Latest / Reformed Thinking / Your Kingdom Come: God-Centered Prayer, Obedient Living, and Heavenly Hope (Matthew 6:10)

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Your Kingdom Come: God-Centered Prayer, Obedient Living, and Heavenly Hope (Matthew 6:10) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we're doing a deep dive
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  into a sentence that is, I think, probably one of the most
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  recited in all of Christian history, but maybe one of the
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  most misunderstood. Matthew 6.10.
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  OK, let's unpack this. We've got a great set of sources
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  here, and they're all looking at just a few words.
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  Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in
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  heaven. It seems so simple on the
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  surface, doesn't it? It does, but when you look
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  closer, what you find is a master class in ordered
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  sirituality, a really specific directive for how to structure
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  our desires. So our mission is pretty
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  straightforward to get into the theological structure, the
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  demands of this prayer, and really separate God's
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  sovereignty from our duty of obedience.
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  And we have to start with where it is.
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  I mean, you can't understand it if you don't say it's right in
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  the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.
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  Matthew 5 through 7. Exactly.
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  This is the heart of Jesus's teaching on what it means to
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  live in the Kingdom. And this prayer, it's not just
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  floating there. It has a job to do.
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  It's corrective. Corrective.
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  How? Well, Jesus has just finished
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  condemning hypocritical prayer. You know, the kind of public
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  performance meant to get applause, or that Pagan
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  repetitive thing that treats God like a a cosmic vending machine.
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  Right, just putting in your request and hoping something
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  comes out. This prayer is the opposite.
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  It's for genuine subjects submitting to their king.
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  It's not for performers. That corrective function really
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  does set the tone. So let's start where Jesus
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  starts with the address in verse 9.
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  Our Father in heaven. I find the tension there is just
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  immediate. You can't avoid it.
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  On the one hand, you have Father that gives us this incredible
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  intimacy, this access, this trust.
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  It assumes the gospel right were adopted.
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  It's a covenant privilege, not a natural right.
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  Exactly. But then right after that you
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  get in heaven and that word just stops you from getting too
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  casual. It does.
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  It contextualizes everything. If it were just Father, we might
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  start to think of him as a a buddy or a grandfather whose
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  rules are just suggestions, but in heaven brings in His Majesty,
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  His sovereignty, His utter holiness.
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  You're approaching a king. You're approaching the king of
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  the universe, so you come with the confidence of a child, yes,
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  but also with the reverence of a subject before the throne.
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  That tension, intimacy in awe, governs every single request
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  that follows. And that tension explains why
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  the prayer is structured the way it is.
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  The order is so deliberate, our sources really highlighted.
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  This. Oh, absolutely.
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  Jesus tells us to start with three God centered petitions,
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  three of them before we even get to ask for bread or forgiveness
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  or protection. The.
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  Sequence can't be changed. Hallowed be your name, your
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  Kingdom come, your will be done. If you get that order mixed up,
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  the whole thing falls apart. You risk turning God into just a
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  means to an end. My end.
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  It's more than just a structure for prayer.
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  It's a structure for all of Christian life.
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  It's a declaration. God's glory comes first.
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  Period. One of our sources used a great
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  picture for this, the solar system analogy.
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  I think it's really helpful. Yeah, it's a good one.
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  The idea is that those first 3 petitions, your name, your
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  Kingdom, your will, They are the sun, the massive gravitational
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  center of everything and our personal needs, daily bread,
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  forgiveness. They're the planets, they're
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  real, they are vital, but they have to stay in orbit around the
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  sun. If they don't, you get chaos.
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  If one of those planets, my comfort, my career, tries to
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  become the sun, the whole system just collapses.
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  And the sources call this ordering a Thunder clap.
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  I love that phrasing because it really does break into our
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  default setting. It does our instinctive self
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  focus. We all operate as these.
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  What did they call them? Little monarchs of our own
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  empires. That's good.
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  Everything is centered on my plans, my future.
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  This prayer forces a complete reorientation.
