Matthew 6:10 &; Luke 11:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Listen link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab.
What if the world as we know it is completely different from what God intended it to be? I’m not talking about earth and nature and animals. I mean the world of human culture and politics, government and nationalities. What if, all that we see today of countries and kingdoms, as well as wars and treaties, is all the result of Adam’s sin and satan’s work to divide the human race into factions that are so focused on self-preservation and prosperity, so focused on invasion to get more stuff, or defenses to keep invaders out, that we practically ignore God and know nothing of the Kingdom he really meant to establish? This isn’t really a “what if” question. I’m pointing to the fact that that is exactly the situation we are really in. The world as we know it, is very different from the world as God wants it. And we are responsible. I mean, humans messed it up, and God wants his children to fix it, as much as we can.
Though many “kingdoms” have been set up by people, divided by tribes and languages, there is really only one kingdom. God’s Kingdom. All human authority is set up under God’s sovereign rule and anyone who denies that is a usurper, a treasonous rebel. We need to understand that there is a lot more to the gospel message than just that you get forgiven of your sins and go to heaven one day. Adam abdicated the throne of Earth. Jesus came to earth as a man, to take His kingdom away from satan and give it back to its proper rule under human dominion. Jesus, the second Adam, is the rightful heir and eternal ruler of all that is on earth.
This is a really big deal! People often think about forgiveness and being good enough and the usual religious, moral stuff, without realizing the cosmic significance of the situation we’re in. Our concept of what forgiveness is all about is often way too small. Adam and Eve ruined God's creation design when they sinned. This was a very big deal. There had to be a re-creation. But if God were to just start over, Adam and Eve would be gone, and you and I would have never come to be. But God had us in mind even before creation began.
So, to maintain and achieve the final plan, despite satan's interference, God’s plan was to undo the destruction, not just let it slide, but undo it, fix it. Only God could do that. Jesus' life and death is the way God decided to restore and redeem His Kingdom, so that he gets to have all of us too. It's not just that you and your little life or me and mine could be good enough to earn a reward called Heaven. We are talking about the cosmic order here, something that my small life could not change, no matter how well behaved I might have been. Our faith in Jesus is so that He changes us so that we fit in with God's whole plan. We are changed in our very nature from guilty rebels to loyal subjects of the One True King. Then we become beneficiaries of the undoing of death. And we get to participate in causing God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven.
We are continuing to explore the depths and riches of the pattern of prayer that Jesus taught us, often called the “Lord’s Prayer,” or the “Our Father.” Today we get to the line that is oft quoted as “thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” So, today we are talking about God’s Kingdom. Specifically, Jesus taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom Come. Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” You may have noticed that, even in the NIV translation, one archaic word from this line of the prayer has already been replaced. “Thy” is an old English word that we don’t use outside church anymore at all, except when we’re talking about something like chicken legs, and that’s not even really the same word.
Why do we have to use that word in the Christian’s prayer and say, “Thy Kingdom come?” It is just a left over from old English. I think it hangs on in churches because it just sounds more holy. But are we supposed to say this prayer for what it sounds like, or pray this prayer for what it means? I think sometimes we hang on too tightly to things that God’s heart and wisdom would lead us to let go. There is nothing wrong with honoring and preserving the traditions. I I honor the traditions too, and I am glad to preserve the ones that make sense and that keep the faith connected to our regular lives.
But, to keep the Christian’s Prayer connected to our regular lives, the way we talk and live, to make sure anyone who prays with us can pray in plain modern English so they pray with understanding, we should always keep the language of our prayers up to date. We should always pray in our own everyday language.
So, we can pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” This line in the prayer reminds us of who is in charge of the world in which we live, who we are in connection with the Lord, and how He wants us to live because of that. That’s our outline: God’s rule, our relationship with Him, and our responsibility to Him.
Primarily, to proclaim God’s Kingdom means we are also proclaiming God as King. God is in charge. He rules. We want his Kingdom to be established because we want him to be fully in charge. We know that when He is, then there will be no more wars. He will put down all rebellion and bring peace. But when we think like that, we tend to think of things that will be in the future. A lot of people pray “Your Kingdom come” as if it is a prayer for Jesus’ Second coming, and it is that, but not just that. At Jesus’ second coming his rule will be firmly established for all time, Praise the Lord! So, are we praying for Jesus second coming to happen soon? Yes, but that’s not all.
