Join us as we discuss the theological implications of addressing God as Father in modern times. This episode digs into the challenges linguistic shifts can pose and how traditional language in prayer reflects the intrinsic nature of God. Expect a compelling narrative on prayer’s significant role and how Jesus’ teachings offer believers profound intimacy with the divine. It’s time to experience the comfort, compassion, and companionship of God through sincere prayer.
Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here’s Adrian Rogers.
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Matthew chapter 6. We’re progressing through the Sermon on the Mount, and today we come to a wonderful section on prayer, a subsection that we’re calling Learning to Pray. How important it is that we learn to pray. Listen to me, my friend. The time will come, if it is not already here, that when for God to answer your prayer will be the most important thing to you on this earth. You can learn many things, but you can learn nothing better than to learn how to pray. Nothing can stand against the man who can pray, because prayer can do anything that God can do, and God can do anything. It has well been said that nothing lies outside the reach of prayer than that which lies outside the will of God. You do not have a need, but what proper prayer would help you to attain that which you need. You do not have a failure in your life, but what proper prayer would have avoided that failure. You do not have a burden, a heartache, a tear, or fear. That proper prayer cannot help to remove, to soothe, to bless, to help, to heal. I’m telling you, my dear friend, that prayer, prayer is the order of the day. The disciples asked the Lord Jesus, teach us to pray. Here’s what the Lord Jesus taught. Look in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9. After this manner, therefore, pray ye. Before we even read the prayer, let me say this is not primarily a prayer to be recited. Our Lord has already warned about vain repetitions. Sometimes we’ll be in a public assembly and someone will say, let’s all stand and say the Lord’s Prayer. But friend, you don’t say prayers. You pray prayers. Suppose I come and sit down in your living room and you look at me and say, say a conversation. You see, that just doesn’t fit, does it? Prayer is not talking at God. It is talking with God. It is not rattling off beautiful thoughts, even verses of Scripture. Jesus is giving us a model prayer. Jesus is saying, pray like this. Now, let’s look at it and see. After this matter, therefore, pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. What a mighty prayer. Because, friend, there is a world of truth packed in this model prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ gave that has endured through the ages. And so today, we’re going to spend our time on one verse primarily, and that is verse 9. The way the prayer begins, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The title of the message is, When we say Father. Now what happens when we come to God and say Father? Well, basically three things. And number one, we express His nature. He is a Father. What do we call God when we pray? Do you know what Aristotle called God? If this doesn’t leave you cold, nothing will. Aristotle, the philosopher, called Him the unmoved Father. mover. The unmoved mover. That is, there’s nothing we can do to affect him. He changes everything, but nothing changes him. He’s unmoved. Thank God he is not unmoved. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmity. Huxley, a more modern philosopher, called him the eternal unknown. You’ll never know him. You can’t know him. That’s what Huxley said. But 167 times in the Gospels, Jesus called him Father. Father. And when you say Father, you express his nature. God’s nature is the nature of a father. Now, we don’t call Him Father because we know fathers. And so what we’re trying to say is that our prayer is a reflection of our fatherhood. Oh, no. Our concept of father and the very fact that we are human fathers is that we are made in His image. His fatherhood is not a reflection of our fatherhood, but vice versa. Now, God is not like a father. This is not an analogy. God is a father. We’re not talking about what God is like when we say father. We’re talking about what God is. Well, you say, big deal. Everybody knows that. Did you know, my dear friend, in modern theology today, there’s a move to remove the idea of God as father? Did you know that? As a matter of fact, to even speak of God as male is In churches across America today, you can hear God referred to as she. And people would not want to pray our father which art in heaven. They pray now our parent in heaven. You say that’s ridiculous. I say amen. I don’t think our conception of God will ever stand again, says Joseph Howe, dean of Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. In his public utterances, Dr. Howe alternately refers to the deity as she, then he. Quote, I don’t think anyone would want to defend a view that God values males more than females. But that’s exactly what traditional language does, he says. So he’s talking about calling God Father just simply traditional language. The roots of the debate over what to call God are often traced to a book by Mary Daly called Beyond God the Father. That is, we’ve moved past that, friend. Jesus was too old-fashioned for us. Beyond God the Father, a critique of patriarchal religion that bluntly states, quote, if God is male, then male is God. A number of theologians warn that language shapes reality. And unless the church changes its imagery, it will effectively endorse gender and race bias. Now do you see what you’ve done? Friend, when you say that God is father, you’re gender biased and you’re racially biased. Shame on you. And shame on Jesus. And by insisting on God as father, they say, listen to this one. This will bless your heart. Traditionalists risk deifying a mere