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  YOUR WILL BE DONE
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon delves into the importance of aligning our will
with God's will, focusing on the struggle between our desires and God's
desires. It emphasizes the need to prioritize doing God's will over our
own, drawing parallels to Jesus' surrender in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The sermon highlights the significance of praying for God's will to be
done in our lives, in the church, and ultimately in the world, stressing
the central role of preaching the gospel and unity in fulfilling God's
will.

Duration: 43:49 Topics: "Aligning with God's Will", "Surrender and Prayer"
Scripture References: Luke 11:1, Matthew 26:39, John 17:20, Ephesians 3:21, Romans 8:29

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the importance of aligning our will with God's
will, focusing on the struggle between our desires and God's desires. It
emphasizes the need to prioritize doing God's will over our own, drawing
parallels to Jesus' surrender in the Garden of Gethsemane. The sermon
highlights the significance of praying for God's will to be done in our
lives, in the church, and ultimately in the world, stressing the central
role of preaching the gospel and unity in fulfilling God's will.

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CONTENT
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So we're in the book of Luke chapter 11 as we continue our study through
the gospel of Luke and particularly in the Lord's model prayer in Luke
chapter 11 and we'll read verses 1 through 4. Luke chapter 11 verses 1
through 4. Luke 11 1. Now it came to pass as he was praying in a certain
place when he ceased that one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us
to pray as John also taught his disciples and so he said to them when
you pray say our Father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom
come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us day by day
our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who
is indebted to us and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from
the evil one and so we have spoken about the fact that his name needs to
be made holy his name needs to be glorified and that his kingdom needs
to come not just in a general sense but in a personal sense and this
morning of course we speak then about his will your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven and I think that we figured out by now that
these things are easy to say they're easy to pray they're another thing
to do they're a different thing to live just by the way if you have a
translation which says instead of your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven if it says something to the effect as above so below then please
throw that Bible away if you can't afford to throw it away then give it
to me and we'll give you another one that is a a new age satanic
statement and that whole translation is very very suspect and so your
will be done and as I was looking at this verse this last week or this
part of the verse it's a tremendous challenge it's very difficult
because what is the will of God and I think that first of all we try to
establish God's will in terms of do I buy a new car or don't I buy a new
car do I marry this person or that person do I do this or do that and
and while those things are real and while they are things that we do
struggle with they really are very minor issues and in trying to define
what is the will of God and this is something I try to redefine this
week again what is the will of God what is it that he wants to be done
on earth as it is done in heaven and of course there are thousands of
scriptures that well maybe not thousand maybe hundreds of scriptures at
least that speak about different aspects of the will of God and so if we
were to cover all of those bases we would be here for a long long time I
recently had someone comment on one of the messages oh you didn't you
didn't speak about this well I can't speak about everything in 45
minutes I have to choose what it is that I believe that God wants us to
deal with and and that's what we have to confine ourselves to you know
to try and cover all the bases in in in 45 minutes is impossible and
particularly a subject like this like the will of God how do we deal
with with all of the dimensions and the aspects of the will of God the
will of God out in the world the will of God in the church the will of
God from the beginning of time until the end of time and it's it's
impossible and so I brought it down to three basic areas and I'm going
to try and confine myself to those areas first of all God's will in the
world because he says your will your will be done on earth so he's not
saying specifically just in the church he's including the world and of
course the church is in the world and we're in the world so we have to
speak about God's will in the world what is God's will in the world we
have to speak about God's will in the church and we need to speak about
God's will in my life so let's speak begin then to speak about God's
will in the world now I think that many are wrestling with this at a
political level and I'm going to try to not get into the politics this
morning but many have declared God's will for this man to be president
or that man to be president God's will concerning whatever issues on the
political sphere God has not declared his will directly as far as those
things are concerned and incidentally there is an article which is
