Praying: Father First

Welcome to Don't Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroth, and I'm underwater. You say, sounds like I'm underwater.

I've had this stupid nasal thing for probably three and a half weeks. And so we just, you know, the show must go on.

Mario and I are in the studio and we are recording today. Glad you're watching. You can either watch or listen.

If you're listening via podcasts, you can go to the YouTube if you'd like, if you prefer.

I was pulling out my Bible this morning and I found swift and dreadful, the horsemen are coming.

And I thought, how'd this get in my Bible? Somebody planted this in my Bible. And this guy,

Fred Fuge says, I've never allowed myself to be enslaved or bound by the opinions of other men.

Still in unblushing humility, I seek to learn of all. That's the first line.

There is just one thing that stops me from preaching and teaching that we are now in the early stages of the great tribulation.

So anyway, I'll have to read this later on NOCO, but I just wanna know which one of you snuck into my office and put this in my

Bible so that I would be rapture ready. Maybe one day we'll do a show on rapture readiness, end times, what to believe, a couple of housekeeping things.

There's a new book out. I mean, here I am like promoting my own books. I guess that's what you do on podcast.

The Chosen, The Beauty of God's Eternal Love. I took three chapters from older books that I had on election, fine -tuned them a little bit, and then put them in this small book with chapters on election by J .C.

Ryle, B .B. Warfield, Savoy Declaration, et cetera. And it's just an intro.

If somebody says, I don't really understand, I don't get election, I don't understand unconditional election, this is a good book for them to read.

And on the back it says, in a world where the doctrine of unconditional election sparks confusion and unease, this book offers clarity and comfort for Christians wrestling with the profound truths of predestination.

So that's this book. And since I do my own publishing now through Amazon, I can put whatever

I want on the book or in the book. And so here's what it says on the back. Mike Ebendroth graduated from Master's Seminary in 1996 and Southern Seminary in 2006.

His personal pronouns are law and gospel. So there you have it,

I can do whatever I want. It's the Mike Ebenroth Show. Today, I'd like to help you with your prayer life.

That's something I think we can all work on. And I've been preaching through the gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, and I'm in what we call the

Lord's Prayer. And of course, the Lord didn't pray this prayer because it talks about forgiving our sins, the petition to the

Father, forgive us our sins, but it's a prayer that the Lord taught the disciples.

And so there's two Lord's Prayers in the gospels. In Matthew 6, the crowds are there and Jesus' Sermon on the

Mount teaches them to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, et cetera. Still have memorized it in the

King James. And then in Luke 11, it's a little different. Certainly Jesus taught this prayer many times, many occasions, and in this particular case, the disciples ask, how do you pray?

Teach us to pray. And so today on the show, I wanna talk a little bit about the master preacher, the master prophet,

Jesus, the teacher. How should we pray? Jesus will teach us. And so I thought to myself, just hypothetically, if you were on earth and when

Jesus was around and you could go up and ask him any question, I wonder what you would ask him. Maybe you would ask him, you know, why do you love sinners so deeply?

How do you cast out demons? I don't know. What was it like to leave heaven and assume flesh?

Why is there so much suffering and sorrow? How can you take that and make it for good? But can you imagine asking the question, would you teach me to pray?

And that's exactly what happens in Luke 11. And the disciples, Jesus' disciples, knew that John the

Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray. And so now they asked Jesus, would you teach us to pray?

And of course, the Lord Jesus is a kind, compassionate savior and leader and rabbi and teacher.

And so he doesn't say, yeah, earn it. No, you guys have failed so many times.

You never listen. I teach you all kinds of things. And why bother? Because you never seem to measure up.

And they ask him, teach us to pray. And immediately he does. And so let me just read the passage.

Now, Jesus was praying in a certain place. And it's been an ongoing thing that the disciples have seen

Jesus pray. And he's been praying when it comes to picking disciples, when it comes to temptation account, all the way through up until the transfiguration, they have seen

Jesus, the prayer. And of course we know he's even praying for us now, Hebrews chapter seven, when it comes to him making intercession for us.

But Jesus, God man, he is praying regularly to the father and they would like to know how to pray.

It says, when he'd finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.

And he said to them, when you pray, say. And so then he gives this model prayer and it's a template.

