We’re continuing our look at the Lord’s
Prayer. Today, we’re going to be exploring the third petition.
Thy
will be done. Matthew 6.10
I’ve been praying that the Spirit will
use what I have to say about this part of the Gospel so that you will take
another step in maturing as disciples of Jesus. Let’s see what He will do.
As usual, we need to start by being
clear about the words. And there has been confusion about these words. What
does the Bible mean when it mentions God’s will? Something Moses wrote helps us
to answer that question.
The
secret things belong to the Lord
our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children
forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29.29
The will of God can refer to His
secret things. These are all that He planned for creation from the first day to
the last, things which He decided on in eternity past. We don’t know what these
plans are until they occur or unless God tells us about them ahead of time. You
can call this God’s secret will.
But then, there are all those things
that God has revealed to us, things like the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on
the Mount and all the many promises of Scripture. These have been revealed to
us and to our children so that we would obey and enjoy God. You can call this
God’s revealed will.
In the third petition of the Lord’s
Prayer, Jesus is calling us to pray that the revealed will of God would be
obeyed. He calls for this because it is a sad fact that God’s commands, His
will for people’s lives, are too often not obeyed, and His promises, which lead
to obedience, are not believed. Jesus wants us to pray that that changes. He is
calling us to pray that there would the same degree of obedience on earth as
there is in heaven.
Now, that’s a tall order. It calls for
a great deal of change. So, where do we begin? And, of course, we begin with
ourselves. It makes no sense to pray that other people obey God’s will for
their lives if we aren’t working at that for ourselves.
What I’m going to do now is break this
down so that you can see some of the different elements that are involved when
it comes to obeying God’s will. Seeing the parts will help you to see better
the whole.
Here is the first. If you are going to
obey God’s will for your life as revealed in Scripture, then you need to know
God’s will for your life as revealed in Scripture. How can a Christian do what
God wants him to do if he doesn’t know the Scriptures?
That explains why churches stress
teaching the facts and such that are contained in the Bible. It’s why little
kids learn Bible stories and adults study Bible themes. There is an awful lot
going on in the Bible. It’s a really good idea to know as much of that as you
can.
However, while knowing all those facts
and such is important, that’s not the goal. That’s only a means to the goal.
The goal is to be able to use all of that to answer this question. ‘What does
the Father want me to do in this situation?’ That’s just another way of talking
about obeying the will of God.
There are plenty of situations where
answering that question is quite easy. And what makes that easy is that those
situations are not especially complicated. Do I steal this money? Do I pursue
that woman even though I’m married? Those are no-brainers. But, as you know,
life is rarely so plain and uncomplicated. Life is filled with situations that
are complex. Am I obligated to tell the truth now? Is it okay to watch this
R-rated movie? Whom should I vote for? Coming to know God’s will in such
situations can be quite challenging.
Jesus is our model. He demonstrated
great wisdom in answering our question, ‘What does the Father want me to do in
this situation?’ Here’s one example. God’s command about the Sabbath is one of
the hallmarks of the Mosaic covenant. Listen to God speak through the prophet
Isaiah.
Blessed
is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the
Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Isaiah 56.2
The Pharisees picked up on Scriptures
like this one and were very scrupulous about keeping the Sabbath holy by doing
no work. And that’s why they got so angry when Jesus broke the Sabbath. How
dare He! Doesn’t He know that He is supposed to obey the revealed will of God?
But how did He respond to charges like
these?
Or
have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple
profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? Matthew 12:5
I just read to you where God had said
He would bless the man who would not profane the Sabbath. And here we find
Jesus talking about priests who do profane the Sabbath and are still innocent
before God. Their breaking the Sabbath was the right thing in their situation
according to the Law of God. They were obeying the revealed will of God.
Here’s what I want you to see. Jesus
didn’t just know His Bible, but He knew how to use it. He had a level of
sophistication in understanding it that the Pharisees completely lacked. They
had the facts but not the wisdom. And what was hanging in the balance was
correctly doing the revealed will of God in the different situations of life.
What was hanging in the balance was obedience to God.
We need to develop a greater
sophistication when it comes to understanding the Bible so that, whatever the
situation, we will know how to obey God’s will. That is a pressing need these
days because life is going to get more complicated for us as our nation falls
apart.
Just to give one example, consider
this situation. You’ve just been informed that there is a new policy at the
place where you work. It reads, ‘All employees will refer to transgendered
members of this company using whatever pronoun they desire. Failure to comply
with this policy will result in immediate termination’. What are you to do? And
why are you to do that? What does obeying God’s will look like in that situation?
Don’t be quick to answer that. There are large consequences either way you
choose.
Christians today need to develop a
greater degree of sophistication when it comes to answering the question, ‘What
does the Father want me to do in this situation?’ We need to become wiser.
Let’s move on to the next element in
obeying God’s will.
When it comes to obedience, the
tendency has been to think primarily in terms of behavior. And just to be
clear, what I mean by that is the actions of the body. But is that all that
obedience to the will of God is about? Clearly not. Listen to Jesus.
You
have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you
that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28
Jesus is establishing a principle that
we need to remember when it comes to obeying God. Obedience has to do with more
than how we act. It also deals with what’s going on in our hearts. Two people
might be acting in the same way and yet one is sinning while the other is not.
