August 12, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Praying for God's will to be done is easy. Actually
doing God's will can be more challenging, especially when your
focus is on earthly obligations. Today, on turning Point, doctor
David Jeremiah takes a closer look at the Lord's prayer
and how it connects with the heart of the heavenly
minded believer. Listen as David shares the encouraging conclusion of
(00:28):
his message, praying our priorities.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thank you for joining us. I am David Jeremiah
and it's my privilege to be with you each day
on this program as we open the Bible together. Today
we're talking about prayer, and we're discussing the fact that
when we pray and follow the pattern of the Lord's Prayer,
it has something to do with how we live our
(00:51):
lives every day. Because Jesus taught us to pray this prayer,
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. So is that happening? Are we
living that way? Important questions to ask and what priorities
of our life do not fit anywhere in that pattern?
(01:13):
How can we live our lives according to the purpose
and program that God has for us? That's our discussion.
We'll get to it in just a moment. Hey, there's
a beautiful study guide for this series that has all
the notes and outlines and questions and other scriptures to
look up. If you want to get a copy of this,
you can go to David Jeremiah dot org. There you
will find this study guide along with the book from
(01:35):
which it was originating. And there's also a package of
CDs that you can get where you'll get all the
audio teaching for the series. These are resources that are
very valuable, especially if you're interested in using them in
small groups Sunday school classes, or wherever you study the
Bible together with others. I hope you will take advantage
of that opportunity, especially during this series on prayer. Let's
(01:58):
open our bibles now to the sixth chapter of Matthew
and the discussion of our priorities.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Jesus said, when we pray, we're to pray Thy Kingdom
come within my heart all around me, and Lord, yes,
even come, come Lord Jesus. It is the last prayer
of the New Testament? Did you know it? Even so, come,
Lord Jesus, do you ever pray that?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
When you pray?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I dare say that doesn't get on my list as
often as it should. Lord, let your kingdom come within me,
around me, and then ultimately before me. Do you know
that the old Puritans used to do this? Let me
tell you how they lived. And I got to tell
you I'm not there yet. Obviously I'm not a Puritan,
so I'm not there. But they used to get up
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every morning and go to their windows, throw the window open,
and look up into the heaven and say maybe today, Lord,
maybe today. And the last thing before they go to
bed at night, they go to that window again and
look up into the eastern sky and say, maybe tonight, Lord,
maybe tonight. What were they doing? They were praying that
the kingdom would come. Now, as we get older and
(03:13):
we get beat up more and more, how many you know,
as you get older, you get beat up more and more,
you start praying for the kingdom more. I'll tell you
that your prayers start coming together. As you get older,
you start praying for the kingdom. Now, that's all theological,
and that's true. And what the Bible says is that
when we pray, we're to pray Thy Kingdom come, Thy
(03:33):
will be done. Francis have Hergil, one of the great
hymn writers has written a lot of hymns that we
sing in a lot that we don't, and one of
the hymns goes like this, ohe the joy to see
him reigning him, my own beloved Lord, every tongue his name,
confessing worship, honor, glory, blessing, brought to him with one
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accord him my master and my friend, indicated and enthroned,
unto earth's remotest and glorified, adored, and owned. That's the
way it'll be when the king comes in the kingdom age. Now,
as soon as we begin to pray, Thy Kingdom come
within us, around us, and before us.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
You can count on it.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
You're going to have some interesting days because do you
know there's more than one kingdom? Do you know that,
in fact, the Lord says, my kingdom is not of
this earth, and there is another king who is kind
of in residence right now. I know, people, especially Christian people,
have a hard time with this because we know that
God is ultimately in control. He's sovereign, but he's allowed
(04:38):
Satan to have his little time. He's on a long leash,
but he's sort of running things. He's the prince of
the power of the air. He's the kind of the
king right now? Is there any evidence of that out there?
I mean, God isn't running things day to day. He's
let Satan have his thing. One of these days he's
going to really men and cast him down, and he'll
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be gone forever, and then Jesus Christ will be king
in residence. But as soon as you sign on to
have the king reign within you, and you get excited
about what he's doing around you, and you start looking
forward to what's coming in front of you, you're going
to have a fight on your hands. And that's why
the scripture says this. Do you know this verse Matthew
six thirty three, look down in your bibles and find it.
It's right here in this text Matthew six's thirty one.
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Don't worry saying what are we going to eat? And
what are we gonna drink? And what are we gonna wear?
These are all the things that the gentiles of the
world seeks for. Your heavenly father knows you have need
of all these things. What are you supposed to do
about all the daily needs and the problems you have?
