Our Heavenly Father is the name Jesus taught us to use in prayer, and this first message of a new series shows why those two words change everything. When you give your life to the Lord, God is your Father. That truth gives you a different outlook, frees you from loneliness and insecurity, and places you under what Paul calls the fatherhood of God. The message teaches how the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit work together to reveal the Father’s goodness, and why Jesus came as the mediator to bring us home to Him.
Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scripture behind each point (NKJV on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps for this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was posted on September 23, 2025, and runs about 62 minutes. It opens a new series on the Father and is the first part of what the speaker calls an introduction, which he expects to take several weeks. He builds on the previous series about looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and closes with an invitation to receive Jesus and declare, God is my Father.
His starting point is the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus taught His disciples to pray to “Our Father in heaven,” and the religious leaders wanted to kill Him because He called God His Father. The rest of the sermon unpacks what it means for a believer to live under that fatherhood.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Not named in the recording (NTC Ministries pulpit) |
| Series | Our Heavenly Father (#1, introduction) |
| Main text | Ephesians 3:13–15 |
| Key theme | God is our Father; Jesus mediates so we can know His goodness |
| Length | About 62 minutes, ending with a prayer of salvation |
Our Heavenly Father: A Revolutionary Prayer
The speaker calls “Our Father” the greatest term in the Bible. In Matthew 6:9–10 Jesus taught His disciples to pray, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The religious leaders could not grasp it. They lived by their own knowledge and wisdom rather than a pure heart before God, and they wanted to kill Jesus for claiming God as His Father (John 5:18).
He asks the congregation to say it aloud: God is my Father. Knowing that gives believers a different demeanor and outlook. You do not need to be lonely or insecure when you know God is your Father. Jesus said no one can snatch His sheep out of His hand, and that the Father, who is greater than all, holds them as well (John 10:28–29). The speaker calls that a hand within a hand, a double protection from God Almighty.
Later in the sermon he tells his own story to show what knowing the Father can do. He describes himself as a former drug addict and alcoholic, a little ridge runner from the Upper Peninsula, who has since preached before royalty and national leaders. The difference, he says, was a revelation of the goodness of God and a call to explain the kingdom: Our Father in heaven, let Your kingdom come.
His guarantee to anyone listening is that no matter what situation you are in, your life will be changed when you see the goodness of a heavenly Father who is over everyone. God’s plans for you, he says, are more than the grains of sand, and He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). Our heavenly Father holds nothing back.
The Fatherhood Over Every Family
The main text is Ephesians 3:13–15. Paul asks believers not to lose heart at his tribulations for them, which are their glory. The speaker says that verse alone could be a seminar. Paul had been caught up to the third heaven and given the mystery of the church age, with the responsibility to take that revelation to the world. That was the source of his trouble, and it was for our benefit.
Jesus faced the same thing when He came to share the goodness of the Father. In the same way, the trouble we go through for declaring the goodness and grace of God benefits other people. God placed us in a corrupted world and then gave us His kingdom while we are here. We are in the world but not of it (John 17:14–16).
In verses 14 and 15 Paul bows his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” The speaker pictures that as surrender: yes, Lord, I understand the purpose now. You did not get saved just for you; you got saved for the world. As Jesus said, he who has seen Me has seen the Father (John 14:9).
He teaches that the Greek word for family here is patria, built on the word for father. It means fatherhood, the Father’s covering, His hand of goodness over all people. The J.B. Phillips translation, he notes, renders it as every fatherhood in heaven and earth. Everyone exists because of a plan from the Father. There are no mistakes and no lesser-than people.
Why do so many not see His goodness? Because it requires a relationship, an intimacy like Paul’s. You must bow your knee and yield. The speaker compares this to a police officer ordering someone to put their hands up, the universal sign of surrender, and points out that Scripture calls for lifting holy hands everywhere (1 Timothy 2:8). Prayer is our hands lifted up to God.
There is a big difference between those who know Him and those who are forsaking the fatherhood. Believers are to grow and mature in it. He quotes the motto of NTC Christian Academy, good, better, best, and explains that the improvement comes from faith in Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), not from our own effort.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit at Work
The speaker turns to 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Here, he says, God refers to the Father. Grace comes through the Son, love from the Father, and communion, or common union, through the Holy Spirit. He calls himself a firm believer in the Trinity, with each working within us for one purpose.
