Your Kingdom Come

All right, let's turn to the word and we're in Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, we're dealing with the Lord's Prayer or the model prayer and we'll read verses 1 through 4. Luke chapter 11, reading verses 1 through 4. Now it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, that one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And so he said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And so we spoke about the first two aspects last week. Our Father in heaven, he is our heavenly Father, if we are indeed born into his family, and his name is to be made holy or to be exalted. This morning I want to speak about the third line in the prayer, and that is your kingdom come, your kingdom come. And the kingdom of God is at the very heart of the gospel. It should be at the heart of our prayer. The Jews, according to the Talmud, which is their commentary on the scriptures, and which they really hold at the same level as scriptures, that is for them, says that unless you mention the kingdom of God in a prayer, then the prayer is not a valid prayer. Now Jesus is not following Jewish traditions. He is praying about the kingdom because the kingdom is that important. The kingdom is the message that he had come to preach. You'll see that right through the gospels that he preaches the kingdom. In Matthew it is called the kingdom of heaven. In the other gospels, the kingdom of God, they are both the same thing. And the idea of the kingdom of God comes right from the Old Testament and flows right through to the end of the book of Revelation. So it is a very, very important concept, and it is one that we obviously then need to spend a little time on this morning. The problem is that there are many misunderstandings as to what the kingdom is. The problem today is that there is a teaching which was originally developed in the 70s, which was confined to charismatic circles, but in these last two, three years, has spread right across the spectrum and has been taken up even by Reformed churches and by evangelical churches at large. And it is called kingdom now, or sometimes called dominionism. The idea behind kingdom now, as you can hear, is that we have or we want the kingdom now. The kingdom is yet to come, and we're going to speak about that. I'm going to dedicate a good portion of the message this morning to speak about the kingdom and that it is future, but there is a sense in which it is current, but not in the world. It is current within the hearts of his believers. But the dominionism teaching teaches that basically the Christians and the church needs to establish God's kingdom here on earth. Once we have established the kingdom, then Christ will return, and he will inhabit that kingdom. Now, there is no scripture for it whatsoever. It is based on odd little verses here and there, which are put together out of context, and clearly, not just are they out of context, but they deny the very essence of the Word of God. And so the idea behind dominionism, or kingdom now, is that the church needs to take control of what they call the seven mountains. This was a concept which was originated by a guy called Lance Wallnau, who has recently made false prophecies concerning the fact that Trump would serve a second term, and I'm not making any statements about Trump. I'm making statements about the false prophecies, and I'm publishing an article this coming week about those false prophecies. He came up with this idea of the seven mountains. The seven mountains are seven areas in which the church must take control before Jesus comes, and those seven mountains, or those seven areas, are education, religion, family, business, government and the military, arts and entertainment, and the media. So the church must take control of those areas in order to set up the kingdom of God. The problem is that, as I said at the beginning, while that was a doctrine which was held by a minority in Christianity, today it has become the majority view. The vast majority of evangelical churches, while they may not openly subscribe to the seven mountain mandate, as it is called, subscribe to its ideas, and those ideas is that we need to take control of government. We need to take control of the media, and I'm not going to get into these in great detail because it becomes very controversial. We need to take control of education. We need to take control of this world and in order that Christ may come. In order to take control of these things, anything goes. The ends justify the means. Therefore, something that we saw on the 6th of January is legitimate because it is justified by the purpose, and the purpose is to establish the kingdom of God. I trust you can see how far this thing extends and how its tentacles go into every area. Preachers who never believed that they should or who preached against the idea of promoting a political candidate from the pulpit, preaching a political message from the pulpit, have in this last year abandoned that idea and are promoting politics from their pulpit because it is part of this important work that the church has of establishing the kingdom of God. The fact is that there is no scripture for that. In fact, the scripture is very, very clear. The kingdoms of this world can never be converted into the kingdom of God. The kingdoms of this world