Our text this morning is the. Lord's Prayer.
You've heard it a few times already today, and our focus is
the. Very simple, but incredibly
powerful. Word our Father, your Kingdom.
Come on earth as it is in heaven.
Do you know when we pray that many times we're not really
clued in to what it is we're really?
Asking God. In that moment, I love this
quote from Annie Dillard, who says, you know.
Basically, we're playing with fire when we pray.
This prayer. She says does.
Anyone have the foggiest idea what?
Sort of power were so. Blithely invoke or as I suspect.
Does no one believe a word of it?
The churches are children playing on the.
Floor with their chemistry sets. Mixing A batch of TN T to kill a
Sunday. Morning, She has.
A way with words, doesn't she? It is madness to wear, ladies.
Straw hats and velvet hats to church.
We should all be wearing. Crash helmets usher.
Should issue life preservers and signal flares.
They should lash us to our pews. Our father, your Kingdom come on
earth as it is. In heaven.
That is truly an explosive prayer that Jesus.
Has taught his people. To say every day and to invoke
in their lives and in the lives of others for Jesus.
The Kingdom of heaven had a lot of aspects.
It was his. Most favorite topic, but for
him, there were three things that were true.
Of it. It was at hand.
It's within us. And it will.
Come it is at hand, It's. In us.
And it will come. Sometimes many of us live
unaware. Of perhaps the impact or we have
a very small. Vision of what it means to ask.
Kingdom of God. Come, God, send your Kingdom.
And so I want us to to hear the testimony of an 82 year old who
understood something. Of the Kingdom of heaven.
Should I just go ahead and offer an invitation?
Your Kingdom come. It's really moving right to see
the depth at which that. Had saturated her life and her
thinking. And so when Jesus says to us to
pray heavenly. Our Father, your Kingdom come.
On earth as it is in heaven, he's actually.
Inviting a son into a new reality.
Jesus said repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Matthew says this was the primary message of Jesus as he
went. Forward at the beginning of His
ministry. Repent, for the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand. It's right here.
So with the birth of Jesus, something had changed with the
incarnation. Of Jesus the.
Something had changed. Something changed when Jesus was
born in a Manger in Bethlehem. Something was inaugurated in a
new movement of God. And so for us as followers of
Jesus, who? Pray our Father.
Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven when we read.
The Old Testament When we read the scripture of Israel, we.
See the hand of God pointing forward to Jesus?
And pointing us forward to Jesus.
And so we see. In that history of Israel,
glimpses of the endbreaking of the Kingdom of God.
And the. Promise of a king the.
Promise of a king, one who would come.
So when? When?
We. Pray our Father.
Your Kingdom come on earth. It is in heaven.
I know that I'm praying to the one who is creator of the world,
but who is also very much involved.
He is. Not platonic at all.
God our Father is very. Involved in the history and
life. Of humanity now in some ways if
we put. God on trial.
This would be quite convicting, it seems, for in the history of
humanity there is. Great tragedy, great violence,
great destruction and so. When we.
Pray our Father. Your Kingdom come and those
moments we express. A longing we express a.
Longing for a king and his Kingdom to actually be.
And so we have to wrestle with the realities.
Of our lives in some ways, then. We're we're like.
Rabinadeth Tagore. His statue is at the.
Asian Center, if you've made your way through those trees and
past those great big. Bell the great big bell that's
there. You've passed his head on a
monument. How many of you have seen?
It and noticed he was a contemporary of Gandhi.
He was a contemporary of Stanley Jones, who was also.
A missionary. To India and in India and in
talking with Doctor Jones, Tagore says Jesus is ideal and.
But you Christians, you are not like him.
Oh Father, you are Kingdom. Come on, Earth as it is.
In heaven we know that. You are involved in the history
of humanity, but so are your people.
And perhaps it is your people. Who have failed?
And so we. Wrestle with this in our reading
for the. For the summer, how many of you
have our recommended book for the summer?
See your hands up there? There's a few of you lucky
people. With a copy, it's getting harder
to get. You know, so you should.
You should go get your copy. Tyler Staton says this.
About prayer and our life together.
He says a life of faith without mercy is a Kingdom the king
doesn't recognize. It's impossible to know God.
Through private prayer without equally participating with.
God in public. Mercy prayer.
And mission fit together hand in glove.
To pray is to be invited to uncomfortable mission.
To pray is to be led by the hand.
To broken places, broken people. And broken.
Parts within yourself. Jesus feels at home in the
company of the Misfits. Marginalized, Oppressed, and
Outcast. So if you.
Spend time in conversation with Jesus.
You better. Believe he'll invite you to come
with him where he's going, NT rights NT.
Right rights the Christian vocation is to be.
In prayer, in the Spirit, at the place the world is in pain.
Proximity to pain leads leads credibility.
And power to our prayers. Do you have an embassy of
heaven? You are the staff of the Embassy
of Heaven when you. Pray her Father.
Your Kingdom. Come on, Earth.
As it is. In heaven.
And so Jesus says something. Has been inaugurated.
In his hand at hand, but we. May not completely see it yet.
In fact. He says in Luke 1721, when.
Asked about this Kingdom, they're like, well, where is it?
He says. The Kingdom of God is something
is not something that can be observed, nor will people say
here it is or. There it is.
Because the Kingdom of God is in your midst.
It is within you. Is it within you the?
