[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the leaders notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. Dr. Rutland is a world renowned leadership expert. He is a New York Times bestselling author and he has served as the president of two universities. The Leader's Notebook is brought to you by Global Servants. For more information about Global Servants, please Visit our website, globalservants.org Here is your host, Dr. Mark Rutland.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: I got a note the other day from a family that said they had been teaching their five year old to say the Lord's Prayer.
And they said, she says it perfectly except for one thing. She says, our Father, which art in heaven, Hollywood be thy name.
I hope they can break her of that. Hello, I'm Mark Rutland. Welcome to the Leader's Notebook. We're in the middle of a series on the Lord's Prayer. This series is based on my book, 21 seconds to change youe World.
And at the end of this podcast, someone's gonna tell you how you can get that book. I want you to have it and I think that you're gonna wanna get it for some of your friends and people that you care about. It's a great book, say, for example, for a home cell group, a study group, and I know you'll enjoy it and be blessed by it. This book is very close to my heart and I believe that it is a unique look at the Lord's Prayer. Where does the title come from? 21 seconds to change a World. That's about how long it takes to pray the Lord's Prayer.
Now, the book is actually a combination of studies. It's a study on the Lord's Prayer as it connects to and relates to the 23rd Psalm.
And so I think you'll enjoy the connection. There's much more connecting tissue between these two great devotional classics than you might imagine.
Today I want to zero in on the phrase, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. At the end of the broadcast, we're going to pray the Lord's Prayer together. I've tried to do that at every single one of these because if nothing else, at least we pray the Lord's Prayer together every single time. And I, I'm going to invite you to pray the Lord's Prayer with me as we come to the end of this broadcast.
Kingdom usually means a geographical area over which a king rules. Certainly there is that implication in the Lord's Prayer where Jesus says to pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
Jesus prayer may be seen entirely as a petition that God's borders, his kingdom's Borders should be extended.
Indeed, we know that at last he will shall rule over everything.
His kingdom will be over every kingdom. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God. That's what it says in Romans, chapter 14, verse 11.
There is coming a new heaven and a new earth. Revelation 21:1.
And Jesus will be there, not as a rabbi, but he's not going to be the suffering servant of Isaiah. He's going to be Chris's victor, the conquering monarch. Christ, our victorious champion, prayed that way. Then the Lord's prayer is a plea that his soon return and ultimate victory over evil will be finally and forever established, and that evil will be vanquished and that God's perfect will, perfect kingdom is in this new earth, just as it is now in heaven would be established. That prayer then becomes maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus, and come quickly.
I remember many years ago when I was a student at seminary, I played on the seminary softball team. And it was a blazing hot afternoon and we were losing to some fraternity. And the shortstop who was on the seminary team with me, but a real liberal, he called time out and came over to me and he said, I know you believe in the second coming of Christ. I said, I sure do. He said, well, I never have believed in it before, but this would be a great time. I never forgot that.
So if you take it in that way, it is a prayer, a plea. Lord, come quickly and may your kingdom be established. Thy kingdom come.
Interestingly enough, the phrase on earth as opposed to in earth, is used in most modern translation of the Lord's Prayer.
In the King James Version, it translates in Earth on earth lends itself to this concept of final victory. The view of the petition for the return and the establishment of Christ's eternal kingdom.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with seeing the prayer that way and praying it that way. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is perfectly wonderful thing to pray for. May his final kingdom come on earth. Amen. Amen and amen.
May rebellion be vanquished. May his will be done. Amen.
There is, however, another possible application of this mysterious part of the prayer.
In the King James Version, which I use in my book and which I've used in my own devotional life my whole life.
The Lord's Prayer is translated, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth.
Indeed, the oldest English translations almost universally use in While it is always a dangerous thing. To base your theology on prepositions, let us assume for a moment that in is the word closest to what Jesus actually meant.
That potentially changes everything.
The more ancient of the two prepositions, in or on, makes the petition sound decidedly more personal.
The reason is that when I pray in Earth, it seems to change the meaning of earth as well, on changes to in and earth changes in its meaning.
Praying for God's kingdom on earth seems to apply on the globe, if you will. On the earth, the planet Earth.
