Whoever We Are

How do you measure your self-worth?

Your value? Significance?

Where I’ve found my self-worth over the years

Appearance: right clothes, fashionable hairstyle, size of clothes, whether attractive to the opposite sex.

Net worth: what I was being paid compared to other solicitors with my experience, what car I drove, what house we lived in.

Who I knew: was I friends with the “in crowd”, was I friends with the partners, was I moving in the right social circles?

What I did: do you know I’m a solicitor? Do lawyers still have the same social standing they used to have?

What I achieved: am I successful? is my career moving in the right direction? is my band doing OK, are my Songsters being recognised more widely? did people recognise what I did for Summer School, and so on.

What about you?

Do you only feel worth it if your hair is shiny and washed? If the numbers on the scales are correct? If you’re receiving attention for the way you look?

Do you only feel valued if your salary is at a certain level, or if you have another pair of shoes or the latest gadget? Do you only feel worth something if you’re driving a flash car?

Do you lack any sense of significance because you’re “only” an office junior, or cleaner, or housewife, or even unemployed?

Can you only find self-worth if your exam results are good, or if you can point to some ministry or work success, or if you can run a certain distance, or press a certain amount of weights?

Can you imagine how freeing it would be if we could drop all these ways of measuring our self-worth?

What if there was a way to feel like we could make all the difference in the world whoever we are?

What if I told you there is?

That whoever we are, we have significance, we have value, we have worth, and we can make all the difference in the world because of who we are.

We are, first and foremost, a son or daughter of the King.

Our value, our worth, and our significance, and our life on our frontline, wherever we will find ourselves this time tomorrow, flows from this identity.

How do I know?

Because of the way Jesus told us how to pray:

Matthew 6:5-14

Matthew 6:5–14 NLT

“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

MESSAGE NOTES

This prayer reminds us that our significance, our worth, our value, and our service for God is not about “trying harder for him” but about allowing God to work in and through our lives

And it begins with an assurance of our identity as children of God

Matthew 6:9 NLT

Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

Our Father in heaven - praying to be established in our identity as children of God

To truly know that we are first and foremost sons and daughters of our heavenly Father is life-changing.

No longer is it about our appearance, or our net worth, or our social circle, or our career, or our achievements.

It is about knowing and resting in the truth that whoever we are, we’re loved with all wisdom and understanding.

There will be times in our lives that this truth is the only thing we can hang on to.

When our health is failing, we are still a child of God.

When our credit card is maxed out, when our pension doesn’t seem to stretch as far as it used to, when our car is towed away, when our home is repossessed, we are still a child of God.

When our friends betray us, when we’re no longer in the cool gang, when we’ve reached the age where we always seem to be losing friends and loved ones, and seem to spend all our time attending funerals, we are still a child of God.

When we’re passed over for promotion and seem to have spent years and years on the bottom rung of our organisation, when we feel we’ve been tied to the kitchen sink and unable to find something more fulfilling to do, when we just don’t seem to be able to hold down a job, we are still a child of God.

When we’ve failed our exams, when we look back over the past year and find it impossible to find something we would call success, when our hard work and graft just never seem to get the recognition we think they deserve, we are still a child of God.

That’s why Jesus encourages us to address God as Father.

A word of intimacy.

No one before Jesus addressed God this way.

God is only referred to as Father 14 times in the OT, and each time the word used is rather impersonal.

And when Father is used of God in the OT it is always used in reference to the nation of Israel, not to individuals.

You could search the whole of the OT from Genesis to Malachi and you will not find an individual person anywhere who spoke to God as Father.

But Jesus did call God his Father. And the word he spoke - Abba - was used by little children to call their daddy.

Jesus - the only man who has the right to address God in this way - invites you and me to relate to God on the same level of intimacy.

That’s amazing!

You are a child of God and you can address him as Abba - daddy.

An elderly man was dying.

His daughter asked his corps officer to visit.

When the officer entered, he noticed a chair next to the bed.

The man said,

“That chair is for Jesus. Years ago, someone told me prayer is just talking to your Father. So, I pull up a chair and talk to him as if he’s right there.”

That’s what it means to pray, “Our Father in heaven.”

Not a distant deity, but a loving Father close enough to sit with us in our suffering.

