[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 11, passage we've been looking at the last several weeks. Luke 11, just the first four verses.
[0:30] One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.
[0:47] He said to them, when you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
[1:00] Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
[1:11] And lead us not into temptation. Let's hear God's word. Well, what is the biggest thing happening in the world today?
[1:26] It's not the war in Ukraine. It's not the growing influence of China around the world. It's not the corruption and disintegration of our nation.
[1:41] It is that God is growing and increasing his kingdom on earth. You haven't heard of that on the evening news.
[1:52] Wall Street Journal hasn't reported it. But the Bible makes clear that the focal point of all human history is always what God is doing to establish his kingdom on earth.
[2:05] It's not what mighty nations and world empires are doing or will do. They've come and gone and will continue to do so.
[2:15] But the mighty kingdom of God remains unshakable, unmovable. In Daniel chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had a dream that only Daniel could interpret.
[2:29] That's because God gave Nebuchadnezzar the dream, but he gave Daniel its meaning. There was this enormous, awesome statue, sparkling in the sun.
[2:41] Its four sections, the head, the chest, the belly, and the legs and feet, were comprised of four different materials of diminishing splendor from the head of gold down to the iron and clay of the feet.
[2:56] And then a rock was cut out of the mountain, but not by human hands, we're told. And it came tumbling down the mountain and smashed the statue to powder, which the wind then drove away and left not a trace behind.
[3:18] Sometimes strange things happen in dreams, and so it was in this one, because the rock that smashed the statue began to grow. And it grew and grew until it became a mighty mountain.
[3:31] And then the mountain itself grew until it filled the whole earth. So the whole earth is one mighty mountain.
[3:44] Only in your dreams. Well, Daniel explains that the enormous statue represents the kingdoms of men. The golden head was King Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom.
[3:55] And the rest of the statue represented the kingdoms that were to follow. First the Persians, then the Greeks, and then the Romans. And in the time of the Roman kings, Daniel says, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.
[4:13] It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end. But it will itself endure forever. Daniel 2.44. Now that is the kingdom that our Lord is teaching us to pray.
[4:29] Your kingdom come. Your kingdom come. Last week we saw the first petition in the Lord's Prayer. Hallowed be your name.
[4:40] May you, your name, be known and treated as holy. May it be set apart from all others. Worshipped, adored, magnified, praised, exalted.
[4:55] More and more by me and us and others around the world. So today we consider the second petition. Your kingdom come.
[5:07] So it's first things first in prayer. Have we got that? God's name and God's kingdom before our needs. Give us.
[5:18] Forgive us. Lead us. And this petition reminds us that God is not only our loving father to be approached with such confidence as a child to his own father, but he's also our great and ruling king to be revered.
[5:41] Malachi 1.14. I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations. So the kingdom of God has been defined, as we studied it years ago in the Sunday school class, as God's people in God's place living under God's rule and blessing.
[6:01] And that's what we had back in the beginning. Adam and Eve, God's people, in God's place, the Garden of Eden, living under his rule and blessing.
[6:18] Now a king rules by his laws, and they were obeying God's laws and reaping its blessing. Perfect shalom. Everything as it should be.
[6:31] But then that fallen angel, the devil, tempted Adam and Eve and got them to join his rebellion against God's rule. The devil put himself in God's place as this world's king.
[6:44] And Adam and Eve turned traitor and joined Satan's kingdom of darkness. And for their rebellion, they were cast out of God's place, the Garden. And instead of God's rule and blessing, they brought God's curse down, his curse of death upon themselves and their offspring, and handed down to all of their offspring a fallen sinful nature.
[7:08] So all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam have joined the same worldwide conspiracy of Satan's kingdom. In fact, we're born into that kingdom, a kingdom that wants to throw off the rule of the Lord and his anointed one, treating his good laws as if they were chains that bind us and hold us back from being free to do whatever we please.
[7:33] It was our first parents' rebellion against God's kingdom that plunged the whole world under the enslaving rule and power of the evil one. He's been no friendly king to us either, has he?
[7:46] That's because he hates God and everything that reminds him of God and all of humanity have been created in his image. And even though it's fallen, there is still something left of man's image or God's image in man.
[8:00] So the king and God of this world hates God and he hates all people. And he's out to deface the image of God in men and women.
[8:14] To get people to reflect his image, to live more like the devil than to live like God would have us. To follow the work of the devil, which is sin, casting off the moral laws of God, destroying God's image in men and women, in the family, in the church, in society.
