Awakened to Grace

Chad Roberts: Welcome to Awakened to Grace. I'm Chad Roberts, and I'm so glad you're joining us today. I believe God has connected us for a great purpose. Today you're going to hear a powerful sermon. But before we get to the sermon, I want to encourage you to check out my new book. It's called Blind Faith: Seeing God Through Darkness. It's published by our partners at Lifeway.

The reason I wrote this book is because I am 100% blind. And as I've walked this path of blindness, this path of suffering, well, I want to teach you how Christians can suffer well. I say that today my job as a blind pastor is to help people trust a God they cannot see. You can order the book right now anywhere that books are sold in any format. Even if you're not much of a book reader, you can even get it in audio where you can listen to it. I hope you'll go right now to the official website, which is blindfaith.life. Again, that's blindfaith.life, and I hope you'll not only get a copy for you, I hope you'll pick one up for someone who needs encouragement in their faith today.

The fatherhood of God. What a remarkable thing. Is He your father today? Are you born again? Is He near to you? Are you near to Him? Are you a son? Are you a daughter because you've put your faith in the work of Jesus? Now notice what He says next. We understand "our" means that we are part of the family of God. It's not just you and nobody else. We're a kingdom, we're a family. What a special thing.

We understand the fatherhood of God. It's not a universal fatherhood. It is a born-again, kingdom of God, spiritual family that you and I are part of. Because of that, it is an invitation to draw near to the Father. Romans 8:15, Paul calls Him "Abba." That's Aramaic for papa, daddy. I love it when my children, when my little ones, call me daddy. What a special, what a tender thing. Except for when they're whining. I don't love it then. Then I say, "Go to your mother."

Papa, daddy, Abba. What an invitation. Notice what He says next. "Which art in heaven." Now, why does Jesus—is this just filling in space? Is this just telling us something we already know? No, I don't think so. I think Jesus is quite intentional with reminding us that He is a heavenly Father. What do we say, those of you who have poor examples as fathers? Contrast. We're talking about a heavenly Father. We're talking about God, who is not a man.

God doesn't lie. Why? Because God's not a man. I was thinking the other day, I was sharing this with prayer meeting night Monday night. Our West of 40s ladies got together at O'Charley's and gave me an invitation to come and eat dinner with those ladies. We were in a large room, and everybody's real loud. One of the interesting things about being blind is you know how they say spidey senses? You would not believe how I can hear. I can hear everything.

I'll hear something, and Sadie will say, "How in the world did you hear that?" It's crazy. I hear everything. When I'm in a large room with a lot of people, I could hear multiple conversations happening at once. Sometimes it's really hard to keep my concentration if someone's talking to me because I hear five, six, seven conversations all around me. But see what's interesting, in a room like we were in O'Charley's, I'm hearing all this chatter and all these conversations, but I can't distinguish it because I'm just a man.

But today God is not a man, and He hears every prayer you pray. Right now today, there are no doubt millions upon millions upon millions of prayers being lifted to the Lord. He hears and He distinguishes every single one of them. Why? How? Because God's not a man. He is our heavenly Father. Do you view Him that way? I think Jesus reminds us that He's our heavenly Father. I think He reminds us that God is in heaven.

Why? Because where should our eyes truly be? As you see the day drawing nigh, Jesus says, the book of Hebrews says, what does it say to do? Look up, for your redemption draweth nigh. Let me just say this with crystal clarity today. Some of us have our eyes in places they don't belong. Can I step on our toes a little bit today? Some of us need to get our eyes off of the news and off of the media.

You don't have to amen me, I'll keep going. Some of us need our eyes off of politics. Hallelujah. Preach it, Chad. I'll encourage myself. I'm fine. I'm as comfortable as I can be right now. Some of us need our eyes off of Washington, DC. Some of us need our eyes off the Democrats and off the Republicans and off of all of this mess. We need to lose the distractions, and we need our eyes on our heavenly Father.

Are you distracted today? Is your prayer life distracted today because you're looking at chaos, because you're fearful, because you're worried about your job? You're worried about money, you're worried about your retirement, you're worried about the stock market, your 401k, you're worried about your kids going to college. See, Jesus said, "Take no thought of these things, for your heavenly Father knows what you have need of."

