On Earth as in Heaven
The Lord's Prayer Teaches Us How To Yield To God's Will
Dan Franklin
Sep 24, 2023 41m
Join us in our study of the Lord's Prayer as we learn how to yield to God's will. God wants us to live in trusting obedience to Him. We can pray for the rule of God to spread on the earth and for God to be King. Video recorded at Upland, California.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Intro: [00:00:00] Hey there. Thanks so much for checking out one of our messages here at Life Bible Fellowship Church. And we know there are two great ways you can connect with us. You can visit our website at LBF.church to learn more about all of our ministries and what we believe. And also, you can subscribe to us on YouTube to make sure that you don't miss one of our future videos.
Andy Watson: [00:00:18] For our Scripture reading today, we're going to recite the Lord's Prayer together in unison. So let's say it now, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Amen. You may be seated.
Mimi: [00:01:01] What I have in my hand is a prayer booklet that my friend and I, who started a prayer-walking ministry, developed. And I looked, and we saw the date and it was developed in 8 of '11, so we've been doing this for 12 years. And what our goal was to walk through one area and see if we could get results, to see if we could actually get some tangible results through praying. Now we walk in the city of Pomona. We both have had a heart for Pomona. I've taught Pomona Released Time in Pomona for over 30 years, that's where we go into public schools, fourth graders, and we teach them the Bible. So that city has been on my heart ever since the Lord called me to that. It is just wonderful, it's the time, the two hours set aside in the week that I don't have an agenda. It's just freeing, it's like I'm just going to go and, Lord, whatever you do, whoever you put in my path, whoever you don't, it's terrific, we don't have an agenda. I don't have to be in a hurry. I can just let the Holy Spirit lead, it's fabulous.
Mimi: [00:01:59] The Word says, apart from me, you can do nothing. And I truly believe that When I was younger, I probably thought I could accomplish something, but not anymore, now I'm very aware of my great need of the Lord. If I believe God is who He says He is, which is the supreme being of the universe, how can I possibly not pray? How can I think I know something better than he would know? To me, that makes no sense, it's totally illogical. So I want to offer any of the things I'm trying to accomplish and ask him, is this where I'm supposed to be headed? And if not, shut the door. Every program we do, we start for Him. Why am I praying It's for the Lord. Why am I teaching little children about Jesus? Because it's for the Lord, it's what He wants.
Mimi: [00:02:38] We believe that we have to get in a posture where God will hear us, and we believe that as we go out, he will heal our land. There are changes, and they may be small, God often starts with small, small beginnings, but in faith, we believe that if we will obey that command, he will heal our land. And you've got to start somewhere, God is going to call somebody to Ontario and Upland and Rancho and different places, and then those cities will be heavy on their hearts, but we've all got to do something. We can all do something, we can't do everything, but everybody can do something. So our part is praying for the city of Pomona.
Dan Franklin: [00:03:19] Well, it's awesome, during the series, as we're focusing in on asking the Lord Jesus to teach us how to pray, and we're getting each week to hear from some of our church members about how prayer has impacted their lives. And each time, it was great hearing from Mimi, what she talked about there is right on target with what we get to talk about this second week as we lean into the Lord's Prayer, as we're walking through it line by line and just beat by beat so that we have an opportunity to lean in and figure out what is Jesus giving us. Not as words to recite, but as a model for how we can experience union with God through our times of prayer.
Dan Franklin: [00:04:02] I also wanted to just say something because some of you might have been wondering about this the last couple of weeks when we've recited the Lord's Prayer together. Some of you are probably saying, why didn't we do that last part? Anybody? I see some nodding heads. Yeah, some of you are like, what about yours is the power and the kingdom and the glory and all of that kind of stuff. If you have a Bible and that's in there, well, you may notice is either, if that part is in there, it has a note by it, or in some of your Bibles, it doesn't have that part in there and just has a note to kind of say that most likely was added in much later by somebody else who wanted a little bit of an epilog for what Jesus said in teaching us to pray. So it's a great thing to pray if you're like, I pray that, that's great, all of that is good to pray. But we haven't included it because almost certainly it wasn't originally what Matthew recorded with what Jesus is saying.
Dan Franklin: [00:04:40] So we have just gone through, instead, those five beats. We're going to take five weeks and go through the five beats of the Lord's Prayer. And here's how I want to invite you to think about today, and even in connection with last week. Last week, Jeff taught us through the first part of the Lord's Prayer, which is, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." So I want to relate last week and this week to sort of street signs that we might see if we're out on the road, the street sign for last week is, look both ways. And here's why, when we think about who we are addressing when we're praying, on the one hand, we're looking over here and we're seeing our Father, which is meant to be a signal of the closeness and nearness to God, that it was shocking to the first century Jews that Jesus invited us to call God our Father. We look over here and we see our Father, who is near, and we also look over here and we see that he's our Father in heaven and he's holy. So we look over here and we know that he's close, and we look over here and we know that he's great. We look over here and we know that he's listening to us, and we look over here and we know he can actually do something about what we're talking to him about. So here's the great thing about the look both ways for that first sign, is that everywhere we look, there's good news. He is our Father, and he is our Father in heaven. So last week, the street sign would be, look both ways.
Dan Franklin: [00:06:20] This week the street sign would be yield, and some of you just even driving in here this morning came past a yield sign on your way to LBF church. And at a yield sign, what you do is you pause, and you give priority to the other drivers. Today we're focusing in on, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And we are going to be invited in this part of the prayer to yield. And specifically, we're going to see that to experience union with God, which is what we want through our prayers to experience union with God, we must yield our agenda to His. Think of the words again, "Your kingdom come, your will be done."
Dan Franklin: [00:07:26] I know I've had conversations with some of you about prayer as you've been going through this series, and something that I've heard a lot of you say is I want to get to a point in my prayer life where it's not just me asking God for stuff. That's part of prayer, but that's not all there is to prayer. And what I just want to point out is that I think that's a good instinct, but if you read through the Lord's Prayer, it's basically all requests. These that we're going over today, "Your kingdom come, your will be done." those are requests. That is us asking God to do things, but it's requests that are centered on His agenda, not our agenda. We're praying for what God wants to see happen. We're not trying to manipulate God to do what we want to see happen. So today, after we've already addressed the one we're praying to, we're invited to yield.