[8:35] Satan's a tyrant king. He's promising freedom even as he holds people in bondage to sin and darkness. But we need to remember this is God's earth.
[8:49] He made it and everything in it. He loves it. He sustains it as his own with his powerful word. It yet declares his glory.
[9:01] And as its rightful king, God was not about to surrender this world to the usurper Satan to have him destroy it forever. Rather, God in love chose to redeem this world from Satan's kingdom and to bring it back under his own blessed reign where blessings abound wherever he reigns.
[9:23] And so the rest of the Bible from Genesis 3 onward is the story of God restoring his kingdom on earth, the very territory of Satan's usurped kingdom.
[9:36] And doing it through the one he appointed as king, his own eternal son, become man for us, our Lord Jesus Christ.
[9:49] It would have been far cheaper for God to have just destroyed the whole human race and created a new race. But instead he chose to redeem and restore fallen sinners to himself and to his kingdom.
[10:03] A decision that would cost him dearly in the suffering and death of his own beloved son whom he would give to bear the condemnation we deserve.
[10:15] So the kingdom of God is to be reestablished on earth, how? By the precious blood of his own son, our king. And so God foretold about this coming Messiah, king, all through his Old Testament prophets.
[10:29] They said he's coming and they kept giving us more and more information about the king. Isaiah especially. To us a child is born and to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders.
[10:42] And of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
[10:56] The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. He's coming. He's coming. And then the angel came to Mary and to Joseph and to the shepherds announcing that this babe of Bethlehem is that promised king of David's line whose kingdom will never end.
[11:17] A kingdom that will bring glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to men on whom his favor rests. Now John tells us in 1 John 3.8 that the reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.
[11:34] I remember in the children's Sunday school class the D all the attributes for God the D stood for destroyer of evil and that's right. Satan was destroying this earth and the people in it and Jesus comes from heaven for the stated purpose to destroy the destroyer to destroy the works of the devil.
[12:01] And so at age 30 when he began his public ministry our Lord's message was clear repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It's here. That's right.
[12:15] God's kingdom came to earth with the coming of his anointed king Jesus Christ. And in the clear light of the New Testament we come to see that this kingdom of God actually comes in two stages.
[12:30] There's the kingdom of God in the present stage and the kingdom of God in its future stage. The already and the not yet of God's kingdom.
[12:42] kingdom. And those two stages of the kingdom correspond to the two comings of the king. So let's look first at Christ's first coming and how it has established the kingdom of God on earth in its present form today.
[12:59] As Daniel said that in the time of those Roman kings the God of heaven will establish will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.
[13:10] Right? And so the king came to his own and his own received him not and we all said we will not have this man to rule over us. As I said a king rules by his laws and we said to him we don't like your laws.
[13:26] We want to be a law to ourselves. We want to be able to do whatever we want to do. And so we murdered God's king because he stood in the way of what we wanted.
[13:38] But by that very death he defeated Satan the God of this age the king of this age. So get in your mind this picture that our Lord draws in Luke chapter 11.
[13:51] Here's the picture he draws for us. He likened Satan's kingdom to a strong man. You see him there on the front porch? He's strong.
[14:02] He's fully armed guarding his house and all inside it. bulging with muscles under his armor armed to the teeth with weapons and ammo.
[14:15] No one's getting in to steal his possessions inside. And so Jesus says in Luke 11 21 and 22 when a strong man fully armed guards his own house his possessions are safe.
[14:30] But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.
[14:42] He binds the strong man enters his house and sets the captives free. That's what Jesus was doing when he died on the cross and rose again. He was setting people free from every nation tribe and language.
[15:01] he disarmed Satan Colossians 2 15 says he disarmed Satan and his crew he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross.
[15:13] And so having overpowered and bound the strong man Satan Christ has entered into his kingdom into his house and family and he's saving many of them bringing them into his own kingdom.
[15:27] there is not one citizen in God's kingdom that was not first a member of the kingdom of Satan. That's why Colossians 1 13 says that we always ought to be giving thanks to God the Father for he has rescued us from what?
[15:45] From the dominion of darkness Satan's kingdom and transferred us into the kingdom of the son he loves. He found us in the kingdom of darkness and by grace he transplanted us into Christ's kingdom and he does it by the preaching of the saving gospel the only gospel there is which Jesus calls the gospel of the kingdom.
[16:10] It's all about the king and the kingdom that he is establishing by bringing people out of Satan's kingdom and through the gospel bringing them into the kingdom of grace.
