Sermon: Our Father, Our Daddy
Scripture: Matthew 6:9
In this week’s lessons, we see how we are enabled to approach God in prayer because of the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Theme: My Daddy
Is He my daddy? If He is, then He will help me in the days of my infancy. He will teach me to walk spiritually, picking me up when I fall and directing my steps securely. That is why Hosea can report God as saying, “Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up in my arms… I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love. … I bent down to them and fed them… How can I give you up, O Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! (Hos. 11:3-4, 8). Surely such a God will keep me from falling and will present me faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24).
Is He my daddy? If He is, then He will care for me throughout all the days of this life and bless my days abundantly. The laws of the United States recognize that a parent must care for his children. So does God. He has set down the rule that “the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children” (2 Cor. 12:14). And if this is true on the human level, it is also true of the relationship of a man or a woman to God. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food and the body more than raiment?… Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:25, 28-33).
Is He my daddy? If He is, then He will go before me to show me the way through this life. That is why Paul can write, “Be ye, therefore, followers of God, as dear children” (Eph. 5:1).
Is He my daddy? If He is, then I shall know that I belong to Him forever. And I shall know that while I am being led, taught, and educated for life’s tasks, nothing shall interfere with His purpose in Christ concerning me. And I shall look for the time when I shall see Him and be like Him, for I shall see Him as He is.
Study Questions:
What do we learn about God from Hosea 11?
Read Matthew 6:25-33. How does God show his fatherly care for His children?
Application: By the gracious working of the Holy Spirit, what evidence can you see in your life that you are a child of God? What do you need to work on?
For Further Study: Download and listen for free to Joel Beeke’s message, “The Glory of God as Father.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
