Matthew 6:5-18

“Your Kingdom Come”

Matthew 6:5-18 Shp Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 8-21-11
Key Verse: 6:9b,10

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.”

Do you known what the best thing ever is? Is spending eternity with Jesus in the Kingdom of God as his child! Jesus’ main concern was always to glorify his Father in heaven and expand the territory of the Kingdom of God. From the onset of his ministry he preached the message, “The kingdom of heaven is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) He chose his disciples and helped each of them to see the kingdom of God. He wanted to work through them to share the Gospel so that the Kingdom of God may grow in the hearts of the people. This is a great task….too great a task for these disciples to accomplish through their own human efforts. They need to do much more than just preach, teach and serve others basic needs. How could they do it? Only through prayer. That is why Jesus presents a model prayer for his disciples of all time. When Jesus’ disciples pray personally before God a genuine motivation to glorify God in all that they do grows in them. Then the Kingdom of God can grow to others. Let’s examine this model prayer.

Part l: The Attitude Of Prayer To God (5-8).

First, the attitude of prayer. Look at verse 5. “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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” We can approach prayer with various attitudes. There is the attitude of, “here we go again.” There is the sleepy attitude where we doze off in the holy sleeping position. At least they are trying to pray. There are good attitudes, that make a person say, “I can’t wait to talk to God” or “I need God’s help.” or “I want to get to know my Heavenly Father more deeply.”

In Jesus’ time there was another attitude among some of the people. There were hypocrites who tried hard to make people notice they were praying to God, but they are actually putting on a display for people to see. They sought human recognition. Would you ever do this? I don’t think many of us try to show off our spirituality by praying publically. In any case, the prayers born out of such motives are not directed vertically, to God, but horizontally, to other people.

Jesus says that such people forfeit the blessing of genuine fellowship with God through prayer. Verse 5b reads, “…I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” What is their reward? Their reward is having a few people say, “Wow! That person is really holy!” They get a momentary feeling of self satisfaction. Or they get a sense of relief that their being asked to pray is all over for now. They will get no reward from God. No peace of; no affirmation that their hearts are right before him; no praise from Jesus when they see him face to face in the heavenly kingdom. We must have the right attitude in prayer. But how?

First, our prayers must be directed vertically to God, in private. Look at verse 6. “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.” Jesus is emphasizing a personal, intimate conversation with God. We Christians have a great privilege of prayer to God. When Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The way to the most holy place was wide open. No longer did the people require a High Priest to pray for them, they could approach the throne of God, through faith. They could come to God and cry, “Abba, Father!” This is a great privilege given to us Christians. It was a costly privilege. The cost was the suffering and death of Jesus. This privilege was given to us. Jesus urges us to exercise this privilege in secret. We can make a personal relationship with God through prayer when we have the right attitude. So often we pray at meetings, two by two, or before meals, but go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen! Where your favorite place to pray in private to Jesus?

We always like to knock the younger generation, thinking of all their bad qualities. I think that our young people are not far from learning personal prayer. They already are accustomed to go into their rooms, closing their doors, and spending time on the computer or on an iPod. They know how to text to their friends, read texts and listen to music, via virtual reality. This is just a step away from the life of prayer. Can you see it? A rich prayer life is just around the corner for many of them.

Second, we must be confident that our Father in heaven knows our every need and wants to intervene. Look at verses 7-8. “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think 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.” Pagans pray to idols which are not real. They babble repeated prayers thinking that these idols will be moved and give them blessings. Buddhist’s have found a way to increase the frequency of their formalistic prayers. When they are too tired to pray any longer, they can go to their prayer wheels and spin a prayer wheel. But prayer for Christians is not just endless, formalistic babblings. We have heartfelt prayer to our Father God, who is living. More than that, he listens and is very concerned as he watches over us each moment of the day. He understands us and knows exactly what we need. He answers our prayers. I can guarantee you that God will answer any prayer you send him. His answer will be “Yes”, “No” or “wait”.

