This morning as we return to our study of the Lord's Prayer in Luke chapter 11, we have come to the second petition that Jesus gave as a guideline to follow in our prayers. He said that when we speak to our Heavenly Father, our Abba in Heaven, we are to pray along the lines of, Your Kingdom Come. And as the extended version of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew's Gospel adds, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now, both of these petitions really go together because they complement each other, they clarify each other, and while these words are extremely well known, having been repeated thousands of times a week in various church services, churches that repeat the Lord's Prayer, It's been suggested that the petition, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, is the most abused petition found in the Lord's Prayer. Why? Because though prayed with regularity, it is seldom prayed with an understanding that leads to God's will actually being done on earth as it is in heaven. In fact, the German reformer Martin Luther was so concerned about the seriousness of praying these words without understanding them and without really meaning them, that he referred to this petition as, and I quote, a fearful prayer. Another Bible teacher said of this particular petition, he said, if some people really realized what they were praying, their words would stick in their throats. Well, Jesus not only wants us to understand what this prayer means, he also wants us to mean what we say when we pray along these lines. And so it is critical that we know precisely what these connecting petitions are about. And in order to do that, I want to remind you of where we are in our study of the Lord's Prayer, because as one goes through this prayer, it becomes apparent that there is a natural progression and sequence of thought to the various petitions given by our Lord. And that's because each petition does seem to follow each other in a rather logical order of unfolding truth. Now, as you'll recall, the prayer begins with the first petition, Hallowed be your name, which expresses the thought that God himself should be treated as the Holy One. That's what hallowed means. He's the Holy One and he should be treated as such. that he would be honored, that he would be respected, that he would be responded to with adoration and praise and reverence and thanksgiving. Therefore, each of us should be so concerned for God to be honored that not only should we be praying for people, other people, to hallow his name, both for believers to obey him and for unbelievers to repent and start giving him glory, but this should also be the number one priority in our prayers. In other words, praying for the Lord to be treated properly by being adored, loved, honored, ought to be what dominates our praying. And so this first petition indicates that those who know the Lord as their Father in heaven, that there will be in their lives a consuming concern for Him to be honored. And so we will pray for people, including ourselves, to make changes, necessary changes in our lives, so that His name will be hallowed. Now, although we long to see the Lord honored by everyone, we also have to be realistic, and reality tells us that most people don't hallow God's name. You know that. They aren't interested in hallowing His name. They simply don't care about this precious Father of ours, our Abba, whom we have come to love and worship. They don't care. They're not the least bit interested in any of this. And the reason for this, as Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones so ably points out in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, is because there is another kingdom that men and women of this world belong to. Namely, it is the kingdom of Satan. It is the kingdom of darkness. Concerning this other kingdom, Lloyd-Jones said this. He said, at once the question arises, why isn't every man on this earth concerned about humbling himself now in the presence of God and worshiping him and using every moment in adoring him and spearheading forth his name. Why not? Well, the answer is, of course, because of sin, because there is another kingdom, the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of darkness. There's another who is the God of this world. There is a kingdom of darkness, a kingdom of evil, and it is opposed to God in his glory and honor. You see, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that at this present time, God has allowed Satan to become the ruler of this world. And therefore, he reigns over the hearts and lives of the unsaved without most of them even being conscious of his reality. In fact, they may not even believe that there's a personal devil. Three times in the gospel of John, John chapter 12 verse 31, John chapter 14 verse 30, John chapter 16 verse 11, Jesus referred to Satan as the ruler of this world. You'll recall that Satan himself told Jesus during his temptation that all the kingdoms of this world and their glory belonged to him. And Jesus didn't dispute this. He didn't dispute it because the devil at this point was right. In this present era, the kingdoms of this world belong to the evil one as he rules over them, as God allows him in his sovereignty to rule over them. And that's why the Apostle Paul called Satan the god of this age. He said that in 2 Corinthians 4, 4. And the Apostle John affirming the same truth when in 1 John 5, 19, John said the whole world lies in the evil one. Therefore, it's in light of the fact that there is another king and another kingdom presently ruling and reigning over the hearts of men that Jesus told us that when we pray, we should be praying, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth. as it is in heaven. Now watch this, because here's the logical flow of the Lord's Prayer. If the first petition expresses