Presbyterian Church, and thank you for the opportunity to be with you, and I'm very grateful for your fellowship in the Lord. Also, I want to especially thank this congregation for your prayers for my wife. As most of you know, she's been receiving treatments for cancer. And she wasn't up for attending church twice today, so she's not able to be here with me. But she wanted me to be sure to let you know how much she appreciates you praying for her, how much we both appreciate that and feel the love of Christ through you in that way. So we're very grateful to you. I recently preached a series of sermons on the Lord's Prayer, and so I thought it might be appropriate to look at one part of the Lord's Prayer this morning. And so for our sermon passage, let's look at Matthew chapter 6 from the Sermon on the Mount. And I'm going to read verses 5 through 15, and then also verses 25 through 34. And that is on page 811 of your newly named black Bibles. Matthew chapter 6, beginning at verse 5, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet our Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. This is the word of the Lord. Great things seldom happen apart from a compelling vision for the future. A compelling vision for the future gives you the motivation to take action in the present. It also gives you the ability to endure hardship and suffering and setbacks as you're pursuing that vision that you have for the future. A vision for the future, a compelling vision for the future, gives you the desire to pursue the changes in yourself and in the world around you that need to occur in order for that vision for the future to become a reality. Jesus, of course, is a great leader. I suppose he's the greatest leader who's ever lived, and therefore it should not surprise us at all to discover in the Gospels that he has a compelling vision for the future. He calls it the kingdom of God. And if we are to be disciples of Jesus, then it's important for us that we share that compelling vision for the future that Jesus has. It's important that that vision that Jesus has for the future actually is compelling to us. That's basically what Jesus teaches us in those very well-known words at the end of the passage that I just read for you, where he says to us, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. If you like alliteration, we could say, seek first God's rule and God's righteousness. That is, if we are to be disciples of Jesus, then like Jesus, we must desire above all else, and we must pursue first in life and work for, in whatever small and great ways that we can, with whatever energies we have, we must want and work for above all else God's rule over the whole creation as He ought to rule. That is, if we're disciples of Jesus, He's telling us that what we should want to see more than anything else is the whole creation experiencing the many blessings of God's good and loving reign as King. To see the whole creation giving to God the love and the worship and the trust and the obedience that He so greatly deserves as the King. over all creation, to see men and women who are made in His image in particular living righteously, living in a way that is consistent with what God considers to be right, living according to doing His will, as we often say. That is Jesus compelling vision for the future is to see God ruling over the whole creation as he ought to in that way. And if we are his disciples, it should be our vision for the future as well. It's what we ought to seek first. It's what we ought to long for with our hearts in a way that's similar to the way that Jesus perfectly longs for that and wants to see it come to pass. Now, when we realize that what's going on at the end of Matthew 6 is that Jesus is giving us his vision for the future as his disciples, And when we understand that his compelling vision for the future involves God's rule and God's righteous, his kingdom and his will being done, then it should not surprise us at all to discover that earlier in Matthew chapter 6, in the Lord's prayer, that Jesus also teaches us as his disciples to pray first and foremost for God's rule and God's righteousness. When he teaches us in the Lord's Prayer to pray, let your kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so this morning, I just want us to look a little more closely at this one petition from the Lord's Prayer. As I said, this was part of a, I preached actually I think six sermons on the Lord's Prayer. You only get one today. fortunately for you. But I want us to just look a little more closely at this one petition, this very important petition in the Lord's Prayer concerning Jesus' compelling vision for the future, concerning God's rule and God's righteousness. And my goal is that we might just understand a little bit more clearly what it is that we're praying when we pray for the kingdom in the way that Jesus teaches us here. So the first thing I want to say about this petition is that when we pray it, and maybe this is obvious, but I think it ought to be said, we're praying to God as our king. Now when we think about the Lord's Prayer, I think we rightly recognize that the thing that is most distinctive about our prayer life as disciples of Jesus, the thing that probably more than anything else was new and even shocking to the people in Jesus' day when they first heard it, of course, is that we pray to God as our Father. Right now in Jesus' day, people sometimes referred to God as Father, but to approach God in that way and to call upon him in prayer in that way as Father was something that was new and frankly rather radical. for the people who heard Jesus' teaching for the first time. But it's important for us to understand that that intimacy, that remarkable intimacy that we as disciples of Jesus enjoy with God in prayer, such that we can actually simply call out to Him as Father, that intimacy at the same time must not be allowed to obscure the fact of God's great