Thy Will be Done

Introduction: Context of the Lord's Prayer

0:04 Now turning again to the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we continue our studies in this portion that we call the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 6.

0:26 We have seen that this sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew can be very naturally divided into two main sections of thought. Verses 1 to 18, the Christian and his religious life, giving, praying, fasting, and then the remaining part of the chapter, the Christian and his practical life. This two-fold division is very obvious, but was suggested to me in my reading of Martin Lloyd-Jones' Expositions of the Sermon on the Mount and has been of such help that I pass it on to you. We have considered what our Lord has taught in the subject of giving, and we are now well into our Lord's positive instruction

1:10 on the subject of giving. He has told us that our praying is not to be patterned after the prayer of hypocrites who merely are concerned with the eye of men when they pray, but we are to be concerned with the eye of God. That's why we pray in secret. Our praying is not to be like the heathen.

1:31 Our Lord said, When ye pray, be not as the heathen, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. They have a wrong concept of God. This is the basic problem. This is the problem with everyone who says his prayers thumbing through some beads.

1:45 Twenty beads, twenty ounces of blessing. Forty beads, forty ounces of blessing. What kind of a God is it whose heart of compassion is increased because I thumb some beads and mumble some words? But don't be too quick to condemn the ritualists, for much of our praying is an attempt to somehow coerce God into blessing us when in our hearts we're not really convinced that He delights us.

2:11 He delights to give good gifts to His children. So we're not to be either as the hypocrites or as the heathen, but when we pray, we are to follow the pattern of prayer given by our Lord Jesus Christ. We have studied the first two petitions, both of them preceded by this truth that I remind you about again this morning. Our Lord said, After this manner, therefore, pray ye our Father who art in heaven.

2:39 When I pray, I must pause, long enough before I begin to pray to consciously recognize who is the God to whom I come and what is my relationship to Him. I'm going to mention something this morning that I trust will not cause offense. I don't know who's involved because I keep my eyes closed when we pray. But beloved, let's be honest.

3:03 When we pray publicly and the pastor or a visiting person or one of the elders is leading in prayer, do we really believe we're talking to God? If we can't wait to honk our noses or to shuffle our feet,

3:22 I feel it's the essence of irreverence. Certainly none of us is so bad off that we cannot wait until a hymn is being sung or there is a pause in the service.

3:34 Do we really believe we're communing with God? The God before whom seraphim cry, Holy, Holy, Holy. Do we believe we're coming to the God of heaven? We shuffle our fleet and honk our noses in His presence.

3:52 I don't believe so.

3:56 I don't know who's guilty even this morning. God bearing me witness, my eyes were closed, but this has disturbed me week by week. And I've prayed that God would somehow give enough sense of His presence that we would realize. Certainly we can wait.

4:11 And I know what it is to live with a constant nasal obstruction, so I speak sympathetically. I never can breathe from my nose, very rarely.

4:20 Beloved, my God's too holy that when someone's talking to Him, the God of heaven, not to wait.

4:30 Shuffling chains while someone's leading in prayer to make readiness for an offering. We're talking to the God of heaven, beloved. Do we believe it?

4:39 Do we believe it?

4:42 All prayer must start with the recognition that He's the God of heaven, but hallelujah, He's my Father if I'm a Christian. And all the largeness of His Father heart is directed to me, His child. Then the first petition, hallowed be Thy name, what I like to call the canopy petition. This is the petition that covers all others, for of Him and through Him and unto Him are all things.

5:08 Now how is His name hallowed? As His kingdom comes. And we saw last week that that kingdom has a past aspect, a present and a future. And we are to pray for the coming of that kingdom to the hearts of men and ultimately to this very earth.

Relationship of 'Thy Will Be Done' to Other Petitions

5:25 Now this morning, we come to the third petition, the third of this triplet, which deal with the purposes of God. We haven't touched yet on the needs of man. Our Lord said when you pray, pattern your prayer in this manner. Enter in sympathetically to the concern of God.

5:45 Then and only then are we ready to begin to spread before Him our need. Our petition this morning, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as as as , as it is in heaven. Now to think our way through this petition, let us first of all consider the relationship of this petition to what has preceded and what follows. Then let's consider the actual meaning of the petition and then in closing, what will happen to us personally if we learn to pray intelligently this petition, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

6:29 All right then, the relationship of this petition to the other petitions. When is God's name hallowed? God's name is sanctified and hallowed only when God's kingdom comes to the hearts of men. For a man or a woman, a fellow or girl living unto self cannot glorify the name of God.

