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  THY KINGDOM COME -- THY WILL BE DONE
  by E. Stanley Jones
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Summary: The sermon emphasizes the importance of the Kingdom of God and
how obeying it brings total freedom.

Topics: "Kingdom Of God", "Gods Will"
Scripture References: Matthew 6:10

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DESCRIPTION
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E. Stanley Jones emphasizes the importance of Jesus' purpose to bring
the good news of the Kingdom of God, highlighting how prayer revolves
around the coming of the Kingdom and the fulfillment of God's will on
earth. The Kingdom is the core of everything, the framework on which all
things hang. Jones explains that God's Kingdom is a complete
totalitarianism where obedience leads to total freedom, contrasting it
with earthly totalitarian systems that result in bondage.

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CONTENT
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Jesus summed up his life purpose in these words: "I must give the good
news of the Kingdom of God . . . for that is what I was sent to do."
(Luke 4:43). What did he mean by it? He made it the first petition in
the Lord's Prayer: "When you pray say: Our Father . . . Thy Kingdom
come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." Prayer is the
deepest thing we do and in that deepest thing we do, the coming of the
Kingdom is the most important. It is the foremost and the uppermost --
without it the prayer is comparatively meaningless. This is the
framework and the core of everything. Rauschenbush says, "The Kingdom is
the vertebrae on which all things in the body hang."

The key is this: "Thy Kingdom come. They will be done on earth, as it is
done in heaven." The second phrase explains the first. The coming of the
Kingdom was the doing of the will of God on earth as it is done in
heaven. How is the will of God done in heaven? In the individual will?
Yes. In the collective will? Yes. In the total social arrangements of
heaven? Yes. It is a complete totalitarianism, a total way of life in
this life now.

But wouldn't that be total bondage? Strangely enough, No. Here is a
complete totalitarianism in which, when you obey it totally, you find
total freedom. I do not argue. I only testify: When I belong to Christ
and his Kingdom, I am most my own. Bound to the Kingdom, I walk the
earth free. Low at his feet, I stand straight before everything else.
There is one difference between the earthborn totalitarianism and God's
heavenborn totalitarianism: if you obey the earthborn totalitarianisms,
fascism, naziism, communism totally you find total bondage. If you obey
God's Kingdom you will find total freedom.

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/e-stanley-jones/thy-kingdom-come-thy-will-be-done/
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