The Lord's Prayer Part 2: Our Father Kathryn Kuhlman

Someone said, my religion is summed up in the first two words of the Lord's Prayer. I want you to just pause and think that statement through. If you can look up this moment and have a truth, be able to say, My Heavenly Father. My Father. And there's that glorious relationship between you and God. You're the richest person in the whole world. You may be the richest person materially living this hour. And if you only know God in the sense of your creator, then you're the poorest person living. You're bankrupt and not conscious of it. My religion is summed up in the first... Two words are the Lord's prayer. And most of us will find ourselves in full agreement. You know, this simple statement in itself constitutes a definite and a complete system of theology. And it's just like that. It fixes clearly and distinctly the nature and the character of God. It sums up the truth of being. It tells all that man needs to know about God, about himself, about his neighbor. Anything that is added to this can only be by way of commentary and is more likely than not to complicate, obscure the true meaning. of the text. So simple. I want you to know that this wonderful prayer that Jesus taught you and taught me, and may I remind you again, it is not the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer was the prayer that Jesus prayed to the Father. This prayer in the sixth chapter of Matthew is Our prayer, my prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught you and taught me to pray. It's so simple and yet so profound. It actually is the complete system of theology. It definitely, clearly, distinctly fixes the nature and the character of God is something more than spirit. God is more than Mother Nature. God is definitely a person with a definite personality. He's not just the unknown. Not just a figment of man's imagination. Now notice the simple, the clear -cut, the definite statement. Our Father. Now in this clause, Jesus lays down once and for all that relationship between God and man. And that relationship is the relationship between Father and Child. Maybe the reason that it's so easy for me to accept this relationship of father and child when it comes to my relationship to God is because I had such a wonderful relationship with my Papa. Our relationship was just so close and so wonderful. I knew that I was the apple of Papa's eye. Not because... People said so. It's because I knew there was that closeness. I could feel that love. Really, I can't remember a time in my life that my papa said, now, Catherine, I love you. I love you more than anything else in the whole world. I love you more than life itself. I cannot. Honestly, ever remember Papa ever saying to me, I love you. And yet, there was a relationship there that I knew that he loved me enough that he would give his life for me. I knew that. No one had to even tell me. that my papa loved me more than his own life. There was a fellowship. There was a communion there. There was a depth of love there. There did not have to be that constant assurance. It was something that was constant in itself. Never bearing. Never. Regardless of circumstances, regardless of condition, it was there, and I could stake my very life on it. And in this clause, Jesus lays down once and for all that relationship between God and man. that relationship of father and child. This cuts out any possibility that the deity should be relentless and cruel tyrant that is often pictured by theology. All theology can be so cruel. Theology can be without understanding. Theology can be hard. Theology as such can literally heal love. The letter killeth. Jesus himself said so. The letter of the word without the spirit killeth. It can take away any love. It can take away the warmness of the spirit. My father. There's no cruelty there. And Jesus says definitely that the relationship is that of parent and child, not an oriental despot. Dealing with slaves. But parent and child. Now we all know perfectly well that men and women, however short they may fall in their other respects, nearly always do the best they can for their children. I don't care who the parent might be. If that one is human at all. They will do without themselves. They'll sacrifice themselves. It's something in the nature of a parent. That's why how often a mother whose son may have committed a crime, murder, hated by the whole world, hated by humanity, and yet... With a clear eye, she'll walk into the presence of a judge, walk into the courtroom, face a jury, and say, My child is so good. My son never did a mean thing in his life. My son could not have committed this crime. He's so good. How many parents have sacrificed to give to their children? How many mothers have sacrificed that that child could have the best? How many fathers have sacrificed so that their son, their daughter, would not have to go through what they went through when they were young? trying to spare them the hardships and the suffering. Of course, cruel and wicked parents are to be found, but they are so exceptional as to sometimes even make a paragraph for the newspapers. But the vast