything and get
constant attention.

In fact, it's even greater than that. This is the God of the universe who
actually controls everything. Now, sometimes we wonder if he's in control, but
the Bible tells us clearly in the end we will see God is in control.

He is our Father in heaven. He's on his throne in heaven. And that's who you're
talking to when you pray.

Our Father in heaven, that's where it starts. That's the relationship that we
have with God as we pray. Then the second phrase is hallowed be your name.

That word hallowed, even that word, what does that mean? For most of us, we see
that word and it reminds us of Halloween. So is that what this is about?

Many of you know that Halloween is all saints today and the word saints has
something to do with being holy. And really that's what's behind this word
hallowed. It means holy.

It means being lifted up as holy. So when you say hallowed be your name, what
you're saying is, God, let the world see who you really are. Let me lift up your
name.

Let others lift up your name, you, for who you really are. Hallowed, what does
it mean? It means, you might think of it this way, it means exalting God and
expecting God.

Hallowed means exalting God, lifting him up. His name has to do with his nature,
his character, his personality. So you're exalting the Lord.

Now, in a personal way, what does that mean for you? In prayer, in a
relationship in prayer, when you exalt God, that means you lift him above
everything else. You lift him above everything that seems important in your life
that you've got to get done today and say, God, you're more important.

Hallowed be your name above all those goals that I have. And you lift him above
every problem that you're facing right now and you say, God, hallowed be your
name. You are greater than any of those problems that I'm facing right now.

As great as they feel to me, you're greater. Hallowed means exalting God. It
also means expecting God because he's a holy God.

He's going to act. He's going to be at work. So you expect the Lord instead of
expecting the worst.

A lot of people go through life expecting the worst. To pray hallowed be thy
name is to say, I'm expecting the Lord. I'm expecting the Lord to be at work in
this circumstance.

I'm expecting the Lord to show up here. I'm expecting the Lord to keep his
promises. Prayer is expecting God to be at work at your school today, at your
work today, in your family today.

Now, in that expectation, you don't always see the immediate results of his
work. But hallowed be your name says, God, you're powerful. You're holy.

I know you're at work. Whether I get to see it or not, I'm trusting that you're
at work. Our Father in heaven, our relationship with God.

Hallowed be your name, our relationship with God. And then Jesus teaches us to
pray in this model prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done. In praying to
God, when you're talking to God, it's not a bad thing from the very beginning to
have in the back of your mind, where is this thing headed?

I mean, what am I really wanting out of this? And in the Lord's prayer, in these
phrases, Jesus is teaching us in our relationship with God to deal with two of
life's most common decision-making problems. The problem of destination and the
problem of desire.

The problem of destination is where am I going? And the problem of desire is
what do I want? And from the very beginning, Jesus says, get that settled in
your mind and then your relationship with God is going to be healthy.

Where am I going? Your kingdom come. That's where everything's going anyway.

So why not pray for God's kingdom to come? Some people say this world's going to
the dogs. Jesus said, no, God's kingdom is coming.

The world's destination is God's kingdom. Someday it's going to be revealed
entirely on earth and God wants to begin revealing it through your life right
now. What's God's kingdom?

It's where God is king. It's where God controls. It's where God calls the shots.

Now there's something interesting here. Your kingdom come. The Greek word for
come here means to come like in a crisis, to come immediately.

So it's not, hey, God, someday could you work this thing out? It's right now,
God. This is a 911 call.

When you call 911, do you expect something to happen immediately when you pray?
Do you expect something to happen? Jesus is saying you make decisions.

You pray with this eye on the destination of eternity, knowing that God's
kingdom is coming. It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow.

But Jesus said, I'm coming soon. So you pray in that kind of way. That's the
destination.

That's what I'm praying towards. Where am I going? I'm heading towards God's
kingdom.

And then he says, when you pray, also be thinking about what do I want your will
be done? Listen, one of the most important things I might be able to say to you
about prayer and God's will is this. So don't miss this.

Before we ask, how can I know God's will? We need to ask, how can I want God's
will? There's a lot of people who want to know God's will.

They don't really want God's will. If God really showed you his will, you
wouldn't even want to do it. So why should God show you yet?

See, the first step is to want it, is to desire it. Jesus said, your kingdom
come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. A lot of times we want on
earth so it is in heaven.

We want our will on earth to be made to have happen in heaven. But no, Jesus
says what God wants in heaven will be happening on this earth. Philip Brooks
once said, the purpose of prayer is not to get man's will done in heaven, but to
get God's will done on earth.

That's what's happening in prayer. I want God's will because I know that's
what's best for me and everyone around me. Prayer is not persuading God to do
what you desire.

Prayer is inviting God to do in your life, in other people's lives, what he
desires, because you know that's what's best. That's healthy prayer. That's a
healthy relationship with God.

Now I gotta tell you, it often takes a journey to get there. How can I want
God's will? You might need to pray I'm hurt in order to be healed.

You might need to pray I'm doubting in order to find faith. You might need to
pray I'm angry in order to get to a place of peace. Or I don't care in order to
find God's purpose.

You say anything and everything that's on your heart, but one of the things you
have in the back of your mind is, God, how can I start to want what you want?
How do I get there? How do I want what God wants?

Well to want what God wants, there's much in the scripture about that, but let's
go back to square one of this prayer, our Father. The beginning point of wanting
what God wants is knowing that God as your loving Father wants what's best for
you. Wants what's best for your heart, for your life, for eternity.

And you can pray this prayer with that confidence, because he is a Father who
loves you. Let's take a moment to pray, talk to him. Our Father, we just simply
pray today that you would teach us and strengthen us and help us to want your
will.

Before we pray for knowing your will, we want to want your will so that when you
show it to us, we'll run after it rather than run away from it. So Lord, your
kingdom come, your will be done. Hallowed be your name, our Father in heaven.

We want to want what you want in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to look at what Jesus had to teach us about praying for
our daily needs.