And turn to Matthew chapter 6. This morning we're going to read verses 9 to 15. But as you do that, let me also just Last week we began looking at the Lord's Prayer. We looked at the address and what we can learn from the address, which is our Father in Heaven. And what we learned in that simple phrase was, one, that we're not alone in this. That this is a prayer that we pray together. When we pray, we pray in community. That He is our God. The privileged position that we have because of all that Christ has done for us is that we get to call God our Father. because Christ has brought us in. He's made us gods. And then thirdly, it affects how we pray this prayer because of the fact that He is in heaven, which means He reigns. He controls it all. And so when we address Him as our Father in heaven, we're also acknowledging that He's in control of all things. That whatever we need, whatever He's laid on our hearts, we can confidently come to Him and lay it before Him. And then the first request was, hallowed be your name, which means to be reverenced, honored, and to glorify God. In fact, it gets to the first question of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is, what is the chief end of man? It is to what? to know God and to make Him known. It's to glorify Him that all the earth would reverence Him, honor Him, and glorify God. So this morning, we're going to look at the second petition of the Lord's Prayer, which is your kingdom come. But before we do that, let's read God's Word. And so let me invite you to stand. This is God's Word that we are reading. And so let us stand and let's read this together. We'll read verses 9 through 15. 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 have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others your trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Let's pray and ask God to give us wisdom as we look at this passage this morning. Father, we thank you that you have given us your word. Lord, as we look at it this morning, would You teach us? Holy Spirit, would You convict us of where we need to be convicted? Would You remind us, Father, as we read, as we look at this this morning, Father, what are we exactly asking? What does it mean, Your Kingdom Come? So Holy Spirit, teach us. And show us, Father, what it is that we're asking. And what are the things that we hold to and cling to, Father? We love you, we thank you for your word. Teach us this morning, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Please be seated. Jennifer and I, about a year after we were first married, we lived for about two years in Christchurch, New Zealand, helping to plant a college ministry there. But while we were there, we had this knock at our door one day, and it was two gentlemen carrying their Jehovah's Witness Bibles wanting to talk to us. about what we believe, what they believe. And at the time, I couldn't talk to him, but I gave him my number and he called back and wanted to meet with me, and so he did. He called back, he met with me. We had several discussions. Every time he'd throw something out, I would counter it back, and we'd just kind of go back and forth debating a little bit. And then we'd end it, and he would say he wanted to come back, so he'd come back. So he came back about three or four times in all. But the last time he came back, And it's not that I thought this out. This was just kind of a question that came out in our conversation. And I said, what if the fall did not catch God by surprise? What if? God is sovereign and in control of all things. He created all things. What if this was part of His plan? The grand scheme of things? He didn't have an answer for it. In fact, I never heard from Him again after that. What I learned later was one of the ways as we engage Jehovah's Witnesses is to get them out of the box that they're used to. Cause them to think for themselves. And this question made him think that it wasn't a question he'd ever thought of or been trained on how to answer. And so he didn't have an answer for it. But really as we look at this passage, that story relates to it in the fact that God rules and controls all things. That the fact that, even the fact that I'm sitting there engaging him with the Bible, with the Gospel, relates to this prayer as we're talking about what are we asking God to do? Your kingdom come. We're asking God, part of what we're asking there is that the Gospel would go forth. That people would come to know Christ. That they would come to know the truth of the Scriptures. Again, it is God's creation. He created it all. He's sovereign of all. In fact, you know what we see, part of my point with the guy was what if God had planned to call a people to Himself, the Son was given the role of going to secure those people, and the Spirit making all things that is God's will come about. And that's exactly what we see as we look at the Gospel, that it is God's created a people for Himself. Jesus secures, redeems them, and the Spirit calls us to come and do His courts. You know, as we look at the Lord's Prayer here, what we've said already is that the Lord's Prayers consist of six petitions. The first three are God-focused. The next three are man-focused, us and others. In fact, we've said last week, as we look at this, we can also see that Martin Luther pointed out, not Martin Luther, John Calvin pointed out that the Lord's Prayer resembles the Ten Commandments in that the