The Religion of the Nations, Part 2

Amen. Thank you ladies. Those are my gifts as a pastor right there, to be able to watch someone grow up in the church over the last 16 years like those three young ladies did with their mother, and to be able to see what God has done in their lives are the greatest gifts a pastor can ever have. To be able to watch a mother invest into her children and to watch them grow in the Lord, to stay in the church and serve in the church and minister in the church, those are great rewards for a person like myself. And I praise the Lord for the ministry. I had the opportunity to talk to each of them this morning and just praise the Lord for the ministry among us here at Christ Community Church.

Let me pray with you. Father, thank you for today. Lord, may we always give thanks for every day. May there never be a day that goes by where we don't recognize you as the king of that day. Thank you Father that we can worship you today. Thank you Lord that we can praise your glorious name. Thank you Father that we can look forward to that one day when we will be with you forever in your presence, worshiping and glorifying your name. Until that day comes, may we live as children of your kingdom. And may we live to bless your holy name every single moment until that day comes when you take us home to be with you or you come again that we might reign with you supreme. May we honor you in Jesus' name. Amen.

We have the wonderful privilege of studying the topic of prayer by looking at the pattern that God gives us for prayer in Luke 11 coupled with Matthew chapter 6, because they are both the same prayer. One was given in Galilee, that's the Matthew 6 one, the other given in Judea some two years later in Luke 11. And we praise the Lord for the opportunity to study prayer because for the most part we don't know how to pray as we ought to pray. And the Lord is so good to us to give us a pattern for prayer, to give us a skeleton, to give us a framework by which we can examine our prayer life with the instruction He gives to his disciples in Luke chapter 11 and in Matthew chapter 6. And our desire is to look at each of the petitions given in that prayer to understand them so that we might pattern our prayer after what the Lord taught his men in terms of how to pray when they came and asked him, "Lord, teach us how to pray as John's disciples asked him," and he taught them how to pray. And we've been looking with you basically at the introduction "Our Father who art in heaven" that helps us understand our God in his supreme care for his children. And last week we looked at that first petition "Hallowed be thy name." It's a petition that tells us how consumed we should be with his preeminence and his purity.

And today we look at that second petition "Thy kingdom come" which tells us how concerned we should be with his program and its purposes. It's a prayer that or a petition that helps us understand what Francis Havergal said back in the 19th century in a hymn that he wrote when he recorded these words: "Oh the joy to see thee reigning, thee my own beloved Lord, every tongue thy name confessing, worship honor glory blessing brought to thee with glad accord. Thee my master and my friend, vindicated and enthroned, unto Earth's remotest end glorified, adored and owned." That's the passion of a person who prays, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come."

This morning I will look at four things with you this morning. First of all, the question about thy kingdom, then the petition on thy kingdom, and then our confrontation with thy kingdom, and then we'll look at some implications of thy kingdom in your life and in mine as we bring it to a close. But to understand this petition, we must go back and begin to ask the question about thy kingdom.

Remember back in Acts chapter 1, we've been talking about this on Wednesday nights because we're talking about the return of the king, and when the king returns he sets up his kingdom. Well, in Acts chapter 1, the disciples asked the question because in Acts 1 there was some confusion, and with that confusion Christ gave a clarification. But you can remember back in Acts chapter 1 when the disciples asked, "Lord, is it at this time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" Now I like that because it tells me that after all the teaching that Jesus gave his men, there was still some confusion in their minds. Because you know, as a pastor, I teach and I love to instruct the people in the Word of the Lord. But if you're a little confused after my teaching, you I'm not disappointed in that because I'm not a perfect teacher. Jesus was a perfect teacher, and yet at the end of three years of ministry of preaching about the kingdom, because that's what Jesus did. He went around, we read about in Luke 8, he went around from village to village preaching about the kingdom of God. He sent his men out in Luke chapter 9 to preach about that same kingdom. He taught them to pray, "When you pray, pray this way: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come." And so they were to pray about the coming of the kingdom of God.