You can actually pray this prayer. When you pray, say this, you could do that, or it can be expanded as you think about each component part.

If you were a person back in those days and you said, I'd like to know how to pray. You go to the prayer warrior.

You go to the ultimate prayer. By the way, I've met a lot of people in my life who pray and I see

God answer their prayers. And some of my friends have said to me over the years, especially dear old grandmas, they'll say,

I pray for you every day. Like, wow, what a blessing. I've received all kinds of gifts as a pastor.

People want to do nice things for me. The latest gift I received, Mario, I probably should have brought it in.

Someone gave me some kind of honey -based liquidy goop, a honey goop thing with all kinds of garlic in there.

And so I'm supposed to have a clove of garlic every day to help me with the sickness and all that stuff.

So that's my latest gift. Somebody just gave it to me and said, here pastor, this is for you. And so I get all kinds of gifts.

What does that have to do with anything? I don't know. I'm just talking. It's just radio. That's what we do.

It's called ADHD. We don't even have any medicine for that. We just do that. It makes good radio, in my mind, of course.

And as I've read reviews of No Compromise Radio over the years, the one that sticks out the most is zero stars for the show's content because he just laughs at his own jokes and just rambles.

But I'll give one star for Jesus. So I get zero, he gets one.

I mean, it should be, I get zero and he gets five. He should get five out of five, right?

These gifts. So I don't know why I was talking about gifts, Mario. Do you remember? I receive all kinds of gifts.

The greatest gift is when people say, I pray for you. And so the

Lord Jesus certainly praying for his disciples while he was on earth and they were on earth, he still makes intercession for us.

To think that God answers prayer is a wonderful thing. And Jesus always lives to make intercession.

So here on earth, he, Jesus, the prophet is teaching them. And as you know, dear viewer and dear listener, prophets teach, they proclaim to people that need to be educated.

You are ignorant. I'm ignorant about things of God. And so we need to be told. And so Jesus comes in that trifold office as mediator.

He comes and he says, I'm a prophet because you need to be told the truth. In your ignorance,

I will not let you remain. As a priest, what do priests do? Well, Jesus comes as a priest because priests intercede, they pray, and they offer sacrifices.

And of course, Jesus is the ultimate prayer and the ultimate sacrifice for sins. Then we have

Jesus come as a king and kings rule, kings subdue foes, kings take people that are in bondage and they release them and they set them free.

And so Jesus, the great mediator comes as a threefold office, prophet, priest, and king. And here, particularly in our passage, he is the prophet.

Lord, teach us to pray. And I know you would like to pray better. I would like to pray better.

And as I've studied this passage the last few weeks, I really think it's changed my prayer life because I'm focused on who

God is, specifically as Father. So today on the radio show, on the podcast, on the

YouTube, I wanna just read the prayer and talk about it a little bit so that you might be encouraged, like I have been encouraged to pray better and to pray more.

Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation.

The disciples go to Jesus, teach us to pray. They've been watching him pray, teach us to pray. And then Jesus says, here's how the prayer starts.

Father, of course, Matthew 6, it says, our Father who art in heaven, but he says, Father. And by the way, that's what

Jesus called the Father every single time in his prayers, except one time, remember on the cross,

Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But Jesus says, here's how you approach God, Father.

That's how it all starts. It's almost like that's the umbrella over everything. That's the overarching idea,

Father. And we're gonna explore that in a little bit, but the idea is Father. And then there's two vertical prayers that God would be magnified.

His name might be hallowed. That is to say, we pray that God's name would be recognized and seen as holy and transcendent and glorious, and he might have honor.

Hallowed be your name. And then the other vertical pillar, thinking about who God is, your kingdom come.

That kingdom will ultimately come when the Lord Jesus comes back. And certainly we see that kingdom extending now throughout a proclamation of the truth, people getting saved.

But Lord, we want your name to be hallowed. Father, we want your name to be hallowed. And we want your kingdom to come.

We want Jesus to come back. We want him to be here and to rule and to reign victoriously. So those are the two vertical ones.

And then there's three horizontal prayer requests. Then we move to ourselves. So Father, transcendent and overarching, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

And then it comes to us. And so we have a Father and we have physical needs. Give us each day our daily bread.

So our things that we need for physical provision, and it could be food, it could be clothing, it could be a house, all those things it covers.

