TRANSCRIPT

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well good morning south I’m yvonne one of the pastors here and I get to join you yet again for another part in our series called what to say when you pray isn’t that exciting but I have to follow all of that cuteness so I feel like I have I’m a detriment

but uh we get to continue in this prayer and today we actually get to learn what to say when we pray hooray all right so by way of review uh remember that Jesus and his disciples you know they were praying in a certain place and the disciples go up to Jesus and they say lord teach us to pray we want to know what to say when we pray maybe they didn’t say that but that’s what we want to say and alex talked about the first week that we’re not praying at God for human attention our prayers are not just for our own uplifting and for our own status building we’re also not praying at God to force his hand in divine intervention when we pray we’re not praying that God would just divinely intervene and our prayers are now forcing it to happen we also talked about we could pray alone or we could pray together but ultimately we’re praying with God we can find ourself in him and last week we talked about him being our father and that he wants to be abba and daddy and close and near to us

and we’re praying to our father in heaven so we’ll continue as through the series and and go on to the next bit our father in heaven Jesus said hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

whew there have been tombs tomes of of material on this part of the scriptures I mean you could start an open in genesis 1 and go to revelation and still not understand what this means and I get the task of following the cuteness and trying to communicate this within 25 minutes to all of you no pressure right so um to to do this job I decided that I needed a few a few props okay hopefully this helps me compare to all the cuteness we have a story of a king with a story of a globe and we have a story that involves a snake

so hopefully if ever uh during this message since we’re trying we’re gonna have to cover a lot of ground and you’re gonna have to buckle up uh if ever it gets too much for you just remember the the crown the globe and the snake okay and then think yeah she has a little bit of cuteness okay let’s pray father God king Jesus holy spirit we need your help today it’s your name your kingdom your will that we’re talking about on earth as it is in heaven gosh our my understanding of of earth and heaven is so limited and yet God there’s something that you want to teach us today so lord I ask that you would guide this that you would highlight something in this for people on their journey with you and lord that you would help us understand more of your kingdom and more of what it means to pray on earth as it is in heaven in Jesus name we pray amen on earth as it is in heaven have you ever thought about what that means when you’re praying it we’ve prayed it together multiple times now here at south we sing this phrase do you imagine what this means on earth as it is in heaven maybe your response is yes I love thinking about earth as it is in heaven yvonne because I say yes I want heaven on earth and maybe some of your imaginations you find heaven on earth to be a place with vibrant color and things coming out of the woodwork and feeling alive and invigorated maybe you think about heaven on earth as something heavenly and glorious and full of light shining forth and full of magnificent color like rainbows

I was happy when I did a search in google to find out that one of the places of heaven on earth is this little town called holstadt it was the one and only half marathon that I will ever run in this town and it’s a beautiful little place and it holds a little special place in my heart so maybe you think of heaven on earth as some of those places where it feels like heaven is thin the layer between heaven and earth is thin or or it has some type of special place in your heart maybe you just want to go to a place of relaxation and bliss maybe alone maybe together but you think this is heaven on earth

maybe heaven on earth is like we saw earlier the miraculous miracle of childbirth where it seems like God’s given us a gift in his miracle workings of children maybe heaven on earth is is more relational for you and and you think of all the happiness and and beauty in relationships with your family your friends and and when all is right in the world maybe sometimes when you think about heaven on earth it’s a little bit more ethereal right it’s like this majestic majes majesty of light coming through the clouds and and there’s an opening in heaven and and it’s coming to earth

