Our Heavenly Father #5

Our Heavenly Father Overview

In this fifth installment of his ongoing series, the pastor of NTC Ministries continues to unpack the true nature of God as a loving, forgiving, and generous heavenly Father. Drawing from key passages including 2 Corinthians 13:14, Romans 5:5, Ezekiel 36:23-27, Isaiah 1:18-20, Ephesians 2:17-19, and the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, the message challenges the distorted image of God that religious tradition and hardened hearts have produced. The sermon confronts the tendency to view God as a taskmaster or judge rather than a compassionate Father who runs toward His children. Through the parable of the prodigal son, the teaching on the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18, and a moving illustration about a flower that releases fragrance when crushed, the pastor reveals that forgiveness is the central language of heaven and the key that unlocks God’s blessings in our lives. Practical and deeply pastoral, this message calls believers to receive God’s love freely, soften their hearts, and extend the same forgiveness they have received, so that the Father’s name is no longer profaned but hallowed in every area of their lives.

Our Heavenly Father Outline

• 0:00 – Welcome Back and Series Context: The pastor reintroduces the series on our heavenly Father, explaining why it is essential to move beyond a generic or religious concept of God toward a personal knowledge of Him as Father.
• 6:30 – Hard Hearts and Perverted Thinking About God: An examination of how a hardened heart distorts one’s image of God and others, leading to pity parties, suspicion, and false conclusions about God’s character and intentions.
• 14:00 – God Desires All Men to Be Saved and Know Truth: From 1 Timothy 2:3-5 and 2 Corinthians 13:14, the pastor teaches that God’s heart is for everyone to know the truth about who He really is — a loving Father, not an ogre with a baseball bat.
• 22:00 – Jesus as Mediator Between God and Man: An exploration of the role of Jesus as the one mediator, bridging the gap between a holy God and humanity, and how the terms Christ Jesus and Jesus Christ reflect the direction of that mediation.
• 31:00 – Ezekiel’s Prophecy and the New Heart: From Ezekiel 36:23-27, the pastor shows that God promised to remove hearts of stone and place His Spirit within His people so they would walk in His ways — not by human effort but by divine grace.
• 40:00 – The Prodigal Son and the Father’s Welcome: A rich exposition of Luke 15, emphasizing that the Father did not scold or withhold from the returning son but celebrated him, correcting the older brother’s religious and grudge-filled mentality.
• 48:00 – The Lord’s Prayer Unpacked: A word-by-word walk through Matthew 6:9-13, including the Hebrew meaning of hallowed, the call to believe God’s will can be done on earth, and the centrality of forgiveness in kingdom living.
• 54:00 – The Unforgiving Servant and the Cost of Unforgiveness: From Matthew 18:22-35, the parable of the servant forgiven a massive debt who then choked a fellow servant over a small one illustrates how refusing to forgive delivers a person over to a hard and painful life.
• 59:30 – The Forgiveness Flower Illustration: The moving story of a missionary in Africa who discovers a flower that releases a beautiful aroma only when stepped on, used to illustrate how forgiving freely and fully releases the fragrance of heaven in our lives.
• 1:02:00 – Final Exhortation to Receive and Release Forgiveness: The pastor closes by urging believers to accept the Father’s love, receive His blessings without false humility, and forgive from the heart so that God’s name is hallowed through their lives.

Scripture References

2 Corinthians 13:14, Romans 5:5, 1 Timothy 2:3-5, Isaiah 1:18-20, Ezekiel 36:23-27, John 17:25-26, Philippians 2:5-9, 1 Corinthians 12:7, 1 Corinthians 13:4, Ephesians 2:17-19, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 4:32, Matthew 6:9-15, Matthew 7:7-12, Matthew 18:22-35, Leviticus 19:18

