The Plan of Prayer
Notes
Transcript
The Plan of Prayer
Text: Matthew 6:5–15 (KJV 1900)
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are:
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9 After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
( For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.)
* Now, look with me once again at the beginning of our text this morning in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 5:
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are:
* I want to remind you of a few things before we get started this morning…
* The Lord ’s Prayer, is a continuation of the Sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5.
* Remember, that the main, or over reaching, theme of the entire Sermon on the Mount, or what we call the Beatitudes, is to show that the religion that the scribes and the Pharisees were teaching the people was entirely inadequate and unacceptable to God.
* Matthew 5:20 is the key to the entire Sermon on the Mount, which includes our text this morning in chapter 6, The Lord’s Prayer.
Matthew 5:20 (KJV 1900)
20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
* The religion of the scribes and Pharisees was just that- it was just empty religion.
* In Mark chapter 7 and verse 5 Jesus lays open for all to see the hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees:
Mark 7:5–9 (KJV 1900)
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? 6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
* The scribes and Pharisees had added so much of their traditions, to the Scriptures, that they had changed the worship of God into nothing more than self-centered hypocrisy.
* Over and over in chater 5 Jesus said “You have heard that it hath been said of old…” “But I say unto you…
* Look with me at Matthew chapter 5, and let’s kind of skim through it for time’s sake together… Look at verse 17:
Matthew 5:17–48 (KJV 1900)
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
* Now Jesus goes about setting things straight, teaching the Law of God the way it was before the scribes and the Pharisees corrupted the Word of God…
21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22 But I say unto you,
That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. 23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. 25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. 26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. 29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: 32 But I say unto you
That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: 35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
* The scribes and Pharisees taught men religion, not the true worship that God commanded in the Scriptures.
* The Scribes and Pharisees were only concerned with what was on the outside of a man- God is concerned with what is on the inside of a man.
* The scribes and Pharisees complained because the disciples of Jesus did not wash their hands before they ate, and they complained because they did not fast, they complained to Jesus that He touched a woman that was a sinner, they complained that Jesus and His disciples ate with people who were considered sinners.
* God hates religion. Religion is something that men have come up with to sooth their conscious, and not have to face the issue that God requires men to repent of their sin and have a clean heart in order to have a relationship with Himself- not just clean up the outside.
* God is interested in the condition of the heart on the inside of a man.
* This is why when Jesus talked with the woman at the well in John chapter 4, Jesus said:
John 4:23–24 (KJV 1900)
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
* As chapter 5 progresses, Jesus tells His disciples that every aspect of the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees was totally inadequate to get them to Heaven.
* Jesus attacks their giving, He attacks their fasting, Jesus attacks their Judging, and in our text, what we call the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus attacks their praying.
* Now I want you to see that the praying of the scribes and the Pharisees did not meet God’s standards, because of a very specific and simple reason-
* The scribes and Pharisees had the attitude that prayer was for them! Their praying was all wrong!
* Now, as we deal with the Lord’s Prayer for the next few weeks, we are going to see that in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus teaches that the true purpose of praying, is that prayer is for God, and not for us!
* We have been taught that prayer is for us to get God’s attention, in order to get God to do things for us- and that is entirely backwards!
* Jesus taught in the Lord’s Prayer that the true purpose of Prayer is for God to get our attention, in order that we might do things for Him!
* In the Lord’s Prayer we have several phrases:
- First of all- “Our Father which art in Heaven” indicating right off the bat that the purpose of praying is for “Our Father.”
- Then we have the phrase, “hallowed be thy name” indicating that praying is for the purpose of hallowing the name of God.
- Then we have the phrase, “thy kingdom come,” indicating that praying is for the purpose of furthering the kingdom of God.
- Now this morning, we will be looking at the phrase “thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
- Then, and only after we have firmly established that the purpose for praying is for God, do we have the phrases “Give us- our daily bread”- and “Lead us not into temptation,” and “Forgive us our debts.
- And even then, our praying is still all about God, and not about us, because when we pray “Give us our daily bread,” we are asking god to glorify Himself as the Great Provider. Our Jehova-jirah.
-When we pray “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” we are asking god to glorify Himself before the world as our Great Protector.
