Matthew 6:5-15 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' 14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Introduction: A Ship at Sea
Imagine you are on a huge ship in the middle of the ocean. You have been adrift for as long as you can remember because the ship has no captain, and nobody seems to know where to go. So you have been sailing around in circles in the middle of the ocean for years. One day you discover that there are some documents on this ship that describe the destination and the purpose of the voyage. Those papers claim there is a place on the other side of the ocean that is an absolute paradise. It is paradise because unlike any other place in the world this place is ruled by a king who is mightier than any other king, wiser than any other king, and kinder than any other king. The place you are sailing from is a horrible place – ruled by vicious, cruel men with no regard for justice or law and order, and so life there is like hell on earth. You are glad to have escaped that place, but frankly life on this ship is not much different. The people running this ship are just as bad. Most of them do not even believe this paradise on the other side even exists. But you do, so half of you is excited at the thought of someday getting there, but the other half of you is sad because no one knows the way.
One day you hear some commotion so you climb up onto the deck and see a bunch of people pointing to a little rowboat approaching the ship. A man climbs out of the rowboat and boards the ship and gathers everyone for an announcement. He claims He is the king from this land of paradise, and He has come to serve as the captain of the ship to bring it to that port. He does not look much like a king, and most of the crew scoff and say, “Yeah, right” and walk away. But a few of you believe him and gather around him. And He starts to tell you all about this wonderful paradise. And the more you learn about how incredibly wise he is, and how kind and powerful he really is – the more you start to realize that what makes that land a paradise is the fact that everyone there follows this king totally.
Someone asks him, “How far are we from that port?” Your heart sinks when he answers, “Prepare yourself for a long, long journey.” Someone else asks about all the people who scoffed and walked away.
“Are you going to throw them overboard?”
“No, I’m going to be patient with them because many of them will be persuaded over time. I’m going to be patient with them from now all the way until we reach the port. But when we arrive at the port, anyone who isn’t with me will not be allowed into the glorious kingdom. So not only is this going to be a long voyage, with all those hostile sailors, it’s going to be a rough trip for you who follow me. But, I don’t want you to be discouraged, because things on this ship are not going to be like they have been. From now on there are going to be two cultures on this boat. In that crowd that walked away, things will stay the same. But all of you who follow me and do what I say – to the degree you do that – life on this boat will more and more resemble the paradise in my kingdom back home.”
That little parable is my effort at summarizing all of world history – from beginning to end. I believe that is the picture the Bible gives us. Human history is like a ship sailing across the ocean to a particular destination. History has a purpose – it is going somewhere. Human history is headed toward a certain port. And that port is the kingdom of God.
Kingdom
The only topic of Jesus’ preaching
The King of that kingdom boarded this ship two thousand years ago when He arrived on the little rowboat. The rowboat’s name was Mary. And whenever this King spoke He talked about one topic – the kingdom on the other side. That is not my summary of Jesus’ preaching – it is the Bible’s summary.
Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom
Luke 8:1 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God.
Whenever Scripture summarizes Jesus’ preaching it uses the word “kingdom.” That was the topic of all Jesus’ teaching – and all the Apostles’ teaching as well. When Jesus told the parable of the soils, He gave the interpretation of the parable, and here is what He said: This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God… When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart (Luke 8:11, Matthew 13:19). Do you see that? The phrase “Word of God” and “Word of the kingdom” are interchangeable. The entire New Testament is nothing but the word about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not just a theme in the New Testament; it is the theme. If you want to know what the kingdom is just pick up your Bible and read every word in the New Testament from beginning to end, and you have got it.
Actually, even then you would not quite have all of it because there is quite a bit the Old Testament has to say about the kingdom as well. Those writings down in the hold of the ship that told about this land of paradise – those are the Old Testament prophets who spoke of the Messiah’s kingdom. I tell you all that so you understand that anything I say in a single sermon to try to summarize the idea of the kingdom of God is by necessity an extremely thin sketch.
The Old Testament promise
But let me at least try to introduce the idea to you (and then you can spend the rest of eternity learning more). The centerpiece of end-times prophecy in the Old Testament was the promise that someday the Messiah would arrive and He would be a great King.
