Intro
Today we are continuing in our series “Soul Matters… Shaping our Souls in the light of The
Lord’s Prayer.”
Emmet Fox called it the Great Prayer, and declared that..
The Lord’s Prayer is “compact formula for the development of the soul.”
Lets read aloud together…
Matthew 6:9-13
"This, then, is how you should pray:
"'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'
Today we are engaging the central issue… not only of this prayer…but of ourselves as persons.
Matthew 6:10
Your kingdom come,
YOUR WILL BE DONE
On earth as it is in heaven.
“Your will be done”…
Here Jesus sets the reality of prayer and life in order. Before asking for daily bread or any other
desire…we set God apart as our Father in heaven…the source of all life and love…the need for
His name to be hallowed…which means His nature set apart from all else… whose Kingdom we
must desire to have come… which means the extent of His reign and rule over us an our
world…and that WE WANT HIS WILL TO BE DONE.
> What is central to prayer is what is central to reality – God’s will.
“Your will be done.” These four words confront our most basic posture towards prayer…and
God.
We think prayer is the application to getting what we want. We want something so we apply
for it. We want a job we fill out an application. We want government benefits we apply for
them. these days our smartphones can give us many things… we just need to get the
right…”APP.”
We want things…and we think prayer is the “App” for that.
But…the point of prayer is NOT to get God to give us what we need.
The point of prayer is to get our hearts back into their true orbit.
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.
In truth,
“Prayer is an interruption of personal ambition.” - Rowland Hogben
(Teacher at the China Inland Mission Training Centre in London)
I don’t believe there are any words more central…and more challenging that we could pray. (They
may be easy to say…but the hardest words to actually pray.)
As I have sat before them this week….they remain as sobering as any.
Praying “Your will be done”….is inherently bound in the line it flows from… “Your
Kingdom come.” For as we focused on last week… a kingdom reflects authority… what reigns
and rules. Jesus has come to bring God’s ultimate reign and rule back to bear upon the created
realm.
So both of these statements flow with a parallel intent.
"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done." As God’s Kingdom comes… His will is being done. And
wherever God's will is done, his Kingdom has come.
But as we noted last week….there is a clash of kingdoms…creator of all things including
freedom…and that which chooses to separate itself from that source. Jesus said he came to
confront and overcome that “prince of this world.”
But ultimately there are as many self proclaimed kingdoms as there are lives. For we all bear
the power of our own will.
A kingdom represents one’s scope of control…of ruling.
As Dallas Willard describes…
In creating human beings God made them to rule, to reign, to have dominion in a limited
sphere. Only so can they be persons. We are meant to exercise our "rule" only in union with God,
as He asks us to act. [2]
“Will is the ability to originate or refrain from originating something: an act or a thing. It brings
things into existence. Sticks and stones do not have that ability. Will is the capacity for origination
of events and things. Therefore it is the core of who and what we are as individuals, for what
arises from it is from us alone. It is that aspect of personality in virtue of which we have a likeness
to God or are "in His image." We are created to be creators -- of good. It is the core of our
nonphysical being. [3]
Our capacity to make choices… to exercise a will… is something we find dignity in.
That’s why we get excited when a child exercises their will with words… and movements. We
find beauty when we see the total dependency of a newborn infant being held in that arms of an
adult. But we feel pride when they begin to exercise a choice that emanates from themselves.
“Look…they picked up that ball and put it in the can!” Did you hear what they said?” Of course
we spend the next years trying to keep it in control. [4]
We become so enamored with our will…we think it’s the center of all will. And soon it’s a
motto… “Have it your way”… and our collective cultural ego responds “Amen.”
What is lost is the most basic fact…There is only one ultimate will that will reign.
The competing kingdoms are totally distinct in power… one is merely the negation of the other…
creating nothing from itself.
1. The desire for God’s will confronts our greatest deception.
Human freedom is actually a very limited freedom. This might not be apparent, for it seems
we make choices and do things we want to do.
