Sermon Tone Analysis

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since we last met on a Wednesday evening for worship and Bible study.

I almost feel like I should stand up here and formally introduce myself to you guys all over again, like this is some new meeting or something.

(And it’s only been going on three weeks!

Wow, what would a month feel like?!)

What can I say, huh?

I miss my family time with all of you guys and our studying the Word of God! Amen!

OK, so let me ask you about our ongoing assignment of praying over the specific area/areas that you have been doing so with diligence.

How is this going?

Are you seeing or have you seen any breakthroughs over the things that you are praying about?

If not, that is OK, you just keep praying to God about those things.

I believe that what many refer to as “unanswered prayers” are a large reason why so many people stop, or digress from a life that is devoted to God in prayer and intimate communication!

People feel like He isn’t listening or doesn’t care and therefore He never answers their prayers and all the while they see and hear of others who have amazing testimonies and breakthroughs from God answering their prayers and sometimes even on multiple accounts!

This, in turn, drives them to a decrease in any or all communication with God and ultimately, many walk away from the church and their relationship with the Lord!

Tonight, as we continue with our teaching on the Lord’s Prayer, (or more appropriately titled, the Disciple’s Prayer), we are going to spend some time looking at one area of that modeled prayer that is possibly linked to why many people never see or hardly see answers to and breakthroughs from their prayer life!

So, lets quickly start at the beginning of this prayer that Jesus gave us as a model and move forward to where we left off.

As you start saying this prayer, who is it that you are speaking to? (WAIT FOR ANSWER.....Right, God!)

And what amazing title are we, as the children of God, allowed to call Him by as shown by Jesus?

(Yes, “our Father”!)

You and I can call Him our Father when we become His children.

That is, when we come to the spiritual adoption agency (a.k.a.

The Cross), and we give ourselves to Him and become adopted as sons and daughters!

And where does our Father dwell?

(Right, in heaven.)

This thought along with the next part of the prayer model is crucial to keep things in proper perspective: “Hallowed be your name!”

OK, lets down to business, shall we?

Let me start off by asking about your ongoing homework of praying over a particular request to God.

His name is to be kept and revered as HOLY!

Has anyone had a breakthrough or an answer to their prayer?

If not, that’s alright; you just keep pressing in and praying.

Nothing that we say or do makes His name Holy!

We are not saying this so that it will become a reality; nothing that we bring to Him adds to or builds up His attributes!

HE IS HOLY; PERIOD!

HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL ALWAYS BE!

Tonight’s continuance on the Lord’s Prayer, (or more appropriately titled, the Disciple’s Prayer), may help to shed some light on the issue of our prayers being, or seemingly not being answered.

"Your kingdom come...” - Remember we talked about last time of how Jewish literature used a technique called parallelism, which is method of writing one thing and then coming right behind it with another statement that explains, builds up or adds to the first statement?

I think that the subject of what many call, “unanswered prayers”, is a strong reason for the lack of pursuing our prayer with our heavenly Father!

And the part that we will spend a little more time talking about tonight is an area that many struggle with; both in their daily/natural lives, but more importantly, in their relationship with Yaweh!

,

So, over the last few weeks, we began looking at the subject of prayer.

even more specific, we began looking at the modeled prayer that Jesus gave to us,

Do you see how this technique expands upon and builds up the meaning of the first statement?

This is where we left off last time, in looking at this part of the prayer model.

“Your kingdom come...........your will be done” - This parallel statement shows us where the kingdom of God is.

Wherever the will of God is being carried out, then His kingdom is set up there!

This petition of “your kingdom come”, is both for the now, but also it has the eschatological meaning of a future time when this kingdom will be consummated and complete and total here on earth, as it is in heaven!

When we pray and ask that His kingdom come, we are not trying to establish and set it up here, because Jesus already did that for us and in us.

AMEN?!

Remember that wherever God’s will is being carried out and His name is being revered as Holy and honored, then His kingdom is operating right there!

So, when you and I pray and make the declaration, “Your kingdom come”, we are really saying that we are bending and yielding ourselves to His will and we want to see His name glorified above all else!

It is an affirmation of total submission to His will.

And this is clarified with the follow-up statement, “on earth, as it is in heaven”.

You see, in heaven, everything and every creature that exists kneels to and totally and humbly submits to the sovereignty and will of almighty God! (There is no other authority in heaven!)

So we are then saying that we want to see the exact same thing happen in the kingdom on earth (A.K.A. our lives), just as it happens in heaven!

If you were here when I first started teaching on the Disciple’s Prayer, you may remember that I made mention that this prayer has two distinct sets of petitions or clauses.

