Speaker 1: 0:06

It's good to be in the house of the Lord. Amen it is. I don't know what condition you came in here to or into the sanctuary in today, but I trust that the Lord will bless you with His presence, where two or three are gathered in His name. He promised to be here and so, by my count, we have way more than that. So God is with us. We're continuing through the Forward in Faith series and we're looking at the Lord's Prayer together. In that regard, and as I've said so far several times, as the Lord teaches us how to pray the Lord's Prayer, he teaches us not just how to pray, but he teaches us how to live and to give and, in particular, how to pray in a God-centered particular, how to pray in a God-centered way, how to live in a God-centered way, how to give of our time, talents and treasures in a God-centered way. We see that in the priorities laid out in this prayer. Our focus this morning is going to be upon the second petition Thy Kingdom Come. Last time we were together, we looked at the first petition of the Lord's Prayer Hallowed be thy name, which simply is the honoring and glorifying of God's name. And how is that accomplished? How is God's name hallowed. It's accomplished through petitions two and three. Hallowed be thy name. Is accomplished when God's kingdom comes and when his will is done.

Speaker 1: 1:30

There are several key ideas. When we look at the whole Bible and I need to give a little bit of an extended introduction here today because of the subject that we're looking at I think it's a little bit more complicated than some. But when you look at the whole Bible and what unites the Old and the New Testaments, scholars have figured out that there's certain themes and ideas that hold the two together. One of those is covenants. You can see how the covenants hold the Bible together. You can see how the theme of redemption unifies the Bible or the theme of election and other things. But there's a broad concept that basically includes them all. That, I think, does it the best.

Speaker 1: 2:14

And that theme and that concept is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. Sometimes it's called the kingdom of heaven, sometimes it's called the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the Lord, the kingdom of light. It's all referring to the same thing. It's all referring to the same thing the kingdom of God. And the simplest way to think about this idea of the kingdom of God, which can sometimes be a little bit fuzzy or not exactly clear to us on what it means. It just simply, at the most basic level, means the rule and reign of God. When the Bible's talking about the kingdom of God, it's talking about the rule and reign of God, because God is a king, and what do kings do? They rule and they reign, and so the kingdom in the kingdom of God is just simply referring to that that he rules and reigns.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Now, when we look at the Old Testament, what do we see there? That God is king, he's the sovereign king and he's the king of creation. For example, we see that right at the beginning of the book of Genesis, and all the way through, genesis 1 talks about God, the king, making people in his royal image, in the image of God, and he goes on to command man to have dominion over all the earth. You hear that word dominion. There's a ruling aspect there to that, and so the Bible's teaching us to look at humanity. There's a sense in which we can say that we're all little kings and queens that are called to rule in our little domain, to have dominion on the earth, in our little domains, to the glory of the king of kings to the glory of the sovereign king. That's the vision of the Bible.

Speaker 1: 3:54

And so the Bible is really a story about God reestablishing his kingdom on earth in full as it is in heaven. It's about him reestablishing it because there was a rebellion in the garden, john Calvin. He said there resides in the heart of every man the desire to be king, and what he meant was the desire to be king rather than having God be the king of kings. Every time we sin, we're saying I want to be king, not you, god, and so sin is rebellion against the sovereign King of creation, the King of heaven.

Speaker 1: 4:31

And, as I said in the Garden of Eden, in the face of all this goodness and abundance that the Lord had poured out upon Adam and Eve, that he had showered upon them, including, most importantly, his favorable presence in their midst, he would walk with them in the cool of the day. He was intimate with them. They could experience his love and his presence. Well, in the face of all that goodness, adam and Eve rebelled against the kingdom of God. In other words, they rebelled against the rule and reign of God. They didn't want to do it his way. They listened to the serpent and they fell and the world was plunged by that sin into misery and chaos. And now that sin resides in the hearts and minds and lives of people everywhere, and so Adam and Eve. They were then put out of the garden in judgment, and they left the garden in guilt. They left it in fear and shame, so they went and hid and they were destined to perish. Mankind would have been without God and without hope in the world if the story ended right there.

Speaker 1: 5:40

But God, my two favorite words in the Bible. But God, god, the king of creation. He had a plan. What was this plan? To reestablish his kingdom, or to reestablish his rule and reign in the hearts and minds and lives of sinners on earth, so that he could once again get the glory that he so richly deserves.

