Well, if you'd please open your Bibles to Matthew, Matthew chapter 6. We're continuing through the Lord's Prayer as we study the Word of God. I'm also going to read Luke chapter 11 before we begin the sermon. But first, Matthew chapter 6. This is the Sermon on the Mount, and our Lord, throughout the Sermon on the Mount, speaks of prayer, talking to God. In John 14, Jesus says that I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. So when we pray in the name of Jesus, and we've talked about what that means, it means praying in accordance with His will, praying in accordance with His word, praying in accordance with His decrees and His law, when we pray the heart of God, the law of God, the Word of God back to Him, we can ask anything in His name and He will do it. What's an example of this prayer? Lord, sanctify me. That's a prayer in the name of Jesus. He will do it. He will sanctify us. Lord, please, let Your gospel go forth. This is a prayer in the name of Jesus. It will go forth. It will do it. But we can pray for anything. As Patty has told us, we can pray for anything. And God, who is a heavenly Father, will hear His children. So, we're going to talk about the Lord's Prayer in particular, but prayer in general. Please remain seated. I'm going to read Matthew 6, verses 5-15, and also Luke 11. When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And if you'd flip a few pages over to Luke chapter 11, This is a complementary passage as Christ talks about prayer. Luke 11. Now Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. And He said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive our sins as we forgive everyone who is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation. And he said to them, which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. He will answer from within. Do not bother me. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot get up. and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is a friend, yet because of his impudence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, we'll give him a scorpion. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" Well, in these two passages on prayer, we see so many aspects of prayer. Prayer is to be something we do alone in our closet. Prayer is to be something we do corporately with our friends, with our church. Prayer is to be something that we call out to God in the name of Jesus, asking for anything in Jesus' name that is related to the name and the hallowing of the father. But prayer is also something that we should view as going to the father, as children to a father, children who are asking for things like bread, trusting that he is such a good and gracious father, that he will give us good gifts. He won't give us a scorpion. He'll give us an egg. He won't give us bad things. He gives us good things. And he concludes this by saying, your father will give the very best gift he could ever give to those who ask him, the Holy Spirit. And we're also told that we should be persistent in our prayer if the man would do nothing because the neighbor was a friend, but he would get up because of the man's impudence. Jesus isn't implying that we should be impudent with our prayers to God, but if that evil man would do that for his friend, how much more would a loving father answer the prayers of his own children? So this is all by way of introduction as we look at the Lord's Prayer. Remember, the first parts of the Lord's Prayer are all about God's holiness. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. So when we look at the Lord's Prayer, the first and most important thing that we must always remember is prayer is about God primarily. It's not about us. It's first and foremost about the holiness of God, the work of God, our King and our Master. So with that, let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask for His blessing. Our Father in heaven, we do come to you and we desire to glorify and honor your holy name. not only in this prayer, not only in this service of worship, but all of our lives. Lord, we pray that you would begin to draw each one of us to you in prayer, corporate prayer, prayer with our families and private prayer. Lord, that prayer would be the warp and woof of our lives, that we would spend our days in your word and in prayer and always find ways to bring our request to you. in prayer. Lord help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're focusing on the third petition of the Lord's Prayer, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We're going to look at this particular prayer and really analyze every part of it. We have to pray, Thy will be done, because our own will is often faulty. So we're going to look first at our own will Then we're going to look at the thy and thy will, God's will, and why maybe sometimes people are scared to pray for God's will to be done. And then we're going to look at the will of God. What exactly are we asking? Well, we pray thy will be done because this is the way the Lord has taught us to pray. And our motive for praying is that we desire also to do God's will as Christ did. Well, what is the problem that this prayer is addressing? Well, our own nature, in