are under the control of the wicked one. The scripture is clear about that. The kingdoms of this world are irredeemable. The only thing that can be redeemed is the soul through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. God does not save nations. He cannot even save Israel. Individual Jews need to believe in order to be saved. Individual people need to believe. God cannot and does not save America or England or any other country in the world. God saves His church. His relationship today is with His church, and the church obviously is made up of all true, genuine, born-again believers. That's the extent of the redemption. The book of Daniel in chapter 2 verse 44, and I'm not going to go into it in detail because we've covered this at previous times, Daniel sees this great image which represents the kingdoms of the world. And it says that in the days of these kings, now it's not the kings that he sees in that image because remember he sees Babylon and then the kingdom of Medo-Persia and then Greece and then Rome, but in the days of the ten kings of the ten toes at the bottom of that image, in other words, in the time in which we are living, at the end of time, at the end of the days. The days of these kings today, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom. We've touched on this verse before but I need to remind you because we're being bombarded by the contrary. Who is going to set up the kingdom? The God of heaven is going to set up His kingdom. No political party, no religion, no church is going to set up the kingdom. He will set up His kingdom and His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom. It will never be destroyed. That's the wonderful confidence that we can have. The reality is that any kingdom in this world has a beginning and has an end. We like to think it doesn't. They used to speak of the British empire that the sun never sets on the British empire. Now that meant two things. The one is that it doesn't matter where the sun is shining in the world, there is a part of the British empire in every part of the world. But there was also this idea that the British empire will never die. Well today the British empire is, for all practical purposes, dead. There's not much left to it and I don't think it's going to be long before we see Scotland succeed and then that's just about it. So the great Roman empire, it lasted for centuries but it is no more. The great Greek empire is no more. It ruled the world in the time of Alexander the Great but it is no more. America will come to an end. Every country in the world, China with all its power and might will come to an end. Russia will come to an end but the kingdom of God will endure and be forever and forever. So I would rather be part of a kingdom that is going to be eternal than be part of a kingdom that is temporary and that is bound to fail. It is bound to fail. So he will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces. Now look at this. It will break in pieces. Remember the image he sees of the head of gold and going down to the silver and the brass and the iron and the iron mixed with clay. A little stone, which is Jesus, comes and he smashes that whole image. In other words, he destroys those kingdoms. So it says that the kingdom of God will break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it will stand forever. In other words, whatever work we are doing, whatever work Christians are doing to try and establish the kingdom of God in America or in England or in any other country in the world is a waste of time because at the end of time Jesus is going to destroy all of these kingdoms and he is going to set up his everlasting kingdom. I think that we want to speak more about what this kingdom is because that is the more important thing. So Jesus says, your kingdom come. And I want to spend a few moments on that word, your. Whose kingdom? His kingdom. Not America's kingdom. Not Sun Valley Community Church's kingdom. Not my kingdom. Not your kingdom. But it is his kingdom. Now the problem is that people are building their own kingdoms. Whether it be in the context of their family or their career or their business or in the sense of a national kingdom, people are building kingdoms. But he is saying, it's not praying that my kingdom come, but that your kingdom come. It's God's kingdom that matters. That is the only kingdom that will last. That is the only kingdom of consequence. And we need to pray that his kingdom will come. Now his kingdom has, for the sake of simplicity, three forms or three phases. There is a sense in which his kingdom is existent in the world today. But it is not existent in the form of a political kingdom. You remember Pilate asked Jesus and he said, are you a king then? And Jesus says, yes I am a king, but my kingdom is not of this world. Remember the concept, I should have probably said this at the very beginning, the concept of a kingdom is not a geographic thing. This has nothing to do with a continent or with a geographic area. A kingdom has to do with a king and subordinates. That is the basis of a kingdom. And remember it's not a democracy. It is not an autocracy. It's not a bureaucracy. It is a kingdom of God in which he is the king. So what we call, what we call, what the learned people call, it is a theocracy. It is a kingdom in which God is the