I think if we’re honest we think about heaven on earth as being a place of love and harmony kindness peace joy

but as I think about it don’t we also have an enemy who wants to bring heaven to earth

he existed in the heavenly realms and he wants to bring his kind of heaven to earth

so what do we really mean when we say heaven on earth when we talk about the enemy and the way that he wants to subtly bring his heaven on earth he twists the things of God he twists love

and he robs us of our ethical compass he twists harmony and kindness and he steals from us the ability to have conversations critical conversations and he robs and steals our peace and joy when he presents justice because it it’s his way wants to rob us of true good beautiful and right relationships so it’s so important that we know what we mean when we pray on earth as it is in heaven

in this passage we have some context on earth as it is in heaven we see that we’re praying for the father in heaven for his name to be hallowed his kingdom to come and his will to be done now this wouldn’t have been a surprise prayer this wouldn’t be very unusual to those disciples because they had heard this language before we talked about even alex shared with us a prayer that’s recorded that would have been spoken regularly in that jewish culture of their day they would have heard prayers that included exalted and hallowed be his name in the earth which he created along according to his will may he let his kingdom rule in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of your whole household right so this idea of God’s name his will and his kingdom was not new language for the disciples they would have understood that but he says

your kingdom come it well first of all let’s remember that he’s using this this pronoun of your it’s the king it’s the the God that he’s referring to not his own he’s saying your kingdom come and this is pulling from another similar passage in the in the gospel of luke luke shares the same prayer but he eliminates part of the prayer and focuses and hones in on just one part of the prayer of all the things that he says he says your kingdom come he doesn’t say your will be done on earth as it is in heaven we don’t have that in luke’s account and so I think it’s really important for us as we learn about how how to pray and what to imagine when we’re asking God to make heaven come to earth we have to see it through the lens of kingdom your kingdom come so when we think about kingdom there’s a few things that we need to remember is true about any kingdom and so there are going to be three things that we look out look at throughout our time together this morning that are going to guide our understanding of the kingdom and God’s kingdom okay you ready for this okay buckle up number one

there is a king who rules surprise right everyone knows that when you have a kingdom you’re talking about a king and obviously for those who are sitting around that circle with Jesus the disciples kingdom is in their language it’s in they’ve got this concept it’s nothing new they were the one nation out of the entire world that went from being a nomadic people wandering in a wilderness to then developing a judicial system to be run by judges to then

conquer other nations and then take military governance and then develop a position of anointed king and this guy here king david was a very important figure in their understanding of kingdom now this is michelangelo’s david and I thought you know to be appropriate I would just show you the the top part but

david was a key figure in their understanding of kingdom because during the time of david he was the anointed king and he took over that position but the kingdom didn’t actually become fully understood as a kingdom in the whole known world at that time until he gave over the inheritance of his kingdom to his son once he gave over inheritance then we have this monarchy we have a king who then passes his kingdom on to his heir and we know

that this kingdom that Jesus is talking about is a kingdom that goes beyond israel’s understanding of their king david because king david during that time it was said that there would be someone that would come from his line in air that would rule on the throne forever it would be someone that would come that could save them that would unify them that would create a and establish a kingdom of goodness and justice and love and so israel and these disciples are waiting on a king but they know that the kingdom is beyond Jesus is saying it’s it’s not just me and my kingdom it’s your kingdom Jesus uses these words he in his prayer he says your he says someone else’s kingdom come so we’re looking to a kingdom that goes beyond just Jesus in the human flesh we’re looking to a kingdom that is a kingdom based on its name he says your name be hollowed so who is it that is this other that your name be hollowed well there’s a ton of ways we could talk about the name of the king but I’m just going to highlight a few of them here the name of this king is yahweh he calls himself yahweh I am who I am I’ve existed at all times there is not a time in the lifetime of anything in the in the heavens or in the earth that I did not exist this is a king who is the creator we open up our scriptures and we see in genesis 1 that he says God created the heavens and the earth he’s the creator and he speaks things into existence this God his name is ancient of days meaning he was from the beginning he’s ancient and he is the king of kings so even he’s over other elohim he’s over anyone else that has any type of rule and authority he is above it all which means that this king has intrinsic authority there is no higher we can go than this king he has intrinsic authority because it is in his name to have authority

