"Thy Will Be Done", Part 2

Thank you, choir. The very fact that God leads us, leads us into what we're going to talk about this morning in coming to understand the disciples' prayer. We've been looking at Luke chapter 11 because the disciples asked a question in Luke 11, Lord, teach us to pray as John's disciples were taught by John to pray. They wanted to know how to pray. And what we're going to share with you this morning is going to revolutionize your entire life. You will leave saying, I am so glad I came to church today.

So important to realize what God says, what he says, when you pray, pray this way. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You ever ask God a question and maybe not receive the answer you were hoping for? I'm not so sure that when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, that this is the answer they were looking for. Because the ramifications of this prayer are so great, are so far reaching because they tell us so much about God and about ourselves.

They reveal things to us about God that maybe we would not have seen had we not asked the question. And it reveals stuff about us that if we would not have asked the question, maybe we would not have to deal with. But they asked the question, they opened the door and Jesus gave them an answer. And so I'm going to ask you a question this morning. You don't have to answer it, don't want you to do that, but you can answer it in your mind. Does God ever make a mistake? Is the answer to that yes, or is the answer to that no?

Don't say anything yet. Does God ever make a mistake? You get married, you've been married for a while and you wonder if you made a mistake. Or sometimes you wonder if God made a mistake. We go through life and in today's economy a lot of people have lost their jobs and we wonder if God made a mistake some way somehow. When we go through a tragedy in our lives and we begin to ask a question, this can't be the will of God. He must have made a mistake. Over 25 years ago, I received a letter. It was a card really, a letter in the card.

And in that card was a poem that I've kept in the flyleaf of my Bible. Now I change Bibles just about once every two or three years because I go through them so rapidly, but I try to keep it in the flyleaf of my current Bible. It's a poem and it's written by a lady by the name of A.M. Overton. It goes like this. My father's way may twist and turn, my heart may throb and ache, but in my soul I'm glad I know he maketh no mistake. My cherished plans may go astray, my hopes may fade away, but still I'll trust my Lord to lead for he doth know the way.

Though night be dark and it may seem that day will never break, I'll pin my faith, my all in him, he maketh no mistake. There's so much now I cannot see, my eyesight's far too dim, but come what may I'll simply trust and leave it all to him. For by and by the mist will lift and plain it all he'll make. Through all the way, though dark to me, he made not one mistake. I wonder if you believe that. A perfect God who created the world has a plan, a plan that runs according to his design. He makes no mistakes.

I'm sure Job must have asked that question sometime in his life, especially after he lost his home, he lost his livelihood, he lost his family, lost it all. He was the most righteous man on the face of the earth. He wasn't like he was a sinful man, bad man. He was the most righteous man on the face of the earth. He lost everything, except for his wife. Might have been good for him to keep everything and lose his wife, you know, but the way she responded to tragedy, which tells you a lot of things about how those close to you might not have the same perspective on God that you do.

Job's biggest problem was not that he lost everything, but that he had a wife who did not understand the plan of God. That was his biggest obstacle. See? And yet Job said in Job 42, I know that no plan, no purpose of thine can ever be thwarted. He came to realize that after God explained his all-powerful creation and how he was in charge of everything. He came to realize that no plan of God can ever be changed. God makes no mistakes. Not one has he ever made, nor will he ever make. He's perfect. He's holy.

He's just. He's righteous. And yet tragedy happens. Sickness comes. Affliction arises. Marriages break up. Children rebel. We ask the question, how can this happen to me? To me? Well, the Lord said these words, book of Isaiah, I am the Lord and there is no other besides me. There is no God. I will gird you though you have not known me that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun, that there is no one besides me. I'm the Lord and there is no other. In other words, I'm all there is. There's no other God can't go anywhere else.

I'm it. I'm God. There is no other. This is this. The one forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity. Wow. You know, that doesn't go over too well when you're facing tragedy, does it? Our God's a creator of calamity. And that first part says he, he causes well-being.

So if things are going well in your life, it's because of God. He's also the creator of disaster, calamity. He goes on and says this. Woe to the one who decides to one day quarrel with his maker. You don't like the calamity he created for you, so you begin to argue with God. An earthen vessel among the vessels of the earth. Will the clay say to the potter, what are you doing? Or the thing you are making say, he has no hands. Answer no. But somehow man comes to this place in his life where he can, he can question God.