holiness and His power and His awesome majesty. In fact, Jesus won't let us obscure that because the moment he teaches us to pray to God as Father, in the very next breath, he says that we're to pray to God as our Father in heaven, right? Now sometimes I know we simplify that down to our heavenly father, which is fine as long as we understand exactly what we're saying when we refer to God as our heavenly father. Because sometimes in English, the word heavenly has the sense of lovely or delightful. Like I might say, truly, the chocolate cake that I had Friday night at the Olive Garden was heavenly. That's not what Jesus means at all, right? When Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father in heaven, He's reminding us that on the one hand, yes, this God that you are to call upon as my disciples is in fact to be known by you as your Father. He knows you intimately. He loves you deeply. He is more concerned about what is good for you than you are yourself. And yet you also must remember that He is your Father in heaven. That's a difference from our earthly fathers, even the best of them. This father is in heaven. He is exalted above the earth. He is unlike any other created thing because he is the creator and therefore the Lord and the ruler over all creation, you see. And that's what Jesus is reminding us of when he tells us to pray to our Father in heaven. And it's also what he reminds us of in almost the very next third phrase in that petition where he teaches us to pray for his kingdom to come. Obviously, if we're praying for God's kingdom, we're assuming that God is our king. And if the notion of God as our father was new and shocking to the people in Jesus' day, then the notion that God is our king, of course, was ancient and very well understood. Because if you read the Bible, as I hope you do, you know, of course, that there are a few ways that God reveals himself to us more commonly than revealing himself to us as a king. We find that throughout the Bible, right? In the very first chapter of the Bible, in the creation story, right? God reveals himself to us as a great king who creates his kingdom and then takes up his rest on his throne and begins to rule over the kingdom which he has just created. Throughout the story of Israel we're reminded in very explicit ways that God is King. In the great stories of Samuel and Saul and Solomon and David. In those stories you remember that Israel's earthly king is always referred to as the Lord's anointed. Because the earthly king was understood to represent and to rule on behalf of the king, the Lord God who is in heaven. In the Psalms in particular, which I know you all love dearly, and many of which we are singing this morning, we are taught again and again that God is our King. We are encouraged to come to Him in prayer as our King, and to praise Him as our King. And so when we think about the Lord's Prayer at the end of the day in terms of our own prayer life as disciples of Jesus, I increasingly think that there are few things that are probably more practically important and helpful to us in praying than simply remembering that God whom we pray to is both our King and our Father, right? We need to be aware of that as we come to him in prayer. We need to keep both of those things in mind, that the one that we come to is both the great king over all things and also our father. And because God is king, we have hope when we pray to him that he is able, more than able to help us. And because God is our Father, we have hope when we pray that He is willing, more than willing, to help us. Several years ago, there was this movie called Anna and the King, stars Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-fat. It's actually a remake of an even earlier movie called The King and I, which stars, I think, Julie Andrews and Yul Brynner, for those of you who are old enough to even know who those people are. But in the more recent version of the movie, Chow Yun-fat, the movie begins with Chow Yun-fat seated as the king on his throne in this great hall, the royal hall, and surrounding him, literally lying face down on the floor, are all of his servants. And it's an awesome scene of the king's majesty and power. And as the king speaks to his servants, they don't even dare to look at him when they answer because they're so overwhelmed and almost in a sense of dread before his supreme power and his majesty and his royal dignity, right? And then all of a sudden, in the midst of this great image of kingly power and authority, the doors at the back of the room burst open. And this little girl comes tearing down the aisle, running in and out of all the servants lying on the floor, and she runs right up onto the platform and jumps up into the king's lap and begins to whisper in his ear. And for just a moment you think, oh my gosh, something awful is going to happen because of this horrible violation of the king's dignity and honor and glory, right? But then a smile comes across the king's face, and it hits you. Of course. The king is the little girl's father. She's always welcome in his presence. She always has the ear of the king. I cannot actually think of a better illustration of what Jesus is teaching us in the Lord's Prayer when he teaches us to call upon our God as both our King and our Father, right? The One that we come to is all-powerful and mighty and yes, even terrible in His holiness and His glory, but He's also our Father! So we're always welcome in His presence through faith in Christ. We always have His ear. That's our great privilege as disciples of Jesus, to call upon the King as our Father. So this is the first thing I just wanted to point out when we get to that petition, your kingdom come, let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It reminds us very explicitly of what anyone in Jesus' day who is familiar with the Bible would certainly have known, that God is our King. as well as our Father. Now the