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  It states without apology that God's name, His reign and His
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  will have to come before my comfort.
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  And those three God centered petitions, they're not just a
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  list, they're linked. They build on each other.
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  How so? Well, Hallowed Be Your Name is
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  the big one. It's the goal, the theological
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  roof over the whole prayer. To hallow His name is to treat
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  Him as holy, to want His reputation to be honored above
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  everything else. The next two petitions are just
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  the concrete ways that happens. They're the how.
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  How is God's name honored in history?
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  Well, it's honored when his Kingdom comes and when his will
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  is done. They're not separate ideas.
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  They are the visible outworking of the first desire.
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  That makes sense. Let's zero in on that second
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  one, then your Kingdom come. The keyword here is the Greek
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  basilea. And when we hear Kingdom, I
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  think we automatically picture a place, you know, a map with
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  borders, A geographical territory.
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  But that's not what's going on here, is it?
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  Not at all. We have to reject that static
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  idea. Besilea is a dynamic reality.
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  It's not a place, it's an action.
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  It's the active exercise of God's kingly rule, His authority
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  in motion. So when we pray it, we're asking
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  for His authority to be right, recognized, obeyed.
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  Recognized, submitted to, and joyfully obeyed.
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  Yes, it's about his saving and judging rule breaking into our
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  world. Think about when Jesus said the
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  Kingdom of God is at hand. He wasn't pointing to a spot on
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  the map. He was saying the active
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  sovereign reign of God has invaded this present age through
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  him. So it's less of a realm like a
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  piece of property, and more of a rain and action.
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  That's a great way to put it. It's a rain.
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  It's defined by its authority, its power to command, not its
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  physical borders. One source compared it to a
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  hurricane. A hurricane.
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  Yeah. You don't define a hurricane
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  just by the area it covers on a map.
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  You define it by its force, its wind, its power.
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  We're praying for the full, powerful storm of God's glory to
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  make landfall everywhere on earth.
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  That picture immediately brings up the whole already and not yet
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  tension. It's central to how we
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  understand scripture from a Reformed viewpoint.
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  If God is already king, why are we asking for his Kingdom to?
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  Come right, that tension is the framework for all of New
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  Testament eschatology. We have to hold two things at
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  once. First the already.
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  The inauguration. The inauguration exactly.
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  The Kingdom is already broken into history through Christ.
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  His life, His death, His resurrection, all his miracles
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  and teachings were signs that the rule of God had arrived.
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  Right now, we call this the Kingdom of Grace.
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  And where do we see that? We see it ruling over
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  regenerated hearts, people who have repented and trusted in
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  Christ. So wherever sinners are trusting
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  and obeying Jesus, the Kingdom is there in a real, though
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  partial way. And the church.
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  The church is meant to be a valuable outpost of that
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  Kingdom, a colony of heaven. But it's obviously partial.
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  The world is not fully reflecting his reign, so the
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  prayer has to be looking forward too.
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  It has to be, and that's the not yet the consummation.
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  When we pray this, we are absolutely longing for the
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  future climax of history. The Return of Christ the.
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  Return of Christ in glory, the moment when every enemy is
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  finally put under his feet, and the new heavens and new earth
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  are here in their fullness. So when we pray your Kingdom
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  come, we are joining the cry of the Church through the ages.
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  Come Lord Jesus Maranatha. We're standing in that gap
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  between the two. The victory is won, but the full
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  restoration hasn't happened yet. Precisely.
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  So if this is a prayer for conquest, what are the
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  battlefronts? When I pray this?
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  What am I asking God to conquer, practically speaking?
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  Well, the conquest has to start with yourself.
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  It has to. Our sources point out that we
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  all cling to our own small Thrones.
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  We're all little usurpers in our own hearts.
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  So it's a prayer against my own rebellion.
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  It is. You're asking God to dethrone
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  your idols, to subdue your pride, to establish Christ's
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  lordship over your thoughts, your desires.
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  It's asking for the victory Christ won on the cross to be
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  made real in your daily fight against your own sin.