available after the meeting on these many false prophecies declaring
that it is God's will for a certain person to win the election God has
one will in the world as far as that is concerned let me try and get
that get that out of the way before we move on to the rest God has one
purpose in the world and in the governments of the world and that is to
prepare for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ now that includes
everything that is happening and you know I looked at this from the old
testament I looked at those kingdoms that we spoke about in the book of
Daniel what were those kingdoms about what was the Babylonian empire all
about it was about God dealing with his people and so there are two
things that is that God is doing in the world and that he has always
done in the world the first is he deals with his people and the second
is or the other way around really is that it is focused on Jesus Christ
all of those kingdoms led up to one event and that was the first coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ God was dealing with Israel through the
Babylonian empire he deals with Israel through the next empire that
comes in through Cyrus and the Medo-Persian empire so that Israel could
go back to the land so that the temple could be built all in preparation
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ then comes Alexander the Great
and the Greek empire what was that all about it was about bringing about
a world language so that once Jesus has come the gospel could be
preached through all the world in a common language that was all it was
about then comes the Roman empire and what was that all about oh but the
Roman empire was evil and all of these empires were evil but God is
working his will and his purpose the purpose of the Roman empire was
that you had a thing called Pax Romana which means the Roman peace the
Romans had conquered the world and brought the whole world under their
control and brought about a form of peace it wasn't the kind of peace
that the Israelites wanted that the Jews wanted it wasn't the kind of
peace that we would desire but there was peace and that opened the door
for the for the church to spread the gospel throughout the world they
could travel all over the world and preach the gospel in a common
language under a common government that was God's purpose it was nothing
about anything else it was nothing about politics and the same is true
today God is working out his plan God is shuffling the the the the
pieces on the board and he is setting things in order for the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ and when we work against that will of God we find
ourselves in all sorts of all sorts of trouble all right now let's get
to the word and see what does the word say about the will of God again
as I said I can only choose one or two items or one or two points on
each one of these but clearly the first will of God for the world is
that the world hear the gospel go therefore and make disciples of all
the nations notice that Mark says go and preach the gospel Matthew says
make disciples making disciples is more than preaching the gospel we we
know that and so it is God's will according to Timothy therefore I
exhort first of all oh sorry I'm going to look at a few verses here in
order to get to uh to the point let me get to the point and then go back
to these verses let me get to verse four who desires all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth that is God's will in the
world today God is wants all to be saved obviously we understand not
everyone will be saved but it is still his will to be saved those who
say that God has chosen some to be saved and others to be damned I don't
know how they deal with this verse because God is not willing that any
should perish the scripture says God desires all men to be saved does
God want Trump to be saved yes does he want Biden to be saved yes does
he want the Chinese to be saved yes does he want Putin to be saved yes
God desires all men to be saved now let's look quickly at the context of
this of this verse and so Peter is saying I exhort first of all that
supplications and prayers and intercession be given and giving thanks be
made for all men for kings and obviously included in kings is presidents
and prime ministers and all who are in authority now remember that that
he's covering all the bases here it's not just those who are in the
white house but those who are in the state authorities those who are
county authorities those who are municipal or city authorities all who
are in authority for what purpose and folk here here here it's it's this
is absolutely important because for for five years churches have been
praying for one thing to be happening but here is what we should be
praying for this is what we should have been praying for all along and I
trust we have and that we should continue to pray for praying for those
in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and reverence folk that's all we can pray for remember the
context in which Paul is writing he is writing in the context of a Roman
government which is ungodly which is immoral which is corrupt at every
level which is which is probably one of the most sinful governments of
all time and yet he he doesn't pray for a moral government he's praying
that we may have peace and remember as I said by way of introduction is
that is what they had they had the Roman peace they were able to go
without dealing with upheavals and with riots and with wars they were
