Thine Not Mine

Let’s Stand in Honor of the Reading of the Word of God.

Matthew 6:9-10 “9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

This is the word of God for the People of God

Thanks be to God

As we continue our look at the Lords Prayer and being in the middle of the midterm primaries and such I am reminded of an old joke that I heard once.

Two politicians were in a public debate and the topic of values arose. In the course of discussion the subject of religion came up. One candidate said to the other I bet you $20 you don’t even know the Lord’s Prayer.

I’ll take your bet. I do know the words of the Lord’s prayer....Great the other replied lets hear it…the challenged politician responded “Now I lay me Down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to Keep....”

The Other politician looked stunned, and then he took out his billfold and handed his opponent $20 saying, “I can’t believe you actually knew it.

I know it’s a dad joke but it is fathers day… Pause However it does illustrates the struggle that many have with this prayer....Not so much forgetting the words but comprehending their meaning.

That’s especially true with todays phrase...

So today we are going to dig into a little of what

Matthew 6:10 “10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” really means.

I made the case in our series the Infinite Church that:

This phrase is not only central to the Lord’s Prayer but to the entire ministry of Jesus.

This phrase communicates the heart of all of Jesus ministry.

Jesus came announcing the kingdom of God has come and all of His words and deeds point us to live in His Kingdom on Earth.

As we look closer at this phrase in the prayer it is important to see that Jesus is calling us to ask The Father to send his Kingdom not create our own.

May your kingdom Come soon…May your will be done....

As we touched on last week many times we tend to understand the purpose of prayer as bending God to our will instead of allowing God to show us and lead us into His direction in any given situation.

When we pray Thy Will be done we are aligning our mind, heart and spirit with Gods will.

We Yield our will to the will of God and in so doing God can and often does create beauty in ways we would never have dreamed.

Crickett and I both wanted Caleb to get a good college education…Crickett went to SHSU a state school and I went to MNU a private Christian university. When we visited the PLNU campus when we were on vacation we both thought man this would be a great place for Caleb to go to College.

We did not push him this direction but we prayed that God would lead him to a Christian (Nazarene) University…Cost would be the big hindrance but we left it to God.

Never in a million years would I have thought that Caleb would go to PLNU on a Debate Scholarship, on top of that he was accepted in part on the fact that he was a Nazarene and a PK.

Finances were really not an issue Caleb left PLNU with less significantly less than debt that the average. (Nazarene Education is not financially out of reach)

God’s will is always better than my will and the Lord’s prayer reminds us of this with this May you Will be done over mine.

This is an example of how God’s will is always greater. Where there seems to be No way God makes a way.

When we embrace a Thine not mine posture in prayer that frees God to do the miraculous instead of relying on human sensibilities.

When we submit to Thine over mine it is always better.

So what is it that we are submitting to whene we say your will be done?

We are submitting to God’s Will and Kingdom.

Your Kingdom Come soon...Your Will be Done

This is a little hard for us becuase we have left the whole monarchal system behind after the revolutionary war. In fact we struggle with the idea of submission to anyone or anything becuase we values our personal freedom above all.

However in Jesus time this was the predominate government structure…even though Rome was a republic the Caesar had an inordinate amount of power.

If a Monarch or a Caesar was a benevolent leader that truly cared for his people they generally accepted this type of rule very well.

If they were not a truly benevolent leader then they often times would not last...

The problem with this idea is similar to what we talked about last week when we pointed out how some have very jaded views of father. Absent, Abusive or even Apathetic or Selfish..

When we think about King, or politics we all have a very low view of them for a variety of reasons. Which leads to doubt and a bent towards self sufficiently

God should not be compared to Human leaders God is the standard of a perfect benevolent creator and King worthy of our allegiance.

So with this in mind we are asking for God to establish the Kingdom of God through the leading of Holy Spirit and through the People of God.

On earth, as it is in heaven.

Not as we would imagine it…not as we think it should be…but as it is in the immediate presence of God.

Living God’s Kingdom on earth is possible if we pray this prayer with a desire to choose to live in God’s kingdom on earth.

Every person who chooses to yield their live to God, who chooses to follow Jesus, begins to live in the kingdom of heaven, even as each one simultaneously lives in the present earthly realm.

Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer with conviction we are yielding our lives to the will of God.

So what does this look like…Well the OT Prophets had several descriptions as well as John in the book of Revelation.

Isaiah 11:6-9 “6 In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all. 7 The cow will graze near the bear. The cub and the calf will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. 8 The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm. 9 Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.”

Micah 4:3 “3 The Lord will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes between strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.”

Isaiah: 2:4-5 “4 The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. 5 Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”

Then in Revelation we remember Revelation 21 the New Jerusalem Revelation 11:15

Revelation 11:15 “15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven: “The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.””

We know that destruction and strife are a common presence in our world....and as such it can be very difficult to engage in thinking that is not adversarial with ideas that do not align with ours.

This is not what God wants for the Church.

This is not God’s will. God’s will is for the Bride of Christ (The Church) to not only proclaim Thine not Mine....

But to practice Thine not Mine in ways that communicate an openness to allow God to shift our approach to reaching people.

A few years ago I was shaken by talking to one of our VBS kids. I asked him if he was having fun and he said no! Surprised I asked him why…he said that he had done the VBS we were doing 3 times already.

This lead me to ask our Children’s ministry to look for ways to be intentionally outreach oriented. They responded in a big way.

Beyond Summer Camp…Going from doing what everyone else is to looking for ways to reach a different crowd, engaging Vandaver School, Naz Kids Wednsday night and A night in Bethlehem. And to be honest a ton of smaller outreach approaches.

All of these ideas are designed to reach people…what will we do as adults to engage people for the kingdom?

I want to thank Pastor Stefanie and all the Kids volunteers who have practically lived in to Thine not Mine....(ASK TO STAND)

YES... there are people coming to these activities that have church homes but there is more opprotunity to reach a those that do not.

How can the rest of us live into Thine Not Mine?

Pray Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven with and open heart and open mind.

Abandon Risk Averse Thinking by inviting the Holy Spirit to lead you to Kingdom Thinking.

Proverbs 3:5-6 “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

Resist assigning negative motives for change. Trust those whom God has appointed to lead are in fact being lead by Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 13:17 The Message

17 Be responsive to your pastoral leaders. Listen to their counsel. They are alert to the condition of your lives and work under the strict supervision of God. Contribute to the joy of their leadership, not its drudgery. Why would you want to make things harder for them?

Let me be clear…I am not advocating for blind loyalty…I am saying give leadership the benifit of the doubt and join in the process.

We will be Rebranding New logo New Name WE ARE NAZARENE but want to reintroduce ourselves to the community.

Join in what God is doing with Optimism and Joy.

Matthew 4:19 ESV

19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

There is no replacement for personal invitation. 85% of people that come to church come becuase a friend invited them.

Pray for people to invite to Alpha Starting August 31 Wednesdays....