Thy Kingdom Come - [Matthew 6:9-13]

How do you gauge preachers? You say to yourself, oh, that was a good message, or that pastor was faithful.

Spurgeon said this, May I beg you, carefully, to judge every preacher, not by his gifts, not by his speaking powers, not by his status in society, not by the respectability of his congregation, not by the prettiness of his church, but this, does he preach the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation?

If he does, your sitting under his ministry may prove to you the means of beginning faith in you.

But if he does not, you cannot expect God's blessing. This morning,

I want you to turn to Matthew chapter five, and certainly

Spurgeon would say of Jesus Christ, the Master Preacher, He preaches the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation.

If Spurgeon's right, and I think he is right or was right, the standard or the plumb line for preaching is biblical fidelity.

Now when we come to this sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, we will see it fleshed out in Christ Jesus, the greatest preacher who ever lived.

I always love to ask people, who's your favorite preacher? And I usually get Spurgeon, Lloyd -Jones,

MacArthur, John Knox, but I rarely get Jesus Christ is my favorite preacher.

I hope in this series on the Sermon on the Mount that you begin to say, I love Jesus Christ preaching.

I love preaching. In fact, the Lord has worked in my heart to say that very thing. I love preaching.

I pay to go to conferences to hear preaching. I think that's one of the signs of my salvation is

God has given me a love for his word. God's sheep hear his voice and they love that.

I love preaching because it turns me into a Christ -like person.

That is to say, the more I hear the word preached, the more God takes me, a saved person, and makes me into Christ's image more and more and more every day.

And so we come to Matthew 5, 6, and 7 called the Sermon on the

Mount, my favorite sermon, the best sermon ever preached. And we haven't been in Matthew for some time.

Matter of fact, I don't know how long it's been and I'd hate to find out. But let me just do it this way. How many people who have been coming to the church here recently have not heard me in the series on the

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 or 6? This is your first message on Matthew 5. Get your hands up higher.

So there've been some. Good. Well, I don't know if that's good or not, but good for me because I'm gonna give you a little review to catch us up.

Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount. Actually, there are about 111 verses in these three chapters, and that's longer than the book of Philippians.

It's like preaching a book. It's a book within a book. It's a sermon in a book. And we come this morning to this sermon called the

Sermon on the Mount given by the King of preachers, Jesus Christ. If you had one word to describe the book of Matthew, it would be the word, what word would that be?

King. That's exactly right. And it starts off very early. If you flip back to Matthew 1 with me to give you a little background material on this book about the

King written by Matthew. Matthew's name, by the way, is Gift of the Lord. And this is a wonderful gift of the

Lord as Matthew focuses on Jesus Christ, the King, written specifically so Jewish people could understand, but it's helpful for us as well.

Matthew 1, you say it starts off with a genealogy. Who cares about genealogies? Well, if there's a new

King in town, you're going to be paying strict attention to genealogies because who wants an imposter?

We don't wanna have some kind of imposter King. So we learn in Matthew 1 that Jesus has the right credentials to be the

King. His pedigree is true to be a King. If you go to chapter 2, there's another

King that doesn't like the new King. And that King that doesn't like the new King is named Herod.

And so what does Herod do? He begins to push down this other kingship that starts rearing its head up and he does it by killing children, slaughtering babies, trying to get rid of Jesus, this new

King. Kingmakers are involved in chapter 2 as well where you try to, you make a president or you make a king.

Here the magi are involved making this King. And everything about the book of Matthew is Jesus' King.

Chapter 1, here are his credentials. Chapter 2, there are people after him. Chapter 3, usually if you have a

King, you have somebody sent ahead of you to say, here comes the King. You have a forerunner. And if you look at Matthew chapter 3, the forerunner's name was

John the Baptist. And his ministry was to preach about this

King that would come. Well, there's another King around and it's not, and his name's not Herod.

He's actually worse than Herod. And we find this other King tempting Jesus in Matthew chapter 4.

The devil tempts Jesus. Satan, who's the ruler of the world as Ephesians calls him, tempting

Jesus. And we have the large battle. Jesus wins that battle. And if you move down to verse 17 of Matthew chapter 4, from that time, the

King Jesus began to preach. It was an ongoing preaching ministry he had.

And what was his message? His message summarized in one sentence. Repent for the, what?

Kingdom of heaven is at hand. And interestingly and fascinatingly, news about this

King began to take off. If you lived in these days without internet, without any kind of media, there were different ways.

There were different ways that news would spread. And if you look down in verse 24, again, we're just trying to catch up to the Sermon on the

Mount. Verse 24 of Matthew chapter 4, news about him spread like wildfire throughout all

Syria. And they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them.

