LET'S TALK - Praying The Will of God

Lord’s Prayer Recap

We do not serve prayer, Prayer is designed to serve us

We pray to Heavenly Father that we are called to have a personal and authentic relationship with

The Lords prayer serves as a template for us to follow

The disciples asked Jesus how they should pray after they watched him pray in Luke 11

Jesus again walks them through the Lords prayer

The Lords prayer creates a template that breaks down into 6 parts

Character

Kingdom

Provision

Confession/Forgiveness

Guidance

Deliverance

Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done

Today we are going to look at the next the next part or theme of the Lords Prayer. The Kingdom.

Your Kingdom come, you will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I think most of us can understand your will be done but what about your Kingdom Come?

Why would we pray this?

If God is all knowing and all powerful and Sovereign then why do we need to pray fr his Kingdom to come? And honestly if all that's true then why do we need to pray that his will be done? Isn’t he able to do his will whenever he wants?

i think for us to understand this concept we need to breakdown this to the simple.

His Kingdom coming simply put is this

What God wants done is done.

That’s whats occuring right now in heaven where his Kingdom is fully established and where he is sitting on his throne.

See, we know we are in a world that is broken and fallen. That this world is ruled by a evil power, Satan, and a time is coming when that rule will end.

God’s Kingdom is coming but it isn’t here yet.

Still, why would we pray for it to come?

I know we want it to come if we are Christ followers but why pray for it to come if God is bringing it about at his appointed time, in his perfect plan?

I Think its for many reasons, but I’ll give us 4 to think abut today

We pray for God’s will so we can align our will with his

We constantly battle between serving our will or serving his

We pray for his will to be done because its an act of Faith.

When we pray for his will to accomplished, It shows we trust him more than we trust ourselves

We pray for his kingdom to come because it reminds us that this world is not our inheritance

We are called over and over again to not be of this world but many of us treat this world like its all we have

We pray that his will is done on earth as it is in heaven because it reminds us that his will isn’t done here

That’s why there is brokenness and pain and sorrow and we are reminded that he is not the author of these things. He has a better good and perfect reality

It’s one thing to know these things, It’s entirely another to see an example of how someone prays for the Kingdom and the will of God to be done.

Lets look at someone in scripture that gives us a great example to follow

Daniel The Man

Daniel is a man who is dedicated to prayer

His life is marked by prayer

He is taken captive

Drug away never to see his home again

Made a Eunich

His manhood is taken from him

But he never lets those things take away his relationship with the Lord

We see this in the first chapter when he asks not to eat the food from the Kings table

He devotes himself to the Lord his God

The Lord gives him favor in the midst of his captors

Daniel 1:9 ESV

9 And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs,

Daniel is one of the most amazing men of the bible.

He lives a life that is astonishing and accomplishes more than most people could dream of.

This captive man doesn’t give up and resign to being just any prisoner. He excels in his new surrondings

Because he is a man devoted to God

A man devoted to prayer

He interprets dreams

Consults Kings

Is made Prime Minister of 2 Different Occupations

Spends the night with Lions and is untouched

Meets with Angels

Is given Prophecy

What else more could there be? And this man was a captive almost his whole life!

But heres the reason. He was devoted to prayer!

He was incredibly disciplined and had an incredible relationship with his Heavenly Father

And this is why i want to look at just one of Daniels prayers today.

If were going to study prayer and especially see what it looks like to pray the will of God, his kingdom come, his will be done then we have to look at Daniels prayer in Dan chapter 9

This prayer embodies all that we are studying in Matthew chapter 6

We could spend weeks just looking into this one passage

But today i want us to focus on just a couple things we see and can glean from this prayer

In order to give you some perspective and understanding on whats going on here Let me summarize a couple of things for you to bring you up to speed.

Daniel is most likely in his eighties when he prays this prayer

He has already experieced many of the things we already spoke about in his life

But here we see that he has been reading the writings of Jeremiah the Prophet and he Reads where Jeremiah prophicies the return to Jereselum in seventy years from the destruction and he knows that its not far off now

Its getting closer to the time for this return to occur

And Daniel begins to pray that it will happen

jLets read this passage together and see what it says

Daniels Prayer

This passage of scripture is one of the best examples of how to pray in the Bible

Daniel 9:1–2 ESV

1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

Jeremiah 25:12 ESV

12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.

Jeremiah 29:10 ESV

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

An Attitude of Confession and Plea for Forgiveness

Daniel 9:3 ESV

3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Daniel 9:4–6 ESV

4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

Daniel 9:7–10 ESV

7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 8 To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

Daniel 9:11–13 ESV

11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth.

Daniel 9:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice.

Daniel 9:15–16 ESV

15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly. 16 “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us.

He Pleads for God to do, What he Promised to Do

Daniel 9:17–19 ESV

17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”

Application

Do you know what the will of God is for your life?

Not generally but specifically.

Do you want God’s will over your will?

Do you believe his will for your life is better than your will for it?

What does God’s kingdom coming into your life look like?

How do you know?

See praying for his will and his kingdom means we first have to know we are part of it?

Over and over again Jesus talks about the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God in the parables.

Many of them often start with “The Kingdom of Heaven is like....” “This is what the Kingdom of God is like...”

And here’s the common theme - God’s Kingdom ushers in incredible hope, promise and good, but it also brings with it judgement, wrath and a reckoning for those outside the kingdom. Growth and fruit are tied to those who are included in the Kingdom and things that are dead and barren are not

Which are you?

Growing and fruitful or Dead and fruitless?

See praying that the kingdom will come and his will be done not only affirms the good things we wait for but its also a reminder of what’s at stake!