Right now, God is really already the King of the whole world, but he is graciously and patiently not yet sending his divine army to put down the rebellion. So, for now it looks like there is no place we can go in this world that is called God’s Kingdom. The whole globe is claimed by little groups of humans that set up small kingdoms, every country on the map. There is no place on earth where people live that is not run by some form of government. And none of them are God’s Kingdom. Even the nation of Israel, right now, doesn’t claim that God is their King. Though they are God’s chosen people, they run a parliamentary government. They do not claim that God is their King. But even if they did, it would be a false claim, because they don’t recognize Jesus as their King.
God is the true king of the universe. God’s Kingdom is greater than America, greater than any other nation on earth. In fact, all of them only exist because God, the True King, allows them too. As it says in Romans 13:1. “The governing authorities that exist have been established by God.” Yet people on earth run their own lives and their own governments without regard for or respect for God’s sovereign rights. That means the whole world is in rebellion against God, even if that rebellion takes the form of simply ignoring his claims.
But we can see that much of national politics is actually violently in rebellion against God’s rule. That’s why Christians are persecuted in so many places around the world. Governments see the difference between how they treat their people and how Christians say people ought to be treated. Cultures see the difference between how they do live and how Christians say God wants them to live. Sinners, defending their sinful ways, will sometimes fight to the death rather than repent.
So, God rules. He is the rightful King. But he is not enforcing his will the way earthly kings try to, with military power. He is working underground in a way, seeking the lost, calling out to people who can hear his voice, offering forgiveness to those who will accept him as King, and then employing us as ambassadors to this world so that he can use us to go find more to join us. So, when we pray, “Your Kingdom come.” We, as believers in God’s sovereign rule, are acknowledging the world’s rebellion and deciding to have no part of it. We are really pledging our allegiance to be faithful servants of God who is already our True king, the Ruler of our Lives.
This is being in right relationship with God our King. What that means is that we now live with a dual citizenship. We in this room are American citizens by natural birth, and we are also citizens of God’s Kingdom by our spiritual rebirth through faith in Jesus Christ. In addition, we recognize that the American Democracy whose authority we respect because we live within its established national borders, ought to itself be subject to God’s rule.
So, what the Bible would teach us is that while we are American citizens, we are also Christian subjects of God’s Kingdom. Once we are believers of this gospel our primary citizenship is in God’s Kingdom. Our primary duty is to serve God, our King, and if our service to God our King comes into conflict with the laws of the land, we owe it to God to put His law first. Peter the Apostle demonstrated that very clearly and so early on in the life of the church when he told the ruling Sanhedrin of Israel, who were ordering him to stop preaching about Jesus, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” Similarly, the entire Christian Church began rejecting Caesar’s claims when they began to proclaim, “Jesus is Lord,” and stopped saying, “Caesar is Lord.”
This view of God’s Kingdom makes every local church a "satellite campus" of the great Throne Room of Heaven, the holy royal courts where angels worship God forever, and all who put their hope in Christ find true sanctuary and shalom. The vast majority of worshipers at that sanctuary are not, and never were, American citizens. The worldwide population of Christians today is mostly made up of people from places other than the United States. When you add in how many hundreds of millions of Christians have lived before Europeans first visited this continent, you end up with a very small party of Christians who happen to also be American citizens.
Jesus is king, and his kingdom deserves our allegiance as top priority. America is another allegiance, and we are indeed blessed by God that we get to live here, but in proper perspective American patriotism is secondary for sure. That is why our pledge says, “under God.” And if there is an American flag in our sanctuary, there ought to also be a Christian flag and the American flag should not get the place of honor above the one that stands for God’s Kingdom. If we mean what we say about one nation under God, then our flags ought to express that too.
Wherever people live on earth, they are citizens of that nation in which they live, but if they are Christians we are really aliens, foreigners just visiting, because our true home is in Heaven. There will come a day when Old Glory yields to an even older glory, when the new republic succumbs to the new creation. Until then, Christians should see themselves as Christ’s ambassadors. An ambassador is not a citizen of the land in which he is living. He represents the interests of the country that sent him. As God’s children, we are still in this world, but we are no longer of this world. We are sent by God and represent Christ. We are sent to do the work of telling folks all about him. Even as it says in 2 Cor. 5:20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
This line in the prayer, “your Kingdom come,” is so important because it prevents us from thinking that God forgives our sins and makes us new creatures so that we can then go ahead and live whatever way we want to. When we acknowledge God’s righteous rule over our lives and come into right relationship with Him through faith in Jesus, then we also accept the responsibilities of good citizenship in his Kingdom. We call all people who put their lives in God hands through faith in Jesus Christ to begin to live by the law of God’s Kingdom and that is the Law of Love.
