Title: House of Prayer Your Kingdom Come Matthew 6:9-13 Aim: Urge an earnest desire for God s rule in this world. Intro: Don t know if you remember,

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1 1 Title: House of Prayer Your Kingdom Come Matthew 6:9-13 Aim: Urge an earnest desire for God s rule in this world. Intro: Don t know if you remember, but when Bill Clinton was running for president the 1 st time, I believe, he used a slogan, not as his major campaign slogan, but sort of under the radar: It s the economy, stupid! Not sure who he was calling stupid, probably anyone who disagreed w/him, but it was his way of saying that the most imp issue in the election was the economy. I didn t agree w/him then nor do I now, but he was very smart to use that slogan, because it hit people where their hearts were: their pocketbooks. I think that slogan was a major element in his winning the election. Well, God doesn t have to run for president that would be a huge step down for Him, but there are issues that are very imp to Him, which should be very imp for us, as His children/ followers. For God, it s about His Kingdom, & therefore it should be so for His children. The kingdom of God should be a priority in the lives of Christians. Not sure there are many Christians for whom that s true. Theme: House of Prayer the Church of God is called to be a house of prayer for all peoples, where any who want can encounter the living God. This church & every local church is called to be a house of prayer where, when we are gathered together, anyone may encounter God. We must be people of prayer. Prayer is encountering, conversing w/, & communing w/the living God. Each of us who are born again children of God thru faith in Christ are called to be a man/woman of prayer, regularly encountering God ourselves & pointing others to Him by all we do/say/are. A people of prayer need to have an understanding of the kingdom of God & an earnest desire for it. Matthew 6:9-13 [READ together]. As we ve been considering this model prayer that Jesus gave His disciples (& us), it is evident but should be particularly noted that before the phrase/idea Give us this day our daily bread & forgive us & deliver us comes Hallowed be Your name, which we considered last week, & Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in

2 heaven. Significant because it sets forth priority. Of greater imp than our daily bread, our forgiveness & our deliverance is the honor of God s name & the emergence of His kingdom & the doing of His will. We most often get it backwards. We spend the majority of our prayers on what we need or want, how we re hurting or how we ve failed. Those are imp to God because of their imp to us, His children, but they re not of 1 st priority to Him, so shouldn t be to us. It should also be pointed out that the request/petition (which looking at today) is Your kingdom come, not My kingdom or even Our kingdom. Thruout the history of the world mankind has sought to establish & maintain kingdoms rule over parts of the world. Still true today. Businesses do it also. Sports teams work to establish dynasties/dominance. And we as individuals also attempt to establish our own little kingdoms & we want God to bless our kingdoms. Get upset when our kingdom collapses for whatever reason. But the prayer Jesus gave us is that God s kingdom will come that is the proper alignment. Kingdom: Royal power, kingship, dominion, rule; authority to rule over a kingdom; territory subjected to that rule (Strong s). Thy kingdom come come into being, arise, come forth, show itself, find place or influence, be established, become known (Strong s). God s kingdom/reign should have as high a priority to us as it does to God Himself. And to God, the kingdom is everything. Graeme Goldsworth wrote, The theme of the Bible is the Kingdom of God. That is where the Biblical account both starts & finishes. Salvation is the means by which the sovereign God brings sinful people into that kingdom as its willing & acceptable subjects. The kingdom of God is not an OT term, but it is an OT concept. In the OT we don t read much of the Kingdom of God, but it s there. William D. Barrick wrote The OT concept of the kingdom of God relates directly to God s sovereignty thruout the ages. That is expressed in Psalm 45:6 (which writer of Hebrews quoted in 1:8): Your throne, O God, is forever & ever. The scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. Even the pagan king Darius recognized the 2