first part of the Ten Commandments focuses upon God. The second part focuses upon man. And we see that same pattern here in the Lord's Prayer. The second petition here flows from the first. Your kingdom come, or the kingdom of God comes and grows as people do what the first petition is, which is to hallow God's name. That is to reverence, honor, and to glorify God. But you know, as we look at this passage and we talk about the Kingdom of God, we need to understand what we mean by the Kingdom of God. In a broad sense, what we mean is that God's reigning rules over all things, both spiritual and physical. We see that in Psalm 93, verses 1-2, where it says this, The Lord reigns. He's robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He is put on strength as His belt. Yes, the world is established, it shall never be moved. The throne is established from of old. You are from everlasting." You know, here the psalmist reminds us here that the kingdom of God does not decrease nor does it increase as His rule is everlasting. So as we pray this prayer, what are we asking for? If it doesn't decrease and it doesn't increase, Because God rules it all. Then more specifically, what are we asking for in this petition? What are we praying for? We're praying that His kingdom will come because we're talking about His salvific kingdom. We're talking about the gospel going to the ends of the earth. We're talking about people coming to know Him. Often we refer to this as the kingdom of grace. In Matthew 4, 17, as Jesus begins His ministry, it goes on to say, He begins His ministry with saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So Jesus begins talking about it, He begins His ministry, He calls people to repent. For the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God comes in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And as we look through the Bible, as we look through history, we see God's plan of redemption playing out. How even from the beginning, we saw where God created a people holy, perfect. They sinned. We see a promise of a Redeemer. And all the way through the scriptures we see God's Redeemer and God's plan of salvation playing out. The key that we pray to come in this prayer is that God would cause His plan of salvation to come to fruition. That is, that all people would come to know Jesus, who He is, what He's done for them, and believe as they confess and as they repent. So when we pray that prayer, when we pray the Lord's Prayer and we say, your kingdom come, we're asking God to advance His kingdom by destroying His enemies, proclaiming His gospel, and subduing our hearts. Let's look at these three ideas or these three points. That we're asking God to advance His kingdom by destroying Satan's kingdom. For God's kingdom to come, to advance, it must take new territory. Conquering. Conquering the prince of this world, freeing its captives. You know, as we just talked a second ago about the kingdom of God, what we meant by that, where did the kingdom of Satan come from? And that brings us back to the beginning. Again, where God created people perfect. And the serpent entices them or tempts them and they, in choosing to not follow God, but chose to rule themselves, to disobey God by eating the fruit. And therefore, we see the sin entered the world, all mankind became sinful because of that. And we see that Satan's kingdom begins there. But you know, even in the midst of Genesis 3, where we talk about the fall, even in the midst of there, as God is pronouncing judgment upon Adam and Eve, He's pronouncing judgment upon the serpent. We get a glimmer of hope. In fact, Adam and Eve pick up on it. And we saw that in how they named their children. In Genesis 3.15, where as God pronounces the curse, He gives a glimmer of hope in that the offspring of the woman will crush the serpent's head, restoring all things. That is, conquering Satan's kingdom through God's promised Redeemer. We see that play out in history. that the Redeemer comes and He wins the war. But you know, as we look at, as we think of the Gospel, it's not how we would expect the war to be won, is it? God does it in a way that we would never expect. He does it by one dying so that you and I may live. In fact, John 12, Jesus acknowledges that the reason that He's coming to the world is to be lifted up. He's referring to His death. But Jesus in John 12 says, should I ask God to save me from this hour? Yet this is what I came for. This is the very purpose that I came for. And so he prays, he goes on to pray that God would glorify him. That God would glorify himself. And the crowd, in verse 30 and 32, hear a voice where God says that He has glorified His name. And Jesus goes on to say, the voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of the world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw people to myself. It is by Christ being lifted up, by His death, by His resurrection, Satan's kingdom is destroyed and the victory is won. You know, as people come to Christ, God grows His kingdom. As people continue to come to Christ, His kingdom continues to grow. And not only just in people coming to embrace Jesus, but also even in our own hearts, we see a sense in which the kingdom continues to grow. Think about it. We struggle with sin, don't we? Daily. There's a battle going on in us. And so the Spirit has to work in us and through us. and help us each day as He grows His kingdom in our