and he is not like any other human king because he is three in one he’s like a cord of strands that cannot easily be broken and he exists and we see him in other frequencies and other wavelengths like the wavelength of sound where we get three notes unique and distinct notes and yet played together in one sound he exists in light wavelengths green and blue and red unifying together in brilliant white light he’s the God that’s over the musical wavelengths he’s over the light wavelengths and don’t we know that light wavelengths is what our whole universe is created by

he is the triune king and so this kingdom it’s led in triune monarchy

it’s like no one else nowhere else do we know anything like this kingdom except from the scriptures that there is a triune monarchy out there and this king his righteous and everlasting king everything that this word says about him is that he is righteous everything lines up perfectly under him and he’s everlasting there is no escaping the longevity of his kingship and he will be king forever

this is the king this is the your name be hallowed your kingdom come your will be done the ultimate king

so for the the disciples who are sitting there hearing these words they may have thought about themselves in present darkness they’re still waiting for a messiah waiting for a king and they’re thinking the king ship should be future but he’s saying the kingship has always been ladies and gentlemen the kingship has not gone anywhere it started as a kingship it is now when Jesus says this a kingship and it will always be a kingship you know the pharisees came to Jesus and they said when when we want to know when that kingdom is coming when is the kingdom of God to come and Jesus replied the kingdom of God 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 he doesn’t say the kingdom is just past or the kingdom is just to come he’s saying the kingdom is right now it’s Jesus who brings kingdom near he’s ushering in nearness of God’s kingdom coming to earth he’s giving access to the kingdom he’s saying you can call him father

right we can have relationship with the king

and yet

he doesn’t take the kingship right away he’s ushering in the nearness of the kingdom when he says for I’ve come down from heaven not to do my will listen Jesus is saying not to do my will he says but to do the will of him who sent me to do the will of the eternal king the king of kings

our king and we’re going to get to that Jesus is the king our king comes and says that he’s not coming to do his will he’s coming to do God’s will your kingdom Jesus says your will that’s an incredible character of our king he says later he doesn’t want to go through with with the the direction that his father says and he’s wrestling with it even Jesus himself wrestled with how do I step into the kingdom and he said father if if you are willing just please take this cup take this request take this invitation from me but ultimately not my will but yours be done Jesus as he brings the kingdom near is still honoring the king

and stepping into it and so he is the one who can rightly take the kingship because he is good he’s obedient and one day he will Jesus will take the king he will become the God-man king who will take the throne and rule on the new earth after he goes through a period of humility and and refining it says that God will exalt him to the highest place he will give him the name that is above every name and at the name of Jesus every knee will bow that’s kingdom language right every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess they will acknowledge that Jesus is the king and when he takes his throne one day guys there’s going to be loud voices in heaven that say the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our lord and of his messiah and of Jesus’s reign he will reign forever and ever it says forever

Jesus this king is the everlasting king past present future and when Jesus says this to the disciples your kingdom come your will be done it’s an invitation you got to know your king you got to know who’s in charge it’s not the kingdoms of that you might see around you you’ve got to know the everlasting king but the truth is Jesus says that not everyone who says to him king king lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven so it’s not enough guys to know the king we can know the king we can respect the king we can know that he exists in all of his amazing glory this invitation of your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven it’s an invitation to join the king we must join his kingdom or else we we miss out on the glorious eternality of his kingdom so the second thing about all kingdoms is that a king he reigns surprise and he reigns in a realm right when he reigns the meaning there is is to say that there is there are subjects in his kingdom there is some there are people or nation or tribes to that come underneath him right so let’s say we were talking about a worldly like a king that we would know right they would have servants and peasants and and a whole world that they would reign over and then there’s a realm it’s a location for the place the boundaries and location for where they reign maybe we could think about this in the animal kingdom okay if we think about the animal kingdom that’s a location right it’s it’s within a certain segment of the world but for God his realm is heaven and earth the kingdom has been established in the heavens and on earth and he reigns over the subjects that have filled those realms this king he reigns over two realms guys he reigns over heaven that has been filled with angels and creatures and and even ranking angels he’s also designed earth to be a realm with male and female and offspring and creatures and he’s filled these realms with his subjects and the amazing thing about this God when he shapes this earth and he fills it with his subjects