able to spread the gospel that is what we're praying for today we need
to pray that we may have peace in our land in order that we might preach
the gospel that's all nothing beyond that yes we would like to I would
like to have a government that um that that outlaws abortion I would
love to have a government that outlaws all sorts of immorality and sin I
would love to have a government that is saved but that's not our primary
concern our primary concern is the gospel go and make disciples we need
one thing we need peace so that we can focus on the work that God has
called us to do that is the will of God so pray for those in authority
that we may lead a peaceable life in godliness and reverence for this is
good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior folk God wants us to
be praying he wants us to pray for those in authority and he wants us to
pray specifically that we might have peace in order to do the work that
he has called us to and here's the bottom line he desires all men to be
saved so we pray for those in authority that they might get saved and we
pray for them in authority that we might have freedom to preach the
gospel that all men might be saved that is the will of God folk right
now preachers are struggling to figure out where they fit into things I
know of at least one preacher who's who stopped preaching for several
months now because he he's lost track he doesn't know where to go
because for five years he's been preaching one message and now that
message has failed but we have one message we've always had one message
and we will continue to pray that one message or preach that one message
and that message is Jesus Christ it's amazing as you watch preachers
over these last this last week and a half how they've changed their
message suddenly they're saying we need to preach the sovereignty of God
is sovereign we need to preach the gospel we preach about Jesus but for
five years they've been preaching another message now suddenly they're
all holy and righteous and preaching Jesus but where was Jesus three
months ago where was Jesus five years ago and folk I don't care who's in
the white house I really don't all we want is peace but we also want the
church to be focusing on the things we ought to be focusing on and that
is the Lord Jesus Christ that is the word that we preach and may God
give us grace that we will continue to preach that word and that message
irrespective of what happens on the stock market irrespective of what
happens in the white house irrespective of what happens in the rest of
the world we have one job to do in the world and that is to preach the
gospel and God help us that we preach the gospel we're not here to
preach any other message we're not here to preach against homosexuality
as some do we're not here to preach against abortion yes those things
are not do not please God those things are sin but there's a whole bunch
of other sins as well and we're not called to preach against murder or
against rape while those things are wrong we're called to preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ because that alone saves and that alone changes
the hearts of men and women and until our hearts are changed we can try
and change morality but it still doesn't help because people are still
going to hell even if they may be living pretty clean lives our message
is Jesus Christ our message is the gospel and we must do the will of God
you you figured out by now as we've been in the in the prayer now for
what this is the third week I think that it's not just about saying Lord
your will be but it's about me doing his will what is God's will for me
what is God's will for us as a church in the world it is to preach the
gospel because God wants people to be saved and we we need to and I know
that's not news for us here we we've been saying that for 17 years
however long I've been here I've been preaching that message for almost
50 years now and I've never changed that message but may God give us
grace that we may just come back to the basics again and recognize what
is it all about what is God's will God's will is that the message of the
gospel be preached in the world that people might be saved and if your
message if your program if your agenda doesn't support that basic
fundamental then you need to re-figure what you're doing and as a church
if anything that we do where we put our money where we use our time
where we use our influence whatever we have as a church if it is not
subscribing to this one principle of making disciples then we are
wasting our time yes the the poor need to be ministered to but that is
not our primary message or our primary calling it is to preach the
gospel if we're going to feed the poor it must support the preaching of
the gospel if we're going to have whatever programs it must support this
one thing which is the declared will of God and that is to make
disciples we have no other commission we have no other calling God has
no will other than that for those that find themselves out there in the
world what is God's will for the church I do not pray for these alone
and here's the here's the Lord's prayer the actual Lord's prayer in John
chapter 17 I do not pray for these alone but also for those who will
believe in me through their word that they all may be one as you father
are in me and I in you and that they also may be one in us that the
world may believe that you sent me and the glory which I get you gave me
I have given them that they may be one just as we are one I didn't count
