Courageous Prayers - On Earth...
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Veterans’ Day - Grandpa and Grandma, Dad, and now we have an enlisted man in the Army…will be going to get him this coming week.
Good morning!
In a few weeks we’ll be starting a series focusing on Christmas. Yes…it is coming soon! It will be around the idea of the arrival of Jesus. What that really meant…and what that means for us today.
Today we’ll focus on another prayer of Christ’s. This prayer is probably one of the most well known prayers in all of scripture. Many of you are probably guessing what it might be right now.
We’ve been discussing the idea of courageous prayers. Lord, make me bold, speak to me, reveal my heart, break my heart for what breaks yours, Lord, how does evil see me?
Today there’s another…and it is from this prayer that Jesus prayed that’s recorded for us in a couple of different places.
It is commonly thought that this was part of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew records this sermon as one of Jesus firsts big announcements as to why He is here, Who His is, and what a follower of God really looks like, sounds like.
In Matthew chapter 6 we find Jesus talking about the prayers of some of the pharisees…out loud and open, public, meant to be seen and gawked at. Jesus says to pray privately…because it is truly and simply a discussion between you and your Lord.
And then he gives us a model prayer.
9 Therefore you pray in this way: “Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be treated as holy.
10 May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
In a few translations, there is the added doxology, what many of you probably memorized. Me too.
Many current translations use the oldest ancient manuscripts, which don’t have the doxology. Some though do use the ending doxology. For yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever Amen.
The doxology was a common way, in the early church of ending a prayer to God…most often used during a time of public worship. Some of the later translations added it…mainly because it was in use.
Whether your translation has it or not is not good nor bad. It is simply a doxology. And I would say an appropriate ending....Kind of taken from a couple of Old Testament passages…so it would have had common use.
And some translations have the evil one…or just evil. The Greek is not specific on this one so it can be translated as either…and still, the same reference is made…deliver us from what we need delivered from…evil.
But, this is a courageous prayer.
Jesus delivers this message at the outset of His public ministry.
And there are Pharisees and leaders who practice prayer in a way that brings them attention…honor…glory…
Rather than glory being given to God.
But there’s a part of this passage that is very important for us today…in this series of courageous prayers.
10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus intent is to bring the Kingdom. Remember, when Jesus refers to the Kingdom, He is referring to what He is bringing back.
Think Genesis 1. God’s rule…God’s sovereign rule....and our given rule, under His.
We were not just going to be gardeners for eternity. We were asked to rule over creation…under God’s rule, in obedience to Him…and in that given authority, we would live incredible lives…in relationships with others…having children/families, filling the earth with His image…with His glory.
Evil affected that didn’t it...
And now Jesus is coming back to reclaim authority, to forgive sin, and to disarm evil.
His intentions are to begin a re-creation. And that begins in each one of our hearts.
Your Kingdom Come. Jesus is asking us to pray for this to happen. To be aware of it happening around us. To know how He is involved in this…to Know Him as our Lord…much like it was suppose to be like in the beginning.
Your Kingdom Come.
Your will be done…on earth as it is in Heaven.
That gives us a bit more description doesn’t it.
But its not just description that Jesus is giving us. This begins to get personal. Do the Father’s Will.
Right then and there, those people are beginning to see an example of how God’s Will will be done on earth....it will be through the life of Jesus. They are and will be watching Him…and He always says…I say what the father wants me to say. I do what the father wants me to do.…and we’ll look at this in just a second.
But at some point…Jesus begins to, in the pattern of discipleship…He begins to say things like…you’ve seen me live and talk and do…now you do the same (discipleship). This is what it’s about...
So for us to pray this prayer means, we are asking for God to do His will…through us…as the Kingdom advances.
This prayer isn’t a passive prayer. God you do all these things and we’ll sit back and watch you do it.
THOUGHTS ON DISCIPLESHIP by Willard, Stott, and Warren
Dallas Willard in his book "Divine Conspiracy" states: "....discipleship is real-life apprenticeship to Jesus." If we are students of Jesus then we must be with him. If I am an apprentice, a disciple, that means I must be with him to learn from him, how to be like him.
Rick Warren states: "You were created to be like Jesus. This is your destiny. From the very beginning, God's plan was to create human beings to reflect His image. God announced his intention at Creation: "Then God said, "let us make mankind in our image and likeness."
To take an illustration from ordinary life; a child learning to multiply and divide numbers is an apprentice to his/her teacher. Children are with their teachers learning from them how to be like them. The same would be true for a student of piano, or voice, or tennis. The "being-with" by watching and hearing is an absolute necessity.
If I were to go up to one of the electric or plumbing unions and begin work in the field I would first need to learn…then watch…then do.
If I got to the point in my learning where I was suppose to do…but then I turned around to my mentor and said…hey why don’t you just come along with me on the job and I’ll watch you do it some more…that wouldn’t fly…I’d be out of a job fairly quickly.
Now its not that I can’t ever go back to that person for wisdom or to watch some more or to ask specific questions…absolutely…but at some point…I might be called on to become a mentor myself…teaching the next group of electricians or plumbers...
The prayer is for us to live like Jesus.
Is that a courageous prayer?