Here he says, this is what you do. This is
priority stuff. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
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and all these things.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Will be added to you.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
In other words, if you're a kingdom child and the
King's living within you, and you're working with the Kingdom
around you, and you're looking forward to the Kingdom who's coming,
then what you need to do is you need to
put the king first, Seek you first, the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Get your priorities straightened out.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
That's what he's saying. How many of you know that's
a lifetime task. Put in first things first, the Kingdom first.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
All right.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Now, that's sort of the theology of this prayer, Thy
Kingdom Come, But that's not really where the rubber meets
the road. In praying this prayer every day, that's my
priorities and the reign of Christ. But I want to
talk to you about my priorities and the rule of
Christ because the next part of the prayer is in
(06:25):
the theological discussion. It's a personal discussion. I will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, I
want your will to be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Richard Baxter, who was a great Puritan
writer and teacher, author of a book called the Saints
(06:46):
everlasting rest, and a man who preached as a dying
man to dying men because he was never sure to
preach again. He wrote in all of his books, and
whenever he signed anything, he always wrote this. It's kind
of his prayer, and in its old Puritan language, but
it goes like this, Lord, what thou wilt, where thou wilt,
and when thou wilt.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
That was his prayer. Now in our language today.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
What he was saying, Lord is whatever you want, wherever
you want it, and whenever you want it. That's what
I want. How many of us can pray that? How
many of us would honestly say, I'd like to pray that,
But it scares me to death to pray that, because
the whenever part's going to land me in Africa somewhere,
you know, or China or India or somewhere you know.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
That's really in the back of our minds, isn't.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It, I know?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Isn't it something We can trust the King.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
To take us to heaven forever, but we're afraid to
trust him to take care of us on the way
Jesus said, when you pray, here's what I want you
to pray. Disciples I want you to pray how it'd
be thy name, make sure you get God enthroned, and
then I want you to pray about priorities. Now, I
mentioned earlier that this prayer is an outline for our praying,
(08:02):
and I want to tell you what a joy it
was today I finally figured that out. I've learned how
to pray and journal with this is my outline. And
I don't want to give the rest of the outline away,
but just let me tell you that when you pray,
one of the great ways to pray is to start
with Hallod be thy name, and then you think about
all the good things you want to say to God.
You think about all the way you want to glorify him. Lord,
(08:25):
I want to praise you today. I'll tell you what
I've been praising the Lord a lot for lately, for
his attribute of long suffering with me.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Any of you ever think about that.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
God, you have to be the most long suffering God
to put up with me of anyone. I mean God,
Thank you for being patient. Thank you for your long suffering.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Lord.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I start over again on so many things, so many times,
and you have got to be the most Thank you
God for your patience, and I glorify God for that attribute. Well,
when you get done praising Him for however long you
do that and reflecting on it, and you take some time,
then the next thing you need to do is to
do your priorities. And your priorities come under this heading,
Thy Kingdom Come, that I will be done on earth
(09:04):
as it is in heaven. Now, some of you I
know are business people. Some of you are real go getters,
and you're into this thing where the night before you
get your yellow tablet out and you plan your day
for tomorrow. You got all your list and your agenda
and everything's just in order. And they say that if
you do that, you can work on it while you're sleeping.
(09:26):
Your subconscious mind works out. That's probably why you're not
sleeping so well lately. You know, you got all that
stuff going through you. And so you get up the
next day and you got your yellow pad and if
you're not careful, you say hi to God and with
your yellow pad.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
You rush into the day.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I want to suggest to you there's a better way,
and I've been learning that more and more as I
grow in Christ. You got to have your agenda, You
got to have your lists your stuff, but then pray
your priorities back to God. Let God infuse his priorities
into your list.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Do you know what he will do.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
He'll take some of the stuff that you thought was
at the bottom, and he'll put it back up at
the top. He'll take some of the stuff that was
in the middle, he'll take it clear off the list,
and He'll take those things and begin to massage them
until they reflect His order for your life. And there
is not anything in the world that is more exciting
(10:22):
as a Christian than to walk through a day with
God's order in your life being reflected.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
In everything that you do.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Everybody should have an experience like that, at least once
before they get to heaven. And yet God says, we
can know that every day my priorities reflecting God's priority.
So here's what I do. I have this little outline,
and I have my praise thing, and I do the praise,
and then I've got priorities. I have worked on my priorities.
(10:49):
Now my wife will tell you I still have a
lot of work to do, but I'm working on it.
And my whole life has been an adjustment to the priorities.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Who I am.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I've told some of you that when I started out
in the ministry, I started a church, just me and
my wife and seven families, thirty five of us the
first Sunday, and this church in Fort Wayne, Indiana was
our new thing. I'd been called to do this, and
I went there and we got all these families together.
And you know, when a church is small and there's
(11:23):
only seven families, everybody has a job. The first Sunday,
I pronounced all seven men deacons.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I remember that.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I said, I don't know if you're qualified or not,
but we got to have seven deacons, and you're it.
From now on here we go. Well, I was the
gross national product in that church. I was the preacher.
I cleaned the restrooms, I folded the bulletins, I typed,
I did everything. And I wanted that church to be
a success. I'm not sure what my spiritual motivation was.
I can't honestly reflect on that, but I know this,
(11:51):
I didn't want to fail, not in front of all
my peers who knew I'd gone to Fort Wayne to
start a church. Some of them, I'm sure we're predicting
it wouldn't work. I was going to prove them wrong.
So I took my goal and I put action to it.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Every night I went to visit. Every afternoon, I went
to visit.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I visited nights and afternoons, and Wednesday night after church,
and all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon. I was just
out knocking on doors, trying to meet people, tell them
about the Lord, tell him about the church. And during
that time we had added two members to our family.
