“Thy Will Be Done on Earth
as it is in Heaven”
The fourth in a Sermon
Series on the Lord’s Prayer.
February 9th
& 10th, 2008
This evening/morning we continue the series on the Lord’s Prayer. So far we have heard that the almighty God is merciful; “Our Father”. He is powerful ;“Who art in heaven”. He is personal; “Hallowed be thy name”. We also pray “Thy kingdom come”, so that we might recognize his gracious rule in the world. A rule which works through his church through grace, his world in power, and that our eternal in heaven would soon come upon us. In many ways this prayer is praying against ourselves. Our natural way of praying might be more like this “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be my name, my kingdom come, and my will be done.” Yet, our ways are not the best ways, and so today we are taught to pray “Thy will be done”.
A number of years ago Jim Carey starred in a move titled the Truman show. In this movie Truman was born into a television studio, and for thirty plus years he was a star on a television show he alone felt was “real life”. The director of the “Truman Show” created the “ideal” world for Truman or so he believed. For you see he controlled everything from the people Truman met, his employment, and even his wife. For Truman, his world controlled by someone on the outside, turned out to be stifling, and in the end Truman finds his freedom. To pray “Thy will be done” in this setting, was to ask to live in a fake world, where human potential was limited, and the director (god) was manipulating the show. Might this be a viewpoint of many who think that God’s will runs the show. To them, this will is stifling, and a limitation on human freedom. For from the scriptures we learn that God’s will is not manipulative, rather it is a good will, one in which we ultimately obtain greatest of all significance.
To
pray “thy will be done”, means that we are confidently praying to a God who
gives us all good things, and that he ultimately frees us from all that would
harm us. In other words, like the Truman
show we long for and receive freedom, but unlike the Truman show freedom does
come from setting ourselves free from outside constraints. Rather,
no freedom comes from in Christ
himself. “If the son will set you free you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36)
One of the first things we learn about God’s
will in the New Testament is that it can be understood. In confirmation class we have been
discussing agnosticism. Agnostics
believe that nothing is for sure, and while it may be helpful, there is
nothingof which we can be certain. How
different it is with Christianity. What
do we do we know for sure? What can we
understand? Not everything about God,
but we can now this…. That in every NT instant, save one, it is God’s
will to rescue us or save us. The other instance found in
revelation simply states that it was God’s will to create us. Ultimately the will of God is about
salvation, about rescue, about his love for us.
Jesus says “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 (John 6:40).” We can even be instructed concerning this
by the order this petition is placed in
the Lord’s Prayer. Before we can talk
about God’s will, we first have to learn he is our Father, that he has a name
to be hallowed, that his is on and will
come on this earth. So when we are faced
with the question, what is God’s will for me? Our first approach is to ask what
sort of God we have. He is our
Father. He has named you in baptism,
with the name that is above every name.
His authority is over the earth, and in the church he rules through his
word. His will is expressed clearly day
by day. This will is expressed by our Heavenly Father in his Word.
God’s
will is not foreign to us, but you may be saying yes Pastor “I know that I am
saved” but I’m concerned about what God will is for me in my life. What about a job transfer that I am
considering? What about this guy I am dating,
how do I know if he is the one? What
about using our scant funds to buy a house or fix a car? What about issues concerning
retirement? Does God want me to serve
this job or that job? What is God’s
will for me/us in these situations? As
you know the bible just does not give
specific directions concerning these situations. Remember that God’s known will is that that
he saves us and loves us. In other words
we are in his will with any of these choices, as long as none are innately
sinful. Colossians 3:17 says “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do
it all in the name of the Lord When given two or three or even more choices
present themselves to us he blesses us in the process. Someone once said “We live wanting to know
what to do ,but over and over in the New Testament he insists on telling us who
we are.” In other words who we are;
saved, rescued children of God and this give us freedom to serve.
We do not have to look into the unmapped future to find his will,. We can look to our present especially where he has placed us. In other words as believers right now we are
in the will of God. His will is done as
we live our lives in the various stations of life. Be they as parents, parishioners, children,
employers, employees, students, and so on.
God’s Word tell us who we are.
It is a burden to be unsure, to wonder if you have done the wrong
thing, made the wrong decisions. Yet,
freedom comes from hearing who we are in Christ, and his promises. Like the one in Romans 8:38-39 “For I
am convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither heights or depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
God’s
will can be understood, and God’s will frees us. God’s will also conquers our will, and Satan’s
will. To pray thy will be done is at
the same time to pray that our old nature, the one that doesn’t recognize
Christ’s goodness in our lives, is to be conquered. It is also to pray that Satan’s will, the
evil one, the great accuser, will not have his way with us. Jesus alone has the power to defeat both of
these very formable enemies. Hebrews 2
says “Since the children have flesh and
blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy
him who holds the power of death—that is the devil.” The devil is real in this world, and the
havoc he can inflict is great. 1 Peter
5:8 says that prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour. Yet he cannot stand against
the Son of God who is for us and works through us. We also know that our old Adam ultimate power
has been rendered ineffective or drowned through Christ’s resurrection promise
given to us in baptism. However as
Luther once said “he remains a pretty
good swimmer.” Jesus himself even said
about his followers, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”(Matthew
26:41) Our wills will let us down, so to
pray that “thy will be done” is to pray that God would do what he has promised
to do. That is forgive and strengthen
through our rescuing Savior. He hears
this pray, and does not hesitate to grant his gracious forgiving will to his
repentant followers. God’s will
heals what has been destroyed, strengthens the week, and gives hope to the
hopeless.
God’s will, his rescuing power in
Jesus Christ’s supports us in all our troubles. 2 Timothy
1:12 says “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to
guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day”. 1 Peter 1:5 says “You through faith are
shielded by God’s power until the coming
of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
We
can be confident as a congregation that we understand God’s will. We can
boldly that he is gracious to us,
and that we are freed to live our lives knowing that his will is behind the
various decisions we make in life. After
all he says “All things for good to
those that love him and have been called according to his purpose.” (“Romans
8:28) He has saved us, made us his
own, and given us life. He also freed
us, allows to make decisions through the gifts he has given us. His will is much better than our will. O Lord help us to recognize your good and
gracious will.
This
past week in