#Kingdom Come Praying Beyond Ourselves

What a joy it is to be here with you guys this morning.

My name is Jenna. For those of you who don't know,

I am 1/2 of the Hatfield site pastors, My husband AJ being the

other half and bless him, he is there this morning with our four

children leading with the team there.

I think he's doing communion and I think we got a message to say

there was no one for AV so he could be jumping into AV as

well. So pray for him and the team

over there. But no, it's so good to be here

with you guys this morning. And we have been in a series

here, haven't we, about prayer called, pressing in and pressing

on. And Claire kicked this series

off a few weeks ago with an invitation.

The sense that the Lord is calling us as a church in this

in between season where we are between having senior pastors to

press into prayer. I love how she unpacked the

story of Isaac with the digging of the wells, that we are to do

the same that we are to keep digging wells.

And I love she used an illustration of a shovel, didn't

she? She even bought one with her

love that the call for us each to pick up whatever it is that

we have in our hands, whatever shovel we have, whether it's big

or small, and to use what we've got and to just start digging to

make a choice. And then Week 2, Richard, he did

a brilliant job talking about having faith in the waiting.

You know, what does it look like to stand in expectancy when

we're in a season of waiting? What is our posture like in that

season? And then last week, Claire

looked at fasting, turning from one thing to another, and she

talked about how fasting is this invitation from the Lord for us

to come and feast at His table. What a beautiful image.

And it reminded me of a picture that the Lord gave me a while

ago. And as I was preparing this

week, he brought it to mind. You know, I have a little boy

called Cameron. He is 2, nearly three, and he

absolutely loves food. He loves his food and like he

will eat a tea at nursery, he will come home and he will eat

dinner at home and then if his siblings don't look out, he will

steal food off their plate when they're not looking.

And he's come to realise that they're a bit bigger and a bit

stronger than him. So he can't always get away with

doing that, but he does try. And there's sometimes where I

find him even on the floor. Look, this is Grace, right?

Looking for food. Now I get it that like if

something falls on the floor, we've got like 3 second rule, 5

second rule, maybe even 10 second rule.

Like we can put away with that and he can pick it up and we're

like, yes, fine, you know, germs, not too bad for you.

It builds your immunity and all that.

But when he's under the table looking for food, I have to draw

a line. Goodness knows what he will find

under the table. But, you know, sometimes I find

myself yourself saying to him, Cameron, get up off the floor.

If you're still hungry, I've got food for you.

I've got food. I can feed you more food,

banana, whatever it is that you want.

I've got something for you. And I sense the Lord saying

something through that. And I think there's two things.

One, we don't have to make do with yesterday's lot.

Food that's probably gone stale, food that is old, food that is

gross. He has fresh bread for each and

every one of us. Fresh words from the Lord every

single morning. He is a living, present, moving

God. And just like with the

Israelites where he said you don't have to put up, don't, In

fact, he said, don't eat that food from yesterday because I've

got fresh manna for you today. And So what is the fresh bread

that he's got for you this day? And #2 there is always more.

We need to make a choice sometimes to get up off the

floor and to pull up a chair and feast at His table.

Because when we do that, our perspective changes.

It moves from a making do. Let's grab what we can while we

can, to realising that there is an abundance of the Lord that

when we come and pull up a chair at His table, there is always

more for us to feast on. And it kind of leads me into

what I want to talk about this morning.

You know, when we talk about prayer, what comes to mind?

It's been described as talking to Jesus.

Like prayer is where you bring everything to Jesus and you talk

to him. It's a conversation, isn't it,

with our Heavenly Father, where we talk to Him, we listen, we

get guidance, we get help, we ask for wisdom, we share what's

on our heart. It's where our relationship with

Him is formed and developed. And all of these things are true

and important. And I can say with absolute

confidence that God loves it when we bring all of those

things to Him. We bring our hopes and our

failures. We bring our dreams and our

fears. We bring our pain and our

disappointment, our questions, our anger, our needs.

We bring it all to Him, and He loves that.

But I wonder if there's even more to prayer than that.

You know, if it's our purpose to not only pray about what's on

our heart, but to pray what is on his heart.

If God is inviting us as a church to move from provision

based prayer to purpose driven prayer.

And you know, I had the joy, absolute joy of speaking at

Alpha just the other week. We're currently running an Alpha

course here, and one thing I love about Alpha is that it's

the space for people to come who are exploring the Christian

faith and they can ask their questions.

