If you have your Bible, I hope that you do. You can join me in Matthew chapter number 6. Matthew chapter number six, we are continuing a series that we have been in over the last couple of weeks entitled The Blueprint of Prayer. The Blueprint of Prayer. Can we all say that together?
The Blueprint of Prayer. And this is a series, obviously, on prayer, but specifically on the model prayer. We call it the Lord's Prayer from Matthew chapter number six. And in Matthew chapter number six, Jesus is teaching, and he is in his famous Sermon on the Mount. This is the longest sermon that we have recorded that Jesus taught.
And in this, it is called the Sermon on the Mount is how we refer to it as. And I like to think of it as a mountain of a sermon because it really deals with some of the practical aspects of the Christian life and your Christian experience. And so it's so helpful for us. And here in chapter six, in the middle of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus. Is teaching on what we would refer to as spiritual disciplines.
These are disciplines that are oftentimes private. And oftentimes difficult, but they lead to the fruit in the Christian life that everybody is desiring. And if we were to walk around today, every single one of you want fruit in your Christian experience. And oftentimes, the fruit that we are searching for is directly correlated to these private spiritual disciplines that Jesus is addressing.
So he addresses things like giving and how important that is to your Christian experience. He addresses things like fasting and how important that is to the Christian experience. And he addresses things like prayer. In fact, in this chapter, he gives us the model, the blueprint for how we are to pray. And so we're going to read it again together.
Hopefully, by the end of this series, you can almost memorize and recite this passage. But Matthew 6, verse 5. He says this when Thou prayest. In other words, he expects it. In the Christian experience, this is something that is expected of us as followers of Jesus.
When you pray, 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, which is exactly that. They are seen of men, they get the applause of men. But thou, when thou prayest, verse 6. Enter into your closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy father, which is in secret.
And thy father which seeth in secret. shall reward thee Openly.
So Jesus commands us as followers of Jesus: when you pray, Find a place. Get into that certain place and pray in private. Verse 7, but when you pray, use not vain repetition as the heathen or the pagans do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before you ask him. And then in verse number nine, he goes into specific detail describing how we as followers of Jesus should pray.
And he says, After this manner, therefore pray ye, Our Father, Which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debts. our debtors, and lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. A man.
So, here we have the blueprint of prayer. And I know I've mentioned this a couple of times in our series. This is week number three of our series, but I want to continue to reiterate a key point that you have to understand as a follower of Christ: we are all looking for an exchange with God. Every single one of you wants that. I mean, that's why you're here.
That's you're searching for this, you're longing for this. We want that deep relationship, that deep communion, that deep exchange with God. And in order to have that type of relationship with Him, You have to have a deeper basis for how you approach him. And if your approach is very shallow, then you can expect a very shallow. Experience with him.
And so, because we want a deeper exchange, we have to have a deeper basis. And so, here Jesus gives us two of them. I'm going to give it to you very quickly because I want to dive into what we're going to talk about specifically today. But here, in our approach to God, he gives us two of them. The first one is what we refer to in our series as a business relationship of how we approach God.
This is coming to God with what we have to offer him and offering up what we have to offer him and expecting him to give us something in return. He refers to that as vain repetition. This is a business type of relationship that you have for him. It is based on performance. It is based on being seen of men like the hypocrites and the Pharisees.
It cares about what everybody else thinks about them. It is shallow. It is not deep. It is cold, if you would. It is very mechanical.
It is very, Lord, I lay me down to sleep, kind of. It's just praying over your food. That's the extent of it. And that's the point. That is what he's referring to.
That's the business relationship of how you approach God. And here's what I want you to know: that if that is the way you approach God, and that is the extent of your relationship with him. Then don't expect the deep relationship and connection that your heart longs for. Because it all starts with how deep your basis is. But then he gives us the second one, and this is really framing the whole series that we're doing.
The second one is a family relationship to God. This is when we come to him as our father. This is not coming to him on what we have to offer him. It is coming to Him off the basis of who we are to Him. We are his children.
He is our father. It is not based on what we can do. It is an unconditional relationship. that we have with him our Father which art in heaven. And then we pray, hallowed be thy name.
That is praise and adoration for him. And then we come to this week that we're going to be looking at. It's found in verse 10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth.