I would say yes, absolutely, because it means that we need to stop living for ourselves...
Evil would want us to live for ourselves. God, would want us to live completely for Him…with Him.
Why? Because, as opposed to what evil says, living for God is the best possible way to live ever....Genesis 1-2.
Jesus is inviting us to participate, to be a part of....the coming Kingdom. The coming Kingdom that is the beginning of His recreation.
So here’s a question for us to consider in the next few minutes.
Why do we do what we do?
What is our motivation?
For years this has been debated by philosophers and scholars and by scientists and religious leaders.
Is it nature…we just tend to do things because we’re human? Nuture…do we do things the way we were raised?
Are we predetermined in some way to do things?
I believe we can say we start with free will. We have choices. We make choices. You all made the choice to be with your church family this morning.
But why do we do what we do?
To live for Jesus, in His Kingdom…living out God’s will here on earth as it is in Heaven…giving up our personal motiviations and leaning all on Christs…
There might be a few things that will be helpful.
1 - Gratitude: Living in gratitude. Always being thankful for what God has given us. Can we live today as though it is still Genesis 1-2 without sin?
We can…but we do have an obstacle that is here…and we can’t discount it. This is where we do battle.
We live in gratitude to God…but also in the presence of evil. Even in the presence of our own sin.
Living out of gratitude towards God means we’re constantly looking away from meeting our own needs. We recognize Him as the giver of all good things.
A Bible scholar I read this week said it this way:
Gratitude is developed as a motivating force by continually looking away from self to the finished work of Jesus’ ministry and considering deeply the alternative consequences of our fate without it.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)
18 ...give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Your will be done....we live in gratitude towards our Heavenly Father
2 - Love: A second and consequent motivation…is love. We love, because God loved us and loves us. We love God and others.
29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”
We love God with everything we have…and we love others as ourselves. And if we love ourselves the way God intended, that means that we always put others before us. We are servants under God’s rule…under God’s reign. We weren’t meant to rule ourselves or others…just over different parts of earthly creation. Loving ourselves means…knowing God like Jesus did…and doing God’s will like Jesus did.…that would also mean…loving others.
The apostle John wrote it like this in 1 John 4:16
16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
He later wrote this:
19 We love because he first loved us.
Living in God’s will means we live in a state of gratitude, in love, and joy...
Now in this I think Satan can give us a trap door.
Joy…we could receive joy from thinking…I’ll get a reward if I do God’s will.
Where’s the focus with that? On ourselves. Self-centered.
There’s a nuance there.
Let’s change where that is centered. Yes, we are promised a reward…but we don’t live to get. A better perspective here is this…knowing that God will reward us, we live to please Him. His joy is then our joy. Doing God’s will brings Him joy…thus we will live in the joy we were meant to live in since the beginning of time.
Our motivation is a reciprocal joy.
Praying like this…Your Kingdom come, your will be done…on earth as it is in Heaven means that we live the closest we can, even when surrounded by evil, to what was intended in the beginning. In that way the Kingdom grows in us and around us.
Not by our strength but through Christ’s.
What happened when Jesus came around. People understood the scriptures.
He said things in ways that didn’t focus on Him…but on God (unlike the pharisees and saducees).
He said things in ways that opened up the big picture of God moving through history. Acting through history…so they could see where that big picture was going.
In the gospels we see people respond with gratitude, love and joy.
What else do we see? We see Jesus bringing this kingdom in knowledge, understanding…even through miracles.
He looks at the storm…and says, Hush. This was a storm that could have threatened the safety of those on the sea. He just says “hush.” What’s he doing before that? Sleeping. No fear…the storm doesn’t affect him.
He reaches out to heal the sick. He doesn’t take on the sickness…His wholeness is transmitted to the sick.
He reaches out to the leper…something that would make anyone else “unclean.” He has no reason to fear being unclean because the unclean can’t affect him. His Cleanness moves to them.
The reaches out and touches the widow’s son…who has died. This as well doesn’t affect him. In that culture you were not suppose to touch corpse because that would make you unclean…but this doesn’t affect Him…He doesn’t just perform raise the dead…His life moves to them...
He eats with and spends time with sinners.
Things like this are his priority.
One author put it this way...”The taint of evil lies heavy on him throughout, and somehow he bears it all, takes it all the way, exhausts its power.”
He does what God’s people were to be doing…but had forgotten. He brings grace. A call to obedience. A call to love God with literally everything you have. And to give everything you have for the sake of others.
These are all signs that Heaven is making a move back to creation. God’s will, done on Earth.
And this is what we pray for…for Heaven, the Kingdom of Heaven to return and battle evil, and one day recreate everything.
We are here in the in-between times. The Kingdom is here. The church is part of it. We are disciples who emulate, live like Jesus…not for ourselves but in love towards God and towards others. Living in this Kingdom as witnesses to what Jesus has and is doing.
And all along the spirit of Jesus is also living inside each one of us…helping us do God’s will on earth…as it is in Heaven.
Praying this prayer is asking God to work in you in Kingdom ways. And for that to happen we need the spirit of God to help us die to ourselves…give up all so we can be all for Him.
All the while
It’s a courageous prayer. But this is the prayer of the church.
This week, can you pray…God show me how to live out your will?