6:51 He cannot fulfill the purpose for which he was made to glorify God and to enjoy Him. So when we pray, hallowed be Thy name, this is impossible until the kingdom of God comes to the heart of a rebel sinner and he bows to the Sovereign Christ. When will God's name be glorified in the earth? Never fully until His kingdom comes and the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever.

7:22 Ah, but how is it that God is glorified when His kingdom comes? This is the next petition. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. For you see, God is only glorified when His kingdom comes because when His kingdom comes to a heart or to the earth, then the will of God is done in the life of the individual or ultimately of the whole redeemed earth.

7:48 And so this petition in relation to the others is the natural outgrowth for all the dishonor that comes to the name of God is because another kingdom has invaded the moral universe. If sin and the kingdom of darkness had never been established in the world through the fall of man, God would be glorified by all creation and all of His creatures. But it's because another kingdom has come, another rule, another will has invaded. This is why God's name is reproached.

8:23 The scripture says that the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles. And so we pray that His name be hallowed in His kingdom. Come, because only as His kingdom comes and men begin to do His will from the heart is the name of their God magnified and glorified. So much then for the relationship of this petition to what precedes.

8:50 Now what's its relation to what follows? Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins. Lead us not into temptation.

8:58 We're asking God to accomplish all of these things for the soul and for the soul that doing His will and living under His kingdom we may bring praise to His holy name.

Defining God's Will and Heavenly Obedience

9:12 Now let's move on to the petition itself. What does it mean? The first question I ask myself in studying this, if I'm to pray after this manner, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, I ask this question, what is the will of God? Now it's amazing how we use terms so frequently and often very flippantly and yet when pressed to define it, we're at a loss.

9:40 When I say we, I'm including me. I'm not saying you. I mean me. I sat down and said, now what is the will of God?

9:45 And I sat and I sat and I didn't lose much ink from my pen. What is the will of God? If you had to state in a sentence what is the will of God? I believe we'd come up with something like this.

9:58 The will of God is the embodiment of what He wishes or purposes to do.

10:08 My will for my children, my son or my daughter, is the essence or substance of what I wish them to do or to be or what I purpose them to do or to be. So the whole concept of the will of another brings into play the understanding of a governor and one who is governed, of one who exercises desire and desire and purpose and one who submits to that desire and that purpose. Now what we pray in this petition is an interesting thing. Notice the word of our Lord.

10:48 Thy will be done in earth even as it is done in heaven. How is God's will done in heaven?

11:02 I can't understand this prayer until I know because I'm praying that His will be done here as there. Now if I don't know what the as there is then I can't know what it ought to be here. So the second question I have to ask this morning is this. How is the will of God done in heaven?

11:17 And all we can do is take some of the biblical revelation concerning the obedience of angels and the obedience of the heavenly creatures and the Bible gives us much. I trust you'll study this out on your own. I plan to do more. I can only be suggested this morning in our study.

11:34 But the first thing we learn about the will of God in heaven is that heaven is the place where the will of God is done exclusively.

11:44 There is one place in God's moral universe where He's never allowed rebellion. That's in heaven. Remember what happened when someone tried to start a political upheaval in heaven? Wanted to challenge the existing government?

12:02 You see, revolution and political upheaval and the desire of subjects to overthrow their government is nothing new. For the best we can gather from the biblical data is that Lucifer, son of the morning, this bright star of God's creation, this pure spirit being, wanted to overthrow the existing government and said, I will be like the Most High. I will ascend to the throne of the Most High. And God said, I will not tolerate rebellion in heaven, my peculiar dwelling place, for God fills the heavens and the earth and He is everywhere, but His throne.

12:42 And what it means I don't understand, but the Bible declares it. His throne is in the heaven, His dwelling place. And that's the place where the will of God is done exclusively. No other will intrudes there.

Characteristics of Angelic Obedience

12:56 I read in Psalm 115, three, our God is in the heavens, He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. None can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest Thou? And so when we pray, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven, we're praying that the time will come in our own hearts and in the world when there'll be no will but the will of God and our wills complying with it. Secondly, the will of God is done in heaven not only exclusively, but it's done, and I don't know what other word to use, but universally.

