The Lord's Prayer

And we're gonna read, verses 1 to 15. Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogue. And on the streets to be honored by others.

Truly I tell you they have received their award in full, but when you give to the needy, Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly, I tell you they have received their award in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen, then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. This then is how you should pray. Our father in heaven hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins.

This is God's word to us this morning, and Pete's gonna come and open it up for us now. Let's pray. Father help us now as we look at this fantastic prayer. And we want to learn how to pray. We need to know how to pray and We want help in every way.

And so teach us please how to pray that we may bring glory to your name, Now I'm sure that there'll be many here who will agree with me at least if they've heard it. That 1 of the most magnificent pieces of music, forever written really, is the hallelujah chorus. Which comes at the end of the third part of Handel's Messiah. Do do a lot of you know that? Yeah.

Who doesn't know that, by the way? There's 2. Okay. When you need to go home and listen to it. It's it's a magnificent piece of music.

And the whole buildup is that this world is in darkness and needs comforting and you have, song after song and words after words all from scripture. That Christ comes as a savior that he's despised and rejected by men, but then the his stripes are for our healing and then how beautiful are the feet of him who bring good news. And you have this buildup, right to the end of the third part. And then suddenly there's this hallelujah chorus. Why?

Because Christ has risen, he's ascended to heaven, and he's taken his seat as the king forevermore. That's how it goes. 48 times There's a hallelujah repeated 48 times. The word hallelujah is described as an adoring proclamation or an adoring exclamation. We are we are shouting out.

We are proclaiming adoringly, and it's done loudly. And it's done loudly in that song. Allahlujah literally means praise yahweh praise the lord, not just god, but praise the lord, yahweh, the god of the Bible, the covenant god, the god of history, the creator God, yahweh, the god of the Bible, not just any god, the god of the Bible, hallelujah, praise the lord. 48 times adoringly, exclaiming and proclaiming praise the lord. And if you're like me, you're not bored with 1 of them.

In fact, you're taken up with them for hallelujah's. In fact, the first performance before, King George the second so moved him that he reverently stood up. And then, forevermore, whenever there's performances, if you go to them, you suddenly find the whole audience. Stands up in honor and reverence, to the lord Jesus Christ. 40 hate hallelujahs and you're not bored with them.

You're blown away. You're taken up. And between the 48 hallelujahs, there's words like this. For the lord god omnipotent reigneth omnipotent means almighty or powerful, the all powerful 1 for the lord god omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah for the lord god omnipotent reigneth.

Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our lord and is Christ. Hallelujah and he shall reign forever and ever. These are the words and he shall reign forever and ever and he shall reign forever and ever and he shall reign forever and ever, king of kings forever and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah, Lord of lords forever and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah, and then right at the end 1 big hallelujah, And when you sit down, there's tears in your eyes. Praise the lord. You're taken up.

With the kingdom of god and the rule of Christ and the praise of Christ. It's an amazing pit piece of music. And it's an amazing piece of music to go to here when there are some decent people singing it. It's phenomenal. Jesus is installed on his throne.

Khallelujah, god's Messiah. When you turn to the new testament, It's interesting that actually you might think that the word hallelujah is used a lot, but it's not. It's only used 4 times. And it's only used 4 times in 1 single chapter, which is the book of Revelation and chapter 19. And the hallelujah, the praise that goes up is that the lord god has judged the kingdoms of this world.

Particularly Babylon, which stands for the world. Babylon with all its injustice and all its filth and impurity and anger against the people of god. And the lord god returns in Jesus Christ and judges the kingdoms of this world, and there's a hallelujah 4 times. When Christ returns and gets rid of this evil world, we read the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever. 1 day, the kingdom of the father ruled over by the lord Jesus Christ will swallow up the all the kingdom of this world, and then goodness.

Will have completely defeated evil. Did you hear that? Goodness. Will have completely defeated evil. There'll be no more darkness, but only light.

Life will swallow up death. It's normally the other way around, isn't it? In our experience, but life will swallow death Isaiah, 65 versus 17 to 19 says this, a profit in the Old Testament c. I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind?

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create. For I will create Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a picture of the city of God. I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people.

The sound of weeping and crying will not be heard in her streets. That's the kingdom of god. When the kingdom of god comes, In its fullness, there's no death, no pain, no sorrow, no sadness, everything. Everything. Everything that is wrong with this world.