and of itself, is unwilling to do the will of God. In our nature, we're prone to rebel against the Word of God. As we said this morning, everyone does what they want to. Everyone does exactly what they want. Everyone has a free will. This is true, but it's only free to do what it's capable of doing. You're not free to fly like a bird, are you? No one's free to do that. We're not capable of doing that. A bird, on the other hand, is free to fly like a bird and free not to fly. Because it's a bird, it's capable of doing that. You are not free to choose anything good apart from God. Apart from God, you just do what you want to do, but you're not capable of choosing the good. You're only capable of doing what's opposed to God. Apart from God, you cannot do anything else. You will never want anything Godward, anything spiritually good. So your will is free, but it's free insomuch as it is capable of doing and it's only capable of evil. Romans 7.18 says, "...for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." 1 Corinthians 2.14, "...the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him." He's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. And finally, Romans 8, verse 7, For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. So we acknowledge that apart from God, our hearts are inclined to evil, so we pray, Father in heaven and even after. After we have come to Christ, although the power of sin is broken in us, there's still this war that goes on in our flesh, as Paul talks about in Romans 7. Now we have the desire to do what is right, but in our own, we need God's help to carry it out. So this is one of the first reasons we pray, Thy will be done in us. There's a battle in us, Lord. Thy will be done. We also acknowledge that by nature we resist and murmur against God's providence, just as the Israelites did in the wilderness. We grumble and we complain against the decrees of God, His sovereign will in our lives. We are dead in our sins and trespasses apart from God, and we're grumbling about God's providence when we see difficulties in our lives, We struggle. And yet, what we are asking God to help us do is to glorify the name of God in how we live and in how we think about life. Not to us, but to Your name, give glory. We realize that we should want to do His will and not our own, and He promises to help. From the very beginning, the very first sin, remember, He promised to help. He said He would send the seed of the woman And he would bruise your head, speaking to Satan. The seed of the woman would bruise your head, but you shall bruise his heel. This is Jesus. Jesus is our help. And Paul applies this promise to the church of God. The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet, in Romans 16.20. We pray this prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, because we need the help. Personally. the person of God who we're asking for help. Thy will be done. What are we asking God to do? But first, who is this God? I've known people who said, don't ever pray if it be thy will. Because you don't know what God might want. You just want to pray what you want. What an absolutely messed up way to look at God. What is going on there? They don't trust God. They don't trust that God is good. They have low thoughts of God. And for that reason, many people hesitate to pray, Thy will be done. They don't trust Him. Now, we're not praying Thy will be done because of some misapplication of an understanding of who God is and what He does. In other words, we're not praying, Thy will be done. Like, God help me to knuckle through this. Help me to clench my teeth and just accept this mean thing that you're doing in my life. That's not what we're saying. Nor is it like a slothful kind of resignation. Okay, Lord, do Your will. I don't have anything to do about it. You're sovereign, so it doesn't really matter what I say. No, that's not it either. and to understand exactly what we are to be saying, we need to understand who God is. You see, you won't have this clenched teeth acceptance attitude if you know that God loves you and cares for you. Also, if you know that He's active in your life, He's an active shepherd, actively shepherding you, it won't feel so distant when you pray, Thy will be done. No, God is with you. just as He was with Israel in the wilderness. God revealed Himself to them in the wilderness in a cloud by day and a fire by night. And He proclaimed His name to Moses, the Lord, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping love, for thousands in forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, who will by no means clear the guilty. He's merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. This is a covenant-keeping love. He's forgiving. He's just. He's right. And He is merciful. Instead of viewing God through a lens of misunderstanding an angry God or something like that. We should look at God through the lens of Scripture. Yes, justice is part of His nature, but He is merciful and gracious, and slow to anger, and abounding in covenant-keeping love for all whom He has called. He's a good God. So, knowing that God is good, it gives us confidence to pray, Thy will be done. Lord, whatever