We need our eyes on our heavenly Father. Let me tell you, precious friends, if you're looking down here, if you're looking horizontally, there's nothing but discouragement. There's nothing but depression. But if you would look vertically, there would be encouragement. There would be strength. There would be purpose. Amen. Our eyes belong upward. Our attention belongs upward. "Set your affections on things above where Christ is seated." Colossians chapter three, verses one and two.

Amen, Chad. Amen. Well, let's move on. I'll encourage myself. He says "in heaven." Why in heaven? Because He wants to remind us of the sovereignty, the grandeur, the greatness, and the majesty of God Almighty. Get your eyes upward. Then He says—now this is wonderful—then He says, "Hallowed be Your name." Now, what does this mean, "Hallowed be Your name"? Let's understand where we're coming from.

We've learned how not to pray. You can't impress God. You shouldn't instruct God. You definitely don't need to inform God. You should invite God into your life. You should invite God into your needs. And so He says pray this way: "Our"—we're a family. Life is not all about you. It's about the family of God. It's about the kingdom of God. "Our Father"—the fatherhood of God, the fact that if you're born again, you can call on Him as Father.

Then "in heaven"—the greatness, the grandeur of God, putting our eyes upward. Now, what I believe Jesus is going to do, He's going to teach us how to not get ahead of ourselves in prayer. I think most of us—myself mostly included here—I know for me, my tendency is to jump right into my needs. My tendency is to jump right into what I need the Lord to do and what I want from God.

I think we all have that tendency, don't we? Really the Lord's Prayer, and we're going to divide it into two halves throughout this series. The first half—and you need to understand this—is God's prayer list. Isn't that an interesting concept? Then the last half is our prayer list. See, the Lord knows what we have need of. We have need of daily bread, provisions. We have need of forgiveness. We have need of being not led into temptation but delivered from evil.

We have these needs. But do you realize that God has desires as well? Do you realize that before we get to what we need, we need to focus on what God desires? To reverence His name, that His kingdom would come, that His will would be done. See, the Lord's Prayer is really two halves. The first half focuses on God. That's the priority. And then the last half focuses on us and our needs.

But we often get the order reversed, don't we? I think about that with my own kids. My kids at the moment are ten and eight, four and two. They got a lot of needs. Oh, my Lord. Well, let's say they have a lot of wants. A lot of wants. So often they come to me and their mom with everything that they want, everything that they need. That's okay right now because they're so young. But what about as they grow up into adulthood?

I don't want our relationship to be only what they need from me. I want them to enjoy me. I want them to know me. See what I'm saying? I think sometimes some of us, we only come to God like my four-year-old when we want something, right? So often we get our needs ahead of our worship that's due to the Lord. This verse is going to help us. Speaking of my four-year-old, I just felt my ring, and it made me think.

Yesterday I was playing with him, and he would take my wedding ring off and on. He asked me what it was. I said, "This is my wedding ring. This is what—this means I'm married." He didn't understand that. He's four. I said, "You know, I'm married to your mama." He gets jealous over that. I said, "Hudson, are you going to marry a pretty girl one day?" He goes, "Yep." I said, "Who's the prettiest girl you know?"

Which I figured he would say is mama because he's a real Bobby Boucher. I don't know if you know that. I told Sadie the other day, I said, "He's going to drive a lawnmower through our subdivision when he gets older. I can just see it coming." I said, "Are you going to marry a pretty little girl one day?" He went, "Yep." And I said, "Who's the prettiest girl you know?" He said, "Aubrey." Aubrey's five years older than him.

And he said, "Dad, I need this ring." Oh Lord. Jesus, take the wheel, right? We get our needs ahead of our worship. Listen, if you're taking notes today, I want you to note this. "Hallowed be Your name." What is this? This is an invitation. I want you to get this. It's an invitation to pause and worship. Before you ask God of anything, before you bring any care, any need, any concern, any want, it is an invitation to pause and worship.

Now, what does hallowed mean? A good way to say it is reverence, but let's go a little deeper. In the Greek language, it is an imperative passive, which means this is a continuous thing. In other words, this is what it means: it does not just mean that God is holy. That's the fact. But when we hallow the name of God, what that means is that we, mankind, we regard His name as holy.