second thing I want to say about this petition is that we are praying for God's kingdom, for His rule to come. And that language, I think, raises an important question. Namely this, isn't God ruling as king already? Why then are we praying for His kingdom or His rule to come? And the answer to that question, biblically, it's important for us to understand that the answer to that question, isn't God ruling as king already? The biblical answer is yes and no. On the one hand, yes, God is ruling as king already. In the sense that as the creator, God is in control of all things, and he is even now working out all things according to his mysterious and ultimately good purposes, right? These are beliefs that we as Reformed and Presbyterian people delight in and treasure in particular, right? And in that sense, most definitely, God is already king. He's in control. His power hasn't been taken away. But there's another sense, and it's very important for us to acknowledge this, there's another sense biblically in which no, God is not presently ruling as king in the way that he should, at least, because multitudes of people made in his image do not acknowledge his kingship. They do not seek to do his will on the earth. as an expression of the fact that they recognize that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the creator and their king. And in that sense, God is not yet king in the way that he ought to be. And that's very important because you see, according to the Bible, this rebellion against God, this rejection of God's kingship, which for many people, particularly in our country, consists simply in just ignoring God and trying to get on in life without Him. For many people in the world, that rejection consists in worshiping false gods. For other people, that rejection of God consists in outright, high-handed rejection of God and denying His existence. But the point is, from the Bible's perspective, whatever it looks like, that refusal to acknowledge that God is the Creator and therefore the King, that is the great problem of human existence. It's the problem that lies behind all of our other problems, namely that men and women are not rightly related to their creator as their king. And the Bible teaches that when we acknowledge God as our king, as we just sang about in Psalm 145, when we acknowledge God as our king, there is great blessing in life. Because our king is fundamentally good. He longs to bless his creation and to do good to it. That's what we see in Genesis 1 also. Every time God creates something almost, it says he blesses it. And he said, and he blessed, and he said, and he blessed, and he said, and he blessed. That's the heart of God, he wants to do good to his creatures, he wants to bless them. And so when we acknowledge him as king, as the source of all those blessings in life, there is blessing in life and things are the way they ought to be. But when we refuse to acknowledge God as our king, then in the place of that blessing in life we're taught in scripture comes, of course, cursing and death. There's the loss of those blessings and that life that God intends for us to enjoy us. David says in Psalm 16, apart from you, Lord, I have no good thing. Right? When God is king, I say to the Lord, you are my Lord, David says. When God is king, we're able to enjoy all of the good things he gives us as gifts from him. We have life in the way he intended to. But when God is not king, really nothing is ultimately good or right. And so once we understand this kind of basic biblical background concerning the kingship of God, then we can understand why it is that the gospel message that's at the heart of the Christian faith is again and again referred to by Jesus and the apostles as what? The gospel or the good news of the kingdom of God. It's a message about God's rule as king. It's a message about God reestablishing his rightful rule as king over the whole creation so that he can once again bring blessing and life to the world as he intended from the beginning. Now I should say that as an aside, there is another way that God could have reestablished his kingdom, right? He could have just destroyed us. That would have been just. given our rebellion, and it would have established very clearly that he's the king and that it's right for him to rule. And I should also say that, in fact, that is what will happen at the last day for those who persist in ignoring and rebelling against God despite his repeated offers of mercy and his pleas that you repent and return to him. But if that was the only way that God reestablished his rule as king, it wouldn't really be good news, would it? It wouldn't really be consistent either with the heart of God, which is to be merciful and forgiving and gracious. And so we learn in the gospel message, the gospel of the kingdom, mind you, that the way in which God is going about reestablishing his rule as king is not by destroying us, but by redeeming us. by forgiving our sins and bringing us back into a right relationship with Him so that once again we may call upon Him as our King. We may acknowledge that He is the source of all blessing in life. We may give to Him the worship and the praise and the love and the trust and the obedience. We might do His will as we ought to and that we might experience again the blessings in life He delights to give to us. And that's what the gospel story is all about. And that story begins, of course, when God calls Abraham and the people of Israel to himself. And he says to them, basically, look, you're going to be my people and I'm going to be your king. I'm going to save you from your slavery in Egypt. I'm going to forgive your sins. I'm going to give you my law so that you know how to live and honor me as your king. And what's the point of all that? You're going to be a light to the nations. And the nations around you are gonna see, man, life is good when God is king. Israel's God is the king, and when