And we encourage guests throughout the whole course to

bring their questions. In fact, we have a saying that

there's no question too silly. Bring those questions.

And it's true, isn't it? I think most like asking

questions provides opportunity for clarity and for a deeper

understanding. And maybe during this season on

prayer, you found yourself asking God some questions

yourself. And if not, why not go to him

and ask him these questions? Perhaps you found yourself

asking him God, what is the shovel in my hand?

Or how, Lord, are you asking me to dig wells during this season?

Or what can I do in this waiting season, Lord, to honour you?

And you know, I love how in the Bible, the disciples asked Jesus

a question about prayer. And we're going to read it now

in Luke 11. It's Luke 11, verses 1 to 2.

Luke 11:1–2

And if you've got a Bible or if it's on your devices, you can

turn there. Otherwise it will come up on the

screen behind me. So it says this, It says one day

Jesus was praying in a certain place.

And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord,

teach us how to pray, just as John taught his disciples.

And then he said to them, this is Jesus.

He says when you pray, say, and then he goes on to say what to

say. But I love that the disciples

asked a question. And did you see Jesus response

there? He doesn't say it's easy.

What do you mean prayer? It's talking to Jesus, it's

talking to me, it's talking to your heavenly Father.

And yes, of course it is. We've talked about that.

It is, but no question is silly. By the disciples asking this,

Jesus is able to reveal something deeper to them.

It was an opportunity for him to reveal a truth to them.

He said. Do you know what?

There is a great way that you can pray.

And So what does Jesus go on to say?

We're going to read now what it is that He says.

And for this, we're going to look at a different scripture.

We're going to look at Matthew 6, verses 9 to 13.

Matthew 6:9–13

Now this is the same conversation.

This is the same scenario, but from different eyewitness

accounts. And so this scripture that we're

going to read, you might be familiar with.

It's the Lord's Prayer. Maybe you're familiar with it,

maybe you recognise it or maybe not.

Maybe you're here and you've never heard this before, but

we're going to read it together now.

So Matthew 6, verses 9 to 13, and this is Jesus speaking, says

Matthew 6:9–13

this then is how you should pray.

In answer to that question, He says, Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come, your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today Our Daily Bread

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors

and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil

one. Now for some of you, I

appreciate you might read this and see it a bit like a formula

or a script of some kind, but I want us to look at it with fresh

eyes again this morning because this here is beautiful.

This is Jesus teaching us how to pray, not as a script or a

formula, but as a pattern of life.

He's revealing a truth to us and taking us deeper.

And so we're going to go through it some more of it in in more

detail in a moment. But what's interesting here,

just from the get go, just when we look at it, we look at the

order that Jesus teaches us to pray.

And I think it says something about our priorities as we pray.

You know, verse 11 says give us today Our Daily Bread.

It's good to ask the Lord for what we need for his provision.

He cares about that. But can you see it comes after

verse 10, which says your Kingdom come, your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven. And I think here Jesus is

reorienting us towards praying for God's Kingdom and for his

will, not just our personal needs.

And so that's what we're going to spend some time unpacking

together this morning. What does it mean to pray that?

What does it mean to pray Kingdom prayers?

What does it look like to prioritise the Kingdom of God

and Kingdom prayers over provision based prayers?

And so let's look in more detail at those first few verses.

The first line there, our Father in heaven, our God, is a

relational God. The Bible tells us that we have

been adopted into his family, that we are now sons and

daughters of him. And so Jesus is saying, when you

pray, we can, we should recognise him as our Father, we

should acknowledge who he is and who we are to him, not out of

obligation, but out of privilege.

I think it blesses God when we call him Father.

You know, I know for AJ, my husband, what a moment it was

when our kids first said those words.

Dada, what joy it brought him. And even now when he comes in

from work and the kids run at him, Daddy, what joy, what

delight that brings him. And how much more delight does

it bring our Heavenly Father when he hears us, his children

call him Father. Dad, Daddy, hallowed be your

name. I'm guessing you guys probably

don't use that word hallowed very often.

Maybe DI don't. But what does it mean hallowed?

It means holy. It means set apart, greatly

honoured. And so we are to declare his

greatness when we pray, no matter our circumstances, we

recognise and we speak out his goodness.

And as we do that our our perspective shifts.

It says, Lord, before you do anything for me, before I ask

anything, I recognise who you are and that you are good.