own hearts. You know, as we pray this petition, we're praying God's kingdom will continue to grow, conquering the enemy by bringing people into His kingdom, and people who will be drawn to Him, being drawn to Christ. You know, it's in Christ's death and resurrection that we also see, as we look at God's kingdom growing, we see a definitive work that Christ has won the war. His death and resurrection has won the war. The war is over. The enemy is lost. He's been conquered. Yet, we still see and experience the war for individuals going on. Even the war within us. And we call this the progressive work, that the kingdom continues to grow throughout history. The Spirit is sanctifying us, making us holy each day, as the Spirit works in us. You know, we often talk about that already, not yet. We talked about it a little bit last week. But one way to explain that already, not yet, is to think of it in the term of, or the illustration of, in World War II, D-Day. What is D-Day? D-Day is the day that the troops stormed the beach. It's the day that they broke through. Really, as we look at World War II, that was the day that the war essentially was over. But yet, victory wasn't declared until almost a year later on V-Day. And so what happened is, yes, the war was over, but there were still battles being fought. As we look at the Gospel, as we look at what Christ has done in Christ's death and resurrection, the war is won. Satan is defeated. He's already defeated, yet the battle continues as God frees the captives. As He works in us, making us more like Him, sanctifying us each day. So as we pray, your kingdom come, we pray knowing that the war is won. We pray with confidence knowing that God has won and He is continuing to conquer and cause His kingdom to become, cause us to become more and more like Him. And His kingdom to become more and more visible. Until the day that Christ returns and the earth becomes as it is in heaven. You know, as we pray, knowing that as we struggle in the flesh with our sinful hearts, our sinful desires, God has won the battle. And we keep fighting, confessing, repenting, and clinging to the promises of the gospel, knowing that one day, when Christ returns, we will struggle no more. That we will be made new, we'll be made complete. So, when we pray that your kingdom come, we're asking God to destroy Satan's kingdom, by His good news being proclaimed. He advanced His kingdom by proclaiming the preaching of the gospel. You know, when we pray that phrase, your kingdom come, that's what we're asking God to do, is that His gospel would go forth. It would be proclaimed. It would be preached to the ends of the earth. Gospel, meaning that this is the good news of God. It changes everything. And so we are to proclaim it to all people. In fact, Paul says in Romans 1, 16 and 17, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Now here's the point. The gospel is the power of God to transform to transform us, by saving us, making us alive, giving us faith. Giving us faith to believe, making us His. In fact, Paul will go on in Romans 10, 14-15 and verse 17 to say, How then will they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him of whom they've never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of the good news. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. Now here's what we can learn from that passage, or what Paul's pointing to, is the Gospel must be proclaimed. For people to come to know Christ and experience the forgiveness of God, they must hear the good news. They must hear God's Word, His plan of salvation. And they must respond in faith as they hear the words of Christ. Here's the thing, as we pray that prayer, we have a part in that. And that we are entrusted with the Gospel. That we are to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. That Jesus calls us as believers, as members of His church, to proclaim the Gospel. We see that in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 18-20. Where Jesus gives the disciples the great commandment to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Teaching everyone to obey all that they've been commanded. And baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So it's given to disciples, given to the church, given to you and I as members of the church. As disciples of Christ, as we are to take the gospel to those that are around us. And we do so knowing that the Spirit is working in us, working through us. That it's the Spirit that brings us comfort. The Spirit is the one that is working, causing the Gospel to be made known for those to come to Him. In fact, that's Jesus' argument in John 16. That if He's sad, that yes, He's going to go away, but He knows His going away is for the disciples' benefit. That the Comforter will come. That the Spirit will come. He goes on in John 16 verses 8-11 to say, And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see Me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. The Spirit leads us to the truth of God's Word. And calls us to trust in Him as we repent and believe in the good news. The Spirit works in us and through us as we proclaim the gospel to others. A few years ago, Jennifer and I, when we were first in this area, we'd always heard about this state park in Virginia, Hungry Mother State Park, that it had this great lake and all these things you can really enjoy. It's beautiful. And so we went up there one Saturday. And