13:34 Let me explain what I mean by that. I quote, You would do well to notice that it matters not to an angel what he is given to do. It may be a ministry for obeying, a labor for a king, a prophet, or for a whole country. He may be called upon to perform a ministry for an individual or for multitudes, for the holiest or for the vilest of men.

13:59 An angel may be sent on a message, an errand of comfort or a message or errand of reproof. He may come to carry a promise or to execute a judgment, to deliver or to smite.

14:13 It cannot be too high a duty nor too mean a duty. Too little or too much. And you read the Bible. An angel was sent to comfort a woman who was cast out with her son and about to die.

14:27 Hagar. It was an angel who came and announced to Mary she'd be the mother of the Son of God. It was an angel who came to the troubled Joseph as he cast these things in his mind and knew not what to do. It was an angel who came and said, Fear not.

14:41 It was an angel who came to the shepherds announcing his birth. It was an angel who came and comforted Paul in the hold of a ship in the midst of a storm and said, Fear not. I have a work for you to do. But it was also an angel who stood in the book of the Revelation and poured out the vials of the wrath of Almighty God upon a sinful rebel earth.

15:02 And so as you read how angels perform the bidding of God, you realize that the will of God is done in heaven not only exclusively but universally. An angel does whatever errand he's sent upon. He doesn't choose the pleasant and refuse the unpleasant. He doesn't embrace the errand that is convenient and shun the one that is inconvenient.

15:26 When we pray thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, we're praying that the time will come in our hearts and then in the earth when God's will will be done irrespective of any other consideration than this that it is the will of God. And the third thing I discover about the way God's will is done in heaven is that the obedience of the angels is immediate.

15:54 You'll notice in the ministry of angels through the scriptures that many times they came at the precise moment when they were needed. There that woman was about to die out there in the wilderness with her little son and the angel came at the precise moment.

16:11 Paul is down in the bowels of a ship tossed in the midst of the sea. His heart about to despair and at that moment an angel comes. Our Lord Jesus is out in the wilderness having for forty days fasted and sought the face of his God and grappled with the powers of darkness and the scripture says an angel came and strengthened him. There in the garden when our Lord said according to Hebrews that he was crushed nigh unto death at the precise moment it says an angel came and strengthened him.

16:49 The moment the summons was issued the angel the angel the angels respond immediately. I think you have a hint of this in the first chapter of Luke when it says I Gabriel Gabriel speaking to Mary I Gabriel stand in the presence of God. What a picture. Standing in the presence of God listening eagerly straining for the first motions of the expression of his will and immediately the angel responds the will of God is done in heaven not only exclusively not only exclusively but also not only universally but immediately something else about the will of God done in heaven it is continual.

17:34 We read nothing in the scriptures to indicate that the angels have fits of disobedience.

17:42 It says in Hebrews 1.14 that they are ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the heirs of salvation. Their obedience is continual no lapse no lag and they are the last thing that I want to suggest to you thinking about the obedience of angels it's delightful. No indication that an angel ever came grumbling while he was obeying.

18:07 Have you heard the little story about the little Quaker boy? I told some of you men about this and some of you know I hadn't particularly looked forward to going out to council and the men of the board felt for a number of reasons if he was wise and I said well I'll be subject to you and I'll go but I told him a little story and I'm glad I went. God's put his seal on the trip and I'm glad he revealed his will through the board. I didn't have sense enough to proceed so I preached my message of guidance of a few weeks ago.

18:35 Remember how God reveals his will to the group? Well I found that so but anyway the little Quaker boy was in church and he was standing up and the mother pulled him down and he stood up and said you sit and he turned to her and said mother me sitteth on the outside but me standeth on the inside.

18:57 See? He was obeying but not delightfully. He was yielding grudged obedience. Ah not so the angels.

19:07 Not so the angels. Their obedience is a delightful obedience. They spring to respond at the voice of their God.

