sermon071705
· Read Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
· “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, this is the third petition.
· We arrive here, at what I would like to call the transition petition, ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, is the result of the first two petition; Hallowed be your name and your kingdom come.
· He is almighty God with all of His attributes and He is king of kings thus there is a longing to submit to the will of the King.
· Deep down in side we must admit that in the long run it all works out the Lord’s way
· And all is well, thus, we can sing praise God from whom all blessings flow, say our good-byes and go home.
· But you know this life is not that simple
o Our Father tells me about a special relationship that I have with God and that makes us feel joyful.
o In heaven God is there and we will be also
o Hallowed be your name reminds us of worship and the attributes of our God and Father
o Your kingdom come teaches us about Jesus in the flesh and that he is coming again to judge the living and the dead. And even that is not too bad, I can still rejoice
o But your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, it is easy to say, easy to understand but can we live this?
· The will is the desire, the wish, the choice, of God.
· Be done simply means completed, finished or accomplished
· The will of God can be described as secret and revealed passages like Deuteronomy 29:29 speaks of this Deuteronomy 29:29 29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
· God’s secret will are His hidden decrees usually revealed in prophecies of the future but not fully comprehended by man until after the fact (
· God’s revealed will are his precepts or commands
· We say it and we sing it “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, but do we really mean it? That is one reason why I call this the transition petition
o I want to dwell on the cup that I must drink from
o This cross that I must carry
o The price that I must pay
o Earthly pain and worldly emotions
o The thorn that I must endure
o The economy, society and the family tree
o This persecution for righteousness sake
o Aborted babies, abandon children and abused senior citizens
o This suffering for doing good
o I want to dwell on these
o And not on the secret and reveal will of God being accomplished down on earth, where creation is groaning and laboring, down here where I live
· Allow me to answer the question – can we live this, our mouth say it, our mind think it but our heart, in many situations, is not in it; James 4:3 is so true here (you ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures).
· Continuing with this line of reasoning and behavior my heart is declaring therefore my will must be done on earth. And I can flavor this with a statement like ‘after all I am indeed saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost! Amen!
· We have learned that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work
· So let’s look at a passage of scripture as we continue with wanting my will to be done. Open your Bibles to Romans 7:15-25a
Romans 7:15-25
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
· This line of reasoning brings me full circle back to ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’
· Earlier I gave a list of things I would like to dwell on and some of you here today may be saying in your heart
o I’m dealing with pain (physical and/or emotional)
o I’m facing anxiety (which is distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune)
o I’m dealing with trouble and someone else is facing sorrow and there is another dealing with loss
o Real issues like; cancer, death, getting old, being misunderstood, loneliness, and disabled
· When it comes to these real situations and circumstances, I have my own wishes, requests and desires – Amen
· All of what I have just described falls under one word, and that word is ‘suffer’. Many of us here today are suffering! Amen! Now turn to 1Peter chapter 3 and beginning with verse 12 listen (see page 1069 of personal Bible)
1 Peter 4:12-19
12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 14 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 Now
“If the righteous one is scarcely saved,
Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
19 Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.
· Again we come full circle to ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’
· In the book of Genesis we find Joseph learning to pray ‘thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ when he told his brothers that you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. (Genesis 50:20)
· David learned to live with the will of God on earth when he is quoted saying “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:22-23)
· Paul learned to embrace the fullness of ‘thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, when dealing with his own thorn in the flesh. He says; “Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2Cor. 12:10)
· Jesus gave us this model prayer and he gave us the words ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ and the same Jesus gave us the best example of living these words in the garden where he said; “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42)
· In conclusion our choir has sung a song titled ‘It is well with my soul’. It is hymn number 189 in our hymn books. This song was written by Haratio G. Spafford, who lived from (1828-1888) as an attorney in my home city of Chicago. The history leading up to the writing of that song is nothing short of amazing and is a more modern day illustration of praying “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
· Listen
Spafford had known peaceful and happy days as a successful attorney in Chicago. He was the father of four daughters, an active member of the Presbyterian Church, and a loyal friend and supporter of D. L. Moody and other evangelical leaders of his day. Then, a series of calamities began, starting with the great Chicago fire of 1871 which wiped out the family’s extensive real estate investments. When Mr. Moody and his music associate, Ira Sankey, left for Great Britain for an evangelistic campaign, Spafford decided to lift the spirits of his family by taking them on a vacation to Europe. He also planned to assist in the Moody-Sankey meetings there.