Dan Franklin: [00:08:20] And so today is going to be real simple. I love going through the Lord's Prayer line by line. By the way, if any of you are concerned because you're like, it's only one verse, how is he going to fill up this time? Don't worry, it's not a problem. But we're going to do three things, it'll be real simple. Number one, we're going to talk about what it means to pray, your kingdom come. Number two, we're going to talk about what it means to pray, your will be done. And number three, we're actually going to pray it in the service later on because what we want each week is for us not only to be in a position where we learn about how to pray but where we get a regular taste of how good it is to have union with God through prayer. So, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, is going to be all mixed into the whole thing, and then we are going to respond and pray as a result of this.
Dan Franklin: [00:09:14] So let's just jump into this, Jesus tells us to pray, "Your kingdom come." And this request, it can be a little bit confusing to us because the kingdom can feel like this vague term. As Jesus uses it throughout Matthew It's usually the kingdom of heaven, throughout Mark and Luke, it's usually the kingdom of God, but it's just two ways of talking about the same thing. It can be a little bit confusing, what are we talking about with the kingdom? And because of that, what are we talking about when we're asking God that His kingdom would come? For centuries, scholars have talked about the Kingdom of God in this way, they've said the kingdom of God is already and not yet. Which means there's a part of us talking about the kingdom, that it's this future reality that we're looking forward to. It's the time in the future where Jesus returns, where the final judgment happens, where the dead are raised, and where God ushers in Paradise onto this earth, it's this great future reality of the kingdom.
Dan Franklin: [00:10:20] Jesus talks about it this way in Matthew 8, in the story about him healing the centurion's son when he says to this centurion who's not a Jew, he says, "Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." So Jesus is looking ahead to this not yet manifestation of God's rule on earth that will happen. But the kingdom is not only not yet, it's also already, it is here now. Because, as we read throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus talks about it not just as a future reality, but as something that arrived when he arrived. Jesus is the King, so the kingdom is here. And that's why he says in Matthew 4:17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The king is here, so the kingdom is here. So the kingdom is not yet, but it's also here, and this is how it's talked about throughout the New Testament.
Dan Franklin: [00:11:23] So when Jesus says to pray, your kingdom come, he's not telling us to pray that Jesus will come back soon and that everything will be fixed, even though that's a great thing to pray. If you read the Book of Revelation, do you know what John prays at the end of the Book of Revelation? He prays, "Come, Lord Jesus." So there's nothing wrong, if you're like, oh, in my prayers, I do pray for Jesus to come back soon. That's great, keep praying for that, but that's not what Jesus is saying when he says for us to pray, your kingdom come, in this context. What he means is that we are praying for the rule of God, for God being king, to spread on the earth. And the kingdom spreading, the kingdom coming means this, it means that God's kingdom is anywhere that God is treated as the King. Any individual person, any family unit, any church, any community, anywhere that God is treated as the King, that is a display of God's kingdom. And when Jesus tells us to pray, your kingdom come, what He's really telling us to say is, that we are praying that there will be more and more of that here on the earth, more and more people bowing the knee to Jesus, coming to faith in him, and crowning Jesus as the King of our lives. More of that, and also more of those of us who are believers yielding more areas of our lives to him.
Dan Franklin: [00:13:01] I've got to share this real quick. I got, it was probably like three weeks ago, I got one of the most encouraging texts I've got all year from a student in our EXIT83 youth group. And I won't say who he is, he knows who he is when he hears the story. But he was texting me and he was saying, I really feel like there's areas of my life that that I've given to God and that I'm living for him, but I think that there's whole other areas of my life that God is calling me really to surrender over to him. So he had a prayer request, and you'll love this. Here was his prayer request, his prayer request is, can you pray for me while I look to yield more areas of my life over to Jesus? And I was like, no. I was just like, best prayer request ever from a high schooler in our youth group saying, I want Jesus not just to be king over some areas of my life, but over all areas of my life. That is the kingdom coming, when more people who are outside of God's love come and bow the knee to him and are welcomed into the family, and when those of us who have already bowed the knee to Jesus bow the knee more deeply and yield more areas of our lives to Him, that is God's kingdom coming. "Your kingdom come, your will be done,..." Remember that last part, "...on earth as it is in heaven." And that statement on earth as it is in heaven, it applies to both parts. It's your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven, and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Dan Franklin: [00:14:41] So let's just pause and let's think for a second. Could we get in our minds a picture of what it might look like if God was ruling in heaven? And the good news is we don't have to think about it for ourselves, we get to read about it. The Book of Revelation, especially in chapters 4 and 5, gives us this amazing picture of worship in heaven. And we've got God sitting on his throne, and we've got all of these angelic creatures all around, and there's all of this worship going on. And I want to read you just a portion of Revelation chapter 4, starting in verse 8 and reading to the end of the chapter so that we get a picture of what it looks like for God's kingdom to come in heaven. It's talking about all these amazing angelic creatures and it says, "Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” 9Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11“You are worthy, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” That's how the king is treated in heaven, and Jesus says, pray that on the earth it would be like that. Pray that on the earth, in the lives of individual Christians, in Christian families, in churches like ours, in communities, that people are responding like that. Where he says, day and night, it's just constantly going on, there is constant worship happening. Pray that the earth will start to look like heaven in that regard.
Dan Franklin: [00:16:49] And that might feel hard to translate, but let's just say, what would it look like if there was more manifestation of the kingdom here on Earth, just as it is in heaven? And the place we can start is just by talking about worship. Because in the throne room, there is worship. When we are freely and joyfully and passionately with integrity worshiping God, that is a display of the kingdom. I don't want to be overly harsh on this, but a lot of us sort of approach worship here in the church and we're like, I like that song, but I don't like that song. I like it when we have a big band, I'm not sure about the smaller band, or whatever it is. And I understand all of us have our musical preferences, I'm not saying that you shouldn't have your musical preferences. I'm not even saying that you can't have favorite songs, that that all is fine. There's something, though, that we need to all remember, if you walk out on Sunday and you're like, I didn't really, like worship today, guess what? You weren't being worshiped. Those songs are not written for you. Those songs aren't written for me. I mean, it's hard to imagine, I imagine the angels in heaven after this, and they're kind of like, I didn't like that we did that chorus a third time. What did you think? I mean, it's ridiculous to us. We need to pause, and we need to recognize who is at the center of that worship time, and it's not you and it's not me, it is the King.
Dan Franklin: [00:18:27] And the kingdom is also put on display when needy and marginalized people are included and have their needs taken care of. That is a sign of God's kingdom breaking out and showing itself. God's kingdom is showing itself when racial and economic barriers become absolutely unimportant because we're brothers and sisters in Christ and we care more about that than what divides us. God's kingdom shows up and breaks through when husbands and wives love each other sacrificially and selflessly and work through issues instead of breaking up families and separating. And there are 100 other ways that the Kingdom of God breaks through, but it also shows up when we pray and when we pray together.
