As the choir comes down, if you would find your place in the scriptures of
Matthew chapter 6. The last time we were in Matthew is really at the beginning of
December. So it's been a while, but we're going to pick up where we left off as
we're making our way through this great book. We're going to be looking at verses 9
and 10 in particularly. Now we're going to read verses 9 through 13. Now most of
us, if we learn the Lord's Prayer as I have, we learned it from the King James
Version, which I love. But this I'm going to be reading from the New King James. In
this manner therefore pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your
kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread and forgive us our debts. That's the word. We use trespasses. The
word is debts actually. As we forgive our debtors and do not lead us in
temptation, but deliver us from evil want or evil. For yours is a kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen. Would you ask God to help us? Father in the
quietness of this moment, Lord let us have ears to hear and hearts to believe what
your spirit says to your people, your church. Father teach us. Let us behold
wonderful things out of your law. God I pray Lord for anointing for the help of
the Almighty. Or as I preach, may I do so Lord with fear and trembling, realizing I
will give an account for how I speak this morning. I would ask Lord God that
you'd keep me and refrain my lips from speaking anything that would be
unproductive or would not be helpful. And Lord if there's anything that needs to
be said by your spirit, would you bring that to remembrance this morning? I
pray in Jesus name. Amen. So we are in the final Sunday of January of 2025, which
is hard to believe. Of course last week we weren't able to meet. This is the
first Sunday we've had actually a normal Sunday since the New Year began. And of
course when we enter into a new year that always brings a new beginning, a
fresh start. We like that. So many people look forward to New Year's. They like the
idea of leaving the old year behind and seeing what is in store for the new. I
don't know about you. Maybe you made resolutions. Maybe you didn't. So many did
and if you did make resolutions the vast majority of our resolutions are focused
on health. How can I lose weight? How can I get in shape? How can I be a better
version of me? Nothing wrong with those. And there are many Christians who also
made some spiritual resolutions as well. Most of those and focus on Bible reading.
I want to be more consistent or I want to read the Bible more. Many will start
out and I don't know some of you may be doing that this year. They plan on
reading the Bible through in a year and you follow a guide. I used to do that
every year for a while and I think that's very helpful. Those are great
resolutions and they really are worth the effort that it takes to accomplish
them. But there is one area that I believe all Christians struggle in. I
don't think it's unique to any individual and it really would behoove
us to make some resolutions in this area and that is the area of prayer. The most
difficult aspect of the Christian life for most people, I can't say all people,
but for most people is prayer. In my tenure here as pastor I don't think I've
ever met, that I can recall, anyone who ever came to me and said they were
completely satisfied with their prayer life. Now I've had people come to me and
confess, pastor I really I don't really know how to pray. I mean what do you do?
How do you really pray? Or sometimes people say I just find myself going
through the motions or it seems as though I'm saying the same thing every
day, day in day out, I'm just saying the same words. How do I pray? Well let me
confess this to you all. I personally find it easier to read the Bible. I find
it easier to study the Bible, study for a sermon. I find it easier to give
financially than I do to pray. But why is that? I mean why is prayer so difficult
for so many? And the answer is because prayer is warfare. When we pray we enter
into spiritual battle. Paul clearly said this in Ephesians 6 verse 12 he said,
for we do not wrestle, go to the next slide guys, for we do not wrestle against
flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places. I'm sorry I just want to make sure the slides are off a little
bit. Guys go that next slide if you would and I'll let them go from this point
forward. It's okay don't even worry about it if we're not there. So notice what
in Ephesians 6 verse 12, we're not wrestling against flesh and blood. That's what
the Paul's of Paul clearly said. Our battle friends is not against humanity. It
has never been against that. Our battle is not against people. Remember that, let
me just say that, remember that now that we're into a new political cycle. Your
battle is not against those who hold differing political views than your own.