He is in heaven - but also right here.

It is absolutely essential you understand this.

You will never fully understand who you are, who you can be, and what you can do in life, unless you understand you are an adopted son or daughter of God:

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God. (Dr. J. I. Packer, theologian).

Our value, our worth, our significance, and our life on our frontline all flow from this identity.

May your name be kept holy - Praying for our part in our Father’s business

Matthew 6:9 NLT

Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

As Christians, as sons and daughters of God, we can act as though God is there to meet our concerns and causes.

You’ve heard of the bank of Mum and Dad?

Well, sometimes we’re guilty of expecting God to provide the bank - financial or otherwise - of our heavenly Father.

God is not there simply to receive a shopping list of our needs.

In teaching us to pray this way, that his name may be kept holy, is to say we long for God’s name - for his character - who he is - to have first place in the world and in our hearts.

Jesus reminds us that what’s actually happened is that God has co-opted us into his purposes, not the other way around!

In praying “may your name be kept holy”, we are aligning ourselves with his cause.

We are praying that we will discover and follow his way of doing things.

We are asking that out on our frontlines, wherever we are, whatever we are doing, whoever we are, we will glorify him, not ourselves.

His “family business” embraces everything we do, at home, in our community, at work, and in our social circle.

Many old Salvation Army halls have foundation stones that read “Dedicated to the Glory of God”.

They signify that the money raised to build the building, the decision to build it, and all those who worked on building it did so not for fame or recognition, but to honour God’s name.

How different might life on your frontline be if your life bore the inscription, “Dedicated to the Glory of God”?

“May your name be kept holy” is a prayer each of us can make that everything we build - our families, our community, our work, our service and ministry - be dedicated to honouring God’s holy name.

How?

By speaking of God with reverence.

That means avoiding swearing or taking God’s name in vain.

Second, by worshipping him in public and in private.

By making our Sunday Celebration the most important event of our week, and our personal devotions the most important part of our day.

We keep God’s name holy when we worship.

Thirdly, by deepening our understanding of who God is and what he does.

We cannot keep God’s name holy if we do not understand what his name means.

The deeper our understanding of who God is, the more depth there will be to our attempts to make his name holy.

And fourthly, we keep God’s name holy by living a life that proves he is our Father.

That means displaying security and confidence in God when others are overcome with fear and despair.

It means finding our finding our value, our worth, and our significance, not in what the adverts tell us mean we’re worth it, but in knowing that we are loved by our Father in heaven.

Living this way on our frontlines - dedicated to God and doing all we can to keep his name holy - is global, redemptive, and liberating - and it includes you, whoever you are, and wherever you are going to be this time tomorrow.

Your Kingdom come soon, your will be done on earth as in heaven - Praying for regime change

Matthew 6:10 NLT

May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Almost no one likes change.

It’s a challenge.

Safety, security, and comfort all seem much more attractive to most of us.

But as followers of Jesus, we are called to pray for regime change on our frontlines.

We are called to pray that in all the places we will find ourselves this time tomorrow - our homes, our neighbourhoods, our workplaces, our social hangouts, our online presence - that God’s will will be done.

Now.

Not in the future, but now.

Why is this so uncomfortable for us?

Why is it such a challenge?

Because the Kingdom clashes with the world.

When Jesus first taught this prayer there was an all-powerful empire.

Jesus called his followers to work out what it meant to be the people of God in such difficult conditions.

Today there is an all-powerful empire of globalism, of individualism, of relativism, which threatens to overpower us.

But the Kingdom of God arrived through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and we pray it will continue to arrive and thrive in our lives and on our frontlines.

If you step into a British embassy abroad, you’re on British soil - even if you’re thousands of miles from home.

The culture, language, and laws reflect the United Kingdom.

When we pray “May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth” we’re asking to be an ambassador of heaven.

Wherever we go, we bring heaven’s values - justice, mercy, love - to earth.

We don’t wait for heaven to come later; we live it now.

And so, we pray that God will extend his control in the lives of those we know who are rebels against his love.

We pray that his Good News will spread on our frontlines.

We pray that we will do his will on earth - now.

That we will be less concerned about ourselves and our little kingdoms, and instead allow ourselves to be conquered by God so that nothing stands in the way of our obedience.