our concern for God's name to be hallowed, then this second petition expresses the way that this will be accomplished, the way that God's name will be hallowed or treated as holy. You see, his name will be treated as holy when the kingdom of God comes with the result being his will being done on earth as it is done or carried out in heaven. And this is why Jesus told us to pray this way. However, in order for us to pray along these lines, we need to first understand exactly what Jesus meant by this petition. And then, once we understand this, we can incorporate these principles, not these exact words, but these principles into our prayers using our own words to fit our own unique set of circumstances. And a helpful way to unwrap the meaning of these two connecting petitions is by asking a series of questions that will lead us to the truth the truth of the correct interpretation and therefore the correct application of this part of the Lord's Prayer. The first question that we need to ask is this. It's the most basic one and it's foundational. What does the Bible mean by the term kingdom? Now Jesus said that we should be praying for God's kingdom to come. First though, as I said, we have to understand what he meant by the term kingdom before we can pray for it to come, right? That's just reasonable. So what did Jesus mean by the word kingdom. Well, the Greek word that's translated kingdom basically means sovereign rule or reign in the sense of the sovereign rule of a king. It doesn't refer so much to the geographic territory over which a king rules or reigns as much as it does to his basic sovereignty, to his rulership. And so when Jesus said that we are to pray for the kingdom of God to come, he meant that we are to ask God to let his sovereign rule and his dominion come in the sense of coming to earth, coming to those who live in this world. Now, in order to know how God's kingdom comes to earth, we need to, for a few moments, to step back and consider what the Bible has to say about the kingdom of God. First of all, the Bible teaches that God's kingdom, it already exists. It exists in the sense that He already rules the universe. Psalm 93, verses 1 and 2 say, The Lord reigns. He's clothed with majesty. The Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved. Your throne is established from of old. You are from everlasting. Again, we read in Psalm 103, verse 19, the Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all. David said, and I read this earlier in his prayer to the Lord in 1 Chronicles 29, he said in verses 11 and 12, yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and the earth, yours is the dominion. Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might, and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Even the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, he acknowledged the greatness of God and his kingdom when he said in Daniel chapter four, starting in verse 34, he said, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of earth, and no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done? Now, according to these scriptures, and there are many, many more that we could look at, but according to these scriptures, God is king, and his kingdom already encompasses the entire universe, in the sense that he rules over everything, he rules over everyone, even though they may be ignorant of his rule and his authority in their lives. As one theologian has put it, he said, there is recognized in Scripture a natural and universal kingdom or dominion of God embracing all objects, persons, and events, all doings of individuals and nations, all operations and changes of nature and history, absolutely without exception. Now, since this aspect of God's kingdom is already present, it's a present reality, we don't need to pray for it to come into existence because it already exists. It has always existed since God has always been the king of the universe. So, in light of that, we know that Jesus could not have been telling us to pray for this universal kingdom of God to come into existence because, as I said, it already existed when he gave these words in the Lord's Prayer. That leads us then to a second question we need to ask if we are to understand how the Lord wants us to pray. First question, what does the Bible mean by the term kingdom? The answer, it means God's sovereign universal rule over all things which already exists. Second question then is if God's universal kingdom has always existed, then why pray for his kingdom to come? And the answer to this question is that when Jesus said that we are to pray for God's kingdom to come, he meant, note this, he meant that we are to pray that his eternal kingdom, which already exists and is established in heaven, that it comes to earth. That it comes to earth. You see, though God sovereignly rules the heavens, there is a sense in which he does not exert that same type of rule right now on earth. It's obvious that he currently allows men and women a certain sense of freedom so that they can defy him, they can rebel, and they do rebel against him. Otherwise, there would be no sense in praying your will be done on earth as it's done in heaven. If that situation already exists so that everybody now perfectly obeyed his will, then we wouldn't need to pray for this to become a reality. But someday, not now, not yet, but someday it will be a reality. Because God will put a stop to mankind's defiance. And folks, it's that day when man's rebellion and defiance ends that Jesus is telling us to pray for. In other words, to pray for God's kingdom to come is to pray for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when he returns, He returns to establish his kingdom on earth so that he will reign with absolute rule and authority over everyone on the planet. We read about the establishing of his kingdom on earth