you're doing, it's good. It must be good. for ultimately good. Maybe not pleasant, but ultimately it's for good. We don't understand His decrees, but we know the God Who decrees, don't we? And He's good. We don't know God's ultimate purposes. All of the why questions in life are probably none of our business. Lord, why did this happen? We often don't know why things happen. But we know that our God is good. Thy will be done. We want God's glory displayed in all things. Hallowed be Thy name. Not to us, but to Your name be the glory. God is a good God. He's the one we are praying to and saying, we trust You, Lord. Thy will be done. What is His will? Well, there's two ways in which the will The word will is used in the Bible. There's a secret will of God and His revealed will. The secret will or His decrees are things that He's decided, and it's just His business. It's none of ours. Deuteronomy 29, 29. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. His secret will, His decrees. But the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do the words of this law. The revealed will of God is the Bible. His Word. So when we look at the decrees of God, and then we look at the revealed will of God, and we're praying, Thy will be done, we're encompassing all of that. Yes, we want what You've decided to happen, Lord. Whatever comes to pass, and we want to accept it and receive it. And yes, Lord, we love Your Word and we want to obey it. His Word is a precious gift to us. is recognized in the New Testament as the most precious of gifts. Paul says, "...but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, knowing from whom you learned it and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. that the man of God may be perfectly equipped for every good work." The revealed will of God, the Word of God, is precious to us. I was just telling Mary Kay a few days ago how I grew up in a Christian home. Mary Kay grew up in a Christian home. But it wasn't a home that was a confessional home. Our doctrine was just all over the map. We knew the Word of God. We certainly had no systematic theology. We had no understanding of the Word that would unite the Word under the one author of the Word in a way that we could understand. Certainly no confession of faith is perfect. However, the Westminster Confession of Faith seems to have a wonderful a wonderful way of explaining the doctrine of God, especially as it relates to the will of God. It walks us through how the revealed will of God tells us how to love and obey God. The revealed will. What's the revealed will of God? It's His Word. Where is it specifically highlighted in the moral law? Where is the moral law highlighted? The Ten Commandments. What are the Ten Commandments summarized? Well, it's summarized in loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself. All of this describes the law of God and our obedience. I didn't understand any of this as a child. I wanted to please God. But in my ignorance, I thought it basically meant just kind of doing my best and whatever I felt was right was right. And I think many Christians live in that place. The law of God actually means nothing to them. It's a good thing in the Old Testament. Yeah, that's maybe applicable somehow. But really, we live under grace, and whatever I do is probably acceptable to God, and He's pleased with me no matter what. Well, certainly there's a small element of truth there, because in Christ, we are pleasing to God. If you have faith in Christ, yes, absolutely. The righteousness of Christ is yours. But there's also a sense in which we should strive to love God. And if you're loving God apart from His law, it's not love. So this active obedience, thy will be done, is actually saying, God, I want to obey Your revealed will. As You've shown it to me in Your law, I want to obey it. Lord, help me. As the angels do in heaven. That's why that phrase is added. On earth as it is in heaven. Let Your revealed will, Your Word, be done on earth just as it is in heaven. We don't just want to know it, we want to do it. Judas Iscariot walked with Jesus for three and a half years. He knew the law, didn't do it. So this is why we would pray for God's revealed will to be done. Because we pray for obedience on the earth, in us, but in the world. We know we're unable to please God, so this is the caveat. We're unable, in and of ourselves, to please God. yet we desire to. We desire to please our Father in heaven because we love Him. Can you imagine one of your children who says, yeah, I love you, but has no desire at all to please you. No desire to obey. You would rightly say, I don't think you really love me. So there's six things when we pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Six things I think that show us why we must strive to love God in obedience. First, God is God. He claims His sovereignty over us, just as He claims sovereignty over the angels in heaven. We must obey Him. Secondly, the Word of God exists to show us how to glorify and obey and enjoy God. We want to be doers of the Word, not just hearers. We want to obey the commandments of God. to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We want to do