- When we pray “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” we are again asking god to Glorify Himself in us as our Savior, who made the ultimate sacrifice for our sin on the Cross of Calvary.
- So, even when we pray the phrases “Give us- our daily bread”- and “Lead us not into temptation,” and “Forgive us our debts- we are still asking God to put Himself on display in our lives.
* This is the ultimate end- the ultimate goal- the ultimate purpose- of true prayer- to bring glory to God, and not to spend our prayers focused on ourselves.
* Now, before we deal with our next phrase in the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 10:
Matthew 6:10 (KJV 1900)
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
* I need to lay a little bit of a foundation for our understanding so that I can deal with “The plan for Prayer.
* I want you to understand that there a great mystery about prayer. In our text, Jesus said in Matthew 6 and verse 8:
Matthew 6:8 (KJV 1900)
8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
* When it comes to prayer this morning I want you to understand right up front that there are some things that you will never understand about prayer.
* You might ask me, Brother Woody, if Jesus said, God already knows what we have need of before we ask Him, then is there any purpose to praying? If God already knows, then why does God expect me to pray?
* You might also ask “And if God can do anything and we know that He can, then why does he tell us to keep praying persistently and not faint?
* Well, my great theological answer to you would be… wait for now, this is a deep truth… I don’t know.
* God has placed some things in the Bible that He does not intend for you to fully understand. We call these things Paradoxes.
* I don’t want you to go around feeling bad about yourself because you don’t understand these things, because God does not intend for you to understand certain things that you encounter in the Bible.
* The Bible tells us that Prayer has the potential for great power, but I cannot understand why a sovereign God desires us to pray. It is above my understanding, and I’m going to let you in on a little secret- neither does anybody else!
* God does not see fit to explain in the Bible how praying fits into the fact that God is sovereign, and unchangeable, but the Bible is full of exhortations for us to pray.
* Because God says so, we believe that prayer makes a difference in our lives. Because God says so, we believe prayer changes things!
* I believe that prayer is effective, I believe that prayer works. We see the power of praying written all over the bible.
- Abraham's servant prayed and Rebekah appeared
- Jacob wrestled and prayed and prevailed with Christ and Esau's mind was turned away from twenty years of waiting for revenge.
- Joshua prayed and Akan was discovered.
- Hannah prayed and Samuel was born.
- David prayed and Ahithophel hanged himself.
- Asa prayed and victory was won.
- Jehoshaphat prayed and God turned away his enemies.
- Isaiah and Hezekiah prayed and in twelve hours a hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrians were slain.
- Mordecai and Esther prayed and the plot to destroy the Jews was thwarted and Haman was hanged in his own gallows.
- Nehemiah prayed and the king's heart was softened in a moment.
- Elijah prayed and there were three years of drought and he prayed again and it rained.
- Elisha prayed and a child was raised from the dead. Believers prayed and Peter was released from jail. And so on and on it goes thourghout the entire Bible!
* I believe prayer works, I believe prayer is effective because there is a record of its effectiveness revealed in Scripture.
* But beyond that there is the explicit statement of the Word of God itself that prayer is effective.
* In James chapter 5 and verse 16 it says, "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
* In that same passage in James, James also gives us an illustration of the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availing much.
* James goes on to say that
"Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."
* You say, ah but that's Elijah, I mean Elijah's a prophet. And so James throws in the little phrase, but Elijah was a man of like passions as we are.
* If God answered Elijah's prayer God will answer our prayers. We
may not be able to pray and call down fire from heaven like Elijah did, because we don't have a revelation from God that that is His will.
* but, when we are in agreement with God's will, we have the same right to expect God to show His power in our lives when we pray.
* "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
* Jesus said we are to pray always and not to faint. Paul said we are to pray without ceasing. Paul said we are to pray always with all prayer and supplication.
* We believe God answers prayer, very specifically and very directly, God answers prayer.
* Now that brings up a very interesting issue.
* The phrase that we want to concentrate on this morning in our study is the phrase, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
* In just saying that phrase you're immediately faced with a dilemma. Do we really need to say, God, Your will be done?
