What If God’s Will Isn’t What You Fear?

Help me do what you've told me, and help me trust you with what you haven't told me.

That's this prayer.

He's told us.

Right here.

You think about it this way: you go to the doctor, he runs some tests, he sits you down, tells you exactly what to do.

Cut the salt, no more red meat, walk 30 minutes a day, take this pill every morning, and he writes it on a piece of paper and he hands it to you.

And you walk into your car and you shove it in the glove box.

In fact, for some of you, it's been there since March.

And you're not confused by what it says.

You know exactly what it says.

You know exactly what the doctor prescribe to you.

Church, what God wants for you is it's it's it's similar to that.

He hasn't hidden it from you.

It's not a mystery, it's not some encrypted code or some sort of mysterious puzzle you've got to solve.

He wrote it down.

You've got a copy.

If you don't have a copy, you can download a Bible app, or you can grab one of the copies in front of you in the pews.

You've got it here.

But I want you to pay attention to something.

I want you to look and see how Jesus actually says these words.

I want you to watch who he's talking to.

So remember, the prayer starts off addressing our father in heaven.

Our father, again, it's a community thing.

It's not just an individual thing, it is communal.

Our father in heaven.

He doesn't say go do God's will.

He says, Father, you bring it about.

Because let's be real, if you and I could pull this off on our own, we would have done it by now.

But thank God.

Thank God that what God commands, he supplies.

He doesn't just hand you a list and walk away.

He puts his spirit in you and he works it from the inside.

So even the wanting of his will, even the wanting that you can't produce, the wanting of God's will, that is what you are asking for when you pray this prayer.

Father, do your will in me, in this church, in this world.

Bring into obedience and submission me, your people, your world.

But now go back to that verse.

It says, on earth as it is in heaven.

On earth as it is in heaven.

Now, wait a minute.

Heaven?

Now, isn't heaven where God dwells?

Isn't heaven perfect?

Isn't heaven where where God's will is done perfectly?

Yes, yes, and yes.

But let's look around.

That's not what's happening down here, not even close.

We don't always obey cheerfully, we don't submit joyfully, we don't worship and adore him perfectly.

I don't do that.

Do you do that?

Our world doesn't do that.

So there's a gap.

There's a gap between heaven and earth.

And church, that gap is bigger than my behavior.

In heaven, nobody's got cancer.

Nobody's starving.

Nobody's burying a loved one.

Down here, Paul says the whole creation is groaning.

The whole thing, like a woman in labor waiting for something to be born.

Here's what I want you to understand sin, rebellion against God created a cosmic gap, not just an individual gap.

It created a cosmic gap.

And one day, God's going to close that gap completely.

He is going to make this whole world new.

And every single thing that's wrong down here, he's going to make it right.

That's what your kingdom is all about.

And we learned about that last week.

So if you want to learn more about that, listen to last week's sermon.

But that's what your kingdom is all about.

That's in fact why we're asking what we're asking for now when we pray this too, your will be done.

But I want you to understand something.

This gap runs cosmically, but it also runs right through to me and you.

So now what does that sin look like in us?

Well, I'll tell you what it looks like in me.

Church, that that paper in the glove box, that's what I can sometimes do with God's word.

I don't throw it out.

Oh, I'd never do that.

I read it, I underline it, I teach it.

But there are parts of it I've quietly slid into the glove box.

Not the parts I disagree with, the parts I don't want.

See, I love what it says about grace.

Oh, I keep that one out where I can see it every moment of every day.

What it says about having a heart ready to forgive somebody who never said sorry, glove box.

What it says about my mouth when I've had a long day, uh, glove box.

See, some of you already know.

Some of you already know what you've put in the glove box.

Some of you already know what he said about who you're sleeping with.

It's not a mystery to you.

Some of you already know what he said about money you haven't been honest about.

Some of you know the exact person you're supposed to call today.

Each of you knows something God is wanting to do.

We're not confused about it.

We've just put in the glove box.

And look, sometimes, I know.

Like a like a child, we it's just a I don't wanna.

I don't wanna do your will, Ghana.

I just want to do my will.

Sometimes we throw little tantrums like that too.

But most of the time, it's not even that.

You see, me, we may be followers of Jesus.

We may have faith in Christ, we know God's will is good, we know it's perfect, we know it's perfect for our life, but church, we also want what we want.

And we want some of those things more than we want God's will to happen.

And I'll tell you, here's the crazy part for me.

So often, I want both.

I want God's will, and I want my will.

I want to follow him over here, but I also want this thing over there.

And they're at odds with each other, they're in conflict with each other, they're fighting with each other, and I want both.