He can question the plan of God. He thinks he has the right to question God. The Lord simply responds by saying, cursed is the man. That's what the word woe means. Who decides to one day say, hey, wait a minute, God, you made a mistake. You didn't do it right. Really? I mean, you're going to argue with your maker? The one who is the one who, who causes well-being and, and creates calamity. You're going to argue with him? And people ask the question, why God? How can this be your will for my life?

Well, we're here today to answer that question for you. Because the Bible gives you all the answers you need. Everything pertaining to life and godliness is in the scriptures. And so it will answer the question for us. And that's what happens in the phrase, this particular phrase in the disciples prayer that says, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We begin by talking to you about the paradox and trying to untangle the paradox. It's not really a paradox. It's just a perceived paradox. Because what we think as a paradox in scripture really isn't in the mind of God, right?

But we had this paradox about, about salvation. How is a man saved? Well, we know that John 1 12 says that to as many as received him, to them give you power to become the sons of God. So a man is saved because he receives Christ, right? Well, yes. But then verse 13 of John 1 says, who are born again, not by the will of flesh, nor by the will of man, but by the will of God. So, so you're born again because of the will of God. And that tension between God's sovereignty and human responsibility is a perplexing paradox in our minds, but only in our minds, not in God's mind.

There's no paradox in God's mind, only in ours. So we began a couple of weeks ago by untangling the paradox behind man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. Because God says, I want you to pray.

And so we say, well, if God has a plan, it's a perfect plan. He has a will. Why pray for God's will to be done if God's will is going to be done anyway, right? That's a paradox. It's making sense to me. But God commands me to pray. Well, why pray if everything's under the control of God anyway? It's all going to happen as he planned it to happen. And how my prayer life fits into God's sovereign plan is completely unknown to me. But it really is irrelevant in my mind to how it works out because God said pray.

And so I obey God and I pray. And so as we begin to untangle this perceived paradox, we realized that there were some dangers. There was a dilemma, but there are some dangers as well. And the dangers are, well, I can pray thy will be done out of bitter resentment toward God. Okay, I'll pray that will be done. Thy will be done out of resentment toward what has happened in my life. People do that all the time. I hear it all the time from people who, who profess to be Christians, but out of bitterness in their hearts, thy will be done.

Some out of passive resignation, case or raw, whatever will be, will be okay. God's will be done. Must be God's will. So, okay. Others out of theological reservation because the theology is such that God is in complete control of everything. It makes no difference what I do. So there's some dangers involved as well. That's what we talked about last time. So we move from untangling the paradox to, to understanding the plan because God has a plan and we need to understand that plan, right? And to understand that plan, we need to realize two things.

God has a will, and that is a decreed will, number one, and number two, a desired will. We talked about the decreed will last time. The decrees of God said well in Acts chapter 15, verse number 48, I believe it is. I'm sorry, Acts 15, verse number 18. Known to God from eternity are all his works. All his works. Isaiah tells us he declares the end from the beginning. He's got it all mapped out. He speaks of God's decrees. They cannot be altered. They cannot be changed because a sovereign God runs the universe.

It's the decree of God. This is how it's going to go because God is in complete charge of everything. It's his decree. And over and over again in the scriptures, the writers of the Bible affirm the fact that God is in absolute control of everything. It's his decree. It's his plan. It's his will for it to happen that way. And so when there is disaster, is it the decree of God? Absolutely. When someone dies, is it the decree of God? Absolutely. Absolutely it's the decree of God. Because to say that it's not would mean that God did not know what was going to happen.

And God forbid we would serve a God that's not omniscient, that he knows everything. That's the whole doctrine of open theism that's running rampant throughout the church today. That God really doesn't know, you know, what decision you're going to make or how it's all going to go out. He just kind of reacts to what you do. What good is that? I don't want to serve a God like that. And that's not what the Bible says about our God.

The Bible says in the book of Ephesians chapter one that he worked with all things after the counsel of his will.

He's got a plan. It runs precisely as he has designed it to run. And that's where we left you last week. And we talked about how a man like Joseph would respond to that decreed plan of God. How a man like Job would respond to the decreed plan of God. And left you with the challenge on how you respond to God's decrees in your life. And when Jesus said, when you pray, you pray this way. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. He was not saying, I want you to pray for God's decrees to be done on earth as they are in heaven, because they already are.

