Reverend Ben Cooper's Podcast
Reverend Ben Coopers podcast, offers an inviting space for listeners to explore Christianity and spiritual growth with wisdom, humor, and a deep commitment to biblical truth. Through Rev. Ben's engaging conversations with guests, the podcast not only explores the timeless wisdom of the Bible but also tackles the pressing issues of life, faith, and hope in a way that is accessible, thought-provoking, and enriching. Whether you’re seeking spiritual nourishment, answers to life’s big questions, or simply a place to reflect on your faith, the Rev Ben podcast is a valuable resource on your journey.
In each episode, Rev. Ben guides listeners through profound theological reflections, personal stories, and practical insights drawn from the Bible and the broader Christian tradition.
Reverend Ben Cooper's Podcast
The Lord's Prayer as a Beacon of Peace - (#685 - Elim - BM2)
Unlock the secrets of the Lord's Prayer and discover how it offers comfort and connection even beyond religious boundaries. Join Mark and me as we explore the profound meaning behind those simple yet powerful words, "Our Father," fostering a unique relationship with God as our eternal Father. You'll gain insights into how this prayer transcends earthly and religious constructs, inviting believers to find their true identity through the grace and care God extends to all creation. By reflecting on its universal familiarity, even in non-religious settings like funerals, we uncover why this prayer remains a source of solace and strength for many.
In a different light, we examine the incredible blessings of spiritual adoption through Christ, as highlighted in Matthew 6 and Romans 8. Mark and I contrast the imperfections of earthly parents with the perfection and justice of our heavenly Father, emphasizing the freedom believers find in being adopted into God's family. This conversation sheds light on the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, allowing believers to call upon God as "Abba, Father." With assurance and hope, we affirm that when embraced by this spirit of adoption, our eternal future is secured through faith in Jesus Christ, freeing us from fear and filling our lives with purpose and peace.
https://www.pastorbencooper.co.uk/
God bless your world, wherever you are today. We thank God for your lives. We thank you for joining Mark and myself as we're in for this sharp 15 minutes. We've got a lovely bit of scripture that's coming up. We thank you for wherever you are. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, the Lord is with each and every one of us. There is power in the greatest name in heaven and earth. Now we got Mark with us and we're in Matthew, chapter 6, and uh, mark, it's so good to have you with us, my friend, and uh, we're doing these quick 15 minutes and they're great, they're powerful. But, mark, what is the title of what we're looking at at this moment?
Speaker 2:Hi Ben, hi Mark, just calling this Our Heavenly Father, based on Matthew 6, the famous Lord's Prayer that we find in this chapter, where the Lord teaches us how we ought to pray.
Speaker 1:It's a powerful prayer, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's well the well-known prayer. We all learn it in school when we're young.
Speaker 1:Do you know what, mark? I've been doing a lot of funerals recently. You know for quite a while, actually, a long, long time now, and what makes me smile is when I get to someone that's an atheist. They say, oh, by the way, we're not going to have a, a religious service, but, but we're going to go atheist all the way, okay, okay, yeah, sure, whatever you want to do, but but we must have the lord's prayer. It's really interesting where this prayer takes you, even it's, and I say why, why, why do you want the lord's prayer? If you're gonna poetry, you've got this, we got that and you're telling me you don't want a religious or Christian service whatsoever. What is it? Oh, we just learned it at school and it's quite nice. I think the Lord works in so many mysterious ways, according to his word, obviously, but this prayer is so powerful.
Speaker 1:It's so powerful, yeah, and it's so good, and it is in the majority of the order of services that I do churched, unchurched faith, non-faith, this, that and I have the privilege of leading these services yes, churched and also unchurched as a celebrant, but they don't realize what they're getting when I come to the door, because we always get jesus in. But this prayer is really interesting and it's our father, and to hear people read this out in a funeral service is so powerful.
Speaker 2:it's something behind the prayer mark that is beyond human understanding yeah, yeah, there's something behind it and it's like written in us that there's something else that we want, and you know, if you're in trouble, then at least you can pray this as an emergency prayer. If you don't know what else to pray, then you can pray the Lord's Prayer.
Speaker 1:I love that what you said an emergency prayer. But when we talk about an emergency prayer, you know, mark, pentecostal background, all the razzmatazz that goes along with elim and all that and I love elim and we understand and we get all that sort of stuff. You know if you were to cut me in half it'd probably say elim like a stick of rock for me. But you know there is something powerful about elim that they are so biblically strong. And this prayer you can hear this, like when I went to the conferences and all that stuff. You can hear the ministers and that praying it. You know this prayer and the pentecostal movement. If, if this is the only prayer that jesus has given us, surely that has to be an indicator for every church, every believer, anyone that calls themselves a christian, that this is the only prayer that jesus gives us. Am I correct? Am I wrong?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean he gives, he does pray in other parts, but in terms of teaching us how we ought to pray, this is it, isn't it?
Speaker 1:this is it and this is what you're saying. This is the emergency. This is it. This is the one that will get you out of anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, our Father. You know those two words to begin with, like we can easily just roll off those words, but you know who is our Father, who is he, and he's unique. There's something different about this God that we can have access to, because on earth we have our parents, our Father, maybe maybe not, but God is, he's our Father, our eternal Father. If we're in the household of God through Christ, then he is our Father, like he's the Father to the Lord Jesus. We become children of God in Christ. So, yeah, our Father, we are one in him. And yeah, it speaks of the grace of God as well in verses 26 and 27. The fowls of the air, like even the unclean creatures, god takes care of, he's mindful of them. And yet, how much more will God care for you if he is, is your father, if you know him that way?