[16:22] And this transfer into Christ's kingdom is no small thing. You know it requires a supernatural second birth. You must be born again if you're ever to even see and perceive the kingdom of God much less enter the kingdom of God.
[16:39] And so it took a new birth that when we were dead in transgressions and sin that God by his spirit came and made us alive in Christ. A sovereign supernatural work enabling us to repent and believe and so to enter the kingdom of God's dear son.
[17:03] And then he gives his Holy Spirit to work in us to will and to do the things that please our king.
[17:14] Jesus says since the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent are taking it by force. It's a holy violence. That's the only way you get into the kingdom.
[17:27] There are enemies to fight. There's the world. There's the flesh and the devil. But God gives this grace of the spirit with violence to say I'm coming in. I'm getting to Christ.
[17:38] I'm going to lay hold of him and his kingdom. And so the violent are taking it. They're pressing their way in. They're overcoming their own pride and their own self-righteousness.
[17:51] Their own love of sin. And they're by the grace of God entering the kingdom. So Christ comes then to dwell in their hearts by faith and he sets up his throne in their hearts.
[18:04] And he rules there over them by his word and spirit. This is God's kingdom in its present stage. It's his people living under his rule and blessing.
[18:19] Yes, bowing and submitting to his rule as revealed in the scriptures and enjoying his blessing. Now, the kingdom of God in its present stage does not come with outward show.
[18:38] Jesus says. It's not like the kingdoms of this world. There's no palace. There's no throne and crown that you can see. There are no armies. There's no territory, boundaries, such as the kingdoms of this world.
[18:57] Jesus says, no, the kingdom of God is within you. It's a spiritual kingdom established in the hearts of the citizens of heaven. And his church at present is an outpost of this kingdom of heaven here on earth.
[19:17] One day it will come in its fullness, but we're still in the first stage of the kingdom, awaiting that second stage at Christ's return. kingdom. So when we pray, Father, your kingdom come, we're asking God to set free rebel sinners who are locked up in Satan's kingdom and believing his lies.
[19:40] We're asking God to set up his kingdom in their hearts that by the grace of our king, they might be made willing to bow before him, to turn and renounce their way and to come to him and receive him as their Lord and Savior, their king.
[20:01] You have loved ones. You're praying that for them. You are praying for the kingdom of God to come to their hearts in power. Furthermore, we're asking for the advancement and increase of God's kingdom on earth.
[20:18] Make us, O Lord, as a church, as a people, more obedient to the great commission of our king, to be making disciples from all the nations, that we might see that mountain of God's kingdom growing and growing and until it fills the earth, and there's nothing but the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
[20:42] Lord Jesus, you have all authority and power given to you. Send your gospel witnesses then out into the world. Gather citizens, for your eternal kingdom from all the nations of the world.
[20:54] Make your word to spread rapidly and to be honored. Ransack the kingdom of darkness. Destroy the works of the devil, that places where Satan reigns today might be won for Christ.
[21:10] That false religions would be pulled down and the banner of the cross lifted high. That every proud thought out there that sets itself up against the knowledge of God might be brought down and every thought made obedient to Christ.
[21:31] Extend your kingdom's rule of grace in the hearts of more and more people. That's why prayer for missions and evangelism at home and abroad is a significant part of the prayer request that we pray over on Wednesday nights.
[21:46] Why are we praying for God's kingdom's increase throughout the world, here and abroad? Because that's the way Jesus taught us to pray.
[21:57] He said, when you pray, say, your kingdom come. And we're here gathering and praying, God, bring your kingdom here, here to my heart, here to Bremen, here to this land, and to the nations of the world.
[22:17] That's what's on the Lord's heart. That's why he prayed that way. Is it on your heart? Has that priority of his kingdom found its way into your prayers?
[22:34] You see, what we're learning is that it's not enough to take up the words of this prayer. If we're to pray as Jesus prayed, we need to pray with Jesus' heart.
[22:47] And as we have Jesus' heart for the nations to become his kingdom, then we'll pray, your kingdom come. Well, this petition also has a personal application as well as a universal one.
[23:03] And so when we pray, your kingdom come, we're asking God to come in greater power to my heart to reign without a rival here. Lord, there are evil thoughts inside of this heart that I need you to pull down.
[23:20] There are disordered desires that need to be corralled and put to death by your spirit. Come and help me. There is a will that sometimes is rebellious.
