Theological term
Divine Enablement
2 sermons · All terms
The 3rd Petition: God's Will, Part 2
The third petition of the Lord's Prayer — 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven' — carries implications far beyond personal piety, extending to the doctrine, worship, and practice of the visible church and to the ordering of society itself. This sermon works through what it means to pray this petition with reference to the church: that pure doctrine would be prized, that worship would be regulated by God's own revealed standard rather than human preference, and that the Spirit-filled life described in Ephesians 5 and 1 Thessalonians 5 would characterise the gathered people of God. The sermon closes by pressing the individual Christian to acknowledge the perversity of the fallen will and the utter necessity of divine enablement — for neither church nor society nor the believer himself can comply with this petition's demands apart from God's grace.
A House for the Lord
Haggai 1 confronts the people of God with misplaced priorities: sixteen years after returning from Babylonian exile, the foundation of the Lord's house lay exposed while the people paneled their own homes and filled their own comforts. The sermon situates the book within the history of the restoration period — from Cyrus's edict through the eventual completion of the second temple — and argues that the people's neglect of the temple was not merely architectural indifference but a rejection of God's presence among them. God's covenantal judgment fell in material scarcity and providential drought, precisely as Moses had warned in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. The chapter closes with genuine repentance, divine reassurance, and the Spirit-wrought enablement that always accompanies God's call to a great work — pressing the congregation to examine their priorities, investments, and worldview in light of Matthew 6:33.