Here I'm out doing the Kingdom's work and donea's home
with these two babies, and I remember the little question
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pretty hard to forget it, are you going to be
gone again tonight? Now, the difference with my wife and
your wife in many respects is that.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
She was in competition with God.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
You got it. I mean, I'm doing God's work. What
is she supposed to say? She would say, are you
going to be gone again tonight? And I would say woman,
And then we'd have this little discussion about my being
the gross national product and I had to go out
and do this work.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
He sat me down in the kitchen and she said,
I just want to tell you something. I'm not ever
going to ask you that question again, never again, because
you're the priest in this family, and you're responsible for
all of us, for the children, and for me, and
someday you're going to have to tell the Lord how
you did it. And so I'm just going to leave
it between you and him. Whatever you think he wants
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you to do with this family, you do it, and
I won't ask you that question anymore. Gotcha, I was dead.
It was exactly what I needed to hear. It changed
my life, changed who I was as a person. Now.
I know that those of you who know Donna wouldn't
think she'd ever be that confrontive, but every once in
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a while she is. And it's good. I begin to
work on my priorities at that time. And I've shared
some of these with you before, but they're so clear
to me, and they're so simple, and the simpler they are,
the better.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
And here they are. They're just like this.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I'm a person before God, and he's first. I have
to really work on my relationship with God. He won't
share his honor of glory. He won't share a first
place with anyone, not with your wife, your children, your church, anything.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
God has to be first.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Now I'm not talking about the ministry here, I'm talking
about a personal vital, daily, devotional individual relationship with God.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
That's number one.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It's got to be number one.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
So I'm a.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Person and I have a relationship with God. I'm a
partner and I have a relationship with my wife. Then
I'm a parent and I have a relationship with my children.
And then I'm a pastor and I have a relationship
with His church. And I hope you won't feel bad. Folks,
you're number four, But I want to tell you, any
pastor whose church is higher.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Than number four is already in trouble.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Because the church, or the ministry, or the job or
the task will take over your life. You know what
I'm learning. There are no conflicts in God's will. If
God has called me to be a father and then
he calls me to be a pastor, those two things
can't be in war with each other. They've got to
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be somehow merged so they can cooperate. So every day
I'd pray my priorities like this, God, your will be
done on earth as it is in Heaven, with me personally,
in my relationship with You, with my relationship with Donna,
my relationship with my children, and with the work that
You've called me to do at Shadow Mountain Community Church
(15:25):
and at Turning Point and the things that you've put
in my hand to do, and whenever I stay in
that groove, it is a wonderful thing to see how
God does his work. And it's always tested. It is
always tested. How many of you know that once you
get them set, it's like all hell breaks out and
somebody tries to unset them.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
And I've had that over and over.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And you have to know that when we have a
church this size, there's so many pressures and we have
a lot of them, and I'd blow it sometimes. I
know that, and I have to go back and say, Lord,
I missed that one. Let's try to get that back
and sync. But you see, I watch this when you're
praying your priorities every day. It's kind of like a
daily check system, isn't it. Every day you come back
and say, Okay, God, your will. I know what you
(16:08):
will is about you. I know what you will is
about Donna. I know what you're will is about the kids.
I know what you will is about the church. Your
will be done Lord. Yesterday it wasn't done so good.
Today we're going to do better. One day it was
about two thirty in the afternoon. This is back some
years ago when I was first getting this all together.
It was two thirty afternoon. A call came upstairs and
(16:30):
there's a guy here to see you, and he's in trouble.
He's hurting big time. He's got some kind of problem.
He wants to see you right now. Well, I said,
I can't see him. I got to be in Claremont
in twenty minutes. So I heard her get back on
the phone and she said, doctor jeremih he's getting ready
to leave. He's not going to be able to see
you right now, but there's some other men up here,
and she mentioned some other pastors.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
I could tell he wasn't.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Dealing with that too well just by the way she
was talking to him. And I didn't have time to
stay around and wait on it, so I said, I'll
see you, and I went down the elevator and I
had to walk through the lobby where the guy was.
And he was a bold fellow, which may have something
to do with why he was having trouble.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I don't know, but this is what he did.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
He walked right up and got his nose in my
face and he said, where are you going. Can you
believe that that anybody would do that to somebody as
nice as I am? I mean, I mean, he asked me.
So I said, well, if you must know, I'm going
to Claremont to watch David play basketball. And he went ballistic.
He said, you're what, You're going to a basketball game.
(17:35):
My life is falling apart, and you're not going to
see me. You're going to a basketball game. And you
know what, I don't believe I ever thought this out before.
And maybe I heard this somewhere and it lodged in
the back of my mind, or maybe the Holy Spirit
just gave it to me.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
But I remember what I said.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I said, sir, there are five men upstairs who can
help you, but my son's only got one dad, and
I'm gone. And you know what, I've never regretted that.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I've never regretted that.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
And I'll tell you what, if you start praying your priorities,
you'll be tested because Satan doesn't like God's priorities. I
hear all over the country this question, why is it
that Christian families are coming unglued like they're coming unglued?
Why are Christian young people so rebellious against the things
of God. I don't know all the reasons, but I'll
tell you one thing. You have the best shot of
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keeping that from happen when you get on God's track
of priorities and put things in the right and proper order,
and you don't elevate ministry above your family and let
your family suffer. No wonder, kids get mad at God.
