"Our Father" - Part 1

Hi, this is John O'Zanting, lead pastor of Evolved Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

About how many of you were in a small group learning about prayer the last several months?

So good.

When we sat down as a team and we're thinking, like, okay, what do we need to talk about?

What do we need to dig into in this next season?

We couldn't help but feel like this was the perfect time to go a little deeper in prayer, kind of keep building on what we've been leaning into.

And so some of what you hear throughout this series might be familiar, but we want to actually like dive into that together, make it real, and go a little bit deeper.

So we're gonna kind of build on what you've already been learning and what we've been learning together as a church.

Um I wanted to share a statistic before I started.

I was out with a friend recently, and we were talking about prayer and just the way we see it strengthen our relationships and community, and um this friend shared a statistic on the decreased rate of divorce in couples who pray together.

I thought that was so interesting.

So I went and looked it up.

And um it said that for couples who pray together, the the divorce rate is actually like 1%.

It is so minimal.

Um, this study that I found was done, I think, 20 years ago.

So, of course, there's some variation, but I thought that was so powerful that for couples to at the end of the day pause and pray together was that strengthening from marriage.

And I wanted to share that statistic because you might not be married, um, whatever season you're at, whatever your stage of life looks like, um, there's something about prayer that actually strengthens us as people in relationship, in community, and all those all those areas.

And so um I just thought that statistic was wild and beautiful.

Um, but so much of what I want to share with you today is actually coming out of some of my own journey.

Um, things that God has taught me over the years, um, things that have become real through years and years of walking with Jesus, and passages that at one time were just that, but that have become so real to my life.

And um, the word is truly God breathed, it is alive, and there is something that God does in our hearts when we dive into his word.

So I want to just like invite you into that today and uh just let God kind of speak into your heart whatever he might want to speak.

And so I also want to remind you today, actually, of who your God is, of who our God is.

I think that um we all have our own pictures that we paint of God, and it actually comes so often from our own experiences, um, from some of the closest people in our lives, from good things from bad things, that sometimes we we decide the picture of God.

And I actually feel like God today might want to repaint some pictures.

And so I just want to invite us today to kind of open our hearts to what God might want to do.

If there's an image that we have of God that he might want to repaint, um, what image he might want to kind of etch into our hearts today?

Because we're talking about prayer, um, but I love the verse that I get to dig into today because it starts with his character.

And we have to start with his character, with knowing him, with leaning into trusting him in order to actually dive into the rest of what this prayer says.

And so we're gonna start with his character today.

And I just want to give you permission.

Whatever God might be doing in your heart today, that's beautiful.

Um, again, we're all on this journey together.

And so, um, yeah, let's just invite God to actually do what he wants to do in our hearts today.

So, to begin, I want to read the full passage that we will be diving into for the next five weeks.

And if you have your Bibles, it is from Matthew chapter six, verses nine to thirteen.

It says, Pray then like this our Father 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 debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

I grew up in an Orthodox church, so part of me wants to like stand and let's say it together.

Um, I can hear some of you saying it quietly.

You maybe have the same experience, and I love portion.

Um, but this is such a beautiful and profound portion of scripture.

Jesus teaches us how to pray.

And again, there's a lot in this passage, forgiveness, provision, all the things.

But I actually believe that what we let God do in our hearts today, of learning his character, of setting our hearts on who he is, is gonna set the table to be able to learn all these other pieces of prayer.

So verse 9 in ESB says, pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

In NLT it says, pray like this, our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

And I love that this is the start of prayer because it just sets the tone to say that actually prayer is relational.

Prayer is an act of doing relationship with God.

It's not an accident that Jesus starts with our Father.

Um, as I was studying and pouring over the word for today, I was studying like the names of God, and I didn't include all of the things that I studied, but it was profound to me all the many ways that God is referenced by name throughout Scripture, Old Testament, New Testament.

There are a lot of ways that we can refer to God, like a lot.

You can go study it, it's amazing.