Then we move to the spiritual things like sins forgiven and forgive us our sins.

And of course, if we would like our sins forgiven, then that means we will be forgiving other people for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And then finally, that thirdly for us and lead us not into temptation. So it's wonderful.

We exalt God the Father, hallow his name. That's what we pray for. We pray for his kingdom to come.

And then for us, we need provision. That's present tense. We need sins forgiven.

That's past tense. And we need help in the future when it comes to let us not fall into temptation.

Let us not succumb to temptation. Guard us in the trials in the future. And of course,

Matthew 6 then adds and deliver us from the evil one. So that's the format of the prayer.

And this is a prayer that's a good structure. This is a model prayer. This is a pattern.

This is something that when you think about father, you dwell on it and you think about now his name to be hallowed, et cetera, and you work through.

This is a model. You can pray it if you want. You could be in the car and you could say, father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come. It's certainly fine to say, he even says here, say it.

And now these disciples are at the feet of Jesus learning. And so are we. Just the last chapter, it was

Mary who was at the better place. She had the better portion. She had the better meal because she was sitting at the feet of Jesus learning.

Remember Martha was all busy and she was divided in her mind. And then she became very, you know, pity me, a pity party.

Then she became resentful. And that's what happens in ministry. If you don't keep your eyes on the Lord, you do things for the

Lord, everything's fine. You start getting your eyes off the Lord, you become distracted, a pity party, and then you become resentful of other people.

And so we wanna make sure we watch out for that. So my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio.

We're just kind of diving into the Lord's prayer in Luke chapter 11.

So for the rest of the show, I think what I want to do is I want to talk to you about the significance of the word father, the word father.

Now, Van Harnack and other liberals would say, everybody has God as father, the universal fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man.

Now there's some sense if God is a creator, father type of Old Testament idea, of course,

God's a creator of everyone. But what this man was trying to do with the universal fatherhood of God is to say, every person, believer or unbeliever, pagan or Christian has

God as father. And that's not true. You have God as father through Jesus, the son.

You're not a child of God. You're not adopted into the family unless you're trusting in the

Lord Jesus and His work for you. You become adopted as God sovereignly graces you and you respond with faith.

Remember, unbelievers have a father and his name is Satan. And so you're not born into the family of God.

You're born as a creature made by God. That's certainly true. But we have a unique way to address

God. And that is God as father because of the work of the son, because of the work of the spirit, because of the work of the father himself, our triune

God has adopted us into the family. And so we get to call God father.

And that's something that's very, very important. And I know what some of you are thinking. Some of you are thinking,

I had an awful father. I had a father that abused me, beat me, wasn't there for me, was harsh.

And when I, some of you were thinking this, when I think of God as father, immediately everything floods into my mind about a bad father.

And what I'd like to say, and I said this to the congregation, I'm sorry that you had a bad father. I'm very sorry that that has happened to you.

But I want you to know that there's a perfect father. And even in Matthew 5, 48, talking about our heavenly father is perfect,

Jesus said, there is one who's perfect. And you're coming to this great father. Actually on earth, there's been no perfect fathers, right?

Humanly speaking, none of us are perfect. There were times that I wasn't around for my children.

Maybe it was a good motive. I was out of town on a trip. And there were times that I was there with my children, but I was distracted.

There were times that I was harsh. There were times that I was overbearing. Certainly I have not been a perfect father.

But what I want my kids to see as they call God father now, because of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want them to say, but there is a perfect father.

And while my dad always wasn't around, my dad wasn't always sinless, there's one who is.

And by the way, Martin Luther said, if you have a problem thinking about God as father, because your father wasn't a perfect father, think about the prayer, our father, the

Matthew 6 version, our father. You're not saying then my father, and then you automatically think about your dad on earth.

No, it's our father who art in heaven. I want your name to be hallowed. We're thinking about the perfect father.

The father who does what? According to the Westminster Confession, a father, a

Westminster larger catechism rather. What's the difference? There's all a bunch of Presbyterian mumbo jumbo.

Kidding, just kidding. Fathers protect, fathers provide, fathers pity, and fathers chasten or discipline.

That's what a good father does on earth and in heaven. Can you imagine you have a father who will protect you, make sure you make it all the way to the end, guard you.

You have a father who's always accessible. I'll never leave you nor what, forsake you.

