WEBVTT 00:00.890 --> 00:03.726 Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and from our Lord and 00:03.748 --> 00:05.006 Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:05.108 --> 00:05.950 Amen. 00:06.370 --> 00:09.966 The text for our meditation this morning is the introduction to the 00:09.988 --> 00:10.794 Lord's Prayer. 00:10.842 --> 00:17.070 Our Father who art in heaven with Luther's explanation. In his 00:17.140 --> 00:20.906 discussion of the Lord's Prayer in the Large Catechism, Luther 00:20.938 --> 00:25.314 includes an introduction to the topic of prayer. 00:25.482 --> 00:28.418 He explains how to pray. 00:28.594 --> 00:31.110 He explains what to pray. 00:31.770 --> 00:34.760 Prayer is necessary, he says. 00:35.130 --> 00:38.540 God has invited us to pray to Him. 00:38.910 --> 00:45.306 But more than that, God has commanded prayer and He has promised to 00:45.328 --> 00:46.220 hear us. 00:46.750 --> 00:54.154 His commandment and His promise are certain and cannot fail or deceive 00:54.202 --> 00:54.800 us. 00:55.410 --> 00:59.566 Now, Luther has been building up to this point in his teaching on the 00:59.588 --> 01:00.538 catechism. 01:00.714 --> 01:05.554 In the Ten Commandments, we see how God instructs us what to do. 01:05.752 --> 01:10.450 He sets down the requirements of life as his creatures. 01:10.950 --> 01:16.390 The commandments are inscribed on the hearts of all human beings. 01:16.890 --> 01:23.240 The Creed tells us what God does for us and what He gives to us. 01:23.850 --> 01:27.742 But no human wisdom can comprehend the Creed 01:27.826 --> 01:31.900 it must be taught by the Holy Spirit alone, Luther says. 01:32.670 --> 01:36.214 In this life, we are still sinners. 01:36.262 --> 01:41.310 No one can keep the commandments perfectly, even though we have faith. 01:41.650 --> 01:46.766 We live in the world of the law, which demands obedience and is 01:46.948 --> 01:53.570 unrelenting, and yet we have the hope of the gospel. 01:54.310 --> 01:58.994 We are under the assault from the powers of this age, the devil, our 01:59.032 --> 02:01.860 sinful flesh and the world around us. 02:02.630 --> 02:09.110 And still we are gripped by faith in Christ and in His Gospel. 02:09.850 --> 02:15.970 This faith prays. Luther says in the Large catechism. 02:16.050 --> 02:23.622 Consequently, nothing is so necessary as to call upon God incessantly 02:23.766 --> 02:31.470 and drum into his ears our prayer that he may give, preserve and 02:31.540 --> 02:37.338 increase in us faith and obedience to the Ten Commandments. And remove 02:37.434 --> 02:45.482 all that stands in our way and hinders us from fulfilling them. Luther 02:45.546 --> 02:49.818 explains, so that we may know what and how to pray 02:49.914 --> 02:56.486 our Lord Christ Himself has taught us both the way and the words in 02:56.508 --> 02:57.830 the Lord's Prayer. 02:58.490 --> 02:59.970 And of course, Luther 03:00.000 --> 03:04.666 encourages us to pray with boldness and confidence. 03:04.858 --> 03:08.910 We are to pray constantly and with urgency. 03:09.490 --> 03:13.200 So prayer is something that we must learn to do. 03:13.570 --> 03:17.598 And this is why Luther explains the Lord's Prayer and in doing so, 03:17.684 --> 03:24.506 instructs us how to pray. With the words our Father who art in heaven 03:24.538 --> 03:29.542 he says, as God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true 03:29.596 --> 03:36.642 father and that we are his true children, so that with all boldness 03:36.706 --> 03:43.770 and confidence we may ask him, as dear children ask their dear father. 03:44.990 --> 03:51.341 Luther himself practice boldness and confidence in prayer as he said 03:51.396 --> 03:55.390 he would rub God's ears with his prayers. 03:56.770 --> 04:02.810 In 1540, Luther's friend and colleague Philipp Melanchthon fell 04:02.890 --> 04:04.320 seriously ill. 04:05.170 --> 04:10.769 Philip was in Weimar and was not able to return to Wittenberg. With 04:10.840 --> 04:11.341 Justice 04:11.406 --> 04:16.721 Jonas and Melanchthon's son Luther rushed to Melanchthon's bedside, praying 04:16.866 --> 04:22.710 all the way. When they walked in, it was clear the situation was 04:22.780 --> 04:23.590 grave. 04:24.970 --> 04:29.210 Luther went to the window and started to pray. 04:30.510 --> 04:33.180 He prayed for days. 04:34.110 --> 04:37.770 Philip was failing. Three times 04:37.920 --> 04:39.850 they thought he had died. 04:41.250 --> 04:46.462 Later, Luther said to a friend there the Lord God had to stretch out 04:46.516 --> 04:53.406 his hand to me for I threw the entire sack, the whole thing in front 04:53.428 --> 04:59.202 of God's door and rubbed his ears with all of his promises to hear 04:59.256 --> 05:03.618 prayer that I was able to recall from the Holy Scriptures so that he 05:03.704 --> 05:09.430 had to hear me were I to believe all those other promises. 