But of all the words that could be used to describe God, of all the words that could be used to like set the tone to enter into prayer and how we see God, the two key words are father and hallowed or holy.

But he starts with our father.

And we have to start here, we have to start relationally before we go transactionally, because I think sometimes when we come to prayer, in my own small group, we would share about our experiences, and often the report back was like, Well, when I need something, when I'm going into a test or I'm like in a pitch, then I'm like, hey God, can you come through for me?

Which is beautiful.

That's beautiful.

God loves that.

Keep coming to him with those prayers.

But that can be our inclination is to come to him.

Hey God, I really need this right now.

Hey God, can you work this out in my life?

Hey God, I'm really worried about this.

But we need to come to him as father first, into his heart first, into his character first.

Not only because he's worthy of it, but because it actually sets us up to see all the other things.

I'm like, what did that person mean when they said that?

Are the gas prices gonna keep going up?

Like, what's going on tomorrow?

Um, did I book that venue?

Like all the pieces, I come into prayer and I could very easily be like, oh God, like life is crazy right now.

And again, God loves our honest prayers, but something changes in my heart when I come into prayer, and I'm like, hey God, I just want to thank you for like who you are, because you provided for me so many times in my life, and you're so good and you're so beautiful.

This is who you are.

I start like speaking out loud who he is and who I've seen him to be.

Then when I get to all the stuff that's going around around me, my perspective is shifted.

I start to pray prayers of gratitude instead.

I'm like, God, thank you that um all my relationships are like in your hands.

Thank you that you provide.

Thank you that I don't have to be afraid.

Lord, would you work in this person's heart?

I'm praying for this person who needs this thing right now.

There's like a confidence and a peace and an assurance that comes out of prayer when we set our heart up vertical towards him first.

Not coming in with all the like horizontal stuff.

Again, that's good, but there's something really important about starting vertical, starting on his heart and on his character.

So I wanted to share this story because um several weeks ago my fiance and I went skiing.

And is very good at skiing.

He's like going off the ramps and all the things.

I'm like, you know, I went skiing once when I was like 10, but let's go.

So my wonderful patient fiance takes me to the top of the mountain.

It was wonderful.

Um, but it was a great learning experience.

I basically learned how to ski on this mountain, and uh it was amazing.

Would do it again.

But as I'm skiing down this mountain, if you've been skiing, you know I'm doing kind of the like slow, like go down and then turn and then go down again, just like trying not to go too fast and uh die.

But um, every time I'm like, okay, stop.

And then I would I would stop at that turn and I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was coming every single time.

And then I would probably fall around that time as well.

So eventually he comes to me, he like stops and he's like, hold on, stop looking over your shoulder.

You need to stop looking over your shoulder.

No one's gonna hit you.

You're gonna be okay.

You need to keep your eyes on your skis and your eyes on the hill.

I'm like, yeah, but like I really don't want someone to hit me right now.

They're going fast.

Um, but he's like, no, no, no, it's okay.

Like, these people actually know what they're doing.

You're going slow enough.

Trust me, they're not gonna hit you.

So finally, as we go on, more and more I'm getting into this groove of like looking at my skis.

I do the turn, I feel really great, even though I keep falling here and there.

That's all right.

Um, but it was so amazing the difference of like not looking over my shoulder and actually just like focusing on what I was doing.

Not only did it help me to actually get further, but I was able to enjoy the ride.

It took so much joy out of the experience when I'm like, oh my gosh, is someone gonna hit me?

Like, if you've been skiing, you know.

Um, and I share this, it's kind of a funny story, but I share it because I think how often are we living this way?

We're like always looking over our shoulder, like, uh, what did that mean?

Or what did that person say, or how is this gonna come together?

Is God gonna provide for this?

But if we actually just like kept our eyes on Jesus, kept listening for his voice, not only would we get a lot further, it'd be a lot smoother, but we'd be able to enjoy the ride with him.

And um, my very patient ski instructor, his voice was consistently like, You got this, you're good.

After I fell three times in a row, he's like, take a breath, okay, now get back up.