God took away their parents. And I haven't been the
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best father in the world. And I know I haven't
been the best husband in the world. But I'll tell
you this, I know what my priorities are. And every
day when I pray my journal or what I'm just praying,
I pray these priorities. Lord, I will be done in
my life on earth this day, as a person, as
a partner, as a parent, as a pastor, as a professional, whatever, Lord,
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let your will be done. David said, I delight to
do thy will, O God, Jesus said, my meat is
to do the will of Him that sent me, For
I came down from Heaven, not to do my own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. Whosoever shall
do the will of my Father, the same as my
brother and sister and mother.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Doing the will of.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
God, praying the will of God, praying your priorities back
to God. I will be done on earth. Let me
ask you just one other question. How is God's will
done in heaven? How is it done? Do you think
the angels say? You know, Father, I know you asked
me to do that. Gabriel be better at that than
(20:01):
I am. Oh, yeah, I'll do that. I probably could
get around to that about next week. I've been looking
at all the angelic things I got on my list.
Now do you know how the will of God is
done in heaven? Listen carefully. The will of God is
done in heaven immediately, unconditionally, without any argument, without any discussion.
(20:28):
When God speaks, his will is done. But let me
just ask you this. If God's will has been expressed,
would it makes sense just to do it? Why would
you want to make it harder? Why would you argue
with him for six months and then do it? Because
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it's his will and there isn't going to be any change.
God's will is perfect. You can't get better than perfect.
And if you want God's will and he expresses his will,
do it on earth just like it's done in heaven. Yes, sir,
right now, without question, I will do it. One of
my favorite stories in rather modern church history is the
(21:09):
story of Dwight Lyman Moody. I get to go to
Moody Bible Institute and the Moody Church for one reason
or another. I'll be at Founder's Week, which is a
great week of ministry in the historic Moody Church. He's
forty two hundred people built in the old way with
round balcony clear around all these old wooden seats, place
where the Word of God has been preached faithfully over
(21:30):
many years. Dwight Lyman Moody was the founder of Moody
Bible Institute, Moody Radio, Moody Science, Moody Monthly, just about
anything you can imagine.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
He had something in Moody Aviation.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Back in eighteen seventy two, Dwight Lyman Moody was sitting
in a haymow in Ireland, and then sitting in that
haymow which was sort of a convoluted church, he was
listening to this man by the name of Henry Barley.
Henry Barley was speaking and he heard him say, in
a quiet way these words He said, the world has
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yet to see what God can do with and for
and through a man who is fully and holy consecrated
to do his will.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Five and a half.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Years later, Moody was sitting in Spurgeon's Tabernacle in London, England,
the great preaching palace way up in the balcony, and
the words of Henry Barley came back to him.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
In that tabernacle.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
He thought them over again with the man for a man,
through a man fully consecrated to God. In that day
in spurgeon Tabernacle, dwight Lyman Moody bowed his head and
in that great preaching palace he said, Lord, if there
ever was a man who would commit himself to such
a way of living, here he is. And he went
out from Spurgeon's tabernacle and set the world on fire.
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I wonder what would happen to all of us if
we could really say, in all honesty, in all sincerity,
every day, God, no reservations. I'm not going to argue
with you. Your will be done on earth today, just
as it's done in Heaven, in the kingdom that's in me,
in the kingdom that's around me, and the kingdom that's coming.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
God, Your will.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Be done, and I will do it as soon as
you show me what it is, I will do it.
If we start to live like that, things will start happening.
Because God has got a better plan for you than
you ever dreamed of for yourself, and He's just waiting
for you to say, yes, do it in your prayer
every morning, every day, How would be your name?
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Your Kingdom?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Come? Your will be done on earth just like it
is in heaven.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
You know, this prayer is not just about what we
say to God, but we discover as we learn to
pray this prayer that it has an impact upon the
way we live our lives, and that's really important. Tomorrow
we're going to talk about the prayer for provision. This
is the one part of the prayer that we're almost
always pretty good at. Give us this day our daily bread,
(24:09):
and we want God to provide for us, and oftentimes
that's the substance of our entire prayer. We just come
to Him when we need something. And of course you
see where this is. It's buried in the middle of
the prayer, not at the beginning of the prayer. Before
you ever get to the Lord and ask him for something,
you've already worshiped him and expressed your desire to do
His will. That's an important sequence in the prayer and
(24:31):
we're learning that together. And don't forget to ask for
your copy of this month's resource, Everything to God in Prayer,
a beautiful gift book with chapters on everything you ever
dreamed of praying about and how to go about doing it.
We'd love for you to have it for a gift
of any size during the month of August. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you've just heard came to you from Shadow
Mountain Community Church Senior pastor, Doctor David Jeremiah. Has the
Lord been moving in your life through this ministry? Tell
us how at Turning Point pobox thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. Visit our
website at Davidjeremiah dot org, Slash Radio, or call eight
(25:18):
hundred ninety four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your
copy of David's new book for strengthening your prayer life,
Everything to God in Prayer. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also stream more than twelve
hundred of doctor Jeremiah's messages on demand on any screen
with our streaming service Turning Point Plus. For a monthly
(25:40):
gift of any amount, visit turningpointplus dot org for details.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we
continue the series Prayer the Great Adventure on Turning Point
with doctor David Jeremiah
Praying for God's will to be done is easy. Actually
doing God's will can be more challenging, especially when your
focus is on earthly obligations. Today, on turning Point, doctor
David Jeremiah takes a closer look at the Lord's prayer
and how it connects with the heart of the heavenly
minded believer. Listen as David shares the encouraging conclusion of
(00:28):
his message, praying our priorities.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thank you for joining us. I am David Jeremiah
and it's my privilege to be with you each day
on this program as we open the Bible together. Today
we're talking about prayer, and we're discussing the fact that
when we pray and follow the pattern of the Lord's Prayer,
it has something to do with how we live our
(00:51):
lives every day. Because Jesus taught us to pray this prayer,
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. So is that happening? Are we
living that way? Important questions to ask and what priorities
of our life do not fit anywhere in that pattern?