If we pray this prayer, then we must live this way.

Give us today the food we need - Praying for today’s needs

Matthew 6:11 NLT

Give us today the food we need,

Praying for the food we need today, and nothing more, shows an attitude of constant reliance on God.

This is not Jesus’ permission to pray for everything in the IKEA catalogue or from Apple’s website!

We are asking him to supply our immediate needs, not those way into the future.

And we are to pray for food - that is, the necessities of life.

In this prayer we recognise that what we have is not the result of our own, unaided work, but it is a gift from God.

A wealthy businessman once scoffed at the Lord’s Prayer, saying, “Why would I ask God for bread? I buy whatever I want.”

But one financial crash later, he was on his knees, jobless, praying, “Lord, give me what I need today.”

Daily bread isn’t about wealth or poverty. It’s about dependence.

Whether we have much or little, we are to recognise God as our true provider - not our salary, our savings, or our skills.

This prayer does not allow us to ask God to supply all our needs for some time so that we can get on and forget him.

We are to depend on God constantly, and we are to express this reliance daily in prayer.

And this is an invitation to come to God with our small requests.

God cares for the simple, ordinary, day-to-day things of life.

Give us today the food we need.

It can prove a challenging prayer for those of us who like to be in control and know what’s planned for tomorrow!

But it can make a huge difference on our frontlines.

And forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us - Praying for yesterday’s mistakes

Matthew 6:12 NLT

and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

In teaching us to pray this prayer, Jesus knew there would be some things that would need to be dealt with regularly.

He knew that we would need to ask for forgiveness.

He knew that we would do things that put us in the wrong with God.

We will never ever get to the point where we do not need daily, sometimes hourly forgiveness.

We will never be perfect this side of heaven.

He also knew that we would need to forgive others.

We are not as good as we think we are sometimes.

And people around us are not as good as we wish they were sometimes.

There was once a woman who constantly criticised others in her corps.

Can you imagine that!

One day, her friend gave her a gift: a mirror and a window frame.

She said, “Use the mirror before you use the window.”

Forgiveness starts with humility.

When we pray, “Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” we’re not pointing fingers - we’re bowing low, recognising that we need grace just as much as those who’ve wronged us.

We cannot keep our fists tightly clenches against those who have wronged us if we want to open our hands to receive God’s forgiveness.

Jesus breaks the failure cycle with forgiveness - between us and God, and between us and others.

If we sincerely pray for forgiveness and for the power to forgive others, then we can become what we were made for.

We can love God and enjoy him for ever.

And we can allow that love to overflow to those around us on our frontlines.

And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one - Praying for tomorrow’s walk and work

Matthew 6:13 NLT

And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Jesus recognises one of the pitfalls we might fall into is to become over confident.

To believe that we always have the power to keep going as his disciples.

He knew there is an enemy who wants to seduce us away from the ways of the Kingdom.

He knew that times of testing would come.

Life on our frontline - wherever it is - our our home, our street, our workplace, our social club, even our corps - are places where a spiritual battle is taking place.

So he encouraged us to pray for protection and deliverance.

A man one installed a top of the range security system in his home.

Not because he assumed his home might be targeted.

No! He assumed it would be targeted, and prepared accordingly.

Jesus teaches us to be spiritually alert.

Satan doesn’t attack at random; he strategises.

“Rescue us from the evil one” is a prayer of spiritual vigilance.

It’s not fear. it’s readiness, knowing we need God’s power to stand firm.

This final sentence is a reminder that we don’t go onto our frontlines alone.

We take the powerful, protecting, life-giving presence of God with us.

What difference would there be on your frontline, if you went there tomorrow first and foremost as a son or daughter of the King?

Think about your frontline.

Give yourself a job title - it might be your actual job title, or it might be “chief cook and bottle washer” or “volunteer childminder” or “kid’s taxi driver”.

Think of three things you do on your frontline as a part of that “job”.

What changes would you make to those things if your job title started a child of the King who is also a … ?

What difference would it make to what you do, say, think?

What difference would it make to the way you reflect on your day?

What difference would it make to what you pray about your day?

Frontline Sundays Video 4

Video: FS Service 4 Subtitled | 2:00