Large crowds followed him from the Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the

Jordan. And now Jesus begins to preach. We now have not just summary statement,

Matthew chapter 4, verse 17, repent for the kingdom of God is hand, but now we have an exposition, if you will, of that message, the

King's message. Here is the King's message, Jesus Christ the King, Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7.

And what does Jesus do? Verse 1 of chapter 5. As we see this pressure cooker environment with all the healing, now the lid is off and what comes out preaching?

He saw the crowds, he went up to the mountain, I think purposely, and he's not going to Sinai to deliver law, he's going to be talking about something else.

He purposely goes up to a mountain. And after he sat down, very formal for rabbis to do, to instruct them, his disciples came to him, he opened his mouth, you have to open your mouth to speak, this is

Greek for this is important and solemn and began to teach saying.

He taught them. By the way, I don't think I've said this in previous message, this is an ongoing teaching.

It's like you're seeing a video of someone and it's an ongoing process and I thought, oh, if I could be there.

Some people want time travel. If I could do time travel, this would be the verse that I would travel to.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 2, Jesus sitting down, preaching to people. You see it going on, the language shows.

And now what does Jesus the King do? The King is going to say, if you want to be in my kingdom, let me lay out my kingdom requirements.

He doesn't assume they're already in the kingdom, he's going to say, these are the requirements to live in my kingdom as my kingdom person.

And what does he do? He gives something called the what? Matthew chapter 5, verses 3 through 12 and these are called the what?

Beatitudes. Now sadly, and if your Bible says this, then you might want to cross it off.

I almost said you might want to get a new Bible, but we don't want to go too extreme. I just saw a little note up here. Preacher Mike, preach the word.

All right. We have this beatitude, blessed.

Sometimes it says happy. Oh, I wish it wouldn't have said happy. Some kind of happy, oh, happy,

I'm just happy. No, this word means approved by God. This is a word that always talks about condescension.

You want to know who these approved of God are? Jesus says, let me tell you who these approved of God are and he gives how many beatitudes?

Eight. By the way, think of the opposite word of blessed and you will move to Matthew chapter 23 and 24 and you'll see not eight blessings in Matthew 23 and 24, you'll see what?

Woes, cursings. This is the opposite. I don't see any kind of sadness in the word woe and I don't see any happiness in the word blessed.

It may be a fruit of that, but the word cursed means cursed. It's a view of God as he sees a person and he says, you're cursed, it's a state.

I either approve or disapprove and curse would be, I disapprove of you. Matthew chapter five, verse three through 12 though, this is a word of approval.

It lends itself, it gives fruit that says I'm happy, but it's not talking about that kind of happiness, it's talking about what does

God think of me? Do you want to be thought of by the king with approval or disapproval?

Everyone here has been born and you'll die one day and stand before God and he will either approve you or he will disapprove you.

There will be welcome to my kingdom or there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So you ask yourself the question,

I would like to be approved by God. What does it mean for the king of the universe to approve me? And he gives eight.

For those of you that aren't Christians, I want to challenge you with these beatitudes. We can't just jump into this prayer that Jesus gives his disciples if you're not even in the kingdom and you don't have the father's ear.

Beatitude number one found in verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, approved by God and it's a conditional thing, it's not for everyone.

For theirs and theirs only is the what? Kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who are weak and dependent on others. This is a begging word.

This is a word used of someone who's not a Christian and they know that if they die, they're gonna go straight to hell and they also know that it's by grace that they're saved and they can't save themselves.

And so they throw themselves at the mercy of the court, they run to the king and say, I'm begging you to save me.

That's the word. Crouching down, you can't even establish eye contact because you know who you are.

You're desperate to get in. You ought to be desperate to go to heaven. Well, we move from this first beatitude to now the emotional counterpart found in beatitude number two, verse four.

Blessed are those who mourn. By the way, if you're thinking that I'm gonna go through every verse and review and make this a jet tour of Sermon on the

Mount, I'm not, but I want to go through the beatitudes because I wanna make sure everyone here is a Christian. If you're not a

Christian, you're welcome to be here, but I want you to do business with God and here's what the king,

King Jesus said, beatitude number two. The emotional side of beatitude number one, blessed are those who mourn.

They shall be comforted. When you mourn over your own sin and you realize I've offended not just the government, not just someone else,

I've offended you, God, against you and you only have I sinned and done what is what? Evil in your sight.

Sorrow, mourning, grief. Verse five, beatitude number three.

Blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the kingdom. Gentleness means this in this particular context.

