Your Will God, Not Mine
The Lord’s Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Last week we started to look at Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount when he gave a model for his disciples on how they should pray. Praying seems simple, you bow your heads and you talk to God. Even our smallest ones can do that. But as we grow and mature we can look at this example of prayer from Matthew’s gospel and see how we should present ourselves as we enter into a time of communication with God.
Let’s look at Jesus’ words:
9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Do you know who the first person in the Bible that prayed? Abraham. Abraham, in communicating with God asked him to save the people of Sodom. Abraham had a conversation with God. God answered him with a voice he understood.
Now today, God still speaks to us through our time of prayer. Some people say they have heard the voice of God, but I never have. I have never heard an audible sound , but I know there is still a two way communication through prayer. I believe this happens through the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Let me give you an example.
Eleven years ago, Mom and I were living in the United States. I was a Pastor at our church, and we knew some missionaries in India. They had an orphanage there in India and also reached out with the gospel in other areas. The wife, Coleen, put a message on Facebook that they wanted someone to come and serve with them for six months in the orphanage to help. Someone who for come for a trip, then later return to their place.
Most of you remember my daughter Emma. Emma was in University at the time and Mom thought it would be good for Emma to take a break from University and spend six months in India helping there. And we were trying to decide if we should send Emma there, and the day was coming that we had to make a decision. Early that morning, I went out treking, and while I was alone walking around our place, I was praying, asking God if we should send Emma, and in a moment I felt God say, your wife should go. Not Emma, your wife. It wasn’t a voice, I didn’t hear thunder from heaven, but I knew that there was a voice that said, Your wife should go. I could say it was God speaking to me in my mind or even the holy Spirit doing the same, but I knew it was God speaking to me, communicating with me, leading me.
At that moment, God answered me in a voice that I understood. And that would have never happened if I would not have taken time to pray and draw close to God. His will was for Mom to take that trip to India.
That is what we are going to see today in Jesus’ model of prayer.
***CBC CREED***
Last week we saw that before he told us how to pray, he told us how not to pray in Matthew 6:5, 6, 7. Then as he began to give us this model of prayer in verse 9 he reminds us who were are going before. Who we are speaking with. He is the God over all Creation. There is none like him. Nothing has ever happened or will happen that he will not know. He is perfect, there is no sin in him, he has always been, and he will forever be. He is the only true God.
So when we pray, we are not just saying words to an empty space, we are talking to God, and he is listening.
3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him.
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
We have confidence that when we pray to him, the God of everything is listening.
So Jesus said we should approach with respect….OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN…
HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME…HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME…
His name is Holy. His Son’s name is holy. The Holy Spirit is holy.
Holy means set apart…
Almost everyday, I hear someone speak the name of Jesus in an unholy manner. They say his name Jesus or “Chineke” and use it in a way that is not bringing him glory. (In this moment……)
(respect example)
When we approach our Father, we do so with respect and honor for one reason, who he is.
Then as Jesus moves to the second part, look what he says
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
One sentence. Yet it is so powerful.
When we agree with this sentence and truly pray that it will happen…we want his Kingdom to come, and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven
Our basis for going to him in pray begins with WHO he is, and knowing that HIS WILL will be accomplished.
What are we saying when we pray….YOUR KINGDOM COME YOUR WILL BE DONE…?
1. It is not about us.
Notice the focus with word “YOUR” It doesn’t say MY WILL or OUR WILL, it say YOUR WILL. This means that the prayer is not about us, what we want is not about us..in fact there is a seperation that we make between what we desire to see happen and an ultimate reality that we live that says, “the most important thing I want to see happen is that he be gloried and what happens in my life, and in the lives of the people around me is that what ever his plans are…they will happen in that way. …
That is where we need to be moved. We need stop thinking that we are in control and we want God to OK our plans. Christians, we are not in control. We are not supposed to be in control. The control is his. When you gave your life to him, when you repented of your sins, you have now given HIM control. You made the choice, you made the decision. And now that he has control of your life, you need to understand that you can’t take it back. You shouldn’t want to take it back.
Why? Because he has plans for you.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
God will never leave you. He has plans for you. But we all must come to a point where we realize that he knows best. He has a purpose, a plan….he knows…he is God. Its not about us, it’s about us trusting him.
But what else can we see from verse 10? Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
2. Jesus speaks of a Kingdom
We see this phrase “the Kingdom” mentioned by Jesus many times. He says, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God…but what does this mean?
The phrase Kingdom of God or Kingdom of heaven points to God’s rule over his creation as King. Look what the first thing that Jesus said as he began his ministry…
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
So if he is the King (remember his gift of gold at his birth), if he is the King, then the Kingdom of heaven, the Kingdom of God has arrived.
Which means that when we go before him in prayer, we are speaking with the one who has rule both in heaven and on earth.
But look at this completer sentence…YOUR KINGDOM COME YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN…
3. His Kingdom and His Will are put side by side.
Jesus wants us to understand that when we go to the Father in prayer, it is the power of his rule, that His will will be accomplished. You cant separate the two.
The very thought that he is the King, his rule is over earth AND heaven, and his will will be done. This should give us confidence. We we pray for his will to be done, it will be done. Even if we ask something that does not line up with his will, only his will will be accomplished. That is the God we serve, that is the God we pray to.
So even before we bring our requests, even before we seek forgiveness, we can have confidence, that even in our not knowing, his will will be accomplished. His will, will be done, here on earth, just like it will done in heaven.
So how should these first two things that Jesus models for us, change our attitude towards prayer?
When we pray, we can have confidence that we are praying to the holiness name that has ever existed. We have direct access to the Holy One…Jehovah God. He is there, he is listening, and he wants to here from you. He wants that relationship with you.
But we should also remember that whatever we ask, whatever our desires may be, we should come before him with an understanding and a heart, that the most important thing that we desire, it that his WILL be done.
Is that the way you pray? Do you understand that you have direct access to the creator of the world. The one that make the ground you walk on. The one that gives you air to breathe, and the mind to think.
And do you deep down understand that if he doesn’t answer your prayers, that you are ok with that because he has a purpose and a will that he needs to accomplish. Even if we don’t understand.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
My has a plan, a purpose, and a will…and he will accomplish it. As a follower of Christ, we need to be OK with that. In fact, as part of our prayer, we must understand and even tell God….YOUR WILL BE DONE.
I think it is interesting that Jesus modeled this prayer when he started his ministry by telling us that we need to be ok to tell God YOUR WILL BE DONE. And in the last days of his ministry, he even had to say it himself…
42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Jesus himself gave us this model, but he lived it out as well. Can you live this out in your life?
When I prayed eleven years ago on the road outside my house, I was praying for an understanding if our daughter Emma would be the one to go to India for those months. But the answer I got was HIS WILL. Your Kingdom come, Your WILL be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
His will wasn’t Emma, his will was Mom. But his will was in motion long before that. Years before he put being a missionary in Mom’s heart. He made that grow more in her heart while she was in India, and it grew in mine as well while she was there.
But there was more to his will …when she returned, we knew, he wanted us to become missionaries, and his will led us here nine years ago…
Never in our minds in a million years would we had thought we would be living in Nigeria…but…You rKingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.