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CPC Sunday School | The Lord's Prayer #4 (3-24-2024)
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The speaker begins with a prayer and introduces the topic of studying the Lord's Prayer. They review the first two petitions of the prayer, emphasizing the reverence and corporate nature of the prayer. They then discuss the third petition, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and explore three perspectives on God's will: decree, precepts, and wisdom. They explain that all three perspectives are encompassed in the prayer and discuss the role of angels and saints in heaven in fulfilling God's will. All right. Good morning, everybody. We're going to start off with a prayer as we get into learning more about the Lord's Prayer. So please join me by our heads and let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for this time. We pray that it's a time of learning, Lord. We pray that we just pray for discernment when reading your Word, and we pray that we learn to use this prayer in a way that glorifies you and pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. So you study a week of prayer and you have a hard time praying at the beginning of the sermon, but not sermon, but the lesson. All right. So today we're going to continue the series on the Lord's Prayer, looking at the third petition. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I know the last two speakers, Dan and Paul, they had some resources talking about their petition being the greatest petition, but look at the quote I found. The third and greatest petition by John Calvin. That is not a true source quote. I made that up, by All right. So what we're going to look at today. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We're going to review the first two petitions, then look at the third petition of the Lord's Prayer. We're going to look at what I call the meta, get into that, and then time for application and discussion. All right. So to review where Pastor Mark took us at the introduction, we're talking about the Lord's Prayer, number one, as a template. So preceding the Lord's Prayer, Christ says to pray like this, not just pray this, but pray like this. So looking at the different structures of the Lord's Prayer, looking at how we could use it in our individual and corporate prayer life as well. We talk about the guidelines and boundaries rather than an incantation. So it's not just something we say rote. We have to be thoughtful. We have to meditate on that structure with the Lord's instructing us to pray about through that prayer. Each phrase begets deeper prayer. And then one thing I added with Mark's permission, of course, is petition as a member of the larger church body. So what I mean by that is when we look at the Lord's Prayer, we look at all these plurals, our Father, give us, forgive us our debts. So I believe this is a template for us to pray individually but as a corporate body. So when we pray this prayer or the structure of this prayer that Christ asks us to pray, we pray it on behalf of us being members on a greater body, that is the church. So we pray it as a corporate body, even individually. All right, so review of the first two petitions. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. One of the quotes that Paul used on this one, so you shall keep my commandments and do them. I am the Lord and you shall not profane my holy name, but I will be hallowed among the people of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you. So this reverence, we should have a reverence when we pray to the Father, knowing not only that we've been adopted into his family, but he's the creator of all things and his name should be hallowed. And then Dan, with thy kingdom come. Some of the quotes we used from that, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand, from Mark 1.15. And he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him, Colossians 2.14. Christ has commissioned us through the great commission to evangelize and disciple the nations. So Christ is a king. We are in Christ's kingdom and that kingdom is like a mustard seed and it's growing and Christ's kingdom has come and is coming. All right, the third petition of the Lord's prayer. Our Father, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So again, I want to emphasize this plural nature of the petition. Our Father, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation. This is from 1 Corinthians 12. For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. So just again, this reminder that Christ built into this prayer that we are members of one body. So as we pray this prayer, one of the things that I want to highlight is that nature, the corporate nature of this prayer. And as we're praying, we pray as a member on behalf of the church, larger body. So the third petition, let's just take a step back, look at it. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What are some just questions that may come up when you read that? Think about it. Pastor Mark? What's going on in heaven? Yeah, what's going on in heaven? That's a great one. Anything else? What is the will of the Father? Okay, that's perfect. You guys teed this up nicely. All right, so the will of God. We're going to look at, I use John Frame as a reference. A lot of theologians will kind of dice this up differently, but we're going to look at the will of the Father in three different kind of areas that we can have perspectives on His will. The first being decree, second precepts, and the third is wisdom. Decree, I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. That's from Isaiah 46. So God's decrees display His lordship attributes. In an obvious way, they display His control, for they are efficacious and universal. God's intentions will certainly be fulfilled and they will be fulfilled for everything in the created world. That's a quote from Frame. Anyone have any examples when they think of what decrees are, the decree perspective on God's will from the Bible? Yep, that's a great example. Dan? Right. God decreed that example of Joseph for good, yep. A classic example, God created the heavens and the earth, right? Very simple. He speaks and it happens. It's efficacious. Another verse here, God shows us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. This is a great decree of God. This is the decree of the elect. So what God says in His decree will come to pass. The second perspective here in God's will is precepts. So a great example, God's law in his Ten Commandments. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. God's ordinances are another example. So when we think of old covenant ordinances with cleanliness, we think of in the new covenant, baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are precepts. So one thing about precepts is man has a response to God's commands and law. Man often chooses not to do them. So this is what God asks of His people and we don't necessarily do them. So the will of God is that you shall have no other gods before me. The will of God is that you shall not murder. The will of God is that you shall not commit adultery. Very clear to see these are not the same in the decretive sense where God says something and it happens. Any other examples on God's precept will that anyone wants to put out there from Scripture? All right. Okay, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3.9. So another example of the perceptive perspective on God's will. The third one I think is unique that I saw in frame and I haven't seen anywhere else when studying this over the week, but it's really simple. And this is more of a pastoral issue that I'm sure pastors like Pastor Mark, Pastor Stone have encountered from congregants. It's really what's God's will for my life? Right? Hey, who should I marry? What job should I take? Where should I live? Questions that necessarily aren't specifically addressed in Scripture, but God's provided us wisdom to come about decision-making in ordinary daily life. We'll look at a quote from frame on this. Wisdom is not only obeying Scripture in the big obvious ways. It is also, according to Proverbs, intelligence, knowledge, skills, understanding circumstances, including their likely consequences, self-knowledge, understanding of other people. It is a discernment that comes through reading Scripture, but a reading and arising out of spiritual maturity and experience. Thus, it is the ability to weigh pluses and minuses of the alternatives before us. This too is obeying Scripture, for the Scripture requires us to be wise to redeem opportunities. So, Scripture doesn't explicitly answer questions such as the ones, what's God's will for my life? Or where should I live? Who should I marry? God's given us His word, His spirit, and His people to be wise. All right, so the will of God. Three perspectives on the will of God. We talked about God's decrees, His precepts, wisdom. I don't know if I called this out, but the Proverbs wisdom literature is a clear one. So, thy will be done. Which will is in scope here? Stole my thunder there. All, all of those are in scope. Yes, that's right. That is right. So, we pray that God's decretive will will come to pass as He has decreed. We pray that God's people obey His precepts, and we pray that God's people mature in wisdom by seeking His word, His spirit, and the counsel of His people. All right, God's, God's will done in heaven. So, now we're going to transition to this other clause of that for, of the third petition. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So, I think this is, Pastor Mark said, yeah, what's going on in heaven? What's going on there? So, this is from Psalm 103, 21. Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers who do His will. So, who is in heaven? Angels? Nia says angels, that's right, angels, angelic hosts, angelic beings. Who else? Saints, the glorified saints, that's right. So, God's will is perfectly done in heaven, and we look back at those three different aspects, all three of them. All right, so now we're going to, we're going to switch to what I call the meta, the meta narrative. So, meta, if you think of what those words mean, we're thinking of above, meta, and the narrative is story. So, really the broader story is what we're talking about. So, I'm going to read a critique on this book, The Postmodern Condition, a Report on Knowledge. So, the term meta narrative was brought into prominence by Jean-Francois Letard in his 1979 book, The Postmodern Condition, a Report on Knowledge. In this book, the author characterizes the postmodern condition as that of increasing skepticism of all meta narratives. Indeed, postmoderns generally do not accept any overarching story that gives meaning to