he's acknowledged as king and people trust him and love him and worship him as king, things are the way they're supposed to be. Of course, if you know the Old Testament, you know what happens is, in fact, Israel chooses to be not a light to the nations, but to be like the nations. And Israel actually rejects God as king once again. And so the people of Israel experience God's judgment, the just judgment of God. They're sent into exile. God, of course, cannot give up on his plan to redeem the world and to reestablish his rightful rule as king. And so eventually he sends Jesus, who dies for our sins, to deal with that problem of sin in our hearts once and for all, that desire and tendency we all have to rebel against God's kingship. to rise from the dead so they can pour out his spirit and put his spirit in our hearts so that we actually more and more from within want to do the good things that God commands us to do. And then Jesus is what? He's building a new Israel, a new people of God out of people from every tribe and nation who place their faith in him. In order that the church might carry on that great plan of being a light to the nations and that the people around us might see in us, yes, That gospel message is true. When you believe in God through faith in Jesus, when you confess him as your king, you experience life again. Wouldn't it be great if everyone acknowledged God as king in that way? And why is it, let me ask this, this is what we're praying about when we pray, let your kingdom come, right? Why are we praying that? Because only God can reestablish his kingdom, right? Do you have power to change your heart and its tendency to rebel, let alone the tendency of those around you to rebel against him? No, you do not, if you're wondering. The answer is no. But God does. And he does that by the powerful work of his spirit through the gospel message, through the word. It gets into people. It actually changes their heart so that they see, it changes their thinking and their desire so that they see, oh my gosh, God really is the king. I really have rebelled against him. This is disastrous. The only way to life and blessing is to follow Him and He's merciful. He's offering me forgiveness. I'm going to take it. I'm going to believe in Jesus. And in that way, of course, you see more and more people come to acknowledge God as King. They enter His kingdom under His rule, as the Gospels say. And God's kingdom comes in the world. People believe in Jesus. They acknowledge God as their King. They begin to do His will on earth to the best of their abilities and by His grace. And the benefits of God's kingdom begin to appear throughout our world. His kingdom comes, and we're praying about that because only God, by the power of His Spirit, can make that happen as His word goes forth. That's what the parable of the sower is all about, right? Jesus, what's the kingdom of God like? What's God's rule as king like? It's like a farmer who goes out and he scatters his seed, and what do you see at first? Well, at first it doesn't look good, right? I mean, the birds eat up most of it, and the thorn bushes are choking it out, and the sun's killing it. But in the end, by the harvest time, actually, there's pretty good crop. And Jesus is saying the same thing's true as the gospel message, as the word goes out. It often appears that nothing much is happening, that Satan is stealing it away, and people are abandoning the faith because of worldly things. But in the end, on the last day, we will see that there is a kingdom harvest. that the Word has done its work, that a great multitude of men and women from all the nations has, in fact, believed on Jesus and acknowledged God as their King. We'll start to see more and more people living, doing God's will, so that the blessings of His kingship can be felt in our world. Of course, the key is we have to keep sowing the Word and praying that God's kingdom would come as that Word goes out. Here's the third and the last point I want to make about this prayer, Your Kingdom Come. Notice, please, that the earth is the focus of God's kingdom work for which we are praying. In other words, the earth is the place where we want to see God's rule as king appear more and more, right? Let your kingdom come, let your will be done, which is the primary sign that God is king, his will's being done, on earth as it is in heaven. See, here's the thing. Everything's just fine in heaven, thank you very much. You know why everything's just fine in heaven? Because in heaven, God is always acknowledged as king. In heaven, God's will is always done. And therefore in heaven, there is perfect bliss and life and worship of God and delight in who He is. But things are not just fine on earth, are they? No, on earth, crazy people filled with hatred walk into synagogues and senselessly murder people. Why are things not just fine on earth? Because great multitudes of people on earth do not acknowledge God as their King. And so you see, get this, here's Jesus' vision. This is what we're praying for. We're not really praying that we would be taken out of this messed up world and off to heaven. We're really praying that heaven would come to earth. Do you see that? That's what the prayer is. We're praying that God's rule as King would appear more and more on earth as men and women come to faith in Christ and as they, by His Spirit, begin to do His will so that more and more things on earth would look like the way they are in heaven now. Until that great day, when Jesus returns, and every knee bows, and every tongue confesses God is Lord, everyone acknowledges Him. His kingdom comes in its fullness and perfection, and things are on earth exactly as they are in heaven. So much so that in the visions of the book of Revelation, what it really describes is heaven coming down to earth. I think the point of that is that heaven and earth are becoming one. The distinction between in heaven and earth