God is in charge of the world, and by extension, because he is an infinite God and we are his loyal, royal subjects, God is in charge of our personal lives too. He knows all about us. It’s not like in China where they have a proverb that says, “The valleys are wide. The mountains are high. The Emperor is very far away.”
In China, a lot of people can get away with ignoring what the emperor wants. But Psalm 139 says about our King, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. We cannot assume that God isn’t paying attention to us so that we can hide off in a corner of his vast kingdom, unnoticed and minding our own business to live our lives just the way we want to. We are not saved by the death of Jesus, God’s one and only son, so that we can say thanks for that and then go off and do our own thing.
This is why Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” We bring it to the world in which we live. In addition, Rev. 1:6 says, “to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.” And 1 Peter 2:9 says, “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
If we are kings then we live in a kingdom, God’s Kingdom. But we are kings on a mission, to declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into light.” To whom do we declare those praises? To God, yes. And to unbelievers too! Paul, the apostle, spoke of us as ambassadors for Christ, having a ministry of reconciliation in which God is reconciling himself to the world. That reconciliation represents a peaceful negotiation in which God invites individual citizens of all nations to acknowledge his sovereignty, accept his terms for peace, namely the gracious offer of forgiveness through faith in Christ, and give up their rebellious ways before he comes with his divine army to judge those who continue to refuse to bow to him. Ours is a mission of mercy!
Once we become loyal subjects of our true King, His command to all of his children wherever they reside on earth is to carry on the ministry of reconciliation. As Jesus put it, “go and make disciples of all nations.” The word, “nations,” is not there by accident. God knows very well that Faith in God and obedience to him must rule over patriotism and nationalism. Not to eliminate them but to put them in proper perspective “under God.”
So if we acknowledge God’s rule is in charge over the world in which we live which really is His Kingdom, and we acknowledge our right relationship with Him in Christ, then we accept our responsibility to be his ambassadors on a mission to put down the rebellion by announcing the terms of peace and reconciliation with God.
Lord God, Your Kingdom come! Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Finally then, what is God’s will? How does he want us to live? First of all it is God’s will that we should believe in Jesus, accept his gracious forgiveness, repent of our sins, receive the Holy Spirit so that we shall be his witnesses and as I have said before, live the rest of our lives helping him clean up this messy world. So, do you really want to do His will? Here is a short list of Scriptures that clearly reveal God’s will.
"God has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" and "love your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27
This is what the Lord almighty says: "Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other." Zechariah 7:9-10
"A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3-4
"Live in peace with each other. Warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18
Therefore, do not be foolish but understand what the Lord's Will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:17-20
"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Matthew 28:19-20
And Romans 14:17-19 says, “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
The question is, are you bringing God's Kingdom to earth? Are you grateful for the amnesty you have received and joyfully doing your part to see that His will is being done here, now and today, "as it is in heaven?" At least 90% of God's Will is already known to us through His Word. This is why it is important to study it.
This line in the prayer reminds us of who is in charge of the world in which we live, who we are in connection with the Lord, and how he wants us to live because of that. We really want people to know when they join us in prayer is that we really believe in God’s Kingdom. We believe that it is coming one day, and we are praying for it to happen soon, to put all things right, to and put an end to evil and suffering, to restore true order and peace; no more wars; no more sin; no more death.
We also believe that the Kingdom is already here in us. We are ambassadors of the Kingdom. We are proclaiming that as subjects of the one true king, we willingly obey him in his righteous rule. God rules over us because we are in right relationship with Him and we accept our responsibility to serve as his ambassadors. I often put this line of the Christian’s Prayer in my own words like this: Lord you are my king. Help me obey you in my life just as quickly and eagerly as the good angels in Heaven do. Help us acknowledge that because you are God you have more of a right to be in charge of our lives than we do. Then if we trust and obey You this world will look more like your idea of what is good. In Jesus’ name. amen.
