Studies in Identity - God: The Names of God - Father 03-17-24

Overview: Pastor Williams discusses God as our Father and emphasizes the importance of understanding God's role and responsibilities as our Heavenly Father. He urges listeners to not view God through the lens of their earthly fathers but rather through the lens of Scripture. He then delves into Matthew 6:5-15, where Jesus teaches his disciples about prayer and addresses God as Father. Pastor Williams explains that God is present, hears, and listens to our prayers. He also highlights the holiness of God's name, emphasizing His perfection and sinlessness. He expresses the desire for a deeper faith that fully trusts in God's power and concludes with the significance of recognizing and honoring the name of Jesus. Transcription: We'll be in Matthew chapter 6 as we look into Father. Who is God? He is Father. Now, I'm going to be honest with you when I begin to study or get ready for this, the section of Scripture that we're going to be in this morning did not cross my mind initially for this reason, because all of the other names that we've been studying came out of the Old Testament. But the name Father was the name that Jesus used for God more than any other. Father is described in the roles and responsibilities of a father for a lot of Scriptures. A lot of God's Word speaks to us on the roles and responsibilities of Father. And what we need to understand about God as Father is that God fulfills all of them perfectly as our Heavenly Father. Now, we'll probably say this again at the end in our time of conclusion, but I want us to remember this. I want us to cling to this promise, to this understanding, is that we need to fight the urge to understand God as Father through how our earthly father acted. And what I mean by that is if you had a very dominating earthly father who instilled in you a great fear and a great hurt and a great heartache, the tendency may be to view God as Father in that light. He is very dominating and domineering. And if I don't do everything exactly right, then He is going to be mad at me and He's going to discipline me in such a way that it will hurt me. But that's not how God the Father, the Heavenly Father is. And so we need to fight that urge to view God as Father through the lens of our earthly father. And we need to see God as Father through the lens of Scripture. Isaiah 63.16, just so we don't think that this name for God of Father strictly comes from the New Testament. Isaiah 63.16 says, Doubtless You are our Father. Though Abraham was ignorant of us and Israel did not acknowledge us, You, O Lord, are our Father. Our Redeemer from everlasting is Your name. God as Father. Let's read together Matthew 6.5-15. Remember the context of this. You'll probably pick up on it very quickly. The disciples had asked Jesus, teach us to pray. Verse 5 says, And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray. 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 forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. He is Father. What does that mean for us? What can we take away from His name, His role, His responsibility as our Father? Now, I could never exhaust all of what Scripture says that God does for us as our Heavenly Father, but what I want to do is try to pull from this section of Scripture certain truths that we can understand and we can rest in and we can find refuge in as God is our Father. V. 5-8 tells us that He is present. He tells them when you pray in v. 6, but when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father Who is in the secret place. Now what's He saying? When you go into your prayer closet, you may find yourself physically alone in that prayer closet. But you're not physically alone. Because when you enter into a time of prayer, when you rid yourself of all the distractions and the things that weigh you down and come into your mind and keep you from having a conversation with a Heavenly Father, when you rid yourself of all of that and you step into that time of prayer, you are stepping into the very presence of God. He is present. And because He is present, beloved, He hears you. You're not just speaking to the wall. We often joke sometimes with people who make light of prayer, people we know maybe ain't living the best life. Well, their prayers just hit the ceiling and come right back down. Beloved, when we sincerely enter into a time of prayer, God hears us. He longs to hear from us. He encourages us. He commands us to bring our requests to Him. Now I don't know about you, but I don't know even an earthly father that would say, children, if you want to talk about anything, come to me. And then when they come to him, say, I don't want to hear it. I ain't got time to listen to you. Go talk to your mama. No, but when we tell our children, hey, you can talk to me about anything. If you have something weighing on you, if you have something on your heart, if you have trouble in school, if you have problems with your friends, you can come and talk to me. We want them to come talk to us, right? That's what God does for us when He says, come unto Me, you who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. What He's saying is bring your trials and your tribulations, your struggles, your sin. Bring your hurts and your heartaches. Bring the weight that does so easily beset us. And He says, lay it at My feet and I will hear you. The God of this universe who spoke into existence the very sun that