I can't promote myself. Someone else will have to promote me. That's what gentleness would describe here.

I try to afford myself in God's kingdom. I try to say, you know, I'm not in your kingdom and I wanna be, but I can't earn it.

I can't work for it. I can't do anything. So you'll go, wow, I give you favor. Please come.

You've earned your way. Good job, way to go. Because this person realizes and every

Christian has realized by the spirit's enlightenment that everything we do to try to earn favor has been tainted by sin.

So it's all full of tar and resin of sin.

So this is very humble and gentle. Beatitude number four. We see the progression here. We've got the need in beatitude one, two and three and now comes more of a solution, more of a working in our heart.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they'll be satisfied. Beatitude number five, verse seven.

Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy. And we see the change in the heart of people. The kingdom citizens are pure and hard and peacemakers and they're blessed when they're persecuted.

I want everyone here as we learn about the king to be in the kingdom. And if I had to summarize all of this sermon, if you move down to verse 20,

I would say this, that you pick the most religious person that you know that's ever existed.

I don't care if you think the most religious person has been Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, Samuel the prophet,

David the king. You pick the most religious person you can think of. And then read this verse, verse 20.

This is the one that you put the box around saying, this is the key that unlocks the sermon on the mount. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the most religious person in the world, the scribes and the

Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You can't get into God's kingdom by anything that you do.

Kingdom of heaven has to be granted to you. It's been done by the king himself. And then

Jesus talks about personal relationships. Once you're in the kingdom, you've got issues.

And he says many times, look at verse 21. You have heard it said, but I say to you, and Jesus begins to teach what really is going on in the kingdom and how it's not just externals, it's internals.

It's not how the Pharisees would just say, well, you do these things on the outside and you don't have to worry about the inside because God wants your motives and your intentions to match up to your actions.

And then we come to Matthew chapter six, the Lord's prayer, the disciples prayer. How do you pray?

We all have trouble with praying. And now the king tells us, this is how you pray. And in verse 20 was the key to unlock the sermon on the mount.

The word father is the word that unlocks the Lord's prayer or the disciples prayer, the word father.

If you look in Matthew chapter six, you'll find the word father, not once, not five times, but 12 times.

If you look in the Old Testament, I would wager if I was a wagering person that you could barely find 12 uses of God as father in all the

Old Testament. You could find 12, I think the number is 14, but they're not very many.

And here's a radical paradigm shift. When people are in God's kingdom, when the king says, you're in my kingdom based on my work and not your own, and you've seen your sin and you've begged for another righteousness and you're a kingdom citizen, kingdom citizens pray to God as father.

That is the key word. And if you see your Bibles, Matthew chapter six, verse nine, our father, that is really the key.

So much so that J .I. Packer said, you sum up the whole of the New Testament teaching in a single phrase.

If you speak of it as a revelation of the fatherhood of the holy creator.

Pray then in this way. It's a pattern prayer, it's not a rote prayer. We've had people leave our church because every week we don't stand up and say the

Lord's prayer. It's fine to say the Lord's prayer, but this is a template. It's easy to remember.

You can think about this king who's not just sovereign, but he's compassionate and he wants his children, he wants his kingdom citizens to obey.

And he gives us a very easy prayer to remember so that all our prayers can be formatted to this skeleton prayer.

God as a father. Did you notice I have to have a little review as I was reviewing the notes myself this week,

I thought, oh, I'm so encouraged to be reviewing. I'm gonna have to review as well. And it's not because I don't have a bunch of new stuff ready and I slacked off all this week.

I've got probably, and I think Steve Cooley could vouch for this, enough for about three or four sermons here.

But we need to know what the context says and we need to, as we're diving into the Lord's prayer, it's the most well -known part of scripture maybe, but the least understood.

And if you ask yourself questions like this, you'll be helped. If we're to pray to the father, our father, then it means we're not to pray to saints, angels, some great ground of being, some kind of force.

We are not to pray, hail Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now in the hour of our death.

What does Jesus say? Jesus says, pray to the father.

I couldn't help myself and I found some other prayers that we ought not to pray because they're not to the father.

We don't pray to saints, we don't pray to angels, we don't pray to anyone except we pray to the father.

So if you haven't paid attention so far, I think I can get your attention now. This is called an interlude.

Prayer to Saint Christopher, patron of motorists. Grant me, oh Lord, a steady hand and a watchful eye that no one shall be hurt as I pass by.

Thou gave us life, I pray no act of mine might take that away. Armour thy gift of thine.

Teach me to use my car for others' needs. I can't make this up.