Speaker 1:that's really important, what you said there, mark, because everyone wants to be taken care of, don't they? And when you realize who your father is and we're not referring to the earthly biological father, we are referring to our father in heaven, god yahweh, the creator of heaven and earth, yes, the God that spoke the world into being, and so many of us and I'll say us, and I'm not referring to Mark, but I'm referring to myself and anyone that might join me on this that we can lose our identity. But when we know who our father is, we find our identity in him. We don't find that in church. We don't find that in church. We don't find that in religion. We find our true identity through understanding who our father is in heaven that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the thing is a child who who might not have a godly father. It can be painful, it can really damage a child. Um, the lord jesus says in luke 11, verses 9 through 13, about the father who knows how to give good gifts. Like which, which of those fathers if, uh, if a son should ask for an egg, should receive a scorpion? Uh, have I got it right?
Speaker 1:um, yeah, but yeah, we, we have whoever yeah, whoever asked for a. Yeah, you are right, you're completely right there. You know the father will give you, you know what is correct for you at that particular point. So it's really important, you know. And but funny enough, an earthly father can be quite horrible, and I'm not talking about my dad. So, please, whoever listens, that I'm not referring to my own dad, because I I've got a beautiful dad. Um, I love my dad and he really has been a beautiful father figure to me, so I've been really blessed with that.
Speaker 1:But we are referring to a heavenly father. You know our father, uh, in heaven. So that that is the key we're not referring to. If we've lost the father from this earth that is in heaven. We're not referring to our father, our fleshly, earthly father in heaven. We're referring to yahweh, we're referring to god, we're referring to our father and and it's interesting how christ brings this to the first four words of this prayer our Father in heaven.
Speaker 1:So, straight away, it takes the weight off of our biological.
Speaker 1:We might know our Father, we might not, but that is what is so powerful about this scripture it's raising the pressure of having or not having a earthly father, because every one of us has a common father and has the same father, and that is god. So, whether we are blessed with an earthly father or whether we are not blessed with an earthly father, however that looks the biological process of life where. However we came into this earth, let us remind you that our father in heaven brought you in. It's so important, isn't it, mark? Because so many people have earthly fathers that are controlling, narcissistic, uh, not good fathers, and there are human beings out there that have great fathers, really beautiful fathers. So there is a mixed bag, but one thing is for sure whatever way we go, with a good father or a bad father, there's one common denominator that brings everyone us under the same umbrella that we have a heavenly father, and it's really important to understand that that heavenly father is with you wherever you are at this moment in time yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right, ben and uh. You know, we, we approach him, god the father, direct through jesus christ. You know, we don't pray to saints or to angels, we, we pray to god the father almighty and um. In acts 17, 28, um it says how we live and move and have our being. A certain also of your poets have said for we are also his offspring. So in a we we make a profession in the lowest sense, bodily, but also it's it's a proclamation profession in the highest sense through the death of his son um jesus christ, which I've got noted here in colossians.
Speaker 1:One um yeah as mark is just flicking this scripture and he's getting himself ready for what he's going to share. Mark has made a very, very important point that that we do not lift up any human being, and then we cross over into certain religions that we're all pretty familiar with. We don't lift up Mary, we don't lift up Joseph, we don't lift up saints. What is very, very clear? That we only lift up Jesus Christ. The Bible does reference him as the man, christ Jesus, but also king, fully God, fully Christ, fully king, fully living word. Mark, have you got that reference?
Speaker 2:I don't know if that's this text. Let's see, I've got here Colossians 1. If I can read a couple of verses, it says in earth or things in heaven and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. You know this is through the lord jesus christ, where you were once alienated from god, being brought in and made heirs of God. You know, this is an assurance. He is our Father, but he's also everything Like when you pray this and you pray our Father, you know God, the Father Almighty, can be your personal God. He can be your Father. He can be everything eternally for you. Jc Royal says about his power, wisdom, holiness, justice, mercy and truth. Like everything, that's just the name of God, who he is, but our God is in heaven and he is perfect in every way. So yeah, our earthly parents. We can even have great parents on earth, but they're still human, like us.
Speaker 1:Human form, yeah, like us, with all our faults, with all our failings, the idiosyncrasies that human beings carry. The Bible says the human heart is. Enmity is between us and God, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, through salvation and through, as Mark was talking about, we, you know, this text has thrown open up so much through justification, through redemption. God is sovereign, god is sovereign. God is sovereign, he is sovereign. His ways are just. He is our heavenly father, but he is also, you know, he is the coming king through the image of Christ. There is so much when you look at them. First four words in Matthew 6, verse 9, sorry, not the first four, but where it starts to reference our Father in heaven. So when you look at that, you know we've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and then the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11,. You know them words our Father in heaven, our Father, just froze up. So much in the world of doctrine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, our Father. I mean, yeah, we could talk more about this, but it's all done through Christ. We must trust in his work alone and as Paul writes in Romans 8, 15, you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, father. And that's the beauty of of this is that we are adopted as children of God and we've received not the spirit of bondage against fear, but we receive the spirit of adoption. So if we come to the Father and ask him through Jesus Christ, for him to save us, that we are, that we can be saved and born again, he'll bless us with the Holy Spirit and that comforter. It just gives us such assurance, such a blessed hope, that my eternity is sealed forever.
Speaker 1:That seal of adoption enables us to cry out to God from from the depths of our heart, as abba to abba, father mark, you've said something really, really important that we are adopted, that we're grafted in and we are going to cut this in 30 seconds. Sisters and brothers, wherever you are, this is the 15 minute, but we've literally just dived in and this is. We're learning something new here. But you know, 15 minutes, mark. We want to thank God for your life. We're out of here. We will continue this on. May God bless you and strengthen you, but call on our Father in Jesus' precious name. Amen, god bless.