majority of men and women are at their best in dealing with their children. And speaking of the same truth elsewhere, Jesus said, If you, who are so full of evil, nevertheless do your best for your children, how much more will God, who is altogether good, do for you? And so he begins. The prayer that he's teaching us to pray. By establishing the character of God as that of the perfect father dealing with his children. I have a perfect father. Now maybe Joe Kuman wasn't a perfect man. As a child I thought he was. To this very day I cannot think of one thing wrong that Papa did but... Perhaps there are folk in Concordia, Missouri, who could very quickly point out some of the flaws in Joe Kuman's life. Oh, sure, because he was human. I know that he wasn't a perfect man because he was a part of humanity. But in God, I have a perfect father. and as a perfect father, knowing that he is absolute perfection. I have no justification in questioning his dealing with me as a child. I may not always understand. I may not, and confidentially, I do not, I have not always understood. the way that my Heavenly Father has dealt with me. But here comes my faith in a perfect Father. Because He is perfect, I have no right to question His dealings with me. Oh, I tell you this is glorious. No wonder the man said, my religion is summed up in the first two words of the Lord's Prayer. When you really get down into those two words, you absolutely have a definite and complete system of theology. Now note something. This clause, which fixes the nature of God, at the same time fixes the nature of man. Because if man is the offspring of God, he must partake of the nature of God. And since the nature of the offspring is invariably similar to that of the parent. That's right. The nature of the... offspring is invariably similar to that of the parent. You give a child. You can see little things in the nature of your child. You know it's like its father or like its mother. It's a cosmic law that like begets. It's not possible for a rosebush to produce lilies or that a cow should give birth to a colt. The offspring is and must be of the same nature as the parents. And so, since God is divine in spirit, man must essentially be divine in spirit too. What? Ever the appearance may say to the contrary. We are, watch this now. We are a very part of God himself. I am not a God unto myself. You are not a God unto yourself. A man, a woman speaks in error when he says, I am a God unto myself. God said, let us make man in our image and after our own likeness. Let us, speaking to the Son of God, speaking to the Holy Spirit, the deity, let us make man in our own image and after our likeness. You and I were made in the image and the likeness of God. There are certain characteristics about each of us that are like unto the person of God. But not one of us is a God unto ourself. I pray the Holy Spirit shall make this very real and very plain to your heart and give you an understanding. Let us pause here for a moment and try to realize what a tremendous step forward we have taken in appreciating the teaching of Jesus on this point. Do you not see that at a single blow it swept away 99 % of all all the old theology about the avenging God. Don't you understand? There is such a thing as the wrath of God. Believe me. And His wrath is just as perfect as His love. Hell is just as real as heaven. There's no escaping the truth. You cannot just take the wrath of God and sweep it under the carpet and close your eyes to it. You can't. If you do, you might just as well destroy the Word of God because the Word of God teaches the wrath of God. You can't just take a penknife and just cut out the portion of the Word of God that you do not agree with or that you would rather not accept or face. You have to accept the Bible as a whole or not accept it at all. You have to accept the wrath of God if you're going to accept His love. You're going to have to accept hell as a fact. You're going to have to accept judgment as a fact if you're going to accept heaven. Because the Bible teaches both. The love, the wrath of God. Heaven and hell. It's like that. But remember, you do not have to fear the wrath of God. Neither do you have to fear the punishment of God. You do not have to fear hell. You do not have to fear judgment. If... There is that wonderful relationship between you and the great creator, you and God, the relationship of father and child. Mm -hmm. God exists. Eternal, all -powerful, the all -present God. But oh, that wonderful relationship. The loving heavenly father of those who have accepted his son in the forgiveness of their sins. That man, that woman who has confessed his sins. That individual who has come into the presence. of the Son of the Living God, the great advocate, the great mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus, the only one who can forgive sins, the great high priest, the only one who can forgive sins. And when that transaction takes place, When you have confessed your sins, accepting what Jesus did for you on the cross, then begins that relationship between you and God, you and the great creator. And you too can say, My Father.