Our Father in Heaven

Please turn to Matthew chapter 6, verse 7 to 15.

Matthew 6:7–15

If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand.

!

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they

will be heard for their many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

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.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

Please be seated.

Please be seated.

In Acts chapter 6, the 12 apostles identify two main things that are absolutely necessary, integral for the advance of the gospel, for the upbuilding of the church,

Acts 6 · chapter mention

the progress of the kingdom of God.

And those two things are ministry of the word and prayer.

Ministering God's word and praying.

But of those two all-important activities, we find specific instructions from Jesus about only one of those two activities.

Nowhere in the gospels do we find Jesus' disciples asking him, please teach us how to pray or how to preach, rather.

We want to learn to preach like you, Jesus.

We don't find that anywhere in scripture.

Nowhere in the New Testament do we find specific instructions for what an outline for a sermon should look like.

This is how you should preach.

This is what you should include.

We find many examples of it.

But we don't find specific instructions for it.

Apparently, the basic contours of proclaiming the gospel is simple enough.

Can we receive training to do it better?

Of course.

That's what you have trained pastors for.

But if you are a Christian, then you know the gospel.

Because if you don't know the gospel, then you cannot be a Christian.

The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God for salvation for those who believe.

That means if you are here and confess Jesus as your Lord, you know the gospel and you know how to proclaim it.

But in Luke 11, we do find Jesus' disciples asking him,

Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.

Jesus' intimate and trusting relationship with his heavenly Father demonstrated in prayer

was clearly a source of his power in ministry and his disciples knew it.

So Jesus taught his disciples to pray.

We have specific instructions for how to pray in the Bible from the mouth of Jesus himself.

In fact, the way Matthew has structured his sermon on the Mount,

Jesus' Sermon on the Mount here in the gospel,

it centers around the Lord's Prayer.

This is one of, this is Jesus' most famous sermon.

It's one of five major discourses of Jesus in Matthew,

and it's structured chiastically.

It has a mirroring structure where the two ends match each other,

and then the next elements match each other until it comes to the very center of the entire sermon,

which here, in this case, is the Lord's Prayer.

In Matthew 5.1, Jesus, seeing the crowds, went up on the mountain.

In Matthew 8.1, Jesus, it says, came down from the mountain,

and great crowds followed him.

In chapter 5.2, Jesus begins his sayings and teachings to his disciples.

In chapter 7.20, it says that he finished his teachings and sayings to his disciples.

Verse 5.3-16 describes the blessed ones who have and possess the kingdom of heaven.

Chapter 7.13-27 describes those who will enter the kingdom of heaven.

So you see these mirroring elements.

Chapter 5.17-20 speak of how Jesus fulfills the law and the prophets.

In chapter 7.12, we have Jesus' summary of the law and the prophets.

In 5.21-6.4, Jesus talks about how to love our earthly neighbors.

In 6.19-7.11, Jesus talks about how to love our heavenly father.

So again, that's summing up that the greatest command to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself.

And then, as Ed preached last week, in chapter 6.5-6,

we are told not to pray like the hypocrites to be seen by others.

And then, skipping over the Lord's Prayer to verse 16 and 18,

it warns us not to fast like hypocrites to be seen by others.

Every aspect of Sermon on the Mount has these matching elements, except for one.

It's the Lord's Prayer.

Because it's the very center of Jesus' most famous sermon.

That's how important this passage is, and that's how important prayer is.

I think prayer is given such a prominence in Jesus' teaching

and central place in Scripture for a number of reasons.

I think in many ways, and I say this as a preacher,

who is the last person to discount the importance of preaching.

Because praying is harder than preaching.

I know many pastors who struggle with praying.

I don't know that many pastors who pray well but struggle with preaching.

When we're preaching and serving and otherwise busily occupied,

it feels very productive and that feels good.

When we're praying, it feels like we're not accomplishing anything.

Because we're not.

We are not accomplishing anything.

We're asking God to accomplish something.

In prayer, we become helpless, needy, and dependent people,

and this is a very hard thing for a prideful and self-sufficient

and self-important people to do.

That's why I think prayer is harder than preaching.