A father who shows pity. By the way, that's really what mercy is. Mercy sometimes we say is, well, you know what?

It's not getting what you deserve. It's not getting justice. That's included, but that's not the heart of mercy.

The heart of mercy is, I like to say in my mind, CIA. You know, we have FBI, CIA, all these things.

CIA, compassion and action, right? Pity is, I see someone who's got a need.

They can't help themselves. They can't extract themselves out of that trial. They need help. And with a lending hand,

I'll help them. That's what mercy is. That's what pity is. And so good fathers on earth provide, protect, pity and discipline are chastened.

And when I think about God the Father, that's exactly what I think about, right? That's what he does. And so we come to God as father.

That is a dear word. That's not big guy upstairs. That's not like invisible force.

That's not like, hey dude in the sky. No, no, you can sense the intimacy.

Father, child. I'm a child. Dear Christian, you're a child. Adopted into the family.

Co -heirs with Christ. You're a child of God. Chosen in eternity past. The son has died for you and redeemed you.

Son has lived for you and been raised for you. The spirit of God has quickened you and made you alive and you're adopted into the family.

And therefore you get to call God father. I've been driving in the car the last couple of days and just turned off sports radio, talk radio.

And I just been dwelling on this word father. I have a father who loves me. Fathers love their children.

I think about the first time when I saw Haley, Luke, Maddie and Gracie and at their births and would

I not do anything for them? Have I not done everything for them that I could? Well, I haven't done everything, but I just,

I wanna provide for them, protect them, pity them, chase in them. And if I have those desires and I'm an imperfect, sinful man, how great is the father?

There's this intimacy. Father, child. You can call God father. Lots of times

I've been hearing young people these days pray in Massachusetts, California, other places.

When I hear them pray, I immediately hear them say God. Dear God, God, is there any thing wrong with saying

God? Well, it's not a sin. You could say Lord. You could say

Savior. You could say King of Kings. You could say

Jesus. Can you pray in Jesus' name? Could you pray dear Jesus? Like Stephen when he was getting stoned in Acts and he cried out,

Jesus, receive my spirit. There's nothing wrong with praying to Jesus. Could you pray to the Holy Spirit? Lots of hymns by Calvin and Luther, even

Getty talking about this Holy Spirit, please come. When you're reading the Bible, could you say

Holy Spirit, please illumine my mind? Jesus is not saying this is the only way to pray, but I think it is insightful.

Instead of just immediately saying God, I want you to be reminded that you have an intimate relationship with this creator because of his work, because of the son's work, because of the spirit's work.

And you can say Father. Remember Galatians 4.

Remember Romans 8, Abba, Father. We cry out with adoptive hearts, not as slaves, but as sons,

Abba, Father. What does that even mean, Abba, Father? I'll tell you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean daddy.

I do not want you to call God daddy. I do not want you to call him dada. I do not want you to say dad.

And you're like, what's going on? That's worse than a lot of, to me that's worse than like the big guy upstairs, daddy.

I'm gonna call God daddy. And people say, that's what Abba means. That's what Abba means, it means daddy.

No, it doesn't mean that. If you wanted to know what Abba means, that would be a good study for you.

And in the Semitic language, A -B, Abba is father, B -A, the, the father.

I come to it as the father. What's the difference between dad and father? What's the difference between daddy and father?

Now both are intimate, both there's a relationship. I don't want to evacuate that from Abba, Father.

But I want you to know that when you say Abba, father, instead of daddy, there's a context of honor to Abba, a context of reverence, and a context of honor and reverence unto obedience.

I want you to look good. I want to obey you. I want to serve you and honor you with my life and my obedience.

That's what Abba is. And you can tell even in Mark chapter 14, when Jesus says, it's not my will, but your will be done.

He called God in that passage, Abba, father, with I want you to be honored.

I will submit to what you want. I will obey you. In Jesus' humanity, that's exactly what he was praying,

Abba, father. And so while we don't call him daddy, we don't call him dada, we don't call him, hey, dad, that's just too irreverent.

You're thinking, dad, no, you still want intimacy? Abba, father, will give you that.

You still want closeness? You still want someone who provides, pities, protects, chastens, loves you?