* Isn't God sovereign anyway? Isn't that a rather useless thing to say?
* Isn't it apparent that God's will will be done? Now some people have even taken this concept so far that they question the validity of prayer altogether.
* The question always comes up, is not God absolutely sovereign, doesn't He not only know the beginning and the end, and has He not already determined everything before it even happens?
* Isn't God in charge of everything? And if He is in charge, and it's all working according to His plan, and it's all flowing down the way He wants it to flow, then why are we praying, "Thy will be done."?
* Isn't God’s will being done it anyway?
* And then the question comes, does God change His mind?
* Are we really praying to get God to do something other than what He had planned to do?
* Someone else may say, If God will hear our prayers and change things, then does not that make our will prevail over God's will?
* Does God will a certain thing, but if we're persistent enough, then He says ,”well if you're going to be that persistent about it” go ahead and have things your way?
* The you might ask “Does God have to answer our prayers at all?
* Just how does prayer fit in to who God is?
* I guess you could sum the whole thing up by asking two very simple questions, if God is sovereign why the need to pray?
* Or maybe another question, if prayer changes things, then how can God be sovereign?
* Now I believe that there is an answer to this, but I don't know what it is! Neither does anybody else!
* This is just one of the many great paradoxes of Scripture. That tells me again that the mind of God is infinitely beyond my own mind, for this is an impossible dilemma, for me. But not for God!
* Jesus told his disciples that it was harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, that for a rich man to go to Heaven. This amazed and confused his disciples to no end! But Jesus said that anything is possible with God!
* The majesty of God, the incredible gap between the best of human thinking and the knowledge of God, is illustrated to me in the fact that I have no ability to resolve such an apparent contradiction, that praying has the power to changes circumstances.
* But this is no contradiction at all in the mind of God.
* And it can be illustrated so many ways. For example if I say to you, who wrote Matthew?
* I'll probably get two answers; some will say Matthew and some will say the Holy Spirit, which is right?
* Well, you say, it was Matthew and the Holy Spirit. What do you mean?
* Did Matthew write a verse and then say all right Holy Spirit Your verse, and back and forth? No. They didn't alternate verses or chapters or sections.
* Was Matthew nothing but a robot and the Holy Spirit dictated it through him?
* No. Because it's Matthew's heart and soul, it's Matthew's feelings, it's Matthew's vocabulary, it's Matthew writing, but it's the Holy Spirit writing too!
* You say, you can't be 200% of something! No, not in your mind, but evidently in God’s mind, anything is possible!
* And that's just a good reminder of where you are in comparison to where God is.
* If I say to you, who lives your Christian life? You say, not I but Christ liveth in me. And yet Paul says, I beat my body to bring it into subjection.
* Who's living the Christian life then” Are you doing it, you or is Christ that lives in you? The nswer is Both, it’s got to be all of you, total commitment, presenting your body as a living sacrifice, but it's also all of Christ at the same time.
* How can it be all of me and all of Him? Well it can't be- in our reasoning-
* but that proves once again that God’s thinking is infinitely beyond our ability to understand or comprehend.
* If I ask you, was Jesus God or man, what's the answer? The answer is Yes.
* It's like the old question, is it colder in the mountains or in the winter? Yes.
* Again you have a paradox. Jesus is God, 100%, Jesus man, 100%; You say “He can't be 200% of something!”-
* but that understanding is only in our minds, because of the limitations of our conception. That's a paradox.
* How did you become a Christian? You say, it was settled before the foundation of the world, I was chosen in Him, He wrote my name in the Lamb's book of life, it was all predetermined.
* But how did you become a Christian? I came because I chose Jesus Christ. Was it you or Him then? Was it Both, you and God, Was it all you? The Answer is Yes. It was all God, but I chose to believe!
* Well how can we possibly understand both of those things?
* I believe both of them,- and do me a favor when you find those kinds of paradox in Scripture, and you'll find them at all the points of great doctrine, don't come up with something in the middle and ruin both truths.
* That's what the temptation is when we try to understand something that God does not intend for us to understand, just believe.
* It's like the guy who said, salvation is- God throws one vote for you, the devil throws a vote against you and you cast the deciding vote.
