Key Truth: Our greatest desire should be for God’s kingdom to come in glory and His redemptive will to be done on earth as it is in heaven which should shape how we live now.

Introduction:

Q: What is your greatest desire in the Christian life? Are your actions consistent with this desire?

“To clasp hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”

Karl Barth, Quoted in 7 Days of Prayer with Jesus by John F. Smed with Justine Hwang

Second Petition: Your Kingdom Come:

Matthew 6:10

“As we pray ‘your kingdom come,’ we affirm that Jesus Christ has triumphed over the powers of sin and death, but we also declare that the joy and freedom of life within the reign of God are not yet a full reality.”

Darrell L. Gruder, The Missional Church

Q: What aspects of the kingdom are you currently participating in and enjoying? What parts are you longing for that have not yet come?

Third Petition: Your Will Be Done:

Matthew 6:10

“Our truest happiness is perfect submission to God’s will, and it is the highest charity to pray that all mankind may know it, obey it, and submit to it.”

J.C. Ryle, Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Vol. 1: Matthew-Mark

Q: What is God’s will? How does it currently differ in heaven than on earth?

Condition for First Set of Petitions: On Earth As It Is In Heaven:

Matthew 6:10

“(On earth as it is in heaven) allows the double application of these clauses, which have a fulfillment not only in the worship and harmony of heaven but also on earth, progressively as the consummation approaches and completely when it comes….(the prayer’s) focus is not on either the present or future, but on God himself, whose glory must be the disciples’ first and deepest concern, before they consider their own needs.”

R.T. France, Matthew

Q: Which reality do you gravitate toward: the now or the not yet? Why? Do you struggle with living between the tension of the two?

Application:

“Those who long for God’s will on earth in the future should live consistently with that longing in the present, working for God’s righteousness and seeking his will here….Indeed, only those who bring forth the fruit of repentance, showing themselves ready for the kingdom, dare genuinely pray for his kingdom to come….”

Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary

Jesus teaches us in Matthew 6:10 that:

- God’s glorious and just kingdom is to be desired over our own

- God’s redemptive will is to be submitted to and desired for others

- we should seek to live now according to the ethics of God’s kingdom and redemptive will in the power of the Spirit while longing for completion in the not yet

Benediction:

Psalm 145:14-21