One Word Prayers - Week 1: Father | Matthew 6:6-10

We're currently in a series of message called one-word prayer.

No, too often a lot of our prayer life is still meaningless words.

Words that actually prevent us from connecting and growing closer to God.

In this series, we're focusing on four simple one-word prayers that will help anyone grow in our relationship with Jesus.

I hope today's message is encouragement.

A baby's first word.

There are a few moments in life that prompt that same level of joy and excitement.

Can you remember the moment when your child or grandchild, or maybe it was a niece or nephew, exchanged that brook of their babbles and finally said just a single word?

Mama, dada, hi, bye.

At the sound of that single word, all of the adults in the room experience this rush of emotion.

Because that first word opens a doorway that leads to learning.

It leads to the expression of thoughts, the discovery of passions.

There's joy and excitement in that moment because a child's first word, it's a tiny step into a lifetime that's filled with interactions and relationships.

Earlier this week, Lauren reminded me that Evelyn's first word was dada.

And Spencer's first word was actually a statement, a simple statement, I love you.

And you reflect on those memories, and you still feel that tingle of joy and excitement from so many years ago.

And in that moment, I was reminded of something that is so often true.

One word is more than enough.

Think about that first word, dada.

That one word is more than enough because I'll always be Evelyn's father, and she will always be my daughter.

I will always love her unconditionally.

I will always desire to protect her, and I will always like to hold her hand.

In that instance, one word is more than enough because it names, it identifies the very foundation of our relationship.

Or think about that first simple statement that Spencer made.

I love you.

And that simple statement, it hangs on a single word, love.

And that word love reminds us that one word is more than enough because love is the bridge that brings you and I together.

Spencer and I will always love each other.

Some days our love is kind and gentle and filled with laughter, and other days our love is, well, a little louder.

But we always love each other.

And in that case, one word is more than enough because it names the desire of a father and a son to have a close and intimate relationship with each other.

It goes without saying that my conversations with my now 10-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son consist of more than one-word declarations.

Our conversations they grow in complexity by the day.

The topics are more important, and sometimes the questions they now ask are not easily answered.

And yet I would still say one word is more than enough.

Here's the reason why.

In our home, it's when we lose sight or we lessen the importance of that one word that our house so often devolves into chaos.

When we lose sight of, lessen the importance of those one words.

That's when uncontrolled anger springs up, like in a flower bed that's freshly mulched and you see those weeds pop up.

Or it's when we lose sight of or lessen the importance of those one words that we uh sling daggers at one another.

When we say mean things, we say things that want to cut each other to the core.

It's in those moments that children disobey and deceive and that dads provoke their children to anger.

But when we, well, when especially I remember those one words, dad-da, when I remember that one word, love, something miraculous occurs in our home.

In the midst of the day, even if it's a very bad, no good, horrible day, I can feel a tingle of joy and excitement because a father and his children can grow closer and more connected to one another.

That's why it is often true that one word is more than enough.

And what's true of my relationship is also true of your relationship.

And I'm not just referring to your relationship with the children in your life.

I'm referring to your relationship with your heavenly father.

If you as a child of God want to grow closer and more connected to your heavenly father, it is often true that one word is more than enough.

Listen to this story told by Jesus in Matthew 6.

I'm reading from the message this morning.

Jesus says this He says, Find a quiet, secluded place so that you won't be tempted to role play before God.

Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage.

The focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to sense his grace.

The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer ignorant.

They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques, for getting what you want from God.

Don't fall for that nonsense.

This is your father you are dealing with.

And he knows better than you what you need.

With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.

In the same way a child learns to talk to his or her mom or dad, we learn to talk to our Heavenly Father.

We call these conversations with God prayer.

And these conversations, these prayers we share with God, they are at the forefront of our spiritual life.

Each word we speak in prayer is a step toward living in a lifetime, an eternal relationship with the God who created us.

Prayer is essential if we want to grow closer and more connected to our Heavenly Father.

And we know that prayer is central to our lives, to this relationship, because if you think about it, uh in the Old Testament, the largest book, the largest single book in the Old Testament is the book of Psalms, and it is what?

A collection of prayers.

Or you move into the New Testament and you look at the life of Jesus, and often Jesus, he would leave behind his friends, he would take a break from the crowds, he would find a quiet place so that he could pray to his heavenly father.

But even as we study the example of Jesus or we open the Psalms, for many of us, if not most of us, prayer remains difficult.

We don't know what to say or ever how to begin, or if we do figure it out, if we figure out what we should say, if we figure out how we should start, then we find it difficult to sustain a consistent practice of prayer.

And the result when we don't sustain a consistent practice of prayer is we're not connected to our Father.

We're not close to our heavenly Father.

And here's, I think, one reason we we struggle to find this consistent practice while we struggle to maintain it on a daily basis.

We're not guided by a truth.

Instead, we've accepted a lie.

And this is the lie is that one word is never enough.

And in Matthew 6, actually, Jesus warns us about this lie.

He describes the religious leaders of his day.

And when those men prayed, they used many, many, many words.

