Turn with me again to Matthew
6. I had a message prepared for tonight. And when I got to the study this
morning, my heart was burdened. I mean burdened. Just burdened
with this verse of scripture right here. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. I couldn't get this off my mind.
I could not get away from it. I just could not get away from
it. I thought if we could only learn
this, if I could only learn this, if
we could just think it and feel it. And say it deep in the heart. I mean down in the bottom of
the soul. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. What peace
that would bring to our hearts. That right there is taking our
burden to the Lord and leaving it there. That's what it is. That is taking that burden, whatever
the burden is, and leaving it there. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Whatever that
is. Whatever your will is. Whatever
it is. I want to learn to trust Him. I do. I want to learn to trust
Him. I want to learn to leave it in
His hands and trust Him. That's what I would like to learn
to do. I would like to trust Him. Truly trust Him. Turn with me over to Proverbs
chapter 3. Proverbs 3, this is Solomon,
the Lord gave much wisdom to this man and thankfully he wrote it down
for us. Proverbs 3 verse 5 says, trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding. And we know exactly what he's
saying, don't we? I mean, we enter into what he's saying.
Don't lean on the understanding that we all naturally have. Don't
lean on the rationale that naturally comes from our own experience,
the things that we've learned. Well, this has happened before.
I've seen it before. Don't lean on those things. Trust
in the Lord with all your heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, whatever comes
your way. Every day, whatever it is. In
all thy ways, acknowledge him. And he shall direct thy paths. Thy will be done. There is so much rest there. So much rest there. Thy will
be done. We have so many examples of this
in the scripture. So many men. I looked at quite
a few of them. There's so many places that we
could turn and see an example of this. But the greatest example
of this submission, that's what it is. The greatest example of
this submission that the world could ever know is in Matthew
26. Turn with me over there to Matthew
26. Matthew 26 verse 36 says, then
cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane. And saith
unto the disciples, sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And
he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began
to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here and
watch with me. And he went a little further
and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou will. Verse 42 says, he went away again
the second time and prayed saying, oh my father, if this cup may
not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. Thy will be done. What beautiful
submission to God that is. That is beautiful, beautiful
submission to God. Thy will be done. That's our
salvation. Thy will be done is our salvation. He said, and you glory in this
with me. He said, Father, if it is your
will to give me all of these sinners, If that's your will,
to give all of these sinners to me. And if it's your will
to remove the sin from them and press it into me. And if it's your will to hang
me on a cross, naked, bleeding and guilty before everybody,
God and man. And if it's your will to unleash
absolute fury on me, pour out suffering and punishment
on me to the point of death and separation from God. Father,
if you want to damn me for their sake, thy will be done. Isn't that something? Thy will be done." What good
has come from God's will being done? How could we describe the
good that has come from God's will being done? If we are included
in what Christ did for sinners according to the will of God,
if we're included in that, then may the Spirit of Christ enter
our hearts and cry this same thing to God, Thy will be done. Thy will be done. If I come out
on the top or if I come out on the bottom, thy will be done. If I come out filthy rich or
flat broke, thy will be done. Whatever you would have for me,
whatever you would have for me, thy will be done. Now if God gives us a heart to
say that, if we have a heart to say that, it's God who gave
it to us, isn't it? And if God gives us a heart to
say that, what would we ultimately be saying? When we say that,
if we say that will be done, what would we confirm in our
own heart and what would we be saying to him? Number one, we
would be saying you are in complete control of this. That's what
we would be saying. You are in absolute control of
this, you are sovereign. That deserves a massive period
behind it. You're in absolute control of
this. This is all in your hands. Every bit of it. I can worry about this all I
want to. I'm welcome to do that. I can
fret over this. I can struggle over this. My
mind can wear itself out trying to remedy this. But it won't
do a bit of good, will it? It won't do a bit of good. It
would be wasted worry, absolutely wasted worry because
every ounce of this, whatever Every ounce of this is in your
hands. Don't you love that? Every ounce
of whatever it is, is in your hands. It's all in your hands. Look with me at Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21, there's a sound of abundance
of rain in it. Maybe the Lord might bless us
tonight. Proverbs 21 verse 1 says, The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. He is turning it wherever he
wants to. His will is going to be done. It's going to be done. In us
saying, Thy will be done, what we're saying is, we're finally
bowing to it. It's going to be done anyway. It's going to be done anyway.