That purpose goes back to creation. In the beginning was the Word, and all things were made through Him (John 1:1–3). Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image and give them dominion (Genesis 1:26). Dominion is a kingdom term, and the speaker sums up the whole Bible as a simple love story about a King, a kingdom and a royal family.
God did not create Adam because He was lonely, he teaches. He created him because God is love, and love needs an object of affection. He did not know such love was in his own heart, he says, until he met his wife; as a young man he would talk to her for hours on a crowded party telephone line.
That is why Jesus said, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). If God did not spare His own Son, how will He not freely give us all things (Romans 8:32)? God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). He holds nothing back. It is our wrong thinking that keeps us bound from the Father’s goodness.
That is why everyone needs to repent, which he defines as changing the way you think. If he stands facing away from the camera, people cannot see who he really is; he has to turn toward it. In the same way, people must turn toward the Father to know Him. You do not have a plan or a desire for your life greater than God’s.
The Holy Spirit’s role is to testify of Jesus. In John 15:26 Jesus said the Helper, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, would testify of Him. The Father, Son and Spirit all work together to bring us revelation, so the Father can show the fullness of His love, along with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). And it is faith first, then understanding, not the other way around.
Jesus the Mediator Who Brings Us to the Father
In 1 Timothy 2:3–5 Paul writes that God our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” The speaker says that is why our faith looks to Jesus. The longer we stay with Him, the more precious He becomes, just as his marriage of more than 50 years is worth far more now than on the wedding day.
He tells of stopping for a bride walking angrily along a highway on her wedding day. On the drive to her motel he shared Jesus, and she gave her life to Him. He then urged her to return to the reception and be reconciled to her husband. That is what a mediator does.
He and Paul once took a mediation course in Madison. The Greek word for mediator, he explains, means a go-between who helps people at odds understand one another. A mediator listens, reflects back what each side is saying, and brings them to common ground. That is why Jesus came to fallen man: not to insult people for failing to love God, but to help them understand Him.
This is ongoing work. We are born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word (1 Peter 1:23), yet even believers carry preconceived ideas about God that need changing. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), and the change keeps unfolding as we keep hearing. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
The speaker remembers a man who stumbled into one of his tent crusades in the Upper Peninsula, high on drugs. He gave his life to Jesus, was instantly sober, and spent every night before the meetings bringing carload after carload of families to hear the gospel. God gave the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6).
Job’s friends show what a wrong image of God sounds like. They insisted God had done this to Job, and God said they had not spoken rightly of Him (Job 42:7–8). Job, for all his mistakes, could say, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25–26). Jesus came to tear down the distorted image of God the religious leaders taught, which is why He kept saying, you have heard it said, but I say to you.
Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, and Jesus answered that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:7–11). The speaker teaches that Jesus is not our destination; the Father is. Jesus is the way to Him, and the Holy Spirit keeps revealing the goodness of our heavenly Father.
A Father Who Is Kind and Rewards in Secret
The speaker declares that our heavenly Father is kind. In Matthew 5:43–48 Jesus corrects the teaching to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father, who sends sun and rain on the just and unjust. You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
The religious leaders, he says, had taken commands about specific nations in the conquest of Canaan and applied them with a broad brush to all of life. He reads a saying taught in that era: if a Jew sees a Gentile fall into the sea, he should not lift him out, because the Gentile is not his neighbor. That is the mindset Jesus confronted in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37).
The table below summarizes the contrasts he draws between the image of God the religious leaders taught and the Father Jesus revealed.
| Religious image of God | The Father Jesus revealed | Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| Love your neighbor, hate your enemy | Love your enemies and pray for them | Matthew 5:43–48 |
| Only your own people are your neighbor | Your neighbor is whoever needs mercy | Luke 10:30–37 |
| God brought this suffering on you | My Redeemer lives | Job 19:25–26 |
| Do good to be seen and praised | Your Father who sees in secret rewards openly | Matthew 6:1–4 |
The Greek word for perfect, he teaches, is teleios, meaning complete, like a job finished so you can rest, the way God rested after creation. It also means complete in growth: physically, mentally, emotionally and morally. We cannot do that on our own, which is why Paul was confident that He who began a good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6).