word, committing the sin of idolatry. So now when you say God is Father and you say that’s the only way we shall pray, you’ve made God of a word. And therefore that’s idolatry. Shame on you. Well, there’s a Greek word for all of this. It’s baloney. And then listen to this. As society becomes aware of the issue of injustice, the society’s language has to change to mirror that, says Letty M. Russell, a professor of theology at Yale Divinity School. And here’s another classic piece of doublespeak. I want you to listen to this. The way to respect the original words is to retranslate them. As our understanding of their meaning changes. Listen to it again. The way to respect the original words is to retranslate them. As our understanding of their meaning changes. That’s the most classic piece of doublespeak I’ve ever heard. So, God says something. You say, I don’t like it. I understand it differently. I’ll change it. That’s the way I respect it. It is Jesus who taught us to pray differently. Our Father. It is the basic, intrinsic nature of God. Not what God is like. What God is. Put these verses in your margin. 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 6. But there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him. Or perhaps this one. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 24. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. Not talking about what God is like. It is what God is, the everlasting Father. Just simple Bible doctrine, my dear friend. And when we say our Father, number one, we express His nature. Number two, when we pray our Father, as we express His nature, then we expect His nurture. They go together, His nature and His nurture. You see, when we say our father, that infers that we are his children, that we have been sired by him, that we have been spiritually begotten of him. You see, God is not universally the father of all people. So often in glowing words we hear this phrase, the universal fatherhood of God. Now I suppose it’ll have to be the universal motherhood of God. But the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of men. Well, we’d say the universal fellowship of people today. The universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of men. But friend, God is not the father of all people. God is the father of those whom he has sired and who are born into his family. The Bible says concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in John 1, 12, that Jesus came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, as many as received Jesus, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe in his name. Jesus said to the unsaved religious leaders of his day, In John chapter 8 and verse 44, you are of your father, the devil. And the lust of your father you will do, like father, like son. You see, the Bible teaches in Galatians chapter 3 that we have become the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. That’s the way we become children of God. That’s the way God becomes our father. We are supernaturally born again. When God becomes our father, his very life comes into us. Now, I know how some of you are thinking right now. You’re racing your theological motors and your logic is running away. And you say, but wait a minute, pastor. Didn’t God create all human beings? And if God created all human beings, wouldn’t that make God the father of all human beings? No, it makes God the creator of all human beings. There’s a difference between fatherhood and creation. You see, God created many things. God created rats, roaches, and buzzards, and rattlesnakes. He is their creator. He’s not their father. God becomes our father not by creation, but by conception. When we’re born into his family, and the Bible says it is then, we become partakers of the divine nature. And so, if he is our father, then he has a certain responsibility to us. Now, we often talk about our responsibility to him. And we do have a responsibility to him. All children have a responsibility to their parents. But you know, there’s two sides to that coin. Parents have a responsibility to the children. And no one will ever have to level the charge of child neglect to our Heavenly Father. He is a father who will take care of his own. God will fulfill his duties to you, and that ought to give you great, great comfort as you think of God as a father. Because we’re his children, we have his care. Let me show you what the Lord Jesus Christ taught about this. For example, here in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 26. Look at it. Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not. Neither do they reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? And for all the animal rightest people. Again, the Lord Jesus Christ makes an intrinsic difference between men and animals. And especially between the children of God and animals. What’s he saying? He’s saying, look, you see these birds? Your heavenly father, not their heavenly father, your heavenly father feeds them. Aren’t you better than they are? Do you see the logic of our Lord? What farmer would feed his chickens and starve his children? The God who takes care of the fowls of the air is the God who cares for you because you are his. You’re the object of his care. You’re a child of God. You’re not a beggar. Children don’t beg for their food. God is going to take care of you. You see, because of the father’s nature, we express his nature, we expect his nurture. We can say, God, you are going to care for me. But not only do we have the father’s care, along with that, we’re going to have the father’s correction. Look in chapter 6 and verses 14 and following. For if ye forgive men their trespasses… Your heavenly Father, do you see it? Your Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Now we’re speaking not of the Father’s care, but the Father’s correction. He’s not a doting father. He’s not a father who says to his children, live any way you like and I’ll not