but I think three times maybe four times in these three verses Jesus
says father my will for the church is that they may be one that they may
be one now again we have to say well at at what level first of all
clearly it is at the level of the local church there needs to be unity
in the local church we've spoken about this many times we've emphasized
this many many times God's will is that we are one as a local church but
God's will is also for unity in the universal church now the problem is
how do we achieve that unity we cannot achieve that unity at the expense
of truth we cannot achieve that unity by compromise but Paul is very
clear about this in Ephesians chapter 4 that we have a unity of the
spirit the fact that we are born again all who are born again are one in
Christ but that's at the theoretical level that's at the theological
level but he says that he has given ministries to the church in order
that we might attain to the unity of the faith so he wants us not just
to be one in theory but he wants us to be one in doctrine and one in
practice and so we need to work towards that unity there are many who
are saying well let's just let's just throw out doctrine because
doctrine divides there is a sense in which doctrine does divide divides
between truth and error between right and wrong we can't embrace wrong
in order to have unity we must have unity on the basis of truth and of
the truth of the word of God so God's will for the church is unity and I
think that there are many churches who at the beginning of the year are
saying well what's God's will for us in this new year I haven't sat down
to try and figure that out because I I have a sense of what his will is
for us his will is for us to be one his will is for us to continue to
preach the gospel and we will continue to do that unfortunately we can't
make many plans these days because things are changing because of the
covid every every week there's a new threat every week there's a change
right now it looks like the numbers are coming down and the vaccine is
well it's it's rolling out slowly very slowly but there's hope but next
week there could be a new variant a new mutation and then we're back
down the roller coaster again and so what can we do well we can just
focus on the things that we know we ought to focus on and that is on the
preaching of the gospel and on the unity of the body of Christ and so he
wants us to be one by this will all men know that you are my disciples
because of your love for one another and then there is a second thing
that I believe is God's will for the church and when I say for the
church I'm not just meaning our church but for any church the second
thing is that he might be glorified there are many verses but I've
chosen Ephesians 3 21 this morning to him be glory in the church my
Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen this is part of
one of Paul's prayers incidentally so Paul is actually praying this and
this is the conclusion of his prayer to him be glorified he needs to be
glorified in the church it's not about glorifying the church it's not
about glorifying the preacher or the doctrine or the programs but it's
about him being glorified remember we spoke about hallowed be your name
may his name be exalted amongst us may his name be glorified in the
world through us and if when we come together anything that we do does
not glorify him we are out of the will of God so everything we do
everything that we say from from not just from the beginning of the
service to the end of the meeting but but everything that we do as a
church whether we are together or not together but when we operate as a
church there needs to be one goal and that is well unity but there needs
to be this goal of glorifying him and in fact unity is a subset of
glorifying him because when we are one when we are united he is
glorified so I guess if I had to boil it down to one thing it would be
that he is glorified he needs to be glorified in our doctrine he needs
to be glorified in our lifestyle he needs to be glorified in our love
for one another he needs to be glorified in our worship as we express
worship to him we need to be he needs to be glorified in everything that
we do as a church and folk I've often said that when visitors come I
don't want them to go away and say well that's that's a good preacher
well that's not really going to happen because I'm not but I want them
to go away and say Jesus is amongst those people and they love him and
he is the center and he is the focus I don't care if visitors come and
go and they don't remember who I am but if they can remember who Jesus
is because they've seen him lifted up they've seen him glorified in our
submission to one another in our submission to his word and and in in
everything that we say and do he need to him be glory in the church now
of course we have to speak about the believer and again I'm not going to
tell you anything I'm not telling you anything new this morning I'm just
reminding you and I guess you know what God's will is for us as
individual believers and as I've said we we worry about is it God's will
for me to do this job or take that job or to buy this car or buy a pink
car or a purple car no God has one will for us and that is that we be
conformed to the image of his son whom he foreknew Romans 8 29 you
should know this off by heart for whom he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the first born
among many brethren that is God's will for you that is God's will for me
and I can say this beyond any shadow of a doubt if whatever it is that
