jesus teaches us to pray in the lord's prayer that we get to refer to god as our heavenly father and
we get to ask him for gifts spiritual and physical and one of the first things that he says we get to
pray for is for god's kingdom to come now when you hear the word kingdom what's the first thing that
comes to mind do you think of castles and kings and queens sitting on their thrones do you think
of massive armies and these rooms full of gold and silver and golden goblets and and fame and honor
well that's what the disciples jesus disciples thought of when they heard him preaching about
the kingdom of god they assumed that one day jesus was going to overturn the roman government and
he would take his his spot on the throne and then they would surround him as his governors
and senators and they would be able to call the shots no one else would tell them what they could
do anymore but they were wrong they misunderstood jesus when he preached about his kingdom and and
they were he wasn't talking about an earthly kingdom and we find out in the book of john
where jesus is being interrogated that the roman governor pontius pilate asked him are you a king
and this was jesus response here it says in john chapter 18 my kingdom of is not of this world
if it were my servants would fight to prevent my rest by the jewish leaders but now my
kingdom is from another place so jesus says my kingdom is not of this world it's from another
place in luke chapter 17 he's talking with the pharisees and he's talking to them and and he
tells them that the kingdom of god will not come with observable signs you can't say oh look it's
over there or look it's right here among us but then jesus says but it is among us right now
so the big question is when we say your kingdom come what what are we actually asking jesus if
it's already among us yeah we can't see it what what are we asking for and i want to take you
to one other book of the bible mark chapter 1 and it says this after john was put in prison
jesus went into galilee proclaiming the good news of god the time you come he has come he
said the kingdom of god has come near repent and believe the good news so the john he's
referring to is john the baptist and john had been going around preaching the kingdom of god
and it got him persecuted it got him thrown into prison ultimately he got him killed
but what was it that kept jesus going why didn't he stop in the midst of of all this suffering
that was going on and all the persecution that he was receiving is because jesus was and is
the king over god's kingdom he could proclaim the kingdom of god is near because jesus was there
right amongst them and the people didn't recognize that because jesus didn't walk around wearing this
flowing robe he wasn't surrounded by this entourage of security guards at night after
preaching he didn't go back to the palace to rest in fact most people when they saw
jesus and thought about him they just thought about him as this the son of the poor carpenter
and what that makes us realize is that jesus kingdom is is different than any kingdom we've
ever thought about before it doesn't come with all the trappings that we've imagined
because god's kingdom is an invisible kingdom god's kingdom is is the spiritual kingdom that is
already among us that it starts off small but it has the potential to grow and and change the lives
of people and and the trajectory of where they spend eternity and god invites every single one of
us to be a part of that kingdom now maybe you've thought about that before and maybe you thought to
yourself well there's no way god would let me be a part of his kingdom and i want you to understand
something is that you don't have to be religious enough or to be a bible scholar you don't have to
come from the right kind of family with lots of money you don't have to be super intelligent or
super strong you don't have to dress a certain way or speak a certain way and you absolutely
do not have to be perfect in order to be part of god's kingdom remember what jesus said
he said repent and believe the good news king jesus said this is how you are part of his
kingdom is by repenting and another way of saying that is surrender surrender your life over to him
and and the way you do that is you recognize you are not in control of your life you are not the
king of your life jesus is recognize that you are not perfect you are imperfect recognize that you
are weak and you need his help surrender and when you do that believe the good news believe that
jesus is perfect in your place believe that he is the king that sits on the throne of your heart
and believe that he can take your weaknesses and transform them into power and strength repent and
believe and then you are part of the kingdom and then what do you do you get to go and share that
message with other people and what do they do they share that message with other people and what do
they do they go and share that message with other people god's kingdom comes one person at a time
so let me summarize it this way when you pray in the lord's prayer your kingdom come you're
asking god to help you self-reflect and look at your own life and repent and surrender the areas
of your life that all of it and when you repent you can be absolutely confident that the good
news is for you that jesus christ came to wash away your sins to remove them as far as the east
is from the west and then you get to share that with other people so when you say when you pray
your kingdom come you repent believe and you share repent believe and share let's pray
heavenly father right now we ask that your kingdom would come into our own personal lives that you
would help us to identify areas where we are falling short and we repent of those areas lord
and we also believe the good news that jesus has washed those sins
as far as the east is from the west and god right now we intentionally pray that you put people in
our lives that are not necessarily part of your kingdom quite yet that we would share this message
with them it's in jesus name we pray amen did you enjoy this video if so we would love to share even
more jesus with you even if you have a busy on the go kind of life just click here and you can
find the audio version for this podcast along with all the other podcasts that time of grace offers