Praying for God's Will in the Present (Personal, Family, Church)

19:19 Now we're praying thy will be done here on earth even as it's done in heaven. That exclusive obedience where there's no other no will but his will that universal obedience where his will is obeyed in every circumstance that immediate obedience where there's no delay no bartering no dickering no trying to pare off the rough edges of the requirements of God when God says to the angel pour out the vials of wrath he pours them out and humanity is smitten and when the angels are summoned to go on a message of mercy they follow on in the command

20:04 of God. Immediate continual obedience delightful obedience. Now we're praying in this same manner Lord let thy will be done here on earth. Now in what sense are we praying this?

20:16 I believe it's twofold. We're praying for this in a present sense and also in a future sense. When you and I are taught by our Lord to pray thy will be done here on earth as in heaven I cannot for the life of me think that that's something to be pushed off into the future.

20:36 It is essentially and primarily something to pray for now for myself.

20:42 Oh God hallowed be thy name Lord get glory to thyself may thy kingdom come to the hearts of men more fully to my heart Lord hasten the day when it shall come to the earth and I pray Lord thy will be done in me. Lord do it here on earth in me for my feats stand upon the earth my feet walk upon God's earth and so I'm praying Lord may my obedience at least dimly reflect the obedience of the angels. You see what you're praying when you say this? Lord I want no will

21:26 in my life but thy will.

21:31 And when the flesh would rise up and say this is my will oh God thy will be done give me grace to reckon myself dead to sin and to the flesh and to the seductive call of the world and of my own carnal interests we're praying that we shall be men and women like Joshua and Caleb of whom it is said that they what holy W-H-O-L-L-Y they wholly followed the Lord.

22:08 This is the problem with most of us. It's not the I should say with many of us. It's not that the Spirit of God has not brought us basically subject to Christ and brought us basically subject to His yoke. We've experienced Bible conversion.

22:24 We can say that we basically long to do the will of God but we have as we saw last week those pockets of resistance those areas where we say Lord I don't beg the intrusion of your will there. Lord if you press the issue and spank me hard enough I'll bow but we'd rather not bring up those areas. Oh you can't pray this prayer without saying Lord in every area of my life I want an obedience like the obedience of heaven an exclusive obedience. Lord I want obedience on every errand.

22:56 It's an easy thing for a pastor when he's called on an errand such as I was called on at council when a hungry hearted preacher comes and says look I'm desperate can you help me? What a joy to sit down and open the book for two or three hours as it was my privilege to do with several two or three men out at council. What a blessed errand.

23:19 Oh when I see in the life of one of you dear ones whose blood is going to be required of me no positive evidence is that you're born of God you're polite you're nice you're kind but I see no hunger for God I'm not saying it's not there I don't see it. I see no real desire to be involved in the work of reaching men for Christ. It may be there but I don't see it.

23:42 The pressure mounts and I feel I've got to talk to you and say I question I wonder are you really born of God?

23:53 That's not a happy errand to perform.

23:58 Do you think it was a happy errand to talk about this matter of irreverence when we pray this morning? I fought it but I knew God wouldn't bless me as I preached unless I minded Him. I had to mind the Lord. I had to run the risk of somebody who was involved getting mad though even though I said I don't know who it was and God bears me witness in that.

24:17 Much easier to expound this than say that but I knew I couldn't have expounded this with the help of God.

24:23 It's a very real thing. It touches you in the areas of life when God's will is clear and it's an errand that's unpleasant when you pray daily Lord Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What you're praying is for an exclusive obedience a universal obedience. You're praying for an immediate obedience.

24:45 How many times we miss the blessing of obedience because we drag our heels. You know it is to drag your heels and have heavy feet. The psalmist said I will run the way of Thy commandments. So often we move along with stodgy heavy boots don't we?

25:02 So when you pray Lord Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven here's what you're asking God that the moment conscience is made aware of the will of God through the word and by the spirit there will be immediate obedience. Again I use the illustration because it's so fresh. The spirit of God was pressing this thing upon my heart saying you tell the people that in the Lord next week. Lord I want to pray about it.

25:25 Lord I don't dare talk to the people I can pray about this. You know what I'm saying you tell them. You tell them. Speak about this.

25:32 Lord later. Later. And God says now.

25:37 Okay?

25:40 Whatsoever you say it. Do it. When? Suppose the servants had said when Mary said whatsoever you say it do it.