is fading away because things are at last on earth just as they are in heaven. God is acknowledged and worshiped and loved and served as king. And the people on earth, the renewed and redeemed people experience his blessings and life just as they do in heaven now. That's Jesus' compelling vision for the future. That's what we're praying. For when we pray, let your kingdom, let your rule come, Lord, on earth, even as it is now in heaven. So I wanna close, I just wanted to ask one practical question, and then I'll wrap up. What exactly are we supposed to be doing in the meantime as disciples of Jesus while we're praying for God's kingdom to come? And the answer, I think, is that we are to be living now as citizens of that coming kingdom in the midst of this present broken world. Another way I like to put that is to say that we are to be living lives as disciples of Jesus such that our lives are a preview of the coming attraction. They're a preview of the coming kingdom. If you ever go to a movie, you might see me and my wife there ahead of you. We're often the first people in the theater, because I hate to miss the previews. And you know, previews are a fascinating thing when you think about it, right? Because a movie preview, the preview of the coming attraction, it's actually part of the movie. Right? It actually is a part of that movie kind of sent ahead in time, right? It's released ahead of time. You get to see a part of the movie. But of course, seeing the preview is nothing like seeing the movie. It's not like experiencing the whole coming attraction. So the point of the preview is what? It's supposed to whet your appetite for that coming attraction. create some anticipation so that when you see the preview, you say, oh, yeah, I want to see that movie. That's going to be great. Of course, now I need to also say that quite often when my wife and I watch previews at movies, it has the opposite effect, right? And we look at each other and we're like, nope. No way I want to see that movie. That's a sobering thing to think about, isn't it? Because you see, our lives are a preview. for the world around us of the kingdom of God. And if we do not live any differently than the world around us, if we're not very holy, to use the Bible's terms, or if we don't love our neighbors as Jesus commands, instead we just separate ourselves from them and look down on them with a kind of religious superiority, or if we're not especially concerned about the evil and injustice in the world around us, or not brokenhearted about the world's gonna look at us like one of those bad previews and say, nope, I don't want any part of that Christianity stuff. We truly acknowledge through faith in Christ that God is our loving, merciful, forgiving king. And we really want to be led by the spirit and through the spirit are seeking to do God's will as Jesus teaches and shows us what that looks like. Then you see our lives actually accurately reflect the way things will be when God's kingdom comes. And the world looks at us and they get a glimpse of what that's like. Man, those Christians really are, there's something different about them. They have something that I don't, that I want. And the idea, you see, is that our lives become a witness that confirms the gospel message. What does the gospel say? The gospel says God is reestablishing his reign as king, and that if you believe in Jesus, you'll experience that. You'll experience his forgiveness and the blessing and life he gives to those who acknowledge him as king. And then our lives confirm that. People see us and they say, that's really, it's true. And I can kind of see how if everybody acknowledged God as king, things really would be great. Everybody will acknowledge God as king. That's the gospel. There's a day coming when things really will be great. The question is, do our lives accurately bear witness to that? That's what Jesus means earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, right? You are the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world, but if salt loses its saltiness, you know, what's it good for? That's the challenge. As we pray for God's rule as king to come more and more on the earth, as we live now in a way that reflects that coming kingdom, our lives bear witness to it and lead other people to say, yes, I want to be part of that kingdom too. And so in this beautiful way, we become, we the people of God, become in a way the instruments by which God answers our own prayers. Through the proclamation, the spreading of the word, and through the witness of our lives, God by his spirit causes his kingdom to come. May that be true of this church and my church, and let me pray now that God might be pleased to do that among us. Father, we thank you for this great vision that you have, not to destroy the world, but to redeem it, to reestablish yourself as king. We thank you that your rule as king means blessing in life, because as we've already been singing today, you are a fundamentally loving and good and merciful king. Help us, Lord. to believe in this vision that Jesus gives to us. Help us more. Lord, we confess that we don't really long for this in the way that we should. Help us as your people to long for your rule as king. Help us to live now in a way that reflects your kingship in our lives as individuals and as church families. Lord, we confess to you that all too often our churches are not a pleasing preview of the coming attraction. And so I pray for Emmanuel Reformed Presbyterian Church, I pray for Resurrection Presbyterian Church, Lord, that you would be so at work in us that our lives would be a witness to this great kingdom truth of the gospel. Would you help us to know how we might encourage and spur one another on as we look to you for grace and strength and we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's continue singing about God and His kingdom. I believe the Psalm 145 Selection C is our next song.