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  It's a prayer for sanctification.
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  That's the personal conquest. But it doesn't stop there, does
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  it? What about outside of me?
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  It extends immediately outward. We're praying for the gospel to
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  go forward to the nation's, for people from every tribe and
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  tongue to be gathered in. We're praying for churches to be
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  strong, to be reformed according to Scripture.
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  So it's a missionary prayer at its heart.
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  Inherently, it's a prayer that nations would bow the knee to
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  Christ, that His righteous rule would extend across the whole
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  earth through the preaching of the Word and the faithful lives
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  of His people. It seems really important here
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  to nail down what this Kingdom is not.
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  There's so much confusion about this today.
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  Oh, there is. We have to be clear first, the
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  Kingdom is not a political project.
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  It is not tied to a specific party or national ideology.
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  To equate Christ's reign with a political platform is to shrink
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  it down to something small and worldly.
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  It transcends all of that. It transcends and critiques all
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  of them. Second, it's not a mechanism for
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  your personal prosperity. It's not a health and wealth
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  package. The desire for Christ's kingship
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  to be seen often involves suffering, not just comfort.
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  And it's not just a private internal feeling, is it?
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  No, absolutely not. It's not some purely mystical
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  experience that's disconnected from the visible public life of
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  the church. The church is the public
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  expression of the Kingdom. You see, the Kingdom advanced in
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  the faithfulness and mission of the local church as it orders
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  itself under God's Word. That clarity is so helpful.
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  The focus is on God's reign, and that leads us right into the
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  third petition. Your will be done.
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  But to even start here, our sources insist, we have to make
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  a theological distinction. We have to separate God's will
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  into two senses. You have to.
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  If you don't, the prayer makes no sense, especially from a
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  Reformed view that holds to God's complete sovereignty.
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  Scripture talks about God's will in two different, though not
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  contradictory, ways. OK, what's the first one?
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  The first is what we call the secret sovereign will.
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  Theologians often call it the decree of will.
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  This is God's eternal purpose. It's his decree that ordains
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  everything that happens. Everything.
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  From the big stuff to the small stuff.
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  From the rise and fall of nations to a Sparrow falling
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  from a tree, it's the plan that unfolds exactly as he intended
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  it. So what's the main
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  characteristic of that will and how are we supposed to respond
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  to it? The main characteristic is that
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  it cannot fail. It is absolutely certain it's
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  unchangeable, and it's also hidden from us until it actually
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  happens. A proper response is trust, a
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  quiet submission. A quiet Amen.
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  A quiet Amen, even to the hard things, the suffering, the loss.
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  It's echoing Jesus in Gethsemane, not as I will, but
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  as you will. We trust that God's plan is
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  wiser than ours, even when we can't see how.
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  OK, so that's the will that is going to happen no matter what.
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  Now contrast that with the second kind of.
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  Will. The second is the revealed or
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  preceptive will. This is God's moral law.
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  It's His command, His instructions, everything he has
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  clearly told us in Scripture about how we are to live.
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  It defines what is good and right.
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  And the key difference here is this one can be broken.
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  That's the critical distinction, yes.
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  Unlike the sovereign will, this revealed will can be and is
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  resisted. It's disobeyed by sinners all
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  the time. It is binding, it is good, but
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  people still break it. It stands against this whole
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  modern idea that we can just decide right and wrong for
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  ourselves. Let's pause on that because
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  that's where the question comes in.
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  If God's secret will decrees everything that happens, why am
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  I praying for His revealed will to be done?
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  Isn't it all going to happen according to His decree anyway?
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  That's the question, isn't it? And the answer is that we're not
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  praying about the certainty of His decree.
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  We are praying about the means by which His decree is
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  accomplished. We are actively pleading for
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  God's moral law, His perceptive will to be known, embraced and
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  obeyed on earth. So the prayer lives at that
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  intersection of decree and duty. Exactly.
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  We trust His unchangeable plan, and we know we have an
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  obligation to obey His revealed law.