And I think to myself, what am I supposed to do with that?

I mean, you you ever seen a couple dancing and and and both of them are wanting to lead, right?

They both step in the same direction, they they bump into each other, sometimes maybe an accidental you know, headbutt, right?

They're they're trying to dance together, they both try to course correct, and they end up in the same direction again, fighting again.

I mean, the whole argument is not happening up here, the whole argument is happening down here in the arms, and nobody's saying a word because you know they're in public, they gotta say face, they gotta look like they're happy, go lucky.

But there's an argument going on because both are trying to lead.

And gosh, if somebody starts counting, okay, just one, two, three, four, one, two, three.

I mean, we know that doesn't even work.

Look, I've been that guy, I've been that guy on the dance floor.

And let me say, I was the problem, Sarah.

You danced just fine.

Don't worry.

And look, it's not even, it's not even like it was a hard dance.

It's it's not hard.

It's it's not hard.

Nobody's asking you to do something complicated.

It's just two people trying to lead it.

Church, that's us and God.

Yeah, I want his will.

I want his will done in me.

I want his will done in our church, I want his will done in our world.

And I also want my will to be done.

You know, if I get, if I'm gonna be really real with you guys, I think underneath all of that, what's actually going on, at least in me, and maybe you can relate, I think my way is better.

I've got a picture in my head of what I think the good life looks like.

And I've got a picture of what God's will looks like.

And mine looks better.

Well, mine's more fun.

Yeah, I I get what I want in mine.

His looks like less, less fun, less freedom.

That somehow God's will is the smaller life.

But church, when you think that way, when you think God's will is the smaller life, it affects how you pray.

You somebody's got a job interview on Thursday.

Lord, I'd really love this job, but but you know, your will be done.

Somebody's waiting on test results.

You know, my friend had cancer, and I want to beg God to heal him.

I want to cry out to him, I want to ask him for everything.

And instead, I hear myself praying, God, would you heal my friend if it's your will?

Now, it's not so much what I said, it's the heart motive behind it.

I said it that way because I didn't want to get my hopes up.

In fact, I didn't want my friend to get his hopes up either.

Because if I if I really asked and God doesn't do it, then I've got to deal with that.

So what do I do?

I put that sentence at the end of it.

Your will be done at the end of my prayer, like an insurance policy.

That way, if it doesn't happen, well, I never really asked for it.

So he never really turned me down.

Church, that's not praying.

That's playing it safe.

And look, I want you to understand this.

I don't want you to hear me wrong.

Saying if it's your will, is a good thing, it's an appropriate thing, it's what Jesus is teaching us.

It is not weak faith.

There's a way to pray that with everything in you where you've told God exactly what you want, you've begged him for it, and then you say, and Father, Father, if you don't, if you don't do that, you're still good.

And I trust you.

Look, that's not weak.

That's the strongest, honest thing you can pray.

What I'm talking about was when I never really asked in the first place.

I skip straight to the if it's your will.

Because that way I never have to hear a no.

And look, let me say this too.

Because again, I just want to be really clear with some of this.

Wanting a good thing is not necessarily sinful.

Wanting your kid to come back home, not sinful.

Wanting the pain to stop, wanting someone to grow old with, those can be good, God-given desires.

In fact, some of you are carrying something you never asked for and you want out of it.

Listen, wanting relief is not rebellion.

In fact, soon enough, I'm gonna show you that Jesus himself asked for something similar.

Look, the problem isn't necessarily the want.

The problem is what happens when we don't get what we want.

When we start saying, maybe, when we start saying, maybe not with our mouth, but but but in our hearts, we start saying things like, you know, if God were really good, he would give me this.

If God really loved me, he wouldn't let this happen.

If God really cared about me, he would fix this.

That's where the problem is.

Because now the thing that I want has become the test of whether God is good.

And when his will and mine collide, I want mine to have the final word.

You know, for a long time, I've been asking God.

I've been asking, I've been begging God to make one particular area of my life easier, just a little bit easier.

And in fact, I made a pretty good case for it.

You know, God, if you would make, if you would just make this part of my life easier, just God, if you would do this, I could serve you better.

I could obey you better, I'd have more head space for you.

Sounds pretty spiritual, right?

Am I the only one who's done that?

Do you think he's responded the way I hoped?

No, he hasn't made it easier.

He hasn't given me what I asked for.

And look, I know God is good.

I can stand here this morning and preach it to you and mean every word of it.

I do mean every word of it.

God is good.

But if I'm honest with you, I still want him to give me what I've asked for.

And again, I know I'm not the only person in the room carrying something like that.

