Sermons 2025

Video

Text: Introduction Lord’s Prayer 
Theme: Our Father 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Introduction to the Lord’s prayer: Our Father who art in heaven. 
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. How important is your father?  He is important. Without him, you would not be alive. Our Father’s protect us, keep us safe. They make sure that we have what we need like clothing, food, drink, everything. What about our heavenly Father? How does He compare to our earthly fathers? Ponder that question as you hear the rest of the sermon. 

Prayer 

What is prayer? Prayer is simply us going to God with our petitions, requests, and concerns. Prayer is both a command as well as an invitation from God. God commands us to pray to Him. The Psalmist says that we should call upon Him in the day of trouble. James writes that you do not have because you do not ask, indeed some of you are dying because of it.  

Many in our world today despise prayer. They view prayer as merely using God the same as we might a vending machine. I have done this good deed therefore God should give me whatever I desire. I have not been a terrible person so I should get what I want upon this earth. I deserve this. I need this right now. This turns prayer into something that is focused entirely upon ourselves, our wants, our desires. They focus entirely on what they can get out of God when times are bad. Like God is some kind of good luck charm that we can just pull out whenever we need Him. 

This is not how we should pray. Rather, we should pray focused upon the good gifts that God gives to us and the needs of our neighbor. We pray for those around us, focusing upon their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. We go to God in prayer saying: Here I come, dear Father, and pray, not of my own purpose nor upon my own worthiness, but at Thy commandment and promise, which cannot fail or deceive me. Whoever, therefore, does not believe this promise must know again that he excites God to anger as a person who most highly dishonors Him and reproaches Him with falsehood. 

We pray rightly when we come to Him, mindful of our sins. Not demanding that He give us anything, but begging, pleading, that in His grace and mercy He would grant our request. While we come mindful of our sins, we do not approach God timidly and fearfully but boldly and with confidence holding Him to His own promise that He has promised to answer because of Jesus Christ. Thus, why we pray in the name of Jesus, because only in that name has our heavenly Father promised to hear and answer us. 

We pray to the triune God not because He is vain and needs it to boost His own ego. Rather, because of HIs love. He desires to give us every good gift under heaven. When we pray, we are simply obeying the Second Commandment. As it teaches, is to call upon God in every need. This He requires of us and has not left it to our choice. But it is our duty and obligation to pray if we would be Christians, as much as it is our duty and obligation to obey our parents and the government; for by calling upon it and praying the name of God is honored and profitably employed.  

We obey the Second Commandment when we pray the prayer that our Lord gave to us. We honor prayer and approach God, seeking His good will for us. We know the love that He has shown to us when He sent His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus took on flesh through the womb of the Virgin Mary. He suffered and bled upon the cross to give us the forgiveness of our sins and the salvation of our souls. Rising again from the dead, we have been given new life. Ascended to the right hand of the Father, Jesus intercedes for us as our Brother before the Father. He says, “Father, Listen to their prayer. Grant their request, not because of them, but because of Me and Your love.” 

Thus why our Lord gave us this prayer in which all of our needs and all of God’s gifts are summed up for us in one brief prayer. You can pray it every day, two or three times a day even, in the morning when you get up, in the evening when you go to bed, in between for family devotions. The Lord’s Prayer is your daily companion, always there when you need it. But the Lord’s Prayer is also a prayer that is ever new, every time we pray it. Why? Because our particular needs are always changing, yet they will always fall somewhere under the comprehensive petitions of this prayer. And God’s gifts, which are even greater than our needs–all of God’s gifts, which he pours out on us day after day–all of those countless gifts are packed into this one little prayer. 

The Lord’s Prayer may only take a short time to pray, around 30 seconds, but there’s enough there to cover all of our needs and all of God’s gifts. It’s a prayer that sums it all up. It’s a prayer we can be sure God wants us to pray, because Jesus is the one who gives it to us and he teaches us to pray in this way. And so we give thanks for the Lord’s Prayer, and we will gladly pray it and use it as a model for our further praying. Amen, Amen! Yes, yes, it shall be so! 

May the Lord grant that we can continue to pray the prayer our Lord taught us, always looking to Him for mercy, grace, and every daily need. 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.