25:47 And Jesus said fill the water pot. Suppose they went home and said Lord let's pray about it a week. Look that marriage feast would have been over and they'd have gone away disappointed. There'd have been no wine to satisfy them.

25:57 Whatsoever you say it unto you do it. When he tells you to do it. Now if he hadn't told you to do it don't jump. Don't be impulsive.

26:07 Oh when we pray thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven we're asking God for the grace of immediate obedience. We're asking God for the grace of continual obedience. Isn't it easy to obey when you're conscious of the smile of God? Oh that's easy.

26:23 When the glory bells are ringing in your soul and you feel like you've got a whole set of clarion bells within your breast. Huh? Pretty easy then to obey. When you pray at least I find it is there are times when God allows the clouds to mount above our heads and he withdraws the sensibility of his presence and all we're conscious of is dryness and deadness and sin and corruption.

26:51 That's all we're conscious of. When we pray Lord thy will be done anyway I'll just grit my teeth and trust my God and plow on in the course of obedience if it kills me. Eh? That's what we're praying for.

27:06 That's what we're praying for. And then we're praying for a delightful obedience. We're asking God to take the lead out of our shoes. We're asking God to make our feet light and swift to do his bidding.

27:20 Now you ought to pray that for yourself. Thy will be done in me. You ought to pray this about your families.

27:30 You wives. What's going to happen if you start praying Lord thy will be done in our home? Eh? You know what's going to happen.

27:37 God's going to begin to whisper from his word. Here's my will wise be done subject to your husband and everything.

27:45 Wives be this. Wives be that. You husbands. We husbands.

27:50 If we begin to pray earnestly thy will be done Lord in me as a husband even as your will is done in heaven. I'm going to hear those words. Love your wife as Christ loved the church. Dwell with your wife according to knowledge.

28:02 Giving honor unto her as unto the weaker vessel.

28:07 You fellas and girls you know what his will is in your home. In our church. What's the will of God for his church? That we be a whole holy people.

28:16 Not a promoting clever imitation of Hollywood. That we be a holy people. A people to whom God can entrust his power.

28:27 A people about whom there's no explanation but that God is in their midst. Beloved if I ran a movie every Sunday night and had all kinds of flashy program here I wouldn't know whether God was bringing people or whether Hollywood was bringing them.

28:42 If you young men go out and promote this kind of business you won't know either.

28:47 But when the simplicity of God's people meeting together to seek his face and to share and testimony and hear his word when God brings men and women there's no explanation but God's doing it. So we ought to pray that's his will for the church. His will for the church is that we be a witnessing people. We can't pray thy will be done if we're not seeking to reach neighbor.

29:10 Not seeking to reach the man next to us. Not seeking to reach the person we work with. You can't pray this without embracing his will for the church. So much for that in the present sense.

Praying for God's Will in the Future (New Heavens and Earth)

29:22 This is what we're praying when we pray that petition. Thy will be done in me presently in my family in my church in the mission field. This would take in all our praying for missions. Then we're praying for that day to come when the new heavens and the new earth will be here and all that are walking upon the face of the earth will be doing the will of God just as perfectly and universally and completely and immediately as the saints are in heaven.

29:50 Hallelujah. That day is coming. You say you're a dreamer. No.

29:56 I've just read something in my Bible that says the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ and his servant shall serve him.

The Source of Angelic and Believer's Obedience: Beholding God's Face

30:07 Now I want to ask you a question that's been a great truth that broke in upon my heart just this morning that's been a tremendous blessing to me. And I want you to think for a minute. Why do the angels do God's will this way? Why?

30:21 Why do they do his will exclusively? Delightfully? Delightfully? Immediately?

30:27 Completely? Why do they do his will this way? You think you've got an answer?

30:34 I think I've got part of the answer. Let me share it with you. I read in Matthew 18 and verse 10 these words.

30:42 Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.

30:58 Angels, behold the face of the Father in heaven. It's interesting, isn't it? This is the same phrase we use when we pray. Our Father who is in heaven.

31:09 Angels, behold the face of my Father in heaven. And then paralleling that with Luke 1.19 where the angel Gabriel said, I, Gabriel, stand in the presence of God.

31:23 Now do you begin to see why the angels do his will the way they do? I think this is the answer. Standing in the presence of God, gazing upon the face of God, their hearts are ravished by the beauty of God, so they gladly respond to do the will of God. Because they know as they gaze upon the beauty of God, and I know that term beauty has been prostituted and cursed with Hollywood and painted faces and all the rest.