Praying in Earth cannot possibly mean the globe.
The Lord's Prayer is hardly journey to the center of the earth inside. What then, if in earth, in what? What does the earth mean there?
The answer may be in the story of creation.
All of us who are the sons and daughters of Adam are made of earth.
When we have in mind our common substance and origin, the first petition of the Lord's Prayer becomes a passionate prayer, personal longing.
Now the prayer is not so much for Christ's triumphant return and the establishment of his millennial reign, but a heart's cry for inner transformation through total submission.
Instead of a prayer for Christ's return to establish a new earth, I am pleading now to become a new person.
If he had prayed in that way. The earth is changed not necessarily to be the planet Earth, but the earth that is us. We are made of Earth.
Genesis 3:19 says, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
We know this, but we hardly enjoy talking about it. The earth which is us can be changed. As Jesus said, the kingdom of God is within you In Luke 17:21, the kingdom of God is within you.
So think of the prayer, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Think that prayer now might sound something kind of like this.
Lord, may your kingship be established in the earth that is me.
May your will be done in my life.
I am no angel, Lord, dwelling in the heavenly realm. I am me, a self living on earth in an earth body.
I am earth living on earth, capital E.
I am made of earth. Yet I belong to your kingdom and your will, and I long for your will to be done in my life.
My kingdom has not worked out so well.
May Yours, O Lord, be established in this oh so kind earthen vessel which is me.
Doing my will has brought me nothing but frustration and failure.
Now, O Lord, let yours be done in the earth which is me.
You see, this is really the aching desire of earth for heaven to come and live within.
It might be said that it is a plea for a Little incarnation.
It is not as modest a prayer as you might think.
Absolute submission to the will of another. Any other besides ourselves goes hard against the grain of us.
Even if that other is God himself, our carnal selves. The gritty earth of us wants to pray. My kingdom come, My will be done.
In part, that is simply because our will is ours.
Earth wants its own way.
Selfishness comes easily to us. We have a knack for it. We are gifted at selfishness.
We have a knack for sin.
I know I have never had to work very hard at being proud, independent, self willed and stiff necked.
I have a gift for it. We all do.
That is fallen earth's bent to sinning.
There is another reason that is less about rebellion and more about what we believe to be true. About God's will.
Many years ago, the late and deeply minted friend, my mentor, Dr. Tommy Tyson, spoke this into my life in a wonderful way.
I was a very young Methodist pastor considering to resign my Methodist church and launch out into an itinerant ministry, traveling from church to church and country to country.
I was sharing this late at night one night with Dr. Tyson and my wise and experienced veteran mentor. And just pouring it out to him was a real treat.
At least I thought so at first.
So I moaned to him, I don't want to do this. I just want to pastor my church. But I think God is calling me to this very much against my will. Oh, Tommy. I said, I just, I don't want to do this.
Tommy laughed that infectious big belly laugh that he always had. And he said, well, you're lying.
It was such a shock, but at the same time it was always hard to take offense at Tyson. He was just so jolly. I said, why Tommy, what a thing to say to me. He said, well, you are. You're not lying to me, you're lying to yourself.
You want to do this so badly you can taste it, but you're afraid to admit it.
I said, I'm not at all sure you're right about that.
But if you are, why would I do that?
He laughed again. He said, because you're just like the rest of us.
We think that God's will is very like medicine. Unless it tastes bad, it just isn't doing you any good.
Well, Dr. Tyson was right, of course, as he always was. It seems I did want to do it. And I was afraid to admit it. Isn't that strange? I wanted to do it. I think God wanted me to do it. I thought we were in perfect agreement on it. And Yet I just had a terrible time coming to the place where I could say I desire this. I wanted it somehow to be that God was forcing me to do it.
I wonder if he was right about why we tend to make God's will seem unpalatable.
The wonderful truth is that God is a good and loving God, and His will for us is good always.
We need not fear to pray Thy will be done.
That simple phrase of only four words is the essential key to all happiness.
I cannot pray myself into a life free of all pain and suffering.
I can, however, pray myself under his kingship and into his will. And there I will find a place that is safe from all the pain and misery that my will unleashes in my own life.
A young minister shared with me his newfound peace of mind relative to his place of service.