Jeremiah 23:5 "Behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land.
This King will not only be a perfect ruler over Israel, but He will rule over all other kings and kingdoms.
Psalm 2:6 I have installed my King on Zion…
And then the Father speaks to the Messiah:
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You will rule them with an iron scepter
I don’t think it is exaggeration at all to call that the centerpiece of Old Testament prophecy.
That is one reason why huge portions of the Old Testament are devoted to describing the life of King David. David was a picture of this future Messiah/King, so the name David appears in Scripture more than twice as many times as Adam, Noah, the Apostle Paul, and Abraham all combined. Only Jesus’ name appears in the Bible more times than David’s. But David is just a picture. The Messiah’s kingdom would be far greater than David’s.
Daniel 2:44 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 crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.
Chapter 7 of Daniel reveals that this great King will actually approach the Ancient of Days in heaven – even though He is human.
Daniel 7:13 I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.
27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.
And that last part is the most amazing thing about this kingdom. It will be a kingdom where all rebellion against God will be eliminated. There will be no such thing as disobedience. It will be paradise because of the fact that everyone there obeys this perfect King totally. In fact, even the earth itself will be renewed so that not even nature does harmful things anymore.
Romans 8:21 the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Isaiah 11:1-16 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse … 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him … with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. … with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. …6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, … the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
That last line is important. In this kingdom a little child can play with a cobra and not get bitten because the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. Right now the natural processes of the earth very often are at odds with the character of God. Right now this world has all kinds of bad things - thorns and thistles and mosquitoes and poisonous snakes that would kill children and animals ripping apart other animals and decay – things becoming rotten, and tidal waves and earthquakes and viruses and disease and death. That is not to say any of that is outside of God’s control. It is all caused by His curse. But in the kingdom the curse will be lifted and the creation will behave in a way that always reflects the love of God toward His children, rather than reflecting His wrath over sin.
So this kingdom will be a place where nothing is at odds with His love for His people. All people will obey and honor Him, all nations will praise and worship Him, all kings will bow before Him, and even the creation itself will be renewed and restored so that it never does anything contrary to the heart of God toward His children.
The promise of that kingdom, ushered in by the Messiah, is the centerpiece of Old Testament prophecy. That is the great hope of God’s people. So when Jesus tells us to pray, “Your kingdom come” He is telling us to ask God to put an end to history – put an end to this present age, to bring the long voyage to a close and set in place the glorious age to come.
Stages of the kingdom
All of that was revealed in the Old Testament. What was not clearly spelled out in the Old Testament was the fact that this kingdom would not be set in place overnight – rather it would come in at least two stages. It was not explicitly revealed to the Old Testament prophets that the Messiah would come not just once but twice. No doubt the saints in Old Testament times scratched their heads trying to figure out how the Messiah could be both a suffering servant and a glorious king. They did not know that He would come once as a suffering servant, and inaugurate His kingdom, then die for His people, rise from the dead, return to heaven, and then later come back to earth a second time to eradicate all evil and set up the final form of His kingdom. That is why Jesus had to tell all those parables describing a kingdom where evil still exists – because from the Old Testament perspective they thought evil would be done away with immediately after the arrival of the Messiah. They thought as soon as the King appeared on the ship the ship would be at the port. They did not know He would arrive on the ship part way through the voyage and set up a mini-kingdom right on the ship.
So right now we are living in the first stage of the kingdom. This is why sometimes Jesus spoke of the kingdom as being present and other times as future.
Matthew 12:28 if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Luke 17:21 the kingdom of God is among you.
When Pilate asked Jesus if He was a king He said, “Yes, and for that very reason I was born” (Jn.18:36-37). So the kingdom had definitely come and was present at the time of Jesus’ first coming, and we are in that kingdom right now.
Colossians 1:13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son
However in other contexts He speaks of it as a future thing that has not yet fully arrived.
Luke 19:11 And while they were listening to these things, He went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.
Then He went on to tell a story about a nobleman who went away for a long time and then finally returned with rewards and punishments for his servants. The kingdom has been inaugurated; it exists now in a partial form, but someday will arrive in the final, ultimate form.