Now we ought to hold some views that are very very dear and sacred. There are
some things worth fighting for but there's a lot of things, there are many
things not worth fighting for. Hold that, realize your battle as a Christian is
not primarily directed horizontally. Rather our battle as Christians, we are
at war with demonic forces, principalities in high places against the
kingdom of darkness. When we go to prayer we go into that arena of war
against demonic hosts and we don't think like that. That sounds kind of
otherworldly if you will. But let me just say this, Satan and his demonic forces
are not afraid of us but they are terrified of the one who lives in us.
When we're praying what we're doing we're asking for strength from the
one who came and crushed them. He's the one's who will give us strength and this is
why prayer is so difficult. It's a battle against unseen enemies but it's also an
attack on our own flesh, our own pride. When we're praying what are we doing?
You're admitting weakness, you're admitting struggle, and doubt, fear,
failure because you're confessing your sins. Lord I failed you again. We come
into prayers beggars and as we do we send their saying we desperately need
the grace and mercy from the Almighty and because prayer is so important the
enemy will always ensure that there are many obstacles to praying. Distractions.
You ever sat down to pray and there's just distractions or maybe your mind
won't stop? What about poor time management? Time just gets away from you.
What about doubts? You find yourself plagued with doubts and so you don't
want to pray because it feels almost sacrilegious. Some people don't pray
because they're more focused on how to pray rather than being focused on the
one to whom we pray. It's not primarily the form, it's the person and I think in
our culture most of us live our lives in a hurry. Friends you cannot pray in a
hurry. You can read the Bible hurriedly, it's not great that you do so, but you
can read hurriedly. But you can't really pray hurriedly. You can and a lot of us
have to-do lists don't we? Either in our mind or on a piece of paper and it's
much more satisfying to check one thing off our to-do list and cross them off
than it is then to just spend time in prayer because we think well what's the
there's it's not doing anything and yet it is. Prayer is absolutely vital to our
spiritual life so it's not surprising then see our Lord taking the time to
teach on this most important topic. Now we've not been in Matthew 6 for about a
month now. Keep in mind the context, the background information. In Matthew 6 the
Lord Jesus has been warning those listening to him, his disciples, of
hypocrisy. That's the background and particularly the hypocrisy of the
religious leading religious officials, scribes and Pharisees. These men looked
apart. They didn't look like phonies. Outwardly they appeared pious. All they
would give and they would pray and feign to help people but the Lord said they
were dead inside, full of dead men's bones. They were charlatans. They wanted
to impress others with their false piety so all they really wanted to do is I
want to look good in the eyes of others. They craved a glory that was reserved
for God alone. It was like a drug to them. They couldn't get enough of it because
people respected them. So when they were praying or when they were giving their
offerings they wanted to be seen by others because they wanted to impress
them. So it's not what they were giving to God but rather what was important to
them is what they were receiving from man. This is hypocrisy. They went out of
their way to make sure that others would see them. Why?
Because they're loving this glory. They were in a glory war. When praying they
would pray prayers that were intentionally designed to be long. Why?
Because those eavesdropping or looking at them would be impressed. How spiritual
that man must be. Look at all the time he's spending in prayer. And Jesus, seeing
all this, knowing full well what was taking place, was sickened by it and he
was warning those who would follow him not to be impressed by these men. They
were hypocrites. And what he was going to do, he's going to use this opportunity to
teach his disciples how to properly pray. And prayer is important because it
really does work. First of all, do you believe that prayer works? James 5 16
tells us the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much means it
accomplishes much. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth or
accomplishes much. First of all, prayer does something in us. It changes us. Our
perspective, our motives, and it shows us our dependence on God for everything in
life. I love what Martin Lloyd-Jones said. He said, man is at his greatest and
highest. When upon his knees he comes face to face with God. In our text today
you're going to see the Lord teaching his disciples how to pray. This is the
model prayer. It's what we typically call the Lord's Prayer. Probably should be
called the disciples prayer because he's teaching his disciples to pray. And it
starts off, and first of all there's six petitions. Three are focused on God, three
are focused on man. The three that are focused on God come first. And then as
the prayer continues it'll go to man and his needs. So we have a focus on God has
three parts. A focus on man has three parts. On God you have hallowed be your
name, your kingdom come, your will be done. Then as they go to the man's part,
give us as they are daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, our debts, and deliver
us from evil. How? By not leading us into temptation. Now I want you to notice how
the prayer begins. Our Father who is in heaven. Jesus begins this prayer with our
Father. I want you to notice something. Look at the possessive adjective. It is
not my Father, it's our Father. Why? Our Father because we are members of the same
family. At the very beginning we start to see church, this is so important to get,
you and I are members of one another. And we are in fellowship with one another.