And then we get to this line, your Kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in

heaven. You know the theology and

practice of the Kingdom is of God is one of our core values

here at Vineyard. And I hope if you've been here

for a while or been hit any length of time, you would have

heard us talk about the Kingdom of God, the here and the not

yet. You know, the phrase Kingdom of

God or Kingdom of heaven appears over 100 times in the New

Testament, mostly in the Gospels where we read about Jesus and

his life. And the the Greek word for

Kingdom, it means kingship or royal rule.

So it's not talking about a geographical area, but it

implies the exercise of kingly rule and reign.

And so when we talk about God's Kingdom, it's where his rule and

his reign is established. And if we want to know anything

at all about the Kingdom of God, we look at Jesus because the

Kingdom of God came in him. In Mark 1 verses 14 to 15, it

Mark 1:14–15

says Jesus came proclaiming the good news of God.

The time has come, he said. The Kingdom of God has come

near. Repent and believe the good

news. Jesus spent the majority of his

teaching ministry explaining and demonstrating and inviting

people into the Kingdom of God. His core mission was to proclaim

and to demonstrate the Kingdom by healing the sick, casting out

demons, raising the dead. And in doing this, what he was

doing when he was, these miracles were taking place.

He was confronting people and saying in me, the Kingdom of God

has come and you have a choice whether to accept it or to

reject it. And so the Kingdom of God is

already present through Jesus, but it's not yet fully

established until Jesus returns. And so we live in this time,

this kind of in between time. We call it the here and the not

yet. So to help us understand this a

bit more, there's an analogy we often use.

You know, during the Second World War, it is agreed that the

victory for the Allies was assured on D-Day when they

successfully landed on the Normandy beaches, right?

The victory in that moment was won.

But it's like 11 months for the war to actually end.

And during that time Hitler who knew that his time was short, he

launched some of the worst bloodiest attacks where

thousands and thousands of men lost their lives.

The coming VE Day was assured but not realised.

And we are in a similar position church as Christians.

From the moment Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected,

death was defeated. Satan had been defeated and the

final and full establishment of the Kingdom of God was assured

from that very moment. Amen.

We talked about it this morning. The victory belongs to Jesus.

But we have to realise, we have yet to realise.

Sorry. It's fullness in the days in

which we live, because there is a war still to be fought, an

enemy still capable of inflicting great harm.

And you know, just as with Hitler, when he knew his time

was up, Satan knows it's finished.

It was finished then, and it's still finished now.

He knows he's on borrowed time. And so he is on one final

rampage against humanity to cause as much destruction and

chaos and pain and mess that he possibly can before Jesus

returns. And our role as a church is to

equip ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit to come

against the enemy's plans, against the enemy's attacks.

And when we understand that it changes how we pray, it changes

how we live, it changes how we speak, it changes how we pray,

The victory has been won, but there is still an enemy to

fight. You know, once we place our

trust in Jesus, we have been drafted in to a fierce spiritual

battle and our assignment, our mission as a people of Christ,

is to push back the darkness and to bring God's Kingdom to earth.

And when we recognise that this is the time we're living in, it

makes sense that Jesus said to pray for God's Kingdom to come.

You know, in John Wimber's book Power Evangelism, I don't know

if you guys have read it. It's a brilliant book, so good.

But at one point in there, he describes that often Kingdom

life is likened to a Caribbean cruise on a luxury liner.

People change into their leisurely clothes, grab their

suntan lotion and saunter down to the docks.

What a shock it is when they find that living in the Kingdom

is really more like enlisting in the Navy and doing battle with a

vicious enemy, an enemy who follows no rules of war.

You know, I'm going to be real with you guys.

Like sometimes when we talk about being in a battle and we

talk about spiritual warfare, I think there's a danger that we

can fall into one side or the other of a pendulum.

We can either super spiritualise everything and blame Satan for

it all. You know, I'm on my way to

church this morning. I'm on my way to Versa group and

my car broke down like such. It's a spiritual attack.

What if it's because I didn't service my car?

What if I ignored? I ignored the red light that was

on the dashboard for too long and my car broke down for that

reason. You know, sometimes things

happen as a result of the choices we make.

Sometimes think things happen because life is life.

Be careful not to blame Satan for everything and give him too

much attention. But on the other hand, we can

swing too far the other way sometimes and we go around

without a care in the world. Completely naive, ignorant to

the fact that there is an enemy prowling around who will do

anything he can to bring distraction and to kill, steal

and destroy. And that's a dangerous place to

be because you end up being an open target.

And so guys, we need discernment.

We need wisdom from the Lord to know what and how to pray.