correct you. Because I care, I will correct you. And the classic passage that goes along with this, I would like for you to put in your margin, is Hebrews chapter 12, verses 5 through 7. And that speaks of the father’s correction in a very plain way. Whomever the writer of Hebrews was, he says this, And have ye forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children? My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. Now, to be rebuked means to be scolded. To be chastened means to be whipped. Verse 6, For whom the Lord loves… He chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And then listen to verse 7. This is Hebrews 12, 7. Listen to it clearly. For if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? If you’re a child of God, God loves you too much to let you get by with sin. Sometimes people join the church, they get baptized, they continue to live in sin, and nothing ever happens. And they say, well, God surely must love me. God lets me get by with sin. God doesn’t love you like he loves his own children. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. Had you been his child, God would have carried you to the woodshed. You say, why doesn’t God chastise me when I live in sin? Because you’ve never been saved. This passage in Hebrews 12 goes on to say, but if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons. You say, pastor, that’s strong language. What does that mean? Just simply means this. God is saying, if you were my child, I would have chastened you. But since I didn’t chasten you, you’re not truly my child. You may appear as my child, but I did not legitimately father you. You are not truly born into my family. I’m not your father. Somebody else is your father. If I were your father, I would have carried you to the woodshed. If you’re without chastisement, it’s just simply a sign that I never really fathered you. Now, if a mother goes to the front yard and there’s some children out there in a fuss and in a squabble, that mother calls her own children in and she chastens them or the father chastens them. But you don’t whip and punish the neighbor’s children. You better not. In this day and age, you’ll get in serious trouble. They’re not yours. You chastise your own. And so it is with God the Father. Do you know the difference between how God deals with a child of God and a child of the devil? You see, God deals with his own children on a cash basis and God deals with the devil’s children on a credit basis. God deals with us as a father. He deals with them as a judge. God deals with us now. God deals with them at the judgment. Romans chapter 2, verse 5 speaks of the unsaved and it says like this, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. That is, you’re putting judgment in the bank. You’re just treasuring it up against the day of wrath and the perdition of ungodly men. Romans 2, 5, one of these days, God says, I am going to deal with you not as a father. I’m going to deal with you as a judge at the final judgment. He deals with them on credit. They’re just putting it in the bank, but he deals with us day by day. As soon as you sin as a child of God, the father steps in to chastise. I’ve said many times from this pulpit, when God saves you, he doesn’t fix you up where you can’t sin anymore. But he sure does fix you up where you can’t sin and enjoy it anymore. Do you know the difference between cash and credit? I learned that as a youngster. I guess I was about five. I went with my dad in West Palm Beach, Florida to the community grocery store on Georgia Avenue up on the hill. My brother and I were in the store that day and I saw something that astounded me. My dad went into that store and bought some groceries. And as he walked out, he said to the man behind the counter, charge it. I’d never heard that word, charge it. And that man wrote something down in a book and my dad just waved and walked out. I thought that’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard. Never heard that word before. Charge it. I went again and I watched. My dad walked in there, bought some groceries and said to that man who knew my dad very well, charge it. My dad didn’t even sign his name. That’s the kind of business they had in those days. That man wrote something down the book and my dad walked out. I said, uh-huh. I told my brother, I said, I think we have something here wonderful. We have discovered a very special word. So we thought we’d give it a trial run. We put some money in our pocket just in case it did not work and bought some soft drinks, stayed around the store for a while. And on our way out, we looked to the man and we said, charge it. He nodded his head and we walked out. We thought we’d found the key to Fort Knox. And for about two weeks, we would visit the community grocery store and buy what we’d want, walk out and say the all magic word, charge it. But one day my dad called us in. He had some things in front of him. And right there in a very special way, I learned two things. I learned, number one, the difference between cash and credit. And I learned this, whom the Father loves, He chastens. I learned that right then. Now, friend, God loves us too much to let us get by with sin. Whom the Father loves, He chastens. And so when we say our Father… Friend, we can expect His care. Indeed, we can. And we can expect His correction. If you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you, and so forth. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, because He is Father. Not only can we expect that, but we can expect His companionship. Did you know He loves to be with us? What kind of a relationship is a father and son relationship? It is a wonderful relationship. Father and daughter relationship. It is a wonderful relationship. I’m called by many things. I have many names. I’m called pastor. I am called Adrian. There’s someone who calls me honey. And there are those who call me daddy. And some call me papa. And I can just tell you, folks, that there are days when I get very, very busy. And I’m pressed. And I have certain deadlines. For example, I preach about six times a week at least. And when I get ready to preach, I mean, I’ve got to be ready to preach. It’s like taking off an airplane. Pine trees are at the end of that runway. You better get off the ground. And it’s time to preach. And I face a lot of deadlines. Sometimes the phone will ring. And I don’t want to answer the phone. But I know I must. And I pick it up not knowing what I will face on the other end. And when I hear somebody say something like, hello, daddy. Friend, it makes all the difference in the world. I mean, then I want to answer that phone. If they say pop, it makes a double difference. I just want to, I want to talk because these are mine. They’re my children. And our Lord is speaking. And when we come to him, we’re not talking about the unmoved mover. We’re not talking about the unknown absolute. We are talking about our dear father. And the Bible says, God has sent his spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, father. Do you know what that means? Romans 8, Abba, Father. That’s an Aramaic diminutive. It means Daddy, Father. Have you ever thought about God as a Daddy? You say, that’s irreverent. No. As a matter of fact, when Jesus taught us to pray our Father, in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9, Jesus spoke, scholars tell us, in the Aramaic. And so the word that Jesus would have used that is translated Father here is the word Abba, Father. Now today our children say Dada or Dada. But in the Middle East, they say Abba, Abba. That’s just the most basic syllables that a child can lisp. And Jesus says that we can call the great God of the universe Abba, Father. Daddy, Father. Our father had his office at home. He was a bookkeeper. He was so proud of his ledgers, so proud of his journals, that every entry was just right. And he told the children, stay out of the office when daddy is working. He was sitting there at his desk making an entry in his journal when his little four-year-old boy burst into the room, ran across the room, gave a leap, jumped up into his daddy’s arms while his dad was in that swivel chair. That pen went right across the page and made a black mark all the way across the page. The father threw his pen down, slammed the journal shut and said, son, son, look what you’ve done. Didn’t daddy tell you to stay out of the office? Son, look what you’ve done. You’ve messed up everything. And the little boy just started to cry. He said, Daddy, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. He said, I just wanted to sit in your lap and hug you and rub your beard. That broke the daddy’s heart. He picked the little boy up and said, No, son, Daddy’s sorry. I’m sorry I fussed at you. I’m so glad you wanted to see me. He gave that little boy a hug and left the office. And they went around to walk and talk about things that boys and dads ought to talk about. Friend, listen, I’m so glad that our heavenly father never gets so busy putting out the sun, moon and the stars and running this universe and commanding the angels that he doesn’t have time just to close his ledger and talk to you like there’s no one else on earth and nothing else for him to do. You can come to him anytime, any day and talk to him and call him daddy. And I don’t mean to be irreverent, but friend, you can jump up in his lap, put your spiritual arms around his neck You know what Corrie Ten Boom said? She said, don’t wrestle, nestle. I like that. He is a father. He is a father. And because of that, you have his companionship. But not only do you have his care and not only his correction and not only his companionship, but friend, you have his compassion. His compassion. The psalmist said, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. His compassions, they fail not. When our first child was born, I talked to my pastor at that time, and he said something to me I’ve never forgotten, and it is so true. He said, Adrian, before you have children, you always think of the love that Jesus the son had when he died for our sins. But after you have children of your own, you think of the great love that the father had when he gave his son. Isn’t that true? Isn’t that true? Fathers are compassionate. A true father would die for his children. Gladly fling down his life for his children. And that’s exactly what God the Father did in this great compassion. A man had a massive heart attack, was taken to the hospital, the emergency room. They came in and saw that the man was in critical condition. A nurse was there. He said, nurse, would you please do something for me? He said, I have no family except one daughter. She lives in this city. He said, I have not seen her. For a year. Would you please call this number and tell her that I am here in this hospital and I really want to see her. The nurse said, I’ll do it. And she called the daughter. When the daughter heard what happened, she began to cry. And she said, oh, no. No, you cannot let him die. Said, I’ve not seen my dad for almost a year. The last time I saw my daddy, we had a terrible argument. And I told my daddy I hated him. I don’t really hate him. I didn’t hate him then, but I was so full of pride. I was so hurt. Please don’t let my daddy die. I’ll be there in 30 minutes. I want to see my daddy alive. Please don’t let him die. I’ll be there in 30 minutes. But then code 99 was sounded and that man’s heart began to give its dying gasp. And all of the personnel came in and began to frantically work over him and to pound on him and to shock him and to do all of those things to get that heart beating again. But they were just pulling the sheet over him when the girl burst through the door. She was too late. And the nurse stood aside and she’d been praying, God, don’t let him die if she gets here. And the nurse watched as the doctors were talking to this girl and how she