And when we go to God in prayer, we dress him as our Father, what we're doing, we're
praying for and with our brothers and sisters in Christ and not primarily for
ourselves and for our needs only. We're reminded Christianity is a covenant
family. It is a communal family. It is made up of those who have been called by
God out of this world and brought into the kingdom of God. What that means from
the very beginning, you see Christianity is not some private religious enterprise.
It's not just Jesus and me. It is communal and it is covenant and Eastern
religion or Eastern Israel would have certainly known that. Today, highly
privatized individualistic America has forgotten that. We tend to think of a
relationship only about me, Jesus and me. And yes there is that element but that's
not primary. But we go on and notice we call God Father but who can call God
Father? That's the most important question to ask in all your life. This is
this. If you if there's no other question that you will ever ask in your
spiritual life, it is this. Who can call God Father? Of course God is creator of
all mankind but he's not the father of all mankind. He is father only to those
who have been regenerated and adopted into his family. This is a work of God.
Who can regenerate? The Holy Spirit alone. Who can adopt one into the family of God?
The Holy Spirit alone. Friends, we can't regenerate ourselves. We can't make
ourselves alive. We can't force our own adoption. Something only God does. But
you can know that you have been regenerated if you are united to Christ
by faith. You can know that you are a child of God if you have received Christ
as Savior and Lord. John 1 12. But as many as received him speaking of Christ.
To them he gave the right, exousia is the Greek word, authority. To them he gave the
authority to become children of God even to them who believe in his name. Galatians
3 26. For you are all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 1 John
4 15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in
God. So the only ones who can legitimately call God Father are those
who have come to faith in Christ the Son and confess him as their Lord. Now since
God is our Father, friends he's going to have mercy upon us. He's going to pity us
in our weakness. I am an exceedingly imperfect father and I can admit that.
But I care deeply about my children and what is going on in their lives. I take
pleasure in helping my children and being present in their young lives.
Brother or sister, now listen to this, this is amazing. You have the incredible
privilege of calling the Almighty God, the perfect one, your Father. Your Father.
The Greek word there is pater. You can see we get the word paternity from that.
Pater. It's a common everyday term. It wasn't a fancy term. It's not theological
term. This would be used, the ordinary word in Greek used for dad, father. It is
equivalent to the Aramaic term that most are familiar with, Abba. Abba, father. So
literally, and I'm not trying to be sacrilegious here, when we use this term
pater or Abba, it literally means dad, father, even daddy to those who are in
Christ. He wants us to understand it's a term of endearment and it's a term of
relationship. J.I. Packer said this, he said if you want to judge how well a
person understands Christianity or find out how much he makes of the thought of
being God's child and having God as his father, if this is not the thought that
prompts and controls his worship and prayers and this whole outlook on life,
it means he does not understand Christianity very well at all. Amen. This
is what controls us. This is the fuel for worship. My daughter Gabby, unconverted
still, three-year-old, showed up somewhere and said we're getting ready for church. She said,
again? She said, why do we have to go again? I said, because we worship Gabby. We
worship on the Lord's Day. She's like, oh. You can tell she doesn't understand it
obviously. But so many believers, supposed believers, have that same attitude. Why do
we have to go and gather in a symbol? We worship. We worship the Almighty as
father. It's for him. It's not primarily for what you get out of it. Michael Reeve
said, indeed when a person deliberately and confidently calls the Almighty Father,
it shows he has grasped something beautiful and fundamental about who God
is and to what he has been saved and how that wins our hearts back to him. Amen.