See that? He is talking about the desired will of God. There are two Greek words, Boulomai, which deals with his decrees and Thelema, which deals with his desires. And the Greek word in Matthew six is Thelema, the desire of God. And so when you pray, thy will be done, you are praying for God's desired will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, because in heaven, everybody does the desire of God, right? The angels quickly, swiftly, completely, obediently do the will of God at his command. They do whatever he desires to happen.

It happens because God is in complete control and they want to serve their king. And when you pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, you are praying for God's desire, his desired will to be done in my life on earth exactly as it is in heaven. That's important to understand, right? And so we, we come to, to understand as we begin to realize that God has a desire for your life and for mine. The desired will of God deals with God's attitude, listen, God's attitude toward his whole plan or an individual aspect of that plan that he wishes and wants to happen.

It doesn't mean that it always happens. For instance, God never wishes for anybody to be murdered, but they are, right? That's not his desire, but within the realm of his decree, it happens. It's God's sovereign plan. For you to have a child that that's born with a physical disease is not the desire of God, but it is the decree of God. The plan set in concrete from the very beginning of time, but it's not the, the desire of God. For instance, let me give you a biblical example.

The Bible says this, John 5, verse number 40, you will not come to me that you might have life. His desire was that they would come to him, that they might have life, but they would not. For instance, in Matthew 23, 37, Christ says, how often Jerusalem, I would have gathered your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling.

When Christ would weep over the city of Jerusalem and realize that they were not going to follow him. Oh, his desire was, oh, that you would come to me, that I might gather you together under my wings and care for you as a mother hen cares for her chicks, but you were not willing. That was his desire, but they would not. For instance, the Bible says in first Timothy two, four, that God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

That's his desire, but it's not his decree, right? Because everybody's not saved. Everybody won't be saved. In fact, more will be unsaved than ever be saved, but it doesn't mean that God's desire is that they not be saved. No, because he does desire them to be saved. That's his heart's passion, but it's not his decree. It's a mystery to you and to me how, how in the realm of God's sovereignty, there is man's volition. We don't get that. We, we think that because God has a decree that it is inconsistent with human freedom.

Well, for the first part, you must realize that, that man has no freedom because he's either a slave to Satan or a slave to God, right?

So man chooses based on who he is enslaved to, either child of the Lord or a child of the devil, a son of righteousness or a son of darkness. And so to say that it's inconsistent with human freedom is probably not a good phrase to use. Man has volition. Man has the capacity to choose, but when you choose to sin, although that is a part of God's decree, it is never his desire. Because sin and man's choice to sin is a part of his overall decree. For example, why did God allow sin to happen in the world?

You ever ask that question? Why would God allow sin to happen? Simply because man sinning will allow man to understand everything he needs to know about God. If God did not allow sin to come into the world, would we ever know about the justice of God? Answer? No. The forgiveness of God? Answer? No. How about the mercy of God? No. Grace of God? No. Love of God? No. You see, you only get a partial glimpse of God. But remember, God's thoughts are not your thoughts and his ways are not your ways. I mean, they're far beyond us.

So in the decree plan of God, he allowed sin to happen and to run its course so that man would come to know him. And as a result of that, God would receive the greatest glory. You see, it's all about the glory of God. We forget that. How does God obtain the greatest glory from his creation? Well, the decree plan of God lets you know that. He wants you to know him completely. In fact, the writer of Ecclesiastes said it this way, Ecclesiastes 7, 13, and 14. Consider the work of God for who can make straight what he has made crooked?

Answer? Well, nobody can. If God made it crooked, do you actually think that you can make it straight? No. In the day of prosperity, be joyful. Of course. But in the day of adversity, consider. Consider. Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find nothing that will happen after him. Solomon says, consider the day of adversity. When it happens, consider. Why does God allow that? So you will never, never, ever come to a place where you think you know it all. God has a plan, and you're never going to figure that plan out.