Did you decide to be created?
Did you design the world you were launched into?
Did you determine the social structures into which we were born?
We have social influence….but most of what shaped us are the social influences that surrounded
us before we had any influence.
Even so-called artistic creativity is limited. Artists can only work with what already exists in our
universe or with materials that humans manufacture-clay, canvas, carving knives, brushes. At very
best sub-creators!
Moral freedom? Yes, we are free to do what is wrong…but not without consequences…and
becoming enslaved to the powers we give ourselves to.
We have a tendency to want to defend our right to make choices....our freedom. the truth is
that we have that freedom….but our wills are not the center.
[ Illustration of battleship & lighthouse ]
Some of you may recall the first hand account from the magazine of the Naval Institute, in which
the following account was described by Frank Koch:
Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy
weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as
night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping
an eye on all activities.
Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, "Light, bearing on the
starboard bow."
"Is it steady or moving astern?" the captain called out.
Lookout replied, "Steady, captain," which meant we were on a dangerous collision course
with that ship.
The captain then called to the signal man, "Signal that ship: we are on a collision course,
advise you change 20 degrees."
The captain said, "Send, I'm a captain, change course 20 degrees."
"I'm a seaman second class," came the reply. "You had better change course 20 degrees."
By that time, the captain was furious. He spat out, "Send, I'm a battleship. Change course
20 degrees."
Back came the flashing light, "I'm a lighthouse." …Advise you change course. [5]
We may feel like battleships. We can work up all the bravado we want. We may declare our
defiance with all the willpower we have. We can cherish our freedom as our greatest glory.
But we are just light a battleship tossed on an ocean…who will face the much larger force of
land. God’s will is the unchanging good that we seek to govern and guide us… or to find that it
is we who will be left adrift.
Until only recently human life believed that the earth was the center of the universe….and that the
sun resolved around it. We thought our planet held the primary force. We may laugh at the though
now that we see the bigger picture…but we can imagine that small creatures on a huge planet
might assume nothing could compare in vastness to our own groundwork….and the light that rise
each day and provides light… was naturally assumed to just be there to serve what is central.
The truth all along is that the sun is the center of our solar system... and the earth revolvesaround
the force of he sun.
It is the sun which is the essential source of life.
The sun is over 100 times larger in diameter.
The sun is big enough to hold over 1 million Earths.
The sun is the source of energy that supports life on earth.
Life is dependent on our planet being in the Sun’s orbit. The earth and all life on it…is dependent
on the sun. And if our planet is not bound by this orbiting relationship to the sun…it would be cast
into the outer darkness …which is just what Jesus said of our lives apart from life orbiting around
the will of God.
In a similar way, believing that we are each the center of universe…the will around which
everything revolves…will not make it true no matter how much we believe it.
Our hearts and wills will never find their center and true source in themselves.
Our will reflects our dignity of bearing God’s image… and as such…when detached from the
orbit around which we were meant to love… that very source of dignity can become our source
of destruction.
On the path of self-will people eventually come to the place where they cannot choose what
God wants and cannot want God….which leads to the next truth regarding our desire for
God’s will. [6]
2. The desire for God’s will forges our ultimate destiny.
As C.S. Lewis noted,
"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,'
and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' [7]
As Dallas Willard expounds…
“One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God and the knowledge of God
is something they themselves truly desire. If not, they can be assured that God will excuse them
from his presence. They will find their place in the "outer darkness" of which Jesus spoke. But the
fundamental fact about them will not be that they are there, but that they have become people so
locked into their own self-worship and denial of God that they cannot want God.
A well-known minister of other years used to ask rhetorically, "You say you will accept
God when you want to?" And then he would add, "How do you know you will be able to want to
when you think you will?" The ultimately lost person is the person who cannot want God. Who
cannot want God to be God. Wanting God to be God is very different from wanting God to help
me.” [8]
The desire for God’s will…is the heart of repentance (turning back) and restoration of true
freedom.
