Thanks for listening to the audio of this weeks message. The sermon this week is part of our Thy Kingdom Come series, our key scripture is Matthew 6:10. If you have any questions about this sermon please email us at PBCFrankfort@gmail.com and be sure to include the episode title in your message.
This sermon was presented on 9/1/24
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your listening to sermon audio from Providence Baptist Church, be sure to check out pbcfringford.org for more information. If you have a Bible and I hope you do, I hope you turn to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6 is where we're gonna kind of begin the process today of learning and understanding what it means to pray the kingdom come. Now there's going to be several other verses, places we're going to be looking at today. I think the majority of those are listed in your bulletin as well. So if you want to look at those reference passages and kind of mark them for the future, please go ahead and take a moment to do that as well. I want to remind you we started last Monday. We passed these out on Sunday. Last Monday you began a 40 days of prayer journey. We began that as a church. If you weren't here last week and did not get one of these, we've got a few more up here that I can give you after the service and basically one per household. So whether you have a household of one or six, doesn't matter. We'd like you take that share, do it together as a family if you want to, pass it around, however you want to do that. But it's something that we're doing in conjunction with this series of praying the kingdom of God to come. It's also something that we're doing in anticipation of a prayer challenge that I'm going to be presenting to you in October at our business meeting. Something that the church is going to be praying about looking forward to 2025. And so I hope if you've been doing this already, it's begun to challenge you a little bit already and begin to bless you as well. Matthew 6, the section we're going to be dealing with, we're going to start at verse 7 here in just a moment, is this passage called the Lord's Prayer. And I've preached on this before and I've talked about the fact that when I grew up in church, it was generally something that we sort of did and repeated maybe at the end of the service, maybe before an oftatory or a Lord's Supper or something. But it was generally seen as something that we just sort of everybody got together and just said the same words together. And it wasn't till later as I really began to study and look through the Scriptures and kind of try to figure out what Jesus' intent was here that I learned that what he really is giving us here is a template or a format of how to pray. And so he's given us some specific things to pray for, not necessarily that we have to just stand up and repeat it all together. Now there's nothing wrong with that. But in Matthew 6, 7 where we're going to begin in just a moment, he says when you pray, don't babble on and on as the Gentiles do. So clearly his intent is not that he says don't just repeat words and then gives us words to repeat. That's not the way Jesus works. And so there's there's a understanding here that this Lord's prayer is a template. It's a it's a it's a look for us to be able to look at different things, different pieces of ways to pray and things to pray for. And then we then take that with the Spirit's help and pray as he leads us. So if you would stand with me in honor of God and his word, Matthew 6, we're going to read verse 7 through 13, actually through 15. Says when you pray, don't babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask Him. Pray like this, our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy, may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us and don't let us yield to temptation but rescue us from the evil one. If you forgive those who sin against you, your Heavenly Father will forgive you, but if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Pray with me if you would. Lord, we do thank you for today the opportunity that's set before us as we learn over the next few weeks and are challenged in how to pray for your kingdom to come. Lord, I pray that the truth of your word, the power and the presence of your spirit would make maybe old passages come back to life for us, that we would see the beauty and the design of taking something and applying it into our prayer life, that you enrich with the presence of your spirit and that we don't just simply view our prayers as just a repetitive vocalization to you and and the Lord that we would learn over the next month and go through our Sunday mornings and our prayer guides that we're working through together, we would learn the the power of waiting and listening and hearing. To be reminded that prayer is not just simply just us speaking but it's carving out time to allow you to speak to us through your spirit. So today may we be challenged and changed for your glory. May we enter, exit this place different than how we entered. You know what that looks like for each and every individual here and watching and so we just put ourselves in your hands Father. It's in your son's name we pray and we ask these things, amen, you can have a seat. So that piece of may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, the old school way of learning it as I did was that kingdom come, thou will be done on earth as it is in heaven, right. That's the basis for this series. And so we're going to springboard