* That isn't true. That is foolishness! Don't try to find some middle ground between seeming conflicting truths, let them exist together in the mind of God!
* God is sovereign, God has predetermined the flow of the universe, God knows the end from the beginning; God will do what God will do.
* On the other hand prayer works, if you don't understand how those things come together don't let your theology destroy your prayer life.
* And that happens. That kind of attitude that says, well it's all going to be done His way anyway, so what's the need to pray? Literally denies the Scripture.
* Now in looking at the phrase "Thy will be done," we open up for ourselves an incredible amount of understanding and you can relax because we're not even going to begin to cover it this morning,
* "Thy will be done," can have a negative connotation and I want to point out three things that “they will be done,” does not mean.
1). Praying “thy will be done” should not mean that we are left with bitter resentment because God’s will is done in our lives.
* Praying “thy will be done” doesn't mean that you just say, oh Your will be done! I can't fight it, You're too big. I give up, as if God was sort of a cosmic killjoy, goes around saying, there's one having fun, get 'em.
* Praying God’s will be done does not mean that God is committed to raining on everybody's parade!
* Some people pray “Thy will be done” with a bitter resentment that God’s unavoidable fate, is going to take over no matter what we pray. This is not what Jesus meant as the spirit of praying “thy will be done.”
* There are people who pray ”Thy will be done,” with an attitude of bitter resentment.
* In other words it is a statement of someone who believes they cannot escape from the inevitable, and they're just mad about it.
* Now I believe this kind of attitude toward praying is built on a lack of knowledge about God.
* Someone with this kind of attitude toward prayer thinks that God is an oppressive, dictatorial, overbearing, selfish, cruel individual, and so praying “Thy will be done,” is done with bitter resentment.
* William Barclay says, "Some people say Thy will be done not because they wish to say it, but because they've accepted the fact that they can't possibly say anything else.
They have accepted the fact that God is too strong for them, and that it is useless to batter their heads against the walls of the universe."
unquote
* You may have been through that in your own life. You may have come to some situation in your life where you say, Thy will be done almost with clenched teeth!
* Maybe in the loss of a dear precious child, someone you loved, a broken love, or because of health problems, and you said, God, Your will be done bitterly in your heart.
2). The second way not to say "Thy will be done," is to pray it with a passive resignation, or a sort of indifference that says, well whatever will be will be!- Whatever will be will be, that's just the way it is, you can't fight it!
* I hear people say “Well, the Bible tells us that that’s the way things will be…” I want you to understand something- that is not the way Jesus prayed!
* Praying “Thy will be done” with a Passive resignation, creates a bitter resentment that is based on a lack of knowledge about God.
* Praying “thy will be done” with a sense of passive resignation, is built on a lack of faith.
* When you pray “Thy will be done,” and don't really believe God can change things, or that God will do what you ask Him for, will have a negative effect on your prayer life, because praying with that attitude is rooted in a lack of faith.
3). Thirdly, there is another way not to pray “thy will be done” that sometimes creeps into our prayer life is what, we will call for lack of a better term, “theological reservations.”
* Some people just say, "Thy will be done," and then they file their prayer requests it in their little theological box-
* There is no passion to their praying! There is no crying out and pleading with God to answer their petitions! To this person Prayer becomes a dead, lifeless, powerless ritual!
* Listen; if your theology has caused the elimination of your persistence in prayer- you've got a bad theology!
* Theological reservation- has sucked the life out of a lot of prayer!
* If you've come to the place: where your theology, and your perspective on God, has brought you to a point of indifference in prayer, then your theology isn't biblical!
* Now granted, God is sovereign and how your prayer life fits into that is a very difficult mystery that I can't explain, and neither can anyone else this side of heaven.
* but, but we cannot deny that God desires that His people pray reverently and passionately! And that that kind of praying has the power of God behind it to change things!
* but weather we understand or not, how a sovereign God can answer our prayers, and still do His will, the real issue with God is, obedience to His command to pray!
* The command to pray with persistence until we get an answer from God is to be part of your theology too, and I’m talking about the kind of persistence that Jesus had when He prayed three times in the garden persistently calling out to God to remove the cup from Him, but nevertheless, thy will be done!