As it is in heaven. Here, Jesus, as he's teaching on how we are to pray in this blueprint of prayer. Jesus is instructing us. To pray kingdom prayers. Kingdom prayers.
And so this morning, I want to just for a moment talk about the significance of these prayers and what does it look like to pray kingdom prayers. What is a kingdom prayer and what does it look like?
So, first, I want to show you the meaning of kingdom prayers. I want to show you the meaning. What's Jesus getting at when he says we are to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done? On Earth. As it is.
In heaven.
Well, you have to understand it, and so I want to give you a little bit of the meaning behind it. The phrase kingdom. in heaven here or the kingdom of God They're mentioned over a hundred times in the New Testament. In fact, Jesus talks a great deal about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. Both of those expressions that the New Testament talks about, it's talking about rulership.
The idea with the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, the idea is that the prayer is all about a kingdom and praying for a kingdom that is entirely ruled By God. When Jesus says to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done, this is a prayer about the sphere of God's rule and reign, and that it would become a reality in each of our lives.
So, when we pray this, I want you to understand that there's really two aspects of this, the meaning here. There is a physical aspect of the kingdom, right? There's a physical aspect.
So when you pray, your kingdom come. Yes, there is a literal kingdom. There is a physical kingdom. I mean, we learn about that if you follow your New Testament and you look at the future. That if you know Jesus, here's what I want you to know: this is good news for you.
If you know Jesus, that one day you will actually live in a kingdom that is 100% entirely ruled by Jesus Christ. That's an amen moment if you're not from church, okay? And one day that's going to be, you say, what's significant about that?
Well, in that day, in his kingdom, we learn that when Christ returns, that all wrongs are going to be made right. That that life's going to be perfect. There's going to be peace. There's gonna be joy. And that's what happens when we allow.
Christ to rule and to reign. And so when we look at the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, and we pray these kingdom prayers like your kingdom come, your will be done, there is a physical aspect. There's a physical aspect of his kingdom that we should be praying for. We would say it in today's modern church, even so come Lord Jesus, right? We pray for his kingdom to come.
We pray that it's the day. And by the way, I hope that you're ready. And if not, perhaps that's the reason why Jesus' coming is being delayed, because he's waiting on you to get ready. And you can leave here ready today so that when Christ comes back, we have the assurance that we can inhabit and live in the perfect kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ our Savior forever.
So there is a physical aspect. But there is also a spiritual aspect to this prayer. There's a spiritual meaning beyond just the physical kingdom that we learn about. There's a spiritual aspect to the kingdom of God that I think he's meaning as well here. You see, the kingdom of God is spiritual.
In that, and don't miss this. That God not only rules in a real place in a literal kingdom. But the spiritual aspect is that he wants to rule in a person. He wants to rule in your life. And so until we get to live in that.
that future kingdom that we are going to one day call home. Where Christ rules and Christ reigns, it is a literal kingdom and it is coming. But until then. The good news is, and the spiritual meaning behind this prayer that Jesus is commanding us to pray is that he not only wants to rule in that kingdom, he wants to rule in your heart. He wants to rule in your life.
You see, this prayer is speaking to the rule of God that begins to fully captivate your heart and fully captivate your desires to where Christ. runs and rules your life. You see, the meaning of kingdom prayers is all about submission as his children, submitting ourselves to him and to his heavenly rule in your life. It's all about totally surrendering your life. Surrendering your dreams.
Surrendering your future. Surrendering your will. Surrendering your agenda. Surrendering your plans. Surrendering every aspect of your life, those areas that you like to control.
We all have them. We all have areas in our heart that That we want to control. And what this kingdom prayer is praying, and what Jesus is instructing, is he's saying, pray. Your kingdom come, your will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
So, just like we have the assurance of that future place. He wants us to live like that now. He wants you to live like that now. Totally surrendered. To him.
Here's what I want you to know about your life. is that there cannot be two kings in your kingdom. In God's kingdom, there can't be two kings. It never works. I mean, look back to the Old Testament.
Right, you got the nation of Israel And the nation of Israel God was supposed to be their king, right? And what did they desire? They wanted a king. Why? Because everybody else has one.
How childish, right? Your kids ever ask for something, and then their best response is: well, everybody else has it, right?