For the fact that God the Father is happy and even delights to share his love
for his son and thus be known as our Father, it reveals just how unfathomably
gracious and kind he is. He is far more kind than you and I can even imagine.
Since he's your father, he's not going to deny anything that is good for you.
Nothing. You are his beloved child and he's going to take care of you. We're
into a new year. We have no idea what will happen. But keep your eyes fixed upon
God your Father, your Pater, who will give you what is good for you. Our prayer
for each other ought to be may we grow in the trust of the Father's care and
provision in this new year. May we learn to trust God as Father even as your
children have learned to trust you. My children just intrinsically trust me.
They believe that I have their best interests at heart. And we start to see
God as that way. Since he's our Father, we can go to him in boldness and
confidence because he's not our judge who's going to exact justice and
revenge upon us. God is not angry with you. He is not angry with his kids, his
children. Why? His justice was satisfied by Christ at the cross and now all you
and I know is mercy and grace. Hebrews 4 16 says, let us therefore go boldly,
confidently, expectantly to the throne of grace. Why? That we may receive mercy and
grace and find help in our time of need. God showers his children with his help
when they're in trouble. He doesn't turn a deaf ear or a blind eye. Let me say
this, the more needy you are, the more grace he has to give. You don't wear him
out. You can never tire him. Your needs will never drain the well of God's mercy.
You don't have to go sparingly thinking, well there's only so much so I
better be careful not to take this need because I don't want to save it for the
big needs. God has an unending supply of mercy for you. Psalm 23, David's most
famous Psalm without a doubt. Verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
Verse 6, surely because of that, I'm skipping a lot here, because verse 1 is
true, the word is my shepherd. I'm not going to want anything. I won't have
lack. Verse 6, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
The Hebrew word goodness there means beautiful or pleasant. The point is that
God only has what is pleasant or good for his beloved sheep. God's plans are
always for our good. The word mercy there, it's that my favorite word in Hebrew,
chesed. Chesed is God's covenantal unconditional love that he has for his
own. He's our shepherd, our shepherd, and he has an unconditional love for his
sheep and notice that goodness and mercy are chasing us but that's the wrong word
or following us. It literally means they are actively pursuing us. Mercy and grace
or mercy and goodness are running down God's sheep and they're kind of like two
sheep dogs that are ever running the sheep closer to the shepherd. So you and
I are sheep wondering and here comes mercy and here comes goodness to hem us
in and bring us back to the shepherd. They're always there running us down,
going to overtake us. So God is our father who loves us and he's our great
shepherd who leads us. It doesn't mean that his sheep will never see dark days.
He says when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil for thou art with me. We're going to see some difficult days. We will walk
through the valley of suffering but it is a guarantee when you do so you don't
pass through those dark days alone. You've got to know that regardless of
what 2025 brings, regardless of what you will face, your father will be there
pursuing you with his goodness and his mercy. Friends, because of what Christ has
done, his children only see the smile and acceptance of God. His face is shining
upon you. When the benediction that I normally do at the end of the service
about he may he lift up his countenance upon you, it is lifted up upon you in
Christ. Once more let me quote Martyn Lloyd-Jones because he says it better
than I. Remember that you are approaching the Almighty, eternal, ever
blessed holy God. But remember also that that God in Christ has become your
father who not only knows all about you in the sense that he's omniscient but he
knows all about you in the sense that a father knows all about his child. He
knows you. He knows what is good for the child. Put these two things together, God
and his all-mightiness is looking at you with a holy love and he knows your every
need. He hears your every sigh and he loves you with an everlasting love.