Or to put it another way, right now there are two kingdoms existing simultaneously – the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of Christ. Some people on the ship are following this King and others have their own kingdom. But when Christ returns at the Second Coming there will only be one kingdom.
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever."
Right now on the ship there are two kingdoms, but when we arrive at the port there will only be one.
So, what is the kingdom? It is paradise. It is the fulfillment of all those Old Testament promises about this glorious time when the rebellious kingdom will be eliminated. Even the earth itself will be renewed so that everything acts in conformity to the knowledge of God. It is a place where everything is set right. No sin, no evil, no suffering, no pain, no sorrow, no disease, no tears, no death.
Come
Desire for God’s kingdom
And the Lord Jesus Christ says to us, “When you pray, pray for that.” He wants us to desire that kingdom. Is it asking too much? Christianity is not a very burdensome religion is it? God points us to breathtaking perfection and then says, “Just desire that. All I require of you is to simply prefer that over worthless things.” His commands are as far from burdensome as it is possible to be.
For those of you who like three-point sermons, you will like this one because our text this morning has three words: Your kingdom come. I just talked about the word kingdom – that is point 1. Point 2 is come. What is the significance of praying for this kingdom to come? I think the significance of it is that Jesus wants us to desire His kingdom. He wants us to be eager for its arrival. He wants us to believe Him when He tells us how great it is going to be so that we long for it and cry out in prayer for it. We have been in the middle of the ocean for a long time now, and most of humanity is content to stay here. But those of us who believe what God has said about this port we are headed to want nothing more than to do whatever it takes to make some headway in that direction. And you can tell that by our prayers. Every time we ask the Captain for something it is for the sake of getting this ship to port. And the Captain loves it whenever we talk to him because he loves to hear people who are excited about arriving at His kingdom.
Sorrow over disobedience
And remember - the thing that makes that kingdom paradise is the fact that everyone obeys this perfect, wise, loving, righteous King. And so if we truly desire that we will also desire as much obedience to Him as possible here and now while we are still on the ship. You can tell how much a person desires God’s kingdom by his reaction to those people on the ship who scoff at the king.
Psalm 119:136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.
How is this prayer answered?
So when we pray for His kingdom to come we are praying for two things. Since we understand the kingdom comes in two stages, we are praying for both. We are praying that there would be more and more obedience to the King here and now on the ship, and we are also praying that we would make it to the port as soon as possible.
How does Jesus answer those prayers? What tool does He use?
Not the sword
Well, I will tell you one tool He does not use. This King does not increase his kingdom the same way most kingdoms are increased. The kingdoms of this world are advanced with the sword – every one of them. Alexander the Great did not take over the world by knocking on the doors of the various capitals and saying, “Can I please have this place?” No world empire was ever established without military conquest.
But Jesus’ kingdom on the ship is different.
John 18:36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."
While Mohammad commands his followers to kill the heathen; the Jesus commands us to die for the heathen. We do not kill them – we lay down our lives so that they might be saved.
Increasing the kingdom here and now
So if not through the sword, how does this King increase His kingdom here and now? Instead of using the sword He uses the ministry of the Church. We bring about more and more obedience to the King while we are still on the ship through evangelism and through building the saints. Evangelism gets more people following the captain, and building the saints gets the people who are following him to be more and more obedient to Him.
Both important
Both are necessary – winning the lost and building the saints. We never want to become apathetic about winning the lost. The parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13 talk about expanding – broadcasting seed so more and more hearts turn to Christ, yeast working through the whole batch of dough, a little mustard seed becoming a huge plant – expansion and growth. So building the kingdom means winning souls - getting more and more of the people on the ship to follow the captain.
But winning the lost is not our only task. It is not even our main task. Just read the New Testament and you will see that the vast majority of what the Church is commanded to do has to do with ministry to the saints. If we get a whole lot of people on the Captain’s side, but then they are mostly disobedient to the Captain, then the ship is not going to resemble His kingdom back home much. If we get so consumed with winning the lost that we neglect ministry to the saints we end up with huge, disobedient churches, which misses the whole point. The point is to bring about more and more obedience to Christ on this ship of human history. If you are truly concerned about building the kingdom here and now, you cannot neglect the importance of spiritual growth and maturity. The kingdom is not merely a matter of numbers of souls.
Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is … a matter … of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
If you are not increasing the righteousness, peace, and joy of the saints you are not advancing the kingdom.
Hastening the arrival of the final kingdom
So how does this King increase His kingdom here and now? Through the Church – winning the lost and building up the saints. But what about the ultimate answer to this prayer – the final stage of the kingdom that appears at the Second Coming? What about the task of actually getting the ship of human history to the port of Christ’s final kingdom? Do we have a role in bringing that to pass? Amazingly, yes! Did you know the Lord is going to use the Church to bring about the Second Coming?
Evangelism
There are two things we can do to expedite the arrival of the Second Coming. One is evangelism – calling people to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
God is delaying because in His great patience He is waiting for people to repent. And so we preach like Peter in Acts 3.
Acts 3:19-20 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you--even Jesus.
Repent so that the Father will send Jesus back. So by proclaiming the gospel and calling people to repentance, we hasten His coming. Romans 11 says God is waiting until the full number of Gentiles has come in, after which time the whole nation of Israel will come to faith in Christ (Ro.11:25-26). And that is when He will return – when Israel says, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Lk.13:35).
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
So how do we hasten the Second Coming? Through evangelism and preaching the gospel throughout the world.
Godliness
That is the first thing we can do. The other thing is mentioned in 2 Peter 3.
2 Peter 3:11-12 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to look forward to the day of God and speed its coming by living in holiness and godliness.
We hasten the coming of the Lord is by striving to live holy, godly, spotless, blameless lives. Not only is He waiting for a certain number of Gentiles to be saved before He returns, He is also waiting for His Bride to attain a certain level of godliness before He returns. That is why Ephesians 4 says the main purpose of the Church is to bring the Church to maturity so that we can attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
So, what do we do to bring about more of the kingdom of God here and now – more obedience to the Captain while we are on the ship? Build up the saints and proclaim the gospel. What do we do to hasten the coming of the final, ultimate form of the kingdom – getting the ship of human history to the final port? Build up the saints and proclaim the gospel. If we truly desire this kingdom we will not only pray, “Your kingdom come” but we will be willing and eager to be used as the answer to that prayer.
Your
So we have looked at the word kingdom, and the word come – how about the word Your?
Your kingdom, not our kingdom
We pray “Your kingdom come” not “our kingdom come.” We are not concerned with human, earthly kingdoms. You can tell when you are starting to become too earthly-minded when you become more concerned with the United States than the kingdom of heaven. If you are into politics it is easy to get wrapped up in this earthly kingdom – so you give more attention to the news than to the Bible. John MacArthur once said, “I would rather read a five-hundred-year old book on the kingdom of God than read any newspaper.” Some people look around and see unqualified men in leadership in the Church they think nothing of it, but if the wrong guy gets elected President of the United States they have a panic attack. They are more interested in the Tea Party movement than corporate prayer at church. And all their joy is tied to what happens to the United States. Their political party wins a victory and they are elated. They lose and they go into depression.
You do not want to hitch your wagon to any earthly kingdom. At the Second Coming it comes down to God vs. all the nations of this world, and you definitely do not want to be on the wrong side of that battle. The United States will either be defeated before then by another nation or be destroyed by Christ when He returns.
Should we pray for God to bless this country? Should we work toward the success or prosperity of the United States? Yes. Human governments have been established by God for the purposes of maintaining justice – so that the weak do not suffer injustice at the hands of the strong. So to the degree our government is faithful to that we are glad to see them succeed. But compared to the work that goes on in the Church, everything the United States government does is very, very small. The greatest empire the world has ever seen, compared to the kingdom of God, is like an anthill compared to Los Angeles. And our citizenship is in heaven and we are strangers and aliens here on this anthill called the United States.
That is why when the Jews tried to make Jesus their king He refused. They wanted Him to head up an earthly kingdom, and He was not interested. If you are already the governor of L.A. you are not too interested in taking charge of some little anthill - especially when the ants insist on giving the orders. So when we pray it is, “Your kingdom come” not “Our kingdom come.”