We continuously view God as holy. It is the way we view, it's our perception of God's name. It means we pause and we worship God for who He is. Do you see the difference there? See, the problem that we have is often when we pray, we pray with our own agenda. But do you realize God has an agenda? That His name be great in the earth, that His kingdom would come, and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Do we ever consider God's agenda? Where God is taking me in my study of this is God is telling me, "Chad, so many of your prayers, in reality, they're self-centered. I want your prayers to be God-centered." How do you know the difference between the two? Let me ask it this way: do you view prayer as something where you get what you want, or do you view prayer as in God gets what God wants?

There's the distinguishing factor of if you are self-centered or God-centered. I would dare say we all have a long way to grow in that regard. Would you amen to that? When I consider where I am right now in this stage of blindness, I have to view the way that I pray. Is it what I want, or am I praying in a way that God wants? Let me tell you something the Lord spoke to me the other day about being blind.

I believe so deeply with all that's in me God can restore my sight like that. God can just speak the word, and these old eyes will come right open. The scales would fall and eyesight would be there. But you want what the Lord told me the other day? The Lord said, "The stage you're in, where you're at, Chad, it's not really about you. This is for other people." The other day we're driving to the church as a family, and my 10-year-old, Piper, she said, "Daddy, if you had your choice, would you choose to see again and be able to drive a car, or would you stay blind?"

That's what my 10-year-old asked me. I said, "Well, I would love to see again. I would love that." I knew right then the Holy Spirit was setting this up. What a—the Lord is going to give me a moment here, a teaching moment. I was waiting for that Danny Tanner Full House music to come on, but it never came on. That would have been perfect. It would have been really nice.

But I told Piper, I said, "Here's the thing, Piper. This is not really a matter for me to decide. This is really up to the Lord." Because I said, "Listen to me. I've learned the secret of contentment." I said, "Piper, I was very happy when I had eyesight, and I'm very happy without eyesight. Either way, I'm happy in the Lord." What is the purpose of prayer? Is it to get what we want, or is it to get done what God wants?

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed. Pause. Worship God. Hallowed be Your name. I close with this today. You know, I think it's good to seek God's hand. What does that mean? We seek God's hand in saying, "What can God do for us as our Father?" Because children need their father to do for them. That's not wrong. But let me tell you where we get off-kilter is when we only seek God's hand.

When we hallow the name of the Father, we're seeking God's face. You know what the difference is between seeking God's hand and His face? His hand is what God can do for us, but His face is enjoying who God is. His character, His attributes, His personhood. So when it comes to your prayer life, is it what you need and what you want, or are you learning to enjoy God? What a difference.

The first part of the Lord's Prayer is to teach us: slow down, be still. Don't worry about your daily bread. Don't worry about the things you can't control. Don't worry about the timing of this and the timing of that. Be still and know that He is God. So where's your prayer life? Father, teach us to pray. I thank You, God, for the eyesight that is coming in Jesus' name.

As Romans 4 teaches, I speak those things that are not as though they were in Jesus' name. But God, that's not the defining thing of my life. Where my joy is, where my peace is, where my contentment is, is not in what Your hand can do. It's in the fact You're my Father. Hallowed be Your name. Your name is great with eyesight, and Your name is great without it.

Your grace is sufficient with it, Your grace is sufficient without it. Hallowed be Thy name. Hallelujah. Lord, today, we Your children—what a special thing that is—we Your children, we take all of our needs today. God, I can't imagine the number of needs represented in this house today. I can't imagine the number of needs that are in this room.

But God, we set them to the side and we seek Your face today. We marvel, God, at Your greatness. We marvel at Your grace. We marvel, God, at Your care and Your compassion. Great is Your faithfulness. It is renewed every morning. You're a great God. You're great. Lord, I pray especially today for those who had fathers who let them down. Fathers who constantly broke promises. Fathers that broke trust. Fathers that wounded and scarred.

I pray especially for them today that You would give them the ability to look past their earthly father and lift their eyes up to see their heavenly Father and to really see and to really understand, to really know and embrace and recognize and even worship the fact that You are not a man. You're not a man that You would ever let them down. God, thank You. Change the way that we pray.

For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray. Amen and amen.