Sunday message · If My People (A Call to Prayer) series
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Message Summary
In the third message of the If My People series, which aims to help the church grow in prayer and pray together, Pastor Phillip Santillan turns to the first verse of the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:9. Prayer is essential to the Christian life; as one pastor and theologian put it, a person might pray without being a Christian, but no one can be a Christian without praying. It is called the Lord’s Prayer, Phil explains, not because Jesus prayed it himself but because it is the model he gave his disciples, and so it is for us too.
The words “our Father in heaven” are so familiar that it is hard to see how groundbreaking they were. Jesus taught his disciples to address God as Abba, an affectionate word like daddy or papa. Since the Old Testament compares God to a father but does not address him that way, this would have sounded strange to Jewish ears. Praying “our Father” also acknowledges that we belong to a heavenly family. Many of our prayers assume life is all about me, but God is our Father, not just my Father.
This opening brings three reminders. First, we are never alone. The psalmist trusted that even if his father and mother abandoned him, the Lord would hold him close, and beyond that, we belong to a family. Phil pushes back on the well-meaning claim that everyone is God’s child. We are all God’s creation, but John 1:12–13 says the right to become God’s children belongs to those who receive Jesus and believe in his name. Paul told the Christians in Rome that believers have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry “Abba, Father,” and are fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him.
Second, prayer reminds us that we have an eternal hope with Christ, even when we suffer. Paul told the Colossians that the mystery God made known among the Gentiles is Christ in you, the hope of glory, which is why Phil calls the church the hope of the world.
Third, praying “hallowed be your name” reminds us that God alone deserves our worship. As one theologian says, this request targets the heart, because only the heart reveres what it treasures. Declaring God alone worthy dethrones the idols of our hearts. The Greek word means to be set apart, which is why the lines that follow the word holy in the worship song Build My Life define it rather than add to it.
Our prayers, Phil says, are “not just words we offer up” but the foundation for reorienting our lives toward God’s mission. Praying “our Father” becomes active faith, like trusting a chair to hold us up. Even in suffering, prayer reminds us there is more to life than this life, with the promise in Revelation that every tear will be wiped away. He closes by urging that prayer be worship that starts in the heart and shapes how we reflect God’s name everywhere we go, every day we live, with everyone we meet.
Questions about the Lord’s Prayer
It is a prayer that God’s name be treated as holy. The Greek word behind ‘hallowed’ means to be set apart, so praying it declares that God alone deserves our worship. As a theologian quoted in the message says, it targets the heart, because only the heart reveres what it treasures, and praying it honestly dethrones the idols that compete for God’s place (Matthew 6:9).
Abba is an affectionate word for father, like ‘daddy’ or ‘papa.’ Jesus prayed “Abba, Father” (Mark 14:36), and the message says he taught his disciples to address God that way, which would have sounded strange to Jewish ears because the Old Testament compares God to a father but doesn’t address him that way. By the Spirit, believers also cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15).
Because the Lord Jesus gave it, not because he prayed it himself. It is the model he taught his disciples when he said, “this is how you should pray” (Matthew 6:9), and the message says it is the pattern for us too. Even its first words, “Our Father,” remind us that we belong to God’s family and never pray alone.
Not in the Bible’s sense, according to this message: everyone is God’s creation, but John 1:12 says the right to become children of God is given to those who receive Jesus and believe in his name. Paul adds that believers receive the Spirit of adoption, by whom they call God Father, and become co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15–17).