Sometimes we don’t know what we need. All we know is that we need something. We can only groan before God in ways that words cannot express. But God hears and understands our groans. He is happy when we turn to him for help in our time of need. In 1986 at the age of 22, I was groaning because of my emptiness and my meaningless life as a student hedonist. One night I felt so bored, all alone and meaningless, that I went into my room and cried in my pillow, “Oh God!” It was more of a groan than a prayer. But it was a prayer uttered in the privacy of my own room. God heard my prayer. And he sent Christians to me who tried to preach the Gospel to me. Eventually I met Msn Ruth Hwang and I came to meet Jesus personally. Recently, I battled despair and depression. Many of my prayers were groanings pointed towards God. But God heard these groaning prayers and he is filling my heart with new hope and new vision. I don’t know if any of you noticed a difference in me lately. But there is a difference. We don’t have to wait until we are in a spiritual crisis to pray privately to God.
Part ll: Father In Heaven, Hallowed Be Your Name! (9)

First, “Our Father in heaven.” (9) Jesus taught us to call God “Father.” This was a revolutionary teaching in the ancient world. Until this time, no one would call God “Father.” The Jews knew God as the Almighty Creator God, the holy God who demanded their obedience. If they met the holy God in their sinful state, they would die immediately. It would be like finding yourself in the middle of a nuclear reactor. They had such an awesome respect for God that they would not say his name, and so they made up a name for God, that could not be verbalized, YHWH. (Which was Yahweh without the vowels.)

Jesus wanted his disciples to call God “Father.” They could do so because Jesus gave them the right to call God their father, for faith in him made each believer into a child of God. (Jn 1:12) How is this possible? Jesus offered his body and shed his blood at the cross to purchase for us another privilege, the privilege to call God “Father”. Through Jesus’ sacrifice our sins are forgiven and we are purified. Now, through faith, we can stand before God as holy children of God. This all comes through receiving Jesus and believing in his name. Wow! What a great gift.

When we call God “Father” we must recognize God’s love for all people. When we call God “Father,” we recognize that we are all part of his spiritual family which is made up of people from every language and nation who have been saved by Jesus’ blood. In God our Father, we have so many brothers and sisters. Several of us have come from Korea to be missionaries. They are all our brothers and sister in the Lord. Another young man grew up in the suburbs and has recently dedicated his life to Christ. He is a brother in the Lord. Suzie is a believer from Heidelberg Germany. She is a sister in the Lord. Red, yellow, black and white we are all precious in his sight for we are all part of the family of God. We can even think of unbelievers as our prodigal brothers and sisters in the sense they were all created by our heavenly Father who is their creator God. They just don’t know it. So, let’s decide to love our neighbors as ourselves no matter who they may be.

Second, “Hallowed be your name.” Hallowed means to be sanctified, consecrated, highly venerated. (http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/hallowed) In a word, respected. Although God is our Father, we must remember whom we are coming to and not just come to him flippantly nor relate to him as many young people relate to their parents. Our relationship must be different. Why? God is the Almighty Creator God. He is holy. He is the Judge of all mankind. It is right for his name to be exalted above every name. It starts with hallowing God in our own hearts first.
As we pray, “Hallowed be your name,” we must also desire to bring honor to his name by the way we live in this world. How can we do this? Study hard in school and reveal God’s grace by trying your best to get great marks. Excel at work so that other employees may see God’s glory and honor him. Make our homes places of worship, love and praise to the holy God. Our ministries must maintain the highest moral standard and reveal the Spirit of the Holy God at work among us. When we pray “Hallowed be your name”, then God’s name will be hallowed through our lives, families and ministries and among the people of the campus’ we are praying for.
Part lll: Your Kingdom Come!

One of the most powerful portions of this model prayer is, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Since the Fall, this world has been a battlefield between the God and the devil. This battle has been going on for millennia. God has always been near to those who had faith, but in the perfect time, God sent Jesus, our savior and king, who would destroy the devil and restore God’s rightful rule in the hearts of his people. This is great news, for in the kingdom of Satan, there is only condemnation, fear, despair, worries, anxieties, slow erosion and degradation of the soul, mind and heart. There is death. But in the Kingdom of God there is God’s healing, hope, mission, spiritual joy, love, peace, room to grow, security, spiritual growth and strength and of course eternal life. When we accept Jesus as our Savior King, we are saved from the devil and become God’s children. We effectively come out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light life, the Kingdom of God.

However, the battle is not over. It is going on in us and around us and throughout this world. Just examine your own heart and watch the news. The Bible teaches that he devil is prowling around like a roaring lion. He blinds the eyes people so they can not see the glory of God in Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 2:4, 1 John 2:11).

The same is true even for more seasoned Christians. They too can loose sight of the kingdom of God. For years they serve Jesus, but one thing after another strike their hearts like the constant barrage of punches from a boxing opponent. The bad economy, work hassles, weakness of the body, constant rejections to our efforts to evangelize, constant calls to sacrifice, loved ones who don’t share our faith, sins and temptations, all take their toll on us until we can not see the kingdom of God any longer. We know that going back to the world is not an option, but we loose our joy of living by faith. Has this happened to you? Maybe we think that we can never tasted the joy, love and peace of the Kingdom of God again. But the truth is, experiencing the kingdom of God can be as new and fresh an experience to us as it is to new believers.