all of life. Instead, they focus on small individual narratives that give meaning to their own lives. A meta narrative speaks of absolute universal truth. An individual narrative speaks of what is true for me and gives meaning to my life. Postmodern thinking rejects meta narratives because it rejects universal truth. Postmoderns view a single narrative giving meaning to all lives as an impossibility. How does anyone see a logical issue with that, Brian? If the universe came about meaninglessly, meaning that there was no purpose, there was no ultimate design behind it, it's all just a cosmological accident, human life is an accident, then any attempt to, and when you die, there's no afterlife, there's no meaning there too, then any attempt to impose meaning on human life or on humanity is just absurd. There's no way, I mean, you just can't do it. Yep. Any other, Dan? A framework that rejects all frameworks fails to reject itself as a framework. That's right, yeah. By what standard can they impose this, right? They're just saying that there is no meta narrative, and they're claiming a meta narrative that's just counter to the meta narrative that they're talking about as being applied to everyone. That's right. Okay, so what unites heaven and earth, oops, sorry, one second. All right, the purpose of the cosmos. All right, so what is the meta narrative? So we talked about how postmodernisms, they reject a broader narrative that can't be driven down to individuals, but Christ gives us, he gives us the purpose of the cosmos. God making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth, Ephesians 1, 9-10. So I highlighted things in heaven and things on earth that will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So one of the points I'd like to bring home on this is in that petition, we're not only to think of God's will be done. How is God's will done for my life? What is God's will for my life in this situation during prayer? Going back to the idea that we are members of a body, of the corporate church body, we are to pray for the things that that body, God is using that body to do and things we're called to long for. And God's laid this out in scripture as the meta narrative that things in heaven and things on earth will be united. All things together will be united. The other one I'd like to call out only because it's so crucial to this idea of the body members and the church and then what we have to look forward to, how that future unfolds throughout time at the end of time. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. So we see all throughout scripture there is this imagery of the body being the church, the head being Christ, the church as the bride and Christ as the groom. And I think Paul has it right, this mystery is profound. But it all goes back to the narrative, to the larger story of scripture and what God's doing through time and it is culminating to a wedding. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Okay, so to continue the narrative, we just looked at where almost we end up at with Revelation, the end of time, and this idea of the bride and the groom and the church being the bride. I want to look at where the first prayer is in scripture. So we are going to look at Genesis 4.26. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth. For she said, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel. For Cain killed him. To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. One of the things that is interesting about this first prayer, and that is where I highlighted, at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. They are petitioning God. What are they praying for? What is that prayer for? No wrong answers because we are going on total speculation trail right now. Brian? For the feet of the woman to brush the head of the serpent. Yes, I think that is right. And this is speculative because I don't think we are informed about this in scripture. But they know of God. They know of their ancestors. They know of Adam and Eve. They know what happened. And they know the promise that God gave through that. Sorry, let's read that second part. Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands. That is from Genesis 5 on Lamech on naming Noah. So there is this great sense that the people know what happened. They have a good understanding of their history and what happened with the curse and of what God promised to do, Genesis 3.15. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So back to the garden for removal of the curse, for God to fulfill that promise, Genesis 3.15. This is also called the Proto-Evangelium. It is the first good news heard. And it is an announcement of the coming of Christ who will usher in the kingdom of God. In the Lord's Prayer we are called to pray for this decree of God to pass, that we go back to the garden, but to a new or better garden, one where God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. All right, so now we are going to fast forward to the prayer being answered. A new heaven and a new earth. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderous, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. So this is at the end of the Bible, Revelation, where in John's vision he sees what happens. He sees that there is a restoration that has unfolded and taken place through time in the culmination of this new Jerusalem, this holy city coming down out of heaven from God. It's talked about as a bride, beautifully dressed by fine linen. That was in the prior Revelation 19, and that fine linen is from the works of the church. So going back again, thinking of this prayer and this petition that God is telling us to pray like, we pray it as members, but members of a body, members of the church, of our local congregation, of the broader church in the world, of the broader church over time and history. And this is what we long for when we pray that. So I'm going to go, I don't know if I'm going to read all this, but really the point here is to talk about, when we talk about the new heaven and new earth, it brings up a lot of questions, like I have a lot of questions with it, and one of them I think Paul addresses head on here in Corinthians 15 when someone's asking. But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? What kind of body will they come? Has anyone thought that sounds like a reasonable question? I asked that question. I mean, that sounds reasonable. Paul says, how foolish. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. So first thing I wanted to stop here and maybe, I don't know, even ask out there, why is that foolish? Why would that be a foolish thing to ask that question? I think that's pretty strong language that Paul's turned back there for what, again, appears to be like a natural question. How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they come? I don't have an answer, by the way. I'm just asking if anyone else might have an idea. All right, so what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same. People have one kind of flesh. Animals have another. Birds another, and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another, and stars differs from star and splendor. So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable. It is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, and it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth. The second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth. And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. For just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, we shall bear the image of the heavenly man. I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. The perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal body with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory. So I wanted to add weight to what we're talking about when we pray for the will of God to be done on earth as heaven because it is pointing towards this ultimate narrative that started in the garden and in the curse. And now we end up at the end of time with the heavenly and the earthly, the material and the spiritual, coming together and being united as one. And I think Paul kind of gets at what that could look like, not just in terms of the resurrected body, but also what that new earth looks like. One of the other things that I knew I kind of grew up in this world where we always kind of talked about heaven being the ultimate destination. So I just cannot wait to be a disembodied spirit with God, me and God. It's going to be great. I even think of there's a hymn. It was a song in the movie, Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? I'll Fly Away. Anyone familiar with that song? I'll fly away. Oh, glory, I'll fly away in the morning. When I die, hallelujah, by and by, I'll fly away. So just me and God. Cannot wait to get there. And I think the Lord's prayer we see out of that, we see a pushback. I don't think at that time this was a big deal, but now we think of how individualized we've become and how we just kind of want to be alone, just us. We certainly don't want the idea of other people in with me and God in our me time in heaven. I think that's a real thing, and I think it's even shown just by that hymn, also by a lot of theology that's happened, and this idea that the ultimate thing we look towards is not the new heaven, the new earth, but just this idea of being a floating spirit out with God in heaven. While that will be certainly true when we die, our bodies will be glorified. The saints will be glorified. We'll be with God in heaven. That's not the ultimate state of affairs. The ultimate state of affairs is this bringing in of the material and the heavenly, the earthly and the heavenly, into a new creation that God's making. Okay, so the third petition of the Lord's prayer, prayer is petition. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The third petition is a metaposition directing us to long and usher in a new heaven and earth, a telos, or end, where all of our current earthly petitions will no longer be needed. We start there because that's our ultimate hope and our chief end, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. All right, so just some application notes that I put in, and then we can get into some discussion. This may be the earliest Sunday school yet on record, but that's fine. Application, so seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you, Matthew 6, 33. Mature in wisdom to do God's will. As members do this through Christ, the bride is being adorned with fine linen, which Revelation 19 calls the works of the church, works and deeds. Pray to the form of the Lord's prayer. Christ said pray like this. Pray the Lord's prayer. Meditate on the petitions. So this is a thing we do not just