If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, would you join me in the gospel of Luke chapter 11? Within Luke's gospel, he emphasizes the kingdom of God. And here in Luke chapter 10 and 11, we have witnessed as Jesus has spoken and made it clear that the kingdom of God is near in his presence. We're also aware though the kingdom of God is near in the presence of Jesus, in a very real way it is yet to be fully realized and won't be until Jesus returns again. In his teaching and emphasizing the kingdom, there is a moment in time where Jesus teaches his disciples very specifically how to pray. I have no doubt in my mind these verses and the words in them are familiar to you even if you haven't been to church a whole lot. But sometimes lost in the familiarity of the words are the lessons that Jesus wants us to learn. Here in Luke chapter 11, we find this moment in time, and it came to pass that as he, that is Jesus, was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The disciples had seen Jesus do some amazing things. The disciples spent the majority of their time watching Jesus and I wish we had the capacity to hear their inner monologue because they were blown away by what they saw. Could not fathom the things that they were experiencing. They had seen miracles. They had listened as Jesus taught and captivated massive crowds. Watched Him quiet storms. Watched Him walk on water. Watched Him minister to people from every area of the nation and on every ladder step of the social structure. and they had seen Him pray. At this specific moment in their time in life with Christ, they knew that they had to learn the type of connection that Jesus had with God. Marveled by everything they had witnessed, they understood, they wanted to learn from Jesus how exactly it was that He spoke to God. And Jesus gets so practical with them. In a very real, down-to-earth way, Jesus communicates to them, articulates to them what His expectation is for prayer, and in doing so, He speaks to us. In fact, very specifically here, in our passage of Scripture, when they asked Him to teach them to pray, Jesus said, when you pray, say, In Matthew's account, Matthew 6, 9, Jesus said to them, after this manner therefore pray ye. In effect, what Jesus says to the disciples is this, watch me and do this. Listen to my words and do that. Jesus is teaching by example and he's teaching by words. And he's teaching us how to pray. Our theology is never more clearly made known than by the litmus test of our prayer life. Now, I know I just said something that sounded pretty Bible-y. Our theology, our whole theological structure, what we say, we believe to be true about God. is made manifest, it's declared, the authenticity of it is spoken out by how we pray. In fact, there's an old proverb that says this, as we pray, so we believe. If we say that we believe God, and we believe that he is creator, and we believe that he is almighty, and we believe that he is holy and just, if we say that, then it will be visible in the fact that we pray like that. In fact, our prayer life reveals greater than anything else our motives, our assumptions about life and about God. our priorities. And just like the disciples who, having witnessed all of the things that Jesus had done, they walk up to him and say to him, Jesus, teach us to pray, we here now in 2025 desperately need to learn from Jesus how to pray. I also want you to make note from the onset, the disciples did not say to Jesus, should we, like you are, be praying? And Jesus, when he teaches them how to pray, he does not say, by the way, you should be doing this on a regular basis. The assumption from Christ is that if you are truly a follower of his, you will be praying. Understand that as a basic tenet. This prayer that Jesus prays is a pattern. He does not expect that in some vain and repetitious way we would just repeat the words that he says. It's a genuine prayer that Jesus conveys. He's teaching a spiritual heart set, a mind set as it were for entering into prayer, for communicating to the heart of God. It's a short prayer. Actually, if you time it, it takes less than 20 seconds to read it. But it is an incredibly potent prayer. It is a valuable, inescapable lesson. It is to be applied by every Christian. And unfortunately, we as believers have diminished the importance of prayer. I could probably stop the message right now. I won't, sorry for you. I have a quota contractually that I have to hit. I have so many words that I have to say. I could probably say, hey, the Bible says that we should be praying and it should be a pattern in our lives as followers of Christ. We could probably stop the message and everybody would have to confront themselves spiritually speaking in the mirror and say, ah, I should be doing more of that. The church and individual believers have diminished prayer, and in doing so, whether we recognize it or not, we're declaring our whole theological structure as something that maybe actually we don't believe in. One writer said this, the evangelical church is slowly but surely giving up on prayer. Then he wrote, perhaps life is too easy. Some of us lack the desperation that most Christians have experienced throughout church history. After all, desperation leads to prayer. He said, we are also incredibly distracted and busy, states of mind that are enemies of prayer. And then