Will be put lot right. Hallelujah. Everything. All the injustices will end. All the selfishness will be put to death and evil will be driven out forever and ever.

When god's kingdom is perfectly present here on earth, a new world will begin A new earth will be created. There'll be nothing wrong in this world ever, ever again, and so We urgently pray every day your kingdom come. Every day, we need to be reminded that this present world order is not the end of the story. It's not the end of the story that even your death isn't the end of the story. The pain and the disappointments and the sin and the sufferings that we may face right now they don't have the final word.

They don't. There's a hallelujah to come. There's great hope if you're a citizen of this kingdom of god. The final word is 1 of victory of life. Its resurrection over death It's triumph of good over evil.

Listen to revelation. I want to just keep, you know, thumping this in revelation, the last book of the Bible, the last but 1 chapter chapter 21, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had part away. Hallelujah. It's passed away. And there was no longer any sea.

C stands for if you like to see stands for sort of wild satanic powers. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from god prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look god's dwelling place is now among the people. And he will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And god himself will be with them and be their god, and he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things have passed away, hallelujah, He is seated on the throne.

He who is seated on the throne said I'm making everything new. And then he said write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. I wanna tell you there's a hallelujah coming. It's coming, and we look forward to it. And every time we pray your kingdom come, your will be done, it's making us look forward to that hallelujah.

Now we've been looking line by line at this prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, taught his disciples, We see that it's a model prayer that it's quite a skeleton prayer, but it takes us through the main points that we or to be putting into our prayers. We're seeing that. God is our father. We've seen that. And therefore, we can pray confidently we can pray confidently because god is our father because of the lord Jesus Christ.

He is our father in heaven, so we pray reverently and also knowing that he's bigger than this world. He's our father, so we pray for each other and we pray with each other. It's just an amazing thought that god is our father. I mean, most sort of powerful people have security guards all around them and it's almost impossible, you know, to get to them. They have secretaries and under secretaries and PAs and phone calls are scrambled and you can't you can't get an audience with most big people, but god is our father.

Do you get the the the amazing thing of that? The god of the universe, the lord, yahweh, is our father. Hello, be your name. You were looking at last last week. And, we we we learn that the prayer is not first and foremost all about us.

It's it's getting our priorities right. It's it's thinking about our lord god. And we we want his name, his character, his beauty, the the the wonders of life and truth that are in our god as father. We want that to be hallowed rather than unhallowed as it is at the moment. We we wanna walk around Kingston and say, may your name be honored here where it isn't honored?

May your name be honored because it's so beautiful and wonderful and you're so gorgeous. May you be honored? And now we come to this line here. Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And that's what we're going to have a think about.

Your kingdom come. We've just seen what that means. Martin Luther, the great German reformer, he called this the most dangerous prayer. The most dangerous prayer. Your kingdom come.

Have you ever prayed that prayer? Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Why is it dangerous?

Well, because it's rebellious against the world, isn't it? I mean, if you say that in some parts of the world, you're gonna be arrested and put in prison immediately. You're saying that there's another kingdom and that there's another will that you want done in this earth? Well, that's rebellion. That's revolutionary.

You know, come on. And of course, through the ages, Christians that have prayed this prayer have been arrested. And in the first century, it it it was it was a disgrace because you were saying that caesar isn't king, but there's a bigger king than Caesar and you're praying that the bigger kings will will be done over caesars. My goodness, how rebellious that is, isn't it? And revolutionary?

I was reading, about, a bloke in 19 37, Ernst, Ernst Cassman, his name was. And he was preaching this in 19 37, and there was a Gestapo Nazi in his congregation listening to what he said he knew he was there but he preached your kingdom come. He was arrested and imprisoned because There was a better kingdom they thought, the kingdom of the Nazis, the third reich was coming. How dare you say that there's another kingdom above the third reich? It's a dangerous prayer, isn't it?

And it's dangerous. Not you know, because we know what happened to the person that prayed not your will, but my will be done. If we're praying for god's will to be done in our lives, what happened to even Jesus when he said? Not your will, but my will be done. He was crucified.

So it's a dangerous prayer. So I want to look at this dangerous prayer from from a few angles. I think I've got 5. Okay. So let's have a look at the dangerous prayer from a few angles.