off of that today to begin this look the next few weeks of how do we pray that? What does it mean for us to pray that his kingdom come, that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so we're going to do a few things this week foundationally for us to grasp on this so that in the next few weeks what we learn can make more sense, okay. So the first thing we want to talk about today is that the kingdom of God is always about people, not property. The kingdom of God is always about people, not property. When I say property I mean basically land. We tend to think in very modern 21st century terms that kingdom has to do with land and geography and geographical barriers and boundaries, right. But in the scriptures from the very beginning when God talks about his kingdom it is about people first and foremost. If you want to turn to Exodus 19 if you haven't already this is the first place in the scriptures that God begins to speak about his kingdom. He's brought Israel out of Egypt he's rescued them from from their slavery. He's getting ready to reveal himself to them and and guide them and direct them into the next steps of their lives. And he says this in Exodus 19 beginning verse 3. "Then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said give these instructions to the family of Jacob, announce it to the descendants of Israel. You've seen what I did to the Egyptians you know how I carried you on Eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me and keep my covenant you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth. For all the earth belongs to me." And then here's the focal point. "And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation. This is the message you must give to the people of Israel." So God's first teaching about the kingdom. Yes he's preparing them and he's getting ready to move them towards a promised land. I'm not saying that land is irrelevant. I'm not saying that geography is irrelevant in the Scriptures. But they were going to a promised land. We have a promise coming one day of a completely new land. But the kingdom resides first and foremost in people. And so there's two great truths that we see in this first interaction with the Lord and him talking about his kingdom. The first is found there in verse 5 where he says, "All the earth belongs to me." Again this proves that land's not irrelevant but more so what what God is speaking here is he has rule and reign and authority over everything. Even peoples. He says, "I'm choosing you as a people. I must set my love on you for I own everything. All the earth is mine. All the earth belongs to me." And so he is setting up a kingship. He's saying anywhere you go wherever you go not only do you belong to me but everything belongs to me. And then he tells them in verse 6 that they will become a kingdom of priests. Now if you're familiar with New Testament writings you may begin to pick up or may already be thinking, "Heaven I've seen this in the New Testament places." And you have 1 Peter 2, chapter 2 verse 9, Revelation 1, 4 through 6 which is going to be a passage we're going to look at this month. Revelation 5, 9 and 10 all carry over the same wording that in that new covenant in Christ all who are in Christ, all who are in the kingdom have become a kingdom of priests. And so the kingdom of God is first and foremost always about people. So what does it mean to be a kingdom of priests? What does it mean to be a priestly kingdom? A priest is essentially just a mediator a go-between if you will. And they connect to parties and we know that in the Old Testament there came this priestly line of people who served as high priests and offered up the sacrifices for the people and so on and so forth. But according to Exodus all have a priestly functioned. All are required or are asked of the Lord to act as a priest, act as an intermediary between who? Other people and the Lord. Now Jesus takes us on fully force. Hebrews talks about that he is our great high priest. Paul writes in Timothy and 1 Timothy and says he is our one true mediator so he goes and fulfills it completely for us but we are still called even as they were in the Old Testament to be a kingdom of priests meaning the kingdom resides in people first and foremost. And so what are what are my duties as a priest? What are your duties as a priest? We would trace this all the way back to the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 where God says to Abraham I'm gonna bless you so that you will be a blessing to others. I'll bless those who bless you. I'll curse those who curse you but I'm blessing you Abraham and I'm blessing your descendants Abraham as many as they're gonna be. I'm blessing you for the purpose of you to bless others. That's what a priest does. I don't want you to think like in terms of the priest casting out blessings and so forth but a priest as a mediator between two persons basically as we are mediators between mankind and God is there to bless people not to harm people not to hurt people not to judge people they are to there to be that connecting point between them and the Lord. The New American commentary puts it this way Israel's assignment from God involved intermediation they were not to be a people only unto themselves enjoying their special relationship with God and paying no attention to the rest of the world rather they were to represent him to the rest of the world and bring an attempt to bring the rest of the world to him and if that was Israel's tasks task then you can be