Speaker 1: 6:04

Now we follow this theme through the Old Testament, and I'll just give you a couple examples. Today we see, for example, in the godly Old Testament, saints like Abraham. Abraham lived 2,000 years before the coming of Christ and God had saved Abraham out of paganism in the area of Babylon, which would be modern-day Iraq, and he promised Abraham in Genesis 17, abraham will rule over a great nation and kings shall come from you, the Lord said Kings shall come from you. Very interesting. And so then we see that God himself becomes the king of Israel. But God still desires to rule and reign on earth through human kings. And so, a thousand years before Christ, a thousand years after Abraham, but a thousand years before Jesus, we run into King David and God saved David and he anointed David king of Israel, the earthly king of Israel, in 2 Samuel 7. What does God promise King David? That through King David, he would establish the throne of David's kingdom forever. That's an awesome promise to a king. Your throne is going to last forever and, by the way, it was a worldwide kingdom that was going to last forever. That's the promises, of promises to a king.

Speaker 1: 7:23

And then we read in the prophet Isaiah and prophet Daniel over in Isaiah, in chapters 52 and 53, and Daniel, chapter 7, we read about this that there's going to be this coming of a king of Israel who's going to bring a victory of God's rule and reign back on earth, just as it is in heaven. But this king, isaiah says, is going to be and this is a little surprising a suffering servant. He's going to be a suffering servant and indeed his victory is going to be accomplished through suffering. Daniel the prophet when he's over in Babylon, he calls this king who will reestablish God's kingdom on earth. He calls him the son of man, the one that's going to bring judgment upon all the false kingdoms of the earth and establish God's kingdom on earth. He calls him the son of man. Isn't it interesting when you get to the gospels Jesus' favorite designation for himself? Over 80 times Jesus calls himself in the gospels the son of man. Over 80 times Jesus calls himself in the gospels the son of man. He's saying I am the king that's going to destroy all the false kingdoms of the earth and establish the kingdom of God.

Speaker 1: 8:34

Now, after the Jews were conquered and taken into Babylonian exile in 586 BC, it caused a crisis because, as the Jews ended up being without a king for almost 600 years, many of them began to wonder God's promise to King David that he would establish this worldwide, eternal kingdom on earth through the throne of David. Did God forget his promise? I mean, what is our country? 250 years old? 600 years is a while, and it was a crisis of faith to many of God's people and it looked like God had failed, if that was even possible.

Speaker 1: 9:17

But no, after hundreds of years comes this voice in the wilderness, john the Baptist, the last old covenant prophet, who's actually in the New Testament, and he cries out repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then we also read in Matthew's gospel, jesus preaching repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus also says over in Matthew 10, for behold, the kingdom of heaven is in your midst. What is he talking about? Why is he? Why are they talking like that? Well, john the Baptist and Jesus could say that because the king of the kingdom was in their midst. Jesus is the king, and he was in their midst. The king of kings and Lord of lords himself was there. This Jesus, who's the son of David, the son of Abraham, this Jesus, who's that suffering servant king that Isaiah talks about, and the son of man that Daniel referred to. He's the one we read about in the gospels as the fulfillment of all those prophecies and many more.

Speaker 1: 10:19

Jesus' kingdom is our heavenly father's kingdom, and so I want to consider what it means with that background this morning, when we pray thy kingdom, come, let's pray together. Okay, heavenly father, we're grateful that we can come to your word. It never comes back void. It always accomplishes the purposes for which you send it, and so I pray that your Holy Spirit now would open our eyes and our ears, the eyes and ears of our hearts, that we might see the glory of Christ and we might conform our lives to your God-centered purposes. It's in Jesus' name we pray, even in the words that our Lord taught us Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on 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 forever. Amen and amen.

Speaker 1: 11:31

Well, before we proceed, just one more clarification. God is king and therefore that means God has a universal reign and rule. In other words, he's sovereign over all things. He's sovereign over all things and all people. Not a hair falls from our head without the command of our father, not a bird falls to the ground apart from the command of God. But when we get to the gospels and we read about this idea or this concept that you see all over the Gospels the kingdom of God it's very helpful if we understand we mean it in a more narrow way.