Nor miss through love of undue speed the beauty of the world that thus

I may with joy and courtesy go on thy way. Saint Christopher, holy patron of travelers, protect me and lead me safely to my destiny.

I don't know who Saint Christopher is, but you ought not to pray to him. It's sinful to pray to Christopher.

I found one other prayer called Prayer to Saint Joseph. And it is 1900 years, and it's been told to me on the website that if you say this for nine consecutive mornings, you can get anything you want.

And the website said, it has seldom been known to fail. Oh, Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, assist me by your powerful intercession.

Oh, Saint Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms.

I dare not approach while he reposes near your heart. Press him in my name and kiss his fine head for me and ask him to return the kiss when

I draw my dying breath. Saint Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us.

Friends, you can say the Lord's Prayer all day, every day. And if you don't stop and think of the words, you will run off into deceitfulness of sin and the foolishness of praying to somebody besides God the

Father. You won't just do that.

If you look back at verse five of chapter six, if you forget God is your Father, you might be a hypocrite when you pray.

Who could stand before your Father and really be a hypocrite? Verse five, when you pray, you're not to be like the hypocrites.

See, they don't have a Father. They don't understand the fatherhood of God. And so what do they do? Instead of relying on the relationship of father and creature, father and son, father and daughter, they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men.

You don't improve your status of son to a father by doing that.

You don't gain anything with God. You might be gaining things with men. If you look at verse six, if you forget

God's Father, you might pray insincerely. You wouldn't go to God your Father and pray insincerely, would you?

But you, verse six of Matthew six, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your

Father who's in cryptos and secret. Close your door. Pray to Him.

And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. What good father doesn't want to reward his children?

Look at verse seven. And if you forget God as Father when you pray, you might just say a bunch of words, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And when you're praying, don't use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

When my kids want something from me, they don't say, now if I talk long enough, I think

I can get it. And you know, we'll do the old sales thing. They taught us this in sales, sadly. If you can get somebody to say yes five times in a row, they might just say yes the sixth time.

So you say all kinds of things. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And before it comes out of their mouth again, they say yes. If God is some kind of weird ogre -like deity that doesn't really exist, that's not compassionate, that's just always angry, maybe you've got to do a lot of fast talking, but if He's your

Father, it affects the way you pray. And you don't just say, let's see,

I'd like to go on that hike today with the church. And I think I'll go to my father and ask him.

He doesn't really want to go, but I'll go to dad. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Would you ever do that? No, of course you wouldn't. He's your father, he listens.

And if you're too young to talk, he even will stoop down and condescend to baby talk.

But here he says, and mark it well for those who want to have some kind of prayer language that's not

English or not their main language. I don't care if you're praying Deutsch, if you understand Deutsch, don't just make stuff up.

Verse seven, when you're praying, do not say this over and over, bata, over and over and over.

In the Greek, bata logosete. Do not keep saying when you pray, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata, bata.

Don't say that. Don't say shudda bata honda, don't say any of that. Don't say anything except with words.

It's like with Jack MacArthur. He said, this guy came up to him and said, you're gonna speak in tongues today. So he grabbed my arm and said,

I want you to say chikamaka hilo. Jack MacArthur looked at him and said, number one, don't touch me.

You don't say chikamaka hilo unless it means in Zulu, God, I'm hurting, please help me.

Nothing that's vain, nothing that's repetitious. You have an audience with God your father because of what the king has done.

He says in verse eight, if you forget God your father, you might go with fear and trembling and you might not have any confidence when you go before your father.

And maybe you've got a bad earthly father, but this wonderful father who's in heaven will allow you to pray with confidence, verse eight.

So do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him.

He already knows, you don't have to explain every little detail. If you want to, that's fine, but he knows and he cares and he's proved that he's cared before.

So Jesus says, kingdom citizens, I want you to pray like this.

He didn't say, I want you to pray this, I want you to pray like this. Pray then in this way, our father.

For those of you that think this is just an option, pray as a command. When you pray, you pray this way, our father.

That's how you pray. And the good news is, he's a close God, he's an intimate God, he knows all about our weaknesses, yet he's still a

God, don't forget, that's over us and he might be compassionate, he might be close, he might be comforting, he might come alongside, but he's also an awesome transcendent

God who Jesus says, pray to your father, who is in the what, in the where, the heavenly places, who are in heaven.

So now Jesus says, I want you to pray to this great heavenly father. And he's going to give six petitions, three directed towards God and his glory, his name, his kingdom, and three directed towards our needs.

Is it okay to pray for our own needs? Yes, but we first start with God and his program.

And the first one we did four weeks on, hallowed be thy name, or hallowed be your name.

We talked at length about how some petitions won't be needed anymore.