Look, this prayer is telling us to pray, your will be done, his will, God's will.

And we want to want it, but it's hard.

I can't make myself want what God wants.

I've tried on my own.

I've tried to muster it up, I've tried sheer willpower.

Doesn't happen.

So, how does it happen?

How can we honestly, sincerely want his will over our own?

I'll tell you, it's not by staring at what you didn't get.

It starts by looking at Jesus.

I told you at the beginning, there's a man in the story who wanted out of something.

I want you to see him now.

It's Thursday, Thursday night, late.

Jesus has just finished dinner with his friends.

He's been telling them he's going to die.

And they don't really believe him.

They walk out of the city across a little valley, up onto a hillside covered in olive trees.

There's a garden there called Gethsemane.

In about 15, maybe 18 hours, Jesus, he's gonna be dead.

He takes three of his friends with him, Peter, James, and John.

And Matthew tells us that something in Jesus starts to change.

He becomes troubled.

And then Jesus says it out loud to his friends.

He says, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

He walks a little farther.

Just him now.

And Matthew says he fell with his face to the ground, face down in the dirt.

And he prays, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.

And I want you to understand what the cup was.

See, throughout scriptures, the cup is a picture of God's judgment against sin.

Jesus wasn't only looking at nails and a cross, he was looking at the judgment that our sin, our rebellion against God deserved.

And he was gonna drink it for us.

He asked for the cup to pass.

Church, I need you to hear that.

He asked for the cup to pass.

The strongest, purest, most obedient man who ever lived.

He didn't pretend the suffering was easy.

In his sinless humanity, on his face in the dirt, asking his father for a way out.

And then he says, Yeah, not my will, but your will.

Yet not my will, but your will be done.

And he gets up, he walks back to his friends, they're asleep.

So he goes back and prays it again.

And listen to what he says this time.

He says, My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.

Do you see what's happening in the garden?

See, I spoke to some of you this morning, and I know some of you are living with l are living inside something that you didn't choose.

There's something going on in your life you did not pick.

Asking for relief is not weak faith.

Some of you have been told that if you had more faith, then things would have been differently.

Things would have gone differently.

It's about the object of your faith.

It is about Jesus.

Look to Jesus.

He asked for the cup to pass.

Asking God to take pain away is not unbelief.

He asked, and the cup, it wasn't taken away.

But church, the book of Hebrews tells us something profound.

It tells us that God heard him.

God heard Jesus' prayer.

The Father didn't spare him from dying.

So sometimes God doesn't give you the thing you asked for.

Sometimes God's answer is resurrection, which means the worst thing that happens to you, the worst thing that happens to you is not the last thing that happens to you.

And that's grace, and that's incredible news.

But I know there's somebody in here thinking, well, all right, but why didn't the father just take it away?

If he loved him, why not?

Friends, if you ever, if you ever wonder whether a fat whether a father's no means he doesn't love you, look at the garden.

The father has loved that son since before there was even a world.

He heard him ask.

He didn't remove the cup.

And understand, nobody took Jesus' life from him.

He gave it.

He wanted what his father wanted.

I mean, understand, church, look at what Matthew just did in his book, in his gospel.

Chapter 6, Jesus teaches us to pray, your will be done.

Jump to chapter 26, face down in the dirt, Jesus prays it himself.

Same words.

Matthew wrote it twice.

What does that tell us?

Let me tell you what that tells us.

Jesus never taught you a prayer.

But now, what was it?

What was the Father's will?

What did the Father want?

And here's the most shocking and amazing and incredible thing.

Jesus tells us exactly what the Father wanted in John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

He says, This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none, I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.

The Father intends that the Son lose none of those he has given him.

In other words, I want you to hear this.

If you belong to Jesus Christ, I want you to hear what he's saying.

Hear what God is saying.

He is saying to you, if you are in Jesus Christ, he is saying to you, I will not lose you.

I will not lose you.

I've said this so many times over the past year, I'm gonna say it again.

I want you to understand this.

Your grip on him is not what keeps you safe on the day you are weak.

It is his grip on you that keeps you.

You gotta understand that.

It is not your grip on him that keeps you safe.

It is his grip on you.

And he is telling you, I will not lose you.

So many of you have been guarding your will, holding your future that you've imagined with both hands, you're holding it so tightly, terrified of what it might cost you to obey and submit to God's will.

And church, if you belong to Jesus, his will, the very thing you've been protecting yourself from, is that he never wanted to lose you.

And that he never will.

How will he not also along with him graciously give all things?

He already gave you that.

What exactly do you think God is holding back on you?