You have just caused us in all thy ways acknowledge Him. We
acknowledge that you have now caused us to bow to your will. Thy will be done. You're sovereign.
And we bow to it. We bow to it. The next thing
that we're saying to God in this is When God gives us a heart
in our real moment of need to say, Thy will be done. When He
stops us and He declutters that mind, He clears it. We see Christ
and all of a sudden this heart is confirmed. Thy will be done.
The next thing we're saying is, you are going to do right. That's what we're saying. You're
going to do it. You're sovereign. This is in
your hands. And it's going to be right. It's going to be right. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Won't he do right? Has he ever
steered us wrong? It may not be the outcome that
I think it ought to be. It may not. It may not be the
outcome that I think it ought to be. And if it's not, I'm wrong. You're right. I will be done. I will be done. I don't know
what's best for me. I know what I think is best for
me. But I don't know what's best
for me. You do. You do. The end result of everything
He does is good and right. Why did this just happen? I don't
know. It's going to be good. It's going
to be right. It's going to be great. So thy
will be done. Thy will be done. Go with me
back a couple of books to Job 13. Just before Psalms, Job 13. Job 13 verse 15 says, Though
He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Though He slay me, yet
will I trust Him. I want to learn to trust Him. I want to learn to trust Him. Thy will be done. In saying that, in saying, thy
will be done, we're saying, number one, you're in absolute control. Number two, it's going to be
right. It's going to be right. It's going to be well with my
soul. That's the end result of everything. It's going to be
well with my soul. As long as it's well with my
soul, that's all that matters. All things work together for
good to them that love the actual God, the God of the scripture,
the true high, holy, sovereign God to them who are the called
according to his purpose. It's going to be right. It's
going to be good. The third thing we're saying,
and I will be done is come quickly, Lord. That's what we're saying,
come quickly. Look back in the text with me
at Matthew 6. Matthew 6 verse 10 says, thy
kingdom come. Thy kingdom come. What we're
saying is we want your will. We want it. We want your will. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done right here in earth just like it is in heaven. Just like
it is in heaven. We're going to enjoy His will
for all eternity. We're going to enjoy it. Once he redeems us to himself
physically, he's redeemed us, he's purchased us back to God,
but he's going to physically redeem the purchased possession
to himself physically. And once we're redeemed to Him
physically, we're going to enjoy seeing and experiencing Thy will
be done. That's what we're going to do.
We're going to watch His will be done for all eternity. And we want that right now, don't
we? We want that right now. Lord, give us a heart to bow
to Your will right now. Give us a heart to enjoy Your
will right now. It is being done anyway, isn't
it? It's being done just like it
is in heaven. It is right now in earth. What's
God's will in this? What's happening? It's being
done. Lord, give me a heart to enjoy
it. Give me a heart to see it and
experience it and know that it's you. And bow to it and enjoy
it right now. Give me that heart right now.
We want it. We want it. We acknowledge your
sovereignty. We acknowledge your goodness,
and we acknowledge the desire that you've put in our heart.
We want his will, don't we? We say that from the heart. We
mean it. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. I don't want
my own will to be done if it doesn't match his. Isn't that
right? Have you ever wanted something
and then really, truly, honestly say from the depths of your soul,
only if it's your will. If it's not your will, shut the
door and lock it because I'll keep turning on the knob. If it's not your will, I don't
want it. Verse 10 says, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. There is so much rest, so much
rest right there. I've told you this before, and
if the Lord tarries, I'll probably tell you a bunch more times.