he doesn’t reign over it in such a way that that makes them just subservient this king

he is known to be a king who commissions his God-like imagers to expand his kingdom throughout the earth the very first commission God gives to these people that he puts on earth and he fills it he says be fruitful I think south fellowship is being fruitful good job guys increasing in number and filling the earth right but look at this he says rule rule over

this is a king who delegates his authority amen he delegates his authority to us and he asks us to he commissions us to go fill the earth make it like eden make it beautiful and in relationship with God and and make it full of God’s kingdom the commission doesn’t change friends when we get to matthew and when he says go into the world making disciples of all nations be fruitful multiply baptize them in the name of the father son holy spirit triune monarchy guys we get to bring the triune monarchy to the world my roommate and I joked last night she was like how many times can you say rule the world you know but we do that we become imitators of God we become his children his beloved children walking in love and we offer ourselves as a fragrant aroma this all has commissioning language in it he gives us the ability to be like God that was from the beginning he says I’m going to create God-like beings to be like God and rule for God’s kingdom again paul takes this a step further and he calls us he says that we have this task of reconciling people to him and we do that by becoming God’s ambassadors that’s commissioning we’re ambassadors for God and that’s how we join the king we join the king when we accept our commission that he’s made us in his image he has adopted us as children so we can inherit his kingdom that’s beautiful and we get the choice of accepting our commission we get to say yes God that’s who you made me to be yes God I want to be a part of you and your kingdom and I want to have purpose and I want everything that you’ve designed within me to expand when it looks like you and your kingdom when I become an ambassador who actually really represents the king

but of course there’s a third prop

and uh there is a problem right the our commission gets interrupted because we have a corrupt being who shows up on earth shows up on earth hopefully he’s not that big um to sabotage God’s commission and he undermines the value of the king robbing us and of our dominion he wants to take over this world but he doesn’t deserve to it says that the God of this age

has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel the light of the good news of the king as it displays glory in christ who is the image of God

so our battle is not against flesh and blood it’s against enemies rulers authorities in the unseen world it’s against mighty powers in that world and against evil spirits in the heavenly places

this enemy wants to bring his kingdom on earth

and that is not what the king wants he is undeterred he and he is determined to conquer that snake right he’s determined and and he can remain true to his values and in the meantime he can orchestrate a plan that stays true to him and to his name he cr he orchestrates a plan of rescue redemption and ultimate victory for his God-like imagers like you and like me so that we can rule again with his glorious inheritance it says that when the fullness of time had come God sent his son to redeem those under the law so that they could be adopted so that they could get the inheritance so that they could call God abba father and he did this because he loves us so freaking much

he loved the world that he gave us his son he didn’t come to condemn us he loved us and he wanted us to to be true to our our calling our purpose yet again and so he does it he rescues us out of the dominion of darkness see you later little snake

he brings us into the kingdom of his son listen to that kingdom language the son that he loves he brings us into the kingdom through redemption and through the forgiveness of sins

friends it’s up to us we get to join the king and all it takes Jesus said when it comes to his kingdom he just says repent for the kingdom of heaven is near just turn just accept your commission re-accept your commission just turn be a part of the kingdom it’s right here it’s in your midst you have a choice to do that

we join the king by accepting and re-accepting every day our commission and then we have a king and so we also walk in submission to this king that’s a part of the kingdom language is submission and although the enemy wants to destroy that word for all the good that it is the invitation when we follow a king is to walk in submission because the third thing we know about the king is that he rules with law and ethics every king rules with his law and his ethics and the law and the ethic of this king the everlasting king is the law of love

if we open up our scriptures

to a passage on love we’ll see that this is this is the ethic of this king he says love is patient

kind does not envy or boast it’s not arrogant or rude it doesn’t insist on its own way

this is the ethic of the king the everlasting king and anytime we get an ethic of a king or a leader it’s because that is in his dna