Key Takeaways

• A hardened heart produces a distorted image of God, causing believers to see Him as a taskmaster rather than a loving Father who desires their flourishing.
• Jesus came as the mediator between God and humanity to restore the true knowledge of the Father, dismantling religious lies and revealing a God who runs toward repentant hearts.
• God promised in Ezekiel 36 to give His people a new heart and place His Spirit within them, enabling obedience not through human striving but through divine transformation.
• The parable of the prodigal son reveals that the heavenly Father does not scold or withhold from returning children but celebrates them with a generosity that confounds religious thinking.
• Forgiveness is the love language of heaven, and refusing to extend it to others does not send a believer to hell but does deliver them into a hard, painful, and constrained life.
• Receiving God’s love is the starting point of all Christian growth — you cannot truly love God until you have first allowed His love for you to take root and transform you from the inside out.
• The Lord’s Prayer is not a ritual but a declaration of dependency on the Father, covering His glory, His kingdom, daily revelation, and the essential practice of forgiving as we have been forgiven.

Our Heavenly Father Notes

Distorted Images of God Cost Believers

One of the central burdens of this message is that millions of people, including Christians, carry a fundamentally distorted image of God. When the heart hardens, thinking becomes perverted not only toward others but especially toward God. People begin to believe that suffering is punishment, that God is indifferent, or that He is primarily a rule enforcer. The pastor is clear: this is not the God revealed in Scripture. The God of the Bible is the one who sheds His love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who desires all men to be saved, and who takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servants.

Jesus the Mediator Reframes Everything

A key theological insight in this sermon is the role of Jesus as mediator. A mediator works between two parties in opposition to bring them to a common place of understanding. Jesus stands between a holy God and sinful humanity, representing both directions. The pastor notes a nuance in the King James Version: when Scripture says Christ Jesus, the movement is from God to man; when it says Jesus Christ, the movement is from man to God. This framework helps believers understand that Jesus was not merely a teacher or moral example but the divine bridge restoring the Father-child relationship.

The Prodigal Father More Than the Prodigal Son

The parable in Luke 15 is handled with pastoral warmth and theological precision. The pastor emphasizes that the story is really about the father’s extravagant response. He does not lecture the returning son. He runs, restores, and throws a party. The ring, the robe, and the sandals are not afterthoughts but declarations of full sonship restored. The older brother’s bitterness is presented as a picture of religious Christianity that keeps score and resents grace. The invitation at the end of the parable is the same invitation the Father extends today: come home and let the party begin.

Forgiveness Unlocks the Aroma of Heaven

The illustration of the African forgiveness flower is one of the most memorable moments in this sermon. A flower that releases its most beautiful fragrance only when stepped on becomes a living parable of Matthew 18. The pastor draws a direct line: when we are wronged and choose to forgive freely, without demanding an apology or requiring groveling, we release something that cannot be manufactured by human effort. It is the aroma of heaven entering our circumstances. This forgiveness is not weakness but the most powerful force available to a believer, capable of transforming marriages, futures, and entire communities.

The Lord’s Prayer as a Kingdom Declaration

Rather than treating the Lord’s Prayer as a liturgical recitation, the pastor unpacks each phrase as a living declaration of faith. Hallowed be your name means let people come to know who You truly are, not the profaned version that religion has created. Your kingdom come means the believer actively expects and receives heavenly realities now, not someday. Give us our daily bread refers to revelation and spiritual sustenance, not merely physical provision. And the central verse, forgive us as we forgive others, is identified as the hinge of the entire prayer, the condition that either opens or closes the flow of God’s blessing in a life.

Practical Steps Toward a Softer Heart

The pastor concludes with a pastoral and practical exhortation: stop waiting to feel forgiveness before you choose it. Erica Kirk’s public declaration of forgiveness toward the man who killed her husband is held up not as emotional completeness but as obedient beginning. Forgiveness is an act of the will before it becomes a condition of the heart. Believers are encouraged to say Holy Spirit, fill me, come, do whatever you want to do, and to commit their way to God. The promise is clear: when we yield to Him with open hearts, He causes us to walk in His statutes, not by our great effort but by His transforming Spirit.

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