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  And God has ordained that His revealed will makes progress on
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  earth through the prayers and actions of His people.
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  We're asking Him to conquer the resistance to His law, starting
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  in our own hearts. I think the analogy our sources
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  offered might help. Hear the one about the
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  architectural blueprints. It's a good one.
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  The sovereign will is like the laws of physics.
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  Gravity, for example, on a construction site, you can't
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  ignore gravity. It's an unalterable force.
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  You have to work with it, you trust it, you can't change it.
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  But the revealed will. That's the architectural
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  blueprint. It's the clear instructions for
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  how the building ought to be built.
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  The builders? That's us.
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  We can choose to ignore the blueprints and the result is a
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  crooked, unstable building. So when we pray your will be
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  done, we're asking the Master Architect to give us the desire
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  and the ability to follow His perfect design.
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  And following that blueprint demands a certain quality of
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  obedience. It's not just asking for any old
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  obedience. We're asking for a very specific
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  standard. Tell us about that standard.
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  What kind of submission are we really praying for?
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  We are asking for the Spirit to conquer our natural reluctance
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  and give us an obedience that is marked by three things,
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  promptness, delight and completeness.
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  So not just grudging submission, no.
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  Not at all. Not that resigned sigh kind of
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  obedience where we do the bare minimum because we have to.
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  This is a prayer for a heart change that actually makes
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  obedience A joyful thing. And the standard comes directly
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  from the pattern of heaven, right from the angels.
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  It does. They are the model.
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  First. They obey with promptness,
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  immediate readiness, the psalmist says.
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  They do His word, obeying the voice of His word.
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  There's no delay, no procrastination.
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  Second, second. They obey with delight, with
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  joy. It's willing, it's enthusiastic.
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  They find their highest honor in doing what He commands.
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  There's no friction in their hearts like there isn't ours.
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  And the third one, completeness, that one feels challenging.
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  It's maybe the most humbling one.
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  There is no partial obedience in heaven.
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  They do His will fully. No reservations, no picking and
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  choosing which parts they like. It's complete.
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  When we pray this prayer, we're asking for that same
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  disposition, prompt, joyful, complete, to be reproduced in us
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  by the Holy Spirit. That's a high bar, and it leads
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  us perfectly into that last phrase.
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  On earth as it is in heaven. This acts as a modifier for
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  everything that came before it. A double modifier really.
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  It applies to both your Kingdom come and your will be done.
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  It's a request for extension. Let the reign of God extend from
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  heaven to earth, and it's a request for imitation.
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  Let the quality of obedience in heaven be imitated here on
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  earth. So it's not just a nice poetic
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  ending, it's the quality control standard for our whole life.
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  It is we're asking that the quality of submission we see in
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  heaven would increasingly be the reality of life here on earth.
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  First in my own heart, then my family, then my church.
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  And the phrase also forces us to acknowledge the painful contrast
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  between the two realms. We're admitting that while
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  heaven is a place of perfect submission, earth is marked by
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  sin and resistance. We're praying for the rebellious
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  provinces to finally conform to the culture of the capital city.
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  Now, if the angels are the standard, then Christ has to be
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  the model and the means. We can't talk about this without
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  talking about the one person who perfectly did the Father's will
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  on Earth. No, you can't.
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  He's central. Christ is the ultimate model and
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  mediator. His whole life on earth was
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  defined by submission to the Father's will.
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  He said He came to do the will of the one who sent him.
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  And his obedience works for us in two ways.
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  Two essential ways. First, it's exemplary.
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  It shows us what perfect submission looks like.
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  It sets the standard. But second, and this is the
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  gospel, it's substitutionary. He did it in our place.
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  He perfectly fulfilled all the requirements of the Father's
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  will for us, and that perfect righteousness is credited to us
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  by faith. Our own obedience is never
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  perfect, it's always tainted. We can't stand on our own
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  performance, we stand on His. So when we pray this prayer,
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  we're not just asking God to help us try harder.
