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Most of us pray “thy kingdom come” without stopping to ask whether the kingdom we’re actually building day to day is God’s—or our own. That tension sits at the heart of Matthew 6:10, and Daniel 4 shows just how far God will go to get our attention when we forget who’s really in charge.
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
The sermon emphasizes that praying “thy kingdom come” is not passive waiting but “watchful waiting” with active engagement. What are practical ways you can actively participate in God’s kingdom while still waiting for Christ’s return?
King Nebuchadnezzar had to be humbled by God to recognize that his power and success came from God, not from himself. What are some ways we can guard against pride and remember that our accomplishments and blessings ultimately come from God?
The pastor challenges the congregation about sharing their faith, comparing it to how eagerly we would share news of a cure for cancer. What fears or obstacles prevent you from more openly sharing your faith with others, and how might you overcome them?
As “ambassadors for Christ,” we are called to represent God’s kingdom in a foreign land (the world). How does understanding yourself as an ambassador change the way you live your daily life—at home, at work, and in your community?
The sermon discusses how people should be able to see Christ reflected in our lives through our character and actions, not just our words. What specific character traits or behaviors should mark a follower of Jesus, and how can we develop these more intentionally?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
All right, I love that long intro. It gives you time to do things, and so anyways, here we go. It’s really time. So welcome, Little Hills. We are in our second portion of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s these three words, “your kingdom come,” that’s found in Matthew 6:10. It was really hard to stay within the lines because the next few words after that is next week. So I’m going to try to stay in the lines. These three words of this model prayer show our anticipation, our desire of the coming Lord, the coming of the kingdom of heaven here on a new earth—not the earth that we live in now—where sin is no more, death is no more, nothing dies, everything stays the same. What a great way to think. There’ll be no heartache, death, anxiety, hunger, selfish desires, not worrying about diseases that can harm the body such as cancer and other things. No need to have things to fulfill your desires, to be comforted. You know, “I need this, I need that,” and not to be afraid of animals or creepy crawly things that they’re going to hurt you, or like bugs. And at least that perfect body with no fat calories. I would follow that. No fat calories at all. Don’t have to worry about fat calories because I don’t think they exist.
So what does it mean to pray “thy kingdom come”? We know that Jesus has promised a kingdom that he himself is a sovereign king. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus has introduced a kingdom that is not fully accomplished yet. It will be finished when we are living with him, and he is the king. But right now, we are somewhat in this in-between times, in-between the lines, or whatever you want to call it. We’re in-between his resurrection, which we’re going to celebrate really soon, and the second coming. So what are we doing in the middle? That in-between time is kind of like waiting for a birthday party, or waiting for something, that in-between time—waiting for the new year, waiting until I turn 80, that in-between time between 58 and 80. We can all read about this in the book of Revelation, and also throughout the scriptures, it talks about his reign on earth, and someday, his complete reign here on earth. God promised that one day he will reign forever on the throne of King David. This means nothing more than praying that God’s kingdom will come. We can just stop right there and be done, but it just doesn’t work that way.
So I entitled this first phrase, “Man’s Kingdom on Earth.” We can read all about these vast, powerful kingdoms of the world both in scriptures and in history books. The Roman Empire was a vast kingdom, Russia was a vast kingdom, the British had a very vast kingdom, and even the United States. They all had their times of glory and control but eventually fell to another world power, or their territories gained independence from the world power. And lots of times, these kingdoms fell from corruption from within themselves.
We are going to take a look at King Nebuchadnezzar as he ruled over the Babylonian Empire. This great and powerful king wrestled with his own power compared to the God of Israel through a series of dreams. They both were wrestling. King Nebuchadnezzar had a bunch of dreams. Just a little background history: there’s like three or four chapters all on this, so I’m not going to read it all. I want to save you the pain. You can go back home and read all about it and then let me know what all I need to retell you guys. He went from a crown prince to king from 605 to 562 BC, which is many years. Approximately at this time, the Babylonian army captured Jerusalem, taking the prophet Daniel as one of his hostages. Also, King Nebuchadnezzar actually crossed the path of two other prophets, Daniel and Jeremiah, in his lifetime. Both carried important messages for God’s people about the new covenant. Can you imagine a new covenant in the Old Testament? That’s pretty interesting—the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams also had many correlations to the book of Revelation. We can go back to Revelation and see how that all ties in. It’s really, really interesting. I didn’t know which direction to go, how to keep people engaged, or bore them. I don’t know. It’s pretty interesting. You can go and read that life’s times and all that happened there. Later, actually, the book of John mentions some of them, too. With purpose, our God is working out his plan throughout all human history, including the life of the Babylonian king. I’m going to stick with him for now.