[23:32] And so come and establish your kingdom in my heart. That every thought, every desire, every decision, every word, every deed would be brought under your gracious rule to do your well.
[23:49] That we might walk worthy of God who's called us into his glorious kingdom. That's an amazing thing that he's done. Now let's walk worthy as citizens of this kingdom.
[24:01] I'm often lured into living for my name to be known, for my kingdom to be accomplished, and my will to be done.
[24:13] Oh, may your kingdom come and become more and more my priority and my delight. So that's a look at the kingdom of God on earth in its present form, established by Christ's first coming.
[24:26] This is something of what this petition means to us, your kingdom come. But there's a whole lot more to come of God's kingdom as we read the Bible. We see that.
[24:37] And that is to be established at his second coming. So that's the second part this morning. We come to the future form of God's kingdom, which is nothing other than the perfection and consummation of the present kingdom of God.
[24:52] It's already been established established, and it is being maintained by King Jesus, Isaiah 9, 7 says. But it is going to fill the land, the entire earth, as Daniel 2 says.
[25:07] And it is going to see God's will being done everywhere, even as it's done in heaven. So we express our eager longing for that by praying, your kingdom come, O Lord.
[25:23] Jesus said in Matthew 24, 14, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a witness to all nations. And then the end will come.
[25:38] There's your eschatology, believer. How's it all going to happen? The gospel will go into the nations. And when Christ has gathered the last of God's elect into his kingdom, the end will come.
[25:55] Jesus Christ will return in power and great glory to judge the world in righteousness. And to bring in his everlasting kingdom.
[26:09] A glorious kingdom. He'll crush Satan and all of his followers. You know, he's gone on record to do that.
[26:20] He said that the very reason he appeared was to destroy the devil's work. The very reason Jesus, the second person of the eternal God had became a man and came into this world was to crush the head of the serpent.
[26:36] But can he? And will he? Will he do so completely and finally? His name is on the line. And so, yes, it is the zeal of the Lord Almighty that will accomplish this.
[26:50] He's not about to let his promise fail. His name be besmirched. So Revelation 20 and verse 10 takes us fast forward to that day saying, and the devil who deceived the nations.
[27:04] Say, is he deceiving anyone here this morning? Has he deceived you? We were all deceived, Titus 3 said. We were all once deceived. But are some still deceived here this morning?
[27:17] This is what's going to happen. The devil who deceived the nations was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
[27:30] And we read in the book of Revelation that the same end awaits all who followed him and did not submit to King Jesus in faith and repentance that they too will have their place in the lake of fire where there will be no rest day and night.
[27:46] And so with all of his enemies put under his feet, including the last enemy death when he raises the saints from the death, from their graves and restores them with a body that's immortal to a world where all evil is gone.
[28:04] You will look for it and you will not find it. The curse that mars everything in this life, it's gone.
[28:14] Not a trace of it left behind. Everything made new. And then the wicked will cease their troubling and the weary will finally be at rest.
[28:26] That's where we're headed. To that eternal rest. Rest in a new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness with perfect peace and love forever with the Lord.
[28:41] Not a trace will be left of the worldly kingdoms of men. They'll be pulverized by the rock cut out of the mountain, but not with human hands. And then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and forever Jesus will reign.
[29:03] And we'll reign with him if we are in Christ. Here in a new heaven, a new earth, even so come Lord Jesus, a kingdom where we will be perfected into the moral likeness of our Savior.
[29:20] Where we will be forever out of reach of Satan's temptations. Where we'll never again have that struggle that we face every day between the flesh and the spirit.
[29:32] No more evil thoughts and disordered desires, selfish decisions. It'll be the end of grieving the Holy Spirit.
[29:44] Never again. Never again sinning against my loving King. It'll be the end of our weak love for God and neighbor. It'll be the end of coming short of the glory of God and therefore needing to confess, forgive us our sins.
[29:59] No, our sanctification is going to end in glorification. The beginning of perfect obedience to will and to do what God wills.
[30:11] That will be heaven. To will only what God wills. To want only what God wants. And therefore to do only what God does and wants us to do.
[30:22] To say goodbye forever to all tears and sorrows and hello to unmixed joy and peace. Indeed, it's to enter into the very joy of the Lord himself.
[30:34] A fellowship with Christ. Christ unhindered by distance. Unhindered by sin that comes between us. Unhindered by unbelief. In not realizing the presence of Christ who is with us even though unseen.
[30:51] No, we'll be with him and we'll see him face to face. And as we stand in his presence, completely remade into the image of God, we'll know that as he looks us in the eye, he sees nothing but what delights him.