They believed that every word that they prayed was another rung on a ladder that allowed them to grow closer to God.

And many of the words they spoke were very religious words.

They were theological words.

Maybe you like to pray very theologically astute words.

Words like justification and propitiation and expiation and sanctification and glorification.

And you say these words and you don't even know what the words mean.

But they sound good.

They sound impressive.

They have many syllables.

And when we pray those words, what are we trying to do?

We're trying to impress God.

Ultimately, those religious leaders.

And anyone whose prayer life is guided by that lie.

They hope that if I say more words and more words and more words, eventually I will grab the attention of God.

I'll be loud enough to get his eye upon me.

Or if I use fancy theological words, if I use big words, if I speak Christianese to God, then I'm gonna impress him and I can twist his arm and eventually I can get from him what I need, what I desire, what I even deserve.

Yet so often those many words, they never draw us closer to God.

They never allow us to feel like we are more connected to God in a life-giving way.

So what should we do?

I think we should go back to the truth that one word is more than enough.

We need to exchange the lie of those religious leaders for the truth, that one word is more than enough.

Today, as a companion for this season of 21 days of prayer, we'll begin a four-week series called One Word Prayers.

Through these simple one-word prayers, you and I, we can draw closer to God because these simple one-word prayers, they kind of clear out the noise of our lives and clear out the noise of our hearts so that we can truly see who I am in light of who God is.

These one-word prayers that they strip away all the nonsense, all the meaningless words that often fill our prayers so that we can find the one that we yearn to meet with, that we yearn to know.

And ultimately, these one-word prayers, they create a foundation for us.

A foundation that our prayer life can stand upon, a foundation that our prayer life can always start from and return to.

These prayers, they're accessible for a person who just began to follow Jesus and is just learning what it means to pray.

But they're also deep.

They're deep for the person who has been following Jesus for decades.

In the upcoming weeks, three of the one-word prayers that we will reflect on are the prayer thanks, the prayer help, and the prayer yes.

But before we can shout thanks to God or cry out to God for help, or before we can say yes to God, we need to know to whom we are praying.

Which is why this morning our first one-word prayer is the word Father.

Listen to what Jesus says next in Matthew chapter six.

Again, from the message, it says, This is your father you are dealing with.

And he knows better than you what you need.

With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply, like this, our Father in heaven.

According to Jesus, when you take his teaching in Matthew 6 in whole, in the context of prayer, one word is more than enough.

All because you are praying to your father.

You don't need many words to pray to your father.

You need the right words.

You can even just have one word that you pray to him.

You can pray very simply, Jesus says.

The idea of God as Father, it goes back to the pages of the Old Testament, to the book of Exodus.

When God gives Moses an instruction, he says, Moses, go to Pharaoh and deliver this message.

Say, this is what the Lord says.

You better pay attention, Pharaoh.

Israel is my firstborn son.

And I told you, let my son go, so he may worship me.

In the book of Exodus, God claims Israel as his child.

They are his sons, they are his daughters, they are a part of his family because he is their father.

But it's not until the New Testament and the ministry of Jesus that a connection is made between God as Father and the practice of prayer.

And it's an unexpected connection because in the ancient world, you would begin a prayer by using titles, by using words that express the power and the greatness of the God to whom you were praying.

And that emphasis, it stands in stark contrast to the way Jesus teaches us to pray.

In Jesus' teaching on prayer, he begins by giving us a title, begins by telling us a way to speak to God, that one word, Father, that tells us that God desires to have a close connection with you and me, that God desires to have an intimate relationship with his people.

Some of us struggle to pray that one word, father, because of the failings of the earthly father that we know.

Intimate was never the word you would use to describe your dad on this earth.

Your father may have known what you needed, but he never gave you what you needed.

He withheld it.

You needed affection and attention, and he was always distracted.

You needed encouragement, and he always offered criticism, and it was unending and unnecessary.

You needed someone to talk to and to listen to you, and he just never had the time.

And the wounds that are left by that earthly father are real.

Which is why I think Jesus teaches us to pray, Father.

Because that one word prayer, that one word prayer is how we begin to heal.

Jesus teaches us this one word prayer, Father.

Because our Heavenly Father always gives us exactly what we need.

He always gives affection and attention.

He always gives encouragement.

He is ready to talk and to listen.

And in the context of prayer, one word is more than enough if that one word is the right word, and that word is father.

For others of us, we struggle to pray that single word, that one word, father.

Because our prayer life isn't the pursuit of an intimate relationship.

Our prayer life is more the pursuit and the development of some kind of business relationship with God.

That God is the big guy upstairs and I am his heavenly employee here on earth.

And we're going to have our morning meetings where we look at my performance during the day.

And if I've done a good job, God's going to give me good things.

And if I've done a bad job, I'm going to get a bad performance report.

But I'm going to meet with my boss every single morning and he is going to tell me what I did.

And you know what happens if you have a business relationship view of prayer?

Then you believe if I live my life good enough and if I do enough right things, I can put God in my debt.

God's going to deserve to give me a bonus of blessings at the end of the year.

