Mm. Praying for God's will to be done is easy. actually doing God's will can be more challenging. especially when your focus is on earthly obligations. Today, on Turning Point, Dr.
David Jeremiah takes a closer look at the Lord's Prayer and how it connects with the heart of the heavenly-minded believer. Listen as David shares the encouraging conclusion of his message, praying our priorities. And thank you for joining us. I am David Jeremiah, and it's my privilege to be with you each day on this program as we open the Bible together. Today we're talking about prayer and We're discussing the fact that when we pray and follow the pattern of the Lord's Prayer.
It has something to do with how we live our lives every day. Because Jesus taught us to pray this prayer: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So is that happening? Are we living that way? Important questions to ask. And What priorities of our life do not fit anywhere in that pattern? How can we live our lives according to the purpose and program that God has for us?
That's our discussion. We'll get to it in just a moment. Hey, there's a beautiful study guide for this series that has all the notes and outlines and questions and other scriptures to look up. If you want to get a copy of this, you can go to davidjeremiah.org. There you will find this study guide along with the book from which it was originating.
And there's also a package of CDs that you can get where you'll get all the audio teaching for the series. These are resources that are very valuable, especially if you're interested in using them in small groups, Sunday school classes, or wherever you study the Bible together with others. I hope you'll take advantage of that opportunity, especially during this series on prayer. Let's open our Bibles now to the sixth chapter of Matthew and the discussion of our priorities. Mm-hmm.
Jesus said, when we pray, we're to pray. Thy kingdom come. Within my heart, all around me, and Lord, yes, even. Come. Come, Lord Jesus.
It is the last prayer of the New Testament. Did you know it? Even so, come. Lord Jesus. Do you ever pray that when you pray?
I dare say that doesn't get on my list as often as it should. Lord. Let your kingdom come. within me. around me.
And then ultimately before me. Do you know that the old Puritans used to do this? Let me tell you how they lived. And I gotta tell you, I'm not there yet. Obviously, I'm not a Puritan, so I'm not there.
They used to get up every morning and go to their windows. Throw the window open and look up into the heaven and say, Maybe today, Lord, maybe today. And the last thing before they go to bed at night, they go over to that window again and look up into the eastern sky and say, Maybe tonight, Lord, maybe tonight. What were they doing? They were praying that the kingdom would come.
Now, as we get older and we get beat up more and more, how many of you know as you get older, you get beat up more and more? You start praying for the kingdom more. I'll tell you that. Your prayers start coming together as you get older. You start praying for the kingdom.
Now That's all theological, and that's true. And what the Bible says is that when we pray, We're to pray, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Francis Havergill, one of the great hymn writers. has written a lot of hymns that we sing and a lot that we don't.
And one of the hymns goes like this: Oh, the joy to see him reigning. Him, my own beloved Lord. Every tongue his name confessing, worship, honor, glory, blessing, brought to him with one accord. Him, my master and my friend, vindicated and enthroned, unto earth's remotest end, glorified, adored, and owned. That's the way it'll be when the king comes.
in the Kingdom Age.
Now As soon as we begin to pray, Thy kingdom come within us, around us, and before us, you can count on it, you're going to have some interesting days. Because do you know there's more than one kingdom? Do you know that? In fact, the Lord says, my kingdom is not of this earth. And there is another king.
Who is kind of in residence right now? I know people, especially Christian people, have a hard time with this because we know that God is ultimately in control, He's sovereign, but He's allowed Satan to have His little time, He's on a long leash. But he's sort of running things. He's the prince of the power of the air. He's the kind of the king right now.
Is there any evidence of that out there? I mean God isn't running things day to day. He's let Satan have his thing. One of these days, he's going to reel him in. And cast him down, and he'll be gone forever, and then Jesus Christ will be king in residence.
But as soon as you sign on to have the king reign within you, and you get excited about what he's doing around you, and you start looking forward to what's coming in front of you, you're going to have a fight on your hands. And that's why the scripture says this. Do you know this verse, Matthew 6:33? Look down in your Bibles and find it. It's right here in this text.
Matthew 6:31. Don't worry saying, what are we going to eat and what are we going to drink and what are we going to wear? These are all the things that the Gentiles or the world seeks. For your Heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things. What are you supposed to do about all the daily needs and the problems you have?
Here he says, This is what you do, this is priority stuff. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. In other words, if you're a kingdom child and the king's living within you and you're working with the kingdom around you and you're looking forward to the kingdom who's coming. Then, what you need to do is you need to put the king first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, get your priorities straightened out.
That's what he's saying. How many of you know that's a lifetime task? Putting first things first, the kingdom first. All right, now That's sort of the Theology of this prayer. Thy kingdom come.
