The Blessing and Joy of Honoring Our Fathers – Part 2

Introduction

How Not to Pray

• Matthew 6:5 (NKJV): ⁵ “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
  + Click to add your own note
• Matthew 6:6 (NKJV): ⁶ But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
  + Click to add your own note
• Matthew 6:7 (NKJV): ⁷ And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
  + Click to add your own note
• Matthew 6:8 (NKJV): ⁸ “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
  + Click to add your own note

How Prayer Brings Us Together

• Matthew 6:9–13 (NKJV): ⁹ In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ¹⁰Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹Give us this day our daily bread. ¹²And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. ¹³And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

The Urgent Vs. The Important

The Pressure of Pressure

• Matthew 6:31–33 (NKJV): ³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Don’t Allow Pressure to Distort Your Prayer Life

• Matthew 18:19–20 (ESV): ¹⁹ Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Our Father

• • Prayer reflects our dependence on the Father and our deep connection to other believers.

How do you pray “Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed by Your Name?

• Ephesians 3:14-15 (ESV): ¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
  + Click to add your own note
• Ephesians 3:16–19 (ESV): ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
  + Click to add your own note
• Romans 8:15 (ESV): ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
  + Click to add your own note
• 1 John 4:18 (ESV): ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
  + Click to add your own note
• Ephesians 3: 20 (ESV): ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
  + Click to add your own note
• Ephesians 3: 21 (ESV): ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
  + Click to add your own note

Putting the Kingdom at the Center of Your Prayer

• Matthew 6:10 (NKJV): ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
  + Click to add your own note
• Matthew 6:25 (ESV): ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
  + Click to add your own note

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

• Matthew 6:11 (ESV): ¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive Us Our Debts

• Matthew 6:12 (ESV): ¹² And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.

Lead Us Not into Temptation

• Matthew 6:13 (ESV): ¹³And do not lead us into temptation. But deliver us from the evil one. . . .

For Yours is the Kingdom

• Matthew 6:13 (ESV): ^13. . . . .For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

You Are Part of Something Bigger

© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2025