Everything that is created…finds it’s self in relationship to it’s source. Every creature finds
it’s true good in relationship to it’s Creator.
That is what exists ‘far above the creatures, for God Himself, as Son, from all eternity
renders back to God as Father his trusting obedience which the Father by paternal love eternally
generates in the Son. This is the pattern which man was made to imitate.’ [9]
Jesus came among us to show and teach the life for which we were made. He made it
possible to join in the governance of God with him, and set afoot a conspiracy of restoration
among human beings. [10]
Jesus embodies a human life that walked after the will of heaven.
Jesus said in John 4:34:
"My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” - John 4:34
Jesus said of himself—
“The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases
him." - John 8:29
God's will was the determining factor in everything Jesus did in life and death.
How vastly different is the state of usual human will.
This joy of such devotion is so often lost in duplicity and defiance.
This leads to a third truth about praying for God’s will to be done…
3. The desire for God’s will defines our spiritual development.
Prayer is not just STATING that God is central….but MAKING Him central.
The hard work of prayer is making him central ….beginning with our thoughts…then our
affections…then our planning which reflects our WILL.
In prayer we make God central again. The power of prayer is to return us to our true orbit. This
prayer for God’s will DECENTRALIZES me.
• I am no longer the subject and God the object…
• I am no longer the requester but the responder…
This is the life Jesus calls every follower into. If we receive him… we join in the will of the
Father.
Consider the emphasis Jesus placed on others doing God's will.
In Mark 3, his mother and brothers came to talk to him as he taught.
He was informed his family wished to see him.
This was his answer in verse 35:
“Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." - Mark 3:35
In Matthew 7:21 Jesus said,
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he
who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” - Matthew 7:21
This is the type of life that represents spiritual maturity. [10B]
Our spiritual development is about growing in our desire for God’s will to be done.
Our desire for God’s will…is often progressive… from a moment of desperate plea…to complete
identification of our will with His.
God does not override our posture…our will…but He is sensitive to the slightest move of the
heart toward him.
It may begin with desperation….coming to a moment on which we come face to face with the
fact that we are not in control…and really not THAT good.
Many have discovered God because in a moment of complete hopelessness they prayed "O God,
if there is a God, save my soul if I have a soul." When that is the true cry of the heart, of the
inmost spirit of the individual, who has no longer any hope other than God, God hears and
responds without fail. It is as if he has a "heart monitor" installed in every person. And when
the heart truly reaches out to God as God, no longer looking to itself or others, he responds with
the gift of "life from above." As many of us know… such surrender may not prove to initially
be very deep and defining… not very settled and sustaining.
One problem with desperation is that it can quickly feel we’re fine and don’t need any help.
As soon as we feel a little less desperate we can say, “Thanks very much…I’ll take it from
here.”
Many may find they come to a level of more resolved consent….we accept the supremacy in all
things. Perhaps we do so grudgingly. We recognize his supremacy intellectually, and we concede
to it in practice-- though we still may not like it, and parts of us may still resist it.
We may not be able to do his will, but we are willing to will it. In this condition there is
still much grumbling and complaining about our life and about God.
Andrew Murray comments that "we find the Christian life so difficult because we seek for
God's blessing while we live in our own will."
Still, this is an important move forward. The center of the self, the heart or spirit, is now
willing for God to be God--even if with little enthusiasm. Perhaps it is only willing to be made
willing.
As each of us know, some aspects of God’s will…will confront what deeply grips us… as God
challenges us in areas we are most bound to our wills in. there are always some areas we are in
real conflict over. He may challenge us:
• To stop being harsh to others,,, and to have more compassion.
• To be generous with His money
• To become honorable with our sexuality
What breaks us through the begrudging nature of consent…of resignation?
It comes with a resolve of contentment. Such contentment with the will of God is not only with
his being who he is and ordaining what he has ordained in general, but with the lot that has
fallen to us.
