Your Will Be Done

Invite everyone to stand and read Matthew 6:9-13- Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Recap- We come to petition number 3. Audience, Hallowed, Kingdom.

Read Matthew 6:10- Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Pray.

Model- As it is in heaven. Everything to be run through this lens. As we consider God’s will being done on earth, we ought to ask what that will look like.

It will look like what we see in heaven.

Becoming more like the angels in their obedience.

Example- Who are our kids watching?

1. What is the will of God?

The will of God’s decree. God’s sovereign will.

Those things that are most consequential.

Daniel 4:17- The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’

Those things that are most insignificant.

Proverbs 16:33- The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

Those things that are most personal.

Matthew 10:29-31- Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

God’s revealed will.

What Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. Luke 22.

John 14:21- Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

When we pray that God’s will would be done here in our experience as in the very presence of God, we are asking for an increase in obedience.

Not merely that we would try harder, otherwise we would pray to ourselves. We are asking the Father to equip us to do His will, to give us more knowledge of His will, and to give us passion and drive to do His will.

We are asking for an increase in God’s grace in our lives to accomplish His will.

2. How should God’s will be done?

The how matters here.

Aletheia and her concoctions.

How something is done matters just as much as the thing being done.

If we are trying to obey God’s will, to accomplish it as it is done in heaven, then the how will matter here.

God’s will should be done purely.

Without wavering; according to the counsel of God.

God’s Word is the standard.

God knows how we must obey Him. No need for human invention here.

“I think this is likely what God would want.”

Leviticus 10:1-2- Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

Our obedience to God must not be mixed with our own desires and intentions.

Like disarming a bomb- completely relying on the wisdom of another.

God’s will should be done entirely.

Completely, or wholly.

Consider the service of the angels. God’s will on earth as is in heaven.

Psalm 103:20- Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!

Hebrews 1:14- Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

In the same way- sent with a purpose. Do the entirety of that call.

Numbers 15:40- So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

God’s will should be done sincerely.

Two parts to doing God’s will in this way.

We do God’s will aimed in the right direction. This gets to the purpose for doing God’s will.

We do God’s will for the glory of God alone.

Revelation 4:9-11- And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

Whatever it is that honors us the most is to be given back to God.

Matthew 5:16- “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

God’s will should be dong willingly.

Without complaint.

Our heart ought to be included in our obedience.

1 Chronicles 28:9- “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.”

Thomas Watson- “A pious soul goes to the Word as to a feast, or as one would go with delight to hear music.”

Obedience meant to come from a heart that is filled with joy.

3. Why should we ask God’s will to be done?

What is accomplished in us as we obey God’s will, as found in Scripture?

We become more like Jesus.

This is the great goal of our life.

The point of this prayer- pray like this. We pray like Jesus.

John 6:38- For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Matthew 12:50- “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Proves to be beneficial, or good, for us.

Perhaps we must be convinced of this truth.

Imagine a king commanding a worker to dig in a mine of gold and keep everything that he finds.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13- “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?

John 10:10- The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Jesus gives the best life. Not the easiest, not the wealthiest, not the most comfortable, but the best. Life as it is meant to be lived.

Gives a peace in both life and death.

Have you considered your own death? What will be your final thoughts of regret?

I wish that I would have lived more for myself. Likely we will find time focused on self as wasted.

What would give us the most peace and comfort as we approach the end of our life? That we have sought out and done the will of God.

So how should we realistically pray for God’s will to be done as it is in heaven, specifically as it applies to our own individual lives, or the community life of our church?

Come Thou Fount- Robert Robinson in the 1700’s- “Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be; Let Thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love.”

Fetters- chains or manacles typically placed around the ankles.

Meant to make escape impossible.

This is to be our prayer. Chain me to you. I don’t want to wander off. For the rest of my days, use me to accomplish your will here on earth as it is in heaven.