That's a long introduction to highlight just how critical prayer is,

and the main point, I think, of this passage is that we should pray as children

to our Heavenly Father.

First, he tells us how not to pray.

Don't pray like this, in verse 7 and 8.

And then he tells us how to pray.

Do pray like this in verses 9 to 15.

Let's first talk about how not to pray in verses 7 to 8.

It says,

Jesus is using the term Gentiles here not as an ethnic term primarily,

to mean non-Jews, but to refer to unbelievers,

all those who are outside of his community of disciples.

It was used in the same way in chapter 5, verse 47.

Those who do not believe in the true God heap up empty phrases.

Their prayer is characterized by two things.

One, empty phrases.

Two, many words.

And Jesus teaches us not to pray in these manners.

First, we should not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.

The Greek word behind heap up empty phrases is literally a word that means babble,

to prattle.

It refers to idle talk.

Imagine someone who prattles on and on about foolish and inconsequential things.

They don't have any real reason for communicating these things to you,

but they're just prattling on.

These are empty phrases that have little meaning.

In the first century Greco-Roman world, Gentiles used these foreign, unintelligible words and sounds

that they called barbarous names, which they believed to possess magical powers.

And you find these barbarous names, these magical incantations in the Greek magical papyri that have

been discovered.

And that's the kind of thing that Jesus is condemning here.

Prayer is not about heaping up empty phrases as if the words and phrases that mean nothing to us

will mean something to God.

That ancient practice is really not all that different from the mantras that Hindus and Buddhists

all over the world use today.

The utter phrases and words and sounds called mantras, which they believe carry sacred vibrations

or divine energy.

But Jesus teaches us here that such babbling, heaping up empty phrases, have zero efficacy.

With God.

Secondly, we should not pray many words as if God will hear us just because our words are many.

Pagan prayer often has little substance and meaning, but there's much vain repetition.

The Greeks were known for repeating the names of their deities over and over again because

they believe that maybe with one time saying the name, their gods might miss it.

If they get their attention, you say their names over and over again.

It's not all that different from how Muslims today used prayer beads called the tasbih, 99

beads for the 99 names of Allah.

They repeat them over and over and over again.

Many Buddhists likewise use prayer wheels that they spin repeatedly while uttering their mantras,

thinking that each turn of the wheel releases a prayer and more prayer the better,

so they just keep spinning these wheels.

Even the Catholic use of the rosary, I believe, sometimes runs afoul of Jesus' command.

The Catholic rosary contains 59 beads with five introductory beads, one Our Father, the Lord's Prayer,

three Hail Marys, and one Glory bead, five sets of ten Hail Marys, each one beginning with Our Father,

which then it closes with the Hail Queen, which is a prayer to Mary.

The Catholic rosary is problematic in a number of important ways.

It includes prayers to Mary, but as we see in this passage, Jesus teaches us that we should pray to God,

not to other believers, not even to believers who are dead and in heaven already.

Sure, we should pray for one another.

The Bible does teach us to pray for one another as saints,

but that's very different from praying to one another.

The rosary often leads to vain repetitions where people thoughtlessly recite prayers in rote and mechanical way

as if the sheer number of repetitions is going to make God hear us and answer us.

God cannot be controlled in such a way.

God is not hard of hearing.

God is not susceptible to flattery.

God is not able to pray for one another.

God is not able to pray for one another.

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus gives us a model and a pattern according to which we should pray.

I don't think this means that Jesus intends for us to say precisely these 52 words

in the English Standard Version of the Bible in verses 9 to 13.

How do I know that?

Well, because we have two versions of the Lord's Prayer in the Scriptures,

one here in Matthew 6 and another one in Luke 11.

And though those two versions are very similar in their themes,

they're not identical in their wording,

which I think shows us that it's not the exact wording that matters,

but rather the substance of what we're praying to God.

With that said, let me add a couple qualifications.

I'm not saying that we should not have prolonged prayers or persistent prayer.

Maybe you'll think, well, if we shouldn't pray many words,

then all my prayer time should be really short.

Sure, that makes things easier for me, right?

I'm not saying that because if you look at Luke 6, 12,

we're told that Jesus went out on the mountainside to pray,

and it says that he prayed there all night.