Jesus would teach all the parables about the kingdom. Matthew chapter 13 as he would explain how to get into the kingdom, how to grow in the kingdom, what's going to happen in that kingdom and how that kingdom's going to come to be. He would teach about the parables of the kingdom. Christ's message was so precise concerning the kingdom that the thief on the cross said these words: "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." The kingdom teaching of Jesus was so precise and so profound that the thief on the cross who never heard a sermon that Jesus ever preached knew that he was the king who had a kingdom.

And therefore the disciples, after spending 40 days after the resurrection of Christ with them, that's what Acts 1 tells us, learning about things pertaining to the kingdom, and Jesus saying these words in verse number 5 of Acts 1, "John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Now that's important, because the disciples who were Jewish, raised in Jewish families, would know that the coming of the Spirit of God would coincide with the arrival of the kingdom of God. Ezekiel 36 and Joel chapter 2 taught that. So these men who grew up being taught by their parents, being taught in the synagogue about the arrival of the Spirit of God coinciding with the kingdom, would now be prompted to ask the question, "Lord, is it now at this time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" There was still some confusion in their minds.

So Christ would give this clarification when he said, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by his own authority. You know, it's not for you to know the time of the arrival of the kingdom. It's not even important for you to know all the events and features surrounding the arrival of the kingdom. That's not important. Why? Because when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be consumed with telling people about the king of that kingdom, and you will be my witnesses literally all around the world."

Back in Mark chapter 13, it was Jesus who said these words in verse 33: "Take heed, keep on the alert, for you do not know when the appointed time is. It is like a man away on a journey who, upon leaving his house and putting the slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore, be on the alert, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrowing, or in the morning, lest he comes suddenly and finds you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: be on the alert."

So Jesus says, "It's not for you to know the times or the epochs surrounding the arrival of the king, something that the Father has fixed in his own authority. But you are to be alert to the arrival of the king, and you are to be active for the king, and you are to be anxiously awaiting the arrival of the king." And that characterizes the believer in Jesus Christ. And that's what needs to preoccupy your thinking. Jesus said, "It's not for you to know the time, but you be alert because it could be at any moment. You'd be active in telling people about the coming of the king, and you anxiously await my arrival, for one day I will come and I will come at a time you do not expect me to come. But I will come because I am a king and I have a kingdom, and that kingdom will be established."

That's the question about the kingdom. And that was a question asked not only by the disciples but people that Jesus Christ encountered all throughout his ministry, which is point number two, and that is the petition about thy kingdom. What does it mean to pray "thy kingdom come"? I mean, after all, if this is a pattern and we are to pattern our prayer life after how Jesus taught his men to pray, what does it mean to pray "thy kingdom come"? First of all, an explanation. Second of all, an expression or its expression.

Let's explain it this way. "Thy kingdom come," the word kingdom. Basilea is a word that means to rule or to reign. So if every time you saw the word kingdom in the scriptures you translated it rule or reign, it would help you understand the petition. In other words, "thy rule come, thy reign come." And "come" is El Thato, which means to come suddenly, to come quickly, to come completely. In fact, you can read it this way: "Your kingdom, let it happen." That's the cry of every believer: "Your kingdom, let it happen now." That's our desire. "Your rule, your reign now." That's our desire. We want the rule and reign of Christ immediately, suddenly, completely, totally, in its entirety.

Remember it was Pilate who asked Jesus in John chapter 19, "Are you a king? I mean, if you're a king, where's your kingdom?" And Jesus said, "My kingdom, my kingdom is not of this world." And remember Pilate would put the inscription above the cross, "Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews." Well, the Jews, they didn't like that. So the religious leaders just said, "Well, we'll just state that this is what he said. Don't state it this way." And Pilate says, "What I have said I have said." And the point being is that yes, he was and is a king, and yes, he is the king of the Jews. But in reality, he is the king of the world.

And so to understand "thy kingdom come," we must understand that we are asking the rule of Christ, the reign of Christ, to come. Now when Jesus came, he came preaching the kingdom of God. "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand," right? John the Baptist did it first. He came preaching about the kingdom. Jesus followed John the Baptist and came preaching about the kingdom. And in fact, in Luke chapter 17, it says this: "Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming," you see, the kingdom of God is always on the mind of a Jew, and so the Pharisees would ask things pertaining to the kingdom of God, "He answered them and said, The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed. Nor will they say, Look, here it is or there it is, for behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst." In other words, the kingdom of God is within you. See, they misunderstood the rule and reign of the king.