concluded, giving up on prayer is not only a sign of weakness, it is disobedience. I can stand in front of you conveying the truth of Scripture and say the basic principle that all of us should understand is we should be praying. If we are not praying, we are disobedient to the Holy Spirit, which indwells us, and we are disobedient to the Word of God. But Jesus here in this moment gets so intensely practical with us. He comes down and sits next to us, as it were, and coaches us on how to have the right heart as we enter into prayer. He teaches us. And when Jesus teaches us to pray, he doesn't say to us, make sure you have on the right clothes, and make sure you go out in public, and in the most ostentatious and showy way that you can, pray really loud and pray really long. Now he does tell us to preach like that. But that's a lie, if you're visiting, I twisted the scripture, forgive me later. In fact, in Matthew 6, Jesus is specifically telling the disciples something. He says in Matthew 6, 5, When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Jesus is speaking specifically of the Pharisees of the day. who would dress themselves in their ceremonial garb and they would go out and they would pray really loud so that everybody would pause and think to themselves, what a holy person that is. I'm amazed at how righteous they are. And Jesus says, look, understand that kind of prayer is motivated by wanting the approval of men. And so when they receive the approval of men, just clap for them, because that's all they're gonna get. They're not gonna have their prayers answered. Jesus is teaching us something. He's looking for us as we really are. He wants to get to us right where we live. In effect, Jesus is not saying to you the only way for you to have a successful prayer life is to be the Sunday version of you all week long. But rather, he's saying to you, actually, I want the Monday to Saturday and the Sunday at noon and on version of you. Even you can come because I'm after your heart set. Because the prayer that God seeks is that that comes from a humble heart. And the prayer that God seeks is actually the foundation of this entire study of Luke 10 and 11, one that can pray thy kingdom come and mean it. The first thing I want you to grasp with me is we've gotta learn the basics, and Jesus prays in effect, let your name be honored. Did you hear what Jesus said there in verse two? He said unto them, when they asked him, teach us to pray, he said, when ye pray, say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, hallowed. Now, don't raise your hand. How many of you are thinking to yourself, I would pray hallowed be thy name. I'm not sure I even know what hallowed is. Yeah, I wanna do that, but I don't even know what hallowed means and his name is to be hallowed. I don't fully comprehend. How many of you are golf fans? How many of you are really good at golf? All right, one. I'm shifting the message to being a liar. The master starts up soon and down there in Augusta, they call Augusta National the hallowed grounds. They just mean it's something to be esteemed, it's honored, it's a sacred place as far as the game of golf is concerned. Thy name be honored. Now, there's a whole lot that's wrapped up in that. Because the first line of Jesus's prayer focuses our attention, directs our heart towards God and away from ourselves. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The very beginning of the prayer is all about God. Hallowed be thy name. Honored, esteemed be your name. Let your name be admired. That's in effect what Jesus is teaching us. Why? Because God in heaven is transcendent. Doesn't it seem like God, transcendent God, creator God, holy God is so far away? He's so big and vast and powerful and just and holy and righteous that we actually should pray that His name would be honored above all. So our chief concern in prayer is not about our needs being met, is not about our relief being attained, but rather His name being honored. I can tell you factually, if you don't truly know God to whom you are speaking in this prayer, if you have not been reconciled unto God by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, you don't have the opportunity to pray this prayer. But I'm speaking from the scripture and telling you, your view of God is declared in the practical prayer life that you exhibit. Men who know their God are before anyone said, men who pray. Now when you pause and you think about God in heaven and creator God and he's transcendent God, he seems distant, but before we pray, hallowed be thy name, Jesus said, say it like this, our Father, which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Those three little words, letters, our, O-U-R, are so vital for us to understand. And even the word that Jesus uses for Father is Abba. It speaks of an intimate, close relationship with God. And it would be one that seemingly only Jesus, his only begotten son could claim. But Jesus tells us, you, me, humble human sinner people, when you talk to transcendent God, start by saying our Father which art in heaven. Abba. Indicating a close relationship that we have with him, not distant. This week, my daughter, who lives up in Washington, D.C., sent me a card. We're old school like that. When I went to the mailbox, opened it, the card came out, it had our address, and above it, it said, Dad. Now, the postman does