way back in Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. Daniel said, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming. And he came up to the ancient of days. This would be the Lord Jesus himself coming up to the Father. And he was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." Now this is a future. This is referring to a future period of time commonly known as the messianic kingdom, because it is the time when the Messiah will be physically present on earth, and he will reign over the inhabitants of the earth. Sometimes this kingdom is referred to as the millennial kingdom, the word millennia referring to a thousand, because Revelation 20 verse 6 says that Christ's kingdom on earth will take place for about a thousand years. And Messiah's kingdom rule on earth was predicted by the prophets long ago in the Old Testament, Isaiah 9, 6, a verse that we often read at Christmas time, telling us, and the government will rest on his shoulders. That's really a second coming verse. In other words, Jesus is going to be the government that will rule the world that we live in. His law will be final, and no one will openly defy or challenge it. Daniel 2 verse 44 says this about Christ's coming earthly kingdom. In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. In other words, Christ's kingdom When it comes, we'll crush all the previous kingdoms of this earth, which were represented by the revived Roman Empire, which encompasses the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and ancient Rome. And so to pray for the kingdom to come is really to pray with an attitude that longs for Jesus to return. Just as the Apostle John prayed at the close of the book of Revelation, I love this, when John said, even so, come, Lord Jesus. We are to pray the same way. We long for you to return. Come, Lord Jesus. overthrow the kingdoms of this world, subdue rebellious and defiant hearts, destroy Satan's kingdom, and establish your kingdom rule on earth. That ought to be our heart's cry to the Lord. Commenting on this, one Bible teacher wrote, our praying should be for Christ to return and to establish His earthly kingdom, to put down sin and enforce obedience to God's will. The Lord will then rule them with a rod of iron. After a thousand years, his earthly kingdom will blend into his eternal kingdom, and there will be no distinction between his rule on earth and his rule in heaven. Now folks, if this is a command, and it is, to pray with a longing for the return of Christ so that he will establish his rule over the hearts of men and women, then why don't more of us pray like this? Now I'm sure that there are some believers who pray longingly for Jesus to return, but certainly not enough of us. Perhaps, perhaps the reason for this is that there seems to be amongst some Christians, especially in the West, a hesitancy of the Western world, a hesitancy and a reluctance to pray for Jesus to return because we're just so comfortable. We're comfortable with our lives right now. And though we certainly we want Jesus to return, we just don't want him to return right now when things are so good for us. We live very comfortable, secure lives. We have good things going on with our lives. Our plans, our goals are mapped out before us. And we really, if we're being honest, we don't want the Lord interrupting them by his return. Plans like what? Well, plans like getting married, raising a family, having a successful career, enjoying some of life's pleasures, and then just relaxing in retirement. But listen, life for a Christian is not about being comfortable in this world and doing what we want. It's about being obedient to God. It's about doing His will. And that's really the primary principle and truth behind our Lord's words. Let your kingdom come to earth because when His kingdom does come, He will put an end to all self-rule, to all self-made plans. And at that time, only His will and only His plans will prevail over everything else. And that's exactly why the next petition, which complements and completes and clarifies the petition about the coming of the kingdom says, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You see, this all fits together. These words are really a logical conclusion and the result of praying. for the kingdom to come to earth, because when the universal, eternal kingdom of God finally does come to earth, which will happen when? It'll happen at the close of the horrible seven-year tribulation period when Jesus returns. Then men and women will finally, finally carry out God's will on earth, just like it's always been carried out in heaven. However, and it is a big however, note this. Although the Bible speaks of a literal, physical, 1,000 year future reign of Christ on earth, there is also, note this, this is critical, a present day spiritual aspect of Christ's kingdom. As he reigns as king over those who have trusted him for salvation. In other words, this form of his kingdom, it's already come. It's already come to those who have believed on Christ. This is why both John the Baptist and Jesus said, repent for the kingdom of God is here. This form of the kingdom has already come to those who have believed on Christ and they have entered his kingdom of salvation by faith in him. That form of the kingdom is already here. Concerning this present day aspect, this spiritual aspect form of the kingdom. John MacArthur wrote this, he said, Jesus spoke of the kingdom as present. In Luke 17, 21, he told the Pharisees, the kingdom of God is in your midst. Earlier, the Lord had commanded the 70 to proclaim to the people, the kingdom of God has come near to you. He replied to the Pharisees' blasphemous allegation that he cast out demons by the power of Satan, by saying to them, if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. He continues, the Jewish people, and their leaders