praying to the form, but even during our worship liturgy. We pray corporately verbatim the Lord's prayer at the end of the corporate prayer. Pray as a member of a body, Christ's church. So, again, not to say we obviously all have room for individual prayers and even using the Lord's prayer as a framework for our individual prayers and petitions, but it's my belief in looking at the plural usage in the Lord's prayer that the primary purpose of that framework and what the Lord's instructing us to do when we pray is to pray on behalf of the greater body. For that thing that was promised in Genesis 3 with the proto-evangelium. So that has already happened. Christ has crushed the head of the snake. And now that was the moment to where moving back to the garden in a greater and fuller way with the new earth and the new heaven united. Discussion. Paul. Yeah, I'm not sure. I haven't given that much thought either, but I think one idea would be sustain the church. Keep the church safe. Keep your bride protected as time is moving forward to where that wedding will happen, the uniting of all things on heaven and earth. That's like the sustenance. So keep your church fed. Protect the church. Anyone have any other thoughts on Paul's? Did everyone hear Paul's question? Yeah. Ian and Dan. Yeah, if anyone didn't hear Ian just talking about how encouraging it is to see that God's in control. That this will happen. We will get to that. That time. Brian. Yeah. I've never heard it talked about as a mercy killing, but that's interesting. Yeah. No, I thought about that a lot, specifically with going through our sermon series. And that being the kind of topic at hand is Gnosticism. So this idea that the flesh is evil. We just have evil bodies. Material is evil. The only thing that can be good is spiritual. So yeah, I see that a lot with what you're talking about. And with the all fly away thing. Yeah, I see that as real. Like this is a wretched body. Everything's wretched. I cannot wait for my me time with me and the Lord. And yeah, I just think when the Lord's talking about, hey, pray like this. I think that what we're praying towards is, and some of the things individually that we could get comfort in the Lord's prayer, is just like Ian said, we have some security and comfort that the Lord will bring about what he's promised to bring about. We've also got, which also brings contentment, right? So in trials, in individual problems that we may be having or having trouble getting to the next step or just being content with them, I think God's teaching us to be content because he has a plan. Back to the metanarrative, there is a purpose. There is a purpose to your life. And it's not just your life. It's not just you. It's not the individual. I think that's an interesting topic to think about. We have a hard time thinking about this because we're so individualistic. For a few hundred years, we've been having that really since the Enlightenment, this idea of the individual. And not kind of balancing it properly with, like call it community or call it the church body, like a true community sense. I think when this was written, I think that probably wasn't a big issue. But it is an issue. We are to have this kind of feeling that we're not just individuals, but we're a part of something. And we're a part of something, the church, and we're a member in that church. And Paul talks about the members being, you know, we've got hands, we've got feet. So we have all these different parts. So we have our unique contribution as individuals. I think the phrase is unity, not uniformity. So it doesn't mean that every individual has to be the same. That's not what we're talking about. Every part of the body has its own purpose, and God designed it for a specific purpose to drive that sort of history forward. Pastor Mark? I appreciate the nuance you gave up, John, to say, will of God. You know, what do we mean by that? And you had those helpful distinctions of, oh, we've got God's decree of will. We've got the step of will. And then wisdom has a certain part of it. So maybe the question, you know, I think of the teaching of Ephesians as an example. Ephesians tells us to make the best use of our time. We all have the same amount of time, but we're all commanded to make the best use of it. Maybe we can follow that with the step of will. We've got the step of will. Some of us can do that. Some of us don't. And, of course, the Bible doesn't say, here's your daily calendar. You know, 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m. Right. So we need wisdom to make the best use of the time. Right. My question is, you've been thinking about this phrase, maybe using that as an example. How does this phrase help you think through something like that? Maybe particularly in light of what you said, a big picture here is, sure, it's my time, but I'm accountable for how I use my time as an individual, a member, also in light of new heavens and new earth. Any thoughts on that? Yeah, I think I was trying to get there with the idea of the linen that the bride will be adorned with. So it's called the works of the saints, the work of the church. So it's kind of implied there that God gives us where we're going to end up at. He tells us the plan. So when you talk about, like, the calendar, like, hey, I don't know. Like, God's not telling me in Scripture what I'm supposed to do on