And um, I had to do the skiing, but he got me to the bottom of the hill, and I like knew how to ski by the end of it.

But this is who God desires to be in our world, even closer than that.

Guiding, coaching, walking with.

He doesn't just like push us off the top of the mountain and say, good luck, hopefully you make it.

Remember what I told you on the bunny hill?

No, he coaches us, he guides us, he walks closely beside us.

And the most real place that we learn about this character of God, that we discover his closeness is through prayer.

And so Jesus teaches us to come back to his heart, to go vertical, to stop looking over our shoulders, to put everything from the weak aside, and come into his presence and say, Our Father, hallowed be your name.

And I want to dig a little bit into this passage again now.

So, first of all, when we look at the life of Jesus, I love that this is actually what his ministry was set up on was looking to the Father first.

Um, Jesus himself withdrew to quiet places to pray consistently.

And as I was praying, I couldn't help but think on that, that Jesus living for 30 years, coming to this three years of public ministry, we very often focus on that public ministry.

We look at what he did during that time.

But what actually propelled his public ministry was these moments where he withdrew to be with the Father.

And uh, if you have your Bible, you can open Luke 5, verse 12 to 16.

Luke 5:12–16

It says, While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.

When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.

I will be clean.

And immediately the leprosy left him.

He charged him to tell no one, but go assure yourself to a priest, make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded.

But now even more of the report about him went abroad.

But he great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.

But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

And I wanted to read the full passage because I love the contrast.

Jesus' ministry is happening, people are coming to him, people are being healed, there's a lot going on, and yet it says that he would withdraw to quiet places and he would pray.

We see him going from what was happening around him into the quiet.

And I just imagine the 30 years before Jesus' public ministry, what it looked like, what his rhythm of just going away with a father was.

In his public ministry, this sustained him, but what carried him to that moment?

What have been that relationship, that connection to his father?

And it's so funny because Jesus' first uh public miracle is there's a party happening, and um someone comes to him, and if you know the story, they ask him to turn the water into wine.

Um but Jesus' response is, dear woman, that is not our problem.

My time has not yet come.

This is John 2, verse 4.

John 2:4

And um, I just think that's hilarious that that's how Jesus responds.

That is not our problem.

But I love that Jesus actually wasn't eager for his miracles to get into the public eye.

He wasn't waiting for someone to say, like, hey, I saw I noticed you do some miracles, like I noticed you have this ministry.

Hey, come over here.

He wasn't eager for that.

He was just eager to be with his father, eyes set on his father.

Even when Jesus was young, we see him say, Well, why were you searching for me?

I was in my father's house.

It was actually the growing and the yielding and the moments of coming away with his father that helped Jesus to walk in that power that actually equipped him as he went out and walked into this ministry.

And I think that we can get sometimes caught up in, again, it's like this horizontal, maybe it is waiting for an opportunity or waiting for a relationship or waiting for something, but it's actually this like vertical with Jesus that prepares us even for what God does have.

Um, Jesus' disciples recognized that all that he did came out of his connection with the Father.

And I want to just read a quote from Daryl Johnson, um, his observation on this.

He writes that there is no record of anyone asking Jesus to teach them to lead or to counsel or to heal or to cast out demons or to preach.

They may have asked him, but there is no record of them doing so.

Perhaps it is because they could see that Jesus leading, counseling, healing, casting out, and preaching ministry emerged out of his relationship with his father.

And they could see that the key to that relationship was prayer.

Jesus, after all, was always slipping away to pray.

Luke 5, verse 16.

Luke 5:16

And so I want to talk a little bit about um this passage again, diving into uh the beginning of this passage, our father.

Um, historically, at the time that Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray, it was actually very controversial to refer to God as Father.

It would have been not the norm for a rabbi to teach his disciples, hey, this is how you pray.

You're gonna refer to God as Father.

And yet throughout the life of Jesus, we see him over and over again coming back to referring to God as his father and as our father.

So I wanted to read a few passages that refer to God as father, and then just unpack a little bit of what we see as his character in those passages.