Dan Franklin: [00:19:20] One of my dreams, and I love it because it's not even a dream, I see it happening and I just want to see it happening more. Is that on Sundays, usually I'm in here, and about three times out of four, I'm the one preaching and then I go out to see people. And so when I go out, what I dream about seeing is just looking over our campus and seeing different pockets of people all over the campus just circled up and praying together. Just sort of like, hey, this family is about to go out of town on a vacation, so a bunch of people just gathered around them and they're praying for them. And this kid over here is really stressed about college decisions, so a whole bunch of people gathered around and they're just praying. This other family, they just experienced a big, answered prayer, so a whole bunch of people are gathered around in praise and just praying for them. And I love seeing this happen, I love seeing the spontaneous prayer where there's no staff person, there's no pastor, there's no elder, just people are praying.
Dan Franklin: [00:20:13] By the way, for those of you who are like, when are they going to stop making us get into groups and pray in the service? We're not. Now I get it, some of you think you're really subtle that you go to the bathroom every time, right at that moment. You're not subtle, we know what's going on. And I get it, it is not, please believe me, it is not hard for me to understand why a lot of you feel a level of discomfort with this. I totally get that, it's totally understandable. The question is not whether or not we feel a level of discomfort with this, the question is, are we going to abandon it for that discomfort or are we going to lean in and grow as a result of it? Nobody grows by being comfortable all the time.
Dan Franklin: [00:21:01] And I'll tell you, one of the few times that I am 100% sure that we as a church are doing exactly what God wants us to do is when on a Sunday morning, we're circled up with each other and we're praying. There is not a doubt in my mind, that is a manifestation of God's rule in our church.
Dan Franklin: [00:21:21] Your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven, and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come, and your will be done. They're not the exact same thing, but they're similar ideas, they're similar concepts that sort of complement each other. God's kingdom comes when his will is being done, these all go together. And in the same way that God's kingdom is a confusing idea because it kind of can mean two similar but different things at different times in the Bible, it's the same when we talk about God's will. God's will is used in two different ways by the biblical authors. And one of them is just to talk about God's plan, sort of like God's will is God's plan. Paul uses it this way in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11, he writes, "In him, in Christ, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." There's a certain way that God's will is talked about in the Bible, in a way that it will always happen 100% of the time, if God has a plan, that plan will happen. So part of God's will is just what His plan is, what will happen.
Dan Franklin: [00:22:48] But there's another way that God's will is talked about that doesn't always happen. And in those passages, what God's will means is basically this is what God wants, this is what God desires. I'll read a couple of examples for you, just two examples in the New Testament, even though this shows up dozens of times. First Peter 2:15, "For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people." It's God's will that Christians live such good lives that those who want to say something bad about Jesus or bad about us, they're embarrassed because they have nothing bad to say. God's will is that we would live lives that good. Does that always happen? No. It should, but it's a part of God's will that it sometimes happens, and sometimes doesn't happen because it's what God wants.
Dan Franklin: [00:23:41] First Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 16, 17, and 18 says, "Rejoice always, 17pray continually, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." It's God's will that we're always rejoicing, always praying, always giving thanks. Now it's okay to be honest, is there ever a time that you are not giving thanks? Do we sometimes complain? We sometimes aren't thankful, but he says it's God's will that we're always thankful. What's going on here is that there's a part of what God wants, his will, that we sometimes do and that we sometimes don't do.
Dan Franklin: [00:24:25] So when Jesus tells us to pray, "Your will be done", that's the kind of will he's talking about. He's saying that we are praying that what God wants to happen will happen. And if we're all going to try to boil this down to one idea to say, all right, what is it that God wants to have happen? What God wants to have happen is that we live in trusting obedience to him, that we live by faith obeying what he says because we trust him. Now, think again about this idea, your will be done, on earth, just like your will is done in heaven. In heaven, God dispatches angels to go and do his will. And when he tells an angel to go and do something, you know what happens? They do it immediately. There's no angel that's like, I'm not sure that's the best plan for right now, the angels just do it. And we're praying, God, may we, may all human beings, but especially those of us who are called by your name, especially those of us who are Christians, may we live out your will in the kind of immediate, trusting obedience that marks the activity of heaven, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Dan Franklin: [00:25:52] But as we've already talked about, you can't do God's will unless you yield your will to him. And there's no better example of this than the Lord Jesus on the night that he was arrested. A lot of you know the story, that before he was arrested, he went to a garden, and he prayed in this garden three times. And he always prayed the same thing, he prayed, "Father, if there's any way, let this cup pass from me." Which to us feels like very coded language, but to the Jews, this was very clear language because the cup had to do with suffering. So it is Jesus basically saying this, Father, I really don't want to be arrested, condemned, beaten, and crucified. I don't want that, so if there's a way out of that, let's do that. But then he ends the prayer by saying, but not what I will, but what you will. Not my will, but your will be done, even when it was going to involve suffering.
Dan Franklin: [00:27:01] And maybe for some of you, this can be a little bit of a point of comfort that Jesus was saying, I want two things at the same time. I want to not suffer, but I want to obey the Father. I want two things at the same time, and that is most of us, most of the time. We're like, well, I want to do what I want to do, but I also kind of want to do what God wants me to do. And the question is always, which one is going to yield to the other? And Jesus said, not what I will, but your will be done, even though it was going to involve temporary, deep discomfort and suffering. And all of us have to decide, this is weird when we talk about this because it's as simple as 100 daily decisions that we make each day, and it's as complex as the big life decisions that we make just occasionally. Are we going to yield our will to God's will?
