Well earlier this week, I was talking about this sermon that I'd be preaching with one of our pastors Kyle Livingston, and Kyle was telling me about this one little girl. This is from a previous ministry context, a seven-year-old girl who, you know, all the children were supposed to memorize the Lord's prayer. And she showed up on the day, she was so excited, and she prayed the opening words of the Lord's Prayer this way. Our father, who does art in heaven, Halloween is your name. Isn't that great? I love that. Now, you know, you laugh at that and you say, well, it's children, of course, how sweet. But I think if we a little more closely examine our own appreciation and knowledge of the Lord's Prayer, though we might get the words a little bit better than the cute seven-year-old girl, I wonder if the words do in us what they're designed to do. What Jesus intended for them to do, because really they are powerful words. The words who art in heaven is like this magnificent doorway out of our limited experience in this closed-in existence in the world, and leads us to behold things that, frankly, if we really saw them as they are. They would take our breath away, transform us forever. Now, this being Mother's Day, let me make a Mother's Day application right off the bat. Ladies, I cannot think of anything that would be a greater encouragement to you in your life as a Mother, regardless of your stage, but especially, you know, if you're a Mother with young children, oftentimes the routines and stresses can be overwhelming this morning, a doorway of refreshment into reality that will bring, I think, great depth and meaning to your role as a Mother. But of course, this applies to all of us as Christians, because see, we were built by God to have deep intimate fellowship with Him. And if we're honest, we recognize and admit that we struggle with this, every single one of us. We talked about it last week, but one of the couple of places where the Lord's prayers mentioned in the New Testament, it arises out of disciples watching Jesus pray, and one of the disciples says, you know, I'll be the honest one. Jesus, I don't have a clue how to pray. I don't get this spiritual depth and intimacy that you obviously model and exemplify. Would you, Jesus, teach us to pray? That's the banner over the Lord's prayer. It is the theme for our whole series, teach us to pray. And so this morning we want to use the words who art in heaven and recognize that they're a doorway because in the passage that was read for us a few minutes ago, we see a doorway. In fact, what happened was the Apostle John writing the book of Revelation. It's singular revelation, not revelations. He was on the Lord's day, that is, his Sunday, and it says he was in the spirit, not quite sure what that means, but it's highly likely. He was in essence, having time personally with the Lord. You might call it a QT, you know, quiet time or devotional time. But he was spending time with God and immediately hears this voice and this voice calls him and backens him to look and behold says there, verse 1 of chapter 4, as I looked after this I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. I want you to see, frankly, all the phrases in the Lord's prayers, doorways, but especially this morning, I want you to see the words who art in heaven as a doorway leading you out of your very earthly confined experience to breathtaking realities beyond. What do you see? Here's the question. We want to ponder for a few minutes together. What do you see? What do you behold as you go through the door that John went through? And here's the answer, then we'll unpack a little bit. I think as we go through the door and behold heaven and our father who art in heaven, our praying imagination is stimulated. What do I mean by our praying imagination? Here's the idea. When you go to pray, you pray out of the experiences that are already collected in your mind. Your mind functions based on everything that's there. Now I want you to think of your mental apparatus, your framework of thinking as a room. Okay, your mental room and all of our mental rooms are filled with many things. They're cluttered. This is the kind of room, mothers, when you open the door, you go, oh my goodness, there's a tornado through here. It's just your little three year old. And your mental room has many things in it. It has things ordinary like I forgot to make that phone call and now I've got to think about that until I make the phone call. Maybe it might have things that are very deep like the anger of your child. How in the world are you going to deal with that? Maybe you've gotten to a horrible fight on the way to church with your spouse. Is that ever happened to you? That's in your room. Maybe it's things like the bill that's coming. You don't know how you're going to pay for it. Or things much more profound like the Astro is going to sign Roger Clemens and who's going to win American Idol. I mean, these are the really important things and the point is, these are the things that exist in your mental room. And whether you realize it or not, when you go to pray, your prayer is launched out of those ordinary, earthy thoughts. And what John gives to us is this doorway to say, those things may not