They they sort of bleed into each other and overlap. So forgive me if if, I'm saying the same thing again and again. First of all, praying this prayer with the kingdom of this world in mind, praying this prayer with the kingdom of this world in mind. You've only got to pick up a newspaper, watch the news, you know, read the Twitter, what, whatever it is. To know that there's this world's a mess, isn't it?

It is quite a mess. I mean, it's funny, isn't it? The outgoing government were telling us that our country is the best and the incoming government are telling us that this world is a mess. You know, everybody's saying it's a mess. And everybody that was going up for election were telling us that the world that we live in all this country is a mess.

Yeah? So we we understand that, but that's just surface in 1 sense, although it's obviously real. It's every institution. I mean, it is extraordinary. Every institution in our country at the moment is a mess.

Isn't it? You know, the police are a mess. The the misogynistic stuff that's been going on there. You you you go through every institution seems to be broken and a mess, and everybody seems to be saying that the NHS is a mess, you know? That the water companies are a mess and are messing with us.

Are they? As they chuck the sewerage in the thames. Everything's a mess. Now in 1 sense, that's just a surface mess. If you go through and listen to what's going on in people's lives, you know, children tortured to death by their own parents, extraordinary, isn't it?

A woman who's a nurse who's supposed to be looking after little newborn children It's a murderous. Oh my goodness. Social services, failing those who were abused. We've got corruption and greed and stupidity in our leaders gambling on days of election and stuff. The greed, it's it's it's very messy, isn't it?

World, people trafficking, alcohol, drugs, problems, wars, rumors of wars, Here we go on and on and on and we constantly have this desire for a new leader, don't we? A new king? If there's a new king, if there's a new government, They'll sort everything out, but then they don't. They'll fix everything. They don't.

Why? Because they can't because it doesn't work like that. I mean, it's very, very interesting hearing people talk about politics, isn't it, and politicians. This prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done makes us realistic about the world and about our leaders in the world. We don't have to be pessimistic.

And we don't have to be optimistic about our leaders. We're realistic. They're not going to sort out all the problems. It will never be like that. The world's rulers and the world's kingdoms Always always fail.

Even the good ones either turn bad or they just cannot deliver. Do you remember when Barack Obama was was being I mean, it was a terrible thing, and some of us were saying this. He was being treated like the Messiah. He'll do everything. He'll change everything.

And he was He was sort of almost introduced like a new Messiah. He's the first black president in America. This is really good and everybody was excited and it was exciting. But he failed. Of course, he failed because he's like you and me.

He's a human. We have these dreams of this world and some of us are are into the, you know, a new order will sort everything out. No, it won't. When you pray this prayer, you clearly understand that it won't. Your kingdom is the 1 that needs to come.

God. I've been reading a book for amazing, book called, agent, Sonya, if anyone's read it, It's extraordinary, isn't it? I mean, she's a spy. I mean, it's it's she's a German, and she start and and and in the end comes to this country lives in this country lives in the cotswolds as just a mother and she's a spy for for the Russians. Now when you when you read it, you know, what a what a wicked woman spying, you know, but her real desire was for peace.

She really genuinely believed that communism would be a good thing for the country and therefore it's good for all the enemies in the world to know everybody's stuff. So if everybody knows everything, it will bring peace. And so she was working for communism and and she had this dream. This is a really amazing story, but in the end, it all goes wrong. And she realizes it was false.

And, I was reading, Malcolm Mugridge. Some of you may have heard of him. He was a journalist way way back and when he was a young journalist, he too had hope for communism because it was exciting And then in the early thirties, he went to Moscow and saw the terrible reality. And he wrote this. Have a listen to this.

How marvelous the Russian revolution seemed when it happened? A little bearded man wearing a cap, Lennon, had taken over the vast empire of the czars on behalf of the workers and the peasants. The words of the man magnificat had been fulfilled. Certainly, the mighty had been put down from their seats and the humble and the meek exalted. And now I had to face the unpalatable fact that the humble and the meek thus exalted had become the mighty in their turn.

And fit to be put down. Now that's the story of animal farm if you know that. You know, people get in power and it's all exciting, and then they turn. They become the enemies. Winston Churchill said this.