Listen link: www.lcepc.org then look for “sermons” tab.
What if the world as we know it is completely different from what God intended it to be? I’m not talking about earth and nature and animals. I mean the world of human culture and politics, government and nationalities. What if, all that we see today of countries and kingdoms, as well as wars and treaties, is all the result of Adam’s sin and satan’s work to divide the human race into factions that are so focused on self-preservation and prosperity, so focused on invasion to get more stuff, or defenses to keep invaders out, that we practically ignore God and know nothing of the Kingdom he really meant to establish? This isn’t really a “what if” question. I’m pointing to the fact that that is exactly the situation we are really in. The world as we know it, is very different from the world as God wants it. And we are responsible. I mean, humans messed it up, and God wants his children to fix it, as much as we can.
Though many “kingdoms” have been set up by people, divided by tribes and languages, there is really only one kingdom. God’s Kingdom. All human authority is set up under God’s sovereign rule and anyone who denies that is a usurper, a treasonous rebel. We need to understand that there is a lot more to the gospel message than just that you get forgiven of your sins and go to heaven one day. Adam abdicated the throne of Earth. Jesus came to earth as a man, to take His kingdom away from satan and give it back to its proper rule under human dominion. Jesus, the second Adam, is the rightful heir and eternal ruler of all that is on earth.
This is a really big deal! People often think about forgiveness and being good enough and the usual religious, moral stuff, without realizing the cosmic significance of the situation we’re in. Our concept of what forgiveness is all about is often way too small. Adam and Eve ruined God's creation design when they sinned. This was a very big deal. There had to be a re-creation. But if God were to just start over, Adam and Eve would be gone, and you and I would have never come to be. But God had us in mind even before creation began.
So, to maintain and achieve the final plan, despite satan's interference, God’s plan was to undo the destruction, not just let it slide, but undo it, fix it. Only God could do that. Jesus' life and death is the way God decided to restore and redeem His Kingdom, so that he gets to have all of us too. It's not just that you and your little life or me and mine could be good enough to earn a reward called Heaven. We are talking about the cosmic order here, something that my small life could not change, no matter how well behaved I might have been. Our faith in Jesus is so that He changes us so that we fit in with God's whole plan. We are changed in our very nature from guilty rebels to loyal subjects of the One True King. Then we become beneficiaries of the undoing of death. And we get to participate in causing God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven.
We are continuing to explore the depths and riches of the pattern of prayer that Jesus taught us, often called the “Lord’s Prayer,” or the “Our Father.” Today we get to the line that is oft quoted as “thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” So, today we are talking about God’s Kingdom. Specifically, Jesus taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom Come. Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” You may have noticed that, even in the NIV translation, one archaic word from this line of the prayer has already been replaced. “Thy” is an old English word that we don’t use outside church anymore at all, except when we’re talking about something like chicken legs, and that’s not even really the same word.
Why do we have to use that word in the Christian’s prayer and say, “Thy Kingdom come?” It is just a left over from old English. I think it hangs on in churches because it just sounds more holy. But are we supposed to say this prayer for what it sounds like, or pray this prayer for what it means? I think sometimes we hang on too tightly to things that God’s heart and wisdom would lead us to let go. There is nothing wrong with honoring and preserving the traditions. I I honor the traditions too, and I am glad to preserve the ones that make sense and that keep the faith connected to our regular lives.
But, to keep the Christian’s Prayer connected to our regular lives, the way we talk and live, to make sure anyone who prays with us can pray in plain modern English so they pray with understanding, we should always keep the language of our prayers up to date. We should always pray in our own everyday language.
So, we can pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” This line in the prayer reminds us of who is in charge of the world in which we live, who we are in connection with the Lord, and how He wants us to live because of that. That’s our outline: God’s rule, our relationship with Him, and our responsibility to Him.
Primarily, to proclaim God’s Kingdom means we are also proclaiming God as King. God is in charge. He rules. We want his Kingdom to be established because we want him to be fully in charge. We know that when He is, then there will be no more wars. He will put down all rebellion and bring peace. But when we think like that, we tend to think of things that will be in the future. A lot of people pray “Your Kingdom come” as if it is a prayer for Jesus’ Second coming, and it is that, but not just that. At Jesus’ second coming his rule will be firmly established for all time, Praise the Lord! So, are we praying for Jesus second coming to happen soon? Yes, but that’s not all.