be bad at all, but there are things beyond that will stimulate your praying imagination so that as you pray, prayer becomes transformingly wondrous to you. So what did John see as he peered through the door and launched as it were his prayers in the context of what he viewed in heaven? He saw the presence of God, just plain and simple. It says, verse two, behold a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian. And around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. And then he goes on to describe and you can sort of underline a circle in this passage the word around because it's used over and over again three times in the two chapters of four and five to talk about the scene there that was this really these series of concentric circles. All emanating outward from the center of the scene in heaven, the throne of Almighty God. You have these majestically bizarre creatures and then the 24 elders and then a myriad of angels. And John viewed that and the first thing that I want you to notice is that it's simply the presence of God that he saw in the context of heaven. Now as a sidebar very quickly, when we talk about our father who art in heaven, we don't mean that he art not elsewhere also. Okay, God is everywhere. He's theologically speaking omnipresent. Think of passages like this, Psalm 139, where can I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in shield, which is the grave, you are there. In other words, the full continuum, God, you're everywhere. And Solomon in his prayer of dedication over the temple, 1 Kings 827, behold, heaven, even the highest heaven cannot contain you, O Lord. God is immense and measurably so. He is everywhere, but his particular abode, his place of sacred, majestic residents, his heaven. And it's that vision that John was given as he passed through the door and that vision to you this morning can do things beyond your imagination. It will expand you as a human being. See, without a vision of heaven, without breaking through and seeing the realities beyond that are true realities, what happens is as a soul as a human being are soul atrophies. And we're not enlarged, but we begin to decay as people. And as you fill yourself with heaven and the vision of the grandeur and majesty of God in heaven, you begin in all fear, wonder and delight to grow as a human being. It's the greatest thing you could give to yourself, mothers, on this Mother's Day, is an expanded view and vision of heaven. The quote that's given at the beginning of your order of worship, by Paul Minier, puts it this way, says, delete the thought of heaven from man's lexicon, and he is soon reduced to a one-dimensional environment, living without any invisible means of support. We're just dwarfed as human beings without the depth and expanse of heaven growing in our soul. And so, Christians throughout the ages, I think who had a sense of this, who really grasped this, would spend time meditating on heaven. And they would go to passages like the one in Revelation 4 and 5, and just let it soak into your heart so that doorways began to open up. Now, Voltaire, the French philosopher who didn't care much for Christianity, used to mock Christians, and he talked about how the medieval peasants of France knew more about the geography of heaven than the geography of France. And he thought that was a criticism. But, you know, others, like C.S. Lewis, I'm going to quote here in a second, I'm going to say, no, that's why Christianity has been so helpful to the world in so many ways. Listen to the words of Lewis, he puts it better than I could. If you read history, you'll find that Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought the most of the next world. The apostles themselves, who set out on foot to convert the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. Now listen, it is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they'd become so ineffective in this one. Aim at heaven, and you'll get earth thrown in, aim at earth, and you'll get neither. Come on, you want an expansive soul, you want a soul that is full, it comes by stretching that inner self with the beauty and majesty of heaven. So what a John C. He saw first and foremost the presence of God. What else do he see? He saw the sovereign majesty and power of God. We mentioned in verse two how he beheld a throne there and everything centered around the throne. This reminds us, of course, that in terms of the kingdom of God, it is not a democracy. It is praise God, a benevolent monarchy, our God reigns and rules over all creatures, all events. And he has decreed all that comes to pass, wonderfully, mysteriously. So our God is in heaven, Psalm 115, verse three, he does all that he pleases. Let me ask you, are you a control freak? I am. You got to be able to have your hand on everything, control everything. No room left, no margin of error, that kind of thing. I appreciate so much. Everything Pauli said, but the humility of saying, look, as a mother, it can be so easy to feel like a failure. You can be so easy. If you didn't have the sovereign reign of God graciously so, super intending all of your child's life. What a comfort that is. Psalm 104, 1, Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty. Do you