in particular, failed to recognize the presence of the kingdom since they were not looking for a spiritual kingdom, rather a political, social, military, and economic one. The kingdom was a reality, but unbelief blinded their eyes so that they could not see it. See, all those who have recognized Jesus as Lord and have trusted Him as their Savior, they're now part. of his spiritual kingdom. Wherever the king is and people submit to him, you have the kingdom. This is why the apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1.13, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. We're already in the kingdom. Listen, if you have trusted Christ as your Lord, your King, your Savior, then you're now a part of his kingdom, because you are in submission to him as your king, with a commitment to obeying him, to doing his will. This thought of doing his will, it leads us then to ask still another question. This is a third one in order to understand how to pray as Jesus directed us to pray. Third question being this, how is God's will done in heaven? Jesus said, when we pray, we should pray in relation to the kingdom. We should pray for God's will to be done on earth just as it's done or carried out in heaven. So how is the will of God carried out in heaven? Well, those who are now in heaven, both believers who have died as well as angels, they carry out God's will completely, willingly. No hesitation, no reservation, no reluctance. As one Bible teacher wrote, the supreme desire of all in heaven is to do the will of God. And he's absolutely right. That is the supreme desire of heaven, to carry out God's will. Specifically, scripture reveals That the angels in heaven obey God with total, unwavering commitment. That is to say, they do whatever God tells them to do. Concerning the angels' obedience to God, we read these words in Psalm 103, verses 20 and 21. Bless the Lord, you, his angels, mighty in strength, who perform his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all you, his hosts, you who serve him, doing his will. Now, what the psalmist is describing here is exactly what angels do. They serve God by doing His will. This is why He created them, this is why they exist. Now we're talking here not about fallen angels, of course, we're talking about holy angels who are confirmed in their holiness. You'll recall that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to Peter, when Peter tried to fight those who had come to arrest him, remember Peter wanted to take on all these people who had been there, those who had come to arrest Jesus. And Jesus said to Peter, or do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? Now a legion consisted of about 6,000 soldiers. So 12 legions of angels would be 72,000 angels. And they were all, note this, they were all prepared to keep Jesus from being arrested. If that's what the father said, go and do. The writer to the Hebrews refers to angels as ministering spirits sent out to render service for believers. In other words, angels do God's will by being sent out by him to serve us. We don't see them. They're invisible, but they're serving us. How many times we have been served by angels and we're not even aware of it. and in connection with angels obeying God by serving us. Notice what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 18 verse 10. He said, see that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continuously see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Now this is a misunderstood verse, so let me try to clarify it and explain. In this context, the little ones that Jesus is referring to are not little children, not literally, physically little children, but rather they are believers in him. Those who have humbled themselves like little children in being converted. So he's talking about believers. And it's in reference to believers that Jesus said, their angels in heaven continually see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Now, contrary to what many people think, this statement does not mean that each believer in Christ has a personal guardian angel assigned to him or her, that's a very common belief, but it's not what this verse says, it's not what scripture teaches, but rather what this is saying is that it's the responsibility of angels in general to serve us, his children. This is why Jesus referred to the angels as those who continually see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Meaning that angels, all the angels, are always looking at God. Why are they looking? Well, they're eagerly awaiting and anticipating for him to issue them some command. Why? Because angels in heaven always carry out God's will, and they're eager to carry out His will. So they're always looking at Him, just waiting for Him to give them an assignment. You see, in heaven, there is only one will, and it's God's will. And when once, long ago, there came a challenge to his will in heaven from one by the name of Lucifer, it was immediately crushed. Why? Because God does not tolerate rebellion to his will in heaven. That's not always the case on earth, is it? Because God does allow men, does allow women, boys and girls, to disobey his will on earth. Now a little bit of clarification about the will of God would be helpful at this point. You see, when scripture speaks of the will of God, it can mean various aspects of his will. One aspect of God's will refers to his sovereign decrees. That's not a word we usually use. Decrees But it means his plans from eternity that are ordained and ordered by God to happen. And they always, without exception, come to pass. His sovereign decrees or his declarations. Paul was referring to God's decreed will in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 when he said that God, and I quote, works all things after the counsel of his will. In other words, everything that