Many of you know this quote, democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. You don't get salvation and world peace by the kingdoms of this world. The enemy of all politics is ourselves. Our kings and our kingdoms can never rise above the frail humanity. And this is why we pray your kingdom come.

Your will be done on heaven as on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world. It's from another world, and that's the bigger, better, more real. Kingdom that we need in this world. Your kingdom come.

We need a king who is different from every other leader. I mean, some of our leaders come across well. Some are appalling But listen to this, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty god, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the increase of his government and peace, there be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and holding it with justice and righteousness. From that time on and forever, the zeal of the lord or mighty will accomplish this.

So when we're praying, Your kingdom come. We're praying that Jesus, the magnificent ruler will rule, and we're looking forward to the day where it will be perfectly ruled by him. Our father has placed a king over the kingdom. And in that kingdom, all races will be reconciled. And in that kingdom there'll be peace.

And in that kingdom, the oppressed will get justice. And in that kingdom, the hungry will be fed. And in that kingdom, the maligned will be respected. And in that kingdom, the sick will be healed. And because we love our father and we're citizens of his kingdom, we wanna see that kingdom on earth And so we'll work towards it.

We'll pray for it, but we understand it cannot happen until the king returns. But then it can happen. And that's why the last words of the whole Bible are come lord Jesus. That's the day we're longing for. And each time we pray your kingdom come, we're reminding ourselves that this world is not the end of a story that the rulers are not the end of the story that suffering and pain and unrighteousness does not have the final word and just as god the father is in heaven.

So this is a kingdom of goodness and truth and purity and dignity beyond the sordid failings of the kingdoms of this world and there's a hallelujah coming because when the kingdom comes he sorts all of those things out. So there's something in us when we pray this kingdom come, we understand What world we're in, and we're waiting in some ways with dissatisfaction in this world. For the true kingdom to come. That's the first point, praying this prayer with the kingdom of this world in mind secondly, praying this prayer with Satan's lies in mind. You see in this world at the moment, there are 2 kingdoms and they're at war with each other.

We're told just throughout the Bible. There's light. There's darkness and light. There's satan and god. There's death and life.

There's lies and truth. There's sin and holiness. There's disobedience and obedience. So to pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven is to pray for god's rain in in all areas of life throughout his entire created order. We're told in the Bible 1 1 John chapter 5 verse 19 that the whole world is under the control of the evil 1.

The world's under control of the evil 1, which means that there's no aspect where Satan hasn't got his dirty hands. There's no area in this world where Satan hasn't got his dirty hands. We're told that he's the god of this age. We're told that he's the prince of this world. And so somehow he's managed to touch every area of life.

Now the world still belongs to god The earth is the lord's and everything in it. Jesus is still king on the throne, but there's a usurping going on in this world of the devil and we're living in occupied territory. The king is the king, but Satan is wanting to be king in every area of life. And so when we're praying this prayer, we're understanding what's going on in the world. There's war going on.

This is a spiritual battle going on. The word in a in a in our text for kingdom may your kingdom come can be translated and many many uh-uh many translators would say it's a better translation. It's not the word kingdom but kingly rule and the emphasis is more on the king rather than a sort of country. May your kingly rule come? And so this prayer is praying in Satan's territory that Christ's kingly rule will come.

In other words, people will come to Christ. That's what we're praying. We're praying them out of the evil kingdom of satan into the wonderful kingdom of god. May your name be honored god? May your name be hallowed amongst men and women and boys and girls?

As they come from Satan's kingdom into the kingdom of god. That's what we're about. That's what the church is about. Their lives will honor you as they turn from Satan To you, and that's the real hope, isn't it? That's the real hope that we have to offer people that you can come from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

Remember the bloke on the cross next to Jesus? Yeah. He was a criminal. He was part of the kingdom of this world. But it wasn't gonna help him now because he's a dying man.

But next to him is Jesus. And he turns to Jesus and says, when you come into your Kingdom remember me and Jesus says today you'll be in paradise with me. Paradise in kingdom is the same thing. And so we're longing for people to come into paradise. And when we're saying this, when we're praying this, your kingdom come would Christ Kingry rule come?