sure that's the church's task that those of us who are in Christ those of us who are saved by faith and grace in the New Covenant and who are called by Peter and by Jesus himself in Revelation a kingdom of priest or a priestly kingdom that is my task in yours as well not because it's in our job description not because we've been trained theologically to do it it's our job because we have been called his people and we now serve in a priestly kingdom so we proclaim his word and we proclaim his truth to other people we set holy examples in our living to other people we intercede and pray for other people all of this is the foundation of the kingdom of God and the foundation of the kingdom of God is first and foremost people now before we move on to point two I want to interject something here Israel is clearly in the Old Testament set up established founded as a kingdom with a king that is the very essence of that passage in Exodus everything belongs to me God says I am king I am choosing you out of all the peoples on the earth you are my kingdom and so everything begins with this kingdom king relationship and what we know is that at one point Israel decides they don't want it anymore if you if you've been doing our yearly reading you probably can remember reading through this several months ago but it's in 1st Samuel 8 and 1st Samuel 8 Samuel is growing old he appoints his sons to be judges over Israel his sons are no good they they pervert justice they accept bribes and so on so forth and so the elders of Israel in 1st Samuel 8 verse 4 all the elders of Israel met at Rama to discuss the matter with Samuel look they told him you're now old and your sons are not like you give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have don't miss the point here that they had a king they had the king not just a king they had the king of all kings the one who has ruled and reigned and will forever rule and reign it goes on to say Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance and listen to what the Lord says do everything they say to you for they are rejecting me not you they don't want me to be their king any longer do everything they say Samuel because you need to understand they're not rejecting you they're rejecting me they moved on from the kingship of Yahweh of God and said give us an earthly king now just as a side point here I want to encourage you so many people so many Christians are are nervous or worried or sometimes just fail to share our faith because we don't want to feel that sense of rejection if we share the gospel with somebody and they say that they don't want it or they don't want to hear it or whatever the case may be understand the power of what God just said to Samuel they're not rejecting you if you and I are presenting the right true gospel if we're presenting the right true gospel of grace and mercy that comes through faith via the cross and then new life through the resurrection of Christ and they walk away from that they're not rejecting you they're rejecting him so we need to not be so personal about that to where we say well I'm just not going to share my faith because I can't handle rejection if they're rejecting you you're giving them the wrong gospel in the first place they're rejecting him just as they did in that passage in 1st Samuel and so understand that rejection of God's authoritative rule and reign is at the heart in the center of all sinful rebellion the rejection of God's rule and reign in a person's life his authority in a person's life that rejection that says I'm gonna do things my way I'm gonna do things that please me I'm gonna go by my feelings and my feelings alone so on so on so on however it manifests in a person's life that rejection of God as being king of all is the ultimate heart and center of all sinful rebellion and so one of the things we need to think through is we go through this time this month is when Jesus teaches this in Matthew 6 may your kingdom come what what what what would a first century Jewish person have imagined and there's some insight to what they would have imagined when they thought about the kingdom coming there were some who imagined a Messiah a king who was going to come in force and strength and was going to reclaim the land and kick the Romans out and subdue all their enemies and it was going to begin right then and there that's why you continually have this cycle saying is now the time is now the time you're going to restore Israel to its greatness so there were some who thought the king the Messiah was going to come in that way there were others who imagined that the kingdom would come only through their withdrawal from the world this was a group called the Essenes and they believed that the kingdom would only be ushered in as God's people withdrew from the world and had nothing to do with sinful persons sinful culture sinful people so on and so forth there were still others who imagined that the kingdom would come if everybody had strict obedience to the law and those people were the Pharisees and they believed that if you and I had strict obedience to the law we did it over and over and over again that would be the prompting of the kingdom to come and then there were certain others who believed that there would be a joining of God's kingdom and an earthly kingdom and particularly in Jesus context in Matthew 6 it was that they believed they would join their kingdom with the earthly kingdom of Rome and the two together would reign God does not share his reigning those people