But that's not really Where the rubber meets the road in praying this prayer every day. That's my priorities and the reign of Christ. But I want to talk to you about my priorities and the rule of Christ because the next part of the prayer isn't a theological discussion, it's a personal discussion. Thy will be done. on Earth.
as it is in heaven. Lord, I want your will to be done. On Earth. as it is in heaven. Richard Baxter, who was a great Puritan, writer and teacher, Author of a book called The Saints' Everlasting Rest, and a man who preached as a dying man to dying men because he was never sure to preach again.
He wrote in all of his books, and whenever he signed anything, he always wrote this. It's kind of his prayer. And it's in its old Puritan language, but it goes like this: Lord, what thou wilt. where thou wilt And when thou wilt. That was his prayer.
Now, in our language today, what he was saying, Lord, is whatever you want. wherever you want it and whenever you want it, and that's what I want. How many of us can pray that? How many of us would honestly say, I'd like to pray that, but it scares me to death to pray that? Because the whenever part's going to land me in Africa somewhere, you know, or China or India somewhere.
You know, that's really in the back of our minds, isn't it? I know. Isn't it something we can trust the king? to take us to heaven. Forever.
but we're afraid to trust him to take care of us on the way. Jesus said, When you pray, here's what I want you to pray, disciples. I want you to pray, hallowed be thy name. Make sure you get God enthroned. And then I want you to pray.
about priorities.
Now I mentioned earlier That this prayer is an outline for our praying. And I want to tell you what a joy it was the day I finally figured that out. I've learned how to pray. And journal with this as my outline. And I don't want to give the rest of the outline away, but just let me tell you that when you pray, one of the great ways to pray is to start with hallowed be thy name.
And then you think about all the good things you want to say to God. You think about all the way you want to glorify Him. Lord, I want to praise you today. I'll tell you what I've been praising the Lord a lot for lately: for His attribute of long suffering. with me.
Did any of you ever think about that? God, you have to be the most long-suffering God to put up with me of anyone. I mean, God, thank you for being patient. Thank you for your long-suffering. Lord, I start over again on so many things so many times, and you have got to be the most.
Thank you, God, for your patience. And I glorify God for that attribute.
Well, when you get done praising him for however long you do that and Reflecting on it, and you take some time, then the next thing you need to do is to do your priorities. And your priorities come under this heading: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Now some of you I know are business people.
Some of you are real. Mm. Go-getters. And you're into this thing where the night before, you get your yellow tablet out and you plan your day for tomorrow. You got all your list and your agenda, and everything's just in order.
And they say that if you do that, you can work on it while you're sleeping. Your subconscious mind works on it. That's probably why you're not sleeping so well lately. You know, you got all that stuff going through you. And so you get up the next day, and you got your yellow pad.
And if you're not careful, you say hi to God, and with your yellow pad, you rush into the day. I want to suggest to you there's a better way. And I've been learning that more and more as I grow in Christ. You got to have your agenda. You got to have your list, your stuff.
But then Pray your priorities back to God. Let God infuse His priorities into your list. You know what He will do? He'll take some of the stuff that you thought was at the bottom and He'll put it back up at the top. He'll take some of the stuff that was in the middle, he'll take it clear off the list.
And he'll take those things and begin to massage them until they reflect. His order for your life. And there is not anything in the world that is more exciting as a Christian than to walk through a day with God's order in your life being reflected in everything that you do. Everybody should have an experience like that at least once before they get to heaven. And yet God says we can know that every day.
my priorities, reflecting God's priority.
So here's what I do. I have this little outline, and I have my praise thing, and I do the praise. And then I've got priorities. I have worked on my priorities.
Now My wife will tell you I still have a lot of work to do. But I'm working on it. And my whole life has been an adjustment to the priorities. of who I am. I've told some of you that when I started out in the ministry, I started a church.
Just me and my wife and Seven families. Thirty-five of us the first Sunday. And this church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was our new thing. I'd been called to do this, and I went there and we got all these families together. You know, when a church is small and there's only seven families, everybody has a job.
The first Sunday, I pronounced all seven men deacons. I remember that. I said, I don't know if you're qualified or not, but we got to have seven deacons, and you're it. From now on, here we go.
Well, I was the gross national product in that church. I was the preacher, I cleaned the restrooms, I folded the bulletins, I typed the, I did everything. And I wanted that church to be a success. Not sure what my spiritual motivation was. I can't honestly reflect on that.
But I know this: I didn't want to fail, not in front of all my peers who knew I'd gone to Fort Wayne to start a church.
Some of them I'm sure were predicting it wouldn't work. I was going to prove them wrong.
So I took my goal and I put action to it. Every night I went to visit. Every afternoon I went to visit. I visited nights and afternoons and Wednesday night after church, and all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon, I was just out knocking on doors, trying to meet people. Tell them about the Lord.
Tell them about the church. And during that time we had added two members to our family. Here I'm out doing the kingdom's work and Donna's home with these two babies. And I remember the little question. It's pretty hard to forget it.