You won't in heaven have to say, God, I'm hungry, I'm tempted and I need forgiveness of sins.

But in heaven, you will offer up those petitions of praise that says, God, your name is to be what?

Hallowed. Very, very important porthole as we get our mind right, we get the ambiance of this prayer and it's all directed upward because sadly,

Lloyd -Jones is right when he says, you want to find the worst sin in all the world? It's not down on the street corner.

It's not in the red light district. It's not down at a bar. It's in the heart of a

Christian as he kneels down or she kneels down and prays selfishly.

That's convicting to me. We're not to just drop down to our knees and say, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.

Somebody else's glory is at stake. God's, hallowed be thy name.

That's what really these first three petitions are about. These first three petitions talk about God and his greatness, his glory, his program, that we're just along for the ride.

These things would go on even without us, but he's chosen to use us. And so we want to make sure we pray according to Jesus's formatted prayer.

Let's move now to the second petition. Verse nine, pray then in this way, our father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.

That's petition number one, hallowed be your name. Petition number two, found in verse 10, your kingdom come.

Petition number three, let me read that one as well, found in verse 10, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

For the outline this morning, let me just give you several questions that when you have the right answers, you'll understand the text better.

I have a couple goals. Number one, I want you to understand the text better so you can do what it says. And number two,

I want to ask them in question form so you try to retain the knowledge a little bit. I love the Bible, one man said, because it doesn't give me the right answers to my questions, it gives me the right questions to ask.

I thought that was pretty good. So let me give you a series of questions. For those of you that want the exact number,

I don't do that because then I'm held to those numbers and I just have several today. Question number one, when you pray, what preoccupies your mind?

I can say it in life as well. What is your top priority in life? What do you find yourself going back to often in life?

What do you think about in your imagination and in your plans and dreams and you're just walking down the street and you think about, oh yes, that and this.

What preoccupies your mind, not just in life, but here specifically when you pray? What do you think about when you pray?

It keeps coming back over and over and over as waves keep crashing on the shore of the ocean.

What do you dream about? Might be school, it might be getting a spouse, having children, what is grabbing your attention?

And so left to ourselves, we're going to drift away. So God, thankfully, wonderfully has revealed his mind and he wants our mind to be captivated, not by our own dreams and interests, but primarily we're to be captivated by God's kingdom.

You see it in verse 10. When you pray, pray this way. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

My kingdom come. Is that how we're to pray? So one man said, my little fiefdom come.

My little program for all I've got going on, my five -year program, my 10 -year program, my 15 -year program, all my hopes and dreams and all the things that I think about and all the things that even happen to good people, all the things that are probably good when recognized as from a gift of God.

But that's not what we do. But we're tempted to do it. So Jesus, in kindnesses, when you pray, you're already preoccupied with yourself.

So when you pray, pray like John the Baptist, that I'm going to have to decrease so that God's kingdom, what?

Increases. This is similar to hallowed be thy name kind of praying. It's not hallowed be my name.

It has nothing to do with me. It has to do with God. And so here, you almost can see the

Hebrew construction. Here's what a Hebrew would do. A Hebrew would emphasize something by saying, holy, holy, holy, saying the same word three times.

Or you could say, set apart, holy, sanctified, saying three different words that are pretty synonymous.

And that's almost what's happening here with these first three petitions. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, which certainly be a great extension of God's hallowedness as this future kingdom comes.

And when this first future kingdom comes, it will hallow God's name to the degree that as people obey in heaven, they'll now obey on earth.

So there's some nuances that are a little different, but he's really saying the same thing three different ways.

That it's all about God when you pray, not about us. And it's okay to say, God, for my example today,

Haley's at home sick today, and I pray that you be with her and comfort her and it doesn't seem anything terminal and she just is under the weather, please help her.

Would that be an okay prayer? Oh, there she is. Hi, Haley, how are you? I was wondering what all that coughing was.

See, God answered that prayer before I even prayed it. She's back with us. It's like Isaiah 66.

But that's a fine prayer. What father would say, I can't be bothered with that kind of stuff.

No father would say that. But when we pray, the pattern should be because of our selfishness that's even existed in a

Christian's life, that exists in a Christian's life, our selfishness tends to go towards us. And Jesus says, when you pray, remember you're in my kingdom.

This is about me and my kingship and in my kingdom. And here's what kingdom citizens do.

Not Satan's kingdom anymore, you're in my kingdom. And so you should be ready to promote me and my name.

And I will not give my glory to another. So when we pray, we're to be preoccupied with God's kingdom, even if it's at the expense of our kingdom.