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How can we live our lives according to the purpose
and program that God has for us? That's our discussion.
We'll get to it in just a moment. Hey, there's
a beautiful study guide for this series that has all
the notes and outlines and questions and other scriptures to
look up. If you want to get a copy of this,
you can go to David Jeremiah dot org. There you
will find this study guide along with the book from
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which it was originating. And there's also a package of
CDs that you can get where you'll get all the
audio teaching for the series. These are resources that are
very valuable, especially if you're interested in using them in
small groups Sunday school classes, or wherever you study the
Bible together with others. I hope you will take advantage
of that opportunity, especially during this series on prayer. Let's
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open our bibles now to the sixth chapter of Matthew
and the discussion of our priorities.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Jesus said, when we pray, we're to pray Thy Kingdom
come within my heart all around me, and Lord, yes,
even come, come Lord Jesus. It is the last prayer
of the New Testament? Did you know it? Even so, come,
Lord Jesus, do you ever pray that?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
When you pray?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I dare say that doesn't get on my list as
often as it should. Lord, let your kingdom come within me,
around me, and then ultimately before me. Do you know
that the old Puritans used to do this? Let me
tell you how they lived. And I got to tell
you I'm not there yet. Obviously I'm not a Puritan,
so I'm not there. But they used to get up
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every morning and go to their windows, throw the window open,
and look up into the heaven and say maybe today, Lord,
maybe today. And the last thing before they go to
bed at night, they go to that window again and
look up into the eastern sky and say, maybe tonight, Lord,
maybe tonight. What were they doing? They were praying that
the kingdom would come. Now, as we get older and
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we get beat up more and more, how many you know,
as you get older, you get beat up more and more,
you start praying for the kingdom more. I'll tell you
that your prayers start coming together. As you get older,
you start praying for the kingdom. Now, that's all theological,
and that's true. And what the Bible says is that
when we pray, we're to pray Thy Kingdom come, Thy
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will be done. Francis have Hergil, one of the great
hymn writers has written a lot of hymns that we
sing in a lot that we don't, and one of
the hymns goes like this, ohe the joy to see
him reigning him, my own beloved Lord, every tongue his name,
confessing worship, honor, glory, blessing, brought to him with one
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accord him my master and my friend, indicated and enthroned,
unto earth's remotest and glorified, adored, and owned. That's the
way it'll be when the king comes in the kingdom age. Now,
as soon as we begin to pray, Thy Kingdom come
within us, around us, and before us.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
You can count on it.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
You're going to have some interesting days because do you
know there's more than one kingdom? Do you know that,
in fact, the Lord says, my kingdom is not of
this earth, and there is another king who is kind
of in residence right now. I know, people, especially Christian people,
have a hard time with this because we know that
God is ultimately in control. He's sovereign, but he's allowed
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Satan to have his little time. He's on a long leash,
but he's sort of running things. He's the prince of
the power of the air. He's the kind of the
king right now? Is there any evidence of that out there?
I mean, God isn't running things day to day. He's
let Satan have his thing. One of these days he's
going to really men and cast him down, and he'll
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be gone forever, and then Jesus Christ will be king
in residence. But as soon as you sign on to
have the king reign within you, and you get excited
about what he's doing around you, and you start looking
forward to what's coming in front of you, you're going
to have a fight on your hands. And that's why
the scripture says this. Do you know this verse Matthew
six thirty three, look down in your bibles and find it.
It's right here in this text Matthew six's thirty one.
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Don't worry saying what are we going to eat? And
what are we gonna drink? And what are we gonna wear?
These are all the things that the gentiles of the
world seeks for. Your heavenly father knows you have need
of all these things. What are you supposed to do
about all the daily needs and the problems you have?