The believer has a passion for the rule of Christ to come now. In fact, you can't pray "thy kingdom come" for the world or "thy rule come" for the world until Christ is ruling and reigning in your heart. See? Well, Christ knows that. In fact, he said in Luke 4:43, "I must preach the kingdom of God, for I was sent for this purpose." The kingdom of Christ is the apex of human history. The whole Bible centers around the coming of a king, the king that will rule and reign forever, the king that will rule and reign in Jerusalem on the throne of his father David.

So in terms of explanation, when you pray "thy kingdom come," you are praying for the rule of Christ to come now. Its expression is seen three ways: universally, spiritually, and literally. First of all, in order for you to understand the universal kingdom of God, you must acknowledge that universal kingdom. You must appropriate his spiritual kingdom, and you must anticipate his literal kingdom. So in praying "thy kingdom come," you come and you acknowledge that God is a universal king.

We know that because the Bible says in Psalm 103, verse number 19, "The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his sovereignty rules over all." Our God is a king. He created the universe. He created everything in this universe. He rules over everything in this universe. He sustains everything in the universe. Read Hebrews 1 and Colossians 1, as he upholds all things with the word of his power. He's in complete charge of everything. He is a universal king.

And so when we come to pray "thy kingdom come," we come acknowledging that he is a universal king of the world. The Bible says these words in Jeremiah 10, verse number 10, "The Lord is an everlasting king." Psalm 29, verse number 10, "The Lord sits as king forever." First Timothy 1:17, "Christ is the king eternal, the only wise God." Psalm 24, verse number 1, "The earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it."

Over in First Chronicles 29, David said these words in verse number 10: "So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly, and David said, Blessed are thou, O Lord God of Israel, our father, forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and the earth, thine is the dominion, O Lord, and thou dost exalt thyself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from thee, and thou dost rule over all. In thy hand is power and might, and it lies in thy hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name."

When you pray "thy kingdom come," you come and you acknowledge the fact that Jesus is a universal king, he's king over all. Yes, yes, we understand that Satan is the prince and power of the air, and we understand that the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one because First John 5 tells us that. But that's only because the Lord God who is king over all has allowed that to happen. And that's why in Revelation chapter 5, when the Lamb of God gets up, the only one who was worthy, and takes the scroll from his father's hand, that all heaven erupts in praise saying, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive glory and honor and praise." Why? Because there is a statement in Psalm 2 where the Lord God says to the son, "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. I will give you the kingdoms of the world." And sure enough, when the Lamb rises to take the scroll from his father's hands and begins to break those seals, all heaven erupts because they know now that Jesus Christ is going to take from the usurper Satan the kingdom of this world. So when you read Revelation 11, heaven erupts and says that the kingdoms of this world have now become the kingdom of our God.

Jesus is a universal king. When you come to pray "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come," you pray acknowledging the fact that Jesus is that universal king. But you must appropriate the fact that he is spiritually your king, that he rules in your heart. Remember in Acts chapter 20, verse number 25, it was the Apostle Paul who told the Ephesian elders that he went everywhere preaching the kingdom, telling people about the kingdom of God. That's so important.

I think sometimes that in our evangelistic efforts, we have missed the aspect of the kingdom. If you went and preached the kingdom message, you would call people to the Lordship of Christ. You would call people to submit to the kingship of Christ. You would help people understand what Jesus preached when he went around preaching, "The kingdom of God is at hand. The rule of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is in your midst. The rule of God is within you." Why? Because there must be an appropriation of the king into your life.

The Bible says in Colossians chapter 1, verse number 13, "For he delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son." See, that's what salvation is, isn't it? Salvation says that God takes you from one kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, and puts you in another kingdom, the kingdom of light. God takes you from the kingdom under Satan's rule into the kingdom under the Son's rule. That's salvation. And people of the world today don't understand that they're in the kingdom of darkness, but they serve a king who is Satan himself. They don't understand that, but that's where they're at. And Paul specifically says that when you're saved, you are delivered from the kingdom of darkness and you are placed into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God's dear Son. That's what salvation is. You are placed in the sphere where God himself rules your life. So important. People need to understand that.