this. Thirdly, the promises of God and the threats of God's Word are all meant to bring us into conformity with His Son. This means obedience to His revealed will. Fourthly, doing God's will is a reflection of our love for Him. This is the primary motivation internally of our obedience. It should be. shows that our faith is genuine. Fifthly, because we want to pray this because to know the will of God and not to do it is wicked and sinful and evil. And sixthly, this is a practical application. To live in obedience to God's law is where life and peace is. Because it's a work of the Holy Spirit. There's a Proverbs application of obedience in our lives. When we're obedient, there's life and peace. It's for your good, Moses says in Deuteronomy. So when we pray this request, our hearts are asking God for a right heart and a right attitude in all of our obedience. Thy will be done. That we would obey from the heart as the angels do in heaven. How do the angels obey in heaven? Perfectly. Obediently, immediately, cheerfully, willingly, trustingly, lovingly, excellently, constantly. This is the obedience in heaven that we are praying for us on earth. And it is really hard. Actually, there's this video that our family watches often. It's like a two minute clip. And it's David when he was maybe, sorry, Dave, if you're watching this, but he was maybe seven or eight years old. And he's trying to show off for his sisters, and he's going to jump up onto a step without touching the bottom steps. He's going to jump, like, four steps up. And he tries three or four times, and he gets frustrated, and he hits the stair, and he's like, ow! And he hurt his hand, and then he kicks it, and he hurts his foot. And he says at the end, it's just too hard. And we've been saying that to each other ever since. Because sometimes life is just too hard. Sometimes our obedience just feels too hard. And when you look at the perfect example of Christ, and that is our standard for obedience, indeed, it's just too hard. Who's able to do this? Nobody. Perfectly. Hence the need for this prayer. We mourn our failures and our limitations. We cry out to God. that our obedience to His will, which is so unlike the angels, would be brought closer to the obedience of Christ. We don't obey perfectly, or immediately, or cheerfully, or willingly, or trustingly, or with love. And yet we desire to. We desire to be sanctified. Thy will be done. We pray for an obedient heart. and a right knowledge of God and His law. We pray for self-denial and sacrifice, for humility, a willing spirit, for God's empowering spirit to help us. So that's His revealed will, but there's also in relation to His decrees, what He's decided, His will of decree, His secret will. We're also praying something about that, and that's basically what I would refer to as our passive obedience. It's basically submitting to God. Whatever you decreed, God, thy will be done. We're trusting God in prayer, in whatever situation He brings to us, that we can be patiently content in trials and hardships. It doesn't mean we ignore our pain and tribulation. If you're struggling right now in some kind of trial or hardship or tribulation, you need to remember Christ. He was perfect. And He cried out to God with loud cries of supplication. Groans to God. Even sweat drops of blood. But then He contented Himself in God's sovereign goodness and said, not my will but Thine be done. That's what we're saying. Not my will, but Thine be done. You can cry out to God and still be submissive to His providential will in your life. What's not acceptable? Murmuring, complaining, shaking your fist at God in anger, forgetting that God is sovereign over your life and that He's good. God will send hardships to His people. In this world, you will have trouble. But we have peace because of Christ. So when life becomes difficult, God is teaching you something. about yourself and about Himself, and you should submit to His gracious plan. And cry out like Christ, not my will, but Thine be done. Lord, let Thy will be done. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Well, there's something else about God's will that I think is applicable for us. When we seek direction for some decision in life, we pray that God's will would be done. I want your will more than my will. God, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom as I make this decision." Now, there are two categories of decisions. There's moral decisions that we make, and then there's amoral decisions, decisions that aren't moral in nature. A moral choice, of course, we just do the right thing. Should we give to the needy? Absolutely. That's just the right thing to do. Should we tell the truth even though it might cost us something? Absolutely. That's the right thing to do. You don't need to pray too much about that. You just need to pray for courage to do it. But an amoral decision is something like, should I buy this car? Should I sell this property? Should I marry this woman? Should I go to this school? Something like that. They're still important decisions, but they're not moral decisions and we have freedom. How do we approach those kinds of decisions? Well, we pray for wisdom. We seek wise counsel. We