happens, happens because God has ordained it to happen. This is his decreed Will. You won't see that word decreed in the Bible, but that's the meaning. You see the truth there. It says decreed will. And it cannot be prevented from happening. Now sometimes he reveals those decrees in his word. Meaning whatever his word says he'll do. We often see this. In fact we always see this when it comes to prophetic truth, to prophecy. What God has predicted to happen will happen. It can't be thwarted. It can't be changed. It will happen. But most of his decrees have not been revealed in his word, in the Bible. So then, how do we know if something is his decreed will or not? It's very simple. We know something is God's decreed will because, you ready for this? Because it happened. That's it. Whatever comes to pass, comes to pass because God has decreed it to come to pass. And that involves everything in life from the smallest details of our personal lives to international events. Another way of saying this is that nothing happens apart from what God has ordered to happen. Now, that's helpful. It's helpful to understand because when Jesus tells us to pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Note this, understand this. He isn't telling us to pray that God's decreed will to pray for it to be done, because that aspect of His will is always done on earth. Since whatever God purposes to do will be done, regardless of whether or not people are aware of doing His will or wholeheartedly eager to participate in carrying out His sovereign plans and purposes. Most of the time people don't even know that they're doing that. For example, in Ephesians 3.11, Paul refers to the first coming of Jesus and the events surrounding his life, his ministry, his death, when he states this, this was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, meaning that This, meaning that everything involved in Christ's first coming, His birth, His life, His ministry, His death, His resurrection, everything, those were events that were ordained as God's decrees. Therefore, all the people involved in these events, even those who were opposed to Christ, though they were not aware of doing God's will, nevertheless, they did carry out God's will. Why? because God decreed all of these events, and in that sense, man always does, in that sense, God's will, his decreed will. But again, this isn't what Jesus is referring to when he tells us to pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. See, the aspect of God's will that is expressed in the way we are to pray is Note this, God's moral will. Not his decreed will, his moral will. So what is God's moral will? Well, his moral will is simply his will expressed in those commands that he has given us in scripture to obey. Once again, in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle mentions God's will, but this time he's referring to his moral will when he writes about, for example, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 6, slaves doing the will of God from the heart. Those who were slaves were to do God's will from the heart, not faking it whenever their owner watched them. They were to do God's will from the heart, obeying. Again, in Ephesians 4, 3, Paul says, this is the will of God, he means the moral will of God, even your sanctification, even your spiritual growth and holiness, that is, you abstain from sexual immorality. It is God's moral will that you abstain from sexual immorality. This is not decreed, this is his moral will. And then in 1 Thessalonians 5.18, the apostle writes, In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Again, this is not his decreed will. This is his moral will. All of these are examples, and there are many, many more. In fact, most of the commands in the New Testament are these. Come under God's moral will. We are commanded by the Lord to obey. But unlike God's decreed will, these moral wills can be, and often are, disobeyed. They're not obeyed. And when we put all this together, we realize that when Jesus tells us to pray for God's will to be done on earth in the same way that it's done in heaven, he is referring to, listen closely, praying with a willful submission to obeying God's commands, meaning His moral will. In other words, to pray for God's will to be done on earth is to pray for men and women to submit themselves to do what God has told them to do in His Word. Now, understand this, that won't fully, that won't perfectly take place until Jesus returns and sets up his millennial kingdom on earth because at that time everyone who initially enters his kingdom will be committed to absolute obedience and submission to Christ. Listen closely. It's in light of the fact that Christ's millennial kingdom has not yet come Understand this the reality is Jesus does not presently reign as king over the hearts of most people It's in light of all of that that he tells us to pray now For his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven you see not only are we to have a joyful and an eager expectation and just a longing in our hearts for Christ to return so that the will of God be carried out on earth with the same zeal and desire and passion that it's always been carried out in heaven, but we are also to be praying for people now, presently, currently, to repent of their sin, to trust Christ as their Savior, and to enter into His kingdom now, that spiritual form of His kingdom. In other words, we are to be praying for unbelievers who are presently in the kingdom of Satan and of darkness. We are to be praying for them to come under the reign of Jesus Christ Lordship and to enter his kingdom of light. So how do we apply? How do we apply all this to our lives? How do we put these truths revealed in these two complementary petitions of the Lord's Prayer? How do we put these commands into practice when we pray. Let me offer