Lord’s Prayer Week 2 Notes

May 4, 2014

Week 2: Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done, Matthew 6:7-13

Connecting:  If God’s kingdom were to come fully tonight while you were sleeping, identify one thing you think might be different when you woke up in the morning.

Background   Today we’re discussing the second request in The Lord’s Prayer which has to do with God’s kingdom coming to earth and God’s will being done on earth as it already is being done in heaven.

Have someone read the following from the Gospel of Matthew 6:7-13:

7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.
8  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9  “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.[1]”

 

Discussion 

  1.   “A simple definition of prayer is talking to God about what we are doing together.” Talk as a group about the different aspects or components of prayer that are included in this definition. What is involved in this understanding of prayer?

 

 

 

 

 

  1.  What do you think you’re praying for when you say, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?”

 

 

 

 

 

  1.  In the sermon, Pastor Doug said, “Everything that happens in the world is not the will of God. God wouldn’t have had to send Jesus to the world if everything that happened in the world was according to the will of God. Jesus wouldn’t have told his disciples to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, if it was already being done on earth.” How does this understanding account for some of the terrible things human beings do to other people if they are not the result of God’s will?

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1.  How would you describe the difference between being a Christian and a fatalist?

 

 

 

 

 

  1.  How would we know if God’s kingdom was in the process of coming or had come? How would you know if this petition was being answered?

 

 

 

 

  1.  What role do we have in the meantime before God’s kingdom has fully come to earth? What does the Lord expect of us?

 

 

 

 

 

  1.  How do we enter the kingdom of God Jesus talks about so much? What are some signs we are actively participating in God’s will being done on earth?

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1.  What hope do you draw from knowing that God’s will is done in heaven? What do you picture that being like?

 

Any final comments

 

A Prayer that teaches us to Pray by Dallas Willard  (say in unison)

Dear Father, always near us,
may your name be treasured and loved,
may your rule be completed in – us
may your will be done here on earth
in just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today,
and forgive us our sins and impositions on you
as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us. 

Please don’t put us through trials,
but deliver us from everything bad.

Because you are the one in charge,
and you have all the power,
and the glory too is yours – forever –
which is just the way we want it![2]

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Mt 6:7–13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[2] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (Harper: San Francisco, 1998)  p. 269

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