31:59 I know that. I know that it's been abused, but nonetheless beauty is the sum total of pleasing perfection and pleasing attributes. That's what beauty is. And angels, behold the beauty of God.

32:14 The perfection of all His attributes, His holiness, His power, His love, His glory. So the angel knows whatever that kind of a God says, it must be good because He is good. It must be required in love for He is love. It must be required in justice, when He told the angels to go and pour out vials of wrath, they just as quickly responded on a message of judgment as they did on a message of mercy to the Son of God.

32:43 Why? Because they know whatever God requires is just, whether it's judgment or comfort. And because they are captured by the beauty of the person of God, they have no questions about the rightness of the will of God.

32:59 And the thought that has struck me and been precious in this morning hour has been this. If I'm to pray and really mean it, Thy will be done in me as it is in heaven,

33:13 then I must daily behold the face of God.

33:19 For obedience flags and the wheels of obedience come to a grinding halt only when I cease to see His face. You cannot in the secret place gaze upon the beauty of God without saying from the heart Lord, anything you require is right and good and acceptable and perfect. Gladly I'll follow. You know why some of you are disobedient this morning?

33:49 It's because you're not beholding the beauty of God in the secret place. David said, One thing if I desire that will I seek after to behold the what? The beauty of the Lord. He said, I want to see the beauty of God.

34:03 Maybe that's why he was a man after God's own heart. He said, David, a man after my heart who shall do all my work all my what? All my counsel. And why did David do all the counsel of God?

34:14 Because he beheld the beauty of God.

34:21 Isn't this what makes obedience grudging when we don't see His face? And our consciences won't let us disobey. And so we're like the little Quaker boy. Me standeth on the outside siteth on the outside but me standeth on the inside.

34:36 Lord, me doeth thy will on the outside but me hath no heart for it on the inside. Why? I haven't seen His face.

34:45 We've neglected the secret place.

34:49 We haven't been in the book. Oh, you say, there you go, coming back to that again. Yes. Coming back to it again.

34:57 Let me show you something in Revelation that ties in perfectly. Then I've got to leave this. Maybe sometime preach on this again. But it's just a seed thought that's just come and it hasn't got all the blossoms on it yet.

35:10 Revelation chapter 22.

35:15 Here's a picture of heaven come. And we read in verse 3, there shall be no more curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. Now notice.

35:27 And His servants shall serve Him. And what's the next phrase? And they shall see His face. See how the two things are put together?

35:35 Serving Him, seeing His face.

35:39 What is going to give to us through all eternity a glad, never-dying spring of desire to obey our God? His servants shall serve Him. Why? Because we'll continually see His face and captured with His beauty we'll be blessedly enslaved.

35:55 We'll be blessedly enslaved. We'll be blessedly enslaved by His real.

35:59 Isn't that it? Hmm? But oh, how tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me.

36:13 The midsummer sun shines but dim. There it is, shining out there today, but might as well be a rainy day. The fields strive in vain to look gay. But when I am happy in Him, I'll let the snow be on the ground.

Practical Effects of Praying 'Thy Will Be Done' from the Heart

36:28 December is as pleasant as May. Now may I hurry to my conclusion. Having considered the relationship of this petition to the others, having considered the meaning of that petition, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in us, in earth as it is in heaven, what will be the practical effects upon the person who prays this prayer from the heart?

36:52 What will happen if you just set yourself to really pray this from the heart? Now that you understand in some measure what it means,

36:59 the first thing it'll do, it will test the reality of your prayer. It will test the reality of your Christian experience.

37:08 Can you honestly, right now, bow your head and from the depths of your heart, having been exposed this morning to what this petition means, can you honestly pray, Thy will be done in earth, Lord, in my life? Oh God, with all my heart, I want to do Your will delightfully, universally, completely. I want to do Your will immediately. Can you honestly say that?

37:31 If you can't, you better check your foundations.

37:35 You better check your foundations.

37:38 Because the cry of every saved man in Psalm 40, verse 8, I delight to do Thy will, O my God, yea, Thy law is within my heart.