Speaker 1: 12:11

There's a more narrow sense in which, when we pray thy kingdom come, we're talking about that more narrow sense we read about in the Gospels. What do I mean? Well, god is already sovereign. When we say thy kingdom come, we're not saying God be sovereign, he already is sovereign. He already is sovereign over all things. Well, what are we praying for? We realize that even though he's sovereign over all things, not all people are in glad submission to his rule and his reign. Not all people trust his will, not all people honor his lordship as king. And so when we pray thy kingdom come, we're praying that people would put their faith and trust in the king, that people would repent of their sins and turn away from their own will and do the will of God that people would lead. Then out of their faith would flow the fruit of obedience to God's royal law, his holy commandments and to his will.

Speaker 1: 13:11

This kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven same idea. It's used over 80 times in the gospels, and so we want to remember, as we read, that he's talking about it in a more narrow sense. When the kingdom comes, it grabs hold of the hearts and minds and lives of people, and that's how God's kingdom is established back on earth. John uses the kingdom of God just a couple of times. He usually uses the term eternal life, and what he's referring to there is not. He's referring to the quality of the life in the kingdom of God, not just how long it is eternal, but eternal in the sense of the quality of life that's in heaven, above, and so this kingdom idea is everywhere in the Bible.

Speaker 1: 13:55

But having clarified that, there's just three things I want us to note about the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven this morning, and it's this the kingdom of God is a kingdom of power and grace and glory. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of power, grace and glory. Why is that important? So that we can confidently live our lives by faith in Christ, how, without fear, without fear of the powers of darkness, that we can live in peace with God, knowing his favor is upon us, and that we can live our lives with great expectation and hope of the victory of the kingdom of God on earth, just as it already is in heaven. And so let's first think about God's kingdom as a kingdom of power when we pray thy kingdom come. That's to pray that our father's kingdom would destroy Satan's kingdom on earth in power, by God's power. Now think this morning of all the sin and the dark and evil things that occur on this earth. It's a very depressing subject.

Speaker 1: 15:08

But the good news of the kingdom is that Jesus, the Son of God, he came to do something particular. He came to crush the head of Satan, because Jesus is King. Jesus is Lord, not Satan, not the devil, nor the dark powers of this world. Right after the fall in Genesis 3.15, god gives a promise that there was going to come one from the line of Eve that was going to bruise or crush Satan's head. That's the first veiled promise of the gospel. And we see that when Christ came it was the fulfillment of that promise. Because John writes in 1 John 3, 18, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Aren't you glad Christ came to destroy the works of the devil? And to destroy the works of the devil he's going to destroy the devil himself.

Speaker 1: 16:08

We see this kind of thing in the gospels. In Mark 5, for example, we read about this demoniac, this Gerasene demoniac. Jesus and the apostles had gone over to the east side of the Sea of Galilee and they ran into this man who had many demons in him. They possessed him, they tormented him. He had so many in him. His name was Legion. He had a legion of demons in him, making his life a living hell and misery, literally, and he would run around naked and he would be crying out and he would be cutting himself. He wasn't in his right mind, he lived in the tombs. People were afraid of him. He had an unnatural strength to break chains when people would try to tie him down. It was a pitiful state indeed. But God, but God, king, jesus, with one little word, one little command to those legions, that legion of demons, and he saved this man from those demons. And we know he also saved him from a sin. He was clothed, he was put in his right mind and we know he's saved from a sin because now he desired to follow Jesus, he wanted to be with Jesus. But Jesus told him no. He said to this now healed, gerasene demoniac. He said go home and tell your friends. Go, tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you.

Speaker 1: 17:37

In Israel at that time there were many who had diseases of all kinds, including lepers and the lepers. It was a very sad, tragic life. They were forced to live out in colonies together. They had to be away from their family and away from their friends. Can you imagine that? They had to be outside the community? They had no normal social life at all. They had to be outside the community. They had no normal social life at all.