as we were up there, we had bought our tickets, we got out on the lake, and we began to have some fun and enjoy it. And it started to thunder and lightning, and they closed it. And I mean, we hadn't been there that long, and so we're all gathering our stuff, running to try to put it in the car with this rain that is just soaking everything. I mean, we were already wet anyway, but everything we had was getting soaked as well. But Jennifer thought to go ask this question about, hey, can we get a rain check? We really weren't here that long. And they gave her a rain check. But what we noticed is they gave us the rain checks that all these other people were just running to the cars and they're leaving. And she started saying, hey, they'll give you a rain check if you go ask about it. She was telling somebody else good news. Granted, it wasn't a ton of money. But it was just her simply saying, they're offering rain checks, you should go get one. And as we take the gospel to others, we're just sharing with them the good news of what the Bible says. That God deals with our sins once and for all. And you and I can have a relationship with Him. We're sharing with them the good news. We're telling them where they can find forgiveness, what their soul so longs to experience. We're telling them about God's amazing grace and how he loves us and how he gave his son for us. Will Graham, Billy Graham's great grandson, not too long ago did a crusade here, but I was looking in an interview as I was looking up to see who he was a while back, and there was a quote that he, in an interview that he said, and this is the quote, that, I have a burden to proclaim and tell others about the wonderful news of Jesus, whether that is in an arena, an arena full of people, or a single person on the street. Now here's the point, is that we are given, we are entrusted with the gospel. Whether we are sharing the gospel with a group of people, or with one individual, we have the opportunity to do so. God calls us to do so. Commands us to do so, to take it to everyone that He brings across our path. You know, and here's the beauty of it. You know, as we give the gospel away, All we're required to do is give the best articulation of the gospel that we can. And allow the spirit to be the one that works. Allow God to be the one that draws people to himself. That convicts them of their sin. And that ushers them into the kingdom. God uses people to do that. So as we live, as we interact with people, Let us be intentional about our conversations that God brings people across our paths. He gives us favor with those. Let us pray and ask God to open up the door, to share his gospel with others, to be intentional about our conversations, to see him use us. Let us pray that we just find ourselves in those conversations, that he opens the door and we obey and just try to be faithful. and then leaving the results to Him, because He's the one that has to work. He's the one that has to open their eyes. So when we pray, Your kingdom come, we're asking God to advance His kingdom by destroying His enemies, proclaiming His gospel, and then thirdly, as He conquers our hearts. So we're asking in that phrase, we're asking God to advance His kingdom by subduing our hearts. Praying, Your kingdom come, we're asking God to subdue our hearts by one, convicting us of our sin. Again, John 16, when Jesus is talking about the Spirit coming, the Spirit comes and convicts. It's the Spirit that convicts us of our wrong. And it's the Spirit that leads us to Christ. You know, as He does convict us of our sins, the call is to repent and believe the Gospel. Hebrews 4.12 describes God's Word as living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword, able to penetrate bone and arrow. You know, as we think about it, as we tell others about Christ, that the Holy Spirit is the one that makes God's Word effective in our hearts, exposing our sinfulness, inviting another to embrace Jesus. You know, as believers, the Spirit shows us our sin. And as He does, may we repent and confess. As we see the battle going on in our hearts daily, may we confess our sins, repent and hear God's forgiveness. Even when we fail and we mess up. That's the beauty of the Gospel. We need it every day. We need to hear it anew. It's not a one-time deal where we hear it once and that's it, but we need it every day because we need to be reminded of just how forgiven we really are. And when we mess up, especially, we need to hear the Gospel. We need to see our sin and we need to be reminded that He is working in us, sanctifying us, progressively, it's ongoing, making us holy, making us like Him. So subduing our hearts by conquering us. Subduing our hearts by conquering our hearts in order that He, one, brings us into His Kingdom. Colossians 1, 13 and 14 says, He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. When He conquers our hearts and when we embrace Jesus, He brings us into His Kingdom. We become sons and daughters of the King. Conquering our hearts in order that we may know and follow Him. John 17, 3, this is eternal life. That they would know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ in whom you have sent. Or Matthew 4, 19, come follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And subduing our hearts, God is putting a desire, giving us a new heart, putting a desire in us to be obedient to Him. In fact, we see that in 1 John 2 and 3. By