THE LORD’S PRAYER
Matthew 6:10
THY WILL BE DONE
#4 of 8 in a series on
The Lord's Prayer
Note: if you are missing
any of the previous outlines on the Lord's Prayer, and would like to have them,
email me at jpeters@alltel.net and I will be glad to send them to you.
I want to remind you
that God has a perfect plan for your life.
I want to remind you
that God has a perfect plan for your family and friends.
I want to remind you
that God's will is "good, acceptable and perfect", according to
Romans 12:2.
We return to our study
of the model prayer, the Lord's Prayer. We said that the Lord's Prayer is a
skeleton for prayer, and that we need to put meat on that skeleton by
elaborating on these requests as we pray.
Prayer has much to do
the will of God.
If we are praying for
the glory of God, we will want God's will to be done.
If we are praying to
accomplish God's purposes, we will want God's will to be done.
Because all of us are
human and tend to be selfish, we have a tendency towards wanting our will to be
done instead of God's.
This little phrase in
the Lord's Prayer is a reminder, that our prayers are to centered
around God's plan and not ours!
This morning we want to
consider 3 things about praying thy will be done. The first letter of each word in our outline spells the
word, "ask."
A - ASK ACCORDING TO
GOD'S WILL - 1 John 5:14-15
1 John 5:14-15 -
"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing
according to his will, he heareth us:And
if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him."
God wants us to be
confident when we pray.
God wants us to expect
positive answers when we pray.
God wants us to pray in faith.
Mark
God wants us to be
confident when we pray. We are confident that God will answer our prayers when
we know that are what we are asking is God's will. if
we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth
us:
So how do we know that
what we are asking for is according to the will of God? We need to know what the will of God is, in
order to ask for the right things. And
the place we discover the will of God is in the Word of God.
We are such weak,
unbelieving prayers, because we are weak, unbelieving, or should I say
non-participating readers of God's Word.
You want to know what you can pray, knowing that God will answer? Read
the Word of God!
Do you ever pray for the
church services here? I got to thinking, as an example of believing prayer,
what can we pray for the church services here, knowing that what we pray is the
will of God.
1. Pray that Christians
will come to church. Hebrews 10:25
2. Pray that non-Christians will come and hear the Word of God. 2
Peter 3:9
3. Pray that the Pastor
will preach the way God wants him to preach. 2 Timothy 4:2
4. Pray that the unsaved
will trust Christ as Savior. John 3:36
5. Pray that the saved
will obey the teaching of God's Word. James 1:22
S - SEEK GOD'S WILL -
James 1:5-8
There are times when we
do not know how to pray.
We are not sure what to
ask for.
Sometimes we have
decisions to make, and we don't know what to do. That's when we come to God and
pray the way James tells us to pray.
Vs. 5 - When we don't
know God's will, especially during times of trial, we are ask
our loving heavenly Father, who gives guidance liberally. And notice when God gives guidance, you don't
get a lecture with it! He doesn't upbraid or rebuke you.
As you pray, God will
give you guidance! He will show you His
will.
K - KNEEL IN SUBMISSION
TO GOD'S WILL - Luke 22:42
Matthew
Now when I say we are to
kneel in submission to God's will, I do not necessarily mean literally. In our hearts our ultimate goal should be to
ask for, and to do the will of God!
If we are truly sold out
to God as Christians, we will only want to ask for things that are truly His
will. Therefore we must be willing for
God to answer us with the word "no".
When will God say
"no" to your requests?
He will say
"no" when you are asking for selfish reasons. James 4:4
God will say
"no", if you asking contrary to His revealed Word. Many a Christian gal has asked for guidance
about marrying a non-Christian guy.
Every time God is saying no, because that's what the Bible says, not to
be unequally yoked with unbelievers. 2 Corinthians 6:14
God will also say
"no" to your requests, when His will is different than yours. You remember hearing of our Lord Jesus in the
Luke 22:41-42
Jesus wanted a way out,
but realized that there was no other way.
He was willing to accept God's perfect will, which for Him was the
cross.
How willing are you to
accept God's will?
We are taught to pray,
"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
Do you know how God's
will is done in Heaven?
God's will is done
immediately and completely!
As a Christian is that
your desire?
The most important thing
is that God's will be done.
Your will be done, Lord,
in my church.
Your will be done, Lord,
in my family.
Your will be done, Lord,
in my country.
Your will be done, Lord,
on my job.
Your will be done, Lord,
in my life.
Your will be done, Lord,
in my personal relationships.
The Apostle Paul was a
great man of prayer and a great servant of God, actually had a prayer that
received a "no" answer. He
wanted relief from a physical problem, and God said, "no".
2 Corinthians 12:7-9
Many of you are parents.
Have you said
"yes" to every request that your children have requested of you? Of course not, because you know what's best
for your children. And what they ask for is not always best.
So it is with our loving
Heavenly Father.
He does not always
answer yes, because what we are asking for is not best.
My friend, God has given
you a great privilege if you are a born again Christian. The privilege is to
pray according to the will of God.
A - ASK ACCORDING TO
GOD'S WILL
S - SEEK GOD'S WILL
K - KNEEL IN SUBMISSION
TO GOD'S WILL