Are you going to be gone again tonight?
Okay.
Now the difference with my wife and your wife in many respects is that She was in competition with God. You got it? I mean, I'm doing God's work. And what is she supposed to say? She would say, Are you going to be gone again tonight?
And I would say, Woman?
Okay.
And then we'd have this little discussion about my being the gross national product, and I had to go out and do this work, you know. One day she sat me down in the kitchen and she said, I just want to tell you something. I'm not ever going to ask you that question again, never again. Because you're the priest in this family. And you're responsible for all of us.
For the children and for me, and someday you're going to have to tell the Lord how you did it. And so I'm just going to leave it between you and him. Whatever you think he wants you to do with this family, you do it, and I won't ask you that question anymore. Gotcha. I was dead.
It was exactly what I needed to hear. It changed my life. changed who I was as a person.
Now, I know that those of you who know Donna wouldn't think she'd ever be that confrontive, but every once in a while she is, and it's good. I began to work on my priorities at that time, and I've shared some of these with you before, but they're so clear to me, and they're so simple. And the simpler they are, the better. And here they are, they're just like this. I'm a person before God and He's first.
I have to really work on my relationship with God. He won't share his honor or glory. He won't share first place with anyone, not with your wife, your children, your church, anything. God has to be first.
Now, I'm not talking about the ministry here, I'm talking about a personal relationship. Vital daily. Devotional Individual relationship with God. That's number one. It's got to be number one.
So, I'm a person and I have a relationship with God. I'm a partner. And I have a relationship with my wife. Then I'm a parent. And I have a relationship with my children.
And then I'm a pastor. And I have a relationship with this church. And I hope you won't feel bad, folks. You're number four. But I want to tell you.
Any pastor whose church is higher than number four is already in trouble. Because The church. or the ministry or the job or the task will take over your life. You know what I'm learning? There are no conflicts in God's will.
If God has called me to be a father, And then he calls me to be a pastor, those two things can't be in war with each other. They've got to be somehow merged so they can cooperate.
So every day I pray my priorities like this. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. with me personally in my relationship with you. With my relationship with Donna. my relationship with my children.
And with the work that you've called me to do at Shadow Mountain Community Church. and at Turning Point and the things that you put in my hand to do. And whenever I stay, In that groove. It is a wonderful thing to see how God does his work. And it's always tested.
It is always tested. How many of you know that once you get them set, it's like all hell breaks out and somebody tries to unset them? And I've had that over and over. And you have to know that when we have a church this size, there's so many pressures, and we have a lot of them. And I blow it sometimes, I know that.
And I have to go back and say, Lord, I missed that one. Let's try to get that back in sync. But you see, watch this. When you're praying your priorities every day, it's kind of like a daily check system, isn't it? Every day you come back and say, Okay, God, your will, I know what your will is about you.
I know what your will is about Donna. I know what your will is about the kids. I know what your will is about the church. Your will be done, Lord. Yesterday it wasn't done so good.
Today we're going to do better. One day it was about 2.30 in the afternoon. This is back some years ago when I was first getting this all together. It was 2.30 in the afternoon. A call came upstairs and There's a guy here to see you, and he's in trouble.
He's hurting big time. He's got some kind of problem. He wants to see you right now.
Well, I said I can't see him. I gotta be in Claremont. in 20 minutes.
So I heard her get back on the phone, and she said, Dr. Jeremiah is just getting ready to leave. He's not going to be able to see you right now, but there's some other men up here. She mentioned some other pastors. I could tell he wasn't dealing with that too well just by the way she was talking to him.
and I didn't have time to stay around and wait on it, so I said, I'll see you. And I went down the elevator and I had to walk through the lobby. where the guy was. And he was a bold fella. Which may have something to do with why he was having trouble.
I don't know, but this is what he did. He walked right up and got his nose in my face, and he said, Where are you going? Can you believe that? That anybody would do that to somebody as nice as I am? I mean, he asked me, so I said, well, if you must know, I'm going to Claremont to watch David play basketball, and he went ballistic.
He said, you're what? You're going to a basketball game, my life is falling apart? And you're not going to see me, you're going to a basketball game? And you know what? I don't believe I ever thought this out before.
And maybe I heard this somewhere and it lodged in the back of my mind, or maybe the Holy Spirit just gave it to me. But I remember what I said. I said, sir. There are five men upstairs who can help you. But my son's only got one dad.
And I'm gone. And you know what? I've never regretted that. I've never regretted it. And I'll tell you what: if you start praying your priorities, you'll be tested.
Because Satan doesn't like God's priorities. I hear all over the country this question: why is it that Christian families are coming unglued like they're coming unglued? Why are Christian young people so rebellious against the things of God? I don't know all the reasons, but I'll tell you one thing: you have the best shot of keeping that from happening when you get on God's track of priorities and put things in the right and proper order. And you don't elevate ministry above your family and let your family.