you're struggling with this morning is not conforming you to the image
of Jesus then you better leave it alone if you're doing stuff in your
life which is not making you more like Jesus then turn away from it
because God has one will for you and God has one will for each one of us
and that is that we become like the Lord Jesus Christ it's simple and
yet we we struggle to do it we struggle to put it into practice and we
struggle because we have a we have a problem and the problem is not the
devil the problem is our own will that's where the that's where the
whole thing comes down to and folk I'm going to come back to that in one
moment but all of the will of God comes down to me we can we can pray
about God's will being done in China but if it's not happening in me we
can pray about God's will being done in our nation but if it's not being
done in me and if it's not happening in our church we're wasting our
time you see because clearly these are not just things that we pray
about but these are things that God expects us to do and to put into
practice so Lord it's one thing to say Lord your will be done on earth
but but maybe it would be more helpful if we said Lord you will be done
in me because because you see we we we duck the issue when we say well
Lord your will be done in the earth we say Lord please save people but
we won't witness to our colleagues so how's he going to save people if
we won't do the job that he's called us to do and that is to preach the
gospel so you can see that it's hypocritical to pray and say Lord save
when I won't be the instrument through which he's going to save and so
it needs to begin in me Lord your will needs to be done in me your will
needs to be done in the church and if it's being done in me and in the
church then we can pray your will be done on the earth but you see
that's the that's the thing is that we're quite happy to pray in general
terms but when it comes down to me when it comes down to our church it
becomes a little bit more difficult because that's where the rubber
meets the road that's where we have a reality check we as christians
love to live in some form of it's like a form of escapism why do people
love science fiction movies well you're able to be transported into some
other world and you lose touch with the day-to-day stuff of this life
and christians tend to do the same thing we we love to pray about china
and russia and about this and that and africa and but we don't want to
deal with the issues here and now and that's really where it needs to
happen and so here's the problem as i said a little earlier it's easy to
pray these things it's another thing to do them it's another thing to do
them and there is not one of us here this morning who can say that we
perfectly do the will of god i think we all acknowledge that we don't do
god's will here in our here in not not in the earth but here in my life
as it is being done in heaven how is god's will being done in heaven
perfectly the angels don't say well lord maybe it'd be better to do it
this way and no not now lord i'm busy no when god speaks those angels
their whole being their whole existence is focused on one thing and that
is to obey the will of god perfectly to do exactly what god wants
without argument without debate without delay and so the prayer is lord
your will be done in my life may we be like angels not like kobe bryant
who they tell me is an angel may we be like angels that when god speaks
i obey perfectly i do his will and not my will but you see that's where
the problem is it's my will versus his will and and and the the problem
the folk the problem is not so much that we that we don't do the will of
god but the problem is that that most of us don't even wrestle with his
will versus my will we just do what we want to do we don't even think
about it the same ways the angels don't even think about it they don't
hesitate when god commands they do the problem is that we're the reverse
and we we most of the time don't even struggle we don't even think about
it we just do what we want to do because it's my rights and i think that
we we must conclude with jesus in the garden of gethsemane here is jesus
the son of god jesus had never disobeyed the father for one second he
had lived his life in absolute harmony with the will of god but he finds
himself in the garden of gethsemane facing the hardest thing that god
had asked him to do and folk here's the reality god has not asked any of
us to do what he's asked jesus to do go to the cross and bear the sins
of the world we say well god has asked martyrs to lay down their lives
but there are two issues here laying down your life and taking the sins
of the world upon you and jesus has to do both of those things and he
prays father let this cup pass from me i don't believe for one moment
that that cup was death i believe that that cup that he wanted to pass
from him was not death but was the cup of the sins of the world that he
had to take upon himself and he says i don't want to do it i take
courage in that in that there is room for us to be honest and say lord i
don't want to do this i don't want to go to the cross i don't want to
take this into the world for me personally i don't want to do certain
things i think many of you have seen the article i wrote this last week
i did not want to write that article i put it off for weeks and weeks i
had every excuse not to write it and even once i wrote it i had every
excuse not to publish it it's all right to struggle with what you know