Speaker 1: 18:04

The gospel accounts are filled with eyewitness testimony that Jesus healed so many of them, lepers included, often saving people from these physical diseases and many times from their own sin. And he would restore them in their health, he would restore their strength, he would restore their relationships and their joy and, most importantly, christ so often would restore their relationship with God. And when Martha and Mary's brother, lazarus, died, jesus came after Lazarus had been dead for four days and Jesus wept at what sin had done to his friend. But when he then went on to raise Lazarus from the dead, and what we see, there is just this very idea that the kingdom of God is one of power, because Jesus, the king, he has power over sin, death, satan, hell and the grave. The king, he has power over sin, death, satan, hell and the grave. Aren't you glad for that? Jesus reigns, he is the king. There is no power greater than Christ. That's why scripture calls him the king of kings and Lord of lords.

Speaker 1: 19:18

But we can ask ourselves what was Jesus doing with these various miracles that he did? What was the point of all of that? And certainly we want to say he was extending mercy and compassion upon those who were carrying the consequences of their own sin and the sin that's in the world. But what was he doing with these miracles other than showing compassion, which he most certainly was doing? Well, in doing that, he was showing us what the kingdom of God is like Whenever you do a miracle. It was as if he was turning the light switch on in a dark room, saying do you see what the kingdom of heaven is like when it comes in full? This is what's going to be. Everything's going to be made right and whole. Joy and strength and relationships with people and God will be right and whole and perfect. It'll be a world of love and peace and righteousness.

Speaker 1: 20:13

And so when he'd do those miracles, as if he'd flip the switch on and say do you see who I am? Do you see who I am? I'm the king. Do you see what kind of king I am? I'm compassionate and merciful. Do you see what the kingdom of God is like, what this eternal life is like, how it restores everything that's good? Do you see what kind of a kingdom I'm establishing on earth for my father? Do you see what it's going to be like when it comes in its fullness? I'm giving you a glimpse now, but do you see what it's like?

Speaker 1: 20:50

And every time he did a miracle. It's as if he flipped the lights on and then he turned them off. Do you see, come into this kingdom by faith in me, in the king that's what Jesus was saying and your sins will be forgiven, and one day you'll be made whole in all things. And so we pray thy kingdom come, that our Lord would come and crush the powers of darkness in the world and that he would bring that same power to forgive sins and to heal the nations with the gospel. Paul in Romans 1 calls the gospel. Listen to it the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. Do you believe the gospel of Christ this morning? Do you believe that the King of heaven died for your sins and that he rose from the dead and that he's coming again one day to make all things new. If you believe in Christ, give me an amen. I like amen corners. It's even better when I get the whole place as an amen corner.

Speaker 1: 21:52

As believers, we pray. And what does this mean? We pray and we live, remembering Romans 16, 20,. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of the Lord, jesus Christ, be with you. That's Paul's benediction to the Corinthian believers who were under persecution. And so Jesus, king Jesus, he shows us what our father's kingdom is like, that it's one of sovereign power and there's nothing that can defeat it, nothing. Our God reigns. So, first, the kingdom is a kingdom of power, but second, our Father's kingdom is a kingdom of grace. It's a kingdom of grace. So to pray, thy kingdom, come. We're not only asking God to come, destroy Satan and his works, we're asking that our father's kingdom would be advanced on earth by his sovereign grace. Thy kingdom, come your rule and reign. Come, lord, by your grace, in that gracious manner by which you work and that power of your grace. What does this mean, that the father's kingdom is a kingdom of grace? Well, one thing it means is the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. It has political implications, but it's not primarily a political kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom.

Speaker 1: 23:22

The Jews of Jesus' day made a big mistake, thinking it was primarily a political kingdom tied to national Israel, and they thought that when the Messiah came, he would be king, yes, but he would immediately destroy all the enemies of Israel, including the Romans. He was gonna come and bring judgment right then and there and wipe out all the enemies of Israel in one foul swoop and set up God's kingdom in full. Well, even the apostles were confused. We got to give them some slack. Even the apostles themselves were confused regarding the kingdom of God, and Jesus was very patient in teaching them what the kingdom was like and how God was actually going to establish the kingdom, different than how people think, in their sinful state on earth. Jesus said, for example, in John 18 to Pontius Pilate my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been what, fighting that I might not be delivered over to Jews, but my kingdom is not from this world.