you will see when you walk outside this sanctuary. The God who spoke into existence the very moon and stars that you will see at night. The God who spoke into existence the trees and the flowers. I don't know if you noticed them when you walked in here, but those trees are blooming. These pretty pink flowers. The God who spoke that into existence hears you, turns His and inclines His ear towards you. And He says, come, My child, I hear you. That's great. And I don't want to downplay that, but there's another level of that. Not only does He hear us, but He listens to us. Have you ever had an experience with somebody who heard you but didn't listen? Every day. Every parent could say that, right? That's an ongoing phrase in my house. Words matter. What did I just tell you? I spoke the words that you needed. You heard me, but you didn't listen. God not only hears us, He listens. And He acts when we ask. Scripture tells us, let us ask of the Father and He'll give it to us. We have not because we ask not. Or we ask amiss. So He does things in our life because we took the time to lay them at His feet. Because we had faith enough in Him to say, God, I know You can do something about this situation, so I'm laying it at Your feet. Thank You for hearing me. Thank You for listening to me. I pray that one day I have the faith that when I speak something in His presence, that I walk away from it never worrying, never caring about it, or nothing, because I know so much to the extent that He has power that if I ask it, it's a done deal. This moment that we had, this moment. And I believe our hearts were true. I believe our hearts were right. I believe we meant every word that we prayed out loud. Every word that was prayed in your heart. I believe every minute of it. But to say that we're going to leave this moment right here and never struggle with it anymore, or never question it, or never have any doubts, that wouldn't be being honest with one another. It really wouldn't. That's why I love Mark 9 where the father cried out, I believe, help my unbelief. Because the reality is we're still going to struggle with it. But longing am I for the day when when we speak it, God's got it. Ain't going to worry about it no more. That's how powerful He is that He can do that. The problem is not with Him. The problem is with us. That's why Jesus on multiple occasions looked at His disciples and said how long am I going to have to put up with you? You unbelieving generation. Faithless generation. The problem is not with Him because He is present. He hears. He listens. But not only is He present, He is holy in verse 9. Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Now, beloved, I could park all morning right here. Hallowed be Your name. Because what Scripture tells us is that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. That at the name of Jesus, the demons tremble. At the name of Jesus, the devil must flee. And I could go on and on and on about how much power is in the name of Jesus. And that's why that song says, I pray for miracles in the name of Jesus. I pray for healing in the name of Jesus. I pray for this. I pray for that. In the name of Jesus. Because in the name of James means a hill of beans. If that much. The demons looked at those false preachers in the New Testament and said, Paul I've heard of. Apollos I've heard of. Jesus I've heard of. But who are you? That's how they would respond to me. In the name of James, I cast out this sickness. Who are you? In the name of James, I proclaim a blessing over you. What's that mean? Nothing. But in the name of Jesus, there's power. In the name of Jesus, there's healing. In the name of Jesus, there are miracles. Powerful is His name. But holy is His name. Holy is His name. What does that mean? It means perfect. Without spot. Without blemish. He is holy as our Father. That means He is completely without spot. Completely sinless. There is nothing that He does. Nothing that He allows you to walk through. Nothing that He has called us into that will diminish who He is, that will make Him be sinful. He is holy completely. He is holy consistently. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will never, never do anything that goes against His character or His standard. And beloved, He will never call us into doing something that goes against His standard or His character. If we are questioning, can I do this as a believer? And it goes, I understand that this is what God's Word says, but this is what I feel, beloved. We are wrong. He is not leading us into that. That is our flesh. That is our thoughts. That is our ways leading us into that. Because He is holy. Verse 9. Verse 10, He is authoritative. Verse 10 says, your kingdom come. Your kingdom come. His kingdom. In order to have a kingdom, you have to be a what? A king. You have to be a king in order to have a kingdom. Revelation 19, verse 16, and He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is King. He is authoritative over all things. We've seen this through the other names of God that we've been studying. That there is nothing that is over and outside of His power. There is nothing that He is not sovereign over. There is nothing that He cannot speak into life. There is nothing we just read. Numbers 17 or 18, one of them. They took a dead stick, gathered it from all 12 tribes of 12 sticks, put it into the presence of God. A dead stick. A rod. Something that had been broken off, cut off, and used for years. They