He talked with me about his struggle to be happy where he was.
There had always been a turmoil within him, an inner warfare to give his best where he served, yet always longing for something more, for someplace different, bigger, mostly, I think, a bigger church.
Though he seemed reluctant to say that, I told him that this had also been a lifetime struggle of mine and that I was impressed he had found victory at so young an age.
He said that none of this meant he could not gain higher ground.
He was willing to take on more responsibility. He said if God wanted him to lead at a higher level, he was willing to step up to it.
What he had found, he explained, was the ability to be at peace where he was, instead of being in constant turmoil about advancing his own future.
Now, he said he was willing to let God choose the place and set the pace. There's tremendous peace in that.
I told him that what he was describing is called contentment and that it is a work of grace.
I reminded him that our soul's contentment is found in the very soul of the Lord's Prayer. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. That's not a weak prayer of resignation. Oh, well, have your way.
It is saying, I know your kingdom is a kingdom presided over by love and care for me personally, and I know that your will would be a good will for me. And I want to be in that kingdom and. And in the center of that will.
That is a truly contented prayer, the prayer of a truly restored soul.
I have spent so much of my life surrounded by young people due to being youth pastor for many years when I was younger and then president of two different universities.
I think that they spend so much of their lives desperately trying to discover the will of God.
I understand this, of course, but it can also have the effect of draining the contentment out of your life.
Modern Western culture so venerates drivenness that it is a miracle if anyone finds contentment.
Contentment comes to the career minded and driven who can actually pray and really mean, not just say it, but pray and mean thy will be done.
This, then is the very heart of the Lord's Prayer.
Prayed over and over again multiple times a day for 21 seconds each time. It will change us forever and change our forever.
It might sound like this, father, be the king of my life.
May my whole life be yours to rule.
Rule it as your kingdom, as your own possession.
Be the king of my entire self.
Be the king of every wayward part of me, every lustful thought, every shred of hate and hurt and fear. Until your kingdom comes in me.
I surrender all the menagerie of wickedness inside of me. And I pray that your kingdom will come in its place.
I pray for your will to be done in the earth that is called me.
Your will, your call, your plan, your timing and your way.
I know your will is better than mine, better than anyone's. And I'm not simply submitting. I plead for your will in me.
I pray for your will in the earth of me.
When we pray the Lord's Prayer that way, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
What we are saying is, lord, rule in me as you rule in heaven.
That makes heaven on earth, in the earth which is me.
I think that's a beautiful way to pray. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. However you pray, whichever way you say that prayer in earth or on earth, and if you pray it in earth and you mean in the planet Earth or in the earth of you, either way, you pray it, then pray it and believe God and thank God that his prayer that his kingdom on earth and in earth is a good kingdom and that he's a good and loving God.
I'm really, really glad that when we pray, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name and not Hollywood be thy name. When we pray the Lord's Prayer that way, we are praying to a good and loving God who cares for us.
Whose kingdom in us, whose kingdom usward is good and always good, even when we can't understand it.
Well, I want you to pray with me. If you can get alone right now, if you can close your eyes for just 21 seconds, pray with me right out loud. If you're driving. Do not close your eyes, but pray with me the Lord's Prayer. Now let me just say again, don't repeat the Lord's Prayer. Don't say the Lord's Prayer. Pray it with me. Pray it as a prayer and as we pray it through this time, say in earth instead of on earth. If you can make yourself say that, if you've grown up saying on earth your whole life, it might be a little bit of an intellectual discipline to force yourself to say in.
But as we pray at this time today, pray it with a passion and a zeal for God's kingdom to come within you as well as on earth.
Are you ready?
Let us pray.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Now I want to invite you to say the 23rd Psalm with me.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
God bless you, my friend.
May his kingdom come in you this day and every day.
Stay tuned. Now someone is going to tell you how you can receive this beautiful little book. 21 seconds to change your world.
Until we meet again.
This is the Leader's Notebook, and I'm Mark Rutland.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: To order a copy of 21 seconds, please visit the
[email protected] Enter the promo code 2021 SECONDS to receive $5 off of each book. Or you can call us toll free at 888-823-8772. Thank you for listening to the Leader's Notebook.