It's a decreed plan. You just need to trust him to accomplish his great purposes. That's what it is. It's all about the glory of God. Revelation 4, 11 speaks about how God is the one who is worthy to receive honor and praise and glory and dominion forever and ever. It's all about the glory of God. So the Lord will allow sin and sin to run its course. He would allow the chief of all angels, Lucifer, to rebel against him, be cast out of heaven, to lead a rebellion, to tempt man to sin, that sin would enter the universe and run its course so that God will be glorified.

Read the book of Revelation. He allows Satan to do what he does for those seven years so that when it's all said and done, he receives all the glory. That's a hard thing for us to swallow because we want the glory. But it's not about us. It's about God. See, it's all about God. And yet his desire is that you not sin. But in his decree, you do sin. So someone asked, does that mean that God tempts man to sin and cause of sin? No, he can't. James 1 says he tempts no man. We know that he's light and in him is no darkness at all, right?

He is completely pure, completely holy. He tempts no man to sin. When man sins, it's because he rebels against a holy God and does not want to submit himself to the plans and purposes of God. Then you say, well, that just is all about fatalism then. No, no. It's all about determinism, not fatalism. Big difference. Fatalism is about a person who is impersonal and irrational. We don't have a God who is impersonal or irrational. He is our father who is in heaven. Hallowed be his name. His kingdom is coming.

His will will be done because he is our God. Who is our father who cares for us more than we'll ever know. And we need to come to grips with that. And so we realize that there's a great mystery in terms of man's volitional choice in the realm of God's sovereign plan that's decreed. How all that works together. We will never understand this side of eternity. See, well, if God desires all men to be saved and they're not because of his decrees, that means that God has decreed some to go to hell. No, it does not mean that.

That means you're thinking logically and you're not thinking theologically. And our problem in the human realm was that we think too logically. As a Christian, you can't be a logical thinker. You must be a theological thinker. Because the Bible says that a man goes to hell, John 3 verse 36, because you will not believe on me.

Second Thessalonians 1, 6 to 8, that retribution comes and is dealt out against those who number one, do not know God.

And number two, who do not obey the gospel of God. So the Bible gives the answer. The reason man doesn't go to heaven is not because he wasn't decreed to go there. He doesn't go to heaven because he doesn't know God and will not believe in his name and will not submit himself to obey the gospel of God. That is the theological biblical answer. That's what God gives us. And that's all we can go by because that's the absolute truth. And therefore, because God, in his decreed plan, chose us to be redeemed, to show mercy on us as vessels of mercy would cause us to rejoice in the marvelous love and grace of God.

Our Lord has a plan and he has a desire. His desire is not for your loved one to die, but in his decree, your loved one will die. It's a point that a man wants to die. But God's desire is not that you experience pain and heartache and loneliness, you know, that's not his desire, but it's part of his decree. And it happens. And the two go hand in hand. And how that happens, you know, we'll never know this side of eternity. But God is in control. So let me conclude with this.

Let me unfold for you, unfold for you your purpose in two ways. If God has a decree that will happen no matter what, and I am to pray for thy will to be done, which is thy desire to be done on earth as it is in heaven, because God's desire is not always done on earth as it is in heaven, right? There is murder, there is sin, there is adultery, there's fornication, there's disaster, all part of the decree of God, but not his desire. David's sin with Bathsheba was a part of his decree. Although he never caused David to sin or to lust after Bathsheba, that was David's choice.

In the realm of God's decree, it was something that God allowed to happen. It was not his desire that David lust after Bathsheba and commit adultery with her. That was not his desire. But it accomplished the decree of God to bring about his sovereign purposes so that he would ultimately receive the greatest of all glory. That's how our God is. And so as we unfold our purpose in this prayer, two things must happen. Number one, you must yearn for his desire.

You must yearn for his desire. When we pray thy will be done, we are praying in all reality a rebellion against everything wrong in this world. We're against it. Jesus, he never accepted the status quo. At the beginning of his ministry, he went into the temple and he overturned the money changers tables and he took a whip and he ran them out of the temple. He never accepted the status quo. That was not the desire of his father in heaven. You have made my father's house a den of thieves. That was not his desire.

All of that was a part of the decreed plan of God and the working out of his perfect plan and purpose. But it wasn't the desire of God. So he never accepted the status quo. He did it 12, twice. In Matthew chapter 27, or 26, verse number 39, it was Jesus who said, if it be your will, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Nevertheless, not my desire. If there's any other way to accomplish redemptive's plan, let it happen. But nevertheless, not, not my desire, your desire, your plan.