We pray outside of ourselves, that is to say, vertically. J .I.

Packer said, when we are left to ourselves, any praying that we would do would both start and end with ourselves.

And he's talking about Christians here. What a dagger to the heart. For our natural self -centeredness knows no bounds.

God, my felt needs. God, my needs. God, my marriage. God, my relationship. God, my money.

God, my family. I think those are fine things to pray about. It's not about us first, it's about God.

Jesus had a priority for the kingdom, and we ought to as well. Don't turn there, but Luke 4, 43,

Jesus said, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.

His priority was the kingdom, ours should be as well. Question number two. Number one, preoccupation with God's kingdom when we pray.

Question number two, are you aware that there are two aspects of God's rule? Are you aware that there are two aspects of God's rule?

Here's what I'm after, and I just don't want to spend tons of time on it, but just briefly. There is a kingdom to come, but God is still sovereign today.

Would you believe that? All right, let's go back in time to when Jesus was preaching.

Was God sovereign over everything that happened? Did Jesus uphold the universe by his mighty right hand?

Did everything go according to plan, every prophecy, every birth, every creation? Everything happened perfectly according to God's sovereign rule.

We believe that's true. The Bible teaches it. Psalm 103, my sovereignty rules over all.

But there's another nuance here that you've got to remember. Jesus isn't praying, by the way,

I want God to finally be sovereign over everything. He's praying that there's something extra, something beyond this, something that contains itself underneath this.

There's a kingdom that must come. And so I want you to understand that there's a sovereign rule of God over every atom of the universe.

And there's also in the heart of a Christian words given by Jesus that says you ought to pray for God's kingdom to come.

This cannot be a request that says, God, would you please sovereignly rule over everything in the universe?

Can it? Because he already rules over everything sovereignly in the universe. One man said,

Jesus' conception of God's kingdom is not simply of sovereignty of God, which may or may not be accepted by men, but is always there.

No. Can't be that. James Orr said, there is therefore recognized in scripture a natural and universal kingdom or dominion of God, embracing all objects, persons and events, all doings of all individuals and all nations, all operations and all changes of nature and history, absolutely without exception.

Yet, there's a future aspect of this kingdom that we're to pray would come. Let's turn to Acts chapter one.

And I think I can help you understand this by going to Acts chapter one. The second account of Luke.

What's the first account of Luke? Good. Gospel according to Luke. I don't want you to default and say to yourselves when you pray,

God just be sovereign. He is already sovereign. There's an aspect of this kingdom that will come.

Here the kingdom is inaugurated as it were. Here the kingdom is being preached by Jesus.

This is what kingdom citizens do, but they're still yet, talk to covenant theologians or dispensationalists alike.

There's a future kingdom or else when you pray thy kingdom come, it is simply lip service. Acts chapter one verse one.

Fascinating account. I won't make all kinds of comments, but let's just start at the beginning of the chapter.

This is the first account I composed Theophilus about all that Jesus began to do and preach.

Until the day when he was taken up to heaven after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders. This is the truth.

You better go do this. To the apostles whom he had chosen. Okay, now it gets interesting.

To these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs.

Appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

Gathering them together verse four, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the father had promised, which he said, you heard of from me.

For John was baptized verse five with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Okay, this is the key. This is important. You'll understand the sermon on that better and the prayer of Jesus, the prayer that Jesus wants us to pray better if you understand this section right here.

So when they had come together, they were asking him saying, Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom of Israel?

Is there going to be some kind of earthly kingdom now? They understood that there was already kingdom talk, kingdom preaching, kingdom citizens, but there's something in the future.

What about this future kingdom? Now would be a good time and would it be understandable by the disciples to ask such a question?

Or was that a real stupid question? Was that a pre -Cross Peter question? That's really stupid to ask.

I think it's the right question to ask. The people on the Emmaus Road in Luke 24 were hoping

Jesus would redeem Israel. It's not yet. Verse seven, it is not for you to know the times or epochs which the father has fixed by his own authority.

You got the kingdom idea right, you just got the time wrong. He didn't say you've got them both wrong.

No, that's wrong. It's a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of people only, but you've got this right that it's an earthly kingdom.

Is this the time where I'm gonna set up the kingdom now? You got that right, you just have the wrong timing.

So when we pray thy kingdom come, we're not praying for something that's already happened.

It is future and it is future past, not just Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but future acts.

Jesus should have said, by the way, that literal earthly kingdom, that kind of kingdom is to come, that doesn't exist.

And let me tell you how it's all spiritual. And again, this is not a dispensational covenant issue. I read many covenant theologians this week, non -dispensationalists that know there's gotta be some kind of future kingdom coming or else why do you pray that?