And this is something we can do daily and at home, but just like studying his character, studying where it shows him as father.

Um, Psalm 68, verse 5 to 6 says, Sing to God, praise his name, exalt him, rejoice before him, whose name is the Lord, father of the fatherless, defender of widows, God in his holy abode.

Psalms 68:5–6

He's a father of the fatherless.

First Corinthians 8, verse 6 says, Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are, and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist.

1 Corinthians 8:6

He's one God, he's not divided, but one God and he's sovereign.

But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.

Be merciful just as your father is merciful.

He's merciful and he's kind.

Psalm 103, verse 3 says, As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

Psalms 103:3

He's compassionate.

And uh just one more here, Matthew 6, verse 26 says, Look at the birds of the air.

Matthew 6:26

They don't sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they he provides?

So these are just some of the elements of God's character that we see when we read through these passages.

And um, I just want to invite you that if one of those words actually kind of hit you in a weird way, they're like, I don't know if I can see that.

Like, is that God's character?

Um, there might be something that he actually wants to repaint in your heart of his character.

Um, we so often, again, I said this before, but we're shaped so much by what we experience day to day, some of the voices that have formed us.

And so when we come into prayer and we come into his character, this is the place where he's actually gonna rewrite some of those pieces.

And again, hallowed be your name, holy.

I love the contrast of these two words together that God is presented not only as a good father, but also as holy, as hallowed.

And often I think in religion we see two extremes.

There is a bit of like a fear of God and his wrath and the consequences, and there's sort of like this stirring up of good works to try to deter God's wrath.

On the other side, there can be sort of this like blissful climb up the mountain, this moral mountain that if again, if we do all the right things, we can make it a little bit further.

And yet we have God, this beautiful, beautiful God, who kind of flips the script and he's holy.

He's holy, he's powerful, he's worthy of all of our praise, but also he's close and he's a father and he's kind, and he actually came in close to us through Jesus.

So I want to dig into a couple passages that just talk about his holiness and do the same thing.

Look at what we see of his character in these passages.

So 1 Samuel 2, verse 2 says, There was no one holy like the Lord.

1 Samuel 2:2

There is no one besides you, there is no rock like our God.

He is God our rock, he's our security, he's the strength.

In Isaiah 6, it says, Above him were seraphim, each with six wings, with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

They were calling to one another Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

This is the angels worshiping God.

He's holy, he's almighty.

And Leviticus 20, verse 26.

Leviticus 20:26

It says, You must be holy, because I the Lord am holy.

I have set you apart from all the people to be my very own.

He calls us to be holy.

And in Psalm 103, verse 1 to 3, it says that all that I am, praise all that I am, praise the Lord.

Psalms 103:1–3

May I never forget the good things he does for me.

He forgives all my sin and heals all my diseases.

And this is the thing.

When we actually make space to acknowledge God in all of who he is, all of it, his goodness, his closeness, his father heart, but also his holiness, his sovereignty, it actually heals something in our hearts.

When we begin to find our identity in God and in nothing else, vertical, not looking all around us, not looking over our shoulder.

There's something beautiful about how these two words come together, his father heart and his holiness.

We can't disconnect them.

If we do, if we try to separate, he's just a good father, he's just kind, or he's he's just holy, we can actually begin to misunderstand our identity in relation to him.

We are adopted into his family.

But that's not all.

We are adopted actually into the holy of holies by this holy God.

Romans 8 verse 15 says, So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Romans 8:15

Instead, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children, and now we call him Abba Father.

We're invited into a new family, adopted into his heart, adopted into a holy priesthood to become co-heirs with Jesus Himself.

It's not a small thing to say that God is our father, it's a holy thing.

And the thing is that God desires for us to walk in this trust with Him.

He desires that we wouldn't have to look over our shoulder, we wouldn't have to worry about all the myriad of things that are happening around us.

His heart and his hope and his desire for us is that we would actually be able to just come to him and put all that stuff aside for just a moment and just lean into his heart and lean into his character, our Father who art in heaven.