have in your conscience? Let me talk about this a lot more next week when we talk about hallowed be your name, not Halloween as your name. The holiness of God, the distinctiveness, the glory, the expansiveness of our great God. Our culture today, my friends, does not breed that conception of God. And we need probably more than anything else, more of the majesty of God resonating in our hearts because of the many practical implications. We're reminded that when you and I, thankfully, come to the end of ourselves and admit and realize our powerlessness, then we can look up through the door into our majestic sovereign in heaven who is able to do all that he pleases. He is powerful beyond measure. Imagine it this way that you're on a bus. It's been a long bus ride. You're almost your destination and this horrible storm hits. The bus goes off the side of road and lands in this ditch. And there's no way to ask for help. All the radios are down. I mean, there's no hope. It's a hopeless situation. And then it dawns on you. You met a guy named Clark Kent earlier in your ride in the bus. And this is no ordinary human being, right? This is a Superman. And Superman can utterly reverse that situation. That's a nothing to Superman. That's a silly picture as we think in terms of our relationship to God. But nonetheless, it's true, isn't it? That in our own earthy experience, in our mental room, we come to dead ends, we find ourselves overturned in ditches. And the great hope, the great confidence is that our majestic king in heaven, who is able to do all that he pleases, is powerful to deliver you. Do you believe that? Where are you stuck? What ditch are you in? What habit has you wrapped up and enslaved? What experience of the past just totally closes you in in your mental room. There's a door, breakthrough, and recognize that our father who art in heaven is able to deliver you. Now, what else did John see? He saw, of course, the presence of God, the majesty of God, all of these creatures encircling the throne. What's going on here? This is what unfallen creatures do instinctively. It's called worship. It is the business of heaven. It is the activity of the redeemed human soul. It's what we were made to do. You and I were built for this. But we struggle in this existence. And so one of the incursions we have as we peer into heaven is you begin to see, man, this is what it's all about. It's not about money or gaining approval from peers. It's not about getting married or getting unmarried. It's about worship of Almighty God. It is the great end of all creation. And though we have many responsibilities in life, and we are called to work diligently to make profitable use of our lives and time and talents in all these things, the greatest privilege we have is worship. Let me give you a little picture what I'm talking about. Mary and Martha. And I know, as soon as I say that, some of you women just start stabbing yourself. You know, already since the guilt coming. But Mary and Martha, a very interesting story you may remember. They're sisters and we're friends of Jesus. And Jesus has come into their home and going to have dinner with them. And Martha, you know, she's the Martha steward of the Bible. She is, I mean, down to a tee. She's got it all straight. She's got bows, you know, on the tables and the entire 20 course of dinner is all prepared. And she has just worked herself into an absolute nervous wreck. And in the midst of all this, she looks over to her sister, Mary, who is sitting down. I mean, lazy thing, Mary. And she calls her to task. She's going to help me and lift a finger. Come on. And then Jesus enters the scene. And, generally, points Mary, what's Martha in the right direction? He says Martha, Martha. And you know at that point she's thought, oh, no, what's coming? You are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken from her. All of us, not only mothers, we all need to recapture the simplicity of sitting at Jesus' feet and beholding him. I mean, if you go on beyond chapter four of Revelation, in chapter five, you see Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judas tribe, who is the one who's worthy to open the seals? See, it's all about worshipping and bowing and loving the Lord God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, and strength. Now, let's pull this together in the last couple of minutes, real practically. Because hopefully you've seen that going through the door and beholding the scene in heaven is exactly what you and I need in terms of stretching our souls in a transforming way. But how do we do that? Practically speaking, a couple of helps. First of all, know your mental room. The architecture of our souls is all different. None of us are exactly the same. And so the blueprint for my mind is not the one for years. Know your own room. Know your mental room, the experiences, the fears, the anger, the guilt. On and on and on and on. The things that barricade you in and keep you from beholding your father who art in heaven in a soul loving way. So know your mental map, your mental room. Secondly, look at the door and go through it. Recognize that you're not closed in. You are a human being. You live in this earth, but thanks be to God. It is a