Time really flies, and we are into our second day of the camp. Or, in fact, the 3rd day, if we consider Sunday as the first day, and soon, it will be a time where we say goodbye. So, I hope we will make the best out of this opportunity that God has given to us as we have learned in the messages, redeeming the time. And that is very important for us.
So, let us continue our devotional studies on what is commonly known as the Lord's Prayer, which I prefer to call it the disciples' prayers. Let us turn to Matthew chapter 6:9-13 again. We will read that passage so that we can better remember the entire passage, but we will study those petitions.
Let's begin with verse nine.
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:9-13)
The Lord bless the reading of his holy and sacred word.
Let us look to God in prayer.
Our Father in heaven, we give thee thanks for the return of another brand new morning, whereby we can have a good night rest, and we have been provided with all the basic needs, the food that thou hast so graciously nourish our physical bodies, the activities that we have been able to be engaged in, to have sweet fellowship with one another, and especially thy word, that we are able to hear, to the messages, that we are able to put into application whatever we have learned.
So, as we begin this day with this time of devotion, we want to learn from the prayer that our Lord Jesus has taught his disciples to pray. We are his disciples, and we want to learn this model, this pattern that Jesus has given to us. Not as vain repetitions, but to pray with meaning and understanding.
And so, we want to learn each and every one of those petitions, and we ask that thou will, through thy spirit, illumine our minds, and convict our hearts to be able to understand the spiritual things of thee. We commit this time into thy loving hands, for we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
So, today we will only look at verse 10. We have already learned that our prayers are directed to God the Father, and through the working of the Holy Spirit, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray, and it is by virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, we pray in his name, that God will hear and answer our prayers, and here Jesus gave us not for vain repetition, but that we may understand the pattern in which we should pray.
So, always begin with God first, then us. So, we are always, always focussed on the glory of God. And then comes to our interests, our needs.
So, if I can give you an example, some of us here have unbelieving parents, grandparents, we are very concerned about their salvation. We ought to, because if they do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then one day they would be cast into the eternal lake of fire.
Many of us would not be able to endure the thoughts of our unbelieving grandparents and parents being tormented in the eternal lake of fire. And because of that, we pray for their salvation.
Now, while that is true and right, but as believers, if we put God first, we think of his glory, we would not endure not just the punishment, but we cannot endure our unbelieving parents and grandparents blaspheming God, rejecting God, and then suffering his consequences.
That is what I mean by the glory of God comes first, and then our interests. So, we put God first always. So, that is how we should pray.
So, the first three petitions have to do with God and His glory, thy name, thy kingdom, thy will. And then comes our needs. Give us, forgive us and lead us not.
So, we have come to the 2nd and 3rd petition, that would be thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So, first, thy kingdom come.
When we think of a kingdom, we think of King Richard III or Henry IV. We think of great empires, like Babylon, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans. Today, we may think of the superpowers like the United States, Russia, China. These are very powerful nations.
We think of such kingdoms, but that is just physical kingdoms. Kingdoms have risen. They have fallen. Some of them, you know, you do not even see traces of those things that they have built. Just in history books, you read about them.
Here, the kingdom, what kingdom is this? Well, it is God's kingdom. Because the word thy kingdom, the subject is our Father. So, it is our Father, our God, His kingdom.
The Bible sometimes use the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God interchangeably. It is anonymous. It means the place where God, as King, reigns.
Thy kingdom comes.
Now, this has been an overwhelming, consuming thought in the heart of our Lord Jesus when he came into this world. So, if you read the gospels, you will find that Jesus preach this phrase about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven more than anything else.
He constantly preach, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Now, we want to have a better understanding of what this kingdom is, and what does it mean, thy kingdom come?
I would like you just to turn to two other passages. If you turn to the next chapter or 2 chapters after this book, after this chapter 6, verse chapter 8:11.
Let us read chapter 8:11 together.
“And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 8:11)
So, here it tells us something about the kingdom of heaven in the past, where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were already in. And many others will also sit together with them.
So, it is something in the past.
And then you tell me to the gospel of Luke, chapter 17:21.
Gospel of Luke, chapter 17:21. Let's read.
“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)
Now, this is something in the present. So, not just in the past, but in the present, and it is in you. Very interesting.
And then we come back to our text in Matthew chapter 6:10.
“Thy kingdom come.”
That is in the future.
So, you see, the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven being mentioned in the Bible, as in the past, in the present, in you, and also in the future.
What does it mean in the past, in the present, in the future? This kingdom of God? And then for us to pray thy kingdom come.
Now, there is this aspect of the kingdom of heaven in the spiritual, eternal and physical sense.
In the spiritual sense, every believer who believe in God, God reigns as our King. And he reigns in us.
That is why Jesus says, The kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven is in you. Because Jesus Christ is our King.
So, that is spiritual.
Kingdoms rise, kingdoms form. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.
So, if you want to understand the kingdom of God, you cannot consider all these kingdoms you see in this world. Jesus says, “If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.” (John 18:36) But it is not of this world.
