Diffusers of Grace 11: Moving With God

Intro

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 6

9 “Therefore, you should pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,

your name be honored as holy.

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And do not bring us into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.,

14 “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. 15 But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.

Why do we pray?

Two weeks ago Pastor Dwight encouraged us to ask the question, "what are my personal intentions?" That's a really important question for any of us to be asking regarding our life in general, our faith, prayer... pretty much anything.

Is the primary motivation of our hearts to move God towards our position, or to move our hearts towards the heart of God?

We should not be praying prayers that we have no expectation for God to actually answer. Prayer is about aligning our will with God’s will and when we are in line with his heart, we can be confident he will answer our prayers.

In my studies I observed three things I think God is calling us to do in Matthew 6:9-10. Each one ultimately boils down to surrender to God and to his purposes in our world. As Pastor Randy said last Sunday, “God is calling us to a deeper lever of surrender.” With that in mind, let’s explore God’s word for us today.

I. Start with the goodness of God

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 6

9 “Therefore, you should pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,

your name be honored as holy.

This first statement of Jesus is one of praise. We praise God by recognizing his holiness. He is absolutely good, and he always does exactly what he says he will do.

Our faith in God’s faithfulness is critical for us in prayer. We must believe that he is indeed good, and that when we pray according to his will he has every intention to accomplish what we ask.

As Pastor Randy said last week, “The greatest demon in our lives is our carnal flesh, our selfishness. Jesus' desire is to deliver us from ourselves, to the place of full surrender and by the finger of God he is dealing with our hearts on a daily basis.”

We can’t start with ourselves or our own goodness if we want to have a powerful prayer life. We are tempted to make everything in life about self, but we have to fight that. Effective prayer is rooted in the goodness of God, not in our goodness.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 15

2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what can you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”

4 Now the word of the LORD came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”

6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Abram trusted in the goodness of God. He didn’t merely believe in God, he actually believed God and that ultimate faith in God, that clear focus on God, was credited for him as righteousness.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

5 So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard—6 just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness?,

7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons.

The question we must ask is, “do we really believe that God is good and that he desires to move on behalf of those of us who have placed our faith in him?”

II. Focus on where God is going.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 6

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Revelation 21 paints a clear picture for us of where God is headed with this broken world of ours.

The end of the story shows a world in which the kingdom of God has been fully and completely revealed and established on earth.

It’s pretty clear that God’s will for our community is that it become a place more and more similar to his kingdom on earth. He wants our community to be marked by his goodness, his rule, and his reign rather than by sin and death.

We've asked this question before, but we cannot stop dreaming. What would your neighborhood look like if the kingdom came in power today. What about your home, or workplace, the library, grocery store, your school, our coffee ministry here, or wherever you may go on a regular basis?

Sure we have become familiar with the way things are. Maybe we have come to doubt that things can even change. Randy reminded us last week that we must “forsake familiarity. Familiarity can be a hindrance to faith.” Where God wants to take us, will not look much like where we have been.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12

The LORD said to Abram:

Go from your land,

your relatives,

and your father’s house

to the land that I will show you.

2 I will make you into a great nation,

I will bless you,

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,

I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,

and all the peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.,

I am certain of one thing. Jesus did not put us here to just wait out our lives until we die and go to heaven. He has given us authority to go and take the land he has given to Christ and to us as well since we are in Christ. That land is the hearts of the many lost sons of Israel who are all over our city, our country, and our world.

I am convinced that if God’s kingdom came fully to our city, there would not be a single soul who would have never heard of the freeing power of Christ’s blood and empty tomb. God’s dream is that the entire world would be set free from sin and death.

Do we share God’s dream? Is that destination the focus of our hearts like it is his? Are we willing to lay it all on the line for him like he has done for us?

III. Move with God

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 6

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

If we know where God is going, why are so many believers content to just sit around and wait when we could be taking the land?

Randy challenged us last week saying, “God doesn't want us to wait, he wants us to go.”

How many Christians have missed out on opportunities to be a part of Jesus’ redeeming work because they were waiting on a word when we have already been given the word in the Great Commission?

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 12

4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan.

Once Abram knew God wanted to take him to a new destination, he got up and went. What about you? Have you heard God and left everything behind to follow him?

Christian, what is holding you back from joining Jesus on his mission to expand his kingdom in our community now?

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you., 9 Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.

The reality of Abraham’s blessing has come to us. His name is Jesus. God is redeeming souls and restoring broken people through his son Jesus and he has sovereignly ordained us as his primary means of accomplishing this.

The question is not whether or not God will fulfill the prayer of Jesus by bringing the kingdom into the hearts and lives of countless men and women in our day. He will. The question is whether or not we will get up and move with God by taking an active role in the work he is doing.

Closing

Abraham had every expectation that God was holy, good, and would do what he said he would do.

Likewise Jesus had every expectation that the Father would carry out his word to him. He knew the Father would absolutely answer his prayer. The Father has every intention to bring Jesus' prayer into full and present reality.

His kingdom is coming down to earth. That is a fact. It's not even a question. The question is whether or not we believe the kingdom is actually coming.

Jesus did not merely intend for us to pray his words in Matthew 6, but he intends for us to believe them and to go with him wherever he takes us just like Abraham did. Prayer is intended to move us towards the heart of God and into action with God as his body on earth.

We pray, "thy kingdom come" and then we go in his power and authority, doing whatever it takes to get it into our community now.

The Father is empowering us by the Spirit, to carry out the commission of Jesus in our day and to fuel its expansion into future generations.

“If it's about our ability, then it is absent of God's presence. It's not about our ability. It is just about our obedience. It's about our step in the right direction as God directs us. The presence of faith guarantees the presence and the power of the Lord.” -Randy Howard

So.... believe God, focus on God’s will, and move with God. We don’t have any time to waste. Let’s go!