king. And he is a king over his people. It is that relationship. There have been times in history when there have been kings in exile and who have continued to rule from exile over their people. And in fact there are probably some examples going on in different parts of the world right now. So even though they are not geographically where the kingdom is supposed to be, the basis of the kingdom is on the basis that there are subjects who are subject to the king. And so God's kingdom is not a geographic thing. It is a relational thing where he is the king and he has subjects who have subjected themselves, submitted themselves to his authority. His kingdom exists there. It doesn't have to be a physical thing. It will be a physical thing. Right now it is not. And in, I don't remember, yes I did write the scripture down, Luke chapter 17 verse 21. Nor will they say see here or see there. In other words it's not physical. For indeed the kingdom of God is within you. So God's kingdom is within us. We are part of the kingdom of God as we have met together. And if there is any physical manifestation of the kingdom of God, then the church is that manifestation. Now remember we have a problem here because, and I've alluded to this earlier, that we have the real church and we have the visible church. The visible church is made up of people of every group and every denomination who claim to be members of a church. But they are not necessarily born again. Therefore they are not the church. No denomination or individual church can claim to be the church. Sun Valley Community Church is not the church. We are just a local manifestation of the church. The church is made up of all true born again believers. And so that is where God's kingdom is. Where true born again believers meet together. That is a physical manifestation of the kingdom. It is a physical manifestation of the kingdom because hopefully, and I'm going to come back to this thought near the end, hopefully we are living as subjects to our king. We worship our king. We obey our king. We pay allegiance to our king. He is the one who rules and we are the ones who obey. That is the basis of that relationship. Now there are many Christians who don't live in that kind of relationship. They live in a relationship where God is just a Father Christmas who hands out gifts and blesses us and gives us a pass hell ticket. And that's the extent of our relationship. No, the kingdom of God consists of those who are in a real relationship of the subjects to their king. And so the kingdom is within us. So at the moment there is no physical manifestation. We can't point to this building and say this is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is invisible right now. The kingdom of God will take on a physical manifestation during what we call the millennial reign. In the thousand years of peace when Jesus comes back again, let me take it step by step. When Jesus comes back again and again, I'm just cutting, I'm taking shortcuts. I'm not dealing with every step because there's a lot of steps. But when he comes and sets up his kingdom, he will come with a rod of iron and he will put all his enemies under his feet physically and he will set up a physical literal kingdom. The head office or headquarters or the capital of the kingdom will be in Jerusalem. And from Jerusalem he will rule the world. Those of us who have been faithful will rule and reign with him. Israel that is saved, remember that Israel are not saved just because they are Jews, but they are saved when they accept Jesus as their savior. Those saved Jews will rule at the third tier of government. So now I've confused you. Let me start at the top. So at the top is Jesus. He is the king. At the second level of government is King David. The prophecies of the Old Testament says that he will take that position again. So he will be the prime minister, if you will, in a parliamentary system. Then the third level of government will be Israel, saved Israel. And at the third or the fourth level of government will be the church. So who are we going to rule over? Well they're going to be unbelievers still who have survived the seven years of great tribulation, who survived the third last great war, and who continue to live. And God will rule. So there will be a time when there is a physical kingdom. But then there is a third phase in which the kingdoms of this world, the people of this world, the unbelievers at the end of that thousand years rebel against God, rebel against his authority and against his kingship, and seek to overthrow his authority. At that point he quells the rebellion and he destroys this world. Those of us who are saved and everyone who is part of his kingdom are taken away. The earth is cleaned by fire. He creates a new heaven and a new earth in which the potential for rebellion is no longer there. There is no longer sin. There is no longer corruption. There is no longer death. Death will continue until the end of the thousand years. Once the thousand years is over and he creates a new heaven and a new earth, which we call heaven. That's really what we call heaven. And John says, I saw the new Jerusalem descend from heaven. The new Jerusalem descend from heaven, from God. And it comes and it's positioned here on the earth. And we then enter into eternity. Time stops and eternity