Not my kingdom come
Nor do we pray, “My kingdom come.” Think, for a moment, about your kingdom - the area in this world of your reign –your domain – your program - your agenda. You have got some things you would like to get done. You have goals – things you want to accomplish, things you want to obtain, things you want to do.
The priority of kingdoms
When we pray for our own kingdom instead of God’s kingdom, God does not answer our prayers.
James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
If your priority is your own kingdom you might as well pray to yourself, because God is not interested in those prayers.
“Are you saying that I shouldn’t pray for my own, personal needs and desires? What about a couple lines later in this very prayer where Jesus tells us to pray for our daily bread? Doesn’t God want us to ask Him for the things we need?” Yes – absolutely. God does want us to pray for our own, personal needs, but there is a way to do that that fits under the heading of “Your kingdom come” and there is a way to do it that fits under the heading of “My kingdom come.”
One of the things the Lord’s Prayer teaches us is about priorities. Jesus taught us to pray first Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done… and only after all that do we mention our own needs. Does that mean we have to always follow that exact order when we pray? We can never mention ourselves until half-way through? No – Scripture is full of examples of personal requests coming at the beginning of a prayer. The point is not to establish a particular verbal order; the point is to teach us about priorities. God’s glory is first; our desires are last. That is crucial. If our prayers always start with personal requests, and rarely or never begin with a time of just pure worship and focus on God alone – that is not a good sign.
Prayer is about God
If we learn anything from this prayer let’s learn that prayer is about God, not us. Prayer is all about God and His kingdom and will, and our desires and agendas and will are subordinated to His. Even Jesus prayed, “Not My will but Your will be done.” The only reason for God to answer our prayers is to show His glory and enable us to be involved in his kingdom and bring Him honor and to do His will. So in those times when our agenda is different from His, or does not help bring about His kingdom, there is no reason for Him to answer the prayer.
Room service
We do not ever want to pursue any agenda other than God’s – not even for one moment. There is never a time for selfish prayer – ever. “But I thought you said it’s OK to pray for my own needs and desires?” It is – if you do it the right way. There is a way to do it that is self-focused and a way to do it that is God-focused.
Let me give you another little parable to help illustrate the difference. Imagine a young salesman who is on the road, by himself in a hotel in a strange city. He is having a really tough time in his life, he is lonely, he is confused, he is struggling financially, and he is facing an impossible decision in his particular business trip and has no idea what to do. And as he sits there in his hotel room he picks up the phone and makes two calls. The first one is to the owner of the company he works for, who also happens to be his father. He is very close with his dad, and he knows that if he calls him, his father will not only tell him what to do in this hard decision, but he will have words of encouragement and strengthening from God’s Word, and wise counsel. Talking to him always seems to lift the weight of the burden. And if he asks his father to come and meet him and spend some time with him, his father will gladly do it. And not only that, but no matter what happens with his finances he knows his wealthy father will not let him go hungry or end up out on the street. So that first phone call is to his father.
The second phone call is to room service. He is hungry so he orders some food to be brought up to his room.
I think the difference between those two kinds of phone calls illustrates the difference between prayer that is focused on the Father and prayer that is focused on self. In both cases the guy is asking for things for himself. In fact, he asks for a lot more from his father than he asks from room service. But the two phone calls are very different. Room service is just a tool to get him what he wants. It does not really matter what sort of person is on the other end of the line, as long as they get his order right and deliver it quickly. But the phone call to the father is different. The purpose of the call is for the good of the company. And even the things that are for himself – what he most desires, is the father himself. When he calls room service he is placing an order. But when he calls his dad he just unburdens his heart and then receives whatever the father gives. He is not placing orders. He does not say, “OK Dad, read this passage of Scripture to me then advise me to go in this direction and then encourage me in this way and say this to me…” No – he is not placing an order. He just expresses his needs to his father and then trusts his father to meet those needs.
Does that mean he cannot ask for something specific? No – it is fine to ask for specific things we desire as long as we say, “Nevertheless, not my will but Your will be done. If this thing I am asking for does not advance Your kingdom then say ‘no’ because I do not want any part of it.”