Dan Franklin: [00:28:04] A quick story about the everyday stuff, and I tell this because I know we're talking about prayer and because I'm upfront, there could be the assumption like, well, this guy doesn't know what it's like for the rest of us, we feel anxiety about prayer. I want to promise you, every time that I pray with another person, I don't want to do it. I want to do it, but I also don't want to do it. So probably about a month ago I was at the gym, and if you're part of a gym, you know, you have like the gym people that you always see but you don't really know, you just kind of nod at them like we're always here at the same time. There's this one guy, I didn't know his name, in my head I always called him the Incredible Hulk because he's just a massive guy. But we sometimes would have brief chit-chats, even though we didn't know each other. And so I was talking to him because he had a brace on his wrist and I asked him about it and he took it off, and he showed me he had just had a procedure, and he had a part of it that was really uncomfortable and that was not responding right to the procedure. And right at that moment, I knew God was saying, the Holy Spirit was saying pray with him. I'm just sort of like, here? Like now? I don't even know his name, I don't know if he's a Christian, I don't know how he's going to respond. So I just want to say some of you are like, I feel like sometimes God wants me to do this, but I kind of don't want to do it, that was me right in that moment. Thankfully, it was one of the times I decided to yield my will and say, all right like I can't pretend the Holy Spirit's not telling me to pray for him. So I just asked him, hey, would you mind, would you be okay if we just prayed about this right now? Quick segway, I have never had somebody say no to me. It could happen someday, I have never had anybody say no to me, and I have never been sorry when I've said yes to Jesus on this. So I said, hey, can I just pray with you now? And he said, yeah, of course. He put his arm around me, I put my arm around him, we're right there in the middle of the gym. Who knows what's going on? We're praying. I'm praying the whole time, he is nodding vigorously, and he is really into the prayer. He came back to me the next time; I think the next week at some point I came to him and I saw him at the gym. He came up, he took off his wrist brace and he showed me the spot that was the problem before and it was gone, it was healed, it was fixed. And he, I didn't have to bring it up, he said, good thing we prayed.
Dan Franklin: [00:30:32] Every day, we have hundreds of moments when we're asking, will I yield my will to God's will when I'm tempted to sin, when I want to say that thing, or when I want to stay quiet hundreds of times? And then there's also the big life decisions where we've got to ask, will I yield my will to God's will? All this money that I have and that I kind of want to spend on recreation things, but the Holy Spirit is speaking to me and saying he has another plan for that money. I've got my will, God's got his will, whose will is going to win? Maybe for some of you, you're at the point that you're like, I'm sort of done with my marriage now, like, it's too painful, it's too frustrating, he's not going to change, she's not going to change, I should just go somewhere else and try to be happy. But you know that God's will is to lean in, and to persevere, and to be faithful. Whose will is going to win? Whose will is going to win when it comes to the dreams and the plans for the future, college, and career, and all of those sorts of things? Are we willing to say, not my will, but your will be done? And the answer is no, we're not willing to do that unless we really, really, really trust God. Because our will makes sense to us, and the only way we're going to yield that will is if we really, really, really trust God. And what I want to just make sure you all know is you can really, really, really trust God. The Father who didn't hold back his beloved son but sent him to die a torturous death for all of us. Yeah, you can trust that God. Not my will, but your will be done. We want to experience union with God in prayer, but we're never going to experience that union unless we yield to God's agenda.
Dan Franklin: [00:32:31] And I'll just share with you, in my prayer life lately, I've been praying the beats of the Lord's Prayer, these five things, so this is timely for me. This second beat, the one that we're talking about today, has become the longest part of my prayer time, and it's also become the most joyful part of my prayer time. Because it's the moment when I realize that I need to yield my agenda to his. And one of the things that's humbling about praying this, is you start to realize how many things you've prioritized over God's kingdom coming and God's will being done because you realize I pray a lot of things a lot more than I pray that. We pray for safety in travel, and the health of our loved ones, a lot more than we pray your kingdom come, your will be done. We pray for good grades, for ourselves, or for our kids, or for our grandkids a lot more than we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done. We pray for future husbands, future wives, future children, issues like that, things that are good to pray, but we reveal that that's a lot bigger a part of our priorities than your kingdom come, your will be done. And a lot of us lately have been spending a lot more time praying for inflation to be fixed than we've been praying, your kingdom come, your will be done. We get an opportunity to yield.
Dan Franklin: [00:34:08] And as I said, instead of just saying to everybody, so sometime this week, do this, we're going to get a taste of it right here. So in a minute, I'm going to lead us through a structured time, it's just going to be personal prayer where I'll have you bow your heads and I'll lead us through some beats of this. But before I do that, I want to invite the members of our prayer ministry team to go ahead and come forward now, to be available on each side of the stage so that afterward, if people feel like they want to come up and pray for a burden or for a joy, to pray for comfort in grief or to pray for celebration and praise, that these folks will be here.
Dan Franklin: [00:34:49] And let me just also let you know something else that we're trying to make a part of our culture here, through the time with our prayer ministry team, there's a big temptation to handle the prayer in this way that somebody comes forward to someone spills kind of all their problems, says, here's all the things I'm dealing with, and then the prayer ministry team member prays over them. That's great, we've decided what we think is better is if you come forward and you pray for what God has put on your heart and the prayer ministry team partner prays along with you, joining with you in what God is doing. And so they're going to be ready afterward, I bet you guys didn't know this, you're going to do this next part up here, and everybody else, you'll be in your seats for this.
Dan Franklin: [00:35:33] As I've been praying this during my personal prayer life, I've prayed it through in four ways, they're up here on the screen. Your kingdom come, your will be done in me, as it is in heaven. God, make your agenda my agenda, your kingdom come, your will be done in my family, as it is in heaven. Which has led me to pray a lot more for the Holy Spirit's work in the members of my family than just for logistical issues. Your kingdom come, your will be done, in this church as it is in heaven. That we wouldn't be about consuming or about numbers or about business, but about the work of God. And then your kingdom come, your will be done in California as it is in heaven. Do you think our state needs some prayer? We need prayer. And we can roll our eyes and we can be annoyed, or we can pray for California to bow the knee to Jesus in a way that's never happened before.
Dan Franklin: [00:36:31] So here's what's going to happen, I'm going to invite you just to bow your heads right now where you are, and I'm just going to one-by-one cue us with these statements. I'll say the statement in the form of prayer, and then I'll leave some time for each of us to silently pray in response to this. So, Father, we pray your kingdom come, your will be done, in me as it is in heaven. Father, your kingdom come, your will be done, in my family as it is in heaven. Father, your kingdom come, your will be done in Life Bible Fellowship Church, as it is in heaven. Father, your kingdom come, your will be done, in the state of California as it is in heaven. Father, we pray that you lead us to yield our kingdom to your kingdom, our will to your will, our priorities to your priorities, and our agenda to your agenda. Father, we pray your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Dan Franklin: [00:40:01] I have a couple of things to say as we move forward from here. First of all, if some of you are like. Dan, that was too quick. You're right, that was a taste. And if you're like that was too quick, my suggestion is to take half an hour tomorrow and just don't rush through it. And what I also want to say is for some of you, the next step in this, the next step of communing with God in prayer is not even done for right now because we got our prayer ministry team up here, and for some of you, you've got a celebration, you've got a praise, you've got a burden, you have a stress, you have an anxiety, you have something where you have an area of your life that you're saying, I need to crown Jesus king of this area, too. That's what this team is here for, and we want to see more of the kingdom breaking out right here in our midst through us joining in prayer. So for some of you, you're going to be heading outside. For some of you, you're not done in here yet. Let's keep seeking that union that God wants to have with us in prayer. Amen? Amen. God bless you for the rest of this Sunday.
