Sermon Central
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Your Will Be Done
Contributed by Jerry Flury on Jan 16, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Are these just words that we pray? Do we really want God’s will to be done? Do you understand what is involved in doing God’s will?
YOUR WILL BE DONE!
INTRODUCTION: This morning would you stand and join me in reciting the model prayer more commonly known as “the Lord’s Prayer”. “Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done...” Wait! Stop! Did you hear what you just asked God? “Your will be done!” Do you understand what that means? Do you know the ramifications of these words? Do you really want God’s will to be done? To see more clearly what is involved let us look at Christ in Gethsemane.
I. Your will be done – regardless of the pain and suffering.
A. Luke 22:42 - 44 “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
B. The pain, the grief, the agony – Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
C. Sometimes the will of God may involve going through very difficult waters.
D. If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably does not lead anywhere.
E. 1 Peter 3:15 - 17 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
F. To "suffer as a Christian" is not to be marked peculiar because of your views, or because you will not bend to conventionality; these things are not Christian but ordinary human traits from which all men suffer irrespective of creed or religion or no religion. To "suffer as a Christian" is to suffer because there is an essential difference between you and the world which rouses the contempt of the world and the disgust and hatred of the spirit that is in the world. To "suffer as a Christian" is to have no answer when the world’s satire is turned on you, as it was turned on Jesus Christ when he hung upon the cross, when they turned his words into jest and jeer; they will do the same to you. He gave no answer; neither can you. – Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
G. Hebrews 11:24 - 26 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
II. Your will be done regardless of the direction.
A. John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
B. He could have remained in glory but chose to come to a sin laden planet.
C. Doing the will of God may involve going outside of your comfort zone and cause you to go where you don’t want to go.
D. Jonah 1:2 – 3 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
E. Genesis 12:1-2 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.
F. In order for Abram to receive the promised blessing, he had to be willing to break out of his “Comfort Zone”, and leave the things, people, and place with which he was most familiar.
III. Your will be done regardless of the rejection.
A. Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
