GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
BEREA KENTUCKY
Our Father which art in Heaven
By Jim Murriner


Mt 6:9-13
" After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."
Our Father Which art in heaven.
Prayer can only be, where the one praying realizes that they have been adopted into the family of God.
Romans 8:15 
" For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
We can call on the Father because we have been adopted.
Before we were adopted we could not "cry Abba Father, for our cries would not be heard by God.
God could not hear our cries before we were adopted because we would have been crying unto a father which we did not have.
 
Adoption turns men and women boys and girls into Children of God, it is regeneration which makes them appear to be so, by giving us a new nature. 

II. Cor. 5:17 " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

Romans 7:15 - 20 
15" For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."
Prior to our being adopted by the Father, we were children of bondage.

Eph. 2:3
" Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others".
In our former condition we could not pray, Because God refused to hear us.
John 9:31 
"Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth."
We pray to the Father, and at that time , we had no Father.
Even now that we do have a Father, there are times when He will not hear us , if we have allowed sin to get us out of fellowship with Him.
Isaiah 59:1-2
"1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
I Peter 3:7 
" Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered."
If as children of God, we can hinder our prayers by sin in our lives, then how can we expect God to hear in an answering way, the prayers of those who are still dead in their trespasses and sins.
Next we must notice the great respect that is to be given to God, when we pray.
"Hallowed be Thy name"
hallowed means to sanctify, or be holy.
To sanctify, means to set apart.
We must set God apart in our minds as we pray, as being higher, and greater than all.
We are never to think of God as being on our level.
We can only be blessed by one that is greater.
Heb. 7:7 "And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better."
 



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