Rule and reign. Of God within you, the.
Rule and reign of the King within you to pray this is to.
Open and yield my. Life and my spaces to the.
Possible realities of God. It also is to yield.
My life to the very. Character of God, as we saw last
week in praying. Your name be Hallowed.
Your name be. Hallowed among us and in us, and
now he makes it so. With his rule and his reign,
Jesus then is on the. Throne of My Heart Confession
Repentance becomes a Way of. Life where I agree with God.
That I climbed up on the throne again.
This is your. Throne Jesus, we seem to.
All long for Wakanda, don't we, We?
Long for Wakanda. Why is that?
We long for a place where. Something seems to have been
made right where the people who are there are righteous, where
there is joy and peace. In the Holy Spirit we have this
longing. Our society, our culture, and
our people. Have this longing.
Our generation has this longing. So won't you pray?
Our father, your. Kingdom come, it is his.
Kingdom that must come. And so Jesus says look.
The Kingdom is at hand. It has been inaugurated.
It is within. You if you are mine, and it will
indeed. Come this idea of a Kingdom that
is already but not yet. Has been expressed.
Throughout the scripture when Jesus was meeting with his.
To break bread. And to share the cup of the
Passover, which he reassigned. As the bread and the cup of his
people, of his Kingdom, he says. This in Luke 21.
I'll tell you, I will not drink again of the vine until the
Kingdom. Of God comes.
Oh, wait a minute, Jesus, I thought.
The Kingdom of God was at hand. I thought the Kingdom of God was
in us, and here he says The Kingdom of.
God will come, so there is a full reality of the.
Expression and person of Jesus Christ as King.
That we do not yet see, but will when our faith shall be made.
As sight Where what's? Described in Zachariah eight
that we read. Earlier in the service.
But also is described in MICA chapter 4 will be true that he
will. Judge between many peacefuls and
will settle disputes for strong nations.
Far and wide. So when in the Hebrew mindset,
there was a day that one would look forward to, there was a
movement to history. There is a purpose to history
that's moving towards the day of the Lord.
We often speak of that day as a day of.
Judgment, Jesus said of his coming as a child in the flesh,
he says. I did not come to judge.
Or to offer condemnation. For the world already stands
judged. But Micah and other prophets
says there will be a day. In which God will judge with his
judge, with his king, with his ruler.
He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes
for strong nations. Far and wide they will beat.
Their swords into ploughshares and their Spears into pruning
hooks. Nation will not take up sword
against. Nation, nor.
Will they train for? War anymore?
That's good news, everyone, he goes.
On will sit under their own. Vine and.
Under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid for
the Lord. Almighty has spoken in my
backyard. I have a Grapevine.
I have two. Some of you have son back there
and. Been like there's.
Grapes there they. Are, but there's also a fig
tree. And so when I sit in my
backyard. There's also a fig.
I have a glimpse of what God says he wants for people that
they could. Know that they have.
Some sustenance on the way. That they know that they have
some shade and some shelter. Remember how proud Jonah was of
that? Vine that provided him shade.
Oh, the fig tree. Provides great shade.
In fact, the fig tree was a a center and place of prayer for
you. Or might remember that Nathaniel
heard Jesus say oh. Nathaniel, I saw you.
You were under the fig tree, you were praying and he.
Goes on there to say. And people will not be afraid.
There will be no. One there to.
Make them afraid. Can you imagine the moment in
your life? Where you have.
Moved from a day with no. Can you imagine a day?
With No Fear. I can hardly imagine such a day
With No Fear. I mean, when there's nothing
there, I dream up things that have fears about.
Oh, Father, send your. Kingdom on earth as it is in
heaven already, but not yet. This is the space.
We live in today in the Kingdom of God in.
Just a moment. We're going to celebrate the
Lord's Supper together. It's an invitation to remember.
Jesus the Incarnate. One who inaugurates the Kingdom
as. King and Philippians too, it
says. Of him that he came to.
Us as a servant, he came to us. Holding the very nature of God,
but did not consider a quality with God something to be used to
his. Own advantage.
Rather, he made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a
servant and being made in human likeness, and being found in
appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to
death, even death. On a cross, therefore.
God exalted him to the highest place, and gave.
Him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus
every knee should. In heaven and on earth and under
the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus.
Christ is Lord to the glory. Of God the Father, oh Father,
your Kingdom come. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, we set our lives.
Before you, and we pray that each of us would.
Know like Lumida. And our one unique life, how you
would have us operate as ambassadors?
As emissaries. Of the embassy of Kingdom of
Heaven. That in every space at which we
occupy together. And scattered through this city,
we would become. Your people praying.
But also reflecting the life and character of the king.
Some of us are working in places where.
It seems like the Kingdom of heaven is so far away, and so we
pray and we wait for change. We.
Pray and we wait for change. We try to be the.
Change that we envision with you.
Lord Jesus. But we pray that there would be
a day. A little day of the Lord among
us Where? Something would change.
Suddenly, quickly, it would. Become evident.
But the rule and reign of. God is there in that place.
That there is righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy
Spirit. In that place and in that people
let's stand together, gave thanks for it, and then broke it
and said, this is my body broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. Again at the end of the.
Supper Jesus took the cup, and he said this cup is the new.
Covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in
remembrance of Me. The Scripture says that whenever
you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
Lord's death. Until he comes, Come, Lord
Jesus, come.