He desires nothing so much as your blessing, your happiness, your joy, and
your prosperity. Then remember that he is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think. As your father which is in heaven he is much more
anxious to bless you than you are to be blessed. There is also no limit to his
almighty power. He can bless you with all the blessings of heaven. He has put them
all in Christ and put you in Christ so your life can be enriched with all the
glory and riches of the grace of God himself. Amen. Friends we're just
beginning the prayer. This is our father. Jesus continues, our father who is in
heaven. Why in heaven? This has shown his transcendence, it's shown his power, it's
showing his sovereignty. But let me ask you this, what does it mean that God is
in heaven? 1 Kings 8 27 says, behold heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot
contain you. So if they can't contain him then how is God in heaven? Well we know
that God is omnipresent. That means God is present everywhere at all times
without exception or limitation. God is everywhere present. We also know
according to the scriptures that all of creation can't contain him so how in the
world can we say that heaven is the place where God is? Heaven is the place
where God manifests his full glory. Heaven is the place of God's throne. Psalm
103 verse 19, the Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom
rules over all. Heaven is a way to speak of God's rule and his power not
primarily his address. It's not what confines him. Isaiah 66, thus says the
Lord, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. So when we're talking about
heaven we're talking about the place of God's rule, God's reign, God's justice.
The throne of God is there and yes it is a place of judgment but for all those in
Christ the throne of judgment has become a throne of grace. You and I we begin
this prayer by recognizing the amazing sovereign God is our father inviting us
into his presence and then we start with the petitions. The very first petition
number one, hallowed be your name. We talked about the hallowed halls of
academia. We sometimes speak of things being hallowed. The word is haigatso,
means to be venerated, to make something holy. The way it's used most often
scriptures is something to be sanctified. So we're praying for God's name to be
hallowed. We're praying that God's people keep God's name sacred in what we say, in
what we think, and in what we do. God's people are to be a holy people who honor
in their lives his holy name. So the first petition it's of the utmost
important before anything else is mentioned, before any of our needs are
mentioned, Jesus said first of all pray that his father's name be hallowed, that
that name be revered, that that name be set aside in your life, that that name be
kept special and sanctified. Why? Because God's glory is represented by his name
and since we're talking about God's glory it needs to be set apart. Before you
and I ever bring a petition to him we recognize that his name is to be
glorified, his name is to be sanctified in the world, not ourselves. This is not
about us. But when we're talking about his name it's more than just a
designation, it represents all that he is in his character, all that he is in his
essence. In the Hebrew culture when you mention someone's name it showed their
nature, the character, the personality of the person. Well look at how the Bible,
biblical writers wrote about God's name. Psalm 910, those who know your name put
their trust in you. His name is Yahweh, Jehovah. Psalm 27, some trust in
chariots, some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
Proverbs 18, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it
and are safe. So we clearly see in these verses his name is synonymous with this
person who he is. So when God's people got in trouble they didn't simply recall
that God's name is Yahweh. That's not what it means. Rather they recalled what
God is like and they're recalling what God is like. They once again renewed
their trust in him. When you hallow his name you revere him and you revere all
that is represented by his name. And friends this also shapes our worship.
This means we should never think or speak of God without the greatest
veneration and honor. Too many people have such a low view of God. They use
it not just as a cuss word, I'm talking to Christians here, but the way
people worship it's such a low view of God. How can you tell? Look at the way
they don't honor the name. Worship is trite, worship is hurried.
Worship is all about man. Friends worship is about him. The very first
petition here. So we are hallowing his name when we're reflecting to the world
what he is like. This is why Paul said whether you eat or drink or whatever you
do, do all to the glory of God. Because you're an image bearer, you're
reflecting this name. So even in the trivial and mundane things like eating
and drinking, we ought to be hallowing his name through our good works, the way
we live our lives. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your
good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. So we're hallowing his
name when we realize that you and I were created for his glory and he was not
created for our glory. We were created for him. In Luther's cataclysm the
question is posed, how is God's name howled among us when our life and doctrine
are truly Christian? Praying that God will be known, glorified in the world. But
there's a second petition, your kingdom come. Now notice man has not been
mentioned yet. There's no focus on man or what he's bringing. Again there's this
very God-centered. We have not brought anything to him. We're praying for the
hallowing of his name and secondly we're praying for his kingdom to come.