Well, that's the nation of Israel. Nation of Israel, they're like, hey, God, give us a king. And God, from the beginning of time, has just wanted to be their one and only king. He wanted to be their ruler. He wanted to be the one that they looked to and yielded their life to, but yet they wanted to be like everybody else, so they asked for an earthly king, and look at where that got them.
Follow the nation of Israel and their history. There's always been chaos. Why? Because they've always tried to do life with two kings. And God was supposed to be their king.
It's no different in your heart. You see, your heart as a follower of Jesus is supposed to be fully ruled and captivated by one king and one king alone, and that's the king of kings. And here's what I want you to know: when you try to run your life and when you try to sit on the throne of your heart and you try to plan your life out and scope out your future and scope out your agenda and do everything in your own strength and everything in your own power. When you try to do everything by yourself without God, I'll tell you, it always leads to chaos. 100% of the time, just like the nation of Israel, because there can't be two kings in God's kingdom.
It doesn't work that way. This is a prayer of lordship and kingship. in your Life.
So, yes, there is a physical aspect where we do pray, let your kingdom come. And I pray it's today. But here's what I want you to know: it's more than just the physical kingdom where God literally dwells in a literal place. It's a spiritual kingdom in which he wants to dwell in 100% role in your life. Romans 14, verse 17, you'll see the verse up on the screen.
It says this. Paul says, For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Here's what he's literally saying. And for you to understand context, what he's talking about is all of these different preferences and different things like that that were going on in the first century church. And so he says that the kingdom of God, it's more than those things, it's more than the things that we get wrapped up in.
It's more than the physical, it's actually a life. It is a life 100% ruled by God. 100% led by God, 100% yielded by God. And when you follow that life, you find righteousness, you find peace, you find joy in the Holy Ghost. 1 Corinthians 4:20, it says this, you'll see it on the screen: for the kingdom of God is not in word, but it's in power.
You see, it's a spiritual Kingdom in which we can experience right now righteousness, peace, joy, and And power. You see, we experience the kingdom when we allow him and his word to rule in your. in your life. You see, that's the meaning. That's the meaning of praying a kingdom prayer.
It is asking God. to completely run your life. And for you to completely yield and surrender. every aspect of your life to him. That's the meaning of kingdom prayers.
But let's look secondly at the need for kingdom prayers, the need for. for kingdom Prayers. Like why is it important? That we yield our life to God. Why is it important that we pray for his kingdom to come in our hearts?
Well, a couple of things. We actually sang this today, but number one, the reason why we need these prayers is because our hearts are prone. to self-rule, aren't they? Like, let's just be honest. Our hearts are naturally bent.
to want what we want. Right? That's why in life, when we don't get our way, we get upset most of the time, right? Because at the end of the day, We want What we want.
Okay, we want what we want. I mean, it's true in life since the beginning, since really Adam and Eve sinned. I mean, they were created by God. They walked with God. That a perfect paradise in the Garden of Eden created by God.
And what? The enemy comes, the devil comes in the form of a serpent, and it didn't take much. to convince them That they knew better than God. Right? And isn't that true in our life?
We're all prone to self rule. Our hearts are prone to want to sit on the throne of our life, where we are in complete control. If you don't believe that our hearts are naturally bent. to self-roll. Have children.
Yeah. I didn't ever teach my kids to tell me no. That just happened. I think I don't know who in here taught them to say that, but somebody did, right? No, every kid that's ever born, here's what they want: they want their way.
That's why they throw things when they don't get their way. That's why they get upset. When they don't get their way. That's why they say things like: if you take something of theirs, I mean, go down into the nursery right now, and you'll see that our hearts are prone to self-rule.
Okay. Right? Because those little kids, here's what happens. Is somebody takes their toy? And what's the first word they say?
That's mine, mine, right? Why do kids do that? It's a reminder that our hearts are naturally from the beginning, because we're born into sin, our hearts are prone to self-rule. And your heart's no different. And so, therefore, the need for kingdom prayers, the reason why every day you should pray when you have your time of prayer with the Lord, that you should pray for his kingdom to come so that you can be fully yielded to him and fully surrendered to him, is because you don't know how bad your heart really is.
We have no idea how bad our hearts really are at the Corey Say, Pastor, this is not very encouraging. No, it's not, I'll tell you. Because our hearts are really bad. If I knew how bad your heart was, I probably would not waste my breath preaching to you every single week. And here's what I'll tell you, because that sounded really mean, but here's what I'll tell you: if you knew how bad my heart really was.