We all have things we want to change. As the serenity prayer keeps so clear….some we can
and some we really can’t. What have to come to terms with the things that we can’t
control…that we can’t change. What are we going to do with those?
• Worry? – How’s that working out?
• We can resent it and get bitter about it. Does that work? No.
• We can regret it. That doesn’t work.
• We can have self-pity about it. That doesn’t work.
• We can be fearful and worry about it. That doesn’t work.
There is only one thing that works in the situations that you can’t change. Acceptance. Learning to
be content.
This involves a trust that transcends understanding. Contentment comes when we let go of
demanding fairness…and demanding an explanation. The truth is that God is not going to explain
how He sovereignly is working. As finite creatures we could never understand the infinite. Just as
young children are prone to ask “Why” to things they can’t yet understand…so it is that most
things you’re not going to know why they happen until you get on the other side of death and you
get into heaven and then we’ll understand.
We have seen God work good from evil…and we will have to trust God with what we can’t
understand by what we do understand.
That is the trust that leads to contentment.
We don’t demand explanations for what we have had to face in life. There is a humility to realize
we can’t understand God’s ways.
At this point in the progression toward complete identification with the will of God, gratitude
and joy can emerge in tone of our life. We are now assured that God has done, and will always
do, well by us--no matter what! We find ourselves on the other side of dreary, foot-dragging
surrender to God. We emerge from the inner conflict of being divided…of duplicity between
God’s will and the unspoken demand to get what we want. Our grumbling and complaining are
replaced by a more peaceful acceptance. (Philippians 2:14-15)
Such contentment is not about merely becoming passive to life. It involves as the Prayer of
Serenity states: the ability to accept what we cannot change AND the courage to change the things
we can.’
A desire for the will of God leads us into participation… we are carried along by the power of
the divine drama within which we live actively engaged. We aren’t just focused on struggling to
resist sin, we are devoted to realization of righteousness all around us. [11]
“Your will be done” is not a posture of passivity. It’s a radical declaration of war against an
enemy….against indifference… against injustice.
As N. T. Wright says...
“Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from
earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the
Lord's Prayer is about when it proclaims ‘May Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven.’ [12]
CLOSING:
Where are you in that prayer?
What are you trying to control that you know at some level you don’t control?
Where is your will most stubborn right now?
What is it you want that might be some unspoken form of trying to relate to God “on your terms?”
What is it that you may need to open your clenched fist and pray: “Your will be done?”
What is it that you need to realize never belonged to you in the first place. They always belonged
to God. He loaned them to us, and when the time comes He will take them back again.
What area of your life have you not been saying: “Your will be done?” What area of your life is
set against God? You’ve surrendered the kitchen and the living room. What about the closet of
your life? What about the garage of your life? [13]
What about the bedroom of your life? Is sexuality an area you are trying to live in an alternative
orbit of your own destructives drives? You know the tension.
Some of you have not surrendered your finances to God. You know you should honor God as the
one who owns everything….but you want to maintain personal control over your possessions and
your money. And you know the tension.
Some of us have not been willing to desire God’s will in our relationships. “I know I should
forgive that person who hurt me but I’m not about to forgive them.”
Many of us have a have an area of our lives that we holding within the orbit of our own will.
Some of you have never surrendered your life to Jesus Christ.
Recalling C. S. Lewis statement that there are two kinds of people in the world, and only two
kinds: those who say to God, “Your will be done” and those to whom God says in the end, “Your
will be done.” Which kind are you?
Closing Prayer:
Responsive Worship:
Additional closing introducing the option for communion:
There is nothing simplistic about what those four words represent.
It is the hardest prayer to pray. ‘It was the climatic point in the life of Christ…and came with
blood.
In the Garden of Gethsemane.
He knew his betrayal and death would happen soon.
He did not wish to die and assume an enormous burden in death.
He prayed fervently not to die.