Do you see how dangerous this is? Because we're actually saying if you're not under Christ Kingry rule, whoever you are, however nice you are, If you're not under Christ's kingly rule, you're under satan's kingly rule. And you see an evasive and awful that is. So we have this Satan's kingdom, and, we want to depopulate Satan's kingdom. By praying this prayer.

Yeah. We want to pray this prayer before you die, before the criminal died. Jesus did that. And it's dangerous because we are saying that if you're not in the kingdom of Christ, you're in the kingdom of the devil and people don't like that, do they? How dare you say that to me?

Okay. So we pray with this world's kingdom in mind. Secondly, we pray with satan's lies in mind. Thirdly, let me hurry up. We pray this prayer with ourselves in mind.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. A lot of our prayers are about me, aren't they? What are your prayers like in the morning? Are they me me me? Are they self indulgent?

Is it all about me, my preservation, my job, my comfort, you know, my plans? What Jesus is telling us here, if you want to be really rebellious, and if you really want to be godly, that we need to pray your kingdom come. If you want to be in line with god, then we need to be in line with god's will. And that may be very dangerous for you. You may lose your job because you might say, I'm a follower of Jesus and I'm not gonna live like that.

You might say that. You might say, I'm a follower of Jesus and I don't do that. And you might get into big trouble. So it's a dangerous prayer as it was for Jesus. Not my will be done, but yours be done, and he goes to the cross.

To follow the will of the father. So let's be careful in our praying, but it isn't just all about me And if we're going to pray that god's kingdom come, I can't really pray that if I'm not into justice. So, you know, I can't pray for god to bring justice in the world, If I myself are not going to be changed by by that and be a just person. I can't pray lord bring your truth if I'm a liar. So I it has to change me and that leads me onto my fourth point, praying this prayer as a lifestyle in mind.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's will, I think, on earth, is very much more discussed than done. And actually is very much more prayed for than lived out and that's why we need to keep praying that this will live out in our in our lives. The will of god done on earth as it is in heaven. Why shouldn't it be?

Our brothers and sisters that are in heaven now, they're in the presence of god. They're in the temple of god with god dwelling with them. But we're called the Temple of God and God is dwelling with us. So why shouldn't we be able to do God's will on earth? I think there's something very positive about this prayer.

It's positively informing us. As they do it there, you by the spirit, by the power of god can fulfill his will, even in a world of satan and lies and difficulties. And where you'll be judged for following him. And in a sense, this is what the church is about. This is what the church is a glimpse of the kingdom on earth.

It's the start of the kingdom, and we're to show the world. This church is where where you experience something of the king and as I work for the local church and as I care for the local church and as I experience love and forgiveness. And as I experience me serving as we serve 1 another, we're right in the middle of darkness The kingdom of god is being worked out. And there's this positive your will will be done in this church. It will be done.

Lord, let it be done let it be done, and we will do it. And so that's part of a prayer, I think. And that's the hallelujah. This prayer makes us look forward, up forward, a new and perfect kingdom is coming. It makes us look around at a lost people that need rescuing.

And how to love the church. It makes us look within whose agenda am I working for? It makes us look without how do I live out holiness? Can I say that again? Because I know there's lots of things going on and it's hard to see.

But, can I say all that again? And then I'll finish. I've tried to cut stuff out. We look forward. A new perfect kingdom is coming.

We look around and lost people who need rescuing. And how to love the church. We look within whose agenda am I working for. We look outside, how do I live out holiness? Your kingdom come, your will be done.

Have you ever prayed that? Have you ever asked that the kingdom of god would come into your life, the rule of god, It's interesting in lots of parables Jesus tells. It's an invitation to come into the kingdom. He invites us. Come.

The king invites us to come into the kingdom. What a wonderful message that is. But not only that, he says, repent. Repentance and the kingdom go together. Have you turned away from the kingdom's this world and the kingdoms of your life and your little plans and your little kingdoms.

And if you accepted the invitation to come to Christ, Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this amazing little sentence. We pray that your kingdom will come and your will be done. We do pray for our brothers and sisters here, pray for Ennis. It'll help him here.

Now Thank you for the reminder that life is very, very, fragile. We're very vulnerable But we thank you that we have a king that rose from the dead is the resurrected 1 He's the ruler of the new kingdom, and he will come again and bring this perfect kingdom What a hope we have? What a hope we have? Help us we pray in the name of Jesus.