begins. And his kingdom endures forever. That is the ultimate manifestation, the third phase of the kingdom of God. That is what we are praying for. We may pray for the millennial reign and for the thousand years of peace. And there is a sense in which we can look forward to that. I think it would be a wonderful time. But I really long for the ultimate kingdom, for the new Jerusalem, when there will be no more rebellion. Remember that during the millennium, it's not going to be a smooth ride. Because people are going to, unbelievers are going to constantly be rebelling against the kingdom of God, against his rules. And that's why it says he's going to rule with a rod of iron. Now, we're going to rule with him. So we're going to have to, I guess, take people to court. We're going to have to sentence people because we'll be in positions of authority and of judging and of ruling. It's going to be hard work. So I'm looking forward to the end of that and looking forward to the day when all of this will be done. And we will just enjoy his presence without rebellion coming up amongst us, without sin, without the devil. The devil will be cast into the lake of fire. He'll never plague us again. That's really the kingdom. That's what we're looking forward to. Now, I want for us to understand then, the problem here is that the church by and large, certainly in America, has been diverted into looking for an earthly kingdom. You can never compare, even if we were able to, even if we were able to make America into the ideal nation where there is no sin, there is no abortion, there is no murder. It is still flawed. It cannot be compared with heaven. And yet, Christians right now, churches right now are praying, Lord, your kingdom come. In other words, make America great again. Folks, you can work as hard and you can make America as great as you like. It will never be heaven. So why settle for second or third or fourth best, when in fact, God has prepared for us his very best, has prepared for us a perfect situation. That's what we should be praying for. Lord, your kingdom needs to come. In other words, Jesus needs to come. And I think that one of the things that distinguishes true believers these days is a longing for the Lord's return. Christians have always longed for his return. But in recent times, we should have gotten so sick of this world, of the corruption, of the fighting, of the nonsense that goes on in the world, the nonsense that goes on in the churches, that there should be a cry and say, even so, come Lord Jesus. Lord, we've had enough. We've had enough of what's going on around here. We've had enough of COVID. We've had enough of Democrats and Republicans. We've had enough of all of this stuff. We want Jesus. And yet, sadly, very few Christians are crying and saying, Lord, your kingdom needs to come. We've done with this world. But unfortunately, everyone is somehow holding out hope that maybe things will be better again. Maybe things will be better under a new president. Maybe things will be better when that president goes and the next one comes. Folks, it's never going to be better. Maybe a little bit better relative to other times. But it's never going to be better than heaven. So why do we want to settle for second or third? And it's not even second or third best. It's way down the line. Lord, your kingdom needs to come. And folks, here's the thing. And I trust that as we go through this prayer, we may understand that this needs to be more than just the little recitation we say when we pray. I told you last week as a young boy growing up in primary school saying the Lord's Prayer every morning. I didn't have a clue what we were saying. It needs to be more than that. It needs to be a cry from our hearts. Our Father, Abba, Father, Lord, your name needs to be made holy. It needs to be more than just what we say. It needs to be more than just the songs that we sing. And I chose that hymn this morning on purpose. All hail the power of Jesus' name. May angels, and the angels do fall before Him. Needs to be more than a great hymn. It needs to be the cry of our heart. Lord, I want you to be glorified. I want your name to be honored. I want your name to be honored in my heart, in my life. I want your name to be glorified in our church. I want your name to be glorified in our community. That needs to be the cry of our hearts. And in the same way, there needs to be a cry of saying, Lord, your kingdom needs to come. Unfortunately, the majority of Christians seem to just have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude to the kingdom of God. Well, Jesus will come when He comes. And maybe it's going to be this year, and maybe it's not going to be, and maybe whatever. No, there needs to be a cry, Lord, your kingdom needs to come. But I also want to speak very briefly on the fact that His kingdom needs to become a reality in our hearts. And as I said, there is that theological reality, that spiritual reality, that if we are born again, we are part of the kingdom of God. We're born into that kingdom. Remember, Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. If you're not born again, you will not even see the kingdom of God. So in order to get into the kingdom, we need to be born again. If we are born again, we're part of the kingdom. But that doesn't mean that the kingdom is a