Verse nine, and after he had said these things, he was lifted up. Can you imagine? Maybe I need to go back in time to this time.

I'll probably say that every other passage I read in my life. If I could only have been there. They were looking, he was lifted up while they were looking on and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And as they were gazing intently, by the way, gazing intently means not just staring, but it's like a heartbroken thing.

I'm looking, but I'm heartbroken. I'm going to the train station and I'm sending off my child in 1940 and I don't know if I'll ever see them again.

And you're looking down to that final train car as it goes away with sadness. And I'm intently gazing through the tears in my eyes.

That's the word here. They were gazing intently, verse 10, into the sky.

It was going, behold, two white men and white, two white men. Did I just say that?

Oh, oh, whoo. It's time to get a drink.

You laugh, you try this someday. I got a preaching discipleship class coming up in a couple of months.

Then we'll see how many sign up. They probably looked white after all this effulgent glory around them.

Make the tape say that. They look white. As I was saying earlier, verse 10, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.

And we're going to see a kind rebuke, but a rebuke nonetheless. Men of Galilee, why do you stand interpretively, forlornly looking into the sky?

Let me give you some good news. This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven,

He's going to come back. He's got kingdom language written all over it. We'll come in just the same way as you have watched

Him go into the heavens. Why? To establish the kingdom. That's why in the same way.

You are sitting there forlornly saying, Ichabod, the glory of God has departed, but He's coming back.

Your timing's wrong, but your idea's not wrong. Back to Matthew chapter six.

Question one, when we pray, we're to be preoccupied with God's kingdom, not our own. Question number two, don't forget that God sovereignly rules over everything, yet we're to pray for a future kingdom to come.

So I don't want you to confuse kingdom as only rule and say, He already sovereignly rules, so why do

I pray for a future rule? We'll get to the answer to those questions sometime. I'm trying to take step by step.

Question three, when you pray, what is your hope in life?

When you pray, what is your hope in life? To be more blatant about it, do you long to see

Jesus return to earth and gloriously reign? Do you long for that?

I mean, we all need hopes and dreams, hope of maybe good health in the future. There's nothing wrong with that.

Hope that your children exceed you and what you've done. Maybe your hope is political.

Maybe your hope is, I just saw there's a new green Bible out now on soybean paper held around by two white men.

You know, is your hope the eco -friendly green world? Our hope, from Jesus' perspective, should be that Jesus will return.

His kingdom is gonna come. Jesus returns. As we forlornly look into our own future with all kinds of stock issues and money issues and oil issues and health issues, when we pray, we're looking for hope.

There's more than this. We have the future hope of Christ return. Your kingdom come.

It's gonna come. He's gonna come back. The return of Christ Jesus. That word come, by the way, number one, it's imperative.

It's a command. And number two, it's got a nuance of something quickly, suddenly, rapidly happening that could come at any time.

There was an old prayer written by some Jewish people before or around the time of Jesus. Here's the prayer.

Exalted and hallowed be his great name in the world, which he created according to his will. May he let his kingdom rule in your lifetime and in your days and in your lifetime of the whole house of Israel speedily and soon.

And to this say, amen. There's gonna be a consummation.

There's gonna be an end, which will turn out to be just the beginning. What's the last words you hear in Revelation from Jesus?

He who testifies to these things says, Revelation 22, 20, yes, I am coming quickly.

Come Lord Jesus. One writer said, quote, our greatest desire should be to see the

Lord reigning as King in his kingdom, to have the authority and honor that have always been his, but not yet for him to come to claim.

Jesus returning. D .A. Carson said, see the ultimate kingdom as Christ returning. How about the end of 1

Corinthians 16? They were a messed up church, but they understood this. Greetings in my own hand,

Paul. If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha, what's

Maranatha mean? Lord, come. That's a good prayer. By the way, when that all happens, gone are all the things in Matthew chapter five, verse 21 and following about adultery in the heart and hitting faces and all these other kinds of things.

Messianic kingdom, come quickly. Covenant theologian,

Miller Burroughs said, those who maintain that for Jesus himself, the kingdom of God has already come in his own person and ministry, inevitably treat this second petition of the

Lord's prayer in a rather cavalier fashion. What do you hope for?

Our hopes are built on the future consummation of the kingdom of God by Jesus Christ return.

Okay, last one for today. Number four, this is gonna be provocative.

Number four, do you acknowledge that it takes a supernatural work of God to make his kingdom come?

Do you acknowledge that it's gonna take God to make his kingdom come? I mean, think about it, verse six, chapter six, verse 10.