So the question is what is the kingdom? The kingdom of God, here's a short way of
saying this, God's people in God's place under God's rule. That's the kingdom.
Right now currently in seed form if you will, the kingdom of God is a church
because Christ is ruling in the church over his people from heaven through word
and sacrament, through word and ordinance. But we're reminded that the kingdom in
its fullness, in its fruition will actually be ushered in when Christ
returns. So the kingdom is present, it's already here, but not yet in its fullness.
By praying for the kingdom to come, in essence we are praying for Christ to
return. Even so come Lord Jesus. Why? Because when the word comes he
will bring the fullness of the kingdom with him. We're praying that God's
rule would be established on earth. We're praying for the promise of a day when
God's love and his justice and his beauty and his peace and his righteousness
flourish and cover the earth. In other words, we're praying for
shalom. If you go to Israel one of the things they'll greet you when you say
when they say hello, shalom. Shalom is harmony. It's the word peace, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, city of peace. But it's more than that, it's harmony. It's when all
things work perfectly under God's rule just as it did before sin entered the
world. Before Genesis 3, before Adam sinned, there was shalom. So now we're
praying for a return to that, a return to paradise. God we see things are broken.
We see that the kingdoms of the world are in rebellion and we're praying for
the kingdom that is above all kingdoms to come and fall under his rule. That's
what we want. That the nations have become obedient to him. We're praying
then for his priorities, his agenda, his plan on earth. It's a commitment to him
and his ways. And we pray like this, we also realize there's only one king to
whom we must give ultimate and final allegiance, King Jesus. Church, regardless
of who's in that White House, there is no earthly authority to which we owe
absolute obedience. We do not owe anyone absolute obedience except it be the
Almighty God. Do you know, you realize what got early Christians into the most
trouble was that they simply confessed Jesus as Lord and Caesar as not. That's
what got them thrown to the lions. They gladly confessed Jesus is King, Caesar's
not, Jesus is the true master. And because you and I love this King, we long for the
kingdom to come in its fullness. We want people to see, we want the world to see
Christ reigning and receiving the glory that he rightly deserves as the divine
one. And the third petition, which is all we're going to cover today, your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. How is this will done in heaven? Absolutely. In
heaven there's no sin, there's no disobedience, there's not even a hint of
rebellion. And we're to pray that the affairs of this world become like heaven.
Now we know that his desire is not always done. It's not. So we pray that
what God desires on the earth will be done just like what God desires is done
in heaven. Let me give an example. Take the Decalogue. We have the Ten
Commandments there in Exodus 20. That's a list of God's desires. Thou shalt not
murder or to kill. So God desires that no one murders. Yet we know that many times
murder takes place. Thou shalt not commit adultery. God desires that a man and a
wife stay faithful to one another. Yet we know there are many cases of adultery.
God's desire is not always done. In Luke chapter 13, Jesus speaking to Jerusalem,
he says, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those
were sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen
gathers her brood under wings. But he weren't willing. Christ's desire was that
his people would. He wanted his people to receive him. Now you may be asking if he
is sovereign, the one in heaven, then how is his will not completely, perfectly
accomplished? Because in his sovereignty, God has decreed for man to make choices,
some being in line with desire and others which are not. See friends, we have
to distinguish between God's desire and God's decree. God's desire is what he
would like to happen. God wants man not to sin. God wants man to recognize and
submit to his son. Those things don't always happen, but yet there is a decree
of God and it does refer to his predetermined plan that will happen, which
includes things that are not perfectly aligned or necessarily aligned with his
desires. Now let me give you a perfect example of this because some of you all
are scratching your head. I just quoted the decalogue, thou shall not murder,
right? Thou shall not kill. God clearly, I think we all understand, does not desire
murder, but he decreed the murder of his own son. Listen carefully. Acts 4, he did
not, did not make them do it. He simply decreed that it would happen. Acts 4,
verse 27, for truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, so
you got Jews and Gentiles here, were gathered together, now listen to verse
28, to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done.