You'd find another church in a hurry. You see, my point is: is this: our hearts. Are fleshly, and our hearts are deceitful, and that's every single one of us. And so every single day, what Jesus is commanding us to pray is every single moment when we pray, we pray, thy kingdom come. Lord, let thy kingdom live in me.
Let me live out that righteousness. Let me live out that peace that one day your future kingdom will have.
Well, let that kingdom be lived out in me today. That power that one day we're going to see, and one day we're going to fully experience in your physical, literal kingdom, let that be lived out in me today. That's the need for kingdom prayers. Our hearts are prone to self-rule, but also we're in chaos. Without God's reign.
We are in chaos. Without his His reign. I mean, humanity's quest without God always leads to chaos. You ever notice that? I mean prime example.
Look at our world today. You wanna know why we're in chaos? It's because we're trying to do life. with two kings. Right?
We're trying to do life the way we want. And here's what I'll tell you. Anytime that happens, it leads to chaos. Violence and divisiveness and war and hate and identity issues and all these problems that we see and all these problems that we debate and different things like that. You want to know why that is the case?
is because without God's reign, there's always chaos. There's always chaos. That's why we need to pray kingdom prayers. But number three, the third reason why we need to pray these prayers and the need for it is that our future hope is connected to the kingdom of God. Your future hope as a follower of Jesus is connected to the kingdom of God.
If you slipped in here and you don't know Jesus, let me tell you this. You don't have hope right now, but your only hope is connected to the future kingdom. Our only hope is connected to the kingdom. The book of Hebrews calls it this: He says that the writer says that we're receiving a kingdom. That cannot be shaken.
You see, we understand that our future hope. is not someone on Air Force One. Right? It's someone that will one day be riding on a white horse. And that's where our future hope is.
And so the point is: the reason why we, as his followers, must be praying every day. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Is because our world is in utter chaos without his rule and reign in my heart. And let's not take just the whole world. Let's take your life.
Your life. is in chaos. without the rule and reign of God on your heart. Because there can't be two kingdoms in his kingdom. There can't be two kings in his kingdom.
And so therefore, for us, we have to fully yield and fully pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
So that's the need for it. That's the meaning of it. But number three, I want to show you the application of it. What does this actually look like? I mean, practically, what kind of thing does this mean?
Well, number one, kingdom prayers, I think the first application is this: we must surrender. I will. For his. You must surrender your role in your life for his. This is ultimately what Jesus is saying.
In other words, he's saying live. And yield yourself. Today. And every day. to the kingdom of God.
I I mean think about it like If you're like me, and I know we struggle with prayer and different things from time to time. We sometimes use prayer. as an opportunity to try to bend God's will to ours. Right. That's why it's not a very good idea.
if you pray, and I want you to understand me and hear me. Is that God cares about everything you care about, okay?
So if there's something going on at your work, he cares about it. If there's something going on at your school, he cares about it. If there's something going on in a relationship of yours, he cares about it.
So I don't want you to feel like I'm diminishing any of those things. But here's what oftentimes we do. We come to God with a to-do list. Saying, fix this, fix this, fix this, do this, do this, do this with our agenda. We come to him with like our agenda.
And our will. A lot of times, right? And we pray hoping that our prayer. will bend God's heart towards ours. And Ben His will towards hours.
But Jesus and his blueprint of prayer here, his instructions in prayer, here's what he's saying: he's saying, prayer is not your opportunity to bend God's will to you. Jesus is saying that prayer is actually us bending our will to his. It's actually totally different than the way that you and I see prayer. It's actually coming to Him. Not with our agenda.
Now we come to him with heavy hearts a lot of times, but here's the point: is we're not coming to him asking him to bend his agenda to ours. It's actually coming to him asking him to just for his will to be done in every situation of our life. That's what prayer is. That's why, for us, the application here, like, how do we pray a prayer like? You know, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
It's literally praying and surrendering. Our life. Our rules. Our rain. Completely to him.
It's praying. Hey, God, I really would love. for this person to be healed. But nevertheless, Your will be done. Your agenda be done.