Jesus prayed for long periods of time.

Every time I pick up a biography of a Christian saint,

a godly man or woman that I admire, respect,

and read about their life,

they inevitably, invariably have a robust prayer life.

They not only pray frequently,

but they pray for extended periods of time.

There are Christians who say,

you know, who pray only very short and limited prayer times,

and then they say, you know,

you know, it's quality, not quantity.

That counts.

That's true to a point,

sure, one hour of quality prayer time

is perhaps better than two hours of scattered and distracted prayer time.

But isn't two hours of quality prayer time

surely better than one hour of quality prayer time?

Maybe some of you are married or you have significant others.

If your significant other complains to you,

says, you know, I feel like you've been too busy lately,

and I've not gotten enough time with you,

I feel like you're not really drawing me out,

we're not having good quality conversations,

try telling them,

you know, with me,

it's quality that matters,

not quantity.

It will not go over well.

Because if you are so busy hard that you have a hard,

you are so busy that you have a hard time

even spending one hour with someone that you love,

then you're going to be so busy hearted

when you spend that one hour with them

that that one hour is going to be,

is not going to be a quality time.

You're going to be rushed and hurried.

Paul Miller writes in his book,

A Praying Life,

any relationship,

if it is going to grow,

needs private space,

time together without an agenda,

where you can get to know each other.

This creates an environment

where closeness can happen,

where we can begin to understand each other's hearts.

You don't create intimacy,

you make room for it.

This is true,

whether you are talking about your spouse,

your friend,

or God.

You need space to be together.

Efficiency,

multitasking,

and busyness

all kill intimacy.

In short,

you can't get to know God on the fly.

We don't pray for a long time

because we think that God only listens

if we pray over a certain number of hours.

That's not the point.

But prolonged prayer,

that's an expression of our intimate trust in God,

our Father,

is to be commended.

Secondly,

I'm also not speaking against persistent prayer.

In Matthew 26,

44,

in the Garden of Gethsemane,

shortly before his betrayal and death,

Jesus,

he says,

prayed for the third time,

saying the same words again.

My Father,

if it be possible,

remove this cup from me,

but not my will,

but yours be done.

He says,

Jesus prayed that prayer three times.

Clearly,

it's not a problem to repeat things.

But that's desperate,

persistent prayer.

Paul had a similar instance

in 2 Corinthians 12.

It says three times he pleaded with the Lord

so that a messenger of Satan

that had been harassing him in his flesh

would leave.

Three times.

Same prayers.

In Luke 18,

Jesus gives us a parable

of the persistent widow

who wore down an unrighteous human judge

by bringing her plea for justice repeatedly

until he granted her request.

So Jesus,

and then Jesus commands us

to pray like her.

He says,

to cry out to God day and night.

So Jesus does not condemn

persistent,

repeated prayers.

The difference is that

these are persistent,

repeated,

heartfelt,

faith-filled prayers,

which is a far cry

from the heaping up of empty phrases

and the vain repetitions

of many words,

thinking that

only prayers

that go above

a certain number of word count

can be heard by God.

Prayer is not a way

to manipulate God.

It's a way to submit to God,

to depend on him.

It's a conversation with God

and an outworking

of our relationship with God.

So Jesus says in verse 8,

do not be like them.

For your father knows

what you need

before you ask him.

That's so wonderful

to think about.

Do you know that

your heavenly father

knows what you need

before you ask him?

Don't think that

that he is aloof

and distant

and unaware

of our needs.

Our earthly fathers

sometimes struggle with that

because they have

limited knowledge

and they've limited attention

and they've limited time

and limited resources

and limited power,

but our heavenly father

has no such limitations.

He's attentive

to his children

and he knows

what we need

before we ask him.

God says concerning

his people in Isaiah

Isaiah 65:24

65 verse 24,

before they call,

I will answer.

While they are yet speaking,

I will hear.

He says in Daniel 9,

20, 21,

while Daniel was still

praying to God

that God already sent

his angel Gabriel

to answer his prayer.

In Genesis 24, 15,

when Abraham's servant

is seeking a godly wife

for his master's son,

Isaac,

he begins to pray

and he says that

before he had finished

praying,

God already answered

his prayer

because the Rebecca

is coming out

even before he's done

praying.