when when we’ve transitioned to have a new leader here at south fellowship church and a new lead pastor there’s some adjustment because you have to kind of figure out a new value system a new way and this king this is a part of who he is and his ethic is love he says love bears all things he bears with us he believes all things he hopes all things endures all things and of his love it never ends we get to join the kingdom of love and so if we want to adjust and learn the value system of the king there’s plenty in this scripture that will teach us the value of the king more than anything I think these scriptures you know some people present it as a manual some people present it as a love letter and I think more for myself it’s a character study it’s a character study of the king who reigns in heaven and on earth and so I learn about the king when I read these words when I open up to the red letters and I read from Jesus’s spoken words about the kingdom he uses that word all the time and we don’t have time to go into all the things that are a part of his ethic and his kingdom but we know a few things

we know that this king he values covenant he values that kind of agreement of love and of sacrifice we know that his kingdom it it expands he talks about it like like a little mustard seed and it starts so small and then and then it grows into this giant tree he talks about it being like yeast and like getting all over and in the the bread you can’t stop it when it starts he talks about humility the the value of the king Jesus he valued humility he was submissive under his father in heaven and he valued that and that was exalted it was honored Jesus says that poverty people that have nothing are blessed he says that sacrificial love triumphs when you turn the other cheek when you love your enemy you actually have more leadership and more power and more authority he flips the script and he says when you choose forgiveness it will always reward you

the way of the kingdom and of this king whose ethic is love will always result in flourishing now friends that doesn’t mean that it’s not painful at times there are times when we are invited to be submissive to the king and and we go through a refiner’s fire it feels painful and and then we think God I don’t know if I can trust you as king in my life

but he will strip away the things that need to die so that you don’t have to die to the things that need to be and when you start to learn the ethic and the law of the king you will start to see it all around you you will go to the movie theater and you will say whoa this story has God’s kingdom written all over it because you see a story this was one that I just had happened to me this week I went to see american underdog and I was like wow this has kingdom written all over it this kid he got a commission and he knew who he was as a young guy to be a football player for Jesus and he and he went through trial and he didn’t make it he was pretty small and humiliated because he didn’t get on the league he didn’t have an opportunity open for him but there was work to be done in his identity and once he knew who he was for Jesus he could stand out there on the football field and he could do it knowing who God made him to be and then when we do that when we step into our commission and we walk in submission

God gets the glory and he becomes way more than this little guy in iowa and so to me I was like ah thank you lord that you’re teaching me your kingdom so much that I can just see it I can feel it I can taste it around me and when you start to learn the way of the kingdom and walk in the way of the kingdom you’ll see it around you

there will be opposition and there will be places and times in your heart when you say I don’t want heaven

I want heaven to stay in its box and I want me and my earthy experience to stay in my box and I want to be in control of it and I want God to just answer my call for what I want in my kingdom

but what we’re doing when we pray as it is on earth as it is in heaven is we’re seeing kingdom come come to me unify God’s reign in me unify heaven and earth when I accept my commission and I walk in submission to you we bring heaven and earth closer because we unified all under God’s reign what he deserves all along and so this word of the week we’ve been giving you words each week to go off and pray the word is yes yes yes I take your kingdom yes I join your kingdom I accept my commission and I walk in submission because you’re the king of all kings you are not deterred by a slithery little guy who wants to bring his heaven on earth

so I will follow you I will be the person that you’ve made me to be and I will align myself with the way that you’ve designed the universe to be designed and I will walk in submission under you and as my king are you willing to say yes this week in prayer yes to his kingdom to his name to his will so that God the king gets the glory let’s pray

father God king Jesus holy spirit you are the king of all kings you are the one who one day we will all run into your kingdom and there’s no escaping it so lord teach us to pray teach us to say yes to your kingdom

lord there are times where we’re going to be distracted where we’re not going to want to choose your kingdom when you give us our little nudges to say speak up

