This past week we kicked off a new series called, "Teach us to pray." This was the request of Jesus' disciples, after spending extensive time with him. So last week we unpacked the first part of Jesus' prayer. Jesus said, "Pray like this... ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Oh how the disciples must have sensed the depth of intimacy between Jesus and God, whom Jesus called his "Father in Heaven." They'd never heard anyone address God in such a personal manner! Could they also approach God with such confidence as sons and daughters? Absolutely! When we pray, God responds every bit like a Father. Jesus said, "What good father if his son asks for bread gives him a snake?"
They also sensed an authenticity, or an authority, to Jesus' manner of life. This man wasn't going through the motions of righteousness, talking the talk. There was a heavenly intensity to all that Jesus was saying/doing. He loved God with all his heart, mind, body and soul. And he loved people, and responded to their longings, as no other.
Some people mock God. I overhead a lady this past week complaining to her friend, "Are we really the best God can do?" Some ignore God, until they really need him, then they can't get ahold of a pastor fast enough. Some deny God.
But not Jesus. Here was a man who honored God. When tempted, when persecuted, when ridiculed, while teaching, while successful, while forsaken, while begin arrested, falsely accused, crucified... Jesus refused to dishonor the Father. Always pray that "Our Father in heaven be revered" Jesus insisted. Jesus prayed it and lived it.
This morning we turn our attention to the next words of Jesus, where he tells his disciples to pray, "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." So when we read these, three questions immediately come to mind. . .
What is God's Kingdom?
Most people think of God's kingdom as a physical place. In Scripture, God uses the phrase "Kingdom of God" interchangeably with "Kingdom of Heaven." The Jews felt it was disrespectful to say God's name directly, so they preferred to say "Kingdom of Heaven." So as Jesus begins his ministry, we find him saying, "The Kingdom of God" is "near," "upon us," "at hand." He told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God does not come "in a way that can be observed." Jesus refers to the Kingdom of God "coming in power" and in Luke 17:20-21 tells his disciples, "The Kingdom of God is in the midst of you." Some translations say, "The Kingdom of God is among you" and even "in your heart." Paul says, "kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:17).
Jesus repeatedly spoke of "entering the Kingdom of heaven." But how do we enter the kingdom of heaven? It's by repentance and by faith. What kind of physical place can we enter by repentance and faith? Is the Kingdom of God a castle with a gigantic door and drawbridge, surrounded by a moat with snapping alligators?
When we talk about the "Kingdom of God" we're not so much talking about a physical place as a spiritual posture. If the Kingdom of God were a place, it exists every place where God reigns. So the Kingdom of God might be in your heart, your mind, your body but it might not. It might be in your family, but it might not. It might be in our church, in our relationships, in parts of our city, or it might be non-existent.
Jesus' came preaching that God's "reign" might be extended into all of life. This is why he says it's "near", and gives the invitation for us to "enter" by faith. You don't "enter" the Kingdom of God when you die, you enter it right now by repentance and faith. Repentance is renouncing your rebellious, anti-kingdom ways. And faith is embracing the reign of God in your life--he is Lord, he is King, is Sovereign, he is ruler of your life. The flesh can reign, or the living God can reign. You can be slaves to sin, which leads to death. Or, slaves to God, servants of righteousness, which leads to life.
The problem with us Christians is we think entering the Kingdom of Heaven is some future event when God wants us to embrace his reign right now. Repent. Believe.
When you pray you have to evaluate heart. Do you believe your life is better when you reign, or when you let God reign? I heard someone say, "Prayer is not about getting our will done in heaven but about getting God's will done on earth." If your heart is hard, and you're stubborn, and you have no intention of doing God's will now, prayer won't be much use to you. So let's explore the next natural question...
What is God's will for my life?
From the moment I laid hands on a first generation Apple computer, I fell in love with something called "programming." Every computer, no matter how sophisticated, precisely follows a set of commands, or instructions. Now, we don't always know whose instructions our computers are following, but they are always following someones... maybe Bill Gates, maybe Steve Jobs, maybe the NSA or that of some hacker. None of my computers obey my commands, they have a mind of their own!
The problem is we aren't like computers. When I went to Bible College, I really admired an older student who went into youth ministry. A few years later, I was shocked when he quit ministry and took up a job at the college programming computers. When I asked why he said, "You see this computer... I can program it and it does exactly what I want. Students... you tell them one thing, they do another, their so stubborn, they make bad choices, and wreck their lives. I can't take it anymore!"
If God wanted us to be computers, he would have created computers. But God had a different operating system in mind for us--one that involves this thing called "free will." Whatever you believe about the "total sovereignty of God" keep in mind that the Bible clearly teaches us the "free will of man." God desires one thing, but we desire the polar opposite. God says don't eat from the tree, and we say, "Yummy, it looks so delicious, I think I'll take a bite out of the apple."
The reason the Apple of Apple computer has a bite out of it, is because Steve Job romanticized this idea that were all rebels, like Adam and Eve. We do what we want. But once the Kingdom of God takes hold of our heart, a different impulse comes to us, and it's an impulse to want, to desire, the will of God. So Jesus says, "Pray. Pray to God, Pray to the King, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done.' If you can pray this sincerely, the Kingdom of God is truly in your heart!