were you might see them in the scriptures called Sadducees or Herodians and so these this this was kind of the cultural picture that when Jesus teaches the disciples pray this pray in this way that the kingdom would come the disciples and any others who heard it would have likely fallen in one of those four areas and so it's no wonder that when Jesus comes in meekness and be reminded that meekness is not a doormat meekness is power and strength under control that when Jesus comes in meekness that that when he does not withdraw from society but he engages with sinners that when he does not come and hold up the law as this thing that you're going to legalistically follow but he comes fulfilling the law himself and displaying love and compassion and then letting that be his interpretation observance of the law and when he comes preaching a kingdom that is here and yet still to come effectively bypassing any earthly kingdom or empire it's no wonder they wanted him killed what kind of king is this certainly if if one of those four groups didn't get their way they at least would have been okay that he came in the other three ways but instead he comes and he's the reverse of all the ways they are imagining the kingdom to come we have the good fortune of being able to read this story in reverse don't we to see that when he says the kingdom of God when he talks to the gospels the kingdom of God is now the kingdom of God is here the kingdom of God is among you we have the good fortune of being able to read and reverse and say oh we now understand Jesus is talking about the kingdom coming into people by virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit that life change and transformation comes internally out not outward in that the kingdom that Jesus brings and inaugurates and is yet still to come is open to all to both Jew and Gentile alike and this kingdom of God that he says pray that it will come comes by an individual response to the gospel that he brings in the book announcing the kingdom they say it this way the universal faith that would emerge after the resurrection would be proclaimed to all peoples everywhere and would demand that all repent of their self-centeredness and sinfulness and submit to the king to Jesus Christ the Lord when we pray your kingdom come this is what we're praying for that all would repent that all would surrender that all we yield that all would not do the work of the elders of Israel and say no no no no no we don't want that we want somebody on earth to bring the kingdom that instead we would acknowledge that the only one who can bring the kingdom is the king himself and he is done so and is doing so and will do so fully one day so given that sort of foundation let's move on to the second point today we can pray for the kingdom to come in three distinct ways now I don't think these are the only three ways but these are three distinct ones that I wanted to share with you today remember Jesus says pray like this pray in this way but we determine it's not a repetitive prayer right it's a template it's a format so how do we pray in this way first way we pray is this we pray for transformation and Colossians 1 13 and 14 I've actually preached this a few weeks ago I've referenced it several times but let me share it with you again today for he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his dear son who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins when we pray for the kingdom of to come we pray for transformation and specifically we pray for transformation to occur in the lives of those who are not yet in the kingdom that there's a spiritual transformation that is at work in that he rescues them and transfers them effectively transforming them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light and spiritual transformation is noted throughout all the scriptures as a necessity for entering the kingdom Ezekiel in the Old Testament put it this way that God promised he would take out our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh he would soften our hearts basically Jesus with Nicodemus says to Nicodemus you must be born again transformation Paul in Romans speaks of a transformation of a renewed mind in Romans chapter 12 and so this transformation comes by work of the virtue of the Spirit of God and it comes because we admit we are sinners we admit we are in need of a Savior we repent of said sin and said sin nature and we accept the gospel truth the death of Christ on the cross and the resurrection of his his body as new life for us we accept those things as true and we believe and this must be something those of us who are already in the kingdom continually does because I can't put it anymore plainly than this if you're already in the kingdom and you're not praying for others to be transformed into the kingdom of God you've missed something about your own transformation if you've if you've written people off if you've decided surely God doesn't want to save them or if you've decided they're just enough of an enemy that you don't want to share eternity with them you've missed something in your transformation because we are called to be that kingdom of priests who intercede on people's behalf and pray that there would be spiritual transformation to come the second thing we can pray for is surrender in Luke 14 25 through 27 very familiar verses for you most likely a large crowd was following Jesus he turned around and said to them if you want to be my disciple you must by comparison hate everyone else your