Right now, God is really already the King of the whole world, but he is graciously and patiently not yet sending his divine army to put down the rebellion. So, for now it looks like there is no place we can go in this world that is called God’s Kingdom. The whole globe is claimed by little groups of humans that set up small kingdoms, every country on the map. There is no place on earth where people live that is not run by some form of government. And none of them are God’s Kingdom. Even the nation of Israel, right now, doesn’t claim that God is their King. Though they are God’s chosen people, they run a parliamentary government. They do not claim that God is their King. But even if they did, it would be a false claim, because they don’t recognize Jesus as their King.
God is the true king of the universe. God’s Kingdom is greater than America, greater than any other nation on earth. In fact, all of them only exist because God, the True King, allows them too. As it says in Romans 13:1. “The governing authorities that exist have been established by God.” Yet people on earth run their own lives and their own governments without regard for or respect for God’s sovereign rights. That means the whole world is in rebellion against God, even if that rebellion takes the form of simply ignoring his claims.
But we can see that much of national politics is actually violently in rebellion against God’s rule. That’s why Christians are persecuted in so many places around the world. Governments see the difference between how they treat their people and how Christians say people ought to be treated. Cultures see the difference between how they do live and how Christians say God wants them to live. Sinners, defending their sinful ways, will sometimes fight to the death rather than repent.
So, God rules. He is the rightful King. But he is not enforcing his will the way earthly kings try to, with military power. He is working underground in a way, seeking the lost, calling out to people who can hear his voice, offering forgiveness to those who will accept him as King, and then employing us as ambassadors to this world so that he can use us to go find more to join us. So, when we pray, “Your Kingdom come.” We, as believers in God’s sovereign rule, are acknowledging the world’s rebellion and deciding to have no part of it. We are really pledging our allegiance to be faithful servants of God who is already our True king, the Ruler of our Lives.
This is being in right relationship with God our King. What that means is that we now live with a dual citizenship. We in this room are American citizens by natural birth, and we are also citizens of God’s Kingdom by our spiritual rebirth through faith in Jesus Christ. In addition, we recognize that the American Democracy whose authority we respect because we live within its established national borders, ought to itself be subject to God’s rule.
So, what the Bible would teach us is that while we are American citizens, we are also Christian subjects of God’s Kingdom. Once we are believers of this gospel our primary citizenship is in God’s Kingdom. Our primary duty is to serve God, our King, and if our service to God our King comes into conflict with the laws of the land, we owe it to God to put His law first. Peter the Apostle demonstrated that very clearly and so early on in the life of the church when he told the ruling Sanhedrin of Israel, who were ordering him to stop preaching about Jesus, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” Similarly, the entire Christian Church began rejecting Caesar’s claims when they began to proclaim, “Jesus is Lord,” and stopped saying, “Caesar is Lord.”
This view of God’s Kingdom makes every local church a "satellite campus" of the great Throne Room of Heaven, the holy royal courts where angels worship God forever, and all who put their hope in Christ find true sanctuary and shalom. The vast majority of worshipers at that sanctuary are not, and never were, American citizens. The worldwide population of Christians today is mostly made up of people from places other than the United States. When you add in how many hundreds of millions of Christians have lived before Europeans first visited this continent, you end up with a very small party of Christians who happen to also be American citizens.
Jesus is king, and his kingdom deserves our allegiance as top priority. America is another allegiance, and we are indeed blessed by God that we get to live here, but in proper perspective American patriotism is secondary for sure. That is why our pledge says, “under God.” And if there is an American flag in our sanctuary, there ought to also be a Christian flag and the American flag should not get the place of honor above the one that stands for God’s Kingdom. If we mean what we say about one nation under God, then our flags ought to express that too.
Wherever people live on earth, they are citizens of that nation in which they live, but if they are Christians we are really aliens, foreigners just visiting, because our true home is in Heaven. There will come a day when Old Glory yields to an even older glory, when the new republic succumbs to the new creation. Until then, Christians should see themselves as Christ’s ambassadors. An ambassador is not a citizen of the land in which he is living. He represents the interests of the country that sent him. As God’s children, we are still in this world, but we are no longer of this world. We are sent by God and represent Christ. We are sent to do the work of telling folks all about him. Even as it says in 2 Cor. 5:20, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
This line in the prayer, “your Kingdom come,” is so important because it prevents us from thinking that God forgives our sins and makes us new creatures so that we can then go ahead and live whatever way we want to. When we acknowledge God’s righteous rule over our lives and come into right relationship with Him through faith in Jesus, then we also accept the responsibilities of good citizenship in his Kingdom. We call all people who put their lives in God hands through faith in Jesus Christ to begin to live by the law of God’s Kingdom and that is the Law of Love.