That's Abba, father. You get to call God, father. And this week, especially the last two days, driving around in my car,

I've had things on my heart, issues, fears, anxieties, all kinds of things swirling around in my own life, things at church with people, those that have cancer and other things.

And I just have been repeating, father, I have a father. And even that song,

I have a father, he knows my name. You get to have God as father.

That's amazing. You get to call God the same thing Jesus did when he was on earth.

Luke 10, 21, in that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, that is Jesus, and said,

I thank you, father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and reveal them to little children.

Yes, father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows who the son is except the father or who the father is except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

You get to call God father. So let's make it super practical. What's the biggest trial in your life right now?

What's the biggest issue that you're facing? What wakes you up in the middle of the night? What do you think about when you wake up in the morning?

What are you dealing with, financial issues? I just talked to somebody yesterday at the church. After 28 years, he got laid off.

I'm sure he's thinking about, how do I provide for my family? Somebody here at church, they have stage four cancer and will maybe see the

Lord sooner than she might imagine. What do you do when, okay, my sister, she just had a surgery to take some lymph nodes out, possibly cancer.

What's the biggest trial in your life right now? Some trial with your child. You have a wayward child.

I mean, the list could go on and on and on. This is a sinful world, a broken world, a fallen world. And we have trials and we have suffering.

And we know we've been taught here, at least at this show, right? It's cross then crown. It's suffering then glory.

This is not heaven. And so what's your biggest trial? Whatever that biggest trial is, why don't you just say,

Father, help. Father, provide.

Father, pity, protect, chasten. Now, certainly there are things to be asked for first.

I want your name to be hallowed. I want your will to be done. I want your kingdom to come. And now I have needs.

I'm not saying we bypass those. I'm just saying it would be fine to be in the hospital room and just cry out,

Father, Abba, I'm hurting, help me. And by the way, he already knows that, but still you get to cry out.

Father, and the Lord Jesus, that's the intro. That's how you come to God. Lloyd -Jones says in Ephesians 2, verse 18, and in Romans, that you have access to God, that you can just somehow walk in.

I'm in my office now in my study. And in years past, people just walk in. They don't even knock. I mean,

I would say, oh, I thought you were one of my children or my wife. It's rude to just walk into my office.

Who knows? What if I'm taking a nap? What if I'm trying to clear something out of my nose and you just walk in?

No, no. Etiquette is knocking. That's just what people do. You knock before you enter. Unless we have a relationship where you don't need to knock.

You can just come right in. Just walk right in. My son can walk right in anytime he wants, whether he's two years old or whether he's 32.

He can walk right in. And so we have that access. We have access through the

Spirit because of Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2 .18, Hebrew chapter four. That's amazing.

You can get help and mercy and grace in time of need when you go to the throne of grace because you have access to the

Father. Think about access to God back in the Old Testament, even with tabernacles and temples and veils and holy places and the priest once a year, a tradition, rope around his leg, bells tinkling.

If all of a sudden he dies, we don't want to go in there because we're dead. And so pulling and the veil that was ripped from top to bottom at Jesus's death because now we have access to God.

Everything in the Old Testament was set up so that you might say, I have no access to God without Jesus Christ.

The Gentiles can go this far. The women can go this far. The priest can go this far.

The high priest can only go this far. You gotta be careful or you're dead because God is a holy God. Holy, holy, holy.

You just don't saunter into God's presence. You just don't trapeze. Hey, I'm here. No, there's access.

And once you have access because of the Lord Jesus, now you don't saunter in.

You're gladly brought in. Father, you get to say father. So what do you need help with today?

What do you need protection from? What do you need pity about? What do you need provision about?

What do you need chastening, discipline, training, correction, love? Can you imagine to be loved?

My father wasn't perfect. He provided for us. He made sure we went to the right doctors and gave us food and some fun and stuff like that.

But he wasn't a perfect father, but I have a perfect father. So my name is Mike Abendroth.

This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Don't forget, you got a book The Chosen. You can get it on Amazon if you'd like.

Hit subscribe, hit like. After we lost our channel, we're trying to pass the pactum. So we can't have them have more viewers than us.

And then if you feel so led, we're gonna try to update our website and we probably need some help on that.

And so you can go to Patreon, whatever you'd like to do. So my name is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.

You have a father because of the work of the triune God. And so go to him for help, protection, pity, and training.