Your Kingdom

Reference

Matthew 6:9-14

MESSAGE SUMMARY

If you have ever gone on a road trip with kids then you may have a visceral response to the question, “are we there yet?” While this may be annoying to many of us, behind the question is a child’s deep desire to arrive wherever they are heading. To be enjoying their destination. In our passage today Jesus is going to continue to teach us how to pray. According to Jesus a part of our learning to pray involves crying out, ‘Your kingdom come’ which like a child’s calling out, ‘Are we there yet’ shares a desire to arrive where we are heading.

The prayer that we just read together is best known as The Lord’s Prayer. It’s called this because in it Jesus, who his disciples call, Lord, taught them and us how to pray. In the Gospels the disciples only ask Jesus to teach them one thing, namely to pray. This prayer is Jesus’ response to teaching them how to pray. This week we will focus on the lines, “Your kingdom come.”

Perhaps you have heard of some ancient kingdoms like Babylon which at its peak spanned from Egypt to Iran in the middle east, or perhaps you’ve heard of the Han Dynasty which at its peak spanned from China into Vietnam and Korea. When we think of Kingdoms we may think of the physical space they ruled. But a Kingdom isn’t ultimately about the geographical location but about the one who rules, namely the King. God’s Kingdom isn’t necessarily a geographic place but instead the space where God rules, where he is in charge.

Like a child in a car we are invited to call out in our prayers, ‘are we there yet?’ To cry out for the full inbreaking of God’s presence and reign in the world. But unlike a child we are invited to participate in its arrival. A child can only call out from the back seat while we are invited to help support the arrival of God’s Kingdom. To pray for God’s Kingdom to come involves our praying with our voices and with our lives as they both call for and facilitate God ruling without rival in our world – now and fully one day when Jesus returns.