search the Scriptures. And we trust God. We're to pray without ceasing. We're to turn our hearts to God for every kind of situation that might arise. Every kind of decision. we have to make. John Newton, who wrote to him Amazing Grace and many others, he describes this process of seeking the will of God. It's part of our prayer, let thy will be done when we're seeking to make decisions. He says, how then may the Lord's guidance be expected? In general, he guides and directs his people by his Holy Spirit, which enables them to understand and to love the scriptures, the revealed will. The Word of God is not to be used as a lottery, nor is it designed to instruct us by shreds and scraps, which detached from their proper places have no determinate import. But the Word of God is to furnish us with just principles, right apprehensions to regulate our judgments and affections, and thereby influence and direct our conduct. This is what the Puritans would call sanctified reason. inundated with the Word of God that when you have to make decisions, you prayerfully pray through your options, you list the pros and cons, and you pray through them, and you pray that the Lord would give you wisdom, and then you move out based on the principles, the apprehensions, the judgments and affections of the Word of God, and you make your decision. His ways are good and right and just, so we trust Him. We trust His Word. And we pray, thy will to be done. both in His decrees that we would submit to them willingly, trustingly, but also in His revealed will that we would obediently follow hard after Him. So let me conclude with this. How often and when should we pray this? We should pray at all times. Thy will be done. In my life, in our church's life, in our society, Lord, bring society and conformity with Your Word. And also help me to submit to You in Your decrees for me. On earth as it is in heaven. That's the qualification. On earth as it is in heaven. This is how often we want to submit to God. All the time. Just as the angels do in heaven. The standard, of course, is Jesus Christ. Remember, God's desire for His people is their good. And His own glory. He's perfectly pure and good and holy and righteous. This is our God. He's the only person in the universe who can seek His own glory. He executes His perfect plan for His own glory. He demands our obedience and our willing service for His own glory. But we must always remember that He is the most good and loving and kind and gentle God we could ever hope for. The sufferings and pain that come upon us, that He has brought to us, are the minimum required to achieve His glorious purpose and the good that He is working inside our own hearts. And never forget that He has saved us from so much. He saved us from hell. An eternity of hell. So we should not forsake God for the small tribulations that He brings to us. All the wrath of God was put upon His Son that was due to us. He's not an uncaring God at all. He's a God we can trust. He's not arbitrary. He doesn't do random acts of violence. Everything is calculated to perfectly suit us and His own glory. I just want to close by reading Psalm 103. If you would turn to Psalm 103 with me. Let's just finish the service by reading this psalm together. This is our attitude when we pray, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This should be our attitude to correct our hearts to God's holy standard. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made his ways known to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His Word, obeying the voice of His Word. Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers who do His will. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let us pray. Almighty God, we thank you for this prayer that you have given us and we thank you for this petition of the Lord's Prayer. That thy will would be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Lord, we thank you that the angels in heaven do your will perfectly. We thank you that Christ, when he walked this Earth, he did your will completely, willingly, perfectly and with love for you. All for your glory. Lord, this is our desire as well, that we might love and obey your revealed will, your word, your commandments, that we might love you with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and might love our neighbors as ourselves, that we might live lives that please you. But Lord, also that when it comes to your decretive will, Lord, that's What you have planned, your providential will for our lives, Lord, that we would submit to it as Christ did as well. All for your glory, that we might say, not my will, but thine be done. Lord, we love you. We desire to pray frequently. We desire to pray often. And we pray that you would do a work in each one of us. Bring us to our knees regularly in prayer. Help us to pray with our families, with our wives and husbands. Help us to pray with our children and our parents. Help us to pray with brothers and sisters, with those whom we work with. Help us to always be ready to pray. May our communion with you in word and in prayer be the most important parts of our lives. All to your glory, to your honor, in Jesus' name, amen.