Speaker 1: 24:30

It's a spiritual kingdom, and this is why Jesus had to rebuke even the apostle Peter, the lead apostle, when Jesus was about to be arrested, the Roman detachment of soldiers shows up. And here comes some Jewish soldiers as well from the Sanhedrin, and they showed up with the Jewish chief priests and the Pharisees, and all these enemies were surrounding Jesus and the apostles were there. Jesus' enemies had torches and they had lanterns and they had weapons. And so what's Peter do? He pulls out his sword and he cuts off the Jewish high priest servant's ear His name was Malchus, lopped it right off. And what did Jesus have to say to Peter? Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that is the cup of suffering? Shall I not drink the cup that is the cup of suffering? Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?

Speaker 1: 25:26

Peter just couldn't wrap his head around that the kingdom of God was going to gain victory through suffering and, as a matter of fact, death. He just couldn't understand. That doesn't look like victory. Suffering and death does not look like victory. But that's how great God is. That's how great God is. Peter just didn't get it. We sometimes don't understand it.

Speaker 1: 25:53

Peter didn't understand that Jesus, the King of the kingdom, came not like the kings of the earth that come in their pride and their physical and military power, ready to crush anybody in their way. But Christ came in humility. Christ came in a gentleness, riding on a donkey Not even the donkeys we have in our country that are kind of big. These were those little donkeys. With all due respect to the Lord, he would have almost looked ridiculous on this donkey.

Speaker 1: 26:27

What kind of a king comes riding in on that? One that's gentle and lowly of heart, one that comes in humility, one that's coming ready to suffer for our sin and rebellion against God, our sovereign King? He did that suffering on that Roman cross, took the horrific treatment from the Romans and the Jews at the time, many of the Jews that had hated him at the time, that gathered around Gentiles and Jews together hating Christ, nailing him to that cross. But the worst part about that crucifixion is that he submitted and he willingly drank the cup of the Father's just wrath on that cross. That's the cup of hell. It's why in the Apostles' Creed we say he descended into hell. Aren't you glad for that? He descends into hell so that we have faith in him. We don't have to descend there. That's why we can live in peace. That's why the king came to drink the cup of hell in our place.

Speaker 1: 27:34

What a great king. That's what God is like. That's the kind of love that's in the kingdom of God people that will die for one another. And Jesus is showing that what the love of God is like. And so why did Christ die? So we could be saved by God, not by what we do, but by his grace alone, but by what Christ, the King himself, has done in our place, as our substitute.

Speaker 1: 28:02

And so, yes, god's kingdom is one of power, but aren't you glad? It's also one of grace. It's one of grace. It's a kingdom where the king of the kingdom rules and reigns, how very kindly and patiently in us and with us and over us and for us. And he does it by grace, which means he does it not because we earn it, but grace means unmerited favor. He does it as a gift to us. We just receive it by faith. And then, as we receive it by faith, then his grace is not only his favor over us, the grace is also his power at work within our hearts and minds to make us more and more gladly submissive to the will of the king, to the honor of the father, rather than to our own will. And so our king is all powerful, but he's kind and loving, forgiving, patient, just, compassionate and merciful. Praise his name.

Speaker 1: 29:10

And what are the weapons of this kingdom? Not a sword, like Peter pulled out. The weapons of the kingdom are powerful, but gentle. And though gentle, gentle, extremely powerful, they're spiritual the weapons of the word of God and prayer and the sacraments and the fellowship of the church. That's how God establishes his kingdom on earth. These are the weapons he uses.

Speaker 1: 29:42

Now, why are those things powerful? Because it's the Holy Spirit that takes the word of God and uses it as his sword to do the work in the hearts and lives and minds of people like us. It's the Holy Spirit who takes our prayers and takes them into heaven to the Lord in Jesus' name, on our behalf. It's the Holy Spirit who's at work in the sacraments of the church and when we come together as a fellowship of God's people, it's the Holy Spirit who is in our midst. That's why it's powerful. It's not because we're here, it's because he's here. That's why it's powerful. It's not because we're here, it's because he's here. It's because he is sovereignly working in us by his grace, and he does it quietly and invisibly. But our job as the church is to make the invisible kingdom of God visible through our faith and our love and our good works and our obedience and our kindness. That's why Jesus says in Matthew 4 that he was preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He came to be preaching the gospel of the kingdom. What does that mean? Well, he came to preach the gospel of the kingdom because the kingdom of God, that is, the rule and reign of God taking hold in the hearts and minds and lives of sinners, it's advanced through the preaching of God's word because the Holy Spirit is at work.