We need to open up our spiritual eyes and see things for what

they are. And I'm not saying this to make

us fearful. There is No Fear.

The Lord hasn't given us a spirit of fear.

We know the end of the story. We know what happens and we walk

in that confidence, but what it should do is evoke in us an

anger, a righteous anger, where we are compelled to speak out,

to stand up, to fight for God's Kingdom here on earth.

You know, the Bible says that we've been given keys to the

Kingdom of heaven. We've been given authority and

power over the enemy, but we still have to exercise that

power. It's a bit like a traffic police

officer go with me with this, like he or she doesn't have any

physical power to stop cars, but they are able to stop them

because of the badge that they wear and the uniform they put

on, which is given to them by a higher authority.

So when we pray in the name of Jesus for his Kingdom to

breakthrough, we do so from a place of authority and power

because of who he is. And I wonder, I wonder if you

are here this morning and you are actually questioning whether

your prayers even make a difference.

Maybe you've experienced disappointment.

Maybe you've prayed for healing like you've got on your knees

and you have been praying for healing for a person and they

haven't been healed. Or you've prayed for someone to

come to know Jesus and they still haven't.

And that disappointment is heavy on you this morning and it's

left you questioning what's the point?

Or maybe you're worried that you won't be able to explain to

somebody if nothing happens. You know, they already think

this God stuff is a load of rubbish and actually if I pray

and nothing happens, I'm going to have to explain that they

already think I'm silly. How am I going to explain it?

And I want to encourage you afresh this morning that the

outcome of our prayers is not our responsibility.

Isn't there freedom in that? The outcome of our prayers is

not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to pray,

to ask God for His Kingdom to come and to leave the rest to

Him. And we will never understand

why. Sometimes we see miracles and

sometimes we see His Kingdom breakthrough, and then other

times we don't. And we don't have to try and

explain it because there's no formula.

And that's OK. It's to say it's heavy sometimes

and it's hard, but we do see His Kingdom breakthrough more when

we pray than when we don't pray. And so I want to encourage you

to try again to keep pressing in and pressing on.

Pete Gregg says this great quote.

He's the founder of 24/7 Prayer. And he says it's arrogance to

think that only our prayers matter, but ignorance to think

our prayers don't make a difference.

It's arrogance to think only our prayers matter, but it's

ignorance to think our prayers don't make a difference.

And you know, I love that. This is seen in a story in

Daniel. In Daniel 10, we read about how

Daniel is going through a time of mourning and an Angel appears

to Daniel and he strengthens him and he encourages him.

Do you want no one know what the Angel says in verse 12?

Daniel 10 verse 12, the Angel says since the first day you set

Daniel 10:12

your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before

your God. Your words were heard and I've

come in response to them from the first day.

Now this was 21 days later that the Angel appeared to him

because in that chapter it goes on to say that there was a

battle going on in the spiritual realms which Daniel wouldn't

have had a clue about. He didn't see that the Angel was

being held back by a demonic power.

But because of Daniel's persistence in prayer, there was

a release of angelic intervention.

Daniel's prayers, his persistent prayers over those 21 days,

literally moved heaven. We don't always see what's going

on in the heavenly realms, but there is a battle taking place

and we should never underestimate the power of our

prayers, the power of persistence in praying for God's

Kingdom to come. Your will be done.

You know, from the moment we're born, we have this desire, don't

we, to do things our way. It's easy when we pray for us to

focus on our will, because that naturally comes to us.

But here Jesus is teaching us a better way.

He says when you pray, say God, would your will be done?

When we say that we're surrendering our will and we're

submitting to him and saying, do you know what God, you know

best? God, even before I consider my

needs, I want to pray for your agenda.

You know, there are times when we don't always know clearly

what God's will is in specific situations that we might be

facing. You know, we can pray and we can

ask God to reveal it to us and pray into it from there.

And sometimes he does speak into that, sometimes he doesn't.

And in those times we have to say, you know, God, I don't

understand. I don't get it.

It doesn't make sense to me. But God, your will be done.

It's an act of surrender. It's an act of trusting in him.

Jesus prayed the same prayer, didn't he, in the Garden of

Geth's enemy, one of his most vulnerable, powerful prayers, as

he was literally sweating blood, coming to terms with what is

going to happen to him. And he says, God, please, if

this is possible, just take this cup from me.

I can't bear it any longer. Just take it from me.

Yet your will be done. And there are times when we know

what God's will is because he tells us in his Word.

And so we have to make sure that our prayers align with his will.