Recorded in Upland, California.
Andy Watson: [00:00:18] For our Scripture reading today, we're going to recite the Lord's Prayer together in unison. So let's say it now, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Amen. You may be seated.
Mimi: [00:01:01] What I have in my hand is a prayer booklet that my friend and I, who started a prayer-walking ministry, developed. And I looked, and we saw the date and it was developed in 8 of '11, so we've been doing this for 12 years. And what our goal was to walk through one area and see if we could get results, to see if we could actually get some tangible results through praying. Now we walk in the city of Pomona. We both have had a heart for Pomona. I've taught Pomona Released Time in Pomona for over 30 years, that's where we go into public schools, fourth graders, and we teach them the Bible. So that city has been on my heart ever since the Lord called me to that. It is just wonderful, it's the time, the two hours set aside in the week that I don't have an agenda. It's just freeing, it's like I'm just going to go and, Lord, whatever you do, whoever you put in my path, whoever you don't, it's terrific, we don't have an agenda. I don't have to be in a hurry. I can just let the Holy Spirit lead, it's fabulous.
Mimi: [00:01:59] The Word says, apart from me, you can do nothing. And I truly believe that When I was younger, I probably thought I could accomplish something, but not anymore, now I'm very aware of my great need of the Lord. If I believe God is who He says He is, which is the supreme being of the universe, how can I possibly not pray? How can I think I know something better than he would know? To me, that makes no sense, it's totally illogical. So I want to offer any of the things I'm trying to accomplish and ask him, is this where I'm supposed to be headed? And if not, shut the door. Every program we do, we start for Him. Why am I praying It's for the Lord. Why am I teaching little children about Jesus? Because it's for the Lord, it's what He wants.
Mimi: [00:02:38] We believe that we have to get in a posture where God will hear us, and we believe that as we go out, he will heal our land. There are changes, and they may be small, God often starts with small, small beginnings, but in faith, we believe that if we will obey that command, he will heal our land. And you've got to start somewhere, God is going to call somebody to Ontario and Upland and Rancho and different places, and then those cities will be heavy on their hearts, but we've all got to do something. We can all do something, we can't do everything, but everybody can do something. So our part is praying for the city of Pomona.
Dan Franklin: [00:03:19] Well, it's awesome, during the series, as we're focusing in on asking the Lord Jesus to teach us how to pray, and we're getting each week to hear from some of our church members about how prayer has impacted their lives. And each time, it was great hearing from Mimi, what she talked about there is right on target with what we get to talk about this second week as we lean into the Lord's Prayer, as we're walking through it line by line and just beat by beat so that we have an opportunity to lean in and figure out what is Jesus giving us. Not as words to recite, but as a model for how we can experience union with God through our times of prayer.
Dan Franklin: [00:04:02] I also wanted to just say something because some of you might have been wondering about this the last couple of weeks when we've recited the Lord's Prayer together. Some of you are probably saying, why didn't we do that last part? Anybody? I see some nodding heads. Yeah, some of you are like, what about yours is the power and the kingdom and the glory and all of that kind of stuff. If you have a Bible and that's in there, well, you may notice is either, if that part is in there, it has a note by it, or in some of your Bibles, it doesn't have that part in there and just has a note to kind of say that most likely was added in much later by somebody else who wanted a little bit of an epilog for what Jesus said in teaching us to pray. So it's a great thing to pray if you're like, I pray that, that's great, all of that is good to pray. But we haven't included it because almost certainly it wasn't originally what Matthew recorded with what Jesus is saying.
Dan Franklin: [00:04:40] So we have just gone through, instead, those five beats. We're going to take five weeks and go through the five beats of the Lord's Prayer. And here's how I want to invite you to think about today, and even in connection with last week. Last week, Jeff taught us through the first part of the Lord's Prayer, which is, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." So I want to relate last week and this week to sort of street signs that we might see if we're out on the road, the street sign for last week is, look both ways. And here's why, when we think about who we are addressing when we're praying, on the one hand, we're looking over here and we're seeing our Father, which is meant to be a signal of the closeness and nearness to God, that it was shocking to the first century Jews that Jesus invited us to call God our Father. We look over here and we see our Father, who is near, and we also look over here and we see that he's our Father in heaven and he's holy. So we look over here and we know that he's close, and we look over here and we know that he's great. We look over here and we know that he's listening to us, and we look over here and we know he can actually do something about what we're talking to him about. So here's the great thing about the look both ways for that first sign, is that everywhere we look, there's good news. He is our Father, and he is our Father in heaven. So last week, the street sign would be, look both ways.
Dan Franklin: [00:06:20] This week the street sign would be yield, and some of you just even driving in here this morning came past a yield sign on your way to LBF church. And at a yield sign, what you do is you pause, and you give priority to the other drivers. Today we're focusing in on, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And we are going to be invited in this part of the prayer to yield. And specifically, we're going to see that to experience union with God, which is what we want through our prayers to experience union with God, we must yield our agenda to His. Think of the words again, "Your kingdom come, your will be done."
Dan Franklin: [00:07:26] I know I've had conversations with some of you about prayer as you've been going through this series, and something that I've heard a lot of you say is I want to get to a point in my prayer life where it's not just me asking God for stuff. That's part of prayer, but that's not all there is to prayer. And what I just want to point out is that I think that's a good instinct, but if you read through the Lord's Prayer, it's basically all requests. These that we're going over today, "Your kingdom come, your will be done." those are requests. That is us asking God to do things, but it's requests that are centered on His agenda, not our agenda. We're praying for what God wants to see happen. We're not trying to manipulate God to do what we want to see happen. So today, after we've already addressed the one we're praying to, we're invited to yield.
Dan Franklin: [00:08:20] And so today is going to be real simple. I love going through the Lord's Prayer line by line. By the way, if any of you are concerned because you're like, it's only one verse, how is he going to fill up this time? Don't worry, it's not a problem. But we're going to do three things, it'll be real simple. Number one, we're going to talk about what it means to pray, your kingdom come. Number two, we're going to talk about what it means to pray, your will be done. And number three, we're actually going to pray it in the service later on because what we want each week is for us not only to be in a position where we learn about how to pray but where we get a regular taste of how good it is to have union with God through prayer. So, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, is going to be all mixed into the whole thing, and then we are going to respond and pray as a result of this.
