Deferring It to the Father | Matthew 20:23

[00:00:00] Real Truth Daily This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman.

[00:00:08] Hi everybody, welcome back to Daily Truths.

[00:00:10] Got a question for you this morning, how is your prayer life?

[00:00:14] It's a probing question right?

[00:00:15] I mean, you might be saying, well, Pastor Dave, my prayer life is really good or you

[00:00:20] might be saying my prayer life is not very good and here's the second question connected

[00:00:24] to that.

[00:00:25] When you pray to the Lord, do you seek the Lord's will and guidance and direction of course

[00:00:28] you do?

[00:00:29] And do you say at the end of that prayer, your will be done not mine?

[00:00:34] Hmm.

[00:00:35] Remember we're in the book of Matthew chapter 20 and Zebedee's wife, the mother of James

[00:00:40] and John her name is Salome came to Jesus and had an unusual request.

[00:00:46] Grant the mitesons when you come into your kingdom, might sit on your right and on your

[00:00:49] left, right?

[00:00:51] And then this is the answer that Jesus gave in response to that.

[00:00:55] He said, you'll drink my cup but to sit at my right hand and my left is not for me to

[00:01:00] grant.

[00:01:01] But it's for those for whom it has been prepared by my father.

[00:01:06] What was Jesus doing there?

[00:01:08] He was deferring to God the Father.

[00:01:11] He was saying, I can't make that judgment.

[00:01:13] I can't make that determination.

[00:01:15] I give that to the Father and let His will be done.

[00:01:21] Wow.

[00:01:23] How often do we do that in life?

[00:01:26] I defer to the Father.

[00:01:28] I give my decisions to the Lord.

[00:01:30] I ask my request to God and I seek His will and guidance but I attach to that every time

[00:01:37] your will be done not mine.

[00:01:40] Now we just celebrated, obviously a holy week just a week or so ago and in that request

[00:01:46] that Jesus had on Monday Thursday night.

[00:01:48] Remember he said not my will but yours be done.

[00:01:51] Do we do the same thing?

[00:01:52] And are we okay when God says no to our request?

[00:01:58] Sometimes we're not.

[00:01:59] We don't understand Him.

[00:02:01] We can't see things from His perspective and it seems from our perspective, from everything

[00:02:05] that's in front of us, He should grant us our request.

[00:02:08] He should say yes.

[00:02:09] I'm sure Zebidee's wife James and John's mom felt the same way.

[00:02:13] Hey my kids should get this.

[00:02:16] And Jesus was saying I defer to God the Father.

[00:02:20] That's what we need to say when it comes to our prayer life and there's things in front

[00:02:23] of us that we're asking God to do.

[00:02:26] Not my will, your will.

[00:02:28] I'm deferring to you Heavenly Father.

[00:02:31] Now I've got a story of my own about that.

[00:02:34] I wanted to be a sports announcer.

[00:02:35] Some of you know that, right?

[00:02:38] But I've got to tell you something funny.

[00:02:40] Sometimes I'll listen to sports talk on a radio station here in the Denver area and it's

[00:02:45] April and they're talking about football in April.

[00:02:50] Incessantly like I'm thinking, oh my goodness, that could have been me talking about the

[00:02:55] boring subject of football.

[00:02:58] April is the time for March madness and the start of the baseball season and it's not

[00:03:02] football season, but their boss is telling me got to talk about football.

[00:03:06] This is a football craze down.

[00:03:08] This is Brockville Country.

[00:03:09] So they got to talk about football offensive lineman in the middle of April.

[00:03:14] And I hear that, I think, man, that could have been me.

[00:03:16] Here's the thing.

[00:03:17] I wanted to be a sports announcer and I asked God open the door for that to happen.

[00:03:21] I sent my letter to CSU to be accepted.

[00:03:25] They rejected it and the very same day the president of St. John's College in Winfield,

[00:03:30] Kansas was at my house.

[00:03:32] He invited me to go to St. John's.

[00:03:34] I did articles there and did sports announcing.

[00:03:36] I hated it and God redirected my life.

[00:03:39] What I'm saying is God's answer to my prayer regarding being a sports announcer was, no,

[00:03:46] have some else in plan planned for you.

[00:03:49] And this is what I want you to do.

[00:03:50] This is my direction for your life.

[00:03:53] Hmm.

[00:03:55] So lo me had the same request.

[00:03:58] Grant this greatness to my sons and Jesus was saying, I defer to the Father.

[00:04:03] Friends, whatever you're facing in life that you've prayed about, make sure that you defer

[00:04:09] to the Father that you say, God, I don't know what's best for me.

[00:04:13] Ultimately, you do and I trust you implicitly.

[00:04:17] I put this situation in your hands and your will be done.

[00:04:23] It's a great way to live.

[00:04:25] It's a wonderful prayer to say it's not always easy to accept.

[00:04:30] God has a direction for your life.

[00:04:32] And the reason he says no to some of our prayers is because we used to be a show about this.

[00:04:37] It's because Father knows best.

[00:04:41] Amen?

[00:04:42] Father knows best.

[00:04:45] Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is today's daily truth.