The Lord’s Prayer

2.       Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Passages: Isaiah 6:1-13; Romans 12:1-21; Luke 11:1-10

Big Idea: We have to get our focus off ourselves and live in the world, in the church and as individuals with a focus on God’s name, God’s kingdom and God’s will.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

I finished last week’s sermon by guiding us to think of the Lord’s prayer as our older brother, the Lord Jesus, who has known the Father for eternity, telling us from his own personal experience how to face life’s challenges.  ‘Just ask Dad!’ he says.  So what is it that we are asking Dad for when we come to ‘your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’?  Well let’s have a look at each of these phrases – but we will begin with the final one.

On earth as it is in heaven

There is a good argument to suggest that this phrase doesn’t just apply to ‘your will be done’ but that it applies to all three phrases at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer

                Our Father in heaven

                Hallowed be your name – on earth as it is in heaven

                Your Kingdom come – on earth as it is in heaven

                Your will be done – on earth as it is in heaven

What the first disciples and we are called on to seek is that the realities of heaven will be realized on earth.  Whatever is happening in heaven, Lord, make it happen on earth.  As the angels continually proclaim your name as holy, so may your earthly creation proclaim you as holy.  As you rule as King in heaven, may you rule as King on earth.  As everything in heaven is done according to your will, so may everything on earth be done according to your will.

Please note that we are not asking that earth become heaven but that the way God is treated in heaven is the way that he should be treated on earth.

So let’s have a look at what else we want to be on earth as it is in heaven.

Your Kingdom Come

Have you ever seen Prince Charles greet the Queen?  Does he give her a big bear hug and a sloppy kiss on the cheek?  Well, not in public!!!  As he comes into her presence he bows and acknowledges her authority and her rule.

We are called on to just ask Dad, but when we pray ‘your kingdom come’ we need to realize that Dad is the King of the universe and that tempers our familiarity a little.  Isaiah sees Dad; Isaiah sees the Lord; Isaiah sees the King, the Lord of hosts and what is his response – woe is me! I am lost.

We can’t go past this phrase of the Lord’s prayer without realizing again that God is our King – and not just our King but King of the earth; and not just King of the earth but King of the universe; and not just King of the universe but king of the physical and spiritual realms, the seen and unseen.

He is King and we pray that His Kingdom will come.

We pray this looking ahead to when God will wrap everything up; when Jesus returns.  We pray that Jesus will come again soon.  We pray that soon we will be in that paradise where God is where there will be no more tears and no more sickness and no more death – where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.  We pray for that time when there will be no more stabbings in schoolyards, there will be no more crashes on roads, when there will be no more abductions and murders of 8 year old girls, when there will be no need for SPACC.  We pray God bring it on.  Your kingdom come.

But there is also a real sense in which we pray that God’s kingdom would come now on earth (as it is in heaven).  What does that mean?  It means that we want to begin to see that end-time kingdom start to show itself in earthly life.  It means we are praying for God to draw people to himself now – we want people to come to know Jesus and the peace and the joy and the hope – NOW.  It means we are praying for evil to be uprooted and defeated.  Your kingdom come is a prayer to bring down the governments of the world that are corrupt; to clean out the religions of the world that don’t honour the King; to turn swords into ploughshears – as the prophets put it.

And we pray Your kingdom come asking God to do something but knowing that he will most probably do it through us.  As we pray Your kingdom come we remind ourselves that we are kingdom bearers;  if we want evil and injustice to be uprooted and defeated we need to be prepared to work at it ourselves.  If we want peace, joy and hope to be manifest we need to work at bringing them into our lives; if we want poverty and suffering to go then we need to act so that God’s kingdom does begin to come one earth as it is in heaven.

Your will be done

During the week Pat Hunt told me a story about his father who was an Anglican priest out at Pittsworth.  He went to visit a parishioner one day and noticed that her garden needed a bit of work.  After discussing other topics he said to her “Mrs X it must be hard to maintain this large garden – what you want to help you out is a gardener.”  She replied “What I want , Mr Hunt, is not a gardener but a good strong man who will do just what I tell him!!”

It was then that Pat’s father had a revelation about what God wants and what we want – he realized as we need to realize today, that our focus in much of our life is on what we want and not what God wants.

Hopefully you have seen the sign outside the church – “Many people want to serve God – As Advisors”.  This is another way of saying the same thing.  I know what is best for me, for my family, for this city, for this church, for this world and it is a good thing that God has me as one if his advisors!!!!!

So into this self-focused way of living Jesus presents us with a prayer that is probably the hardest part of the Lord’s prayer to pray – YOUR will be done.

We come to God knowing what our will is - Our Father, this is my will; this is what I want – but in the end it is not about what I want – it is about what you want.  That is what we are praying.

Father I want David to grow up to know you; I want to live to see David happily married – but it is not primarily about what I want – may your will be done.

Father you know that my parents are getting old and I want them to come to know Jesus; I want all my family to know Jesus – but it’s not primarily about me – may your will be done.

Father I want to just have a little more so that I will stop worrying about finances – that’s what I want; but your will be done.

Father I am ill, I am suffering and I want to be healed – but show me your will because that is what I want above all else.  My spouse or my child is suffering, is sick – I want them to get better, I want them to be with me for a little bit longer – but you know what is best, so your will be done.

Father I want everyone to be Christian and I want Alpha to be a success and I want lots more people coming to this church – but you are the head of this church; your are the King of this church so do what seems best to you and what, in the end, is best for me and for each person here.

When we realize what we are praying then this is very hard to pray.

And yet we say these words each week – and maybe more than once a week.  Do we really mean it?  Your will be done.

Two questions are raised for me at this point:

Firstly, how might I pray so that what I want is what God wants?  How might my will be close to his will?

In Romans 12 Paul says that we need to renew our mind so that we will know God’s will.  And then he gives some ideas of what we might do – be humble, live as a body with many different parts, have genuine love, outdo one another in showing honor, rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, contribute to the budget of the church and of organizations like SPACC, be hospitable, bless those who bless you,  laugh with those who laugh, weep with those who weep, don’t be haughty and think you are better than anyone else because you are not, overcome evil with good.  If we begin to work on these things then we understand better the will of God, our will becomes in tune with his and we see answers to our prayers.

The second question for me is that if God’s will is going to be done anyway then why pray? 

In answer to that I would say that we don’t first and foremost pray to get God to change his mind or to get him to give us stuff.  We pray, first and foremost, to remind ourselves of who God is and that we have a relationship with him.

One author puts it this way: ‘The Lord’s prayer convincingly shows that we should not pray primarily in order to receive goods and services from God but to render service to God.  Prayer is not first and foremost an exercise to vindicate our causes, meet our needs, fulfill our desires, or solve our problems.  The priority of prayer is and must always be the promotion of God’s reputation, the advancement of God’s rule, and the performance of God’s will.  These three petitions are essentially one expression of burning desire to see the Father honored on earth as he is already honored in heaven. (Turner, p 187)

Your kingdom come; your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Let me pray that this will be so.