People need to understand what Paul said in Romans 14, verse number 17, that "the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but it's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Those in the kingdom have joy because they've been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and they're now in the kingdom of God's dear Son. Do we understand that? You know, I don't think we do. You know, when we think about kingdom, we think about King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table and Sir Lancelot and Guinevere and all those romantic people from medieval times. We think of kingdoms, we think of castles and all the things surrounding that, horses and warriors. But we understand what the Bible says about a kingdom. There is a king, and we then are transferred into that kingdom.

Alan Redpath in his book "Victorious Praying" says this about this request. I think it's rather quite appropriate. He says, "I want to emphasize that Christian people cannot afford to play with the false doctrine that you can have a savior without having a king. Jesus Christ does not come into your life on the basis of democracy. He comes on the basis of dictatorship, or he will not come at all. That is not to say that he is a despot, though indeed that is the correct translation of the Greek word for Lord. It is not to say that he comes to rule our lives with an iron rod, but Jesus Christ demands the right of kingship, so that in the setting up of his kingdom, he may destroy in me the kingdom of the flesh and of sin. The establishment of Jesus on the throne of my life dethroned Satan. I cannot possibly attempt to be a citizen of both kingdoms."

And then he gives an illustration. He says, "I came over to America on what is called an immigrant visa. It is quite impossible for me to remain a citizen of the British Empire and at the same time become a citizen of the United States. Neither government will tolerate it, for if I am to become a citizen of the United States, I must renounce all the loyalty to Queen Elizabeth the Second. I must completely sever my ties with the one country in order to be a citizen of the other country. Now what is true in the material realm is infinitely more true of the spiritual realm. I must break my ties with Satan if I would be a member of the kingdom of grace. Have you done that? You can make no terms with your old sovereign. You must be prepared to renounce entirely your loyalty to all the works of darkness if you would become a member of the kingdom of grace."

He says it so well. You go from one kingdom to the other. You can't be in both kingdoms. Jesus said you can't serve two masters. You can only serve one. And so to understand "thy kingdom come," you must acknowledge the fact that Jesus is a universal king. He rules over all, and I must appropriate the fact that he becomes my king. That's why Jesus said in Luke 17:21, "The kingdom of God is within. I rule and reign in the hearts of my people. My kingdom is not of this world."

I was listening to a very famous preacher the other day. He's really rather interesting. Well, I was. J-Mac, who he's pretty famous. I'll tell you this, J-Mac. And they asked... he had a question-and-answer time in his church. He said, "I've stopped reading all magazines. I don't read any newspapers because I don't even know anything about the kingdoms of this world. I'm consumed with the kingdom of my God. Why would I want to know about what's happening in this kingdom, in this realm? I want to know what's happening in the kingdom of God. So I spend all my time," he says, "learning about the kingdom of God, studying about the kingdom of God, because I want nothing to do with the kingdoms of this world. Nothing." He's right. He's right.

The more you spend listening about the kingdoms around you, the more they will persuade your thinking and your attitude in this life. That's why we are citizens of another kingdom. That's why we are always looking to the God of that kingdom. So to pray "thy kingdom come" is to pray for the rule of Christ to come now, because I know that he's a sovereign king who rules overall universally. And then I want his rule to be in my life personally and spiritually, because one day there's coming a literal kingdom. And while I acknowledge his kingdom universally and I appropriate his kingdom spiritually, I anticipate his kingdom literally, that is, there is coming a day where there will be a kingdom on this earth, and Jesus Christ the king will rule on this earth.

I mean, that's so important. And that's one of the reasons we have done this whole series on the return of the king, because we want you to know that there's coming a kingdom. You need to be prepared for that kingdom. You need to understand what Jesus said about that kingdom. It should preoccupy our thinking. It should be that which is the focus of our thought life, the kingdom of God and the coming of that great kingdom.