05:11.370 --> 05:19.754 And Melanchthon was restored to health, and Luther praised God for his 05:19.792 --> 05:20.490 mercy. 05:22.669 --> 05:29.130 Prayer like this arises from a life of faith, a life that is often 05:29.200 --> 05:36.014 tested and tried, that struggles with the cares and the anxieties of 05:36.052 --> 05:38.960 daily existence in this world. 05:39.570 --> 05:43.866 We suffer from every trouble and heartache. 05:44.058 --> 05:53.354 We mourn at loss, at destruction, at every effect of sin. And we cry 05:53.402 --> 05:59.810 out to God. But how is it that we can cry 06:00.810 --> 06:01.710 Our Father? 06:03.810 --> 06:08.878 We can only speak the words Our Father because the Father has first 06:08.964 --> 06:10.960 spoken to us. 06:12.050 --> 06:19.200 He has called out to us so that we may call out to Him. 06:19.810 --> 06:24.734 God, our Heavenly Father, has promised that our prayer will be 06:24.772 --> 06:29.734 answered, as he says in Psalm 50. Call upon me in the day of 06:29.772 --> 06:32.360 trouble and I will deliver you. 06:33.370 --> 06:39.080 God wants us to call Him Father because he has made promises to us. 06:39.790 --> 06:43.433 And God keeps his promises, not because of our own merit or 06:43.472 --> 06:45.740 worthiness, because of anything that we do. 06:46.510 --> 06:51.390 But rather God keeps his promises because he is a merciful Father. 06:52.130 --> 06:58.640 Because he sent his own Son, Jesus Christ to us and for us. 06:59.330 --> 07:05.940 And as his brothers and sisters, our Lord invites us to pray with Him 07:06.310 --> 07:12.740 to our Father in heaven. Through his saving work for us with his life 07:13.350 --> 07:18.870 and on his cross, our Lord Jesus gives us to pray. 07:19.450 --> 07:26.342 The Holy Spirit gives us the faith to pray and nourishes us in that 07:26.396 --> 07:33.020 faith by prayer recalling us to God and the promises in his word. 07:34.190 --> 07:38.614 And as dear children, we hang on to our dear Father with all boldness 07:38.662 --> 07:39.850 and confidence. 07:40.210 --> 07:46.542 Through all the sorrows of this life and through all the joys of this 07:46.596 --> 07:47.200 life. 07:48.210 --> 07:54.754 God gives us the way to pray throughout our days, and he goes along 07:54.872 --> 07:55.778 with us. 07:55.944 --> 07:59.714 Each day we die with Christ under the force of the law. 07:59.832 --> 08:04.190 Each day we are raised with Him under the power of the Gospel. 08:04.350 --> 08:09.286 And in the Lord's Prayer, we are given to pray each day with the most 08:09.388 --> 08:13.990 basic requirements of this Christian life of faith. 08:15.130 --> 08:23.082 We pray for God to be our Father and to keep his promises to us, his 08:23.135 --> 08:23.740 children. 08:24.430 --> 08:29.050 It goes like this. Father according to Your promise, keep Your name 08:29.120 --> 08:29.542 holy. 08:29.606 --> 08:30.726 Have your kingdom come. 08:30.768 --> 08:33.280 Let Your will be done among us also. 08:34.289 --> 08:39.322 Father, as you have promised, give us today our daily bread. 08:39.385 --> 08:42.925 Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. 08:43.028 --> 08:46.170 Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil. 08:46.250 --> 08:49.998 For the kingdom, the power, the glory are yours forever and ever. 08:50.084 --> 08:52.990 Father, as you have promised. 08:55.370 --> 08:58.740 As you have promised, so shall it be. 09:02.730 --> 09:08.398 Luther says in the Large catechism that there is no nobler prayer to 09:08.404 --> 09:12.110 be found on earth than the Lord's Prayer. 09:13.570 --> 09:17.230 And it has the excellent testimony that God loves to hear it 09:17.300 --> 09:19.706 he adds, The Lord's Prayer 09:19.738 --> 09:27.606 he says we should not trade for all the riches in the world. With the 09:27.628 --> 09:29.554 words of our Lord's Prayer. 09:29.602 --> 09:35.302 We pray for all that we, as his children, need from our Father each 09:35.356 --> 09:35.960 day. 09:36.730 --> 09:38.678 He has commanded us to pray. 09:38.774 --> 09:43.894 He has promised to hear us and to answer us. In prayer 09:43.942 --> 09:50.494 God strengthens our faith, bringing us to Him each day, each time of 09:50.532 --> 09:56.366 prayer. From under the sign of the cross, we pray to Him in the 09:56.388 --> 10:02.560 certain hope of His salvation, His resurrection, His life. 10:03.090 --> 10:09.562 We call upon our Father who art in heaven, and he makes his promise 10:09.626 --> 10:12.400 gifts our very own. 10:13.250 --> 10:14.190 Amen. 10:15.370 --> 10:17.586 Peace of God, which passes all understanding. 10:17.617 --> 10:21.010 Keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 10:21.170 --> 10:21.569 Amen.