When we're distracted by what's taking place around us, when there's fear involved, and we're looking again over our shoulder, that's when we trip up.

When our eyes are set on Jesus, when we're able to give him our full attention, we're able to walk more freely, more confidently, we're able to enjoy the ride, every step of the journey.

First Timothy 1, verse 7 says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.

1 Timothy 1:7

Love, power, and a sound mind.

When all of who God is becomes real to us, we're actually able to walk out into that.

The love of the Father, the power that comes with his holiness.

We're meant to walk into that.

But it takes actually setting our eyes on him.

It takes actually knowing him, it takes actually knowing his heart and his character.

And this isn't just in the easy moments, this is in the difficult moments, this is in all of the moments, that we get to actually come to him first and foremost and look to him, say, Father, I trust you with this.

I trust you with this.

And in my own life, I've seen that that shift in my heart where there are moments where even if I'm just going about my day, the prayer that comes into my heart is just like, no, God, I actually trust you with that.

I trust you with that situation.

I trust you with what's happening in that space.

Lord, this person's on my heart and I'm lifting them up to you, but I just know how much you love them.

And so I'm just inviting you to work in their heart.

And there's nothing wrong with like, again, petitioning and bringing our things to God, but I just think that it delights his heart when we actually know him well enough that we can just come to him freely.

When we can come to him in trust, when our there's there's a big contrast to coming to him out of fear.

When we come, we're like, God, I am so worried about this.

This has been really hard.

This is what's going on.

And again, that's not wrong.

It's very real in moments.

But the contrast when we come to him and we say, God, I trust you.

You're a good father, you provide, you come through every time.

I trust in you.

And again, it actually sets our heart up to pray confident prayers.

This is the thing.

God actually wants us to walk confidently with him.

And so when we look to him first, when we're rooted in his character, it becomes easier and easier to walk in that.

And uh I wanted to share a little bit of a story as we're closing up.

Um I think that it's really easy to talk about trust and talk about knowing God.

Um, we talk about surrender and all of these things.

And that's beautiful and that's good, but it is a journey and it is a process.

And as we walk with God, again, he's so close.

He's like that ski instructor.

He's not gonna take his eyes off of us.

He's with us every step of the way, right close by, coaching us through it.

And as I was preparing for today, I couldn't shake like um just the feeling the need to share this story.

When I was in Bible college, it was probably my last year, I was working in the office of a little church, and uh this lady was the bookkeeper, she was the accountant, she did all the things.

Beautiful, sweet lady.

And one day we were just chatting about our journeys with God, and she began sharing with me her journey of surrender.

And she was talking about the moment when she surrendered to Jesus and how that changed everything for her.

She had a pretty crazy story, but that moment where she surrendered to Jesus and it changed everything.

But when she said that, there was something in my heart where I knew like I wasn't surrendered.

I'm in my last year of Bible college, I'm doing the church things, I'm like reading my Bible, but she said that word surrender, and something just pushed at my heart where I was like, Well, what does it actually mean to surrender to God?

And so I went home and I sat on my bedroom floor with my Bible and with my journal, and I just started talking to God.

I said, God, why is it that I feel like I can't surrender to you?

I could say it, like, yeah, I surrender, I surrender to you.

But I was like, God, there's like something there.

Why can't I surrender to you?

Why can't I actually step into that?

And what I heard him say in that moment was, how can you surrender to someone you don't trust?

But there was more.

How can you trust someone you don't know?

And being the good Bible college student that I was, I think it was very easy to get caught up in like, okay, I've read this much of the Bible, I've done this, I've checked off all the boxes.

But to live in like a truly surrendered heart to Jesus was something so profound that I had no idea I was actually missing out on.

To walk in the deep trust that, again, doesn't make the journey perfect, doesn't mean you're not gonna trip, that was profound to me.

And I had no idea that even after years of Bible college, I was sitting here on my bedroom floor realizing I don't actually know God.

I know about him, but I don't really know his heart.