So how does God answer this prayer? One thing God doesn't do is treat us like a computer. How many of you have one of the GPS units in your car? You program your destination, and you suddenly hear a voice, "Turn here, turn there." But there is something else it says, "Recalculating..." GPS continually has to account for our free will. We can even shut GPS off.
When revealing his will, God has to recalculate for free will to. He has to contend with our often stubborn hearts. So what does God do? He gives us grace, for sure. But instead of always giving us turn by turn directions, God gives us boundaries and guardrails. For instance, the Ten Commandments, "Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not use the Lord's name in vain. Do not covet. Do not drive off the cliff."
When God told Adam and Eve not to eat the APPLE, they were free to do everything else. There was great freedom for them to roam, to make choices, to be creative, to explore, to name the animals, to tend the garden, to grow stuff. Whatever you assume about God's "total sovereignty" and "God's will" God honors our individual sovereignty, our free will, to choose from a broad range of things within his will while never crossing the boundaries, or guardrails he's established to protect us from death.
Some use the analogy of football field goals. God wants you to win, but you have to aim between the two goal posts. Dallas Willard uses the example of your backyard. Our Father says, "play in the backyard." And in the backyard there is tremendous freedom. You can talk, swing, play ball, marvel at bugs and spiders, plant flowers, grow a garden. But trouble comes when you leave the backyard and venture unto the street, or alleyway, or to another backyard.
Dallas Willard says, "We can be solidly in the will of God, and know that we are, without knowing God's preference with regard to various details of our lives." (Hearing God). Do I marry this person, or that? Take this job or that? Go here or there?
God doesn't do us like a GPS turn by turn. We're not puppets deterministically being controlled every step by a master puppet-master, or programmer. God's will is more like a "pathway" than a computer "program." The first Christians were called "followers of the way." We follow Jesus unto eternal life. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the key to life. Narrow is the road, and small is the gate that leads to eternal life; but broad is the road, and wide is the gate that leads to destruction. Enter by the narrow gate." Jesus said, "I am the gate." To understand God's will, look to Jesus. He set an example that we might follow in his steps. The Bible is only source I know, and contains very best information about who Jesus is, and what is means to follow Him!
As Paul says in Romans 12:1-2, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
GPS is a lot easier than prayer, scripture study, meditation, and discernment. That might be why we pray for handwriting in the sky. But Jesus told us, "seek first His kingdom and his righteousness." Let me touch upon a final question...
Does prayer make a difference?
I tend to read the Bible, and take things as face value. I cannot explain "how" it happens, but I believe the Father answers this prayer. If you pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" God's reign becomes every bit the reality on earth, in our lives and families, and all around us, as it is in heaven! The gap between heaven and earth narrows. God's reign becomes more noticeable, and the power of evil is weakened. If we prayed as much as we politicked, God's Kingdom would be more prominent than it is today in our nation. If we prayed over our spouse, families, or coworkers, as much as we criticized them... we'd see something different.
If you pray this prayer over your own life... if you align your heart with the content of this prayer... not just saying it with your lips, but believing in your heart, the Kingdom of Heaven becomes an immediate reality in your life. Romans 10:13 says, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Once you yield to God's reign the transformation has already begun.
But Jesus also taught, that "What bind on earth (in prayer) will be bound in heaven." The substance of this prayer is we are asking God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We should pray this prayer over family, marriages, students, people, systems, institutions, governments, cities, states that are far from God.
Now something I want to say is that prayer is a plea, not a solo performance. When we make the plea for God's will to be done on earth as it is heaven, God responds. He moves powerfully. He works beyond what any of us could do solo. Let me prove it to you...
*When you pray, God sends forth workers into his harvest. In Matthew 9:38, Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into his harvest field."
*1 Thessalonians 3:1, Pauls says, "Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you." Colossians 4:3, "And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message." 2 Corinthians 2:12, Paul says "When I went ... to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me" 1 Corinthians 16:9 he says, "...because a great door for effective work has opened to me."
*In John 16:8, Jesus says, "When he [Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment." In Luke 24:45 were told how "Jesus opened the minds [of two disciples] so they could understand the Scriptures." In Acts 16:14 were told, "One of those listening was a woman named Lydia... the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message." In Romans 10:1 Paul says, "... my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved."
*1 Timothy 2:1-4, "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone. . . This is good, and pleases God our Savior who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
*Matthew 6:10 Jesus says, pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" and in Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."
If I could go back and give that ministry student some advice... based on what I know now... and not what I knew then... I'd tell him, "Pray more. Pray harder." When the disciples marveled at how hard the heart of the rich young ruler was, and how hard it would be for a man like him to enter the kingdom of heaven... Jesus said, "with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
We can change our own will, but we can't readily change the wills of others. At best we can be salt and light, we can be faithful to preach, but don't estimate the power of praying as Jesus taught us to pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Pray and watch my friends, pray and watch.
If it's your desire to enter the Kingdom of God, we invite you this morning to be baptized. Repent of your apple eating ways. Trust in Jesus' power. Pledge your life to him, to be Lord and King, through baptism...