If he's going to be a good boss, I'm going to get my cut at the end.

But you know what that does?

We fail to realize that this business relationship doesn't see God for who he truly is.

That he is a God who is rich in mercy and abundant in blessing and wants to take care of his children.

That he is a God of grace.

You can't earn those things from God.

He doesn't want to have a business relationship with you.

He wants to have an intimate relationship with you.

He is not your supervisor.

He is not your employer.

He is not your CEO.

He is your father.

If it's a business relationship, then prayer is nothing more than a transaction during the day.

Right?

What I put in, I receive back.

And that was the Pharisees and the religious leaders' view of prayer.

That's why they prayed so many words.

That's why they displayed their righteousness on street corners.

They were trying to earn something from God.

They didn't know that God was a father.

And yeah, he could be proud of his child.

He may be happy to be in a relationship with his child, but he wants to love his child no matter what they do.

He wants to share that affection and give encouragement and be present with them every single day.

So we have to learn to pray, Father, because prayer isn't about a transaction, it's about a relationship, an intimate relationship.

Prayer isn't about what we receive, but about who we are with.

That we are in the presence of God.

And when I pray to my father, and I say, Father, and I just sit in the stillness of the moment, Jesus says this.

He says that the Father you pray to knows better than you know what you need.

Have you ever had that moment as a child or as a parent?

When you just had to say that father or mother and the parent knew what you were about to say, they could hear it in your voice, they could see it in your eyes.

You just needed one word.

And in a moment, an attentive parent knows what their child needs.

They don't even have to hear the rest of the story.

That one word is more than enough.

And that's infinitely more true when we're talking about and speaking of our relationship with our heavenly father.

He knows all things.

He knows our heart.

So when we just say Father, he says, I know what you need.

I can hear it in your voice.

I can see it in your soul.

I can see it in your mind.

I know what you need.

So when we pray that one word father first, we're reminded that God wants to have an intimate relationship with his children.

But it's also a reminder that we have instant access.

Later in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus teaches this in Matthew 7, verse 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention Matthew 7:7

He says, Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

That every child of God has instant access to the Heavenly Father.

The door will always open.

It will never be locked.

It will never be bolted shut.

It will always, the doorknob will always turn.

You can always come inside.

Whether the sun is rising in the morning or setting at the end of the day, whether it's the lunch hour or the middle of the night, whether you're at home or at work or on vacation, because we pray, Father, because that's who our God is.

He is our Father.

We have instant access.

Turn the doorknob and you walk into his presence and he says, I've been waiting for you.

He says, I'm with you.

Or he says, I've been watching you.

I've been caring for you.

According to researchers, most of the time a baby's first words are either mama or dada.

And so parents around the world kind of vie for the attention and the affection of their kids because they want them to say mama or dada first, right?

That'll tell you who the child favors.

But that's not really the case.

The reason kids say mama or dada first is because those two words, they're easily remembered and easily repeated sounds.

They're easy for a child to pronounce as they're learning how to say words.

And this morning, listen, we've learned our first word, our first one-word prayer.

And like mama and dada, it is easy to remember and it is easy to pronounce.

It's the prayer on which all the others rest.

It's the reason we can pray with such faith.

We can pray with such honesty.

We can pray with such vigor and um expectancy because we can pray.

Father.

We can pray, Father, because we were created for an intimate relationship.

We can pray Father and know that we have instant access.

Let's not just talk about praying a one-word prayer this morning.

Let's pray this one-word prayer and to kind of prepare our hearts.

I love this quote by Richard Foster.

It's going to be on the screen.

It says this in simple prayer, we bring ourselves before a loving father and we open our hearts.

Here one more time.

In simple prayer, we bring ourselves before a loving father and we open our hearts.

So find a posture of prayer right now.

You might want to close your eyes and bow your head.

You may want to get on your knees.

You may want to stand and lift your hand to the sky and reaching out to your Father.

Just imagine you're opening up your heart to God.

And Jesus says, Your Father, He knows exactly what you need.

And just quietly say, Father.

Do you need healing this morning?

Deuteronomy thirty-two says, I am God, I give life.

It is I who heal.

Say his name again.

Say Father.

This morning.

First John three says, see what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God.

Say Father again, say Father.

He knows what you need.

You don't even have to say it.

Do you need provision?

Your Father will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Father.

The Lord, He gives strength to his people.

Abundant and loving kindness to all who call on you.

As you remain seated with your head bowed and eyes closed, there's still one more reason this morning why you could not cry out, Father.

Only those who have been adopted into God's family through faith in Jesus Christ can pray, Father.

John chapter 1 says, To all who did receive him, to all who put their faith in Jesus, to those who believed in his name, Jesus gave the right to become children of God.

John 1 · chapter mention

In just a moment, I'm going to pray for us and then we're going to begin to sing.

And if you want to talk more and learn more about what it means to put your faith in Jesus so you can call God your Father.

Love to talk to you about how to have a relationship with God.

God, this morning we cry out, Father.

And we just stand in your presence.

And we receive your love.

Your eye is always on us.

We are your children.

Father, thank you for loving us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.