Dan Franklin: [00:09:14] So let's just jump into this, Jesus tells us to pray, "Your kingdom come." And this request, it can be a little bit confusing to us because the kingdom can feel like this vague term. As Jesus uses it throughout Matthew It's usually the kingdom of heaven, throughout Mark and Luke, it's usually the kingdom of God, but it's just two ways of talking about the same thing. It can be a little bit confusing, what are we talking about with the kingdom? And because of that, what are we talking about when we're asking God that His kingdom would come? For centuries, scholars have talked about the Kingdom of God in this way, they've said the kingdom of God is already and not yet. Which means there's a part of us talking about the kingdom, that it's this future reality that we're looking forward to. It's the time in the future where Jesus returns, where the final judgment happens, where the dead are raised, and where God ushers in Paradise onto this earth, it's this great future reality of the kingdom.
Dan Franklin: [00:10:20] Jesus talks about it this way in Matthew 8, in the story about him healing the centurion's son when he says to this centurion who's not a Jew, he says, "Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." So Jesus is looking ahead to this not yet manifestation of God's rule on earth that will happen. But the kingdom is not only not yet, it's also already, it is here now. Because, as we read throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus talks about it not just as a future reality, but as something that arrived when he arrived. Jesus is the King, so the kingdom is here. And that's why he says in Matthew 4:17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The king is here, so the kingdom is here. So the kingdom is not yet, but it's also here, and this is how it's talked about throughout the New Testament.
Dan Franklin: [00:11:23] So when Jesus says to pray, your kingdom come, he's not telling us to pray that Jesus will come back soon and that everything will be fixed, even though that's a great thing to pray. If you read the Book of Revelation, do you know what John prays at the end of the Book of Revelation? He prays, "Come, Lord Jesus." So there's nothing wrong, if you're like, oh, in my prayers, I do pray for Jesus to come back soon. That's great, keep praying for that, but that's not what Jesus is saying when he says for us to pray, your kingdom come, in this context. What he means is that we are praying for the rule of God, for God being king, to spread on the earth. And the kingdom spreading, the kingdom coming means this, it means that God's kingdom is anywhere that God is treated as the King. Any individual person, any family unit, any church, any community, anywhere that God is treated as the King, that is a display of God's kingdom. And when Jesus tells us to pray, your kingdom come, what He's really telling us to say is, that we are praying that there will be more and more of that here on the earth, more and more people bowing the knee to Jesus, coming to faith in him, and crowning Jesus as the King of our lives. More of that, and also more of those of us who are believers yielding more areas of our lives to him.
Dan Franklin: [00:13:01] I've got to share this real quick. I got, it was probably like three weeks ago, I got one of the most encouraging texts I've got all year from a student in our EXIT83 youth group. And I won't say who he is, he knows who he is when he hears the story. But he was texting me and he was saying, I really feel like there's areas of my life that that I've given to God and that I'm living for him, but I think that there's whole other areas of my life that God is calling me really to surrender over to him. So he had a prayer request, and you'll love this. Here was his prayer request, his prayer request is, can you pray for me while I look to yield more areas of my life over to Jesus? And I was like, no. I was just like, best prayer request ever from a high schooler in our youth group saying, I want Jesus not just to be king over some areas of my life, but over all areas of my life. That is the kingdom coming, when more people who are outside of God's love come and bow the knee to him and are welcomed into the family, and when those of us who have already bowed the knee to Jesus bow the knee more deeply and yield more areas of our lives to Him, that is God's kingdom coming. "Your kingdom come, your will be done,..." Remember that last part, "...on earth as it is in heaven." And that statement on earth as it is in heaven, it applies to both parts. It's your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven, and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Dan Franklin: [00:14:41] So let's just pause and let's think for a second. Could we get in our minds a picture of what it might look like if God was ruling in heaven? And the good news is we don't have to think about it for ourselves, we get to read about it. The Book of Revelation, especially in chapters 4 and 5, gives us this amazing picture of worship in heaven. And we've got God sitting on his throne, and we've got all of these angelic creatures all around, and there's all of this worship going on. And I want to read you just a portion of Revelation chapter 4, starting in verse 8 and reading to the end of the chapter so that we get a picture of what it looks like for God's kingdom to come in heaven. It's talking about all these amazing angelic creatures and it says, "Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” 9Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11“You are worthy, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” That's how the king is treated in heaven, and Jesus says, pray that on the earth it would be like that. Pray that on the earth, in the lives of individual Christians, in Christian families, in churches like ours, in communities, that people are responding like that. Where he says, day and night, it's just constantly going on, there is constant worship happening. Pray that the earth will start to look like heaven in that regard.
Dan Franklin: [00:16:49] And that might feel hard to translate, but let's just say, what would it look like if there was more manifestation of the kingdom here on Earth, just as it is in heaven? And the place we can start is just by talking about worship. Because in the throne room, there is worship. When we are freely and joyfully and passionately with integrity worshiping God, that is a display of the kingdom. I don't want to be overly harsh on this, but a lot of us sort of approach worship here in the church and we're like, I like that song, but I don't like that song. I like it when we have a big band, I'm not sure about the smaller band, or whatever it is. And I understand all of us have our musical preferences, I'm not saying that you shouldn't have your musical preferences. I'm not even saying that you can't have favorite songs, that that all is fine. There's something, though, that we need to all remember, if you walk out on Sunday and you're like, I didn't really, like worship today, guess what? You weren't being worshiped. Those songs are not written for you. Those songs aren't written for me. I mean, it's hard to imagine, I imagine the angels in heaven after this, and they're kind of like, I didn't like that we did that chorus a third time. What did you think? I mean, it's ridiculous to us. We need to pause, and we need to recognize who is at the center of that worship time, and it's not you and it's not me, it is the King.
Dan Franklin: [00:18:27] And the kingdom is also put on display when needy and marginalized people are included and have their needs taken care of. That is a sign of God's kingdom breaking out and showing itself. God's kingdom is showing itself when racial and economic barriers become absolutely unimportant because we're brothers and sisters in Christ and we care more about that than what divides us. God's kingdom shows up and breaks through when husbands and wives love each other sacrificially and selflessly and work through issues instead of breaking up families and separating. And there are 100 other ways that the Kingdom of God breaks through, but it also shows up when we pray and when we pray together.