So let’s just take, what I would always as a kid learn, a bird’s eye view of King Nebuchadnezzar. I’m kind of going to jump a bunch because there are like six, seven, eight, nine bird’s eye views. If a bird’s eye view, you know, how you take in an airplane, you fly over, and you don’t hit all the details. You know that city is there, that’s that part of the country, and all that. So, not a ship ride in the ocean because that takes a little longer. Just thought of that, never mind.
Daniel interprets the second dream, found in Daniel 4:19-27. Then Nebuchadnezzar’s human humiliation is in Daniel 4:28-33. Then Nebuchadnezzar is restored again in Daniel 4:34-37. Right now, let’s look at only two of those verses: Daniel 4:32 and Daniel 4:35. Here Daniel interprets another of the king’s dreams, and the king ignores the warning that God is telling him. I think sometimes we do that. We get something from scripture, and we just go, “Eh, I don’t really want to do that. I think I’ll just put it off. This isn’t really what he means. He means this, so it pleases myself.” So that’s how we’re going to go.
He was just walking around on the rooftop of his palace saying, “Look at all this vast kingdom that I built; it’s full of my greatness. I got all this land; it’s all about what I’ve done. Ain’t I such a wonderful king?” Then, right in the middle of him praising himself, God spoke to him, and that’s what we’re going to read from Daniel 4:32: “And you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and even seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he wills.” I think he was being a little humiliated—like, “Wait a second here, get off your high horse. It wasn’t me, it wasn’t you who brought yourself up there. I needed the Israelites; I was punishing them, so that’s how you conquered that. Because I needed this will, that will be done.”
So, not all the time, it may not be us. God may just make us that little pawn walking around on the chessboard. That’s what happened to the king. He forgot who really ruled the kingdom. Sometimes we forget who’s in charge of our lives. You know, is it really God, or is it ourselves to an extent?
Can you think of someone else who has been on top of the world? Like a movie star, a famous singer, wealthy people. I was trying to name some of these to my wife, and I was like, “Some of these people may not…” You remember the guy who owned TWA? He was really wealthy and ended up poor, sad. All these people, they end up becoming flat broke or in despair because they think it’s all them, it’s all about themselves.
Let’s go to Daniel 4:35 and see what happens: “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven, among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” The king realized again, and sometimes I have a different version on here than I do up there. I was making sure I didn’t do that. The king realized again that all the inhabitants of the world aren’t for the king, but from God himself. That’s what happened during this little time. This happened almost three times to him. He still didn’t get the picture, but it seems like a lot of times that happens to us. I mean, I still get the picture, and then eventually, you know, we all go praise God, and then next thing you know, we’re back off into it again.
So, God gives things for glory, not for your glory. We gotta think of the things given to us—they’re not for us, but really for God, so we can use them. This is a hard time. God has put us in this nation here for a purpose—our nation, the USA—and we kind of wonder about it. How are you praying for it? Are you like our friend in India, Prakash, who on Monday morning there had their Sunday services interrupted by protesters and people wanting them to stop, saying, “Why are you teaching Christianity? Hinduism is the only way.” He’s getting a lot of that. That was his prayer this morning. That’s praying, what I call praying for the kingdom of God. They don’t want the kingdom of God to happen. We’re kind of easy here, but yet, we still need to pray for the kingdom of God to be here.
So, do you pray against the schemes of the devil? I mean, that’s Satan coming and wanting to interrupt us. Somebody could easily come and interrupt us now. It’s just the schemes of the devil. He doesn’t want this happening. He doesn’t want to hear the gospel being preached. Doesn’t want to hear God being praised. Doesn’t want to see you enjoy God, and you enjoy the presence of the Lord, either. It’s just the schemes. So in our prayers, we need to recognize God’s kingdom purposes and how we can further their purposes here on earth. When we trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will guide us on how to further those purposes. When we trust in the Holy Spirit and trust in his word, he will guide us through this.
When we say, “Thy kingdom come,” it’s not just sitting around waiting like at a fast food restaurant for the other cars to leave so that you can get your food for the coming of the Lord. It’s like a watchful waiting—watchful but timing, not just having my time. It’s like my dog, Dolores. Every day around a certain time in the afternoon, she gets up in the window and waits for me until I come home, waits in the window, and it could be hours, most of the day. Because I am her whole life, that’s how we should look for Christ. He is our whole life; we’re sitting here waiting. But that’s not sitting in a chair waiting, like, “Okay, it’s gonna happen sometime,” come on, guys, we’re waiting, aren’t we? Let’s not just sit here and wait. It’s not exactly, I think, what he means.