not know my name, but when he put that in there, I knew who the card was for. Now look, I could be the kind of dad who thinks a lot of myself, I'm kind of that guy anyway, and I could call my daughter and say, hey, from now on, when you send me a card, I'd prefer that you write Reverend Christopher Edwards. Stop with this dad stuff. You call me Reverend, throw an honorable in there, Christopher, put a middle initial, M. Edwards, so that I know you know who I am. When I open the mailbox and the letter has on it, Dad, I know who it's to, and the whole atmosphere of our relationship allows for her to say, Dad, and for me to receive it in accordance with that spirit. Jesus is telling us something about the theological foundation of our salvation. And he's saying, you sinful humans, have the opportunity because of my life and shed blood to see transcendent God in heaven and in effect, not being cheap, call him dad. That's what Jesus is teaching us. Now recognize something else. There's no first person singular pronoun in this prayer. Jesus does not teach them to pray and say, my father, give me. lead me, deliver me. The point is not that we don't have our sins and our needs that need to be met, but really that he's teaching us it's not all about us, it doesn't focus just on us. One wrote and said, one of the besetting sins of evangelicalism is our obsession with individualism. The first person singular pronouns reign in our thinking. We tend to think about nearly everything, including the truths of the word of God, only as they relate to me. But God is not merely my father, he is our father. He is the father of my brothers and sisters with whom I pray. You cannot read the New Testament and come away with any other understanding than that we as believers are family. Linguistically, it's woven into the fabric of scripture. And our father, which is in heaven, is God Almighty. And his only begotten son is Jesus. It's a family. And that is the atmosphere with which we pray. Jesus will take the verses. We won't spend time in them this morning. After he teaches the disciples how to pray, he'll then tell them, I long to give you what you want. It's my heart as a father to meet your needs. And this is theological, it's pretty deep for us to call him Abba Father. In fact, in Galatians 4, in verse six, we read this, and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father. Addressing God in heaven as Abba Father, is actually marking the authenticity of our faith. He'll write this in Romans 8, 15, will Paul, for you have not received the spirit of bondage, again, to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. As a believer, having placed my faith in Jesus for salvation, the whole atmosphere of my prayer life is that God is my Father and my prayer is that His name would be honored. I'm not at the onset of proper praying worried exclusively about my needs being met. My ailments, going away. My hardship being dissolved, I am first and foremost concerned that my Father's name would be honored. It is a beautiful understanding to come to. Hallowed be Thy name. Pray for the Lord's name to be honored. His name would be admired and esteemed and reverenced and treasured. When Jesus petitions God to hallow His name, He's asking God to act in such a way that He would visibly demonstrate His holiness and His glory. And He's telling us about priority in prayer. First and foremost, it is that His glory would be accomplished and known. And He's telling us, you're talking to your Father. The second phrase that I wanna focus on is simply, thy kingdom come. This one we know, Luke 11 to the second part of the verse, thy kingdom come, thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth. This verse alone demands our humility. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done just like it is in heaven, so let it be done here on earth. Over and again, this principle from within scripture rings out to me, it's not about me. This is attitude shifting when we understand something about prayer. Grasp, your name be glorified, and your kingdom come. It's not about me, which means it's not about you either. Spurgeon, the preacher from the 1800s. I like every once in a while to hear how he says things. I don't know that I could sit through a 50 minute message, but I like to dip in. But he did run about 5,000 on Sunday morning, so people wanted to hear him. He said this, let not your prayers be all concerning your own sins. your own wants, your own imperfections, and your own trials. But let them climb the starry ladder and get up to Christ himself. Then as you draw nigh to the blood-sprinkled mercy seat, offer this prayer continually, Lord, extend the kingdom of your dear Son. And by implication, even if that means my kingdom gets run over, For one said so practically this, before we can pray thy kingdom come, we must be willing to pray my kingdom go. And that is a terribly challenging thing to the human heart. Even linguistically as Jesus spoke it within the language of his day, he was saying thy reign come or let thy kingdom come now. He's teaching us something. He's teaching us the reality that we should be praying right now that I would be obedient to your will just like it's being done in heaven. And I'm also praying with a request that you would expedite this whole thing and come and establish your kingdom here in full now. Make no