I'll tell you again right now. I really struggled with something
for a long time, personally. This could have been one of the
greatest struggles I've ever experienced. We all have them.
We all have different things that just bring us struggle,
worry. But the thing that I was struggling
with was a heart to preach. I had a heart to preach, and
I assessed it. Doubted it, wanted it, stifled
it, promoted it, did whatever it was that I could do for eight
years. Eight years. I had a burning
desire to preach. It was eating a hole inside my
body. Something happened that brought
a real seriousness to my life. All of a sudden, life was not
just this one big, you know, life's a party, let's live it
up. It became serious. And I feared this office. I still do. I believe I still
do. I feared this task. I had a heart to preach, but
I was so afraid somebody might actually ask me. And I went to see Brother Henry
about it. He was still in Ashland and we
were sitting on his back patio. And I was trying to talk to him
about some of these things and I was not being very clear because
I was a little afraid of how he would respond to me. I didn't
know what he would say. And so we were going back and
forth and he finally read between my lines and he stopped all my
rambling and he said, he said, I want you to do something. I
said, okay. He said, I want you to be content
where you are right now, today. He said, the reason you are where
you are today, is because that's where God wants you to be today.
And he said, if God wants you to be somewhere else tomorrow,
he will put you there tomorrow. As soon as he told me that, I
just thought, okay. Okay. I was relieved of so much
decision making. What am I going to do? What am
I going to do? It just went away. for a, just for a moment until I lost sight of that again.
But, but I just, I was just relieved. So relieved. You mean to tell me the Lord
is in control and he's going to do with me whatever he wants
to do with me? And all I have to do is stop? Wait? I let it go. I did. I just let
it go. For that short moment, I mean
just for a short moment, I'm not going to say, buddy, I found
total peace and contentment from that moment on. For a very short,
short moment, I said in my heart, Thy will be done. And it was wonderful. It was
wonderful. It was freedom. Absolute freedom. Thy will be done. You mean I
don't have to head this thing up. I'm not in control of all
this. You want to be in control until you realize how hard control
is. Then all of a sudden you want
somebody else to be in control. Oh, thy will be done. If you
want me to preach your message, you will do it. You'll do it. You will put me
in your pulpit. And I don't have to sit around
wondering if my dad is supposed to do it, or I don't have to
sit around wondering if my father-in-law is supposed to do it, and I don't
have to sit around wondering if I'm supposed to do it myself. He'll
do it. And he will. If it's his will. And if it's not his will, I don't
want to do it. I don't want to do it. Thy will
is going to be done. And I had to wait a while, I'll
tell you that. I had to wait quite a while.
I was, after that experience, I was not asked to preach the
following Sunday morning. It was years later. Years later, but, and it was
so good that it was the case. I'm so glad the Lord in all of
His wisdom, waited on me and waited on me and waited on me.
It was just perfect. It was His sovereign time. It
was His perfect time. And it was good. I'm so glad
it didn't happen a minute before it. Not one minute before it.
If I could say anything to anybody, any believer, About anything,
not just preaching, I mean anything. If I could say anything, it would
be this. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Whatever it
is, don't lean on your own understanding. In everything that happens in
your life, every single thing that comes your way, acknowledge
Him. You did this, whatever it is. Oh, this seems so bad. You did
this. I know that you're doing this. I know, Lord, that you're doing
this on purpose. And I know it's for the purpose
of good. I know you bought me. You've told me in your word.
You've told it to my heart. I know you love me. I know you'll
keep me. I know you will. Therefore, thy
will be done. Thy will be done. I'm looking to you. I'm waiting
on you. You have me where you want me.
I acknowledge that. I acknowledge you. You have me
where you want me, and I'm thankful. I'm thankful. Thy will be done.
Verse 10 says, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. May that be the case. All right,
let's all stand together. I'm going to close in a song
tonight. Let's turn to 354. And I love the line in here. Oh what peace we often forfeit,
oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything
to God in prayer. 354.