[31:05] The reflection of his own image. The only one more delighted than me to be in heaven will be him to have me there. That's what's ahead of us.
[31:16] That's the kingdom in its future form when Christ returns. And that's what provides us here and now with the encouragement and motivation that we need to battle on in holy violence against sin and this world and the devil and to keep trusting and believing and expecting good from our sovereign king.
[31:41] Living for the kingdom of God and praying for its sure increase. Now I'm sure you're aware that the longer version of this prayer of our Lord in Matthew 6, there's a third petition Godward, isn't there?
[31:58] Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, and then what? Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now some manuscripts include this here in Luke chapter 11, but the greater witness of the manuscripts is that they must have been added, those words must have been added by scribes, some of the scribes, to make it conform exactly to the prayer in Matthew 6.
[32:29] But Matthew 6 was a different event. It was another place and another time than the one here in Luke 11. So it seems that here our Lord did not include those words in this shorter version of the prayer.
[32:42] prayer. And that the third petition is here assumed in the second petition. That part of God's kingdom coming is having His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[32:57] That His will being done on earth is just another element of what it means for God's kingdom to come in power. Indeed, when His kingdom comes in power to your heart, what happens?
[33:08] You do the will of God, don't you? Instead of doing the will of Satan. And so this, that third petition, God word, found in Matthew 6, is just a part of what it means for God's kingdom to come to us in power.
[33:26] That when it does come, men gladly bow to God's will instead of their own. And they obey the voice of their king. Indeed, Paul says that at the end of his letter to Romans that this is the end for which the gospel of the kingdom is going forth.
[33:41] He says, so that all nations might believe and obey God. That's the kingdom. The king rules by his laws. And as that kingdom goes and spreads into the nations, what do we find?
[33:53] We find more and more people believing and obeying God, trusting and obeying. So the entire world in the end will be restored in willing submission to the rule of God, its rightful king.
[34:10] And then, his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So how is God's will being done in heaven? Well, it's being done completely.
[34:24] The angels leave nothing undone. They obey all his will. They don't pick and choose. That's how his will is being done in heaven. How is his will being done in heaven by the angels?
[34:38] Well, it's being done quickly. There's no procrastination by the angels. No, they fly like lightning to accomplish his errands. It's being done willingly.
[34:51] There is no reluctance on the part of the angels. Oh, do I have to? No, no. No. It's a willing, joyful service. Glad to be employed in his service.
[35:02] And then it's done powerfully without any weakness or inability to do all that he commands. And so that's what we are looking forward to, brothers and sisters, when our obedience is so often faltering and short of that, that one day it will be done completely, quickly, willingly, and powerfully.
[35:33] That's what we're seeking for as we pray. Lord, your kingdom come. Bring that day. May your reign come in greater power to my heart here and now so that I will do your will more fully and quickly and gladly.
[35:46] Here in my heart and life, in my family, in our church, in this town, in this world. And that means that the most important question in contemplating any decision in life is always, what is the will of my king?
[36:03] What does my king want me to do? That's what I want to do. So let's live more to the honor of our soon-coming king.
[36:16] The Puritan Richard Sibbes tells of a Spanish king named Alphonsus. He was not well liked by some in his kingdom, but one day when he was traveling, he saw a poor farmer struggling to pull his beast out of a ditch.
[36:33] And so the king stopped and lent him a hand. And it's recorded that thereafter, his citizens loved him the better for it. Sibbes says, and what shall we say of our exalted king of heaven and earth who stooped so low as the hellish cross to pull us poor worms out of a ditch of hell and damnation in order to reign with him forever?
[37:02] Who would not love him who has stooped so low to lift us so high, to have endured the cross until he could say, it is finished?
[37:14] What gave him endurance? The joy of bringing us to glory. The joy of seeing us enter that kingdom in its final consummation. That joy was in our Savior as he stayed there on the cross until he could triumphantly cry, it is finished.
[37:32] Who would not love him? To know him is to love him. In fact, that's the proof of whether you really do know the Lord. If you do, you love him.
[37:45] You love everything about him. You love his word. You love his day. You love his church. You love his people. You love him because you know him and you know who he is and what he's done for poor sinners like us.
[38:01] A lost friend without Jesus Christ. What more could you want in a king than what is found in our Lord and Savior, our King, Jesus Christ. He is ruling and reigning.