Here he says, this is what you do. This is
priority stuff. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
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and all these things.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Will be added to you.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
In other words, if you're a kingdom child and the
King's living within you, and you're working with the Kingdom
around you, and you're looking forward to the Kingdom who's coming,
then what you need to do is you need to
put the king first, Seek you first, the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Get your priorities straightened out.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
That's what he's saying. How many of you know that's
a lifetime task. Put in first things first, the Kingdom first.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
All right.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Now, that's sort of the theology of this prayer, Thy
Kingdom Come, But that's not really where the rubber meets
the road. In praying this prayer every day, that's my
priorities and the reign of Christ. But I want to
talk to you about my priorities and the rule of
Christ because the next part of the prayer is in
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the theological discussion. It's a personal discussion. I will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, I
want your will to be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Richard Baxter, who was a great Puritan
writer and teacher, author of a book called the Saints
(06:46):
everlasting rest, and a man who preached as a dying
man to dying men because he was never sure to
preach again. He wrote in all of his books, and
whenever he signed anything, he always wrote this. It's kind
of his prayer, and in its old Puritan language, but
it goes like this, Lord, what thou wilt, where thou wilt,
and when thou wilt.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
That was his prayer. Now in our language today.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
What he was saying, Lord is whatever you want, wherever
you want it, and whenever you want it. That's what
I want. How many of us can pray that? How
many of us would honestly say, I'd like to pray that,
But it scares me to death to pray that, because
the whenever part's going to land me in Africa somewhere,
you know, or China or India or somewhere you know.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
That's really in the back of our minds, isn't.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It, I know?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Isn't it something We can trust the King.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
To take us to heaven forever, but we're afraid to
trust him to take care of us on the way
Jesus said, when you pray, here's what I want you
to pray. Disciples I want you to pray how it'd
be thy name, make sure you get God enthroned, and
then I want you to pray about priorities. Now, I
mentioned earlier that this prayer is an outline for our praying,
(08:02):
and I want to tell you what a joy it
was today I finally figured that out. I've learned how
to pray and journal with this is my outline. And
I don't want to give the rest of the outline away,
but just let me tell you that when you pray,
one of the great ways to pray is to start
with Hallod be thy name, and then you think about
all the good things you want to say to God.
You think about all the way you want to glorify him. Lord,
(08:25):
I want to praise you today. I'll tell you what
I've been praising the Lord a lot for lately, for
his attribute of long suffering with me.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Any of you ever think about that.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
God, you have to be the most long suffering God
to put up with me of anyone. I mean God,
Thank you for being patient. Thank you for your long suffering.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Lord.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I start over again on so many things, so many times,
and you have got to be the most Thank you
God for your patience, and I glorify God for that attribute. Well,
when you get done praising Him for however long you
do that and reflecting on it, and you take some time,
then the next thing you need to do is to
do your priorities. And your priorities come under this heading,
Thy Kingdom Come, that I will be done on earth
(09:04):
as it is in heaven. Now, some of you I
know are business people. Some of you are real go getters,
and you're into this thing where the night before you
get your yellow tablet out and you plan your day
for tomorrow. You got all your list and your agenda
and everything's just in order. And they say that if
you do that, you can work on it while you're sleeping.
(09:26):
Your subconscious mind works out. That's probably why you're not
sleeping so well lately. You know, you got all that
stuff going through you. And so you get up the
next day and you got your yellow pad and if
you're not careful, you say hi to God and with
your yellow pad.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
You rush into the day.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I want to suggest to you there's a better way,
and I've been learning that more and more as I
grow in Christ. You got to have your agenda, You
got to have your lists your stuff, but then pray
your priorities back to God. Let God infuse his priorities
into your list.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
Do you know what he will do.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
He'll take some of the stuff that you thought was
at the bottom, and he'll put it back up at
the top. He'll take some of the stuff that was
in the middle, he'll take it clear off the list,
and He'll take those things and begin to massage them
until they reflect His order for your life. And there
is not anything in the world that is more exciting
(10:22):
as a Christian than to walk through a day with
God's order in your life being reflected.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
In everything that you do.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Everybody should have an experience like that, at least once
before they get to heaven. And yet God says, we
can know that every day my priorities reflecting God's priority.
So here's what I do. I have this little outline,
and I have my praise thing, and I do the praise,
and then I've got priorities. I have worked on my priorities.
(10:49):
Now my wife will tell you I still have a
lot of work to do, but I'm working on it.
And my whole life has been an adjustment to the priorities.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Who I am.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I've told some of you that when I started out
in the ministry, I started a church, just me and
my wife and seven families, thirty five of us the
first Sunday, and this church in Fort Wayne, Indiana was
our new thing. I'd been called to do this, and
I went there and we got all these families together.
And you know, when a church is small and there's
(11:23):
only seven families, everybody has a job. The first Sunday,
I pronounced all seven men deacons.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I remember that.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
I said, I don't know if you're qualified or not,
but we got to have seven deacons, and you're it.
From now on here we go. Well, I was the
gross national product in that church. I was the preacher.
I cleaned the restrooms, I folded the bulletins, I typed,
I did everything. And I wanted that church to be
a success. I'm not sure what my spiritual motivation was.
I can't honestly reflect on that, but I know this,
(11:51):
I didn't want to fail, not in front of all
my peers who knew I'd gone to Fort Wayne to
start a church. Some of them, I'm sure we're predicting
it wouldn't work. I was going to prove them wrong.
So I took my goal and I put action to it.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Every night I went to visit. Every afternoon, I went
to visit.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
I visited nights and afternoons, and Wednesday night after church,
and all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon. I was just
out knocking on doors, trying to meet people, tell them
about the Lord, tell him about the church. And during
that time we had added two members to our family.