put her face in her hands and began to weep. The last words she’d said to her daddy on this earth were, I hate you. And now he’s dead. The nurse, not knowing what to do, said, maybe God can use me. The nurse went and put her arms around this girl and let her cry for a while and said, would you like to go in where he is? The girl said, yes. The girl said, I never really hated him. I never really hated him. I was so full of pride. I loved him. I loved him. Went into the room. This girl just buried her face in the sheet and wept. And the nurse looked over there on the nightstand and there was a note there on the nightstand. And the note said this. Dear Susie, I want you to know that I love you. And I forgive you. And I want you to forgive me. And Susie… I know you love me, Daddy. When I read that, I was so blessed. Because I thought, you know, no matter what happens, even an earthly father, even an earthly mother, they have a love that is stronger than any other love. And yet the Bible says, when my father and my mother cast me off, then will the Lord take me up. Oh friend, his compassions they fail not. What a loving heavenly father. And if an earthly father loves his daughter that way, how much more does God your father love you? And what do we do when we pray to God and say our father? Well, we express his nature. He is a father. We expect his nurture. He is a father who cares. He is a compassionate father. He is a companionate father. He, my dear friend, is a correcting father. Think of your great God as a father. Not only do we express His nature, and not only do we expect His nurture, but, oh friend, we exalt His name. Listen to what it says. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Hallowed. Be thy name. When you pray this way, you exalt His name. Now, in order to do that, listen. First of all, first of all, you must know what the name is. What the name is, you must recognize the name. Hallowed be thy name. Well, what name is that? What name is the name above all names that we hallow when we pray this way? Did you know that Jesus Christ, when He was here on earth, said this to the Father, Father, I have manifested Your name. Did you know that in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, the Bible says concerning Jesus, His name is wonderful. Did you know that in Philippians chapter 2, verse 9, I believe the Bible says that God has given Jesus Christ, are you ready for this? A name which is above all names. A name which is above every name. There is one name that is above every name. You know what it is? Jesus. Would you like to say it? Jesus. Say it again. Jesus. That, my friend, is the name above all names. God has given him a name which is above every name. Jesus said, Father, I have manifested your name. Now, you recognize the name and then you reverence the name. Hallowed be thy name. You see, when we say that God is our Father, intimacy does not mean irreverence. Oh, we’re to give Him praise and honor and glory and majesty. Hallowed be thy name. Never speak disrespectfully just because you can sit in His lap and put your arms around His neck spiritually. But not only do you recognize the name and reverence the name, O friend, rely upon the name. Jesus said in John chapter 14, Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name, ask and ye shall receive. If you ask anything in my name, in my name I will do it. so wonderful. When we pray right on the front door of this prayer, we’re to come in the name that is above every name, in the name of Jesus. And when we pray in the name of Jesus, the name that is above every name, when we hallow that name, when we recognize that name, when we worship that name, we have great power in prayer. Two boys graduated from high school. They had not seen each other for a long, long time, and they met on the street. One of the boys was a respected lawyer in that city who had made a lot of money. The other boy had become a beggar, a tramp. They met unexpectedly. They recognized one another. The beggar and the tramp looked at the successful lawyer and said, it’s wonderful what has happened to you. You went one way, I went another way. Look at me, I have nothing. They talked for a while and the lawyer said to his friend, I hope it’ll not embarrass you. And I hope you’ll not think that I’m trying to patronize you. But I’d like to write you a check. I can do it. We’re old friends. I would like to make a gift to you. Here’s a check. I want you to take it and buy some things that you might need. And the man took the check and looked at it. Oh, he said, that’s a generous gift. You’re a wonderful friend, but I don’t know what to do with it. He said, well, carry it to the bank and cash it. Oh, he said, when I go into the bank looking like this, dressed in these rags, do you think they would give me any money? And the lawyer said, my friend, it’s not the way you look that counts. It’s my name on the check. And that’s the way our Lord has taught us to pray. We don’t bring our shabbiness to God. Oh, friend, when we pray, we pray in the name of Jesus. Ask anything in my name. In my name, I will do it. that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Isn’t it a wonderful prayer that we can just begin with these words? Our Father. We express His nature. We expect His nurture. We exalt His name when we pray that way. Is He your Father? Today he can be. Today you can step into the family of God. Today you can receive eternal life. Today you can become a partaker of the divine nature. If you would pray a prayer like this, Oh God, I’m a sinner and I’m lost. And I need to be saved and I want to be saved. Jesus, you died to save me and you promised to save me if I would trust you. I do trust you, Lord Jesus. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. Save me, Jesus. Save me today. Begin now to make me what you want me to be. Thank you for saving me. In your name I pray.
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