And so that day I kind of like began on this journey of just praying that prayer, like, God, I want to know you.

I want to know who you are, I want you to show me who you are.

And studying his character in scripture, but honestly, more than anything, praying that prayer, like, okay, God, then I want to know who you are.

And slowly, slowly, slowly, that began to wash over my heart.

And slowly, slowly, slowly, there began to come this deep trust in my heart.

And now I can honestly say the best things in my life, the best gifts that God has given me, they have required a very surrendered heart.

Some like hard yeses, moments in prayer, just like being at his feet.

There's this like surrendered heart, and in that space, God has brought me to more beautiful places than I could have ever imagined in my own, my own dreams, my own imaginations.

But it's come out of a surrendered heart.

And that's come out of learning how to trust God, and that's come out of learning his character.

And that was like years ago, so it's been a journey.

And so as I close, like, I just want to encourage you that wherever you are at today on that journey, that's beautiful.

And my prayer today is that for each of us, God would just guide us a little bit deeper, a little bit deeper into his character, a little bit deeper into trust.

And I want to just challenge us to take a prayer with us this week.

Just a simple prayer.

Um, and maybe for you that prayer is literally just, God, I trust you.

Father, I trust you.

Taking a deep breath in those moments where maybe there's a lot happening around us and just going vertical.

Father, I trust you.

Or maybe for you the prayer is, God, I want to know you.

And just setting aside a little bit of quiet space away from the noise, giving his heart some room to speak to your heart.

God, I want to know you.

If we can just make a little bit of space this week to say, God, would you show me your heart?

God, I want to know you.

God, I trust you.

There's something that happens in our hearts when we pull ourselves out of everything that's happening and we fix our eyes on Jesus.

When we come out of all the busyness and all the realities and all the good things of life, we come to him in prayer and we just put it all aside for a minute.

We just say, God, Father, I trust you.

Tyler Stanton, he's written several books on prayer, and he says actually the equivalent to our father and starting prayer looking to our father is gratitude.

I just thought that was so cool because actually, what happens is we're starting prayer by remembering.

Whether we're remembering his character, we're saying his name, or even just coming in gratitude.

But that's my challenge for us this week is how many moments this week can you just pause each day, finding like one moment in your day to pause and just remember, to turn your heart upward to heaven.

Father, I trust you.

Or Father, thank you for what you're doing in my life.

That we would take these moments to remember, to come back to his heart, to come back to his character.

And so I just want to pray for us as we close today.

And again, if God is doing something in your heart, if there's a piece of his character that you're realizing, God, maybe I'm not actually seeing you for who you are, um, again, start praying that prayer.

Start digging into his heart in scripture, but also invite someone else into this.

I love how this prayer actually says, our father.

It's not my father, it's our father.

And so there's a piece of his heart that I don't think we can grasp just on our own.

I think we need to be in community to like make this real.

And so find someone in your world who you can actually finish this conversation with or continue this conversation with.

Hey, what did God do in your heart today?

What is God speaking to you today?

Is there something in his character that he's speaking to you about?

So I'm just gonna pray.

And uh, yeah, God, we we love you.

We are so grateful for you.

And God, in the midst of all the things going on in our worlds, all the things going on around us, God, we just fix our eyes on you.

We're grateful for you.

We're grateful for what you've done for us through Jesus, for your provision, for your heart, God, for your goodness.

We just thank you for who you are.

And Lord, I just want to pray for any heart in the room today who's struggling to know your heart.

Maybe there's been a wrong relationship that's painted the wrong picture.

God, I just pray that you would come in and you would bring healing to that, that you would paint new pictures, God, that you would do what only you can do.

And God, I just pray for um maybe the heart in the room who this is new to, God.

This is brand new, even being in this room is brand new.

I just pray that um, yeah, Lord, that your presence would just be so real in these moments and in these days to come, Lord, in the newness of prayer, in the newness of coming into your character, that your presence would be felt in that.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, pop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit EvolveChurch.com.

We hope to see you know.