Let it happen according to what you want, my father. We've already seen first Timothy 2, 4, that God desires all men to be saved.

He does. I yearn for that, don't you? Do you have family members that aren't saved? Don't you yearn for their salvation? You yearn for God's desire. He desires all men to be saved. So my prayer is in line. Lord, thy desire be done on earth as it is in heaven. I want my family members saved, Lord. I know you do too. Because that's God's desire, right? God's desire is that we live a pure and holy life. This is the will of God. Even the sanctification. This is the desire of God. Even your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality.

First Thessalonians 4, 3. I yearn for that. Do you yearn for that? To be, to be sexually pure and holy. Is that your desire? That's God's desire. Unfortunately, there are people who fall into sin. And they commit adultery. They commit fornication. In the realm of God's decree, but never God's desire within that decree. Just like it's not our desire. So we pray, we yearn for God's desire. We yearn that we might be spirit filled, controlled by Christ, right? Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, the desire of God is.

What is God's desire for your life? That you be, be filled with the spirit. That you be not drunk with dissipation, but that you be filled with the spirit of God. You be controlled by God's spirit. God's desire for you is that you be dominated by his spirit. You be dominated by his word, that it works in and through you, that you might live his life to the fullest. That's God's desire for you. But sometimes we don't do that, do we? We're not controlled by God's spirit. It's God's will. Listen carefully.

It's God's desire. Are you yearning for God's desire? First Thessalonians 5, 16. This is God's will concerning you, that you give thanks in all things. That's First Thessalonians 5, 18.

I'm sorry. That's God's desire. It's not God's decree because we don't always give thanks in all things, do we? If it was God's decree, we give thanks for everything all the time. That's God's desire. Do you want God's desire for your life? Then you'll give thanks in all things. Ephesians says you give thanks, listen carefully, for all things. So not only do you give thanks when you're in the middle of them, you give thanks because God brought them your way. Within his decree, he allowed it to happen that you might learn to give thanks to him.

That's his desire, see? So I am praying for God's desired will to be done in my life here on earth as it is in heaven, where God's desire is always perfectly fulfilled as he has designed it. Now we come and we say, Lord, I yearn for that. I yearn for that to happen in my life. I yearn for the salvation of those closest to me. I yearn to be spirit-filled, spirit-controlled because that's your desire for me. Lord, I yearn to give thanks in all things because that's your desire for me. Do you know that 1 Peter 2 says it's God's desire that you be, listen, submissive to authority?

That's God's desire. Yeah, we're not. I mean, it's not God's decree because if it was, we'd always be submissive to one another. But the desire of God is that we would line up ourselves under one another and defer to one another and submit to one another. Is that your yearning this morning? Do you yearn to desire with all your heart to submit to authority, to give thanks in all things, to be controlled and dominated by the Spirit of Almighty God? And just as a side note, 1 Peter 4, 19, do you know that it is God's desire at times for you to suffer?

It's more than his decree. It's his desire. That might be a little hard for some people to swallow. But, you know, sometimes God puts us in those situations so that his desired purpose for us will be accomplished. You say, well, why would God allow those difficult things to come into my life? You know, for one reason, that we might learn our helplessness and learn to cry out to Him. You know, we can become so independent and so autonomous that we live our life as if as if we're practical atheists.

God doesn't exist. We can do what we want, when we want, how we want. We don't need God. And so God allows, because of his desire in our lives, that we follow him and love him. 1 Peter 4, 19 says that there is a desire that we suffer for his glory, that we might learn helplessness. Psalm 107 speaks to that. Psalm 107, verse number 23, those who go down to the sea and ships, who do business on great waters, they have seen the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. Now think of a guy who whose life is on the sea.

He has seen the wonders of God, has he not? It says, for he spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. You know, when there's a tsunami, God spoke, lift up the waves of the sea. Did you know that? That's what the Bible says.

It says, they rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths, their soul melted away in their misery. These people who make their life on the sea, God spoke, the winds came, the waves rose high, they went up, they went down, they went up, they went down. And what caused all that? God. He did. Listen carefully. They reeled and staggered like a drunken man and were at their wit's end. And they were like, oh, we are going to die. It's over. We're up and we're down. We're sick and we're, we're, we're, we're just, we're going to die.