reality within our lives. We need to get to a place where He really is the King of our lives. You see, now, here we have a cultural problem, because culturally, we don't like kings. We like democracy, because kings are sovereigns. They're not accountable. They are monarchs. They do what they choose to do. But we cannot impose the weaknesses of this world upon God. The fact that kings in this world are corrupt, are weak, are ineffectual, does not make God so. God's decisions are perfect. God doesn't need to be accountable. He's accountable to Himself. You see, that's why people need to be accountable, because they're not accountable to themselves. But God is accountable to Himself. So He doesn't need checks and balances. God doesn't need a house of representatives and a senate to balance out His decisions, because His decisions are perfect every time. But that's the problem, is we say, well, you know, we don't like this idea of a sovereign, of a monarchy, of a king. But in fact, that is God's will for His people. The scripture says, who will be His counselor? Who's going to sit with God in a council meeting and say, well, we think, God, you need to do this. No, we think that wasn't a very great decision over there. No, God is all wise. God's decisions are perfect. God's motives are perfect. And so He is the only one who is entitled to the title king. And remember that the title that's given to Him in the book of Revelation is king of kings and lord of lords. And so we have a cultural problem with this idea of a king. Because what about my say-so? Do I not get to vote on this? That's where our problem lies. No, you don't get to vote on the Word of God. You don't get to vote on the will of God. The idea of the will of God, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, which we're going to speak about next week, is very tightly connected to this idea of the kingdom of God. There's only one will that matters, and that's His will. And that's exactly where we have a problem. We want salvation. We want to go to heaven. We want the blessings. We want the comfort. We want the protection. We want everything that God has to offer. But when it comes to this point of surrendering my will to a sovereign who makes the decisions, who calls the shots in my life, that's where the wheels come off. But unless He is lord of all, He is not lord at all. Unless He is lord of every area of your life, He is not your lord. You see, He's not the minister of external affairs or of foreign affairs, whatever title. So that's His business, is over there. No, He is lord of everything. He is lord of my finances. He is lord of my emotions. He is lord of my fears. He is lord of my desires. He is lord of my hopes. He is lord of every area, every detail of my life. There is nothing that He ought not to be the king of. And that I do not live my life in subjection and submission to Him. And again, there's the second problem we have. We have a problem with the idea of a sovereign, and we have a problem with the idea of submission. But that's the basis of the kingdom. He is the sovereign. He is the king, and I am His subject. I'm not His partner. And yes, Jesus is our brother, and He is our father, but He is the king, and we are His subjects. We don't get to vote. We don't get to debate. We don't get to protest. And I'm not referring to the 6th of January. Christians protest all the time. God, because you didn't do this for me, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to go to church on Sunday because you did this or that or the other thing. That's not submission. You see, submission means that I bow before Him on every detail. His will becomes my will. And so, the same way as we can pray, as we said last week, we can pray and say, Lord, Your name needs to be made holy. But unless it's being made holy in my life, that prayer is a waste of time. You see, we like to pray these prayers in a third-hand kind of way. Lord, Your name needs to be glorified in the earth. No, no, no. It needs to begin in my heart. Your kingdom needs to come, Lord. No, no. It needs to come in your heart first. It begins with You. It begins with me. It's no good saying, well, we're going to rule and reign with Him in the millennium. And we're going to have some authority during the millennium. But if you've never learned to submit to Him today, how are you going to have authority then? In fact, Paul touches on this in 1 Corinthians 10, when he speaks about angels. And he says, if you don't know how to submit to one another, how will you rule angels? Now, I don't know what it means to rule angels. I've never understood that verse fully. But what I've understood is that if you don't know how to submit, how will you rule? And if you've not learned to submit to Jesus today, how will you be a co-regent with Him or a co-ruler with Him in the millennium? It needs to begin with me, the kingdom of God. And so, folk, when we pray this prayer, and I think that you hopefully are beginning to see that when we recite this prayer, we're into dangerous territory, because we're praying for stuff that we don't understand and we don't mean. But when I say, Lord, Your kingdom come, it needs to be two very clear things. Number one, Jesus needs to come and set up His kingdom. But number two, and equally important and more urgent, is that His kingdom needs to