In November, 1873, Spafford was detained by urgent business, but he sent his wife and four daughters as scheduled on the S.S. Ville du Harve, planning to join them soon. Halfway across the Atlantic, the ship was struck by an English vessel and sank in 12 minutes. All four of the Spafford daughters—Tanetta, Maggie, Annie and Bessie—were among the 226 who drowned. Mrs. Spafford was among the few who were miraculously saved.
Horatio Spafford stood hour after hour on the deck of the ship carrying him to rejoin his sorrowing wife in Cardiff, Wales. When the ship passed the approximate place where his precious daughters had drowned, Spafford received sustaining comfort from God that enabled him to write, “When sorrows like sea billows roll … It is well with my soul.” What a picture of our hope!
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll—whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well with my soul.
Tho Satan should buffet, tho trials should come, let this blest assurance control, that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and shed His own blood for my soul.
And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll: The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, “Even so”—it is well with my soul.
Chorus: It is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul.[1]
New Hope, can you, can we, truthfully say that “It is well with my soul,” no matter what the situations or the circumstances that surrounds us today, tomorrow and for ever more, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven? In Jesus’ name Amen!
· Martyn Lloyd-Jones once wrote: “Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes face to face with God” (Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 2 vols. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979], 2:45).
· Commentator J. Oswald Sanders adds this lofty view of prayer:
· No spiritual exercise is such a blending of complexity and simplicity. It is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try, yet the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty on high. It is as appropriate to the aged philosopher as to the little child. It is the ejaculation of a moment and the attitude of a lifetime. It is the expression of the rest of faith and of the fight of faith. It is an agony and an ecstasy. It is submissive and yet importunate. In the one moment it lays hold of God and binds the devil. It can be focused on a single objective and it can roam the world. It can be abject confession and rapt adoration. It invests puny man with a sort of omnipotence (Effective Prayer [Chicago: Moody, 1969], 7).
· We who believe (Christians) struggle with prayer, here is one reason for it
· It is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition. There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life. . . . Ultimately, therefore, a man discovers the real condition of his spiritual life when he examines himself in private, when he is alone with God. . . . And have we not all known what it is to find that, somehow, we have less to say to God when we are alone than when we are in the presence of others? It should not be so; but it often is. So that it is when we have left the realm of activities and outward dealings with other people, and are alone with God, that we really know where we stand in a spiritual sense (Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 2 vols. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979], 2:45).
· What is the will of God?
o Will. God’s will is that attribute of God whereby he approves and determines to bring about every action necessary for the existence and activity of himself and all creation.[2]
· Two distinctions for the will of God are
o God’s necessary will which is everything He must will because of His nature. What does God will necessarily? He wills Himself. God eternally wills to be, who He is and what He is. He says, “I am who I am or I will be what I will be. God cannot choose to be different than He is or to cease to exist.
o
· Two doctrinal views
o One view emphasizes God’s sovereignty and in its extreme application holds that God will work according to His perfect will regardless of how men pray or even whether they pray. Thus prayer is nothing more than turning in to God’s will.
o At the opposite extreme is the view that maintains God’s actions pertaining to us are determined largely by our prayers. Our persistent pleading will make God do for us what He wouldn’t otherwise do.
· Is God’s will inevitable?
o Bitter Resentment
o Some professed believers resent what they see as the imposition of God’s will—a divine dictator working out His sovereign, selfish will on His people. They pray out of a sense of compulsion, believing they cannot escape from the inevitable.
o Passive Resignation
o Other believers, however, don’t resent God’s will. They view Him as their loving, caring Father who has only their best in mind. Yet they also are resigned to His will as the inevitable, unchangeable, and irresistible force in their lives, thus they think their prayers will not make a difference. They pray for His will to be done only because He has commanded them to do so. But that’s certainly not a prayer of faith; it’s more like a prayer of capitulation. Believers who pray that way accept God’s will with a defeatist attitude.
· But listen to the word of God
o Ephesians 1:10-11 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,
o Notice in this text we address both heaven and earth and also notice that it is according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will
o The petition is about reminding us of this
·
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[1]Osbeck, K. W. (1990). Amazing grace : 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions. Includes indexes. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications.
[2]Grudem, W. A. (1994). Systematic theology : An introduction to biblical doctrine (Page 211). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.