father and mother wife and children brothers and sisters yes even your own life otherwise you cannot be my disciple if you do not carry your own cross and follow me you cannot be my disciple from transformation spiritual transformation then comes a physical transformation it comes a transformative life and it involves surrender and be reminded of the people of Israel in 1 Samuel 8 they did not want to surrender to y'all waiting a little any longer why did they ask for an earthly king because he would be like one of them I believe they thought even if we get a bad king we can just overthrow him at some point put somebody else in office or put somebody else in leadership or whatever the case may be we can't do that with y'all way but we could do that with another person of flesh and blood like we are they refused to surrender to the king who had already established his kingdom with them there is no surrender or there is no lack of surrender in the disciples life there's no half-hearted one foot in one foot out fence sitting response to the gospel we surrender the very essence of our lives the very being that we have when we accept the invitation of the king this is in essence this surrender is discipleship spiritual transformation must lead to transformative living and if it doesn't there are some serious questions and they'd be asked what gospel did you believe in the one that just says if you died the night do you know where you go and then didn't didn't promise anything or teach anything about counting the cost of said decision the gospel that says he just wants everything good for us here on this earth so that we wouldn't long for an eternity because we've got it so well here why would we want anything else to change did you respond through real genuine faith in a work of the spirit or was it an emotionally manipulative youth camp service or a revival night or some other event like that most of you know that I got my start in youth ministry and we um think it was about my second year we had taken the kids that the church I was serving to camp down at Jonathan Creek down in Kentucky and there's a place outside of that area called balloons little burger shack great great milkshakes if you're ever done that way I guess it's still open and so we stopped there was our tradition was to stop there on the day we come home from camp and eat a big lunch and and kind of wind down the week that way and I never will forget there was a young man that was with us that didn't normally come to our youth group he'd been invited and he came and had a great week and but what wasn't wasn't saved and I remember hearing one of our girls talking to him and she said did you make a decision this week and he said no and she said well don't you know that's what camp is for and I remember thinking right in that moment oh I have I have not done well as a leader because if I'm if I'm setting these kids up to think that at the next big emotional youth night that's what happens then I'm preaching to them a gospel that's all wrong spiritual discipleship is that surrender piece of the kingdom in the book called spiritual discipleship this statement is said a disciple is one who learns of Christ with the purpose of obeying what he or she learns you and I cannot be called disciples of Christ if we don't surrender we cannot be called disciples of Christ if we read the words and don't have any intention of obeying them the third thing we should pray for is this the completion of the kingdom and Matthew 25 Jesus is speaking of the final judgment segment where he separates the sheep and the goats and so forth but he makes this very interesting statement in Matthew 25 verse 34 then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world brothers and sisters there is a new kingdom that is yet to come and it is a perfect kingdom it is a kingdom with no death and no sin and no no hurt and no pain and no suffering it is a kingdom where we are fully engaged in the presence of God on a daily basis and it is a kingdom that is in the come and is the kingdom that is prepared for you and so you and I should be praying kingdom come in this way Lord we long for that completion we long for that fulfillment we should pray as as as John writes at the end of Revelation come quickly Lord Jesus but I do want to put an asterisk on that we cannot pray for that at the expense of the ministry of the kingdom that is now see Jesus all through the gospels the kingdom is here the kingdom is among you the kingdom has arrived he carries on Exodus 19 and says the kingdom has come in your life the kingdom is now here among you and so we cannot just simply sit back and wait either for our death or for Christ to come back and neglect the kingdom that is here among us that we have been called to these priestly duties now and whether you're eight or eighty I assume you know that there's something for you to do that God doesn't look upon any of our lives and go well you can just serve me up until this point and then you can live the rest of the way you want to live I've yet to find retirement in the scriptures I know that hits some of y'all I get it but I don't ever plan on retiring my hope is that the last breath I take is either because Christ has returned or I'm doing something he's called me to do and I die right in the middle of it it would be foolish if you and I were having a new house built and you and I just let our current house that we were living in just go to ruin just neglect the upkeep on it don't clean it well I got a