had put that before the altar of the Lord. And in the presence of God, you know what happened? It grew. Limbs and leaves and flowers and budded almonds. A dead stick was brought back to life in the presence of God. Even death is under His control. He can bring back anyone from being dead in their trespasses and sins to new life in Christ. There is nothing in us that is so broken that He can't mend. There is nothing in us that is so diseased that He can't heal. There is nothing so messed up in us. A messed up mindset. A messed up emotional state. A messed up physical state. There is nothing in our lives that He cannot put back together and bring to new life. So if He doesn't do it, because He's holy, because He's perfect, because He's sovereign, He has a reason. And that's where it's tough to believe in Him, isn't it? God, I've served You. Why am I walking through this? God, I'm with You. Why am I struggling with this? God, I believe in You. Why am I doing this? But if we will take the time, and again, all of these are connected, and we go back into His presence, I believe this with all my heart, that He will show us not maybe the full reason why, but He will show us reasons why. This is why I'm doing this. This is why I'm repairing this part. I'm building back this part. I'm using this to do this. I'm doing this to do this. And so we see Him. He is sovereign over all of that. The timing of these songs, the timing of the Scripture, He is bringing it all together. Why? Because He is King. He is authoritative. His Kingdom, and then it says His Kingdom come. His Kingdom come. What does that mean? To come from heaven to earth. To come. It's talking about a triumphal re-entry. Oftentimes, this time of year, we always talk about the Triumphal Entry, right? Where it gets on the donkey and Jesus rides into town and they lay the palm branches at His feet. Hosanna! Hosanna! That's called the Triumphal Entry. That has happened in the past and we should look to that and glorify that and celebrate that. There's coming a day where a triumphal re-entry is going to take place. And that cloud is going to split in the eastern sky and that trumpet will sound and Jesus is going to step out on that cloud and call His children home. Those who have went to sleep in Him first will rise up and then those who remain will be caught up in the twinkling of an eye in a new body, in a new flesh. No more sickness. No more death. No more hurt. And no more heartache. The triumphal re-entry is coming. And we should celebrate that. His Kingdom come. But it's not just talking about that. It's not just talking about that. He's teaching His disciples to pray here. So what is He saying? Your Kingdom come. Your way of doing things come into our life. As King, You have authority over us. It means His attributes in us. Romans 14 and 17 words it this way, the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. But righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I'm looking at some faces this morning, and I don't see anybody that I would ask, you want a little joy in your life? No, preacher, I don't want none of that. Do you want a little peace in your life? No, preacher, I'm good. I've got enough. I don't know anybody who is really trying to grow in their relationship with Christ that I could look at, even a mirror, and say, hey, do you want a little righteousness in your life? No, preacher, I'm righteous enough. I don't know anybody. If you do, if that is your response to those questions, and I mean this with all my heart, let me know because I'll pray for you. Because we could all use a little more joy. We could all use a little more peace. We could all use a little more righteousness. And when we begin in the Holy Spirit, and who is the Holy Spirit? God. So we find this stuff in the presence of God. And when we begin to experience those things, righteousness and peace and joy, what we are experiencing is the Kingdom of God. And when we experience that in our life, guess what those who experience us will get to experience? The Kingdom of God. So maybe your prayer and my prayer would be this. Your Kingdom, come. Your Kingdom, come. He is authoritative. He is desirous. Look at verse 10. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The God of this universe, your Heavenly Father, has a will. Has a desire. Has a plan and a purpose. He has a desire for all people. For all people. There is not one single person on the face of this earth that ever has been, that ever is, or that ever will be, that God the Father does not have a plan for. He has a plan for all people. And what is that plan? World reconciliation. World reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5, 18 and 19. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Beloved, I want you to hear that right now. You as a believer in Christ have a ministry. It may not come with a title in a church. It may not come with a title at a job. It may not come with any kind of title in any way, shape, or form. But you have a ministry to perform. And that ministry is reconciliation. Helping others to be reconciled to a holy God. Given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. So how do we fulfill the ministry of reconciliation? Through the word of reconciliation. And what is the word of reconciliation? That you can put your faith in Christ and be redeemed no matter who you are. Faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. Faith in Christ is what saves us. That's it. We are to proclaim. We are to live. We are to fulfill that ministry everywhere that we go. That's what our Father has given us. That's His desire for all people. And last, He has a desire for you. He has a will for you. Yes, He has a will for the world to be reconciled to Himself. But Miss Patsy, I want you to know that God has a plan for you. Doug, He has a plan for you. Jennifer, He has a plan for you. Leisha, He has a plan for you. Will, as crazy as it may be, He actually has even a plan for you. I'm kidding. I love Will. And I could go through this whole sanctuary and if God gave me His sovereignty, I could call every name that listens by way of radio or web page. But the truth would remain that God has a personal, powerful plan for each and every one of you. Jeremiah 29, verse 11 A very well-known verse, for I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace, not of evil, that give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 1.5 Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Now how much did you know before you were formed in the womb? Did you know what you would become? Did you have a career path picked out? Of course not. You know nothing. God knew you. God knew who you would be. God knew your struggles, your hurts, your heartaches. God knew that you would be in this sanctuary this morning. God knew that you would hear this voice by whatever way you're listening this morning. God knew you. And He had a plan for you. And it was a powerful plan. Romans 8.37 Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Yet in all these things, and we can love that verse, right? I'm more than a conqueror. But we've got to understand these things. I'm more than a conqueror in what? Just back up a couple of verses and that's what you'll read. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. All of those things. You're more than a conqueror. So hear me on this, beloved. You're not more than a conqueror in your own strengths. In your own strengths, in my own strengths, we fail. And we had a great work day yesterday. I don't know if y'all noticed it. Had some new mulch out and around. They rebuilt a ramp going into the service shed back there, so it wasn't dangerous for the ones who take care of the lawn. We put mulch on the playground. Cleaned in and out. We just had a great work day. Great turnout. I want to say thank you publicly for everybody who showed up. And I don't know about you for those who showed up. But last night, I was feeling it. Last night, I was hurting. Last night, I was walking around the house like this. They're like, what's wrong with you? Worked too hard today. And listen, listen. I didn't even work the hardest. I was just going out, hey, what you need? You got it? Alright, you got it? You going down? I mean, these men were out here shoveling mulch for hours. I mean, hours. I had to leave at like 2.50. It was supposed to end at 2 o'clock. I had to leave at 2.50. These men were still out there working. Building the ramp. Cutting wood. Shoveling. I mean, just what little I did, I was hurting. Because I did it in my own strength. And that was simple work. How do I fight a spiritual battle in my own strength? I can't. How do I face disease and disappointment in my own strength? I can't. Because I will hurt more trying to battle those things than I will battling a hammer and a steel rod into some rubber beams out on the playground. What we did yesterday, no matter what your work was here, that was light work. Facing the devil and his attacks. That's sword. That's peril. That's death and destruction. How do we battle that? In all of these things, we are more than conquerors, what? Through Christ. So now we're back to that truth. In His presence. In His presence. And I know this is not the name we're studying tonight, but this song just came to my head. In the presence of Jehovah. How do I battle? In the presence of Jehovah. How do I find wisdom? In the presence of Jehovah. How do I find strength? In the presence of Jehovah. How do I find rest? In the presence of Jehovah. I don't know what you're battling. I don't know what you're facing. I don't know what your loved ones are going through. But here's what I know. God is our Heavenly Father. And everything that we need, everything that we need, can be found in His presence. In His presence. And how do we enter into His presence? First and foremost, through salvation. I come into Him and say, God, I have sinned and I need a Savior. I need someone to save me from that sin. I'm putting our faith in Jesus as that Savior. His very Son that He sent. That whosoever should believe in Him shall have everlasting life. Faith in Christ. That's how we enter into His presence first and foremost. After salvation, we can enter into His presence any time we want to. Just call out His name. Father, I need You. Father, I'm struggling. I need rest. I need strength. Father, my loved one doesn't know You. Father, I've got this situation at my work that I just need some wisdom, some instruction, some help making a decision. Father, I need You in this moment. And here's the glorious thing. You may not know the words to say. But the Bible tells us we have an interceder inside of us in the Holy Spirit that cries out when we don't know what to say. Intercedes for, prays for us to the Father. Will you come to Him this morning, as Ms. Patsy plays? You come. This altar's open. As always, I'll be right down front. I'd love to pray with you. To pray for you.