this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. God subdues our hearts, gives us a desire to obey, to please Him, and to want to follow His ways. To want to obey, not to gain favor with God, because we gain favor through Christ and Christ alone. But we want to obey because of what God has done for us. That he's transformed us. That's the motivation. That he's loved us so much that he gave us Christ. And we in turn want to love him. capturing us or making us His. John 10, 27-30, where Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one. And once we come to Christ, we belong to Him forever. No one can snatch us out of His hand. In fact, Paul goes on to say in chapter 8, verse 37-39, that in all things there are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You know, we are His. And nothing, no power can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Subduing our hearts makes us His. And as you think about that, what comfort does that bring? To know that no one can snatch you out of His hand, that nothing can separate you from the love that's in Christ Jesus. You know, it combats the feelings that I am a worm, I'm worthless. That you, what it says about us, that we are valuable. That God gave His very Son for you. That you are loved beyond what you deserve. Even when we mess up, God's love does not change toward us. That love does not mean that we keep on sinning by no means, Paul says. But it gives us comfort and confidence to confess and repent and keep seeking His kingdom. And keep seeking Him. So in subduing our hearts, we willingly and we gladly bow and acknowledge Jesus as Lord of all, as Lord of our hearts. You know, in college I had a friend that he had been dating this girl for maybe two months. And he came to the point that he was convinced that she was the one. And he ended up deciding to ask her to marry him. After Rene did all of that, asked her to marry him. Now she was totally caught off guard. Totally caught off guard in a bad way. Meaning that she did not see it coming. And so she couldn't give him an answer. She had to say, you know, let me pray about it. Let me go think about it. So for my friend, it was a miserable two weeks, as he, the girl of his dreams is here, and he's not sure what she's gonna say. For her, she ended up seeking the Lord's will and all this, and in the end, yes, she came back, and she said, yes, I'll marry you. That yes, you have won my heart. Yes, you are the one that I do believe God has for me. You know, as we think of this, what we see in the Gospel is that Jesus wins our hearts. He conquers our hearts. He subdues our hearts. Because of all that He does for us. That He lived the life that you and I were required to live but could not. He died the death that you and I deserved. And He gave us His righteousness so that when we stand before God, we stand holy and right. We stand. and worship God because He's transformed us, causing His kingdom to come in our hearts. You know, as we close, we live in a culture that we see the culture around us that it's not following God. But sometimes we also, we forget that there is a sense in which we aren't with. There is a spiritual war going on. I remember getting a friend of mine that I went to seminary with, that he is an MTW church planter in Thailand. And he's planting a church in Thailand, in a portion of Thailand that is predominantly Muslim. And so it's always interesting to see his emails that I get because you can just sense and see that here's this idea, as we talked about God conquering new territories, that as He's sharing prayer requests, He's praying, hey look, we really sense the evil one not wanting us here. Pray. Pray, pray, pray. Pray for so and so as they're hearing the Gospel and they're so close to trusting in Christ and Christ alone. But God is taking your territory. His kingdom is growing as people come to know Him. His kingdom is growing because we are called to proclaim the Gospel. Whether it is that we take it to the mission field in Thailand, or right here in our backyards. We're called to take the Gospel, to proclaim it, to tell others. And lastly, trusting God to subdue our hearts, to subdue the hearts of those around us. that they would come to know Him and love Him. That's what we're praying when we pray, Your kingdom come. May God's kingdom come in our hearts and in this community and around the world. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You are our God. We thank You that You have redeemed us in spite of our sinfulness. Lord, would You help us even this morning as we pray for Your kingdom to come. that You would continue to conquer Your enemies, Father. That You would take new territory. That You would remind us that the war is won in Christ. And so we continue to fight. We continue to trust You and know that it is won. As we struggle each day, looking for that day that You return. Lord, help us as we seek to be faithful to give the gospel, the good news to those around us. And as we trust You, Father, to continue to grow us and subdue our hearts and convict us of our sins as we repent and believe and confess, Father, convict those around us that don't know You, that they would confess their sins, that they would repent, and that they would believe in Your wonderful news. Lord, we thank You. Would You continue to sanctify us? Would You continue to grow us and help us, O Lord? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.