Jesus said to his disciples, amidst their confusion, when he gave the clarification, "Yours is not to know the time or epochs that the Father has fixed in his own authority." The Father never denied there'd be a literal kingdom. It's fixed in his own authority. Remember back in Daniel chapter 2, verse number 44, "And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever." Daniel understood that there was coming a king, and his kingdom would destroy all the kingdoms of the world, and that kingdom would last forever. The kingdoms of the world will never last forever, but there's coming an eternal kingdom that will always be forever.

And that's why in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah the prophet would speak about that coming kingdom. We talked about the Son that would be given and the child that would be born, whose name was Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. "There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore."

Earlier in the book of Luke, we read where the angel Gabriel, when speaking to Mary, talked to her about the son that she would give birth to when he said these words in verse number 32: "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end." There'll be no end to his kingdom because it will be an eternal kingdom.

So when you pray "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," a little phrase "on earth as it is in heaven" is a Hebrew parallelism which says these words: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name on earth as it is in heaven, thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In other words, your cry is that as God's name is hallowed in heaven, so you too want it hallowed in your life on this earth. As God's kingdom reigns supreme in heaven, so you too want his rule to reign supreme in your life and on this earth forever. And as God's will is done perfectly and completely in heaven always, so too you want his will to be done perfectly and completely in your life as well.

That's where prayer begins, and that's the essence of our prayer life about God and his glory, and seeking his preeminence, his purity, his plan and its progress, seeking his program and its purpose in my life, because I subject myself to the king of glory and all of his wonders and all of his splendor.

But point number three, there's a confrontation. Our confrontation with thy kingdom. There's a confrontation within, and there's a confrontation without. Within, the confrontation is with self. Without, the confrontation is with Satan and society. But there's a confrontation. You know it well, and so do I. And that is, I can't pray "thy kingdom come" if I'm concerned about my kingdom, right? And boy, are we concerned about our kingdom! You know, we tend to think that we're kings, and that everybody should run according to our rules.

But there's that confrontation within about submitting myself to the program and the purposes of God when I have a program and I have a purpose, right? Let's be honest, my friend. All of us have that confrontation on the inside. We have desires, we have aspirations, we have plans, we have dreams, and sometimes they're not according to God's plans, God's program, God's purposes. And we wrestle inwardly with that confrontation. We want to chart our own course. We want to map out our own lives. All of us have plans, all of us have goals and objectives, we have desires and aspirations. And then all of a sudden, things begin to take a different turn. We have a hard time with that, don't we? We have a plan, and it didn't work out right, and we find ourselves in confrontation with thy kingdom versus my kingdom. And I begin to question God's authority in my life. I begin to question God's sensitivity to my life. I even begin to question God's loyalty to my life, don't I? Because I have a plan and a program, and God's not in my plan and program. So what do I do? What do I do?

There's that conflict all the time on the inside, isn't there? And that's why we need to learn to pray God's way so that we can really truly honor God in our prayer life. Do you really want the rule of Christ in your life? Do you want Christ to have sovereign total control of your job, of your marriage, of your family, or not? See, we think we can handle it on our own, but you can't. So you pray, "Lord, I want your rule in my life. I want your rule in my family. That's all I want." And we find ourselves in that confrontation, don't we, on the inside.

There's also the confrontation on the outside with Satan and with society. See, once you make a commitment to God's kingdom, the Prince of Darkness is not happy with the direction your life is going. Would you not agree with that? And so Ephesians 6 says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but we truly wrestle against the spiritual forces of wickedness and darkness. That's where the war is. That's where the battle is. And folks, we're involved, we're engaged in combat, we're in battle every single day. And that's why Peter would say that those lusts of the flesh wage war against your soul. There is a war going on inside us. And Satan is not pleased with our commitment to God's kingdom and God's purposes at all.

So what's he do? He uses society on the outside to confront the kingdom of God on the inside. Let me give you an illustration. The Bible says in James chapter 4 that if you're a friend of the world, you're an enemy of God, right? But our confrontation comes because we become companioned with the world, companioned with the world. If someone was to ask you, with your children, "How do you help them understand how to marry the right person?" How would you answer that? Let me give you a suggestion. When you marry somebody, you're going to marry your friend, right? So when your children are in your home, you control who their friends are, who their friends are, because they're going to marry somebody who's their friend.