Speaker 1: 31:04

George Whitefield, during the first great awakening in this country, whenever he would, god used him mightily. Whenever he'd climb the steps to the pulpit, they used to be real high he would climb. Every time he hit a step he'd say I believe in the Holy Spirit. Next step I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Many times in my pastorate, every time I come up a step, not every time. Many times I believe in the Holy Spirit because otherwise I am just a gong up here.

Speaker 1: 31:35

But when we preach God's word, he takes weak, fallible men and he takes his word and he works with the sword of the spirit, the sword of the word in your hearts and in my hearts. And that's how God's kingdom is established. And we get it by the free gift of God, through faith in Christ alone. And here's the beauty Once in the kingdom of God, always in the kingdom of God, once God's kingdom has you in its grip, you're not leaving. In Hotel California you want to get out of there. But in the kingdom of God, once you're in, you can never leave. But you don't want to leave because you know the goodness of God. He who began a good work in you will bring it out of completion at the day of Christ Jesus.

Speaker 1: 32:22

When we come to Christ by faith, we don't stay in by the greatness of our faith, we stay in by the grip of His grace. So you have the kingdom of power, the kingdom of grace. Let me say there's the kingdom of glory, our Father's kingdom is the kingdom of glory. Say there's the kingdom of glory, our Father's kingdom is the kingdom of glory. So when we pray thy kingdom come, we're asking that our Father's kingdom would soon fully come on earth in glory, in the fullness of his glory, where his glory would be acknowledged and experienced in full, that people everywhere would praise him. What do we find in the Gospels and New Testament? What we see there is that King Jesus came, that people everywhere would praise him.

Speaker 1: 33:01

What do we find in the gospels in New Testament? What we see there is that King Jesus came to reestablish the end time kingdom of God. He came to establish it, that time when all things would be whole and right and well. There'd be a new heavens and a new earth. There'd be no more sin or death, no more sorrow, pain or tears, no disease, but only the fullness of eternal life that John talks about, in both our souls and in our resurrected bodies. On this new heaven and this new earth, in a world that has nothing in it but love and joy and righteousness and peace. Will that not be a great day? And the same God who made all things out of nothing is going to renew all things when Christ returns. And so there's.

Speaker 1: 33:50

Let me tell you about the kingdom for a minute. It comes in three phases through the planting of it, through the growth of it and then the final harvest of it. Let's think about the planning of it through the growth of it and then the final harvest of it. Let's think about the planting of it. When the Lord Jesus came to establish our father's kingdom on earth, it was a kingdom of glory. But here's the twist that confused so many of the Jews, and you see this when you read scripture their confusion. They thought he was gonna set up shop right there. Everything was gonna be hunky-dory and their enemies. They'd never have to deal with them again. And all right, the king is here. Except that's not what Jesus said. God's plan was. He was going to come to establish it, then it was going to grow and then it was going to be completed. So let's talk about the growth of the kingdom.

Speaker 1: 34:39

Here's how Jesus puts it, matthew 13,. The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. You see, that's when Christ came, the first time. He came and he sowed the seed of the kingdom, so to speak, in the field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it's grown it's larger than all the garden plants and it becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make their nests in its branches. The peoples of the nations come and make their home in the kingdom of God. It doesn't look like much at first, but by the time it's done it's the largest. Jesus says that's the extensiveness of the kingdom of God. But then Jesus says in the very next verse the kingdom of heaven's like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour. Same idea of his first coming. That's what happened when Christ came, but hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened. You see, that's what happens in our hearts when the kingdom of God comes into our hearts. It starts off kind of slow and we grow and mature and then one day God's going to finish the job. We get home to glory. But it's also what happens to the kingdom on earth. As the church grows and expands and God expands his rule and reign in the hearts of people all over the world, there's coming a day when Christ will return and bring in the full harvest.