At the opening of the prayer, we see the first three of these petitions or clauses, being given to bring glory to God and exalt His position and power and authority in our lives.

(Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done!)

It is no mistake that Jesus taught the prayer model with these first.

You and I are to exalt and praise and worship God, the creator and sovereign Lord of all, first and foremost before we begin with anything else that we want or need!

He is always first!

And this is seen in the model for prayer that Jesus gave to us! (This is something that I have tried to really make myself more aware of when I am speaking to God; I try to make sure that I am not just jumping into my list of things, without first taking the time to glorify and praise the God from whom all blessings flow!)

It is after the first three petitions are given to glorify and honor Him, that the next three come, that have to do with us specifically: “Give us this day our daily bread”, “forgive us our debts” and “lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.”

So, we exalt and honor and glorify the Father and then we come before Him for our needs, both physical as well as spiritual as denoted in these three petitions.

So, we have come to the part of the prayer that I mentioned at the beginning that is probably the most impacting and the hardest to fully submit to for many people; “YOUR WILL BE DONE”!

What exactly are we saying to God when we usher these words?

I mentioned at the closing of our last Wednesday service about the will of God and that there are things that we recognize as the sovereign will of God.

These are the things that God has purposed and that will happen, regardless of anything that you or I say or do.

It was the will of God that the earth be formed and everything on it and in it and the entire expanse of the universes that surround it and beyond.

It was at the same time, the will of God to create mankind in His image (the image of Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and breathe the spirit of life into us and in doing so, have intimate fellowship with us.

It was not however, the will of God for mankind to sin and rebel against God’s commands and thus we find the chasm that separates mankind from God; sin due to our WILL and not His will!

It was the will of God to make for Himself a people and a nation that would be used to bring forth a king and kingdom that would, through covenant, forever have a king upon the throne!

It was by the will of God that this kingship would be fulfilled and forever secured, not through powerful and rich rulers and earthly monarchies, but rather through a teenage Hebrew girl and a carpenter.

It was God’s will that His son, Jesus, would go to the Cross of Calvary and pay a horrible ransom to buy back His creation from an enemy who rebelled openly against’s God’s will and who hates God’s children with a fervent and bitter hatred like no other and wants nothing more than to utterly destroy us to get back at God for His just punishment!

And it is in the closing of the Bible that we see the finality of God’s will for His creation, by destroying the destroyer and creating a new heaven and a new earth and making an eternal abode for His children that will never again know the sickness of sin, or the temptation thereof!

These things, that we know of, are a part of the Sovereign will of God and regardless of what we do and say, or regardless of what course of actions the devil takes, the sovereign will of God will happen exactly as He so desired!

His will id perfect and nothing can alter it from happening!

The will of God is also shown throughout the Bible for us, as His children.

God gave the law and His commandments for us to follow as His will and even made it a point to say that He would write His law upon our hearts.

What God has stated in His word for us to do, is non-negotiable and we can easily see it by reading within the Bible.

says,

This is God’s will for each and every one of us and yet we have the power to decide if we want to yield to God’s will and obey it, or act out and fulfill the desires of the flesh!

The choice is ours and so are the consequences that come with our choices.

The Bible says in ,

Rebellion against God’s will is not rewarded or even tolerated in His kingdom!

God expects us to do what He has told us to do; (i.e.

His WILL!)

Jesus said in ,

,

Jesus, not only said that only those who do the will of His Father will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but He also explained that His family is made up of those who do the will of God.

In , He said,

The point that I am wanting to drive home about the will of God and our prayers is that it is easy to say, “Yes God I want to see your kingdom manifest in my life.

Yes God, I want your will to be done!”

Yet, we do not necessarily want His will , unless His will aligns with our will!

says,

Just because we follow the guidelines that Jesus gave us in praying to His Father (we follow the model) and then we ask Him for something, doesn’t mean that what we just asked Him for is in His will for our lives!

We can easily confuse our will and His, if we do not know His voice and His word.

(Example: A young man prays that his sick father will live and not die and yet it is God’s will that the father is going to die.

(the father will die and the young man may become bitter about it, because he doesn’t understand the word of God and the will of God.) Same situation: the young man prays this time that his father would die because of bitterness and animosity and it is God’s will that the father is going to die.

(the father is going to die and the young man will think that it was God honoring his request, when it had nothing to do with what he asked and especially the heart in which he was asking.)

Besides the things that are listed within His word that we know we are and are not to do, it is our responsibility to seek Him and His perfect will for each of our own lives.

tells us,

In verse 15 the Greek word for foolish or unwise is asophos, and it means being unwise or foolish.