If you ever wait for an unexpected package to arrive, waiting to be called home to be with the Lord, a lot of times we are like, “I’m waiting. Sometimes we get to that age like, ‘Lord, I’m waiting. What’s taking you so long?’” My grandmother’s 96 or 97 now, and she’s like, “I guess God’s got something good for me still here. I’ll just keep telling family, stay together, family, stay together.” That’s always been her deal.
Praying that “thy kingdom come” means asking our Heavenly Father to help us in our lives to be, one, faithful; two, obedient; three, authentic; and effective Christians. We know that God in his will puts us in charge—people like King Nebuchadnezzar—for his will to be done, not King Nebuchadnezzar’s. That was to punish the nation of Israel for turning away from God, and that’s what happened, not to lift up the king.
We spread God’s kingdom not only in words but also through our actions and our observations. As we observe qualities of our character, that’s how we’re spreading the kingdom—by our character. And we find it in 1 John 3:10, which says: “But this is evident, who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”
So, whose kingdom are you building here on earth? Are you building for the devil’s kingdom? Do you want him to keep on going and terrorize the world? Or do you want God to come down so people can see the love of Jesus Christ so that they will accept Christ as their Savior?
King Nebuchadnezzar was building his own kingdom but kept being reminded by God, “It’s not your kingdom; it’s mine, sorry.” God had to humble King Nebuchadnezzar to get his attention and speak the truth. Sometimes that happens in our life, too. We have to be whacked across the head or embarrassed for God to get through to us.
So, do we find ourselves building things up for our own good—in our house or in our career—so that we’ll be successful and not worry about our walk with Christ? Are we willing to take away some things and decide not to go that path because it might draw me away from God? Do we find ourselves walking around so grateful and in awe of what we have accomplished? “Ah, look at me, I’ve gone this way; I’m a great preacher. Ah, look, I got this great company, and everybody depends on me; everybody orders from me all the time, and I’ll give it to them in a split second. Ah, look at me; I’m so good, so wonderful.” Do we do that? Do we tend to forget who got us to where we are?
Maybe you are wealthy. Did God get you there? Are you honoring Him through your wealth? Are you honoring Him through the riches of what you’re doing? Like the chairs we got, you know? We can’t afford all these new, cool-looking chairs. Now we gotta fill them because we got 25 or 27 extra chairs, and only six are out. We have a bunch in the back room, so now we gotta build up the church more. God gave us a mission through our brother here. We got free chairs; we can’t say we don’t have enough chairs. There’s no excuse about that, is there? So now we gotta build God’s kingdom here.
First and foremost, the Lord’s reign must be evident in the lives of his followers. When we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” it means we’re asking the Heavenly Father to help us in our own lives, as I mentioned before, to be faithful, obedient, authentic, and effective Christians. It’s not just words that spread the kingdom of God but also through our actions and the qualities of God’s character.
Remember when I was talking about 1 John 3:10, “For we are God’s children, not the devil’s.” Bringing God’s kingdom here on earth isn’t because we have power, but another way to seek to establish God’s kingdom in today’s world is to pray for the characteristics of God’s nature to be exposed and acknowledged in the world. To pray against the dominion of sin and Satan. What is he doing today to get us away from reading the Bible, going to church, witnessing to others, and spreading the word of God? I think a lot of it is staying busy, having other things that come into our lives that distract us from actually studying God’s word and sticking with it.
We pray to God to show His holiness to us and others so that they might see and understand it and be changed by it. That’s how we become a light in the world. Everybody can see and ask, “Hey, why are you so happy? Why don’t you worry about anything?” “Well, I’ll tell you why—I trust in God, and things seem to happen that way.”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful for things to happen in today’s world where everybody’s like, “Hey, I’m glad you’re here. How can I help you through that? God was great. Let’s honor God in everything we do—in our actions, in our laws—and everybody would be in awe of God.” That’s what it means to pray, “Thy kingdom come” here on earth as if we are in heaven, in awe of God.
Just like Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in Isaiah 6:1-5, which I’m going to read: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’”
Man, that’s one reason why I can’t wait till I die and go to heaven, because I’ll be able to see what Isaiah said. But can we bring that kind of experience to earth, too? Wouldn’t it be nice to be so full of the Spirit and the scripture that you just see God as He is—not as an emotional, sensational experience—but just being so immersed in the scriptures that you see God in all that we learn.
