...your Will Be Done... Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: April 01, 2014

Date Preached: April 02, 2014

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: A Study on the Lord’s Prayer

Sermon Title: Your Will Be Done…(Sermon 6)

Sermon Text: Matthew 6:9-13 [HCSB]

Essence of the Text: Jesus wanted His disciples to know how to pray…

Essence of the Sermon: Jesus wants believers today to know how to pray…

Objective of the Sermon: Prayer is vital for the believer, but prayer is not so much in the words as it is in the attitude behind those words. This model prayer lays forth a template that guides the believer in the direction of their prayer and the attitude of their heart.

Introduction:

As we move ahead in looking at this model prayer that Jesus is laying out for His disciples we get to the phrase, “Thy will be done…or YOUR will be done!”

What is God’s will? Can we KNOW the will of God for our lives… the will of God for our church? If we can come to know it, can it be DONE by our actions here in this world?

Can WE as mere mortal men and women carry out the will of God here in our world? What about God’s will vs our own will? Can we set aside our own will to do the will of God?

These are ALL direct and honest questions we can ask about ‘What is God’s Will?’ They are all what I would consider to be ‘soul searching’ questions and they demand that we sincerely seek out the answers to them…

I believe this prayer has been prayed literally MILLIONS of times by MILLIONS of people with them saying these four words, “…your will be done…” but they really have NO idea what those words truly mean!

What is MORE sad, is that MILLIONS of those people who have repeated those words… not only did they not know or understand what they were saying with those words, but they had NO intention of even trying to understand or get to know what they meant…or what it means to say ‘…your will be done…’

Sadly millions upon millions of people say this prayer with no sense of what it means or no desire to learn what it means… they simply repeat the words like a parrot, hoping that somehow the ritual incantation of these words will bring about the blessing of God in their lives…

The vain and repetative nature of ALL these people saying these words without caring or knowing what it means is not limited to those outside the church but unfortunately it is rampant within those who sit in the pews every Sunday morning… who attend SS… who give tithes… who believe they have a relationship with God…

The way in which these words are used by many all over the world is empty and hollow… but I want us to understand that these words are of TREMENDOUS importance to the believer…

Just before Jesus taught the disciples how to pray He warned them to NOT pray with vain repetition… because basically it is NOT what you say the most to God that He hears and listens to, but that what truly comes from your heart and your attitude behind that prayer!

A prayer of repetition or from rote memory is usually an empty prayer that relies on the words to move God… But God is moved by our heart…not our words!

But I want to get back to the ‘will of God’ and I want us to understand that knowing and doing the will of God is paramount for the believer! It is the most important thing we can do as a beleiver in this world.

Let me try to illustrate what I mean… If being obedient in sharing your faith represents the sun in our universe… knowing and doing the will of God represents ALL of the known universe!

It overshadows ALL of what we do and who we are as believers! There is NOTHING more important for the believer than to seek to know and do the will of God in our lives!

I believe this is why Jesus places this in such a strategic position within the prayer. It is a central theme around which all other parts of the prayer are gathered! Jesus stressed on many occasions to His disciples that He had not come on His own accord, but that He was here doing the WILL of the Father!

Look what Jesus says in John 6:38 (ESV) 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

We also see in the Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene when He was crushed under the burden of giving His life for the sin of the world… He prayed for relief and pardon from this cup… BUT in His prayer He submitted to the Will of the Father as He said, “…let this cup pass from me but NOT my will but yours be done…”