So, you cannot find any resemblance of God's kingdom on this earth. It is an eternal kingdom. It is a kingdom that cannot be destroyed and will last forever. It is an everlasting kingdom. Forever and ever.
So, that is the eternal aspect.
Now, there's also the future aspect whereby it is physical, because one day Jesus will come into this world, that will be his 2nd coming, and he will rule on this earth together with the glorified saints for 1000 years.
And that will be his earthly kingdom, where he reigns as king, and all of us, either we are raptured, or we die, and then we be resurrected. We were in together with him as glorified saints for 1,000 years.
And that earthly physical kingdom will then blend into the eternal kingdom that is the new heavens and the new earth.
So, we must understand this spiritual, eternal, as well as physical kingdom that Jesus was speaking about.
As I mentioned a while ago, that when you talk about a kingdom, you think of a king. So, when we talk about God's kingdom, we also know that God is the king.
So, as believers, when we pray, thy kingdom come, we want the kingdom of God in which he reigns to come into this world and reign as king in the hearts of not only us believers. He must be the president of our lives, but he must also be the king in the hearts of those who do not believe him.
So, we want him to conquer sin, in that he convict the hearts of those unbelievers, that they receive him as their king.
And we also want them to trust in this eternal kingdom that will last forever and ever, and that all of us, as believers, as we live on this earth, we look forward to our Lord Jesus, who said 3 times in the last book of Revelation, Jesus said, “Behold, I come quickly.”
He's going to come.
So, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. And reign in our hearts.
Thy kingdom come.
So, it must begin with us as believers that our Lord Jesus must be the king. We are not a king. He is our king.
So, as a king, as our king, then we must be his subject.
So, everything that we have, everything that we do, everything that we say or think, must be subjected to this king, in obedience to him.
Let his kingdom come.
So, it must be gained first in our lives. So, let his name be glorified, be honoured, be obeyed. Let his kingdom, his kingship reigns in us, and we pray, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
And then we shall ren together with you.
So, thy kingdom come.
Then next is thy will be done.
All of us here sitting in this room. We have many desires. We have our wills. There are certain things we want to do, certain things we plan to do.
But we know that our wills are imperfect, and more often than not, our wills are selfish. It's only about ourselves. How you will serve our interests.
Imperfect, corrupted, and... What did I say? Selfish, right? That would be our wills.
God's will is perfect.
If I bring you back to how our wills are all imperfect, corrupted, sinful, or tinted with sin, and selfish. If you remember, it all began with Lucifer, who was a beautiful angel in heaven.
He should be glorifying God, but instead, he gave five I wills.
You know what he said?
“I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14)
In other words, I will be like God.
So, five I wills, very proud. Instead of glorifying God, your will, not my will, he says, I will.
And because of that, he was cast out of heaven.
And he tempted Adam and Eve. And he tempted them with, eat every of the fruit that you can see, including the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God said, that thou shalt not eat of it, for in that thou eatest of it thou shalt surely die.
And then he presented to them, you know, look at it. How beautiful it is, how pleasant is it?
And with that, if took of it, ate it, gave it to Adam, Adam ate of it, that was how men fell into sin.
So, it is what we perceive as good. From then onwards, we are all sinful creatures. With this nature, grown to sin.
So, including our wills, will be sinful, imperfect, corrupted, and oftentimes, about ourselves, selfish.
So, we may have our views. Sometimes our wills may be seemingly good. But however, because of our nature, we are tinted with sin. So, it is not perfect.
Only God's will is perfect. And we do not know what is good for us. We may think what is good for us, but we will never know what is really good for us. Only God knows.
So, as believers, we must pray, thy will be done. Not my will, because my will is imperfect. Your will is perfect. Let your will be done.
Now, there are many things in the Bible that we are very clear, it is God's will.
For example, the Bible says, if you are a believer, you are saved. And it is the will of God. (Galatians 1:3)
And then we are to submit to kings and authorities, like in Australia, we must obey the laws of Australia, if we are citizens of this country. Or even visitors, you must obey the laws of this land. And the Bible says, it is the will of God. (1 Peter 2:13)
And then, as believers, we must be pure, holy, and be sanctified. It is the will of God. (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
And we are to give thanks to God for everything, not just for good things, for everything.
Only God's will is perfect. And we do not know what is good for us. We may think what is good for us, but we will never know what is really good for us, only God knows. So, as believers, we must pray, “Thy will be done.” Not my will, because my will is imperfect. Your will is perfect. Let your will be done.
Now, there are many things in the Bible that we are very clear, it is God's will. For example, the Bible says, if you are a believer, you are saved. And it is the will of God. (Galatians 1:3). And then we are to submit to kings and authorities, like in Australia, we must obey the laws of Australia, if we are citizens of this country. Or even visitors, you must obey the laws of this land. And the Bible says, it is the will of God (1 Peter 2:13). And then, as believers, we must be pure, holy, and be sanctified. It is the will of God (1 Thessalonians 4:3). And we are to give thanks to God for everything, not just for good things, for everything.