Mondays at 6 a.m., right? But God is telling us not just, like, the plan for my individual schedule, my life. He's telling us the plan of creation. And that, knowing the plan, should drive how we operate, what we do in this world. If we know the plan, we want to work towards the plan. And we may not even do that consciously, right? But I think that's what the beautiful thing about being a part of a church body, reading Scripture, making sure you're getting the word weekly, you're going to know what the plan is if you sit in church long enough. And I think God is also directing his people towards that. Obviously, if God's decreed new heavens and new earth, that future will be brought about where the church is adorned with the fine linen, the works throughout history and time of the bride. And how do those works come about? Again, it's not just the church. The church isn't one. It's not one and one. It's not one member, one body. It's all the saints throughout time and history coming together with their own unique individual abilities that God's kind of endowed them with for the moment in time and history that they're in, building them up, and then in Christ, going out and doing good works. And this is how the church is built up over time. If you just look at the history of the church, right, it came from, well, if we go back all the way to Israel, but then when Christ dies, we have this kind of ragtag group, and then the church just grows over time and history. And there's ebbs and flows, but Christ's church has been preserved, and it's grown, and it continues to be grown, and the nations continue to be discipled. Lee, did you have a question? Yeah, I didn't hear quite everything. Tell me if I got your question right. When you say, could we speak to the misconception of someone who might have a health as well view of this prayer, I'll just share an anecdote. I had a charismatic friend who said, well, what's going on in heaven? Everyone is healed. There is no sickness in heaven. So we pray in light of that prayer. It's distracting, but we only have to give fear of God. It doesn't lead to life, you know. When Pastor Mark shot me an R.C. Sproul audio of this part of the Lord's Prayer, and he addressed that, and he actually calls that type of prayer is implied to be that person is trying to rob from God. So in the sense that they're not asking for it in God's will or God's timing, and they're not content with that answer. They feel like they deserve those things. So they want to take what God has not ordained or decreed and believe that they can make it happen. So God's almost treated like a, I don't know, like a game or like a slot machine, something that you just put quarters in and you're cheating in the bottle. That's right. Yeah. All right. Yes. Damiel. Yeah. So if anyone didn't hear what Damiel said was that the comment was, hey, in the Lord's Prayer, we're not only praying. Like we know God's going to bring this about. He's decreed it. But it's also formative for us when we pray that because we now become aligned, more aligned, grow in our alignment to God's decrees and what God has planned, what we cannot control. I think that's right, and I think there's a lot of dimensions. This is all part of Scripture, specifically to the Lord's Prayer because, you know, obviously I want to restrain on the corporate nature of it and how the prayer is meant to be prayed as a member in a body, not separated from that body of the church, but then also using it just for individual petitions. I think that's extremely comforting, and this goes back to Lee's question, I think, too, but God's will being done. And you can almost kind of like flip it, like to see like what the opposite would be and how does that sound? So like think of my will be done on heaven as it is on earth. Just see how like, you know, so when you sort of have petitions that really force what you want to be done outside of God's will, I think you get that slot machine or I forget the analogy you talked about, the genie in a bottle. Right, right, right. And then so I think that's very instructive of the Lord's Prayer of kind of having a disposition of, and we also see it in Christ. I had this originally on some content, but I didn't put it in, but with this petition of the Lord's Prayer, we see Christ in the garden at Gethsemane, and he verbatim talks about first wanting to have, if there's any other way that I shall drink this cup, but not my will, your will. So we see Christ modeling that, not only modeling, hey, pray like this, and he also prays like that, but then he goes all the way. So Christ not only shows us through words, he gives his life up because it's the will of the Father to do that. So Christ serves as a great model for if it's that way in the biggest things, it should be that way for the small things also. All right, I'm going to close this out in prayer. Heavenly Father, we pray we know that you are the God that created the heavens and the earth, Lord, and we pray that as a church that your decrees come to pass, Lord. We know they will, but we pray that even in small things in our life, we pray that we have comfort and contentment and Christian joy in the things that come to pass that are outside of our control, Lord, and we look to you as our strength, and we pray all these things in Christ's name, amen.
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