Dan Franklin: [00:19:20] One of my dreams, and I love it because it's not even a dream, I see it happening and I just want to see it happening more. Is that on Sundays, usually I'm in here, and about three times out of four, I'm the one preaching and then I go out to see people. And so when I go out, what I dream about seeing is just looking over our campus and seeing different pockets of people all over the campus just circled up and praying together. Just sort of like, hey, this family is about to go out of town on a vacation, so a bunch of people just gathered around them and they're praying for them. And this kid over here is really stressed about college decisions, so a whole bunch of people gathered around and they're just praying. This other family, they just experienced a big, answered prayer, so a whole bunch of people are gathered around in praise and just praying for them. And I love seeing this happen, I love seeing the spontaneous prayer where there's no staff person, there's no pastor, there's no elder, just people are praying.
Dan Franklin: [00:20:13] By the way, for those of you who are like, when are they going to stop making us get into groups and pray in the service? We're not. Now I get it, some of you think you're really subtle that you go to the bathroom every time, right at that moment. You're not subtle, we know what's going on. And I get it, it is not, please believe me, it is not hard for me to understand why a lot of you feel a level of discomfort with this. I totally get that, it's totally understandable. The question is not whether or not we feel a level of discomfort with this, the question is, are we going to abandon it for that discomfort or are we going to lean in and grow as a result of it? Nobody grows by being comfortable all the time.
Dan Franklin: [00:21:01] And I'll tell you, one of the few times that I am 100% sure that we as a church are doing exactly what God wants us to do is when on a Sunday morning, we're circled up with each other and we're praying. There is not a doubt in my mind, that is a manifestation of God's rule in our church.
Dan Franklin: [00:21:21] Your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven, and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come, and your will be done. They're not the exact same thing, but they're similar ideas, they're similar concepts that sort of complement each other. God's kingdom comes when his will is being done, these all go together. And in the same way that God's kingdom is a confusing idea because it kind of can mean two similar but different things at different times in the Bible, it's the same when we talk about God's will. God's will is used in two different ways by the biblical authors. And one of them is just to talk about God's plan, sort of like God's will is God's plan. Paul uses it this way in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11, he writes, "In him, in Christ, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." There's a certain way that God's will is talked about in the Bible, in a way that it will always happen 100% of the time, if God has a plan, that plan will happen. So part of God's will is just what His plan is, what will happen.
Dan Franklin: [00:22:48] But there's another way that God's will is talked about that doesn't always happen. And in those passages, what God's will means is basically this is what God wants, this is what God desires. I'll read a couple of examples for you, just two examples in the New Testament, even though this shows up dozens of times. First Peter 2:15, "For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people." It's God's will that Christians live such good lives that those who want to say something bad about Jesus or bad about us, they're embarrassed because they have nothing bad to say. God's will is that we would live lives that good. Does that always happen? No. It should, but it's a part of God's will that it sometimes happens, and sometimes doesn't happen because it's what God wants.
Dan Franklin: [00:23:41] First Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 16, 17, and 18 says, "Rejoice always, 17pray continually, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." It's God's will that we're always rejoicing, always praying, always giving thanks. Now it's okay to be honest, is there ever a time that you are not giving thanks? Do we sometimes complain? We sometimes aren't thankful, but he says it's God's will that we're always thankful. What's going on here is that there's a part of what God wants, his will, that we sometimes do and that we sometimes don't do.
Dan Franklin: [00:24:25] So when Jesus tells us to pray, "Your will be done", that's the kind of will he's talking about. He's saying that we are praying that what God wants to happen will happen. And if we're all going to try to boil this down to one idea to say, all right, what is it that God wants to have happen? What God wants to have happen is that we live in trusting obedience to him, that we live by faith obeying what he says because we trust him. Now, think again about this idea, your will be done, on earth, just like your will is done in heaven. In heaven, God dispatches angels to go and do his will. And when he tells an angel to go and do something, you know what happens? They do it immediately. There's no angel that's like, I'm not sure that's the best plan for right now, the angels just do it. And we're praying, God, may we, may all human beings, but especially those of us who are called by your name, especially those of us who are Christians, may we live out your will in the kind of immediate, trusting obedience that marks the activity of heaven, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Dan Franklin: [00:25:52] But as we've already talked about, you can't do God's will unless you yield your will to him. And there's no better example of this than the Lord Jesus on the night that he was arrested. A lot of you know the story, that before he was arrested, he went to a garden, and he prayed in this garden three times. And he always prayed the same thing, he prayed, "Father, if there's any way, let this cup pass from me." Which to us feels like very coded language, but to the Jews, this was very clear language because the cup had to do with suffering. So it is Jesus basically saying this, Father, I really don't want to be arrested, condemned, beaten, and crucified. I don't want that, so if there's a way out of that, let's do that. But then he ends the prayer by saying, but not what I will, but what you will. Not my will, but your will be done, even when it was going to involve suffering.
Dan Franklin: [00:27:01] And maybe for some of you, this can be a little bit of a point of comfort that Jesus was saying, I want two things at the same time. I want to not suffer, but I want to obey the Father. I want two things at the same time, and that is most of us, most of the time. We're like, well, I want to do what I want to do, but I also kind of want to do what God wants me to do. And the question is always, which one is going to yield to the other? And Jesus said, not what I will, but your will be done, even though it was going to involve temporary, deep discomfort and suffering. And all of us have to decide, this is weird when we talk about this because it's as simple as 100 daily decisions that we make each day, and it's as complex as the big life decisions that we make just occasionally. Are we going to yield our will to God's will?
Dan Franklin: [00:28:04] A quick story about the everyday stuff, and I tell this because I know we're talking about prayer and because I'm upfront, there could be the assumption like, well, this guy doesn't know what it's like for the rest of us, we feel anxiety about prayer. I want to promise you, every time that I pray with another person, I don't want to do it. I want to do it, but I also don't want to do it. So probably about a month ago I was at the gym, and if you're part of a gym, you know, you have like the gym people that you always see but you don't really know, you just kind of nod at them like we're always here at the same time. There's this one guy, I didn't know his name, in my head I always called him the Incredible Hulk because he's just a massive guy. But we sometimes would have brief chit-chats, even though we didn't know each other. And so I was talking to him because he had a brace on his wrist and I asked him about it and he took it off, and he showed me he had just had a procedure, and he had a part of it that was really uncomfortable and that was not responding right to the procedure. And right at that moment, I knew God was saying, the Holy Spirit was saying pray with him. I'm just sort of like, here? Like now? I don't even know his name, I don't know if he's a Christian, I don't know how he's going to respond. So I just want to say some of you are like, I feel like sometimes God wants me to do this, but I kind of don't want to do it, that was me right in that moment. Thankfully, it was one of the times I decided to yield my will and say, all right like I can't pretend the Holy Spirit's not telling me to pray for him. So I just asked him, hey, would you mind, would you be okay if we just prayed about this right now? Quick segway, I have never had somebody say no to me. It could happen someday, I have never had anybody say no to me, and I have never been sorry when I've said yes to Jesus on this. So I said, hey, can I just pray with you now? And he said, yeah, of course. He put his arm around me, I put my arm around him, we're right there in the middle of the gym. Who knows what's going on? We're praying. I'm praying the whole time, he is nodding vigorously, and he is really into the prayer. He came back to me the next time; I think the next week at some point I came to him and I saw him at the gym. He came up, he took off his wrist brace and he showed me the spot that was the problem before and it was gone, it was healed, it was fixed. And he, I didn't have to bring it up, he said, good thing we prayed.