Here I'm out doing the Kingdom's work and donea's home
with these two babies, and I remember the little question
(12:27):
pretty hard to forget it, are you going to be
gone again tonight? Now, the difference with my wife and
your wife in many respects is that.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
She was in competition with God.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
You got it. I mean, I'm doing God's work. What
is she supposed to say? She would say, are you
going to be gone again tonight? And I would say woman,
And then we'd have this little discussion about my being
the gross national product and I had to go out
and do this work.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
He sat me down in the kitchen and she said,
I just want to tell you something. I'm not ever
going to ask you that question again, never again, because
you're the priest in this family, and you're responsible for
all of us, for the children, and for me, and
someday you're going to have to tell the Lord how
you did it. And so I'm just going to leave
it between you and him. Whatever you think he wants
(13:20):
you to do with this family, you do it, and
I won't ask you that question anymore. Gotcha, I was dead.
It was exactly what I needed to hear. It changed
my life, changed who I was as a person. Now.
I know that those of you who know Donna wouldn't
think she'd ever be that confrontive, but every once in
(13:40):
a while she is. And it's good. I begin to
work on my priorities at that time. And I've shared
some of these with you before, but they're so clear
to me, and they're so simple, and the simpler they are,
the better.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
And here they are. They're just like this.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I'm a person before God, and he's first. I have
to really work on my relationship with God. He won't
share his honor of glory. He won't share a first
place with anyone, not with your wife, your children, your church, anything.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
God has to be first.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Now I'm not talking about the ministry here, I'm talking
about a personal vital, daily, devotional individual relationship with God.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
That's number one.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It's got to be number one.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
So I'm a.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Person and I have a relationship with God. I'm a
partner and I have a relationship with my wife. Then
I'm a parent and I have a relationship with my children.
And then I'm a pastor and I have a relationship
with His church. And I hope you won't feel bad. Folks,
you're number four, But I want to tell you, any
pastor whose church is higher.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Than number four is already in trouble.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Because the church, or the ministry, or the job or
the task will take over your life. You know what
I'm learning. There are no conflicts in God's will. If
God has called me to be a father and then
he calls me to be a pastor, those two things
can't be in war with each other. They've got to
(15:02):
be somehow merged so they can cooperate. So every day
I'd pray my priorities like this, God, your will be
done on earth as it is in Heaven, with me personally,
in my relationship with You, with my relationship with Donna,
my relationship with my children, and with the work that
You've called me to do at Shadow Mountain Community Church
(15:25):
and at Turning Point and the things that you've put
in my hand to do, and whenever I stay in
that groove, it is a wonderful thing to see how
God does his work. And it's always tested. It is
always tested. How many of you know that once you
get them set, it's like all hell breaks out and
somebody tries to unset them.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
And I've had that over and over.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And you have to know that when we have a
church this size, there's so many pressures and we have
a lot of them, and I'd blow it sometimes. I
know that, and I have to go back and say, Lord,
I missed that one. Let's try to get that back
and sync. But you see, I watch this when you're
praying your priorities every day. It's kind of like a
daily check system, isn't it. Every day you come back
and say, Okay, God, your will. I know what you
(16:08):
will is about you. I know what you will is
about Donna. I know what you're will is about the kids.
I know what you will is about the church. Your
will be done Lord. Yesterday it wasn't done so good.
Today we're going to do better. One day it was
about two thirty in the afternoon. This is back some
years ago when I was first getting this all together.
It was two thirty afternoon. A call came upstairs and
(16:30):
there's a guy here to see you, and he's in trouble.
He's hurting big time. He's got some kind of problem.
He wants to see you right now. Well, I said,
I can't see him. I got to be in Claremont
in twenty minutes. So I heard her get back on
the phone and she said, doctor jeremih he's getting ready
to leave. He's not going to be able to see
you right now, but there's some other men up here,
and she mentioned some other pastors.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
I could tell he wasn't.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Dealing with that too well just by the way she
was talking to him. And I didn't have time to
stay around and wait on it, so I said, I'll
see you, and I went down the elevator and I
had to walk through the lobby where the guy was.
And he was a bold fellow, which may have something
to do with why he was having trouble.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
I don't know, but this is what he did.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
He walked right up and got his nose in my
face and he said, where are you going. Can you
believe that that anybody would do that to somebody as
nice as I am? I mean, I mean, he asked me.
So I said, well, if you must know, I'm going
to Claremont to watch David play basketball. And he went ballistic.
He said, you're what, You're going to a basketball game.
(17:35):
My life is falling apart, and you're not going to
see me. You're going to a basketball game. And you
know what, I don't believe I ever thought this out before.
And maybe I heard this somewhere and it lodged in
the back of my mind, or maybe the Holy Spirit
just gave it to me.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
But I remember what I said.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I said, sir, there are five men upstairs who can
help you, but my son's only got one dad, and
I'm gone. And you know what, I've never regretted that.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I've never regretted that.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
And I'll tell you what, if you start praying your priorities,
you'll be tested because Satan doesn't like God's priorities. I
hear all over the country this question, why is it
that Christian families are coming unglued like they're coming unglued?
Why are Christian young people so rebellious against the things
of God. I don't know all the reasons, but I'll
tell you one thing. You have the best shot of
(18:29):
keeping that from happen when you get on God's track
of priorities and put things in the right and proper order,
and you don't elevate ministry above your family and let
your family suffer. No wonder, kids get mad at God.
