The Kingdom Come

What is the goal of God’s kingdom? In the end what does God want to see? If we are praying and we want to increase and enhance our prayer life we should ask what the goal of the kingdom we are praying for is because we are asking for it and saying amen.

The word Amen basically means, so be it.

When we pray and we end with Amen we are saying so be it. This thing I just prayed whatever it was, let it be.

James warns us not to be double minded.

James 1:8 KJV 1900

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

This applies to a lot of things but when we apply this prayer what we see is that our words and our mind or spirit should be aligned.

So, if we are asking for God’s kingdom to come we should know what we are asking for.

Lord’s Prayer & Pslam 23

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

The Lord is my shepherd;I shall not want.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

What Did we just ask for?

We are praying and asking for God’s kingdom to come so what are we asking for?

The Kingdom of God is God’s sovereign rule and reign over all creation, especially manifested through His righteousness, peace, and joy, and fully realized in the person and work of Jesus Christ, inviting believers to live under His authority both now and in the eternal future (Romans 14:17; Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:20-21).

Simplified. The kingdom of God is, God being the one in charge of everything and people submitting to His rule.

The Kingdom of God in the Bible

When we are reading through the Bible we get glimpses of what the kingdom should look like. In the garden we see it starting, under some of the kings we see pieces of it.

We start with a clear picture of the Kingdom in creation,

God creates the world and everything is perfect. He created humanity and they are to be His Ambassadors. They are to execute His decrees, His orders, and make decisions in His place that He would make.

They are to say, God would approve of X or Y so we will do this. They were His representatives.

This can be hard to understand because we are not in politics or have a king or queen. But if you have a job you represent your company when you are at work.

If you are at work wearing your work clothes and tell an customer off you did not tell them off the company did.

If you are wearing your company clothes and decide to do something wild and post pictures your employer might let you go because you did not represent the company well.

Many movie and TV stars have sign some sort of moral clause saying they will not do certain things or they can be let go.

You don’t want the star of the show your littles ones watching to be arrested for a DUI. It reflects back to the show and brand.

This is what Adam and Eve were. They were ambassadors and God gave them a moral clause.

They violated the terms of the agreement.

When reading through the Old Testament we see glimpses of the Kingdom of God but we do not get the whole thing.

Solomon was a king and Israel experienced fantastic times of peace.

Solomon was a very messiah like figure, but ultimately he failed.

If we are waiting for the revelation of the Messiah we should read that story and have our hopes up only for them to be dashed.

Uziah was another great man who failed. We see a rise and then a fall. Hope lifted and then dashed.

We see this over and over again. What we see more is wicked king after wicked king. Even the best are left wanting. We can see great men and women in the Bible and then often read some version of and “then they died.”

That’s it they died and hope died with them. It is disappointing like Bobba Fett’s death in Star Wars. Just dead. Oh well moving on.

This is intentional.

it leaves us hungry and wanting more

When we read the Old Testament we are supposed to have this feeling of anticipation and disappointment.

Jesus in what He accomplishes for us through His perfect life, death, and resurrection corrects it all.

He corrects it and He tells us to pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done.

I believe that Psalm 23 gives us a bit of a picture of what we are asking for.

Psalm 23:2–3 NLT

He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

The kingdom of God is provision, peace, and proper paths.

We live in a now not yet tension

Jesus brought the Kingdom here.

Mark 1:15 ESV

and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

The Kingdom is at hand, it is near, it is close, but the fulfillment is not yet.

It has been started but it is not yet complete. So in the completion of the Kingdom there will be perfect peace or shalom shalom.

Isaiah 11:6–7 CSB

The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf will be together, and a child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle.

There will be no fighting, no war, no trouble. Can you imagine a wolf and a lamb hanging out?

What parent in here would be ok with your little one leading a lion?

Isaiah 11:8 CSB

An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.

What parent would let their baby play with a cobra?

In the fulfillment, the completion of the Kingdom of God this what we will see. Perfect Peace, shalom shalom. No trouble.

Here we do not have that, yet.

In the meantime we are supposed to have that internally and with each other.

We are to embody the kingdom while we wait for fulfillment

If there is nothing else you get from today’s message please get that.

We are to embody the kingdom while we wait for fulfillment!

There can be no kingdom of God in the world without the kingdom of God in our hearts.