As a parent, I'll speak to you mothers because it's Mother's Day. You have one responsibility that reigns supreme in your home, and that's to make sure you control who your children hang around with. If you don't do that, they're going to become friends with the wrong person, and it's too late. They're going to want to marry that person. And that confrontation with the kingdom of God comes because we become companioned with the world. And Jesus said through James's pen, "If you're a friend of the world, you're an enemy of God." If you're a companion of the world, listen, you'll become contaminated by the world. James 1:27 says this: "Pure religion and undefiled before the Father is this: that you visit the widows and orphans in their affliction and keep oneself unstained by the world." You got to be unblemished, unspotted by the world.

Listen, it's a given fact. If you are companioned with the world, you will be contaminated by the world. So you got to make sure that you understand that when you pray "thy kingdom come," "thy rule reigns supreme in my life," you got to make sure you're not a friend of the world. You become companioned with the world because then you'll become contaminated by the world. Oh, by the way, if you've been contaminated by the world, you will be conformed to the world. That's why Paul says in Romans 12, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or your logical form of worship. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

If you mark it down, some of you can pattern it in your own family, right? Your children became companioned with the world. They then became contaminated by the world. They then became corrupted or conformed by that world, right? The world shaped them into its mold, did they not? That's what happens. They become molded and shaped by the direction of the world. All because as a mother, you didn't say, "That person, you can't hang around with anymore," because you were afraid that your child might rebel. And we told you before, if you're afraid your children will rebel, they've already rebelled. So it's a given fact. They've already rebelled. If you're afraid your children are going to rebel, they've rebelled. Okay? But because you wouldn't make a stand and say, "That friend, you will not hang around with."

I can recall many times in my life growing up, my parents said, "She's a no-no. She's anathema. You're not going that direction." I honored my mother and father. They had more wisdom than I did. Now when I was a junior high, I thought I had all the wisdom because every junior high student thinks they're smarter than everybody else. But you know what? My mom and dad had all the wisdom, and they would say, not only about the women but about the fellows as well, "No, no, you're not doing that with them. Not as long as I'm alive, you're not doing that."

And you know, my parents spared me so much heartache, and in so doing, spared themselves a lot of heartache, because they were afraid to take a stand. My parents, we didn't even care whether I liked them or not. They didn't care. They weren't interested whether I liked them. They just wanted me to respect them. Boy, I respect my mom and dad even to this day. I respect them, and I am their friend, good friends, best of friends. Why? They took a stand. They didn't want me to become contaminated by the world. They didn't want me companioned with them so that I would become contaminated so that I would be conformed by them. They didn't want that.

And that's why Paul says in First Corinthians 11, "Examine yourself, judge yourself, so that you are not condemned along with the world." Boy, that's important, isn't it? Where do you stand with the kingdom of God? You see, we are citizens of another kingdom. We are not citizens of this world. We are aliens in this world. We are strangers in this world. We are foreign objects to this world. And how we live our lives should demonstrate to everyone around us that we serve in another country with another king who rules over all.

Which leads us to point number four, the implications of praying "thy kingdom come." There are three of them. When you pray "thy kingdom come," you are laboring to reach the sinner with the gospel. You are laboring to reach the sinner with the gospel of Christ. When you pray "thy kingdom come," it's an evangelistic prayer. "Lord, Lord, I want your kingdom to come. Lord, Lord, I want your kingdom to come. I want your rule to be in my heart. I want your rule to be in the life of my children. Lord, I want your rule to be in the life of my husband or my wife or my daughter or my aunt or my uncle or my grandparents. Lord, I want your rule to come, and I want it to come now, because I want it to be here suddenly, and when it comes, I want it to completely engulf my family, my friends, those people that I love and admire. I want your rule to come into their lives."