some practical suggestions. You might want to write this down. First of all, we should be praying for the Lord to save people. We should be praying for him to save people so that they will come under the kingship and the authority of Christ and start to do his will from a heart of submission. This involves praying for people we know to be saved, as well as praying for the missionaries that our church supports to be able to lead people to Christ. I hope that you're praying for our missionaries. They count on you to pray for them. You can easily do this by following the monthly missionary prayer guide that you receive in the church bulletin. Don't throw that away. Make sure that that's a part of your daily quiet time, to pray for them. As I said, they're counting on you to pray for them. Now I'm praying for people to be saved. We aren't to pray, note this, I don't want to be misunderstood. We aren't to pray only with their soul salvation from hell in mind. Obviously that is a major motivation. We want our loved ones, we want other ones to escape hell. So that's a burden on our heart. But that should not be the only reason and shouldn't even be the major primary reason that we're praying for their salvation. Our primary motivation should be that they will come under the Lordship of Christ so that they will glorify God by their obedience to Him. This is the point of hallowed be your name. Only when people come under His Lordship will they hallow His name. That's what ought to be driving us in praying for the lost to be saved. Yes, we do care about their soul. Paul said of the Jewish people in Romans chapter 10 that his heart's desire and burden is for Israel to be saved. He said in Romans 9, he said, if it were possible, I would even go to hell itself if my people could be saved. So certainly we ought to have a burden for souls like that, but that's not That's not the only thing that should burden us. Our primary burden should be that the Lord, who is ignored by so many people today, would be honored by them. That others would become his trophies of grace. and they would start treating him properly. In other words, we should be praying with the view that those who are presently dead, not sick, not straying, but dead in their sins and trespasses, we should be praying that they will spiritually come alive. That means we have to depend upon the Lord to change hearts. It's not our persuasiveness. It's the Lord who changes heart so that they will now, they'll be born again. That's what it means to be regenerated. They'll be born again to do the will of God on earth as it is always done in heaven. So we need to be praying for God to bring about regeneration. That's a good word for you to know. It means that God's life is given to them. It's the same thought of being born again. So that spiritually dead people will come alive unto Him. Because unless God does that work of grace in their lives by regeneration, No one will be responsive to the gospel. No one. This is the whole point that Paul makes in Ephesians chapter 2. You may be very familiar with this, but I want to read to you the first 10 verses of Ephesians chapter 2. Put these verses together where Paul begins with what people are, dead in their sins and trespasses. Then he moves to what God does in their hearts to bring about the new birth. to the end result of why the new birth is so important as far as God's will is concerned, obedience. Verse 1, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Folks, this is all of us. This is what we were all like. We blindly followed Satan even if we didn't believe that he existed. Paul says, among them, we too all formerly walked, or formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. I take it that what Paul, he adds verse 3 to say, even we, being observant Jews, like he was, a Pharisee. Even we didn't live the way we were supposed to live. That's why he says, even as the rest, even as pagans born of pagans, even we religious Jews live like this. Verse four. Martin Lloyd-Jones said this was one of the most important statements in all the Bible. He actually gave a whole sermon on the first two words of verse four, but God. Lloyd-Jones says, if that wasn't in the Bible, we'd all be doomed. But God, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive. That's being born again. That's regeneration. Made us alive with Christ. By grace you've been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that, here's the reason for our salvation, at least one, so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So for all of eternity, God's gonna put on display his kindness on us. We'll be on display as recipients of his kindness and mercy. And then Paul adds these tremendous theological statements about salvation, justification, being by faith alone, for by grace you have been saved through faith. We're not saved by faith, we're saved by grace through faith, God's unmerited favor, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Faith is a gift, salvation is a gift, it's all of God's grace, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Now oftentimes we stop here, But verse 10 brings it all together. For we are his workmanship. We who are saved are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus for, note this, for good works. Which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. The good works are works of obedience. This is why you've been saved. To obey Christ. to come under his kingship. And so we pray for those who are lost to be made alive unto Christ by the power of God to regenerate them so that they would walk in the good works of obeying him. So praying for his kingdom to come and his will to be carried on on earth as it is in heaven, it involves praying for people to be saved, but for the right reasons. Secondly, praying for the kingdom to come and for kingdom obedience