In Isaiah 6:1-5, when the prophet Isaiah captured a glimpse of God’s holiness, he was completely undone. I would be undone; wouldn’t you? Isaiah’s experience was so overwhelming that he saw the glory of God’s holiness filling the whole earth. In verse 3: “Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.” How great would it be someday?
The Lord’s Prayer isn’t the only place where His kingdom is talked about. It appears 34 times in the book of Matthew. I think the Lord wanted to really drive it home. A few other times in the Gospels, Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven as a priceless pearl (Matthew 13:46), a good treasure (Matthew 12:35), a fishing net (Matthew 13:43), a homeowner (Matthew 24:43), a mustard seed (Matthew 13:31), and a sower (Matthew 13:18). These stories are great for Bible study, and they help us understand the kingdom of heaven.
In Luke 8:10, Jesus was talking to His disciples and said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but to others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.” That is some deep scripture.
These secrets are here in the Bible for us. Understanding these parables can help us bring heaven down to earth—not just understand it more, but live as if we are in the kingdom. We live as if we’re up there, but we’re really not. We understand that we are no longer under the law but under God’s grace, the freedom of grace. There are no set rules, to an extent.
The kingdom of heaven on earth is God’s intended purpose for us to have a relationship with Him while we’re here on earth, in this “between ages.” That’s why He sent His one and only Son to earth to be fully man and fully God—as we’ve learned in Sunday School Express—to pay for a debt we can never pay. He proved His passion for us through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, knowing that He would have to pay for our sins. He did that for us; we didn’t have to ask Him. He did it for us.
So it says in John 1:14, “‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.’”
Should we show the truth to the world, or should we hide it under a bush like that little kid song? You know, “This little light of mine, I’m not gonna let it shine. Hide it under a bush, oh no.” A lot of times I think we do that. We’re afraid of what people outside these walls or outside our Christian homes might say if we trust in this kingdom they don’t understand. They won’t understand because they don’t understand the parables; they don’t understand Christ’s word. But we understand. Let’s be that light. Let’s show God’s kingdom to the world.
The kingdom of heaven promotes counter-cultural thinking. How am I going to go out in the world and do this? It’s really hard. It employs an understanding and acceptance of our own sinful nature and mortality. To be part of the kingdom of heaven, there must be repentance, forgiveness, humility, reconciliation, and grace—all traits distinctly against human nature.
We have the fruit of the Spirit and what is not fruit of the Spirit. That helps us consider, “What is my nature supposed to be like for Christ?” But are we still afraid of people knowing that we are part of the kingdom of heaven? What are they going to say? What are they going to think of us? What are we going to do? I don’t know.
Maybe it’s because we have a hidden sin that we don’t want anybody to know about, not even our Christian friends. So I’m just going to keep quiet, do my thing, go to church, sing the songs, and not interrupt, because I’ve got this sin that I don’t want them to tell me about or pray about because I kind of like it. It kind of keeps me happy. Just a thought. Oh, Jim, we gotta pray for you.
Are we afraid to tell? Are we afraid? I did, okay.
If we found a cure for cancer, we would make a huge effort to tell everyone. “I found a cure for cancer! We can heal you!” All these formulas I put up there—there’s a cure for cancer. I would be more excited to tell people about that. But why don’t I tell them the cure that would get them to heaven and save them from their sins? What’s wrong with that? That’s a lot easier. That’s actually written in the Bible. You don’t have to worry about doctor’s appointments or all this other stuff.
So really, how often do we pray for God’s kingdom to come? I’ve asked myself that while studying this portion, just trying to stay in the lines. This is called the Lord’s Prayer large prayer. It was very convicting. I had to say, “Lord, I don’t think I pray this much, because there are still people’s souls out there that need to be saved.” But yet I need to pray for Your kingdom to be out in the world so people want to live there also. So I had mixed feelings.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to deliver the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don’t have to be preachers. We’re all called to do it. We can do it in some way or another—maybe baking cookies, making something, hospitality having people come over, through your job. There are all ways to bring them in.
We are a loving church here. I mean, it’s easy. We’ve got all these other chairs to fill. So as followers of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to deliver the good news. We have the power of the Holy Spirit in us. It’s not us. To help us carry out the task of sharing the blessings of what God’s salvation has for us. We have our own testimony too. We don’t have to come up with a story. As followers of Jesus, we have the Spirit of God in us. If we have Christ in us, we are able to show others Christ also.