God, you make your kingdom come. God, I'm praying that you would do it. It's not gonna come in through human means.

Oh, God might use means, but this is going to be all of God. It has to be,

I can hear Jesus say to Pontius Pilate, my kingdom is not of this what? World, how can sinful people inaugurate the kingdom and bring it in?

Did Jesus say true or false? When you pray, pray this. God, help me to make your kingdom come.

Jesus did not applaud the zealots as he tried to bring in the kingdom. And for us, if I can digress just for a moment because it's in all the news, it's not really a digression, but the gospel doesn't proceed and march on fruitfully and faithfully if it is caught in the straight jacket of politics.

Doesn't work that way. I read this week, 30 preachers are gonna get up and say, this is who you vote for.

I don't care if Barack Obama, John McCain, Ralph Nader, Hillary Clinton, or there's even an outside chance if all the electoral votes are all split that Nancy Pelosi could be the president.

If you put them all together and take the worst sins that are in their heart and put them all together in some kind of amalgamation, we would still live under a better rule than those people in the

New Testament did. The kingdom doesn't come by the religious right.

You say, well, you're telling me not to vote? No, go ahead and vote. But the kingdom comes, the kingdom has flashes of what it does through gospel preaching, not legislation, not lobbying, not political action committees.

And if you're a Democrat, you're like, yeah, yeah, go get those Republicans. I'm after you Democrats too.

I'm after you autocrats. I'm after you libertarians and I'm after especially you people that worship trees. No, just kidding. Do you see the video this week?

Oh man, vote, be glad we don't live under anarchy. But on November 4th at midnight, if they've got it sorted out, don't sit there and have a pity party because your secular humanists didn't make it because they both are.

Should Christians be in politics? Maybe, but you're going to have to compromise if you are. Say, I want to be in politics because I can help

God's kingdom along. I think Ted Haggard was a good illustration of how that doesn't work.

As the Wall Street Journal said of him that he has more influence in politics than any other Christian, while at the same time he's disqualifying himself.

It is the Holy Spirit's job to bring in the kingdom, not by political coercion.

Friends, I have a little rule. Here's my rule. I make people mad enough already.

Why would I make them mad enough by me walking around all the time saying I'm a Green Party guy? I'm a libertarian.

I love Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader. What do I care? I'm interested, but we are not political citizens.

We have a different kind of kingdom that A, we live in now, and B, there's going to be a real future kingdom coming.

That's what I'm after. How about this? Show me some place where Christians are involved in politics to a great degree, and I'll show you a corrupt church.

Show me in the Iron Curtain before the wall went down what goes on in communist Russia, and I'll show you a pure church.

This is not something that we do. Now, God might use us in evangelism and other things we'll talk about next week, but it is not our job to bring in the kingdom through any means, let alone some kind of notion like it's a political deal.

The Bible changes hearts, not the Constitution. The Trinity brings in the kingdom, not the executive, legislational, and judicial branch of the

United States government. Moral majority? I don't think so.

I'd rather go for what Paul says. I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And may God strike me dead if I think I want to bring the kingdom in, and I'll do it by putting my arms around blasphemers who deny justification by faith alone, whether they're

Mormon or whether they're Muslim or whether, as Phil Johnson said, they're moony. How can we cut away parts of the gospel that are sure to offend?

If any of you think of running a political office, you might as well forget it right now because the first thing they'll do if you get to be big, they're gonna pull up my sermons and judge you based on my sermons.

You're done. One and done. The guy that talks about Jesus seeing the two white guys in Acts chapter one, you'll never get another vote.

When you pray for God's kingdom, you're praying for a gospel -oriented salvation by faith alone, through grace alone, for God's glory alone,

Christ alone. That's how it comes, and it's gonna maybe get worse before it gets better, and then what do we do?

We still pray our Father who art in heaven. That's what we pray. We pray,

God, may your name be hallowed. May your kingdom come. Your homework assignment for next week is to read the

Sermon on the Mount, chapter five, six, and seven. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for this day.

Thank you that you do sovereignly reign, and yet with this congregation today, I would ask you as a son with these other sons and daughters,

Father, that you would make your kingdom come soon. Father, the best that we have on earth, children, pleasures, fellowship, food, family, will not be anything when we think of seeing

Christ face -to -face because it'll all be gain. Help us to be a kingdom -minded church. Lord, help us to be protected from what society is putting into our brains every day, that it's all about the stock market, it's all about oil, and it's all about Republicans and Democrats.

Lord, you'll give us sovereignly the person we either need or deserve, and we will change nothing in Scripture based on who we have as a president.