gift. There is a doorway out of the confinements of this world to behold the breathtaking reality beyond. And a couple of word pictures here that are interesting. Jesus himself in the gospel of John, you know, authored by the same author that wrote the book of Revelation that we're in. John 10.9, he said this, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. And interestingly as well, the beginning of Revelation 4, John talks about the fact that there's a voice which called to him and said, come up here, and I'll show you what must take place. If you track that back to the first chapter, you see that the voice is Jesus. All right, put it together. You are locked in to your mental room. And yet there's a voice. It's the voice of Christ that says, my child, you don't have to live trapped in this existence. Come up here. Come unto me. Come through me only. I am the door and be saved. Listen, some of you this morning need to do that. That is you need to, for the first time, place your faith in Christ. Because you're trapped. You're enslaved. And the room is dark. It might look bright on the outside, but you know the state of your soul. And it's decaying. There's a door. Hear the voice of Christ through his word. Come unto me and be saved. Now to all of us who would say, yeah, we've already done that. I'm with you. I'm there. We need to admit that for practical purposes the door is a revolving door. Do you like those? I love those. Even, I mean, it's kind of a childish thing. I still love it as a door. You come to a hotel or a building and they got one of those, you know, revolving doors. Do you like to go through it? Like I do. And then, you know, all the way back on the other end. And some of us pull, you know, an inspector Kluseau, remember, you know how he just kept getting caught in this space, got slammed in the middle of the door. That's our human experience. We might go through the door and have a glimpse of heaven, but whoops, now it's gone. And I'm back on the other side again. That is my ordinary experience. I know it's yours as well. We don't live in this permanent state of ecstasy in terms of beholding heaven. We won't until we go to be with the Lord. So we have to be proactive. We have to knowing our mental room. See the door. Hear Jesus and go through and make that a regular experience every day. It's like that you remember the movie Groundhog Day with DelMurray, poor guy, you know, stuck in Pucks-A-Tonny or whatever it was. Every day, he woke up. He was back to Groundhog Day. He couldn't get out of Groundhog Day. That's how it is. Every morning you and I wake up. We are back in our mental room. And what yesterday may have been just a great day spiritually. The ecstasy of heaven imported to my soul. It's like now I'm closed in again. I need to hear the voice of Jesus and go through. That's what the Bible is always urging constantly, trusting in Christ, repenting of self-reliance and beholding His majesty. And then real practically, how do you do that? Because if it's all really about beholding the Lord, how do we do that? Because we don't see Him now. Yeah, if I were John and I got the opportunity to see physically that reality, that's one thing. But I live where I see all these other things. Okay, that's where it's the key. The key is recognizing your mental room. The things you do see and feel, your senses pulling in, you go through the door, hearing the voice of Jesus and you meditate on Scripture. Colossians 3, 2, set your minds on things above and not on earthly things. Second Corinthians 4, 18, we fix our thoughts, we fix our eyes on what is seen. Excuse me, on what is unseen, not on what is seen. For what is seen as temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Jesus, who loved us enough to leave His Father's heaven, who identified Himself with us, having an opening and a spirit descending and the Father saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased, He identified Himself with sinners like you and me, all the way to the cross of Calvary. That same Jesus is the door of new and unending life and the door of beholding the majesty of the Lord. In the summer you are still saying, I just filled the guilt of another sermon on prayer. There's another girl, Kyle didn't tell me about this, when 13-year-old Elizabeth, who won the prize for selling the most girl scout cookies ever, gets how many boxes, 11,200 boxes of girls scout cookies. And she was asked by someone, oh in the world, did you accomplish this feat? And she said, you look your customer straight in the eye and make them feel real guilty. And some of you are saying, yeah, my preacher has been looking at me in the eye and he's making me feel real guilty. Another sermon on prayer, I guess I'm just supposed to feel guilty about it. Listen, you look in Revelation 4 and 5 for guilt-motivated worshipers and you will look in vain. Those are the most free, alive, happy people you will ever behold. It's because the door of Christ no longer revolves, but they live in the unspeakable everlasting reality of His presence being fully redeemed. That's where we'll be one day. In the meantime, daily walk through the door and behold our Father who art in heaven. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.