go deliver a meal

you don’t need to eat that what does love look like in this situation when you speak to us from you and your voice and your kingdom lord we’re gonna struggle it’s not always gonna come easy but lord give us courage to say yes to you and your kingdom even when it’s painful even when we don’t understand it give us courage to say yes

lord we don’t want to pray for you to make our experience on earth to be like paradise so that we can experience all the goodness that we think this life offers but we want to pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven we want to pray may heaven and earth unite under God’s kingship as we accept our commission and walk in submission to your way amen

we just want to give you a moment to ponder the ethic of the kingdom and this song just speaks about that ethic

oh that I could see your face make my

who are crying

and their souls are the song of the kingdom of God and they will find a refuge for theirs is the kingdom of God

beauty shine from your face always long to see this place is there somewhere I can stay even just a couple days blessed all the

blessed are the guilty

and their souls are the salt of the kingdom of God and they will find a refuge for theirs is the kingdom of God the lord is a shepherd we shall not want invalid or pastor we shall not want a cup runneth over

forever

now

ever of the kingdom of God and they will fight our refugees

beautiful picture the idea of a kingdom in heaven that we can’t see joining with juan that we do see and and take that word yes and say how can my severe sphere of influence my kingdom how can I say yes to his kingdom in in my world what a great thing to take away so I’ve got a couple of things to let you know about before you go as usual we can’t tell you everything that’s going on at south so we have an app we have a website we have all of these different ways that you can stay connected and we’d love to connect with you if you’re new at the new here desk couple of things if you have been asking where can I get involved where can I serve we would love to have some more volunteers with our kids ministry as you could see we have some kids that are appearing out of nowhere almost and and they need people to love care and shepherd them and so if you’ve been praying God what is it that I’m supposed to do you may have just had the answer now we don’t take just anyone for kids ministry it’s uh it’s this place where we want the very best but here’s the story I get to hear over and over again from people as they get involved working with kids they say things like I got to have an influence and watch someone grow up to follow Jesus and isn’t that perhaps the most rewarding thing that you could possibly have so amy has a table as you leave she would love to talk to you about kids ministry love to find some ways that we can get you involved second thing we have a new here lunch every now and again we have one today if you didn’t sign up it’s okay just come anyway you can have my lunch it’s fine I’m on this diet anyway I probably can’t eat it if we don’t have enough we’ll get to practice that moment where Jesus prays to multiply food and we’ll see if it works for us too it may just mean that we share the food we’ll see and then finally this we talked a bit about giving back in december and I just wanted to unpack that just really quickly for you we got to look back and this december was the the the best giving that we’d had at south in any year that we could find a record of and so I just wanted to say just firstly thank you south is not a I don’t know how to phrase this well it’s not a cheap place to make happen we do lots of things all over the world we get to be involved in so many different ways we have people with giftings that work in so many different areas and so on an average month our giving is somewhere between 90 and 100 000 in december it was 244 000 which is just incredible and and that was just the general giving aside from that there was an anonymous uh larger gift that we’ve put to one side that we’ll talk about soon I still don’t know how to talk about it well it’s one of those things that sometimes God moves someone’s heart and you look and you say I’m I’m just a little stuck here I don’t know what to do and so it just unlocks this question of God what are you doing here and what are you asking us to do how are we supposed to participate with you how are we supposed to bring your kingdom down with with this gift for those of you that know dan elliot one of our beloved associate pastors aside from all of that giving we asked a few people by letter would you like to send dan on sabbatical before he goes to part-time just in that gift there was 14 000 to send down and carry off on sabbatical for a a couple of months to enjoy some experiences that they haven’t had before and so I just wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you however you participated um this is a community where God is at work and that’s exciting to see so thank you so much for listening to what he was calling you to do God thank you for the things we’ve seen today thank you for children coming into your world their father’s world may they work for your kingdom may they grow it may they know you the king of this kingdom may we participate with taking our kingdom may you shape your world through us for each person here may they go with blessing father son and spirit into this world and may they know your peace go in peace friends have a wonderful sunday amen