mistake, God is certainly ruling and reigning and He's on the throne in heaven. And it is there now as it ever was. But not here. But the scripture tells us the day will come where Jesus will in fact establish his kingdom here in a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem. And we're praying, may I obey your will now as it is being done in heaven and expedite the coming of your kingdom to this place. When we pray for him to allow his kingdom to come, we're actually praying three pretty basic things. We're praying that the final and ultimate establishment of God's kingdom would be here and would be here now. That's a very biblical prayer request. The second thing that we're praying when we pray thy kingdom come is that we would be conforming our will to his will in this world now. The third thing that we're praying is that God's rule would come and his kingdom would be extended through me, which means God would use us as a vessel to proclaim the gospel and extend and expand his kingdom here and now. This is no small thing that we're praying, thy kingdom come. This is a really big prayer that we're praying. We're actually praying that human history in effect would be brought to a close and God would reign again. We're praying that the evil one, the adversary, the devil, would be bound, that he would be vanquished, that evil itself would be dealt with by the holiness of God. We're praying, as the Bible teaches us, that the moment would come when every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Sounds a whole lot like the last words of Scripture. Where John, exiled on the Isle of Patmos, has an incredible revelation, a vision of all that which is to come, and heaven itself. And he says in verse 20 of chapter 22, He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly, Amen. To which John prays, Even so, come Lord Jesus. You say, now hold on a second, that doesn't look like what Jesus said, because Jesus said, when he told them, you say, thy kingdom come, and John said, even so, come Lord Jesus. He's not about us repeating the words that he says, he's after our heart, and the heart of John, exiled on Patmos, having seen heaven is, let's do this quick. Pray that His kingdom would come and that we would obey His will now as though it were in place. It reorients our sense of self-control. Again, one said here more clearly than anywhere, the purpose of prayer becomes plain. Not to make God do my will, which is in effect practicing magic, but to bring my will into line with His, which is true religion. Thy will be done. You see, we have, as Christians, largely become double-minded. We have forgotten that our citizenship is in heaven. We're dual citizens. We are of the kingdom of light, yet we are living life on this earth. You say, man, that sounds mystical. That sounds like science fiction. I'm just telling you it's rooted in the New Testament. We have forgotten that we should adhere to God's will as though he were ruling and reigning because he actually is. When we are here and we are taught to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, we struggle with that because we think the will of God is hard. How many of you like good food? Good food, yeah, that's good. A little interactivity. We view God's will as sad and punitive, less than. So let's say everybody that just raised their hand, they love good food. And I said, look, we have the capacity right now to take you to a high-end restaurant, and it is the finest food that you can have anywhere. And then I did something. I said, however, you can't order your food. But as you, who love really good food, and you're getting ready to go into this restaurant, I stood in front of you, an ashen, gaunt, frail, skinny vegan. Now look, I have nothing against vegans, just ride with the illustration. And those of you who love good food, I say to you, now I know that you can order anything you want, but hold on, I'm going to allow this person to order for you. You, like me, would think, I don't even wanna be here. Because this is gonna be Brussels sprouts and tofu. And sparkling mineral water minus the ice. And you're not even gonna put anything on the Brussels sprouts. They're literally just gonna be boiled and I'm gonna chomp my way through them and eat this tasteless tofu. I wanted to order what I wanted to order and you're telling me the only way I can come to the restaurant is to have this person order for me and they're never gonna order me what I want. Understand one of the reasons we as Christians struggle to pray thy will be done is because that's how we look at God. Like oh great, he's gonna give me a tough assignment. Oh great, we're gonna be poor forever. Oh, happiness, that's not for Christian people. That's only for those that are of this world. We're made to suffer our way through. I can remember how I viewed full-time ministry before the calling to full-time ministry. I literally thought, God, if there's any way out, I will do anything but church work. You say, yeah, that was a long time ago. That was actually Thursday of last week. Actually, that was Thursday of last week. Why? Because I think to myself, church, church, church work. Church isn't even great, and you're now gonna ask me to do this seven times a week, and I'm barely surviving one service, man. Seven days a week, I gotta do this all the time. The work of God is hard, it's heavy. The