Suffer. No wonder kids get mad at God. God took away their parents. And I haven't been the best father in the world, and I know I haven't been the best husband in the world, but I'll tell you this: I know what my priorities are. And every day when I pray in my journal or what I'm just praying, I pray these priorities: Lord, thy will be done in my life.
on earth. This day. As a person As a partner, As a parent, as a pastor, as a professional, whatever. Lord, let your will be done. David said, I delight to do thy will, O God.
Jesus said, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, the same is my brother and sister and mother. doing the will of God. praying the will of God, praying your priorities back to God.
Thy will be done. on Earth. Let me ask you just one other question. How is God's will done in heaven? How is it done?
Do you think the angels say, You know, father. I know you asked me to do that, but I think Gabriel will be better at that than I am. Oh. Yeah, I'll do that. I probably could get around to that about next week.
I've been looking at all the angelic things I got on my list. No. Do you know how the will of God is done in heaven? Listen carefully. The will of God is done in heaven.
immediately. unconditionally Without any argument, Without any discussion, when God speaks. His will. is done. Let me just ask you this.
If God's will has been expressed. Wouldn't it make sense just to do it? Why would you want to make it harder? Why would you argue with him for six months? And then do it.
Because it's his will. And there isn't going to be any change. God's will is perfect. You can't get better than perfect. And if you want God's will and He expresses His will, do it on earth just like it's done in heaven.
Yes, sir, right now. Without question. I will do it. One of my favorite stories in rather modern church history is the story of Dwight Lyman Moody. I get to go to Moody Bible Institute.
And the Moody Church, for one reason or another, I'll be at Founders Week, which is a great week of. Ministry in the historic Moody Church seats 4,200 people built in the old way with round balcony clear around all these old wooden seats. Place where the Word of God has been preached faithfully over many years. Dwight Lyman Moody was the founder of Moody Bible Institute, Moody Radio, Moody Science, Moody Monthly, just about anything you can imagine. He had something to do with Moody Aviation.
Back in 1872, Dwight Lyman Moody was sitting in a hay mow in Ireland. And then Sitting in that hay mow, which was sort of a convoluted church. He was listening to this man by the name of Henry Barley. Henry Barley was speaking. And he heard him say, kind of in a quiet way, these words.
He said, The world has yet to see What God can do with and for and through a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to do His will. Five and a half years later, Moody was sitting in Spurgeon's Tabernacle in London, England. The great preaching palace way up in the balcony. And the words of Henry Barley came back to him in that tabernacle. Hmm.
He thought them over again with the man, for a man, through a man, fully consecrated to God. And that day in Spurgeon Tabernacle, Dwight Lyman Moody bowed his head. And in that great preaching palace, he said, Lord, if there ever was a man who would commit himself to such a way of living, here he is. and he went out from Spurgeon's tabernacle and set the world on fire. I wonder what would happen to all of us if we could really say, in all honesty and all sincerity, every day, God.
No reservations. Not going to argue with you. Your will be done on earth. Today, just as it's done in heaven, in the kingdom that's in me, in the kingdom that's around me, in the kingdom that's coming, God, your will be done. And I will do it.
As soon as you show me what it is, I will do it. If we start to live like that, Things will start happening. Because God has got a better plan for you than you ever dreamed of for yourself. And he's just waiting for you to say yes. Do it your prayer.
every morning. Every day, hallowed be your name. You can't come. Your will be done. on Earth.
Just like it is in heaven. You know, this prayer is not just about what we say to God, but we discover as we learn to pray this prayer that it has an impact upon the way we live our lives. And um That's really important. Tomorrow we're going to talk about the prayer for provision. This is the one part of the prayer that we're almost.
Always pretty good at. Give us this day our daily bread. and we want God to provide for us. And oftentimes that's the substance of our entire prayer. We just come to Him when we need something.
And of course, you'll see where this is. It's buried in the middle of the prayer, not at the beginning of the prayer. Before you ever get to the Lord and ask Him for something, you've already worshipped Him and expressed your desire to do His will. That's an important sequence in the prayer and we're learning that together. And don't forget to ask for your copy of this month's resource, Everything to God in Prayer, a beautiful gift book with chapters on everything you ever dreamed of praying about and how to go about doing it.
We'd love for you to have it for a gift of any size during the month of August. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. The message you've just heard came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr. David Jeremiah.
Has the Lord been moving in your life through this ministry? Tell us how at Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org/slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book for strengthening your prayer life.
Everything to God in prayer. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also stream more than 1200 of Dr. Jeremiah's messages on demand on any screen with our streaming service Turning Point Plus for a monthly gift of any amount. Visit TurningPointPlus.org for details.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Prayer the Great Adventure on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