Matthew 26:39 (NLT)
“He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is
possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not
mine.”
> He chose the greatest suffering… to atone for your sin and mine. He showed that the will of God
will allow suffering…but always with a greater glory to come.
Resources: Dallas Willard (especially Renovation of the Heart), Timothy Ahrens, Tim Keller
Notes:
1. Emmet Fox, The Sermon on the Mount (New York; Harper and Brothers, 1934), p.161.
Cited in Teach us to pray: Prayer in the Bible and the world. 2000 (D. A. Carson, Ed.) (electronic
ed.) (308). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
2. From Dallas Willard, "The Divine Conspiracy"
The more complete thoughts of Dallas Willard about our “rule” with God
“To gain deeper understanding of our eternal kind of life in God's present kingdom, we
must be sure to understand what a kingdom is. Our "kingdom" is simply the range of our effective
will. In creating human beings God made them to rule, to reign, to have dominion in a limited
sphere. Only so can they be persons. We are meant to exercise our "rule" only in union with God,
as He asks us to act.
Lamentably, we fell away from our intended divine context and from the task for which we
are by nature fitted. We mistrusted and distanced ourselves from God and then, very naturally,
from one another. In our arrogance and fear we flounder through our existence on our own. The
earth itself is "subjected to futility" because of this (Rom. 8:20). However we may picture the
original event, "the fall," one cannot deny that such mistrust pervasively characterizes human life
today and that things do not go well on earth. History and the eleven o'clock news leave no doubt.
As we learn through increasing trust to govern our tiny affairs with Him, the kingdom He
had all along planned for us will be turned over to us, at the appropriate time. "Come you who are
under my Father's blessing and take over the government assigned to you from the beginning"
(Matt. 25:34).
Accordingly, in the last chapter of the Bible we see God's purposes in creation come round
full circle in eternity: "The Lord will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev.
22:5).
Paul says, "Creation eagerly awaits the revealing of God's children" (Rom. 8:19).
Jesus came among us to show and teach the life for which we were made. He came very
gently, opened access to the governance of God with him, and set afoot a conspiracy of freedom in
truth among human beings. Having overcome death he remains among us. By relying on his word
and presence we are enabled to reintegrate the little realm that makes up our life into the infinite
rule of God. And that is the eternal kind of life. Caught up in his active rule, our deeds become an
element in God's eternal history. They are what God and we do together, making us part of his life
and him a part of ours.”
3. From “Renovation of the Heart” by Dallas Willard, pp 142-152.
4. Dallas Willard, in the "The Divine Conspiracy,” says:
“The small child, without learning to do so, values its capacity to act on its own, which it quickly
identifies and stubbornly defends. The sense of things flowing from itself is unmistakable and
joyous and irrepressible. And adults delight to see the child's will emerge--"look at what she did!"
and "Did you hear what he said? !" In the child and in the adult, this sense of creativity is basic to
health and well-being.”
5. From “The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People”, Stephen R. Covey, 1989, pgs. 32-33
6. A.W. Tozer writes,
“There are two worlds, set over against each other, dominated by two wills, the will of man
and the will of God, respectively. The old world of fallen nature is the world of human will. There
man is king and his will decides events. So far as he is able in his weakness he decides who and
what and when and where. He fixes values: what is to be esteemed, what despised, what received
and what rejected. His will runs through everything. "I determined," "I decided" "I decree," "Be it
enacted." These words are continually springing from the lips of little men. And how they rejoice
in their fancied "right of self-determination," and with what comic vanity do they boast of the
"sovereign voter." They do not know, or refuse to consider, that they are but for a day, soon to
pass away and be no more.