God took away their parents. And I haven't been the
(18:51):
best father in the world. And I know I haven't
been the best husband in the world. But I'll tell
you this, I know what my priorities are. And every
day when I pray my journal or what I'm just praying,
I pray these priorities. Lord, I will be done in
my life on earth this day, as a person, as
a partner, as a parent, as a pastor, as a professional, whatever, Lord,
(19:17):
let your will be done. David said, I delight to
do thy will, O God, Jesus said, my meat is
to do the will of Him that sent me, For
I came down from Heaven, not to do my own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. Whosoever shall
do the will of my Father, the same as my
brother and sister and mother.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Doing the will of.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
God, praying the will of God, praying your priorities back
to God. I will be done on earth. Let me
ask you just one other question. How is God's will
done in heaven? How is it done? Do you think
the angels say? You know, Father, I know you asked
me to do that. Gabriel be better at that than
(20:01):
I am. Oh, yeah, I'll do that. I probably could
get around to that about next week. I've been looking
at all the angelic things I got on my list.
Now do you know how the will of God is
done in heaven? Listen carefully. The will of God is
done in heaven immediately, unconditionally, without any argument, without any discussion.
(20:28):
When God speaks, his will is done. But let me
just ask you this. If God's will has been expressed,
would it makes sense just to do it? Why would
you want to make it harder? Why would you argue
with him for six months and then do it? Because
(20:49):
it's his will and there isn't going to be any change.
God's will is perfect. You can't get better than perfect.
And if you want God's will and he expresses his will,
do it on earth just like it's done in heaven. Yes, sir,
right now, without question, I will do it. One of
my favorite stories in rather modern church history is the
(21:09):
story of Dwight Lyman Moody. I get to go to
Moody Bible Institute and the Moody Church for one reason
or another. I'll be at Founder's Week, which is a
great week of ministry in the historic Moody Church. He's
forty two hundred people built in the old way with
round balcony clear around all these old wooden seats, place
where the Word of God has been preached faithfully over
(21:30):
many years. Dwight Lyman Moody was the founder of Moody
Bible Institute, Moody Radio, Moody Science, Moody Monthly, just about
anything you can imagine.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
He had something in Moody Aviation.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Back in eighteen seventy two, Dwight Lyman Moody was sitting
in a haymow in Ireland, and then sitting in that
haymow which was sort of a convoluted church, he was
listening to this man by the name of Henry Barley.
Henry Barley was speaking and he heard him say, in
a quiet way these words He said, the world has
(22:04):
yet to see what God can do with and for
and through a man who is fully and holy consecrated
to do his will.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Five and a half.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Years later, Moody was sitting in Spurgeon's Tabernacle in London, England,
the great preaching palace way up in the balcony, and
the words of Henry Barley came back to him.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
In that tabernacle.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
He thought them over again with the man for a man,
through a man fully consecrated to God. In that day
in spurgeon Tabernacle, dwight Lyman Moody bowed his head and
in that great preaching palace he said, Lord, if there
ever was a man who would commit himself to such
a way of living, here he is. And he went
out from Spurgeon's tabernacle and set the world on fire.
(22:55):
I wonder what would happen to all of us if
we could really say, in all honesty, in all sincerity,
every day, God, no reservations. I'm not going to argue
with you. Your will be done on earth today, just
as it's done in Heaven, in the kingdom that's in me,
in the kingdom that's around me, and the kingdom that's coming.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
God, Your will.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Be done, and I will do it as soon as
you show me what it is, I will do it.
If we start to live like that, things will start happening.
Because God has got a better plan for you than
you ever dreamed of for yourself, and He's just waiting
for you to say, yes, do it in your prayer
every morning, every day, How would be your name?
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Your Kingdom?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Come? Your will be done on earth just like it
is in heaven.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
You know, this prayer is not just about what we
say to God, but we discover as we learn to
pray this prayer that it has an impact upon the
way we live our lives, and that's really important. Tomorrow
we're going to talk about the prayer for provision. This
is the one part of the prayer that we're almost
always pretty good at. Give us this day our daily bread,
(24:09):
and we want God to provide for us, and oftentimes
that's the substance of our entire prayer. We just come
to Him when we need something. And of course you
see where this is. It's buried in the middle of
the prayer, not at the beginning of the prayer. Before
you ever get to the Lord and ask him for something,
you've already worshiped him and expressed your desire to do
His will. That's an important sequence in the prayer and
(24:31):
we're learning that together. And don't forget to ask for
your copy of this month's resource, Everything to God in Prayer,
a beautiful gift book with chapters on everything you ever
dreamed of praying about and how to go about doing it.
We'd love for you to have it for a gift
of any size during the month of August. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you've just heard came to you from Shadow
Mountain Community Church Senior pastor, Doctor David Jeremiah. Has the
Lord been moving in your life through this ministry? Tell
us how at Turning Point pobox thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. Visit our
website at Davidjeremiah dot org, Slash Radio, or call eight
(25:18):
hundred ninety four seven nineteen ninety three ask for your
copy of David's new book for strengthening your prayer life,
Everything to God in Prayer. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also stream more than twelve
hundred of doctor Jeremiah's messages on demand on any screen
with our streaming service Turning Point Plus. For a monthly
(25:40):
gift of any amount, visit turningpointplus dot org for details.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we
continue the series Prayer the Great Adventure on Turning Point
with doctor David Jeremiah
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