become a reality in my life. And not just in my life, but in my family, in my finances, in every area of my life. I need to live as a child of the King. Now, here's a phrase that has been hijacked. Oh, we're children of the King. In other words, we're entitled to all the privileges that belong to children of the King. Yes, that's true, but that's only half of the story. Not only are we entitled to the privileges that comes with sonship and with being part of the kingdom of God, but we're entitled to or we're responsible for the responsibilities that come with it. And the responsibilities require submission to Him. People order their churches or structure their churches based on all sorts of models. They never begin to say, well, what is God's plan? It's all based on pragmatism. People structure their families based on psychology and books and ideas. That's got nothing to do with God's kingdom. God has a plan for our church. God has a plan for your family. And unless you are willing to implement His plan, unless you are willing to implement His agenda in your family and in our church and in your life, you are not entitled to pray this prayer because you're not wanting His kingdom to come. You want the blessings and the privilege of being sons of the King, but you don't want His rule in your life and in every area of your life. And so let me challenge you this morning again, and I know it's challenging. What areas in your life have you not surrendered to Him? What areas have you said, well, you know, He can be king over these areas, but this area, that's my domain. I have to have some say. No, you get no say. We have no say in this matter whatsoever. Those who've been in the military know the story, and I've told it many times. Yours is not to know the reason why. Yours is but to do and die. And for us Christians, it's not why. It's yes, Lord. It's yes, sir. I think the military is a good training for young men because you don't get to argue with the officer or with the sergeant. It's just yes, sir, whether you like it or you don't like it. Yes, sir. And yet we come into a relationship with the King of the universe, and He says, I want you to jump. And you say, and why? What about that brother? Why doesn't he have to jump? It's amazing that we give officers in the military greater respect than we give the Lord. No, He needs to be our King. And we, folk, I'm not suggesting that He is repressive and that He beats us up and that He mistreats us and abuses His authority. He doesn't do those things. He is fair and righteous and good. And whatever rules He makes is for our good. It's not to spoil our fun, but we need to learn to trust Him. We need to learn to surrender and say, Lord, I don't understand, but if that's what you want me to do, then I'll do it. God says to Abraham, leave everything. Leave your city, leave your position, leave your business, leave your comfortable house and go and live there in a tent. And Abraham says, yes, sir. And he takes his stuff and he goes and he lives for a hundred years in a tent. And maybe he came to the end of his life and he still didn't see what it was really all about. But now we're able to look back and we're able to say, yes, God had a glorious plan for Abraham. And I thank God that Abraham was obedient. And even though he didn't understand, he obeyed and surrendered to his King. Because all of what we have today is because of Abraham's faith and because of Abraham's obedience. And so let me ask you that question then this morning, can you really pray that prayer? Your kingdom come. Father, we pray that this may be a real reality in every one of our hearts and every one of our families, in our church, Lord, in our finances, in every area of our lives, that you may indeed be the King. Lord, that we are your humble subjects. Lord, not because you conquered us as a military conqueror and subjected or subjugated us, but Lord, because you have won our hearts. You've loved us. You've died for us. You purchased us with your own precious blood. And Lord, for those reasons, we are yours and we are your humble servants. Lord, help us to get these things right, because they're at the very core of our whole relationship with you. And they're at the core of our relationships with one another. And so, Lord, I pray that you'd help us in Jesus' name. I pray, Lord, that as we part, that you would go with us, keep us and protect us. Lord, I want to pray for Jim's brother right now, Lord, who's working in a home where the patients are all infected with COVID. Lord, we know that Jim's mother is very concerned. And Lord, we do pray for him. We pray that you would keep him. And I don't know what his spiritual situation is, but Lord, that even in this time, he will cry out to you. And if he is not born again, that he may find Jesus as his savior and is the only hope in these desperate times. Lord, I pray for Jim's mother, that she may be comforted at this time and strengthened. And so, Lord, we commit them to you in Jesus' name. Lord, our prayers continue to go with the Garcia family as they deal with the bereavement and having laid to rest their mother, Maria Carmen's mother and grandmother, great-grandmother and father. Lord, we just pray for them, that you would comfort them, strengthen them and encourage them. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.