Our heavenly Father also rewards. Matthew 6:1–4 warns against doing charitable deeds to be seen by others, because then that is all the reward you get. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. The speaker notes the New Testament contains far more commands than the ten most Christians think of, and this is one of them.
He links that reward to Psalm 37:25–26: the righteous are not forsaken, and their descendants are blessed. Long before coming to NTC, he and his family quietly gave to several Bible colleges, sowing toward their children receiving a Christian education. He never told people about it, and every one of his children earned a degree from a Christian college.
He adds that humility is God’s greatest characteristic. God knelt in the dirt to form man with His own hands. And God does not change (Malachi 3:6). The speaker has learned not to let contrary people change who he is; letting others’ behavior change you, he says, is where immaturity in Christianity lives.
In a world where lawlessness abounds (Matthew 24:12), believers live by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which sets us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).
Living as the Father’s Child This Week
The speaker closes by inviting listeners to confess Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9–10) and to finish the prayer by saying, my Father is God. Here are practical steps drawn from the message:
- Pray “Our Father” on purpose. Begin prayer by naming God as your Father, and let that settle your sense of security.
- Turn toward Him. Ask where your thinking about God needs to change, and repent by turning to face Him.
- Lift your hands in surrender. Make prayer a posture of yielding to the Father’s plan.
- Be a mediator. When people are at odds, listen, reflect back what you hear and help them toward common ground.
- Give in secret. Do one kind deed this week that nobody else will know about, and trust the Father who sees.
- Do not let others change you. When someone is contrary, respond like your Father, with kindness that does not shift.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Our Father: the greatest term in the Bible
- 1:18 A hand within a hand
- 2:42 Ephesians 3:13: Paul’s tribulations for us
- 5:11 In the world but not of it
- 6:26 Patria: the Father’s covering
- 7:44 Surrender and lifting holy hands
- 8:54 Every fatherhood named; good, better, best
- 10:12 2 Corinthians 13:14 and the Trinity
- 12:40 Love needs an object of affection
- 13:57 Your Father’s good pleasure; repentance
- 16:28 John 15:26: the Spirit testifies
- 18:01 1 Timothy 2:5: one Mediator
- 19:30 The bride on the highway
- 20:44 What a mediator does
- 24:05 Saved by incorruptible seed
- 25:14 Tent crusade in the Upper Peninsula
- 28:40 John 14:6 and the book of Job
- 35:27 The Good Samaritan
- 37:46 John 14:7–11: show us the Father
- 41:34 Our heavenly Father is kind: Matthew 5
- 44:41 Teleios: complete
- 47:16 Rewards in secret: Matthew 6
- 51:22 Psalm 37 and blessings for our children
- 56:30 Invitation to receive Jesus
Our Heavenly Father Series
This is the first message in an eight-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Continue with the next part:
- You are here: Our Heavenly Father #1: An Introduction to the Fatherhood of God
- Next: Our Heavenly Father #2 — Every Fatherhood Named After God
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Jesus get baptized if He had nothing to repent of?
The speaker points out that Jesus submitted to John’s baptism of repentance even though He had no sin, saying it was to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus was yielding to the authority God had placed in that ministry. The Spirit of God came upon Him in that act of willingness, which shows the trust we can place in a heavenly Father when we submit ourselves to what He is doing.
Is everyone a child of God?
The speaker teaches that everyone lives under the fatherhood of God, because every person exists by the Father’s plan and receives His sun and rain. But not everyone knows Him. Those who refuse that fatherhood will be separated from Him forever, while those who accept it through Jesus will never be left or forsaken. Relationship is what lets a person actually experience the Father’s goodness.
What does the Father do at the end of the age?
The speaker says that believers will be taken to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and he teaches that the Father Himself will serve His children there. He uses this to underline his main point: God’s greatest characteristic is humility. The God who knelt in the dirt to form Adam is the same loving and kind Father who never changes.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Matthew 6:9–10 — Our Father in heaven
- Ephesians 3:13–15 — the whole family in heaven and earth
- 2 Corinthians 13:14 — grace, love and communion
- John 15:26 — the Spirit testifies of Jesus
- 1 Timothy 2:3–5 — one Mediator between God and men
- John 14:6 — no one comes to the Father except through Me
- John 14:7–11 — he who has seen Me has seen the Father
- Matthew 5:43–48 — love your enemies
- Matthew 6:1–4 — your Father who sees in secret
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
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