And that is because of what is going on in their hearts. What are they
desiring?
So, there you are. You’re looking
forward to a good meal. Is that okay? Is that a good desire? It all depends.
What’s going on in your heart? It’s fine to arrive at dinner time after a day
filled with hard, physical work ready to eat. To sit and enjoy a meal with the
rest of the family sounds like a great idea. In that situation, what’s going on
in the heart is good. This is simply a matter of enjoying the gifts of God,
things like family and food.
But what if the motive of the heart
has to do with, let’s say, finding solace in food. It’s been a very emotional
day, and it’s gotten you down. But you know from experience that nothing
restores an ‘up’ feeling better than a full stomach. Sure, it’s hours before
dinner, but a hearty snack now will just make you feel better. What is that? It’s
using food to deal with the difficulties of life. And it’s not actually dealing
with those difficulties. It’s just covering them over.
Is doing that the right answer to our
question: ‘What does the Father want me to do in this situation?’ Is that what
the Scriptures teach about how to deal with the difficulties of life? Is that
obeying God’s will?
Obedience to the will of God begins in
the heart.
Being able to properly obey the will
of God in some situation requires that you understand the motives of your
heart. As you decide to act in some way, it would be good to ask yourself why you
want to do that. It may well be that your motives are entirely pure and holy.
Then, do that thing with a clear conscience. But what if your motives are off?
What if your heart doesn’t want to obey the will of God in that situation?
So, we’ve talked about the importance
of knowing the Scriptures, of developing a measure of sophistication in using
the Scriptures and the importance of examining the motives of the heart. There
is one more element I want to talk to you about.
I’d like to substitute another word
for the word ‘obey’. Don’t get me wrong. ‘Obey’ is a fine word. But there are
times when you need something with a little more nuance. So, instead of talking
about obeying God’s will I want to talk about submitting to God’s will.
First, what’s the difference between
obeying and submitting? You can see obeying as doing what you’re told. You’re
obeying some command. Submitting adds something to that. It adds the notion of
accepting the command from the heart.
A soldier may obey his orders, but that
doesn’t mean that he won’t be furious at his commanding officer while he obeys
those orders. A child might be picking up his room just like his mom told him
to, but he could be doing that with an awful attitude.
God doesn’t call for mere obedience to
His will. He calls for submission to His will. He calls us to accept from the
heart what it is that He commands.
Submission has gotten a bad rap in our
day. It’s hard to find many people who like the idea of submission. And there
is a reason for this. It’s because we, Americans, are a rebellious people. We
refuse to submit to anyone. We might obey someone. But that’s because we agree
with what he requires or because we don’t want to face the consequences of not
doing what he wants. But we will not submit to him. We are just too independent
for that. This is another way that the world, our culture, has influenced the
Church in America.
And yet, this submission is what God
calls for. He wants us to submit to His will for our lives, to obey from a
heart that accepts His commands.
Now, that does not mean that you are
supposed to always be happy as you do what God commands. Jesus was not happy as
He submitted to the Father’s will on Good Friday. Submitting to God’s will
doesn’t mean that you have to feel emotionally up while you obey. But it does
mean that your heart accepts His will.
To do that requires trust. Submission
to God’s will is an expression of trust in God. You find yourself in a
situation where God calls you to something that is very hard, something that
will hurt a great deal. And you hear yourself saying that you aren’t going to
like this, not one little bit. But, if you are wise, if you are godly, you will
also hear yourself saying, ‘Father, I trust You. I know that You know what You
are doing with my life. Just give me the ability to do this in the way that You
want.’ Submission is a matter of trust.
But then, submission is also an
expression of love. Obedience to God’s will that doesn’t come from a heart of
love isn’t obedience, not as God defines it. The goal isn’t to act in a certain
way, according to the rules. Doing the will of God is first and foremost
responding to Him. It’s responding to Him as Your Father, Your Father who loves
you. It’s responding to His love with your own.
Doing God’s will - obeying, submitting
- is about trusting Him and loving Him.
This speaks to you who are parents as
you train your children to obey you, or better, to submit to you. The goal isn’t
a certain kind of behavior. How many kids hide a heart of deep rebellion behind
a facade of obedient behavior. And when, in the teen years or later, they blow
up, everyone is wondering where that came from. The goal isn’t behavior. It’s
an attitude of the heart that will express itself as trust and love.
This same dynamic of the heart applies
to a wife’s submission to her husband. That lays on husbands the obligation of
showing themselves as trustworthy and as those who really are loving their
wives. But even if a husband is failing at this, the wife needs to submit to him.
And she does this because she trusts and loves her Father in heaven who calls
her to this submission.
Let me pull this together. With all of
this in mind, it really does make sense to pray, ‘Thy will be done’. I say that
because making progress in the things that I have talked to you about this
morning - knowing the Scriptures, developing a sophistication in using the
Scriptures, properly examining the motives of your heart and persistently
expressing an obedience that is being lived out as submission - these are
things that are beyond us. Far too much sin remains in us. But there is grace
for sinners like us. And that grace is ours if we ask for it. So, praying, ‘Thy
will be done - in me’ makes so much sense. There is no way we will make any
progress in these things apart from the grace of God that is ours in Jesus.
This is another reason to make praying the Lord’s Prayer a regular part of your
piety.