* And as Jesus gave us the perfect illustration of coming to God in prayer with persistence, God intends for us to also pray that way.
* So, we don’t negatively pray "Thy will be done," with bitter resentment, we don't say it with passive resignation, and we don't say it with some kind of theological reservation that just sort of categorizes
Everything in God’s will…
* Praying “thy will be done” is done more of a spirit of rebellion to that fact that God’s will is not being done on the earth right now!
* God’s will is being done in heaven right now, but it definitely not being done on the earth as it is in heaven right now.
* When we say, "Thy will be done," we're not just falling over dead.
* Like Jesus said in Luke 18:1, "We ought to pray at all times, and not faint."
* We're not just fainting or resigning to the fact that God will is being done, but we are rebelling against the fact that in this world, God’s will is not being done, and we want it to be done!
* In that frame of mind, then we are resisting some things, we are
Rebelling against the world in it's falleness!
* We are saying, Your will is not being done in this world,
Satan has too much power here, Your will is not being done in the hearts of men they are turning their back on You, Your will is not being done in my life and the life of other believers who are living in
Disobedience!
* And we are rebelling against the world in its falleness, we are rebelling against the rejection of Christ, we are rebelling against the disobedience of believers in prayer!
* It is not the will of God to lay down and accept that everything that happens on the earth is God’s will!
* God doesn't accept the world that way or He wouldn't be busy changing the way the world is!
* Jesus wouldn't say that He came into the world to destroy him that had the power of death if He wanted to tolerate death!
* God wouldn't make a millennial reign in which there was the absence of disease if He wanted to tolerate disease!
* God would not wipe away every tear in eternity if He wanted to tolerate sorrow and crying!
* When we pray “they will be done” we cry out No! We will not accept things the way they are! And we call on God to change them and set them right!
* When we pray, "Thy will be done," we rebel against the world in all its falseness, and the sorrow, and the sin, and the disease, and all the things that come as a result of sin!
* The phrase "Thy will be done," does not accept things the way they are!
* I think the classic illustration of this is what Jesus did twice in his ministry.
* The prophet Zechariah said that the Messiah would come suddenly to His temple. When Jesus came to His father’s house, the temple, at the beginning of His ministry, He didn't go in and say, well, look what's going on, well, oh well, it's the will of God and walk away.
* Jesus rebelled, with everything inside of Him Jesus rebelled against the way things are in this world!
* Jesus was indignant, Jesus was furious, Jesus was angry with righteous anger, He made a whip, He started flipping over tables, He started chasing people out, He started lashing at people with a whip!
* Jesus did not only do this once in His, life but He did it twice!
* They got out of there fast! They were in there to make money and if they left without any!, imagine the fury that Jesus unleashed!
* Why? Because Jesus refused to accept the status quo, in His day! Jesus refused to tolerate the way things were!
* Jesus would not tolerate the way the world is in sorrow and sin
and sickness either, that's why He died! That's why He healed people! That's why Jesus raised the dead!
* Jesus refused to accept the world the way it is because it did not glorify his Father! Jesus refused to accept the world the way it was because God’s will was not being done!
* Jesus did not accept the world the way it was then, and neither should you and I accept the kingdom of this world the way it is now!
* and that my friends, is the reason why we pray!
* We are to cry out in prayer with the attitude, “Lord, your will is not being done in the world around me, and I want you to change the world around me, and change my life, until you will is being done in my life just like it is in Heaven!
* Our prayers should be "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."
* Now, Jesus was no fatalist even though He knew the end from the beginning!
* That amazes me, and that is a tension that I hold in my own mind- that Jesus knew the end from the beginning and yet never accepted the way things are in the world.
* Immediately after Jesus preached this great sermon on the mount, attacking the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees, trying to get the people to see that God was not pleased with their worship- the Bible says that Jesus left and went up into the mountain, into a solitary place and prayed.
* What did Jesus pray? I am sure that Jesus prayed that God would change the status quo- the ignorance of the people, - that His father’s will would be done in the world.
* When went alone and communed with the Father night after night in the garden He really believed it would do some good. Jesus really believed that praying would change the world! And so should we! When we pray!