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  No, we're asking for a spiritual miracle.
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  We're asking that Christ's perfect obedience, which is
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  already counted to us for our justification, would also be
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  reproduced in us by the Holy Spirit for our sanctification.
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  We're asking God to make us both willing and able to submit.
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  OK, this is where it all becomes very practical.
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  If we connect this to the bigger picture, how does praying this
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  way really reorder daily life? This has to be more than just
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  something we recite in church. Oh, it reorders everything.
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  It starts with our private devotions.
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  This prayer is a radical corrective to our natural
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  tendencies. It stops prayer from just being
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  a spiritual shopping list. My health, my job, my
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  relationships. Right, all those temporal
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  concerns, because we place those personal needs after the God
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  centered petitions, they get pulled into orbit around that
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  greater center, the glory of God's name, the advance of his
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  Kingdom. Giving you a real world example,
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  how does this change how I pray about, say, a major problem at
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  work? Well a self-centered prayer
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  might sound like Lord. Fix this now.
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  My reputation is on the line, but a Kingdom centered prayer
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  sounds more like Lord. I'm asking for success here, but
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  only if it Hallows your name and extends your reign.
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  If this failure is meant to show me a sin in my own heart, then
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  let your will be done in my correction.
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  Help me honor your moral law in how I respond to this.
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  So it turns the prayer from Make my life work to conform my life
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  to you. Exactly.
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  Even if it hurts, it's a constant check against self
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  absorption. And what about public life?
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  How does this make us salt and light?
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  In our public life, this prayer calls us to live out our ethics
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  visibly. It means integrity at work.
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  It means how we conduct ourselves in our communities.
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  We're living as witnesses to the coming reign of Christ.
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  If God's will is done in heaven, that means perfect truth,
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  perfect justice. So we should be people who
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  strive for that here. Our ethics get an eschatological
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  grounding. They do.
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  We're laboring for good here, but our ultimate hope isn't in
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  fixing the culture. It's in the King's return.
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  And finally, the local church, the visible expression of the
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  Kingdom. For the church, this prayer is
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  an accountability standard. It's a constant call for the
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  local body to order its worship, its discipline, its mission
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  according to God's revealed will.
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  In Scripture, the church is supposed to be that colony of
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  heaven, an embassy, a place where the culture of our true
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  homeland is already being lived out.
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  So a faithful church becomes a living demonstration of the
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  prayer itself. It.
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  Becomes a little picture of what it looks like to do God's will
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  on earth, modeled after heaven. It says to the world, look, this
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  is what it's like. This has been such a helpful
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  breakdown. So what does this all mean when
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  we put it back together? It seems the petition in Matthew
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  6.10 isn't just some vague pious wish.
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  It is a structured, Christ centered request for a total
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  reorientation of the heart. That's it.
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  It's about dethroning that little monarch of the self.
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  It's about placing God's glory, His reign, and His commands at
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  the non negotiable center of all reality.
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  It seems to mean embracing that dual response we talked about It
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  does. It requires, on the one hand, a
• 18:41
  quiet trust in God's secret sovereign will that Amen even in
• 18:46
  suffering, and on the other hand, it requires A cheerful
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  submission to His revealed commands and obedience models
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  after heaven, and only possible through the work of the Spirit.
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  And if we really embrace that, there's an incredible
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  implication there. There is.
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  If heaven is by definition the place where God's will is
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  perfectly and joyfully done, and we are praying for that pattern
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  to come to earth, then think about this.
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  Every genuine act of obedience you perform by grace today is
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  not just you being moral. It's a taste.
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  It's a little piece of the new creation breaking through into
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  this world. Every time the gospel goes
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  forward, every time a heart submits to Christ, every time a
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  church orders itself according to Scripture, that is a moment
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  where on earth as it is in heaven, becomes a present
• 19:28
  reality just for a moment. It anchors our hope in the final
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  victory that we know is coming. A compelling thought to anchor
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  your own prayers and your own life.
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  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.