October 20, 2024
What If It's Me?
Matthew 6:10-11
For the last couple of weeks we have been looking at the tools that God has given us to grow as disciples as well as make others into disciples to every nation. The toolbox that contains all the tools that we have looked at in this sermon series is found throughout the discourse as well as the prayer that Jesus shared with His followers during His sermon on the mount. We have seen the proper way to use the tool of prayer by looking at 3 different groups that were present for Jesus’ sermon that day and how Jesus addressed each of them concerning those prayers. Then last week we saw how we are to start our own prayers with a familiarity that only comes through faith in Jesus but with great reverence for the holiness of God. We are still speaking to the One who sits on the throne and His name is above all names. While the prayer that Jesus has been sharing has been packed full of things for personal application as a follower of Jesus, the prayer in and of itself has been directed at God alone in worship and adoration so far. This week we will see a shift in the prayer as Jesus moves away from addressing God’s majesty to addressing and encouraging His followers to petition God for several things. It’s in these petitions that we will see more tools for discipleship. However, the tools that we see this week will be in the form of some powerful questions that we must ask ourselves as disciples of Jesus. One of these questions (I believe) is so powerful that I entitled today's sermon after it. “What if it’s me?”. Before we get there let’s look at the first tool of discipleship that Jesus shares and that is the one found in the first part of Matthew 6:10.
Disciples ask, “If this is true, how should I live?” - Matthew 6:10
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
It’s funny how much of an impact a new building project can have on a community, especially a small community. The excitement usually starts out when rumors of a new business start to circulate in a town. Those rumors start to get people excited, and everyone starts talking about the possible coming of this new business. Then you usually start to see a little more evidence than just the rumors. These can take the form of land being cleared off or maybe even a surveying crew that starts hanging around the property and people start getting a little more excited as they begin to get their hopes up. It is not until the foundation is laid for the building and they start to advertise what is coming that you can hope that a business is on its way to opening there. I say this because the first part of this prayer in verse 10 that speaks about the coming of the Kingdom of God is very much like the example of a new business in a small town. In the Old Testament there were many prophecies that were given about the coming Kingdom of God and the coming King — the Messiah. Daniel 2:44 speaks just one of these prophecies when he says, “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to other people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” These were the types of prophecies that the Jewish people were familiar with, and they were anticipating the coming Kingdom for centuries. Then you have those like Simeon whom God had promised would not die until he saw the Messiah. When he saw Jesus at the temple being presented to the Lord, He knew and proclaimed that he had seen God’s salvation in flesh. Surely the people present had to be getting excited about the coming Kingdom that was now there and would soon be established. Then you have John the Baptist who was a fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah, who had come to make the way for the Lord. These two started to get people more and more excited for the Kingdom that had come. But it wasn’t until Jesus’ earthly ministry began that the foundation was poured, and the Kingdom was proclaimed as being here. That was the major emphasis of the Sermon on the Mount — the Kingdom had come because Jesus had come. This wasn’t all that God had in store concerning the Kingdom because the invitation “for whosoever will” to come into the Kingdom wasn’t sealed and stamped yet. However that happened on Calvary as the Spotless Lamb was slain for the sins of the world and He was buried for three days and then triumphantly rose again on the 3rd day. This is not all there was because all the Apostles, especially John, were given the knowledge that Jesus would return, and He was bringing the fulfilled Kingdom with Him when He comes. All these truths about the Kingdom of God are contained in the phrase, “Your Kingdom Come”. This phrase is a lot like the word “Hallowed” that we talked about last week in the previous verse. Its use doesn’t mean the fact it is not already established or that God’s Kingdom might not come like He promised or is even not established right now, but rather by praying this part of the prayer we are proclaiming that it is established, and we are asking God to help us to focus upon it. We are not praying for God to set up a Kingdom. He is already enthroned and has been from eternity past and will be into eternity future, but rather the prayer and petition here are again focused on what we do with that truth. How are we living out this reality in our lives? Peter told the church in 2 Peter 3 what would happen as the day grew closer to the Lord’s return as His Kingdom would be finalized (Revelation 21:6). In this chapter he speaks of the attitudes of people on that day, as well as the destruction that the judgment of God will bring. He asks the church a question “Since all this will happen, what kind of people should we be?” He answers and says we should be a people who live Holy and Godly lives. This is what the prayer “Your kingdom comes” means. It is a prayer to help us focus and live for that Kingdom rather than anything else in our lives. There is a popular song from Loverboy that came out in the early 80’s that was entitled “Everybody's working for the Weekend”. That song has sold over 4 million copies and has been used in many commercials and movies not only because the tune is catchy but because it resonated with all of us. We all need something to focus on and we all love the weekends, but as true as this song is for the general population, the truth that everyone is working for the Kingdom to come should be just as true for those who are followers of Jesus. It should motivate us in everything we do as a follower of Jesus, especially since we do not know the time or the day that Jesus will return and set up His kingdom here on earth. A disciple should always have their mind focused on the Kingdom of God. The truth of its eternal past and the present reality of the Kingdom that is now here because of Jesus, and what the Kingdom will look like in the future. We should ask ourselves, “Since all this will happen, what kind of people should we be?”