God is in charge of the world, and by extension, because he is an infinite God and we are his loyal, royal subjects, God is in charge of our personal lives too. He knows all about us. It’s not like in China where they have a proverb that says, “The valleys are wide. The mountains are high. The Emperor is very far away.”
In China, a lot of people can get away with ignoring what the emperor wants. But Psalm 139 says about our King, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. We cannot assume that God isn’t paying attention to us so that we can hide off in a corner of his vast kingdom, unnoticed and minding our own business to live our lives just the way we want to. We are not saved by the death of Jesus, God’s one and only son, so that we can say thanks for that and then go off and do our own thing.
This is why Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” We bring it to the world in which we live. In addition, Rev. 1:6 says, “to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.” And 1 Peter 2:9 says, “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
If we are kings then we live in a kingdom, God’s Kingdom. But we are kings on a mission, to declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into light.” To whom do we declare those praises? To God, yes. And to unbelievers too! Paul, the apostle, spoke of us as ambassadors for Christ, having a ministry of reconciliation in which God is reconciling himself to the world. That reconciliation represents a peaceful negotiation in which God invites individual citizens of all nations to acknowledge his sovereignty, accept his terms for peace, namely the gracious offer of forgiveness through faith in Christ, and give up their rebellious ways before he comes with his divine army to judge those who continue to refuse to bow to him. Ours is a mission of mercy!
Once we become loyal subjects of our true King, His command to all of his children wherever they reside on earth is to carry on the ministry of reconciliation. As Jesus put it, “go and make disciples of all nations.” The word, “nations,” is not there by accident. God knows very well that Faith in God and obedience to him must rule over patriotism and nationalism. Not to eliminate them but to put them in proper perspective “under God.”
So if we acknowledge God’s rule is in charge over the world in which we live which really is His Kingdom, and we acknowledge our right relationship with Him in Christ, then we accept our responsibility to be his ambassadors on a mission to put down the rebellion by announcing the terms of peace and reconciliation with God.
Lord God, Your Kingdom come! Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Finally then, what is God’s will? How does he want us to live? First of all it is God’s will that we should believe in Jesus, accept his gracious forgiveness, repent of our sins, receive the Holy Spirit so that we shall be his witnesses and as I have said before, live the rest of our lives helping him clean up this messy world. So, do you really want to do His will? Here is a short list of Scriptures that clearly reveal God’s will.
"God has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind" and "love your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27
This is what the Lord almighty says: "Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other." Zechariah 7:9-10
"A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:34-35
"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3-4
"Live in peace with each other. Warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18
Therefore, do not be foolish but understand what the Lord's Will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:17-20
"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Matthew 28:19-20
And Romans 14:17-19 says, “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
The question is, are you bringing God's Kingdom to earth? Are you grateful for the amnesty you have received and joyfully doing your part to see that His will is being done here, now and today, "as it is in heaven?" At least 90% of God's Will is already known to us through His Word. This is why it is important to study it.
This line in the prayer reminds us of who is in charge of the world in which we live, who we are in connection with the Lord, and how he wants us to live because of that. We really want people to know when they join us in prayer is that we really believe in God’s Kingdom. We believe that it is coming one day, and we are praying for it to happen soon, to put all things right, to and put an end to evil and suffering, to restore true order and peace; no more wars; no more sin; no more death.
We also believe that the Kingdom is already here in us. We are ambassadors of the Kingdom. We are proclaiming that as subjects of the one true king, we willingly obey him in his righteous rule. God rules over us because we are in right relationship with Him and we accept our responsibility to serve as his ambassadors. I often put this line of the Christian’s Prayer in my own words like this: Lord you are my king. Help me obey you in my life just as quickly and eagerly as the good angels in Heaven do. Help us acknowledge that because you are God you have more of a right to be in charge of our lives than we do. Then if we trust and obey You this world will look more like your idea of what is good. In Jesus’ name. amen.
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