work of God has given up everything. The work of God ends in utter disrepair and unhappiness. It's like going into the best restaurant and just having this one order for me. I know I'm not gonna get what I want. We're afraid to pray this because we're afraid of God's will. One said this, Many people shrink from God's will. They think it always means pain or sorrow or bereavement. They always feel melancholy when you speak of doing the will of God. Alas, how the devil has libeled God. For the will of God we've already established within the context of the prayer is the will of a father. and He loves us. So much so that He sent Jesus, His only begotten Son. He does not desire to make you miserable and give you a pain-filled existence. Rather, the New Testament actually teaches us to rest in God's will. And perhaps the greatest struggle we will face this week, practically speaking, in accordance with this teaching, will be that we will wrestle with the will of God and our surrender of our own will. For when you and I pray thy kingdom come, we're effectively handing over the kingdom of our own lives to him as our rightful king. And you can't pray for, as it were, the government of God to be established if you really don't want God governing your life even now. One old commentator said, the kingdom of God isn't just a destination for where we'll live one day, it's a motivation for where we live right now. And that's what Jesus is teaching. He said, when you pray, thy kingdom come, grasp this, you're praying to relinquish the rule of your own life. You're praying and you're dismissing the parliament of your own decisions. You're unseating the prime minister of pride. You're closing down the congress of self-will. You're abdicating the throne of your life. You're handing over the keys to the kingdoms of your heart and your life and your career arc and your family to Jesus, and you're saying, long live the King, and I'm not coming back for the keys. Yes, there is a future reality where Jesus will establish the kingdom, but there is a very real sense that his kingdom is here and now ruling and reigning within us. And when Jesus teaches us to pray, he's not just saying, say these words and say them to your blue in the face and say them over and over again until I hear you knocking on the door of heaven. He is after people with humble hearts. who will recognize that He is transcendent God and grasp from the very onset the motivation of their prayer is that ultimately He would be glorified, whatever the outcome. And just when that fear creeps in, that we're handing over that kind of authority to a distant and transcendent holy God, he stops us and he says, and by the way, you do all of that within the context of the fact that you send him a note that's just labeled dad. And at his core, he wants the best for you. And he loves you and knows you more deeply than you can even know or love yourself. And so your prayer must be in the moment and for your life. God, I'm praying that your will would be done right here in my heart, just like the angels are obeying it in heaven. And that your kingdom would come. And yes, I'm praying for the hurried establishment of your eternal kingdom, but I'm praying that there would be a depiction of that rule and reign in my life here and now. I'm giving total surrender. And by faith, I'm not viewing you as one who's gonna order me something off the menu that I do not want, but that your grace will be sufficient for every moment, and I want only what you want. You're giving him the throne room of your heart and mind. But you're also giving him, as it were, the control room of your body and direction, your career, your finances, your health. And as soon as we make it real, that fear grips us. God, I give to you the career arc, except for I do not want to go to Northern Virginia ever again in my life. God, I give to you my finances, just don't ask for too much. God, I give to you all of my decisions, just make sure on occasion I can get a burger and fries and it's not always tofu and Brussels sprouts. And God looks back at you and may say, hey, but on occasion, if it's tofu and Brussels sprouts, just recognize, I still love you. You just needed a meal or two of tofu and Brussels sprouts. Rest in my will. It's so practical. Here are the disciples. fishermen, watching Jesus do amazing things. He gets up from prayer in Luke 11 and they say, Jesus, John taught his disciples to pray. Can you teach us to pray? Oh yes, I'll teach you to pray. And when you do pray, say this, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done right here on earth, just like it's being done in heaven. Grasp the surrender of actually praying those words, thy kingdom come. Would you please bow your heads with me for just a moment? Thanks for listening this week to the Graceway Baptist Church podcast. For more information about our church and our ministries, head on over to our website at gracewaycharlotte.org. We are a church located in South Charlotte. We are growing and our ministries are doing big things for Christ. If you're looking for a way to get plugged into what we're doing, email us at info at gracewaycharlotte.org. Also, stay in the loop with everything happening by following us on Facebook and Instagram. Our handle is GracewayCharlotte. Thanks again for listening to the Graceway Charlotte podcast. We'll see you next week.