For many people prayer is little more than placing an order with room service in heaven. That is the whole point of the health, wealth, name-it-and-claim-it prosperity heresy. They say using faith is just like using the laws of physics. Just decide what reality you want and speak that reality into existence through prayer. Pick something you desire and claim it – place your order and expect prompt service from the bellboy in heaven. What blasphemy that is! And yet how often do we fall into more subtle forms of that? How many times do we just come barging into God’s presence and start rattling off our list without even stopping to think about Who it is we are taking to? How many times have we just picked up the phone and starting placing orders without even hardly saying “hello”? In some cases the only mention of God in the whole prayer is that big long word we put at the end: “Jesusnameamen.”
God help us not to fall into room service prayer. Who knows how many people have turned away from God or who have faltered in their faith because they were taught this heresy and then became disillusioned when God did not deliver the prompt room service they expected? They pray and pray for something, it does not happen, and so they throw up their hands and say, “What good is God?” And if prayer is supposed to be room service, they are right. If prayer is room service it really is terrible room service. Just like if your son rigged up an intercom in his bedroom to your kitchen and started ordering room service every day – he would get terrible room service, wouldn’t he? It would be poor room service because you love your son and you know it is not in his best interests at all to think of you as his bellboy. But if he comes to you as his father, and with honor and respect and love says, “Dad, I need help,” and he trusts that whatever you say in response will be what he needs – then your fatherly instincts with gush with inclination to give him all that he needs.
Santa Claus
I am fascinated by the story of Santa Claus. You can tell something about a culture by the kind of fairy tales it invents. When you make up a story, the story can go however you want. He could have been a young guy in a blue suit at the South Pole just as easily as an old guy in a red suit at the North Pole. We could have made the legend of Santa go like this: Up in the North Pole lives a powerful king, and he monitors and controls everything in the world so that it all ends up conforming to one grand, wonderful plan. And every Christmas he decides what would be best for you and brings that.
But what did we come up with instead? We invented a character who just sits in the mall and says, “What would you like?” And the one word he does not ever say is “no.” That is our culture’s idea of a great fairy tale. We like someone who is not quite all-powerful, but just powerful enough to give us what we want. You see, what the kid in the mall is saying to Santa Claus is very simple: My kingdom come. And that is exactly what our prayers often degenerate to. Butter God up with a little worship and some praise, and then they get down to the business of asking Him to conform Himself to our purposes and will and desires.
When we do that we are like the Pharisee in …
Luke 18:11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am…
He was the author of the prayer, he was the subject of the prayer, he was the object of the prayer – God was not even involved. I think some people, if they suddenly became aware that God was eavesdropping on their prayer, would be startled.
What are your prayers like? Are there any sentences in the prayer that do not fall into the category of “My kingdom come”? Is your main concern your own comfort? “Lord, please touch my body and heal me, and help me to feel better, and send me some friends, and I need some more money, and let my job situation get better, and tell my wife to cool it with the nagging (or let my husband listen to me), and give me guidance in this decision I have to make so I will not end up suffering, etc.” You could save a lot of words and time if you would just say, “Our Santa Claus who art in the North Pole, my kingdom come, my will be done. Jesusnameamen.”
“Are you suggesting that we should never pray for anything that is not part of God’s kingdom?” Why should we? God’s kingdom is the only thing that matters in the universe. What possible reason could there be for us to request anything that is unrelated to His kingdom?
Conclusion
Let me close by reminding you one last time – what it is that makes the paradise on the other side such a paradise? What is so great about that kingdom? The King. His wisdom and goodness and power and love and holiness and greatness – that is what makes it such a paradise. He is such a great King that if you are a citizen of His kingdom you have absolutely nothing to worry about – ever. Nothing.
Micah 4:9 Why do you now cry aloud-- have you no king? Has your counselor perished, that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?
There is a place in this life for distress and sorrow – but not panic. There is a place for grief - but not despair. There is a place for a depressed mood – but not hopelessness. When the enemy tries to drag you into despair or frighten you with panic remember Micah 4:9: Why do you now cry aloud, have you no king? You do have a King! He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the great King of all kings, and He reigns on this ship and will reign forevermore in His kingdom and so we if we cry out anything in prayer it is, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”
Benediction: Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire."