It's over for us. They're at their wits end. And then it says in verse 28, then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he brought them out of their distresses. He just wanted them to cry out to him. That's all. Do you know that in the midst of your suffering today, God is just looking for you to cry out to him in your distress. That's it. Just cry out to him in your distress that he might deliver you from all your troubles. That's it. And sometimes God allows that to happen just so you can learn to depend upon him and see how helpless you really are.

Do you ever think about that? You know, sometimes he, he, he does things. He's the author of calamity. Do you know, sometimes disaster comes simply because he wants to warn man of impending judgment. Remember Luke 13? This, the question was asked by the disciples. Why is it that, that Pilate would offer the Gentiles up as a sacrifice with all the other sacrifices he was committed? In other words, he was, he was actually killing people amidst his sacrificial offering. You know what Jesus said? You better watch out.

Same thing might happen to you. You better repent. And then he said, how about that, that, that tower in Siloam that fell over and killed 18 people? You know what? You better watch out. Same thing might happen to you. So let's say Jesus was around at 9 11 and he was being interviewed by someone on, on, on TV. You know what Jesus would say? You better watch out. Same thing might happen to you. People say, well, that's just so unloving, so uncaring. Doesn't he care about all those people who died? Yes, he does.

Sure he does. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But sometimes disaster happens to warn you about impending judgment. And he wants to warn you, repent or you will likewise perish, he says. Because you see, Jesus is concerned about your eternal soul. The people on TV today, they're not concerned about your eternal soul. Jesus is concerned about your eternal soul. So he says, you know what? You better repent right now or you will likewise perish. You'll die in your sins. And you don't want to die in your sins, do you?

So turn from your sins and follow me. But you see, if Jesus is today, we'd say, well, he just doesn't care. He's unloving. He's unkind. Oh no, quite the contrary. He is so loving. He warns of impending judgment, says, you know what? You better watch out unless you repent, you will likewise perish. And so within that realm of suffering, sometimes he allows those things to happen to show us our helplessness, to teach us about impending judgment and the need to repent before it's too late. Because you see, we're all going to die.

Some in a car accident, some by a heart attack, some because of cancer, some because a building falls on us, right? We're all going to die. The issue is not that you're going to die or even how you're going to die. The issue is are you prepared to die? That's Jesus's concern. That should be our concern. Are you prepared to meet your maker? Sometimes that suffering comes as a desire of God so that he will just simply display his glory. So in John 9, when the disciples are walking by the pool of Siloam and they say, well, who sinned, this man or his parents?

Because their belief was, well, this man is the way he is because he must have sinned or his parents sinned. And Jesus said, oh, neither. It's not about that. You know why he's born blind? So that today the works of God will be seen among man. Wow. Wow. Sometimes God allows suffering to happen so that he can display his marvelous work and marvelous glory for all to see in and through your life. Do you want that to happen? You yearn for his desire. You yearn for, you know, first Corinthians or second Corinthians one talks about the fact that, you know, the reason you suffer and God comforts you amidst your affliction.

So you'll comfort others when they face the like affliction. God wants to teach you about his marvelous comfort so that you can therefore comfort others. But, you know, we just don't, we don't want to be comforted by God. We just want to ask why we want to get bitter, get angry. We're not looking for the comfort of God. And God says, you know what?

I'm just doing this. Yes. So you'll depend upon me. Yes. So you'll give thanks. That's all in second Corinthians one.

But ultimately I'm going to do it because there's going to be somebody else who's going to come along in your life that you need to reach out to. And if you don't receive my comfort at this time, amidst your affliction, when they come, you can't do that. And I want to use you in their life. Will you let me comfort you so that you can be used in the life of somebody else?

That's a God who loves and cares for his people to make them just like him so they can help others become like him. See that yearn for his desire. Number two, yield to his decrees.

Yield to his decrees. The Bible says this in Psalm 40 verse number eight. I delight to do your will. Oh Lord. Do you? The Bible says in John 4 34, my food is to do the will of him who sent me.

You yield to his decrees. You know, verses in scripture sometimes because we memorize them at a very young age and they stick with us that when we get older in life, we kind of tend to take them for granted. We don't really understand what they mean. So let me give you an example.

