Sermon Tone Analysis

*How Should We Pray: */Part IV/

/“Your Will Be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven”/

March 15, 1998

Matt.

6:10

 

Do any of you ever wonder, /“Why your prayers sometimes never seem to be answered?”/

Bonnie and I have felt the frustration of prayers seemingly unanswered.

We have also felt the exhilaration of having prayers answered.

Our catechism teaches us to pray according to the will of God.

Actually, that is exactly what Jesus teaches his disciples in what has come to be known to us as *The Lord’s Prayer*.

In this prayer we are taught to recognize God as our kind, heavenly Father.

After all, He created mankind in His own image and likeness.

That first man fell from his high estate with God and became a *blind*, *dead*, *enemy *of God.

From that one man we are all procreated, i.e., born, in the image and likeness of Adam’s fallen human nature.

In this condition nobody will, or can, rightfully turn to God.  Everyone must be born again of the Spirit of God.

Only then can we recognize God as our Father in heaven.

Only then does God our Father in heaven promise to hear our prayers.

Only then are we enabled to pray according to the will of God.

The *Lord’s Prayer* is not a simple matter of words, but it is a matter of heart, mind, and soul being turned to God again, in faith.

Even then, it is necessary to learn 1. what it means to call God, our Father.

It is necessary to learn 2. what it means to ask God to hallow His name.

It is necessary to learn 3. what it means to ask for God’s Kingdom to come.

It is necessary to learn 4. what it means to ask that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

*What is the Will of God?  *It is obvious that God wants us to pray.

And it is obvious that Jesus’ followers want to know how to pray.

That’s why Jesus teaches them this prayer.

Today we look more specifically at the *third petition of the Lord’s Prayer* to learn more about God’s will for us.

The first and second petitions of this prayer helps us understand that God wants His Name to be kept Holy, and that he wants His Kingdom to be fully established on earth.

Ø     *T**hat His name be kept holy.*

Keeping God’s Name Holy is actually a matter of knowing and acting on His Good and Gracious will.

Ø     *That His kingdom come on the Earth.

*Even as people born of the Spirit of God, we do not have the right to take away from, or add to, the will of God as revealed in Scripture.

That would deprive us of God’s revelation of salvation.

* *

Then we would not be able to know that God’s will is /“that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.”/

Neither would we be able to know that Jesus will raise us up on the Last Day.

However, we do know these things through the correct teaching of His Word.

Ø     *Through the correct teaching of His Word.

*Stop and think about what the effect would be on you.  1.

If we decided to take the ugliness of the cross out of scriptures, where would be the result of our sins?

There would be no result and consequently no need for personal repentance and a changed life.

What would happen.

2.

If we decided to take the reality of the empty tomb, i.e., the resurrection of Jesus, out of the Word, where would be our joy over sins forgiven?

It would be lost, and we would still be lost in our sins.

3.

If we decided to add our human wisdom to the Words of Scripture, where would God’s Wisdom be?

It would be lost, replaced by our own wisdom.

How, then, would we ever know what the good and gracious will of God is?  4.

If we decided that the scriptures are a matter of personal interpretation, what would that do to the meaning of 2 Peter 1.20f.? which says: /“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.

For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man.”/

I am aware that some of you might be thinking that  these things don’t even apply to you.

You might even think that these things are only a matter for theologians to wrestle with, not for laymen to be bothered with.

Dear friends, if that were really true your faith would be based upon what man says, not what God does.

God forbid! that such a thing should ever happen among us.

No, we are people called out of such foolish and fateful thinking.

God’s will is this:

 

Ø     *That sinners be brought to faith in Christ so that they may lead godly and God-approved lives.*

If it is God’s will that sinners be brought to faith in Christ, i.e., saved, and that they lead a godly life, there is an obvious question that appears to us.

*Why Are Not All People Brought to Faith According to God’s Will? * Scripture answers this question by informing us of three basic enemies and opposes of the will of God.

Ø     *All people have an accuser who seeks to keep the sinner sinful.*

The Devil is a reality.

He is an angel who is the first God wannabe.

So what he does is strike at peoples weaknesses to lead them into *temptation *and *sin*.

His greatest work today is to make people think the Scriptures are a matter of ones own interpretation.

You see, if Scripture is a matter of what we think, we will do whatever we want with it, and loose God’s guidance as a result.

“Christians” also fall prey to this because of the way the world we live in thinks.

* *

Ø     *All people live in a world that opposes God’s will.*

When Scripture talks about the world, it is referring to the culture, habits, social values, and beliefs of people in general.

Why the world is against God’s will is clearly stated by the Apostle John.

He writes, /“Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”/

* *

Sometimes “Christians” make the terrible jump from this thought to thinking that they might somehow escape the worlds desires by isolating themselves from society.

Some even think they can cloister themselves and shelter themselves from any worldly influence by acting out against the things of the world.

Not so!  Unfortunately, this fails to recognize the third and most dangerous enemy of God.

Ø     *All people have a sinful human nature that always desires what is contrary to God’s will.*

(Gal.

5.17)  Right here is where things get pretty personal for us.

You might have heard the saying, /“We have met the enemy, and he is us.”/

It’s really true.

Consider the reality of this as exposed in God’s Word.

Gal.

5.17 reads, /“the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.

They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”/

* *

Even the Apostle Paul, after his conversion and re-birth, finds himself faked out and innocuous, i.e., powerless,  when it comes to doing what is right and good.

In Romans 7.18 we learn about the realty of Christian warfare from the Apostle of God.  /“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”/

Does this mean that we should go on sinning because we can’t do anything about it anyway.

May it never be so in God’s good and gracious will!

May it never be so among us! 

* *

*This is Why Followers of Jesus are taught to Pray, **/“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”/*

Ø     *Large Catechism III 68.*  Luther explains in his Large Catechism.

/“As God’s name must be hallowed and His kingdom must come even without our prayer, so must His will be done and prevail even though the devil and all his host storm and rage furiously against it in their attempt utterly to exterminate the Gospel.

But for our own sake we must pray that His will may be done among us without hindrance, in spite of their fury, so that they may accomplish nothing and we may remain steadfast.”/

Ø     *Christians know what stands opposed to the will of God.  *They especially know that their own human nature is terribly flawed by the fall of Adam.

They know that without God’s help, they remain powerless against sin.

Ø     *But Christians also want to please God with their lives.*

Ø     *So they pray, /“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”/*

* *

*Finally, Christians Know That God’s Will can be Done Among Us.*   Thank God that it can.

Otherwise, we would never have a way out of our sad condition.

Ø     *God breaks and hinders the plans of the Devil, the World, and our own sinful nature which try to destroy our faith in Christ Jesus.*

This is why the Scripture says, /“The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.