How do we dwell in the kingdom of God? We need to repent and believe the Gospel. Think about Nicodemis. Nicodenus had everything, the highest education, the respect of his peers, a high position in society. He had it all by this world’s standard, but he was not happy. He came to Jesus at night and asked him many spiritual questions. He was missing something. There was a “God sized hole in his heart”. Jesus saw pasts his words to see the true problem in his heart. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (Jn 3:3) According to the spiritual doctor, Jesus, the cure to Nicodmuses’ problem is that he needed to see and experience and live in the kingdom of God. Then the emptiness and meaningless of life he was feeling would be eradicated and he would find new joy, new life and salvation. We all need to repent and believe and have the Kingdom of God come into our hearts.

There are several other reasons why we must pray, “Your Kingdom Come?” First, The task is too big for us to accomplish. We try, but we are helpless. We fail to create an environment where we can reveal the kingdom of God. Our hearts may also be in such turmoil that we feel far from the kingdom of God. We need God’s help. Second, we need to pray because people really need the kingdom of God. They need heavenly citizenship fast! We try our best, but we will reach our limits. Praying is all we can do sometimes. But it is the best and most important thing to do. Third, God wants to work through us and co-work with us. This requires communication and collaboration with God through prayer. Can you think of any other reasons to pray?

God’s kingdom is spreading in many hearts and among us. We heard Matt’s message yesterday. It was delivered with spirit, power and personal conviction. We heard the personal testimonies of Sarah and Hope. That was there own testimonies born out of their living faith. We see all the humble co-working between all of us to make this Bible school possible. We experienced the joyful snack time with Subway sandwiches. The willing, open hearts of so many children of God, is proof that the kingdom of God is growing. May God’s kingdom advance in our campus’ until Jesus comes.

Part lV: Other Things To Pray For In God’s Kingdom (11-15)

Children of God, who pray for the advancement of the Father’s Kingdom, also pray for their daily bread, forgiveness and protection from sin. First, “Give us today our daily bread.” (11) Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread. Through prayer, we learn to depend on God and realize that God is the giver of our daily bead. And he does provide. He doesn’t always give us what we want, but he surely gives us what we need. People are so afraid of not having their daily needs met. But worrying never helped anyone. We need to stop worrying, and ignoring Jesus in our quest to “survive”. Rather we need to pray for our daily bread knowing that we are children of our Father God and he will supply our needs. We may pray for delicious steak but God knows what’s best because sometimes, whole wheat bread, and a simple diet is healthier for you.

Second, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (12) Here, the word "debt" has the same meaning as "sin." Living in this world, we need the forgiveness of our sins every day. Why? Because we sin everyday. Our sin problem is very serious. It is keeping our eyes blinded to the reality of the Kingdom of God. That is why Jesus said in Mark 1:15, “The time has come,’ he said, ‘The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Therefore, we must repent and ask God's forgiveness of our sin. Next, we must forgive others who have sinned against us. Then our spiritual eyes will be open and we can enter the kingdom of God. Forgiving others is so important that Jesus emphasizes it again. Look at verses 14 and 15. "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." This is a serious matter. Is there anyone in your life whom you need to forgive? Do it now…don’t wait.

Sixth, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (13) Here, "the evil one" is the devil. There are many who say, "I don’t believe in the devil.” They these, Christianity faith is all about psychology and the power of positive thinking only. The battle is in your own thoughts. But I say, the evil one is a real enemy and the devil’s greatest weapon is making people believe he doesn’t exist. (Then he can do what ever he wants to.) Some say that they are not afraid of the evil one. Such people don’t know themselves and they surely don’t know that consequences of falling into the evil one’s grip. The devil's temptation is like sugared poison. No one can run away from the devil's pursuit. We must acknowledge that we are completely helpless, and pray earnestly to our Father in heaven to protect us from the devil and keep us then near him. "Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Today Jesus teaches us that, as Jesus’ disciples, we must build up a secret prayer life, calling God, “Father”. We must hallow his holy name and promote the reverence and worship of God around us. When we do, God’s kingdom will come into our hearts, grow among us, on our campus’, across our nation and the world. A genuine motivation to glorify God in all that we do will grows in us. As we pray for God’s kingdom to come, he will provide for our physical and spiritual needs. We will be free from anxieties and insecurities. There will be an abundance of grace, love and forgiveness. There will be protection from sin and temptation when we dwell in the Kingdom of our heavenly Father. The Kingdom of God sounds pretty good. Let’s pray earnestly for its advancement.