Dan Franklin: [00:30:32] Every day, we have hundreds of moments when we're asking, will I yield my will to God's will when I'm tempted to sin, when I want to say that thing, or when I want to stay quiet hundreds of times? And then there's also the big life decisions where we've got to ask, will I yield my will to God's will? All this money that I have and that I kind of want to spend on recreation things, but the Holy Spirit is speaking to me and saying he has another plan for that money. I've got my will, God's got his will, whose will is going to win? Maybe for some of you, you're at the point that you're like, I'm sort of done with my marriage now, like, it's too painful, it's too frustrating, he's not going to change, she's not going to change, I should just go somewhere else and try to be happy. But you know that God's will is to lean in, and to persevere, and to be faithful. Whose will is going to win? Whose will is going to win when it comes to the dreams and the plans for the future, college, and career, and all of those sorts of things? Are we willing to say, not my will, but your will be done? And the answer is no, we're not willing to do that unless we really, really, really trust God. Because our will makes sense to us, and the only way we're going to yield that will is if we really, really, really trust God. And what I want to just make sure you all know is you can really, really, really trust God. The Father who didn't hold back his beloved son but sent him to die a torturous death for all of us. Yeah, you can trust that God. Not my will, but your will be done. We want to experience union with God in prayer, but we're never going to experience that union unless we yield to God's agenda.
Dan Franklin: [00:32:31] And I'll just share with you, in my prayer life lately, I've been praying the beats of the Lord's Prayer, these five things, so this is timely for me. This second beat, the one that we're talking about today, has become the longest part of my prayer time, and it's also become the most joyful part of my prayer time. Because it's the moment when I realize that I need to yield my agenda to his. And one of the things that's humbling about praying this, is you start to realize how many things you've prioritized over God's kingdom coming and God's will being done because you realize I pray a lot of things a lot more than I pray that. We pray for safety in travel, and the health of our loved ones, a lot more than we pray your kingdom come, your will be done. We pray for good grades, for ourselves, or for our kids, or for our grandkids a lot more than we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done. We pray for future husbands, future wives, future children, issues like that, things that are good to pray, but we reveal that that's a lot bigger a part of our priorities than your kingdom come, your will be done. And a lot of us lately have been spending a lot more time praying for inflation to be fixed than we've been praying, your kingdom come, your will be done. We get an opportunity to yield.
Dan Franklin: [00:34:08] And as I said, instead of just saying to everybody, so sometime this week, do this, we're going to get a taste of it right here. So in a minute, I'm going to lead us through a structured time, it's just going to be personal prayer where I'll have you bow your heads and I'll lead us through some beats of this. But before I do that, I want to invite the members of our prayer ministry team to go ahead and come forward now, to be available on each side of the stage so that afterward, if people feel like they want to come up and pray for a burden or for a joy, to pray for comfort in grief or to pray for celebration and praise, that these folks will be here.
Dan Franklin: [00:34:49] And let me just also let you know something else that we're trying to make a part of our culture here, through the time with our prayer ministry team, there's a big temptation to handle the prayer in this way that somebody comes forward to someone spills kind of all their problems, says, here's all the things I'm dealing with, and then the prayer ministry team member prays over them. That's great, we've decided what we think is better is if you come forward and you pray for what God has put on your heart and the prayer ministry team partner prays along with you, joining with you in what God is doing. And so they're going to be ready afterward, I bet you guys didn't know this, you're going to do this next part up here, and everybody else, you'll be in your seats for this.
Dan Franklin: [00:35:33] As I've been praying this during my personal prayer life, I've prayed it through in four ways, they're up here on the screen. Your kingdom come, your will be done in me, as it is in heaven. God, make your agenda my agenda, your kingdom come, your will be done in my family, as it is in heaven. Which has led me to pray a lot more for the Holy Spirit's work in the members of my family than just for logistical issues. Your kingdom come, your will be done, in this church as it is in heaven. That we wouldn't be about consuming or about numbers or about business, but about the work of God. And then your kingdom come, your will be done in California as it is in heaven. Do you think our state needs some prayer? We need prayer. And we can roll our eyes and we can be annoyed, or we can pray for California to bow the knee to Jesus in a way that's never happened before.
Dan Franklin: [00:36:31] So here's what's going to happen, I'm going to invite you just to bow your heads right now where you are, and I'm just going to one-by-one cue us with these statements. I'll say the statement in the form of prayer, and then I'll leave some time for each of us to silently pray in response to this. So, Father, we pray your kingdom come, your will be done, in me as it is in heaven. Father, your kingdom come, your will be done, in my family as it is in heaven. Father, your kingdom come, your will be done in Life Bible Fellowship Church, as it is in heaven. Father, your kingdom come, your will be done, in the state of California as it is in heaven. Father, we pray that you lead us to yield our kingdom to your kingdom, our will to your will, our priorities to your priorities, and our agenda to your agenda. Father, we pray your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Dan Franklin: [00:40:01] I have a couple of things to say as we move forward from here. First of all, if some of you are like. Dan, that was too quick. You're right, that was a taste. And if you're like that was too quick, my suggestion is to take half an hour tomorrow and just don't rush through it. And what I also want to say is for some of you, the next step in this, the next step of communing with God in prayer is not even done for right now because we got our prayer ministry team up here, and for some of you, you've got a celebration, you've got a praise, you've got a burden, you have a stress, you have an anxiety, you have something where you have an area of your life that you're saying, I need to crown Jesus king of this area, too. That's what this team is here for, and we want to see more of the kingdom breaking out right here in our midst through us joining in prayer. So for some of you, you're going to be heading outside. For some of you, you're not done in here yet. Let's keep seeking that union that God wants to have with us in prayer. Amen? Amen. God bless you for the rest of this Sunday.
Recorded in Upland, California.
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