God, I really think this promotion would be a really good thing for our family. But Father, I think. I want your will above that promotion. And if your will is not for me to have that promotion, it's for me to do something else or to stay exactly where I'm at. God, I'll do that and I'll flourish and I'll live out your kingdom right there.
It's praying that, but a lot of us. Remember, we pray mechanical prayers, business relationship. God give me, God do this, God fix this, God, and that's the mechanical side of that business approach. But when we come to Him as our Father, that basis, completely yielding our will and our reign to Him. That's when we can experience the deeper exchange.
With Yeah.
So, how do we apply it? We surrender our rule to His. My question for you is: what part of your life is not fully surrendered? What part of your life is not fully surrendered? Is it your future?
Young person, have you literally prayed and given him whatever he wants you to do. Laid your life down there. Parents. Maybe the one thing in your life that you haven't surrendered is your own children. And maybe you need to pray, God, they're yours.
God, I want them to be in the center of your will wherever that may be. Maybe it's your talents. God's blessed you with something and he wants to use it to further the body of Christ and to edify the body and further the gospel. And you've held that back and you haven't fully yielded. You haven't fully surrendered.
Maybe it's that. Maybe it's something in your life. But here's what I'll tell you: if we were to go around the room, there's something in every single one of our hearts where we're trying to kind of sit on the throne of our life in this situation. What God is saying and what Jesus is saying in this prayer is: God can rule and reign in your life right now. Thy kingdom come.
Let him rule right now in me, just like one day he will forever rule over the whole world. That's the prayer. It's surrendering our life to Him. But number two, and this is very basic, but I think this will help us because I think it's rooted in the gospel. I think we need to remember the gospel.
Reflect on the gospel, meditate upon the gospel. Here's why: is because the gospel. Is the good news? Right? Or the good announcement That the kingdom is here.
That's what the gospel is rooted upon. That's why Jesus came. And that's the whole root of scripture because the reason why mankind was created, and I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm just telling you, this is so real and so true. And my goal as a pastor is for you to understand how the Bible works and the overall overarching meaning of what Scripture is. Here's what I want you to know: the reason why you were created, the reason why mankind was created to begin with, was to have a relationship with God.
That's the reason why we were created in the first place. And because of sin in Genesis 3, when sin entered into the world, when that happened, The relationship was was broken. and ruined. And so from that moment. Which is Genesis 3, all the way up until Revelation chapter 22.
Here's what we find. It is one overarching story. Of God redeeming mankind. That's all of us, human beings. Redeeming us back into a relationship with him.
That's what the whole Bible's about. And so, therefore, there's all these things that God is doing to redeem us back into a relationship so that you could live with him forever. And it culminates, and it ends in Revelation 22 with Jesus creating a new heaven. And a new earth. And him reigning forever.
And evermore, and the devil being completely destroyed, cast into the lake of fire, being tormented there forever. There's no sin, no pain, no sorrow. No effect of sin will ever Be on the face of the new heaven and the new earth again. That's the future that we have to look forward to. And what Jesus is saying here is the beauty of that kingdom.
Because Jesus came and because the Holy Spirit resides in our heart, the beauty of that kingdom can be lived out right now in you because of the good news and the good announcement of the gospel. You see, that's why we need to remember the gospel. We need to meditate upon the gospel. We got to reflect upon the gospel. Because when you go back to the gospel, the basics of Christianity that saved your soul from hell.
We find this good announcement that the kingdom. is here. The kingdom has come. The kingdom now lives inside of you. That's why Jesus said this when he came.
Repent. Why? For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You see, the gospel frees us. And the gospel transforms you.
to live out the kingdom. Right now. In your hearts.
So, what we see here is this blueprint of prayer. It starts with the basis by which you approach God. And for some of you, you might be approaching him in a mechanical way. Evaluate your prayer life. How often do you pray?
If you're like, well, I pray before meals. And that's about the extent of it. That's a business relationship with them. You're missing it. And that's probably why you're disappointed in the exchange that you're having with them.
He says, Pray, our Father. It's not a business relationship, it's a family relationship. It's not based on what we have to offer him. It's based on who we are to him. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Praise and adoration should drive and be the heartbeat behind everything else in your prayer life. It should be flowing through everything that you pray for. And everything that you pray against, everything. It should be through the lens of prayer. And then he says, Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