The verse in Romans chapter eight, verse number 28 says, for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. I mean, most of us know that by heart, right? But that's a verse that, that's, that signifies and symbolizes our willingness to yield to the decrees of God. It begins by saying, I know. Not I hope. Boy, I sure hope all things work together for good. I don't know. But I know that all things work together for good. It's a phrase of certainty.

Paul knew that he knew that all things would work together for good. Remember way back in Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse number 15, the Lord God said this to pin a Moses. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water. He brought water for you out of the rock of Flint. In the wilderness, he fed you manna, which your fathers did not know that he might humble you and that he might test you to do good for you in the end.

You know, God led you through all that wilderness, all those scorpions and snakes. It was hot. But he did give you water. He led you to wilderness where there was no food, but he gave you manna. He gave you food. And of course, the word manna means, you know, what is it? Because he didn't know what it was. He gave you food. He gave you water. But he led you through that wilderness so that he would humble you. There was something good in that. He was bringing you to a place of humility. See, Paul would say, for we know that all things work together for good.

I know that. Do you know that? You can quote the verse, but do you know the verse? Big difference, isn't there? That means all suffering works together for good to those who love God and are called to his purpose. Ruth said it this way. I'm sorry, Naomi said it this way in Ruth 121. The Almighty has afflicted me. Jeremiah 24 5, God said to the Israelites, I acknowledge those who are carried away, captured from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good. A just God allowed the Israelites to suffer for their own good.

Peter says, when you've suffered for a while, he will refine you as gold. He would go on to say in 1 Peter 5, verse number 10, after you have suffered for a while, the Lord will make you perfect, complete in him. Paul says, we know that all things, that includes your suffering, that all things include your temptation. Did you know that? Your temptation works together for good. Well, how can my temptation work together for good? Well, simply because that temptation allows me to depend on God, right?

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10 13, there is no temptation taking you such as common to man, that God himself through his perfect plan will allow you a route of escape.

He wants you to depend upon him. He wants to drive you to prayer, right? Even temptation works out together for good because not only do you depend upon him, he drives you to prayer because you have a high priest, Hebrews 4, who can sympathize with your weaknesses. So as he drives you to prayer, you see a sympathetic God who cares for your condition. If all things work together for good, that means that the sin you have committed will ultimately work together for good. Did you know that? David committed sin with Bathsheba, but through that came Solomon, the king who would continue the kingly line.

Even his sin worked together for good because it helps us understand our God, his compassion, his mercy, his forgiveness, right? So even when I sin, I can go to my God and ask for forgiveness. It doesn't mean that we sin so that we can experience the mercy of God. God forbid. But when we do sin, the mercy and the love and grace of God is there. You yield to his decrees because I know that all things will ultimately work together for good. Oh, by the way, to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

Those who don't love God and are not called according to his purpose can't claim this verse. Only those who love God and are called according to his purpose can. See? Those who love God can say that all things work together for good. Those who have been called according to his purpose can say, why? Because God has a purpose. Once he's called you, he will glorify you, right? He will glorify you. And the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2.9, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

Listen, my friend, you can know for certain that everything in your life works together for good. There is nothing that's happened in your life, in the past, present, or future, that will not work out together for your good in God's glory. If you love God and are called according to his purpose. Esther Fields said it this way. Things just don't happen to those who love God. They're planned by his own dear hand. Then molded and shaped and timed by his clock, things just don't happen. They're planned.

We don't just guess on the issues of life. We Christians just rest in our Lord. We are directly by his sovereign will in the light of his holy word. We who love Jesus are walking by faith, not seeing one step that's ahead, not doubting one moment what our lot might be, but looking to Jesus instead. We praise our dear savior for loving us so, for planning each care of our life, then giving us faith to trust him for all the blessings as well as the strife. Things don't just happen to us who love God, to us that have taken our stand.

No matter the lot, the course or the price, things don't just happen. They're planned. And those who understand the disciples prayer, go to him and say, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name on earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. And thy desire be done in my life exactly as it is in heaven. That's what it means to pray God's way. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for today. The great joy that we have in your word and the opportunity we have to believe in what you said.

Our prayer this morning is that as we spend time around the Lord's table, that you'd help us understand your decree and your desire for our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.