It's almost like,

I hope this is not

irreverent,

but it's almost like

God is a contestant

on Jeopardy

who's just like

waiting with bated breath

to hit the buzzer

to give an answer.

God is not

a reluctant,

aloof person

that you need

to pry his hands open

to get stuff

that you want from him.

He's a loving,

attentive father

and you begin

to pray to him

and he's there.

You begin to say

and you begin to speak

and he's already answering.

That's the posture

of God our father

to us.

Lloyd-Jones

puts it helpfully,

as the father cares

for the child

and looks at the child

and is concerned

about the child

and anticipates

the needs of the child,

so is God

with respect

to all those

who are in Christ Jesus.

He desires

to bless us

very much more

than we desire

to be blessed.

He has a view of us.

He has a plan

and a program for us.

He has an ambition

for us

which transcends

our highest thought

and imagination.

But if our God

so knows

what we need

before we even ask him,

why do we pray at all?

That brings us

to the second point.

Do pray like this.

Jesus says in verse 9,

pray then like this.

Our father in heaven.

Prayer is addressed

to God,

our father in heaven.

And this explains

why we pray

even when God

already knows

what we need.

Prayer is not

transactional

as much as it is

relational.

When my children

ask me

if they can have

certain foods

or if I can buy them

a certain present

or if I can help them

with their homework

or if I can play

a game with them

or watch a movie

with them,

it doesn't merely

give me useful information

so that I can know

what to act on

or what they need.

No,

it brings me joy

when they come to me

to ask me

for these things.

Even when I'm

going to say no.

I still want them

to come to me

because it brings me

delight

that my children

would ask me

because it shows

that they trust me.

It shows that they

depend on me.

It shows that they know

that I love them.

It's the same

with our Heavenly Father.

He's not

a vending machine

that's useful

only for dispensing gifts.

He's our Father

and He wants us

to come

and speak with Him

as His children.

This is why

every prayer

recorded in the Bible

begins with

an invocation

of God.

It's a personal

address to God.

Recognizing the

fatherhood of God

is key to Christian

prayer

and really a key

to the entire

Christian life.

Theologian J.I. Packer

puts it this way

in knowing God.

You sum up

the whole

of New Testament

religion

if you describe it

as the knowledge

of God

as one's Holy Father.

If you want to judge

how well a person

understands Christianity

find out

how much

he makes

of the thought

of being God's child

and having God

as his father.

If this

is not the thought

that prompts

and controls

his worship

and prayers

and his whole

outlook on life

it means

that he does not

understand Christianity

very well at all.

For everything

that Christ taught

is summed up

in the knowledge

of the fatherhood

of God.

Father

is the Christian

name for God.

Our understanding

of Christianity

cannot be better

than our grasp

of adoption.

Since Jesus

spoke Aramaic

during his life

when he taught

his disciples

this prayer

the word for father

that he would have

used would have

been the word

Abba

which means

father in Aramaic.

Almost every language

in the world

has a similar word

for father.

In Korean

it's Abba

in Arabic

it's Ab

in Chinese

and Swahili

it's Baba

in English

and German

Spanish

it's Papa

every language.