Albert Schweitzer

This is what salvation is all about too. It is less about getting into heaven and more about getting heaven into you.

It is about being kingdom people. It is about walking out the truth of the Gospel in Real Life everyday. Good days and bad days.

Again,

The kingdom of God is provision, peace, and proper paths.

Provision

Philippians 4:11–13 CSB

I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

If we are to embody the kingdom while we wait for fulfillment! Then we have to remember there will be tension of wanting to walk God’s perfect will while being in an imperfect place (earth) that the there is constant tension.

The Kingdom is about provision. God provides all that we need. Not all that we want. Sometimes we go with out. That is ok, because being kingdom people means we learn how to be content with what we have.

There are two ways to be content:

Have more

Desire Less

If you are always looking for the next thing, the next job, the next relationship, then you cannot be content and if you cannot be content you will never feel the joy of God’s provision because often He is calling us to trust His provision and not run into it ourselves.

Gratitude is the antidote. Learning to be thankful for what we have gives us power when we need it. This does not mean we cannot desire for a better position or station or anything like that. But it cannot be more important than learning to be content with the provision that we currently have.

If we never learn to be content with the provision we have, we will never be able to be content with what we don’t have.

Peace

Philippians 4:7 CSB

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

It has nothing to do with your head. It is a peace that goes beyond what the mind can comprehend or understand.

A lot of things go from the head to the heart, peace goes from the heart to the head.

When others are freaking out you are at peace. You have shalom.

Our marriages, Christian marriages should be defined by peace. That does not mean there are never problems but the overall view should be peace.

Our homes should be homes of peace. Again this does not mean nothing negative never happens. We all of the sudden have two under two in the house. It is craziness, but there is also shalom, peace.

We have strife or conflict and then we recognize this disunity that is there and press into peace and righteousness.

When we see disunity it is an innovation to pursue peace.

James 3:18 CSB

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.

Are we planting peace?

On this side of eternity we have peace in the midst of turmoil, the kingdom to come, there is no strife.

Again, tension.

Peace is Not appeasement

Real quick I want to mention that peace is not appeasement. Sometimes for the greater goal of peace we have to have disagreements. We have to have it out. We have to come to conflict. Appeasement is not peace and always “being the bigger person” is often more a trauma response than anything else.

Setting a broken bone hurts. Setting a dislocated joint hurts. But the pain is temporary and done for the greater goal of peace and unity.

Proverbs 27:6 CSB

The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive.

A real friend, a real love, will tell you hard things for the sake a greater and true peace.

This first requires self examination. It sometimes requires you going to a trusted source and telling them the WHOLE story not just your side.

Proper Paths

When we are asking for His kingdom to come we are also asking God to help us walk down the proper paths. There is sometimes a disconnect between what we want and what God is calling us to. This can be for a time or for our lives.

It has been true in my own life and in others.

I was certain we would be overseas missionaries. It was what we wanted. It was our goal. It was a good thing. It is a God thing. But God had other paths. So we submit and take His paths.

To pray lead us in path’s of Righteousness for Your namesake means we will not take our own paths.

It is about submitting and trusting God.

Matthew 16:24 CSB

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

A big part of this is denying our own desires. Denying our own paths and submitting to the path, the Lord puts before us when we ask him for a path.

How crazy is it that we pray for him to lead us in paths of righteousness for his namesake and then complain about the path that he puts us on.

To walk in paths of righteousness for His name sake means we will at times be at odds with others who are not His and our own desires. That is ok, our job as Christians is to be kingdom first.

We are to embody the kingdom while we wait for fulfillment

Back to the garden

When we look back at Adam and Eve we see that they were supposed to be ambassadors and lost that right. In Christ we have it back,

2 Corinthians 5:20 CSB

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

If you here this morning and you have not been reconciled to God I am pleading with you. Be reconciled, what is your hold up?

You as a follower of Christ are supposed to be walking in peace, and in truth.

When we pray, your kingdom come your will be done, this is what we are praying.

We are saying God let this be true in me, and let me walk it out everyday.

Help me to embody the kingdom while I wait for the fulfillment

This also means we are willing to go into all the world to share the Gospel and be the people of God.

The Kingdom of God is also power

This is part of what we do as ambassadors.

Acts 1:8 CSB

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

It is not a one of the other. We embody the kingdom everywhere we go and sometimes that means we need to go places intentionally.