Thy Will Be Done On Earth As it is in Heaven
Matthew 6:10 March 18, 2012
A Study of the Lord’s Prayer: Sermon # 4
“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. (10) Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” (NKJV)
When we pray “Hallowed be thy name,” we are to praise the person of God as we recognize who He is by the names ascribed to Him; when we pray “Thy kingdom come,” we pray for the program of God to come, i.e., the growth of His Church. Today we look at the third and final “thy” petition, which centers on the purpose of God, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
It is unfortunately true that uncounted millions have repeated the words “thy will be done” without the faintest notion of what God’s will is. Perhaps even more alarming is that even more people have repeated these words without any intention whatever of seeing to it that the Father’s will is done. The Lord’s Prayer is probably the most misused Spiritual tool that there is.
It is good for us to be reminded of what Dr. Martin Luther said in his explanation of the third article of the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism:
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
What does this mean? The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.
How is God’s will done? God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die.
This is most certainly true.”
Ill. My high school football team praying it. AA, Al-Anon etc. praying it. The problem is that many of these don’t even have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, they are unbelievers. How in the world can they even begin to know what the will of God is?
Praying for His will to be done provides the very foundation for our prayers. We are asking that God’s will be done in our lives and in the world surrounding us. I suspect that we often get it in reverse, and pray as if we expect God to change the universe just to accommodate us. We treat God little better than a genie in a magic lamp. We make our wish known, we expect God to change the universe to give us what we want.
If Jesus taught His disciples to pray for God’s will to be done, then, I wonder why who else has a will that is opposed to God’s will. That is a good starting point for today.
I. Whose will is opposed to the will of God?
The Bible says that there are three: the devil, the world and our own will, what we sometimes call the “unholy trinity.” Let’s look at the Bible verses that teach this:
1. The Devil.
“Be self-controlled and alert, your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
From the very beginning in Genesis 3, the devil has been opposed to God’s will. The devil consistently tries to confound and prevent God’s will from being done.
2. The World.
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:15-17
We are spiritually blind if we cannot look at the world and see plainly how it is opposed to the will of God. Here in America the rampant materialism and glitter of the good life are clearly opposed to God.
3. Our Will. The sinful nature of man is opposed to God’s will.
“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Romans 7:18
Every person is born with the sinful nature in control. Without God’s intervening by His Holy Spirit, our will is continually opposed to God’s will. Only if the Holy Spirit by God’s grace intervenes in our life, can our old sinful nature be curbed and our new nature become stronger, so that we can do the will of God.
And so you see that we are in a continuous state of battle between the wills opposed to God, and His will. That’s why we need to pray this prayer, not in 1.9 seconds, as a mantra, but we need to take it apart and take a serious look at what it means, and pray it accordinlgly.
When you pray “thy will be done” you are praying for at least four things.
II. Why do we pray for God’s will to be done:
1. To Discover what God’s will is.
Psalm 119:18 (NKJV) “Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law.”
Before we can do God’s will, we need to know God’s will. To pray “thy will be done” is a commitment to knowing God’s will as it is revealed in His word. Naturally it follows, that if we are going to know the will of God in our everyday affairs, we are going to have to read the book in which his will has been laid out.
2. To Understand what God’s will is.
Deuteronomy 4:2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”
1 Timothy 4:2 God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
There seems to be a lot of confusion over deciding what God’s will is, when dealing with some very practical issues. The following are some guidelines to help you.
1. Is what I am concerned about in agreement with what is expressed in His word? If so fine, if not don’t do it!
2. Have you faced a similar situation before? If so what did God reveal to you at that time? If you made a mistake don’t repeat it!
3. If the decision is difficult, seek godly counsel.
“Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.” Proverbs 11:14 (NKJV)
4. Make the decision a matter of quiet and earnest prayer. Ask the Father to impress on your spirit what is the proper course of action. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5 (NKJV)
5. Don’t ignore the common sense that God has given you.
6. Take your time. Do not make hasty and impatient decisions. God is seldom in a rush about things.
7. Anticipate that the passage of time will either open or close a door of opportunity. This should be recognized with a sense of peace and acceptance. [drawn from W Phillip Keller. A Layman Looks t the Lord’s Prayer. (Chicago: Moody, 1976) pp. 83-84]
3. To Submit to God’s will
It is not enough just to know the will God, one must then apply it. “Thy will be done”, is in reality a prayer of submission. According to Romans 12:2, it is our privilege to submit it: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” The truth is that the cause of all the unrest, frustration, unhappiness and sense of powerlessness in the life of a Christian can be traced to trying to follow our own self- will. At the back of all our failure is the desire to have my way not His way. It’s basis is a will that says No to God!
1 Thessalonians 4:3 “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.”
4. To Accomplish God’s will
“Both the outward look and the inward look reveal that the will of God is not being done. Because it is not being done in the Christian, there is no blessing in the church. And because there is no blessing in the church, the world is unreached, untouched, going to hell, lost for time and eternity.” [Alan Redpath. Victorious Praying: Studies in The Lord’s Prayer. (Grand Rapids: Revell Books, 1993) p. 54]
Paul’s prayer for the Colossian believers was that they “you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; (10) that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;” Colossians 1:9b-10 (NKJV)
The second part of this petition is that His will be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” If the veil were pulled back for a moment so that we could get a glimpse of how His will is done in heaven, what do you think that we would see? First we would see our universe, the moon, the sun, the stars all moving in perfect created harmony, a harmony that is the result of moving to will of God. When our eyes finally rested on the eternal abode of God, we would see in the middle of heaven a throne surrounded by the blood bought saints of all the ages worshiping the King. We would see the angelic host of heaven obeying his every command. We would see the will of God being done without one creature out of harmony. How is the will of God done in heaven? The will of God is done in heaven, instantly, constantly and without failure.
To glibly recite the Lord’s prayer does nothing but to pray it sincerely has revolutionary implications.
Conclusion
I want to conclude with two things, first the words of Jesus about His Father’s will recorded for us in John 6:35-40; and then an anonymous poem on God’s Will.
John 6:35-40
35Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
The Will of God
The will of God will never take you,
Where the Grace of God cannot keep you,
Where the Arms of God cannot support you,
Where the Riches of God cannot supply your needs,
Where the Power of God cannot endow you.
The will of God will never take you,
Where the Spirit of God cannot work through you,
Where the Wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the Army of God cannot protect you,
Where the Hands of God cannot mold you.
The will of God will never take you,
Where the Love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the Mercies of God cannot calm you,
Where the Peace of God cannot calm your fears,
Where the Authority of God cannot overrule you.
The will of God will never take you
Where the Comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the Miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the Omnipresence of God cannot find you.
Everything happens for a purpose.
We may not see the wisdom of it all
Now but trust and believe in
The Lord that everything is for the best.
(author unknown)
Prayer: Father in heaven, may You impress upon us by Your Holy Spirit to take seriously Your holy will to discover it, understand it, submit to it and work to accomplish it in our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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