as the

Eastern Bible

dictionary

helpfully puts it

it is a term

Abba

it's a term

that expresses

warm affection

and filial

confidence

to capture

that familial

affection

and

and

confidence

filial confidence

the New Testament

scripture writers

sometimes preserve

that word

Abba

even though

they're writing

in Greek

you see that

in multiple

places in scripture

and this is

the sacred

privilege

of all

of God's

people

there is

a limited

sense

in which

all people

including

Christians

and non-Christians

are offspring

of God

because God

is our creator

we see that

in Acts 17

28 to 29

where Paul says

addressing

non-Christians

we are all

his offspring

but there is

a special

sense

in which

only Christians

who have

confessed

Jesus

as their

Lord

and call

upon God

can call

upon God

as their

father

it says

in John

1 12

to 13

but to

all who

did

receive

Jesus

Christ

who

believed

in his

name

God

gave

the

right

to

become

the

children

of God

who

were

born

not

of

blood

nor

of

the

will

of

the

flesh

nor

of

the

will

of

man

but

of

God

only

those

who

believe

in

Jesus

Christ

is

given

the

right

to

become

children

of

God

17

times

on the

Sermon on the

Mount

God

is called

our

father

this

prayer

is

traditionally

called

the

Lord's

prayer

because

it's

the

prayer

that

our

Lord

Jesus

taught

us

but

it's

not

actually

a

prayer

that

Jesus

could

have

fully

prayed

because

it

speaks

of

forgiving

us

forgive

us

our

debts

Jesus

doesn't

have

sin

Hebrews

4

15

says

Jesus

was

without

sin

so

he

could

not

pray

forgive

us

our

debts

this

is

instead

a

prayer

for

the

disciples

of

Jesus

it's

the

prayer

of

the

disciples

for

all

those

who

call

upon

God

as

their

father

this

is

why

I

love

how

D.

Martin

Jones

puts

it

in

passing

in his

sermon

one

of

his

sermons

he

calls

this

the

children's

prayer

I

love

that

this

is

the

children's

prayer

those

who

call

upon

God

as

their

father

the

fatherhood

of

God

is

the

premise

the

basis

for

all

of

our

prayers

some

of

us

have

a

hard

time

relating

to

God

as

a

loving

father

they

have

a

hard

time

praying

to

God

as

father

because

of

the

troubled

relationship

that

they

have

with

their

own

earthly

fathers

many

of

you

have

had

wonderful

earthly

fathers

but

a few

of

you

have

had

really

bad

earthly

fathers

fathers

who

physically

abandoned

you

or abused

you

or emotionally

neglected

you

manipulated

you

fathers

who

didn't

provide

for

you

fathers

who

were not

there

for you

when you

needed

him

but

you

must

not

let

that

taint

and color

the way

you look

at our

heavenly

father

he's

not

like

that

when

you

think

of your

relationship

with your

earthly

father

do you

think

of

yourself

primarily

as a

disappointment

and a

failure

don't

project

that

onto

our

heavenly

father

he says

in

psalm

103

8

to

14

that

our

heavenly

father

is

merciful

and

gracious

slow

to

anger

and

abounding

in

steadfast

love

he says

that

he does

not

deal

with us

according

to our

sins

nor

repay

us

according

to our

iniquities

why

because

he

says

he

shows

compassion

to

his

children

as a

father

for

he

knows

our

frame

he

remembers

that

we

are

dust

God

knows

that

we are

only

children

God

knows

that

we

are

not

fully

grown

yet

God

knows

that

we

are

weak

and

fallible

creatures

of

dust

so

as

our

heavenly

father

he

says

that

he

has

compassion

on us

when

the

bible

speaks

of

god

the

father

the

primary

attribute

and

action

that

is

most

frequently

attributed

to him

in the

bible

is

love

it

says

in

first

john

three

one

see

what

kind

of

love

the

father

has

given

us

that

we

should

be

called

children

of

god

and

so

we

are

even

look at

the

benediction

that we

use

every

sunday

after

service

at

the

end

of

service

second

corinthians

13

14

which

says

the

grace

of

the

lord

jesus

christ

grace

associated

with

jesus

and

the

love

of

god

love

is

associated

with

god

the

father

and

fellowship

of

the

holy

spirit

be

with

you

all

the

first

thought

that

comes

to

our

minds

when

we

think

of

our

god

it

should

be

love

that

our

father

loves

us

it

says

in

first

john

4

8

anyone

who

does

not

love

does

not

know

god

because

god

is

love

it

says

in

romans

8

15

that

we

did

not

receive

the

spirit

of

slavery

to

fall

back

into

fear

but

we

have

received

!

the

spirit

of

adoption

as

sons

by

whom

we

cry

abba

father

slaves

have

to

work

for

everything

they

have

to

earn

everything

nothing

comes

to

slaves

for

free

but

if

you're

a

son

that's

a

different

story

you're

an

heir

you

get

your

father's

inheritance

by

right

how

did

Alexander

the

great

come

to

lead

the

most

powerful

army

in

the

world

the

kingship

of

Macedonia

at

the

young

age

of

20

because

his

father

was

Philip

II

of

Macedon

how

did

Augustus

become

Caesar

of the

Roman

Empire

not

because

he

passed

some

great

test

but

because

he

was

the

son

of

Julius

Caesar

how

did

John

D.