Yet in their pride men assert their will and claim ownership of the earth. Well, for a time it
is true, this is man's world. God is admitted only by man's sufferance. He is treated as visiting
royalty in a democratic country. Everyone takes His name upon his lips and (especially at certain
seasons) He is feted and celebrated and hymned. But behind all this flattery men hold firmly to
their right of self-determination. As long as man is allowed to play host he will honor God with his
attention, but always He must remain a guest and never seek to be Lord. Man bows-to Him, and as
he bows, manages with difficulty to conceal the crown upon his own head. We can be like little
explorers in a great big world…. Or actually think we are the grand creators.
What is fascinating by the amazing discoveries of what we call science ….whether they be
discoveries about the universe, the human body, or the nature of matter itself….is that some lives
involved in discovery become more in awe of God…and some lives become more in awe of
themselves.” – From A.W. Tozer, "The Divine Conquest"
7. From C.S. Lewis, "The Great Divorce," p. 72-73
8. From Renovations Of The Heart by Dallas Willard, pp. 57-58
The more complete thoughts of Dallas Willard about the nature and choice of hell
“ Thus no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell or even to be the kind of person who belongs
there. But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom awayfrom-
God is the only place for which they are suited. It is a place they would, in the end, choose
for themselves, rather than come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is. Whether
or not God's will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not. There are limits beyond which it
cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent.
One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God and the knowledge
of God is something they themselves truly desire. If not, they can be assured that God will excuse
them from his presence. They will find their place in the "outer darkness" of which Jesus spoke.
But the fundamental fact about them will not be that they are there, but that they have become
people so locked into their own self-worship and denial of God that they cannot want God.
A well-known minister of other years used to ask rhetorically, "You say
you will accept God when you want to?" And then he would add, "How do you know you will be
able to want to when you think you will?" The ultimately lost person is the person who cannot
want God. Who cannot want God to be God. Multitudes of such people pass by every day, and
pass into eternity. The reason they do not find God is that they do not want him or, at least, do not
want him to be God. Wanting God to be God is very different from wanting God to help me.”
-Renovations Of The Heart by Dallas Willard, pp. 57-58
9. Drawn from C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Ch 6, pp. 90-91. Full quote below:
“Now the proper good of a creature is to surrender itself to its Creator - to enact intellectually,
volitionally, and emotionally, that relationship which is given in the mere fact of its being a
creature. When it does so, it is good and happy. Lest we should think this a hardship, this kind of
good begins on a level far above the creatures, for God Himself, as Son, from all eternity renders
back to God as Father by filial obedience the being which the Father by paternal love eternally
generates in the Son. This is the pattern which man was made to imitate - which Paradisal man
did imitate - and wherever the will conferred by the Creator is thus perfectly offered back in
delighted and delighting obedience by the creature, there, most undoubtedly, is Heaven, and there
the Holy Ghost proceeds. In the world as we now know it, the problem is how to recover this selfsurrender.”
10. Dallas Willard states,
“Jesus came among us to show and teach the life for which we were made. He came very gently,
opened access to the governance of God with him, and set afoot a conspiracy of freedom in truth
among human beings. Having overcome death he remains among us. By relying on his word and
presence we are enabled to reintegrate the little realm that makes up our life into the infinite rule
of God. And that is the eternal kind of life. Caught up in his active rule, our deeds become an
element in God's eternal history. They are what God and we do together, making us part of his life
and him a part of ours.” - -Dallas Willard, "The Divine Conspiracy"
10B. And Paul had this to say: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20).
“That is the outcome of Christian spiritual formation with reference to the will, heart, or spirit.
And this outcome becomes our character when it has become the governing response of every
dimension of our being. Then we can truly be said to have "put on Christ." – Dallas Willard
11. Adapted from “Renovation of the Heart” by Dallas Willard, pp 142-152
12. “Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from
earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's
Prayer is about when it proclaims ‘May Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven.’- from Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the
Church by N. T. Wright (published by HarperOne, 2008.) [12]
13. Adapted the closing description to areas of life we may not be giving God from Rick Warren
Message “Connecting With God: The Lord’s Prayer - Part 2”, Feb. 7-8, 2009