When the Bible says "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," the reason it's effectual is because it prays for God's kingdom to come to this earth. It prays for God's rulership to take its place in our hearts and in our lives. Luke 12:32 says, "Do not be afraid of the flock, for your Father has chosen to give you the kingdom." In Matthew 5, Christ said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." He wanted the people to know that the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, was the greatest kingdom in all the world. And even though he healed them physically, and even though those who were blind could see, and those who could not walk could now walk, and those who had leprosy were now healed, those who had all kinds of diseases were now healed, he knew that would not satisfy their lives. He knew that in the long run, they were still going to die. He knew that in the long run, they would get sick again. He knew that in the long run, they were in need of entrance to the kingdom of heaven. So he preached to them about that kingdom, about the rule of him in their lives.

When you pray "thy kingdom come," you are laboring to reach the sinner with the gospel. Number two, when you pray "thy kingdom come," you pray living to reflect his sovereignty. You pray living to reflect his sovereignty. Listen carefully. Folks, we need to live as though we are subjects of a king, because we are. We need to live, and everybody needs to know that we serve the king of the universe. Listen what Paul said to those in Thessalonica in First Thessalonians chapter 2. He says, "Walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory." In other words, your walk should be equal to the fact that you are serving a king in another kingdom for his glory. Walk in that manner.

So when you pray "thy kingdom come," not only are you laboring to reach the sinner with the gospel, you are praying to live a reflection of his sovereignty in your life, that he will rule in your life and you are the subject of his kingship. That's why Christ said, "Seek ye first the rule of God, and all these other things shall be added unto you. But seek my kingdom first, seek my reign first, seek my rulership first. It should be the first thing you seek after, my rulership, my kingship, my authority. You subjecting yourself to me, and I'll take care of every other need that you have as long as you seek me first. Seek me first above all else."

That's why Jesus said in Luke 9:62, "No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." How many people you know who are in the kingdom but keep looking back, keep looking back the way things used to be? They're bitter, they're angry, they're just nasty on the inside. They keep looking back, looking back, looking back. What's back there? You keep looking back. Nothing back there. It's over. It's done. Boy, we love to live in the past, don't we? We love to bring up the past, don't we? Oh, we love to do that. Why? Why do you do that? When Jesus said, "No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for my kingdom." Why? Because I rule in the hearts and lives of those who serve in my kingdom. They don't look back. They look up. They're always looking up, because that's where I sit, and that's where I reign supreme.

And thirdly, those who pray "thy kingdom come" pray looking and longing for the return of the Savior, looking and longing for the return of the Savior, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. Titus chapter 2, verse number 13. Peter said it this way: "The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat? But according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

When you pray "thy kingdom come," you pray it looking and longing for the arrival of the king and his glorious kingdom, so that there'll be a new heaven and there'll be a new earth where only righteousness dwells. That's what we want. That's what we look for. Peter goes on to say, "Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless." The way you live a blameless life, a spotless life, a clean life, is to keep looking and longing for the return of the Savior.

You see, do you think that we do a series on Wednesday nights about the return of the king because we want you to know about the future? Oh no, oh no. We don't. It's nice to know the future. That's not why we do it. We do it so that you will anticipate the arrival, and in the anticipation of his arrival, live a holy and godly life, a spotless life, a blameless life in this world. That's the motivation behind it. Because if you're all through studying about the return of the king and it doesn't affect your present life, something's wrong, right? You're not anticipating his arrival, and you should be, because he's your king. You are subjects in his kingdom, and you're looking one day to rule and reign with him forever.

That's our blessed hope. That's the driving motivation in every believer's life, that Jesus is coming again. And it may be today, it may be tonight, it may be tomorrow, but he's coming again, and I will rule and reign with him forever. And I will continue to keep looking for that arrival, because it may be today. It may be tomorrow. And because he's coming, I want my family to know he's coming. I want my family to know of his arrival so they are ready for it, for when he comes.

That's why we pray, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." We are consumed with his preeminence and his purity. "Thy kingdom come," we are concerned with his program and his purposes. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you for today and the great joy of your kingdom. Because the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit of God. And we can have that peace and we can have that joy because of our righteous standing with Jesus Christ our king. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for teaching us how to pray, because we so desperately want to commune with our king. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.