By doing this, we radiate Jesus’s love and power over all things in the world because it’s radiant through us. We are Christ’s ambassadors to the world. You know what an ambassador is? Ambassadors are in a foreign country, and as soon as you step in that foreign country, you’re part of that, but yet you’re still from your own country. That’s what we are. We stepped into the kingdom of Christ when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior. We are in His kingdom. So we act as if we’re in His kingdom to show other people, people that want to be rescued, like if someone’s in a foreign country and wants to be rescued, they know they can go to the U.S. ambassador for rescue—a safe haven.
So that’s why we look to 2 Corinthians 5:20: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” So being ambassadors of Christ, we need to acknowledge God as our King. Praying “thy kingdom come” means we desire the sovereign rule over our lives here on earth, and we submit to His authority only and yield to His control in every aspect of our existence—every aspect of our lives.
Likewise, praying “thy kingdom come” means earnestly desiring God’s reign to be established throughout the whole earth and every human being. We pray “thy kingdom come” so that God’s sovereign rule will come now and in the future, and in the fullness of everything so people will see Christ.
You know, we are the visible representation of the invisible God, even though God can reveal Himself. But we are here, when we fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit, when we fill ourselves with Christ by reading the Word and learning to live it, people will see it. Just like when we learn to be an alcoholic, a dog addict, or a slanderer, people see it in us. Or if we learn to be a golfer, people see that too. The same thing applies in our own lives as ambassadors—just live it.
What do people see when they come over to your house? If Jesus decided to look at your house while you’re at church, what would He see? Are you an ambassador? He knows everything already. If He’s got you here, He’s probably visiting them now—you never know. So, let’s be ambassadors.
So let’s be ambassadors that light the world, telling everyone the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we look at Psalm 119:105, it says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” So as ambassadors, let’s let the light of God’s kingdom light the path for all. Let’s light up the pathway so that others can see and follow. I got tongue-tied there because I get excited about the word of God.
As we go on to the world, let’s remember and try to learn to pray, “thy kingdom come.” That’s why this time, our communion time is coming now. We believe that by taking this communion, this ordinance, Jesus Christ’s body and blood is what saves us. It’s not us. God said, “Do this in remembrance.” So every time we do this, every day, we’re remembering what Christ did for us. It’s not what we did for Christ or, “Hey, I did a certain reward and now I’m up to a B plus or level 14 of Christianity.”
So anyway, I’m done. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Chris.
I’m afraid of what I’m doing. I’m afraid of what you are. Got it. But I’m not—I’m not doing my fun bomb. Let’s see. Wake up, Tim. Wake up, Tim. I know I’m boring. Only had three or four people close their eyes. No, you’re so right. That’s what we’re called to do—to be ambassadors. And it really comes down to knowing Jesus.
Here’s why: When we come to the communion table, we always say the first step is to know Him. If you don’t yet know Him, we ask that you let these elements pass you by. Because if you show up at the embassy but you don’t have any citizenship in the country that embassy represents, it doesn’t do you any good. If you come to the Lord’s table and take these elements but don’t have the Spirit dwelling in you, it doesn’t do you any good. Actually, it only does harm.
But you can become a citizen of the kingdom this very night. Maybe you were scrolling through Facebook and stopped by and heard Jim preaching about the kingdom and said, “Everything I’ve chased after doesn’t seem satisfying. I want what Jim’s been talking about.” Tonight can be the night. We have our church family online and in person who would love to pray with you. All you have to say is, “Jesus, I want you as my Lord and my Savior.” Then come back and join us next week and take these elements, knowing that these elements will also be for you.
Likewise, He took the bread and said, “This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In like manner, after supper, He took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you under the remission of sins. Do this as often as you drink of it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
Let us pray.
Father, we come before you as those who cannot approach this table on our own. We have no right to claim citizenship. We have no right to claim the wonders and the glory of your kingdom. Yet you have offered us that cure that Jim was talking about—something far better than a cure for cancer or any other disease, the cure for sin itself. You don’t just cure us; You call us into Your family. You call us to Your table. And so as we come to this table, we come with our own struggles and weaknesses, the things that haunt us, the things that make us uncertain, the things we just don’t know what to do with.
Lord, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, would You strengthen us with the very body and blood of our Savior Jesus, so that we would be equipped to go into this week and into the rest of this life doing Your work, proclaiming Your kingdom. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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