And to do that we have to get to know his character.

We have to know what he's about and what his will is. 1 John 514

to 15 says this is the confidence we have in

approaching God, that if we ask anything in accordance to his

will, he hears us and say, what are some of those things?

He reveals his will to to us through the Scriptures.

Number one, it's God's will that everyone is saved.

Did you know that one Timothy, 2-3 to four, this is God and

this is good and pleasing. Sorry, this is good and pleases

God our Saviour who wants all people to be saved and to come

to the knowledge of truth. Something else he tells us is

his will, that it's God's will that we be a holy people, that

we be a grateful people. It's God's will that we do good

even when we're faced with opposition.

It's God's will that we are spirit LED and transformed on

earth as it is in heaven. So it helps us to pray.

If we know what God's Kingdom is like when we say, God, would

your Kingdom come? If we want to know what that is

like his Kingdom, we look to Jesus.

And if we want to know what his will is, we look to Scripture.

And if we're still unsure, we look at heaven.

And I loved Yasmin shared that verse this morning, so beautiful

from Revelation. When we pray your Kingdom come,

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And So what does the Bible say about heaven?

Revelation 21. It says there'll be no death, no

mourning, no crying or pain, and He will wipe every tear from our

eyes. Revelation 7.

No one will be hungry, no one will be thirsty.

Revelation 22. It says heaven is full of light.

There'll be no darkness, there'll be healing and

wholeness for all, and that what was lost in the Garden of Eden

will be restored. Amen.

That's the hope that we have. And that is what that is what we

pray when we pray that heaven will invade earth.

God, would heaven invade earth? We pray, would your Kingdom come

and your will be done here now in this day as it is in heaven.

And you know, I think we can make an assumption by looking at

this verse that God's Kingdom and God's will are not always

outworked all the time. Because if it was, Jesus

wouldn't tell us to pray for it. Let me give you an example.

We've just read it's God's will that everyone becomes a

Christian. But that doesn't always happen.

Why not? Because we live in a fallen,

broken world where people have free choice, people have free

will. And so, yes, God has a will, but

he's not controlling trafficking, abuse, injustice,

poverty, sickness, pain. None of this is reflective of

God's character of his Kingdom or of his will.

And I think sometimes we need reminding of this because

church, we are not called to be a passive people.

Phrases like what will be, will be or everything happens for a

reason. Like I get why there's a

tendency to say things like that.

But guys, we have to be careful that we don't get complacent

because Jesus teaches us to pray for these things.

We need to take our place in the battlefield and not just sit

back and go what will be will be.

We need to stand up, fully clothed in the armour of God and

pray these bold, extravagant, ridiculous, outrageous prayers

to contend for His Kingdom, to breakthrough church.

We want to be known as a people who have understood the

assignment, a people who fight on their knees in prayer.

A people that don't give up praying for His Kingdom and His

will to be done. Who stand in the gap for the

marginalised, the vulnerable, the hurting, the poor, the

people that don't yet know him and say God with your Kingdom

come. Matthew 633 But seek first his

Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be

given to you as well. What does it mean to seek?

It means to focus in on, to give our attention to, to be

motivated by His Kingdom and His righteousness and everything

else. Food, clothing, the bills,

whatever it is that you need today will be given to you as

well. What are your priorities when it

comes to prayer? What or who are you seeking?

Are you seeking Jesus or are you seeking the result?

Are you seeking His purposes or to have your needs met?

And you know, to finish, I want to encourage you this week to

spend some time with God and ask Him questions.

No question is too silly. Ask Him what?

What does Kingdom prayers look like for me in this season?

What does it look like, God, to contend for your purposes in our

church, in our cities, in our nation, in our lives?

And maybe he's asking you to commit to praying for one person

that you, you know doesn't yet know Jesus every day to pray for

them. Maybe he's asking you to give 5

minutes a day to pray for your friend who is sick or to pray

for that person that you know is is walking through depression.

Maybe he's asking you to prayer walk in your local town once a

month if you can't do it once a week or once every day to find

out what the prevalent issues are in your town, in your

cities, And pray against those things of darkness.

And pray that God's light would come and that heaven would come,

that businesses would thrive, that people would turn to Him.

Maybe he's asking you to pray for our young people or the

students in this nation that they would have dreams where

Jesus calls them to church, or to pray for justice across our

world for the persecuted church to pray for our enemies.

Guys, this is not just a nice thing to do.

This is what we are called to do.

Would you guys stand as I pray to finish?