Disciples ask, “What if it’s me?” - Matthew 6:10
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
As the beginning of this verse puts our focus on the perfect future that is in store for Jesus’ followers. It's the second part of this verse that opens our eyes to the reality of our present and brings with it a yearning to see that a perfect future starts to happen now. He does this by bringing into the prayer the will of God as He calls us to ask for God’s will to be done. The focus on God’s will in this prayer is that it will be carried out here on earth, but what that looks like comes from a comparison to how God’s will be carried out in Heaven. We know from Scripture that God’s will is carried out perfectly in heaven. So in this prayer, the disciple is acknowledging God’s will needs to be carried out perfectly here on earth as well. The phrase “Your will be done” is an ambiguous one. What I mean by that is that in this prayer we have a question that is left unanswered, and that question is “who will be the one to carry out God’s will here on earth?”. In heaven we know that it’s the angels and God’s servants that carry out His will, but whose responsibility is it here on earth — who are we praying for? It’s His followers. Since we are His followers, this puts us in an interesting position. With the ambiguity of this part of the prayer, we will usually think about other believers who would benefit from this prayer being answered. It’s those who we tend to look down our nose at and those who have recently stumbled in their walk with Christ. If we are honest, it’s those types of followers that we think of first when we pray this. I want to challenge you with a difficult thought this morning. What if it’s not them that could benefit most from this prayer, but what if it’s me? What if it’s me that is the problem and the one who Jesus had in mind when He shared this prayer? Let’s take this thought a little further and ask, “What if it’s me that is the hindrance to revival in this nation?” That can’t be true, can it? It’s got to be those others who, when I compare myself “to seem to be” in a much worse place in life. Or maybe it’s got to be the sinners all around me that cause the heavens to withhold revival. Remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 4:17 “Time has come for judgment, and it must begin in God’s house”. So yes, the sinners will get the consequences of their decisions, but followers of Jesus must be accountable as well. We even see a precedence for individuals being the reason good things of God are withheld from a nation. In the Old Testament book of Haggai, God sends His prophet Haggai to speak to two men, Zerubbabel, governor of Judah and Jeshua the High Priest. In Haggai 1:10, God says “It’s because of you (speaking to both men individually) that the heavens withhold dew, and the earth produces no crops”. What if we are in the same boat as them? What if God would speak to us and say “You are the reason the heavens are withholding…” That’s a scary thought. But what can we do? We can pray to the Lord that not only let your will be done in the lives of my brothers and sisters in Christ, but Lord please start with me and let Your will be done in my life. We can’t just pray that the Lord’s will be done, we are going to have to do it. We are going to have to live it out in obedience to His Word. This is the solution to the problem we see in Haggai. We see that when Zerubbabel and Jeshua start to obey God’s will for them that He sends another word through the prophet Haggai and He tells them, “I am with you!”. It was simply living out God’s will for their lives that caused not only enthusiasm for obedience in their lives, but in the remnant of God’s people as well. Their obedience and zeal to live out God’s will be contagious. As scary of a thought as being the one who has caused the heavens to withhold, do you realize what it might cost you if you sincerely pray this prayer? In our humanity that can be a scary prayer as well. It's a prayer for your will not to be done in your life anymore, but instead it’s a prayer for God’s will to be done above all. Jesus in His humanity prayed this very thing in the Garden of Gethsemane as recorded in Luke 22:42. He says “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done”. That prayer was answered, and it led Him to Calvary. What if that’s the same thing that happens to us when we pray that God’s will be done? What if it’s not as severe that leads us to death, but instead leads us into suffering, or it leads us having to let go of the dreams we have held onto for so long in our lives? To quote Abraham in Genesis 18:25, “Will not the Judge of the whole earth do what is right?” God’s will is perfect and will always be good especially for those who are children of God because God is good, and He is a good father. We need to stop worrying about what MIGHT happen if we pray with all sincerity that God’s will be done in our life and start to understand what WILL happen if we don’t. A disciple must ask themselves, “What if it’s me?”
Disciples ask, “Who am I relying on?” - Matthew 6:11
Give us today our daily bread.
The last phrase we will look at is a simple one in which we are called to pray for our daily bread or our daily needs. This simple prayer also calls us to ask a simple question of ourselves “Who are we relying on?”. Jesus is showing His disciples that when they go through their daily lives, even though the focus has been on God so far in this prayer, God is not only concerned about those things. While God is concerned with His holiness, His majesty, His will, and how we carry them out in our lives, He is also concerned with us and our day-to-day activities and needs as well. This is a call to ask Him for our needs, not our greed. When we look to Him to provide for our daily needs, it’s a call to realize the gifts and abilities God has blessed us with to get our needs and realize that they come from Him as well. It’s a call to be thankful for what He does supply to us in all ways. It’s a call to trust Him because He will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory. We still must follow through in obedience in our lives, but God will provide. So are we trusting in Him to provide through His resources and through the gifts and talents He has given us? Or are we trusting in those talents alone, those blessings to provide? When we trust in the giver of the talents, we can’t help but to be thankful for everything God has done and provided for us. “Who are we relying on in our lives?”.
There is something that links these three questions that a disciple must always be asking themselves and that is humility. Without humility, we will not be able to answer these things satisfactorily. When we ask ourselves “How should we live?” With the Kingdom of God in mind, it takes humility to look past ourselves and see how God has called us to live in all situations with our eyes focused on His return. The question “What if it’s me?” is a difficult one even when we humble ourselves. We hate to ever admit we are wrong, or we might be the reason that things are the way they are. As disciples we must be honest with ourselves and know that we might have things in our lives that do not line up with God’s calling on our lives. Those shortcomings will have consequences on our lives as well as the lives of those who are around us. We must humble ourselves and repent of these things and follow through in obedience. Then we must humble ourselves when we ask, “Who am I relying on”, because it takes a lot to say, I can’t do this myself, but it’s Christ through me that I am able to provide these things for me and my family. It’s these three questions that a disciple must use to grow in their walk with Jesus.