(1 Thessalonians 5:18). So if you type in, nowadays, you have concordances in your phones, you type in the will of God. You see all these very clear verses that tells you it is the will of God for your life. But at other times, the Bible does not directly tells us that this is the will of God for you. But because they are God's commandments, they are God's promises. They are God's instructions given to us in the Holy Scriptures. They are God's will for us. So we must know this book if we want to know what is God's will for us.
You have your desires. Some of you sitting here may want to pass the examination well, and then get a job. You think that is the best thing that can happen to you? But is it really good for you? You don't really know. Some of you may get to know someone who professed to be a believer. Outwardly appears to be very spiritual. And then you think that this is the person I want to marry. I desire to marry. But that marriage can turn out to be a nightmare, because he may not be what he appears to be.
There are so many things in our lives that we desire to have. We desire to be, and we want to accomplish, but we do not really know. But one thing we do know, is that our wills are not perfect. Our desires may not be good. Even though what we perceive seems to be good. We do not know the future. We are not in control of the things around us, but we know that there is one who is in control of all things. There is one whose will is perfect.
So if God's will is perfect, he knows what is best for us, then we ought to pray, “Thy will be done.” No matter how difficult it may be or how we cannot comprehend is good. We know that if God allows it, let His will be done. I am his servant, he is my king. Thy will be done.
If I can give you any lustration, there was once a shepherd, and this shepherd has a shepherd dog. And this shepherd dog would help the shepherd to gather all the sheep, and then they would go into the bun, where they would rest. And the shepherd dog would always wait for the shepherd. And all it takes is for the shepherd to give a whistle, and the shepherd dog would run to the right, and then would gather the ship, and then run to the left when the shepherd sickness the dog, and then run to the front, run to the bank, and then run in circle, And then slowly, slowly, the shepherd dog would gather that flock into the bun. And finally, they will be in the bun, the door will be closed. They'll be safe.
So once a visitor saw this entire event whereby the shepherd dog would run in circle, run, right, run, left, run, run, and then gather the ship into the bun, and she was very amazed, and she said, to the shepherd, Does the dog has any idea what it's doing? The shepherd said, it has no clue. It just takes command from me. And he listens to my command, and the end is, the ship would be safe inside. And then the shepherd dog will be happy. The sheep, the shepherd dog has no clue.
You know, this is a picture of our lives. Sometimes we may have no clue. What is going to happen next? What is going to happen if I were to obey this command of God? What will happen if I obey that command of God? Things may turn out this way that way. I don't know. We may not be able to fully comprehend God's will, but when we obey him at every step of the way, the result will always be what is best for us. His will is perfect. Remember that?
So it is all about God's glory. Put God for us. He's in control. His sovereign. So, his name must be hallowed, his kingdom, we must always desire to come into our lives, and this physical, earthly kingdom will one day come and we pray, “Lord Jesus, come quickly.” And then we always must pray, “Thy will be done.”
Look at the last place there as I end. In have in earth, as it is in heaven. So enough, we know that God's name is not hallowed. Go out there, you can hear people using God's name in vain, amongst the unbelievers. God forbids that believers would dishonour God's name. Is God's kingdom established on earth? No? People would not want Jesus to be the king. They would reject him. Is God's kingdom, or will being rejected and rebelled against? Yes.
But in heaven, God's name is always hallowed after Lucifer was cast out of heaven, all the angels would hello God's name. His kingdom is established perfectly in heaven.
His will is done perfectly and obeyed by the angels in heaven. But what we want as believers is that his name, his kingdom, his will, as perfect as they are in heaven, be mirrored on this earth. That is what believers desire to see.
So, as believers, we begin our prayers with God. I want your name to be glorified amongst the people. I want your kingdom to come. That you reign as king. You are the king, whether people acknowledge you or not, but we want the people to acknowledge you. Let your kingdom come.
We want your will to be done, not our wills. Because our wills are rebellious, imperfect, corrupted. Let your will be done on earth, like a mirror of what is happening in heaven. So this is what it means in this three petitions.
So, as we begin our prayers, always begin with God and his glory first. Think of God, who he is, and his glory must always be in our minds. And then, all our other needs will be taken care of. Give us, forgive us, and lead us not.
Just as Jesus taught us, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). We believe so. So, we learn from our Lord Jesus, God first, then us.
When we come back, we will finish off with the last 3 petitions. So the first petition is... God's name. Second petition is... His kingdom. The petition is, his will.
So, may the Lord help us do better understand this so-called, commonly called the Lord's Prayer.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, may thou continue to teach us how our Lord Jesus has taught his disciples to pray. Indeed, we are his disciples, and we want to pray in the pattern in which Jesus has set for us. So help us and grant us understanding as we proceed with the programmes of this entire day and also the following days ahead of us.
We commit all our lives into thy loving hands, for we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.