Now, let me clarify this.

This does not mean he's gonna give you everything you ask for.

It does mean he will withhold nothing.

He will withhold nothing necessary for your final good.

Look at Jesus.

He did what the Father commanded, he entrusted himself with the Father, with what the Father appointed.

He did what we haven't done.

And if you are in Christ, you don't obey to get in with God.

You're already in.

You obey because you're in.

Understand something.

If you are in Christ, you are loved, you are valued, you are accepted.

You don't obey to get accepted, you are already accepted, therefore you obey.

Church, I told you earlier what I can sometimes battle even in my own thoughts, deep down that God's will is the smaller life.

Look at the truth of what his will actually is.

Guess what?

You are his son, you are his daughter.

The great thing isn't an easier life.

The great thing is him, and he is shaping us into the likeness of Jesus.

Listen, church, God isn't trying to make your life smaller, he's making you like Jesus, He's molding you, He is shaping you, He's perfecting you into the image and character of Jesus.

Love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

He's growing this fruit in you, and this is just some of the things he's doing in you.

And look back at that one that line one more time on earth as it is in heaven.

I want you to just understand fully what that means.

In heaven, the angels do God's will, they do it sincerely, not fake, willingly, not dragging their feet.

They do it right away, not eventually.

They do it gladly, not halfway, and they do all of it, not some of it, not even most of it, they do all of it.

Listen to those words again sincerely, willingly, right away, gladly, all of it.

None of those words is reluctant obedience.

Heaven isn't filled with a room of people gritting their teeth and just trying to get through it.

You see, nobody, nobody has to force you to serve someone you love.

Love changes the way obedience feels.

Heaven obeys because heaven loves.

As followers of Jesus, our greatest joy is him, and church, that joy always shows up as obedience.

The people who love him most are the people who obey him most.

It's just how it works.

So when you pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, you are not merely praying, Father, make me do your will.

You're praying, Father, make me love your will.

You can't get there by trying harder, doesn't work.

But you can look, you can look at Jesus, you can look at all that he's done for you, and you can look until his love just warms your heart and soul.

And I know there are some of you this morning who have never actually looked at him.

If you've never trusted Jesus, your first need this morning is not becoming better at surrendering your plans.

Your first need is Jesus Himself.

So come to Him.

Believe what He's done for you, trust Him with your life.

Look to the man in the garden.

Look to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

In fact, that's true for all of us, church.

Look long enough at the man in the garden, and you will realize his will, it may wound your plans, but it will never be your enemy.

Never.

Now let me bring, let me be honest with you before I close.

Some of you are gonna pray this prayer every day this week.

And nothing you can see is gonna change immediately.

The test results are still gonna say what they say.

Your finances are still gonna be in a crunch.

The relationship is still gonna be a mess.

Pray it anyway.

Because that gap, it doesn't close this week.

But, church, it does close.

One day, he is going to make all things new.

Every test result, every mess in this room right now will get put right.

And the father you're praying to, he already showed you what he's willing to spend to get you there.

So tell the father simply and plainly and honestly what you want.

Don't hide it.

Ask him.

And then pray, Father, I want this, but but more than more than I want this, teach me to want what you want.

Father, your will be done.

Church, take out that part of God's word you've shoved in the glove box.

Do what God wants you to do.

End what God wants you to end.

Not so God will love you, He already does.

Do it because He loves you.

Can I ask everyone to rise with me, please?

I'm gonna have the worship team join me up here.

And we're gonna sing a closing song.

And as we do, I want you to sing these words, reflect on what you heard this morning.

Cry out to our God, sing to him.

Know that he is our loving Father.

And his will, his will is perfect.

And his will for us as a community, as a people, as a world, if we are in him, well, he's got our good in mind.

So trust him with that.

Trust him when you say, Father, your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

Father, you know what every person in this room walked in here holding.

You know the thing we've been asking you for.

In fact, you know the thing we've stopped asking you for.

Father, we're not going to pretend with you this morning.

We want what we want.

And a lot of us, we want our will more than we want yours.

Forgive us for that.

Forgive us for the parts of your word we've slid into the glove box.

Forgive us for praying safe so we never have to be disappointed with you.

And Father, thank you for your son.

Thank you that he went to the garden, that he asked, and the cup didn't move.

And he went anyway.

Thank you that he did what we haven't done, and that his obedience counts for us.

Father, there are people in this room carrying something they never chose.

They've prayed about it for years.

Nothing's changed.

Father, would you meet them?

Not with explanation, but yourself.

Make us want your will more than our own.

You're the only one who can do this.

In Jesus' name we all pray.

Amen.