you should be doing and what you want to do but it has to come down to
the final statement of the lord jesus matthew 26 39 he went a little
further and fell on his face and prayed saying oh my father if it is
possible let this cup pass from me if it's possible find me some other
way if it's possible lord let me do something else but not this there
are many things that we don't want to do nevertheless not as i will but
as you will you see that's where it comes down to you jesus wrestled
between his will as a man and the will of god i remember he was both man
and god so the struggle was within him and we have the same struggle
within us between what we call the flesh and the spirit these two things
are at enmity these two things are at war the flesh wants to do one
thing the spirit which is in tune with god calls us to do something
different and we struggle and it's okay to struggle and in fact i
believe it's to it's referencing this that the writer to the hebrew says
you have not yet struggled or wrestled unto the shedding of blood but
jesus struggles until he's the the blood vessels on his forehead burst
and i believe that that's what the hebrews are saying is is you give up
too quickly you don't get to that point where you are so traumatized
between what you want and what god wants because you just give in to
what you want and jesus comes to this point and he says it's not what i
want it's your will that needs to be done oh father says of the lord
jesus i delight to do your will oh god many marriages the struggle is
the struggle of wills his will against her will but that's nothing in
the struggle that every one of us should be facing and that is the
struggle between my will and the will of god and as i've said the
struggle is fine it's okay to battle it's okay to struggle with these
things it's okay to wrestle with these things as long as we can come to
the same bottom line not my will but your will be done folk it's all
right to struggle it's all right if you're in two minds as it will as
long as we can come to the same conclusion that jesus came to not my
will but your will be done i don't know how many hours jesus was in that
garden but it was several hours and remember that he's not alone but
he's three disciples with him and they're having their own struggle now
remember in comparison there's just no comparison jesus's struggle is
between taking on the sin of the world and dying on the cross and being
shunned by the father that is what he needs to be doing what do the
disciples need to do that god have a will for them there in the garden
of gethsemane yeah he expressed the will through jesus watch and pray so
their struggle is between sleeping and praying and you know who won that
one they just fell asleep there was no praying and i think that i
believe that that it is recorded for our benefit that we might see these
two things next to each other juxtaposed these two things right next to
each other here's the disciples they're struggling with a small issue
and they just surrender to their flesh they just give in to what they
want and here's jesus dealing with the biggest decision that anyone ever
had to take and he comes to the right decision not my will but your will
may god help us that we may be more like jesus and less like the
disciples your will in fact maybe if you if you pray this prayer may i
encourage you to and i i know i don't i don't encourage us to change the
scriptures but maybe we can change this prayer if ever you choose to
pray this prayer and say lord your will be done in me as it is done in
heaven because once his will starts being done in me his will will begin
to be done in the church and once his will begins to be done in the
church it will be done in the world why is his will not being done in
the world because it's not beginning in each one of us father i pray
that this may be real lord that the many things that we struggle with
lord sometimes just minor little things like falling asleep like praying
when we ought to be praying or witnessing to our colleagues or whatever
it is that you're calling us to do lord forgive us for surrendering to
the flesh so easily forgive us lord for being so much like the disciples
help us lord to be more like jesus or that we may not just be conformed
to him in doctrine or in theology but lord that we may be conformed to
him particularly in the area of doing the will of god lord that that the
thing that may excite us and delight us is to do your will oh god sweet
will of god draw me closer lord until we are completely absorbed in you
and in your will and your desire lord until everything that we say
everything that we do from the moment we open our eyes even through the
night as we wake up lord would be in in line with your will lord your
will may it be done in my life may it be done in my family may it be
done in my marriage may it be done in this church lord these are easy
things to talk about these are easy things to pray they're a different
thing to do and i pray lord that we may be doers of your will not just
prayers of your will so i pray lord that you'd go with us now as we part
i pray for your blessing on each one but above all lord that your spirit
would continue to teach us continue to remind us lord of the things that
we ought to be doing that your will may be done on earth as it is done
in heaven we ask this in jesus name amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Ud-ErRXA_LY.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/your-will-be-done/
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