These wicked men wanted of their own volition to murder the Lord Jesus and
God allowed and decreed their desire to be done. It was decreed to accomplish a
greater purpose, the salvation of God's people. So his desire is his heart
's wish, his decree is a sovereign plan that will come to pass. So maybe instead
of talking about desire and decree, you might talk about God's revealed will and
his sovereign will. His sovereign will is his sovereign plan that always comes to
pass. Nothing's going to thwart it. His revealed will is what he commands, which
does not always come to pass. Again, think of all the commands. Don't bear
false witness, don't lie, don't steal, but his sovereign will always comes to pass.
Well does that mean man is not free? No. In Acts 4, those people were free moral
agents doing exactly what they wanted to happen. If man were not free in the sense
that he wanted to do, did what he wanted to do, God's punishment would be cruel
because he's just doing what God made him to do. That's called fatalism folks. We
reject fatalism. God is sovereign. Man is responsible for his own actions. You're
saying isn't it man free? Well he is free. Now listen carefully because this gets
people tripped up so much. He is free in that he is the ability to make choices
in accordance to what he most desires. In other words, let's go ahead onto this, you
get to do what you most want to do, that's free. You get to do what you most
want to do, that is moral freedom. But there's a gigantic problem right here.
The problem is what lost mankind, what fallen man most desires, and what he
wants to do is sin, which is why condemnation is just. John 3 19, you know
John 3 16, look down three verses later, and this is the condemnation that light,
that's Jesus, has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light
because their deeds were evil. This explains why man on his own rejects
Jesus as light. He loves darkness. He prefers darkness. Man will use, fallen man
will use his freedom to sin, which is what he wants to do. Therefore, as the
people of God who've been rescued from this bondage, we pray for God's will to
be done on the earth as it is in heaven. So when we're praying like that, we're
praying for God to thwart the desire of man and that man's will would be aligned
to God's will. In other words, we're praying for man's rebellion to stop and
that God would not continue to allow man to continue in his sin. We're praying for
the complete surrender of man to God. That's what we're praying and this is
before we've ever brought any petition to him. We're praying that God would stop
man in his rebellion. That God would change the heart of man and align man's
desires to God's desires. Amy Carmichael, many of you have read after her, she said
this, and shall I pray to change thy will my father and till it according to mine?
But no Lord, no that shall never be. Rather I pray thee blend my human will
with thine. That's the scene. See when we go to prayer, we're not asking God to do
what we want him to do. Ultimately we're praying God make my desires and my will
in line with yours. He's the one that doesn't make mistakes. He's the one that
sees the beginning from the end. We are praying friends in this prayer for
mankind to become obedient to God and for God's plan to be completely and
quickly done. We're praying in faith. Do you know why we pray in faith friends?
Because by faith I believe and I'm convinced that his will is always better
than mine. It does not mean that I necessarily understand. It doesn't mean
that I always feel that. But by faith I know that his will is better than mine.
Think of Ralph and Rose. They have to believe. They have a daughter they love
serving on a foreign field. They've got to believe Lord I would rather my desire
be her sitting right here in Kits, Ohio with us. But I believe by faith it is
better, your will is better than mine even though it hurts. This is what it means
to pray in faith friends for our will to be aligned with his. I close with this
quote by Eric Raymond. He said Lord we pray this. Lord your kingdom come and
your will be done. Conquer hearts by your Holy Spirit to set up the
administration of grace in their hearts. I love this last phrase. This is what we
ought to pray for the lost friends. Let them see the beauty and worth of your
glory. That's what we're praying. Do you see something of God's glory in Jesus?
That's the work of the Holy Spirit. When you can see in him in Jesus the glory of
God you can know the Holy Spirit has done a work in your heart because that's
not natural to you. We're going to pray a prayer for the table but I thought
before we do most of you know would you stand and let's pray the Lord's Prayer
together using the King James Version if you would. That's what most of us know. Let
us stand. Stand with me if you would. Let's bow our head and close and let's
pray. We'll close it this way. Our Father who 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 us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Let us prepare
for the table. You may be seated Deacons if you would come.