3 sovereign reign of God. When he saw how God protected Daniel in the lions den, he decreed (6:26): in all my royal dominion people are to tremble & fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God, enduring forever; His kingdom shall never be destroyed & His dominion shall be to the end. Again, Barrick wrote, The OT predicts a coming earthly kingdom that will be fulfilled someday thru Jesus Christ, the 2 nd Adam the One who fulfills the covenants of Scripture. As soon as Jesus began His earthly ministry, He proclaimed again & again, as recorded in Mark 1:15 (& thruout the gospels), that The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand Goldsworth wrote, Jesus hearers had some concept of the kingdom of God which rested in their OT upbringing & they would have recognized Jesus wds as a claim that the hope or expectation of Israel was to find its fulfillment in Him. The kingdom was at hand because Jesus was there Jesus the king! Jesus may have talked more about the kingdom of God than any other subject. Many of His parables began w/ the Kingdom of heaven/god is like In Luke 12:32, Jesus said, Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And in Luke 17:21 He said, Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. The kingdom of God came embodied in the Savior, Jesus & those who believe/receive Him inherit the kingdom. However that faith relationship w/christ is an essential & not automatic. Jesus also said in John 3:3 & 5 that we must be born again born from above born spiritually anew if we would see/perceive or enter/become a part of the kingdom of God. Cannot see nor enter the kingdom unless/until you re born again. For those of us who do believe & have received Christ as Savior/Lord, we are commanded to (Matthew 6:33) Seek 1 st the kingdom of God & His righteousness Again, the kingdom of God is to be our priority as it is God s priority. But it s not as if our focus on the kingdom of God will be a lost cause. We re given the assurance in Hebrews 12:28 that the kingdom of God is a kingdom that cannot be shaken. At the end of the age, when Jesus has come again & 3

4 conquered all the kingdoms of the world, it is then that He will deliver the kingdom to God the Father (I Corinthians 15:24). So, we can see that the kingdom of God is both a now & a not yet. The kingdom of God has come God has always been sovereign over all. The kingdom came on earth tangibly in the person of Jesus. But, the kingdom of God is also coming, when Jesus comes again as King of kings & Lord of Lords, w/no competition for the title. Right now, the kingdom of God is the reign of God/Christ Jesus in the hearts/lives of those who believe. One day, every knee shall bow & every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil.2:11). So, what does praying Your kingdom come mean? What did Jesus intend for us to understand & embrace in prayer? 1 st of all, praying Your kingdom come means praying for God to reign in your own life. Lord, reign in me! Is that your heart s desire & your commitment, that nobody but Jesus reign in your life right now? That nobody but Jesus be Lord of your marriage/family right now? That means surrendering all to the only One who is King. Have you prayed I surrender all today? 2ndly, praying Your kingdom come also means praying that God will reign in those of His children who don t yet know Him. That the kingdom of God would expand to all the world, every nation, people, tongue hearing the true gospel & men, women, boys & girls coming to faith in the Savior who is the only Way, only Truth, only Life. That is God s plan & it is happening, the message of the world & the influence of the kingdom filling the whole earth. You/I have the wonderful opportunity & responsibility to be a part of that by praying for the lost & being committed to making disciples, sharing the gospel w/those around us, supporting the work of missions in the world. Are you giving serious priority to that responsibility? What are you doing about it? Many of us fail to pray for family to be saved on a regular basis, never mind our neighbors/co-workers, etc. But one sign of God s reign in our lives is our burden for the lost & participation in the Great Commission Go & make disciples Finally, praying Your Kingdom come means praying for King Jesus to come & 4

5 establish His eternal kingdom. Jesus is coming again, soon! That ought to be our longing also. But are we too tied to our own little kingdoms that we think, even if wouldn t admit, that Jesus coming would cramp our style or get in the way? We ve got plans/dreams for this life, so we would just as soon Jesus wait awhile to come. How much do you long for Christ to come? Along w/ Your will be done, the prayer Your kingdom come is accented by as it is in heaven. The reign of God in heaven is total, w/no opposition & no other rule. We are praying for God s reign to be total in our lives & in our world, just as it is in heaven. Again, that calls for total surrender of our lives to Him. Prayer is about desiring God s reign in everything & making His kingdom a priority in our lives. God said, My house shall be called a house of prayer. 5