to be a reality also involves praying for ourselves as disciples and for our brothers and sisters in Christ that our obedience would be an obedience characterized by gladness, by joy, without any reservations, so that we can say with the psalmist, In Psalm 40 verse 8, I delight to do your will, oh my God, your law is within my heart. Did you get that? I delight to do your will, oh my God, your law is within my heart. You see, that's how God's will is obeyed in heaven. With gladness, with delight, no hesitancy, no reluctance. And that's exactly, folks, how we are to obey him today here on earth. However, sadly, there are some believers who outwardly do what the Word of God commands, but they do it with an inner attitude of resentment. They do it grudgingly. Their hearts are simply not in it. They may say the words, your will be done, but as someone wrote, they say it through angry, clenched lips. In one of his books, historian William Barclay, I call him historian, he wrote, books on the Bible, but he was a horrible theologian, a very liberal man, so I'm not endorsing him as a Bible teacher, only as a historian. William Barclay writes the story of Julian, the Roman emperor who resigned himself to God's will, but not in the way that scripture teaches. Here's what Barclay wrote. He said, Julian was the Roman emperor who tried to turn the clock back. He tried to reverse the decision of Constantine that Christianity should be the religion of the empire, and he tried to reintroduce the worship and the service and the ceremonies of the ancient gods. In the end, he was mortally wounded in battle in the east. The historians tell how, when he lay bleeding to death, he took a handful of his blood, tossed it in the air, saying, you have conquered, O man of Galilee. It's just the kind of obedience that characterizes you. You'll outwardly comply. You'll agree to obey Christ so that you are resigned to obeying him, but with an inner heart of resentment because you feel you have to obey. Others are counting on you to obey, not because you want to obey. Others are watching. Family expectations, church expectations, but you don't really want to do these things. If that describes you, then you need to be asking the Lord, first of all, if you're really a Christian. If you're really a Christian, if Christ has captured your heart, why do you act like that? Why is that your attitude? And secondly, if you are a true Christian, then you need to be asking him to teach you how to obey him without grumbling, without complaining, so that you would let Christ reign over you, so that obedience to him would be your greatest delight and greatest joy. And you need to pray for other believers in the same way. And when you do this, you will be praying in accord, in agreement with the words that Jesus said should guide your praying. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So has God's kingdom come to you? That is to say, is Jesus Christ your king? Is He Lord over your life? I don't mean whether you prayed to accept Him, prayed a prayer, some words of salvation. Is He your King? Is He your Lord? Do you long to obey Him gladly without any reservation? That's the mark of regeneration. If not, then you need to turn to Him today to save you. Don't deceive yourself thinking that you're saved when you're not. If you'd like to speak to one of our pastors about truly trusting Christ as your Lord and Savior, then just see me at the close of the service. But if you are a believer in Christ, I ask you, will you commit yourselves to praying for Him to reign over people, those who need Him for salvation, and believers who we should be praying for, including ourselves, to be more obedient to Him? So start today, start today, pray for yourself, specific areas of your life that you know need to come under His Lordship, and pray for other believers to be more committed to obeying Him so that they will do His will on earth as it is always being carried out in heaven. Let's pray together. Our Father, thank You. Thank You for these words, Lord, Those of us who know you long to honor you, we stumble so often. We see so much sin in our lives, but our greatest longing is to honor you, to obey you, to hallow your name. And we know, Lord, that we need to be praying for people to come unto your kingship, to come into your kingdom. We know that we can't persuade them. We know that we're not able to perform this, but you are. Lord, we all have loved ones. We have family members, we have relatives, we have friends that Most of us have been praying for years to come to faith in you. We pray again, but not only because their soul needs saving, but because Lord, we want them to honor you. We want them to be trophies of your grace. We want them to obey you, obey you with their lives, to glorify you. And Lord, we would pray for our own lives. There are areas, we know there are areas in our lives that are are not under your lordship. There are things we do, things we think, things we say, things we fail to do that we know we ought to be doing. So help us to be aware of these areas and to change them. And we pray for your help in doing this. And we pray for our brothers and sisters too. We pray that at Lakeside we would be an obedient people honoring you. Lord, we do long for that day when Christ returns, Lord. We don't know exactly when, we never set dates, but we know that you're coming back. Lord, we long for the day and may we long for it even more and more. Not that our comfortable lives would be the mark, but obedience to you would be. We long for the day when you will return and you'll overthrow the enemies, the Antichrist, the false prophet. all those who have set their hearts against you, and you will reign supreme in the kingdom. Even so, Lord, come, come. We say with John, even so, come, Lord Jesus. We pray all of this in your precious name, amen.