new house coming I don't mind to live in filth and squalor and and all this right now none of us would think about doing that with an earthly home so why when we're talking about a heavenly eternal home a kingdom that is here in this yet to come would we ever consider doing the same thing that we just kind of let it go let it go to waste just hoping that the new one will come we pray in three ways we pray for transformation in the hearts and lives of people we pray for surrender in both their lives and ours and we pray for the completion of the kingdom while we work for the kingdom that is here now as we work through the next few weeks we're gonna look at various aspects of how to pray for the kingdom we're gonna talk about what the kingdom looks like now we're gonna talk about what it means to live individually in the kingdom and then in community in the kingdom and then September is one of our Lord's Supper quarterly luncheons and so the last Senate this month when we do the Lord's Supper luncheon it's all gonna be themed around the fact that that really is a kingdom meal that is gonna be that's gonna occur one day in a very different way than the way we practice it now but I think it's important for us to speak of this it's important before we go any further in praying the kingdom of God for us to know fully if we are in the kingdom of God I watched a video this week just just happened to come up on my feet and it was an individual in the church in Tennessee that was being baptized and the pastor talked about him was kind of giving his testimony for him when the guy had told him 37 years he'd been in that church served on teams and committees instigated projects and work to projects helped write the bylaws of the church and didn't know Jesus his testimony was this I knew who the Lord was but I never surrendered my life to Christ and I will tell you as I've heard another pastor say it it destroys me to think that there will be people who will die and split the gates of hell wide open clutching a baptism membership certificate in their hand because they knew about him but they'd never surrendered they had some head knowledge but they never surrendered they'd served a lot but they'd never surrendered and by all accounts when when you go to that person's funeral great things are said about him and her salt of the earth people couldn't get enough of him but if there's been no spiritual transformation and no surrender they did not inherit the kingdom of God the Bible does two things really well it shows us our need for a Savior and then it shows us whether we really truly been spiritually transformed or not and I want to tell you right now that in those places where the scriptures speak of those who cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven the sexually immoral the gossips the idolatrous the greedy the coveting the ones who want to quarrel and being strife all the time it's in first Corinthians 6 it's in Galatians 5 it's in Ephesians 5 for Ephesians 4 I want to tell you this folks we've done two really bad things with those scriptures one is we've taken one or two of those sins that Paul lists in those three places it really harped on them and what Paul says that if you're an idolater if you're greedy if you're coveting if you are giving over to strife and quarreling if you're a gossiper and a slanderer you are as much not inherited in the kingdom of heaven as the sexually immoral and the second thing we've done really wrong with those passages is this when we do have saints that struggle with those things because saints struggle with those things instead of responding as Jesus responds with grace and mercy and compassion and coming alongside we're too quick to want to kick them all or down and kick them out when they're up I'm not saying we turn a blind eye to sin I'm not saying we we turn a blind eye to things that are going on in people's lives but there's not one of us who from the day we said yes to Jesus have lived perfectly there's not one of us who from the day Jesus rescued us and saved us and transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his light there's not one of us that can point to anything about our lives and say I've done that a hundred percent well all the time and so it is responsible for us to come alongside saints who struggle with love and compassion with grace and with truth but truth without grace is not the truth of Christ what we need to do in those places is apply those verses to ourselves see where we are in those moments see if our lives are marked by such things and then ask the Lord to remind us that we are his kingdom and as such he is our king and as such he has every right to demand of us a way of living that proclaims his goodness and leads others to his holiness this is why we pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven because when God's kingdom truly takes hold of God's people and then it begins to get displayed through God's people I can assure you that is a picture that our world needs to see they don't need to see one more religious group they don't need to see one more denomination they need to see the priestly kingdom that Christ gave his life for and then resurrected the new life that you and I might live in the power of that kingdom now we pray that kingdom come that will be done and let it start right here thanks for listening if you have any thoughts questions or prayer concerns please email us at pvcfrankford@gmail.com you (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