37:51 If you're a child of God, even though there may be an issue, some of you are thinking of the issues. You know, if you honestly say Thy will be done, you know there are issues that are going to have to be touched. But in spite of the sweet pain of conviction, and tromping underfoot your flesh, you can honestly say that that's because you're born of God. Because the natural man, the carnal mind, is enmity against God and is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be.

38:17 How can you pray that His kingdom will come to earth? How can you long for the day when Christ shall reign from shore to shore if you don't want Him to reign between your two shoulder blades?

38:29 If you don't want Him to reign in your home, how can you honestly pray that He'll reign in the earth?

38:36 Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a test of where you stand spiritually, won't it? Second thing it'll do, it'll, continually remind us of the nature of true prayer. What is prayer?

38:50 I'm convinced a lot of people think prayer is some kind of muscling of God to bend deity to the whims of our own devising. That's not prayer. What's prayer? This petition teaches us.

39:05 Prayer is deity bending us to His purposes. That's what prayer is. Thy will be done in earth,

39:16 even as it is in heaven. Beloved, we can pray and weep and bang on benches and have praying marathons, but we're not going to bend deity to do what He's not expressed as His purpose.

39:31 Can't do it. Gethsemane is the clear illustration of this. People say, oh, this business of praying all the time, Lord, not my will but Thine be done. There's a long way of praying that.

39:42 If you're just passively quitting and not desiring to know what God's will is and choosing the will of God, when Jesus prayed that, He wasn't just casting something off as an easy way out. When He said, not my will but Thine, you know what He was doing? Against everything within Him, body, mind, soul, and spirit, everything within Him recoiled at the cross. He was a true man.

40:04 He was the spotless one who was going to have to drink the dregs of human sin. Everything recoiled. And His will was, as a man, to bypass that.

40:16 When He said, not my will but Thine be done, what was it? Some kind of a passive little thing to tack on the end of His prayer? No. It was a little thing It was an active choosing of the revealed will of God when everything within Him wanted the other course.

40:33 He was hugging the cross when He said, not my will but Thine be done.

40:40 Beloved, that's prayer. Here was the Son of God being bent to the purpose of God.

40:52 That terrible self to expend tonight. Beloved, that's prayer. That's one of the substances of prayer.

41:02 And if we'll pray this, it'll remind us. We won't go around trying to get God's to give us every little...

41:07 And remember, God will give you some things that you better off if He never gave you. It says in Psalm that He granted them their requests but sent leanness to the soul.

41:18 Like at times, my son wants to do something I know is no good for him and I know the only way he'll learn. Okay, son, do it. And then he comes whimpering. He got what he wanted but he wished he never had.

41:30 You and I can whimper and God may say, all right,

41:36 send leanness to the soul. Third thing it'll do if we pray this prayer from the heart, it'll bring us to a place of fresh, surrender each day. How can we honestly pray thy will be done?

41:50 If I'm a husband, how can I pray that honestly and then get up and expect my wife to be some kind of super lady to treat me like a king, to dust my feet when I come home, cook my meals and serve it up like it was the fire tuck,

42:07 to wash the clothes of my children and to help put bread on the table in the meantime and if she doesn't come up to snuff and everything, treat her like dirt. How can you pray thy will be done and treat your wife like this? You can't. It'll bring you to surrender as a husband.

42:26 Lord, your will is that my love to my wife reflect the tender, compassionate love of Christ. Oh God, thy will be done. Give me that kind of love. See?

42:38 You students, listen, can you pray this and then go on into your class, cheat? I don't know. He said, thou shalt not steal. Thy will be done.

42:46 Can you go out and break the speed limits? No. Thy will be done. Obey every arrogance of man for the Lord's sake.

42:51 Avoid the appearance of evil.

42:54 Can you sit and watch the garbage that comes over your television set? I know there are people here that you would not want me in your home one evening to watch some of the television programs you want. You wouldn't put them on if I was there.

43:09 You wouldn't do it. And if I came to your house and you had it on, you'd turn it off real quick and hope that little flickering light zeroed out before I got in.

43:18 Beloved, God's there. God's there.

43:23 God's there. And if you're praying thy will be done, you know what His will is. Flee youthful lust. Avoid the appearance of evil.

43:32 Turn from unrighteousness.