[38:12] He's risen and is seated upon the throne and is carrying out his Father's will throughout the world today and he's coming back. He's got enough righteousness, enough obedience to give you, to make you acceptable to the God who will look at you in the day of judgment and call you to give an account for all that you've done while in the body.
[38:42] Jesus has obeyed enough to put his obedience on your account to cover you with his righteousness. He's suffered enough on the cross of Calvary to forgive all your sins and right now through his gospel of the kingdom he's offering you a place in his kingdom.
[39:03] Come to me you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. He's promising that rest of being right with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[39:17] Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart but receive him. Forsake your way. Bow to the king.
[39:30] Embrace him. Trust in him. Receive his word that sets forth the only way to be right with God.
[39:44] None are turned away but those who refuse to come. And then for the believers the king rules by his word.
[39:55] And that's why you're here this morning. You are putting yourself under the word of your king. You're saying teach us Lord. Teach us to pray. Teach us how to live.
[40:08] What to think about you about ourselves about our savior about sin about this world about history. Teach us. And he rules us by his word.
[40:21] And the word of our king in Matthew 6.33 is instead of running after all the things that the pagans run after. What we shall eat and drink and wear and all the things that are of time.
[40:33] Nothing for eternity. Instead, you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and all these other things will be added to you as well.
[40:47] Make my kingdom your priority and I will make your wants my care. Your needs my care. Are you seeking first the kingdom of God? The reign of God in your life as expressed in his word.
[41:02] Would anyone following you around for a month say at the end of it this is number one with this guy. The kingdom of God and his righteousness.
[41:15] Can it be clearly seen by all that Christ is your king? That his expressed will is the law that you gladly obey? Are you seeking first his kingdom?
[41:30] You see, we're to seek the advance of his kingdom in our praying. Do you know we can advance the kingdom of God in all sorts of places on our knees never leaving where we're at because we reach our prayers reach the ears of the king and he sends out his mighty chariot of the gospel and we pray Lord may may your arrows pierce the hearts of the king's enemies and by your power bring them to bow in faith and repentance.
[41:58] We can advance the kingdom around the world in our praying. Are you? Does this petition find itself at the top of your praying?
[42:09] Your kingdom come. Are you advancing this kingdom by your own witness? By telling of the mighty acts of your king of how low he stooped to bring us so high to heaven's eternal kingdom in glory.
[42:25] Are you advancing this kingdom in your giving? Supporting gospel ministries and missionaries both at home and abroad to plant churches that will proclaim the gospel of the kingdom by which God is gathering people into his kingdom.
[42:43] Jesus said where your treasure is there your heart will be also. So follow the money trail man, woman, boy, girl it will lead you to where your heart is.
[42:55] And Jesus says your heart needs to be beating for my kingdom. kingdom. It's to be first with you and that means it will show up in your finances. Are you advancing the kingdom in your living?
[43:11] Are you bringing more and more of your life under the rule of Christ the king? His laws, his will. In all we do and say this is service to the king.
[43:24] We just heard a series of messages on Haggai from Haggai the prophet. Remember how God took his people to task there? My house remains a ruin while each of you are busy with his own house.
[43:37] Jesus would say you're all concerned about your kingdoms while mine remains unbuilt. It's time to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
[43:54] Well that's where Jesus' heart is. There's no doubt about it. That's where his prayers are. Do we have a heart like his? This is the most important thing happening in the world today.
[44:07] God is building his kingdom, worldwide kingdom through the proclamation of the gospel of his son to every creature. Be sure that's a big part of your life, your prayers, your giving, whatever you do.
[44:25] May God stir us up. And do you fear that oh if I do so I might come out the loser for having done so? Jesus said at the end of that portion fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
[44:40] Can you come out the loser? No, he's given you the whole kingdom. That glorious kingdom as we described it as what's to come and what the Bible says about it. He's given the whole shoot match to you.
[44:52] That's the father's pleasure. His delight is to give it to you. So don't be afraid of loosening up on your time, your money, your praying and all that you're witnessing and doing for the king.
[45:06] No, God's kingdom will more than repay anything lost of this world's joys because everything in this world is one day going to be shaken and it will be shaken and destroyed so that what cannot be shaken will endure and that is the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.
[45:25] Let's invest in it. Let's pray for it. Let's live for it to the glory of God. Believers, I send you out with this word. Since then, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
[45:40] Let us be thankful and worship God with joy, with awe and reverence for our God is a consuming fire. Nothing to fear if we're in our Savior.
[45:55] Amen. Amen. Here we go.