Rockefeller

Jr.

come

to

inherit

the

modern

equivalent

of

billions

of

dollars

of

course

because

his

father

was

senior

John

D.

Rockefeller

senior

founder

of

Standard

Oil

how

did

James

Murdoch

become

an

executive

of

21st

Century

Fox

News

Corp

because

his

father

is

Rupert

Murdoch

the

global

media

tycoon

how

did

President

Donald

Trump

become

a

multimillionaire

because

he

inherited

it

from

his

father

who

was

a

multimillionaire

real estate

developer

the

same

is

true

for

us

we

are

not

slaves

who

have

to

earn

the

favor

of

our

master

we

are

the

children

of

God

our

father

we

are

all

sons

because

we

have

been

united

by

faith

to

Jesus

Christ

God's

only

son

we

are

all

heirs

sons

and

daughters

of

God

I

often

tell

my

daughters

that

I

love

them

and

then

I

like

to

ask

them

do

you

know

why

I

love

you

and

they

always

have

the

same

answer

they

know

what

answer

I

am

looking

for

they

say

because

I

am

your

daughter

they

answer

that

way

because

that's

what

I've

told

them

over

and

over

again

because

I

want

them

to

know

that

they

never

have

to

compete

for

my

affection

or

earn

my

affection

it's

theirs

by

right

because

I

am

their

father

and

they

are

my

daughters

they

have

a

privileged

relationship

to me

that

no

other

children

in

the

world

have

because

simply

they

are

mine

it's

the

same

for

us

do

you

know

brothers

and

sisters

you

are

God's

child

you

belong

to

him

and

therefore

it is

your

special

privilege

to cry

out to

him

in

prayer

and

say

our

father

in

heaven

after

addressing

God

which is

the

first

prayer

item

we

could

get

to

what

we

call

the

overarching

purpose

of

prayer

verse

19

hallowed

be

your

name

the

name

of

God

in

scripture

frequently

stands

for

God

himself

it

represents

God

and

to

hallow

his

name

is

to

want

to

see

God

honored

as

holy

that's

what

it

means

to

hallow

holy

means

set

apart

consecrated

first

God

is

holy

and

set

apart

in

contradist

distinction

to

other

gods

or

idols

secondly

God

is

holy

and

set

apart

in

contradistinction

to

us

his

creatures

and

when we

pray

for

God's

name

to

be

hallowed

that

means

we're

praying

for

God

to

be

distinguished

from

these

idols

and

distinguished

from

creation

in

this

way

!

God

to

!

God

which

on

the

surfaces

makes

it

seem

like

it's

inclusive

of

all

religions

but

is

actually

exclusive

of

all

other

religions

except

the

religion

of

pluralism

Islam

Judaism

Buddhism

Christianity

they all

make

mutually

exclusive

truth

claims

to

claim

that

they're

all

equally

valid

is

to

invalidate

all

of

them

except

for

your

own

brand

of

pluralism

to

claim

that

no

religion

has

an

exclusive

claim

to

truth

is

itself

an

exclusive

religious

claim

but

why

was

that

rug

offensive

because

it

says

to

me

that

our

God

is

one

among

many

because

it

says

to

me

that

our

God

is

like

these

other

gods

that

they're

on

par

with

each

other

that

they

are

peers

it

is

offensive

to

suggest

that

God

has

rivals

or

peers

our

God

does

not

have

rivals

our

God

does

not

have

peers

the

name

of

our

God

Heavenly

Father

should

be

hallowed

set

apart

from

all

other

names

the

Bible

declares

over

and

over

again

that

God

is

peerless

and

unrivaled

in

every

way

Deuteronomy

33

26

that

there

is

none

like

God

who

rides

through

the

heavens

to

your

help

Hannah

prays

in

1 Samuel

2

2

there

is

none

holy

like

the

Lord

for

there

is

none

besides

you

there

is

no

rock

like

our

God

Moses

sings

to God

in

Exodus

15

11

who

is

like

you

oh