Your Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven ~ Matthew 6:5-13

March 15, 2015 ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson
Intro: If you found a Genie-in-a-bottle, the kind that says to you, Your wish is my command, what would you
wish for? Health, wealth, and three more wishes, of course! (Many of us learned that trick as a kid.)
While such thinking is the stuff of daydreams, many people approach God as a Genie-in-a-Bottle who is
supposed to do what we want. In fact, many people think that is the purpose of prayer, to get the all-powerfulGenie-God to say to us, Your wish is my command.Such thinking, though perhaps more common and
closer to home than wed like to admit, actually inverts the fabric of the universe and gets it all wrong.
Jesus knows this, and in his most famous message called The Sermon on the Mount, he actually addresses
this tendency in just a few brief but powerful words as he gives instruction on prayer.And if we get it, it not only
helps us understand something important about the life and mission of Jesus of Nazareth, it also helps us set
our True North and find the true purpose of our lives.
If you are new to Christianity, youll learn why Jesus sees his teaching as particularly important to you and
the trajectory of your life. He wants to introduce you to God and help you come to know him as your heavenly
Father, and to learn what it means to sync your heart to his.
If you are a follower of Christ, Jesus is going to help you learn what it means to trust the heart of your Father
in heaven, even if he doesnt do what you want him to do.
Your Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven ~ Matthew 6:5-13

I.

What is assumed by this prayer? Answer: the battle of wills.

1. The Kingdom: The Ruler of the World Invites Us to Rule with Him
(1) God the King created the world and established the human family to rule with him as vice-regents,
spreading the glory of Gods kingdom over the face of the earth as they filled it with image-bearers
whose task was to build culture & cities that reflected the kind rule of God which enabled human
flourishing (cf. Gen 1:27-28). We were meant to be kingdom builders.
(2) We were meant to thrive in the perfect freedom of being in sync with our Fathers heart.
Ps. 119:47, I delight in your commandments, which I love.
Your wish is my command, was the cry of the human heart.
Summary: Originally, heaven and earth were one in delighting in the will of the heavenly Father.
2. The Fall: Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears).
(1) The Temptation: to be like God without being dependent upon God.
Instead of enjoying being vice-regents serving the Creator, Adam & Eve wanted to rule the world
themselves. The fabric of the universe was torn, and weve been living with the fallout ever since.
Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, Sin, in the final analysis, is rebellion against the sovereign
Creator, Ruler, and Judge of the universe. It resists the rightful prerogative of a sovereign Ruler to
command obedience from his subjects. It says to an absolutely holy and righteous God that his
moral laws, which are a reflection of his own nature, are not worthy of our wholehearted
obedience.
Page 1 of 3

(2) Instead of being free, mankind has become enslaved.

The Bondage of the Will : We are free to do whatever we want; and thats the problem. What we
want to do is no longer in sync with the heart of the heavenly Father. So we are enslaved to our
own desires, our own emotions, our own moods, and we no longer delight in the commands of
God because we do not love them.
(3) This is the world we live in: a world in which everyone lives for themselves (2 Cor. 5:15) and does
what is right in his or her own eyes (Judges 21).
We want to be kings and queens of our own little kingdoms. We want our will to be done. We want
our wills to reign supreme. And so, instead of filling this world with love and justice and
righteousness, we filled the world with selfishness and envy, with sexual immorality and
oppression, with anger and violence, with wars ad rumours of wars.
Eugene Peterson, The kingdom of self is heavily defended territory. Post-Eden Adams and Eves
are willing to pay their respects to God, but they don't want him invading their turf.
Summary: Now heaven and earth are torn apart. We were meant to reign with God, and to delight in
doing his will. But we chose to rebel, to live against our design, and now we seek to assert our will
as we live for and build our own little kingdoms.
II. What is the goal of this prayer? Answer: the world-wide treasuring of our Fathers will.
1. Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom of God. It was the long awaited reign of God that promised to
set this world to right. Last week we noted
The kingdom of God is the kind rule of God in and through the lives of people.
In other words, part of the mission of Jesus was to recapture wayward hearts, to forgive and cleanse
us, and to bring us back in line with our design. For God to rule once again as king is for his will to be
done in the lives of people.
2. Jesus himself is the supreme example of living according to the will of God.
John 4:34, Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me.
Luke 22:42, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours
be done.
Phil 2:8, he humbled himself by become obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
3. Because Jesus was faithful, even to the point of death, going to the cross to pay the massive debt of
sin that our rebellion cost, now the way is paved for the reunification of heaven and earth.
Col. 1:19, For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all
things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.
Jesus teaches us to pray for the coming of Gods kingdom, in which all that is evil will be cast outside.
And now he tells us to pray that Gods will would be done in earth as it is in heaven. IOW, we pray for
the earth to be once again filled with those who delight to do the will of our Father in heaven.
on earth as it is in heaven Cf. Sam Storms, Joys Eternal Increase

Page 2 of 3

Main Idea: To pray, Your will be done, is to ask for the reign of God to become real
both in our lives and in our world just as it is in heaven.
Application:
1. When we pray like this, we surrender our will to the will of our heavenly Father.
(1) We first surrender our will to Gods will when we put our trust in his Son, Jesus Christ.
John 6:40, For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him
should have eternal life.
Satan in Miltons Paradise Lost: Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.
(2) CS Lewis, There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, Thy will be done, and
those to whom God says, in the end, Thy will be done.

2. When we pray like this, we are wanting to want the will of our heavenly Father.
(1) 2 Corinthians 5:15, he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him
who for their sake died and was raised.
(2) P. Ryken, When You Pray, unless you submit to Gods will in everything, you are not submitting to
him in anything. Think about it. If you only follow Gods will when it happens to correspond to your own
will, then you never have to surrender at all. You are simply asking God to endorse your own
agenda.
(3) To pray, Your will be done is to want to want to live for the will of our Father.
Tim Keller, Prayer, Unless we are profoundly certain God is our Father, we will never be able to say,
thy will be done.

3. When we pray like this, we commit to doing the will of our Heavenly Father.
(1) Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have A Dream Speech. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to
ring, when we let it ring from every village, every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able
to speed up that day when all of Gods children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the old negro spiritual, Free at last!
Free at last! Thanks God Almighty, we are free at last.
What are some ways we can speed up that day when Gods will will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven?
(2) In what areas of your life can you say to God, I want to see your will done here (in my family,
community, and city) as it is in heaven. Use me in any way you choose, for Your wish is my command.

NCC, may you be a people who pray to our heavenly Father, Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven, because you long to see heaven and earth reunited, and sin and hell and selfishness
banished. May you be a people who so delight in doing the will of your Father that you can say, Your
wish is my command.

Page 3 of 3