43:36 If you can't have that set sanctified, then destroy it. See what this will do? Boy, I tell you, this thing will just press you down and get you to bow afresh. Submission to orders.

43:50 Obedience to orders. It will bring you to fresh surrender each day. Obedience to the orders of God's Word. It will bring you to fresh surrender.

43:57 Submission to the trials in which God has placed you. Oh, how hard to pray, Lord, thy will be done. Even if it means being pressed beneath the weight of this trying circumstance until the purifying work is done. But if you pray this, that's what it will involve.

The Necessity of Searching God's Word

44:21 May I just mention, just give them out. I don't have time to expound. It will force you to search the Word. What would you think of a servant who came to his master?

44:31 He came in the morning and he said, Oh, Master, I want to know your will for this day. And the master was dumb. He couldn't speak. He couldn't articulate.

44:40 But each morning, he wrote out in a notebook his plans for the servant that day. And the servant knew that there in front of the master's chamber on a little pedestal, there was that notebook that had the embodiment of the master's will for the day. What would you think if that servant came and said, Oh, Master, I love you. I honor you.

45:03 I revere you. And with all my heart, I want to do your will. I want to do your will today. I want to do what pleases you.

45:09 And he turns around and walks away and picks up the morning newspaper and never goes to the pedestal and finds that notebook where the master's embodied his will for the day. The master's dumb. He can't communicate verbally, but he's communicated in his notebook. You'd say, That servant's just a lot of hot air.

45:26 He doesn't really want to please the master.

45:29 Suppose you saw another servant who came before the master and he didn't say a word about I love you, I revere you. He just bowed and glancing away from the master, he picked up the book and he carefully found what the master had written. And then with a smile of delight upon his face, he purposely turned on his heel and went out to do what was in the book. Which one loved the master?

45:55 Which one loved the master?

45:58 The one who was careful to take time to find out his orders. And beloved, if we really pray from a heart of love to our God, thy will be done. We're going to make time to come to the order book. For Jesus said, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.

46:19 And if you don't make time for the order book, you don't love him.

46:24 Oh, but my... You don't love him.

46:25 Yes, but my... You don't love him.

46:27 Oh, but the... You don't love him.

46:32 I don't love him.

46:34 When I'm too busy in his work, quote,

46:40 to find his order book,

Appropriating God's Grace for Obedience

46:43 the last thing it'll do, it'll cause me to appropriate afresh the grace of God for that day. For when I pray, thy will be done in me as it is in heaven. I'll recognize the glorious truth that I in myself have no power to do his will. But I read in the Bible, Philippians 2.13,

47:00 he worketh in me both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And when I honestly pray, Lord, I want an obedience that's like the obedience of the angels. It isn't long before I recognize, Lord, I'm more like a devil than an angel by myself. I'm a rebel, Lord.

47:17 But thy will be done in me. And, Lord, I take grace for the day. I take grace to be the husband you want me to be, to be the father, the son, the student, the classmate, the witness. Lord, I take grace from thee today.

47:32 Hebrews 13, that great benediction, now the God that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, make you perfect in everything to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and forever.

Conclusion: A Call to Honest Prayer and Repentance

47:58 Dare you pray that petition? Thy will be done in me as it is in heaven. Makes demands upon us, doesn't it? Hmm?

48:06 See, this is why I don't want us to start praying this publicly. We plan to. When I'm done expounding this, I want us. And we're not going to pray it like it is in most churches.

48:14 Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. No, no, no, no. We're going to pray it slowly. Our Father who art in heaven.

48:21 We're going to pause. We're going to think of who he is. Hallowed be thy name in this place today, in my life, in our church, in my home. Thy kingdom come.

48:36 Thy will be done. Dare you pray it?

48:42 Dare you pray it? You can't unless you're born of God. And his will for you is that you repent. For God commandeth all men everywhere to repent.

48:52 And that you flee to Christ for mercy, for God is not willing that any should perish. He will have all to be saved. And come to the knowledge of the truth and the expression of God's will in the word is that you flee to Christ.

49:08 But if you fled and been born of the Spirit, ah, then, dear one, his will for us is in this book. And we want our obedience to be like that of the angels. May the Spirit of God seal the truth of the word to our hearts. And may we be enabled to honestly pray today, thy will be done in me as it is in heaven.

49:34 Let us pray.