Speaker 1: 36:15

Brothers and sisters, I wanna spend a little time as we start to land the plane here encouraging this morning that our God reigns. Do you believe that this morning the devil's great strategy is that you'll watch enough news that you'll finally think well, that's it, god's dead. Don't you believe it for a second? Do you realize that when Christ came into the world. How dark it was. The whole world was full of idolatry and paganism, and Israel, which was supposed to be a light to the nations, was so sick. It was like this little flickering candle in the wind, barely hanging on. But the light comes into the darkness, aren't you glad? And Christ came into that dark world. And here we are, 2000 years later. And what do we see? Boy, that little mustard seed sure did grow, didn't it? Now we got the church and all the various nations of the world, and we still have a ways to go for the Great Commission.

Speaker 1: 37:18

But look at what God has been doing. And did you know? Over the last hundred years, more people came by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, than the previous 18 or 1900 years combined? You're not going to hear it on the nightly news. God is at work, so often invisible to our eyes.

Speaker 1: 37:39

Do you know that in 1900, there's about 9 million Christians in Africa, 9 million? By 2000, there were 380 million. 100 years later, 380 million. Do you know where we're at now, 25 years later, over 500 million. Do you think God is dead? Well, the same God who can bring revival in Africa can bring it to our country. Amen. He's done it several times before he can do it again. Are we praying for it? Do we long for it? Do we ask God for it?

Speaker 1: 38:15

In 1950, when the communists took over China and severely oppressed the church there, they estimate there was only about 100,000 Chinese Christians. Today, 75 years later, they're estimating there's over 100 million Christians in China. Did you know that after 1,300 years of resistance to the gospel from the Muslim countries, iran is now the fastest growing evangelical church in the world? You won't hear it on the news, you'll hear it from those on the field. Do you know China now has over a hundred million Christians?

Speaker 1: 38:52

Latin America has quadrupled in the Protestant faith since 1960. It's now up to 20% of the Latin American countries. And I don't know about you, but I sense rumblings amongst the young people in our country. I don't know, we're not at revival yet, but something's rumbling. We need to pray that God would come. Thy kingdom, come, god. Psalm 85,. Would you revive us again? Psalm 85, would you revive us again? And the final harvest, one glorious day, the leaven of God's kingdom, is going to permeate that whole batch of dough and the prayer thy kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven, it's going to be fulfilled. This kingdom of glory will come in full, the trumpet will sound. Christ will descend, make all things new. So I close with this. As we think about what all this means, our life as Christians, our life in God's church, as we pray thy kingdom come, brethren, let's be expectant that God is going to be on the move. He is on the move and he is going to win.

Speaker 1: 40:00

Do you know that in World War II, the allies won the war on D-Day? They broke Hitler's back on D-Day, but the war wasn't over till V-E Day, victory in Europe Day. There were many battles to be fought. Christ broke Satan's back at the cross and in his resurrection. And we're in that middle time and VE day is coming and we need to be expectant and confident. And so, as we give our time on the Lord's day to worship and fellowship, as we make that a priority, as we exercise our spiritual gifts and serving one another in love here at Westtown, as we give our tithes and offerings to the campaign, to our regular giving, let's remember this Jesus wins, jesus wins. And what we need to realize is everything we're doing here at 13521 Racetrack Road at Westtown Church is a part of something so much bigger than what we're doing here. God has given us the privilege to be a part of his program, which he started right after the fall, has gone all through Old Testament history over the last 2,000 years and is going to extend until the trumpet blows and Christ comes down. We get to be a part of what he's doing in the world. That's what the Lord's Prayer is teaching us God-centered priorities. We don't make Jesus a little part of our little kingdom in life. We get to be a part of what he's doing in the world and when you give, remember that we have the greatest privilege to be a part my mom's here.

Speaker 1: 41:33

So I'm going to just end with this one little story from my childhood. I was probably three or four, I don't know, maybe five. Whatever it was, my dad was under. I believe it was our kitchen table or our dining room tables an old one, heavy. I call in there to help my dad, corey, get out of the way. My dad was usually very patient with me, but I was there to help Get out of the way. I started crying and I said I started crying, I just wanted to help my dad and my dad, decades later, still felt bad about that. About that. He's now gone to glory. Our heavenly father lets us help him. That's our privilege. He doesn't need us. He gives the joy of helping our father in heaven reestablish his rule and reign on earth. We have a loving father and we get the joy and the privilege, so let's join him in what he's doing and let's pray and ask God's help.