God Centered Prayer - Matthew 6:13

Welcome to God's Word for You from Ministry of Sharon Arby Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Well, please turn over in your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Matthew.

It's hard to believe, but this is the last week of the summer preaching series. It's the last week of the Lord's Prayer series. So, as we look at Matthew 6, we'll be looking at the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 13. Matthew chapter 6 verse 13 can be found on page 853 of the provided pew bibles. Hear now God's word as we read all of the Lord's prayer. Verse 9.

In this manner, therefore, pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive those, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God, that endures forever.

We'll invite you today to do what's going on in heaven right now. I invite you today to do what's going on in heaven right now. And that's singing God's praises. I invite you today in your prayer life to do what all the angels in heaven are doing right now. praying God's praises.

And that's what we find here as we pray God-centered prayers in Matthew 6, verse 13, in the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer. We find out what we've been looking at this whole time as we've been in the Lord's Prayer. that our prayers are to be God-centered prayers. And so that's what you're invited to, that's what you're called to today, is to pray God-centered prayers.

And that starts with verse 13, affirming His kingdom. Affirming His kingdom. Now we need to make note, as we write at the outset, some of you might not be using the Pew Bibles. I saw some of you bring in your own Bibles with you. And as you opened up some of your Bibles to Matthew 6, verse 13, you might have noticed that your verse 13 might end with the word one. or evil. Deliver us from evil, or deliver us from the evil one.

And your verse ends. Well, there's a textual manuscript thing that people have issues with. This verse is in the vast majority of the manuscripts that we have. So when we look back to the ancient scrolls, to the ancient books of the Bible, the full verse 13 is there. I believe it is fully scripture.

And so that's how we're going to treat it this morning. But it starts this part, for yours is the kingdom. And as we pray God-centered prayers, we say, yours is the kingdom. We affirm his kingdom. Now, Jesus is talking to Jewish people, right? This is the Sermon on the Mount. They're looking over the Lake of Galilee. And their expectation of what the kingdom coming is, is that these Romans, they're going to get out of here. We're going to finally have our own Jewish king, and we're going to have a kingdom on earth of God, just like it's supposed to be. But Jesus twists them here.

See, people would be comfortable with one of the earlier petitions. Your kingdom come. That means it's like out there, right? It's going to happen. But here, what does Jesus say in verse 13? For yours is the kingdom. In Greek, that's the present active indicative, is. Not future, not coming, but is. God's kingdom is here now. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, is standing before them and saying, the kingdom has started. I'm here. The kingdom has come.

But this is not how Jewish people think of the kingdom of God being with them. This is why John even has to send his own disciples to Jesus and says, are you the one we are expecting to come? Or should we expect another? And Jesus tells them, go back to John and tell them, the blind see, the lame walk.

There are dead people raising from their graves. The kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is telling them it's here. It started. Your king has arrived. Some people call the Sermon on the Mount Jesus' kingly inauguration address. Jesus is telling them, this is what the kingdom of heaven is going to be like. And it starts here, yours is the kingdom.

But some of us might say, some people get uncomfortable, right? When Jesus tells John's disciples in Matthew chapter 12, verse 39, In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus tells John's disciples, "...the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Some of us might say, but what, hold on, I don't see deaf people receiving hearing. I don't see in my life blind people receiving sight. I don't see lepers cleansed.

How is this happening here? What's going on? Is it like Jesus's kingdom came and then it just came to a stop? You know, he was raised from the dead and we're just kind of in this limbo waiting for him to come back and these things will happen again. No. These were a sign that Jesus was the King. Jesus, when he's interacting with the Pharisees, they want a sign. They want, show us that you're actually the Messiah. And Jesus says, a wicked and adulterous generation asked for a sign, but you will receive one sign, and it was Jonah, who was in the belly of the whale three days.

Likewise, the Son of Man will be in the grave three days, but will rise again from the dead. People in our generation, at our time, say, where are these signs? Look at the empty tomb. If we have to satisfy every single generation, where's the signs Jesus would have to come back every single generation, but that work is done.

Jesus was the sign that his kingdom is. For yours is the kingdom. Jesus Christ was dead, buried, and has been raised from the dead, and it was ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. And it was witnessed by thousands of people. That's the sign we have that God's kingdom is.

But it's by faith. It's by faith that we believe that. Because it's something that you haven't seen. But oh, you know it. You know it's true. Because he's poured out that grace in your heart. And how else do we know that the kingdom is? I'm not sure. I haven't searched through all your family histories. Some of you have given me your family genealogies. I'm not sure any of you are ethnically Jewish. You want a sign that the kingdom is?

The gospel is being preached to the poor. The Bible's talking about you in Matthew chapter 11. The sign that people are being saved is a sign that the gospel is going out. that we get to pray for Chinese Christians, that we get to pray for Bolivian Christians, that they get to pray for you. Did you know South Sudanese Christian children are praying for you? The gospel is global and keeps expanding, keeps reaching unknown ethnic groups, keeps reaching into different languages. And this is a sign to us that we can keep praying this.

Yours is the kingdom. This is a prayer we get to say to our Father. Yours is the kingdom. This kingdom is advancing. Notice here also, it's not our kingdom. It's not my kingdom. It's not your kingdom. People are really good at building their own kingdoms. People really like to build their own empires. People really like to build up their thing in life. The gospel's not yours. The gospel is God's. The gospel is Jesus Christ.

And we pray here, we are not saying, God, I want my kingdom. We say, yours is the kingdom. Do you see how we humble ourselves in the Lord's prayer as we start praying this God-centeredness way? Yours is the kingdom. We get our eyes off ourself. We pray to Him, for Him, and to Him. But as we go straight from theirs, for yours is the kingdom and the power. In God-centered prayers, we confess His power. In God-centered prayers, we confess His power. I'm gonna guess there's something in your life you can't control. For some of you, the thing in your life that you can't control is your kids.

Trust me, I understand that. For others of you, things you can't control is how quickly your spouse spends money. For some of you, things you can't control, don't look at your spouse. For things you can't control, you know how you can't control your boss.

There are things in our life that are outside of our control. You who have worked with cattle, you know that animals are going to do what they want to do. You can fence them in and you can lead them and stuff, but they got a mind of their own. We can't control everything in this life. We can't control the weather. We can't control the stock market. We can't control commodity prices. We can't control a whole host of things. But who can? Who is omnipotent? Who has all power? Who has the ability and the wisdom to do everything perfectly?

He does. And in this conclusion to the Lord's Prayer, we confess His power. For yours is the kingdom and the power. It's His. When we pray this God-centered prayer, we say, God, I don't have the power. do when we pray and confess his power we're saying it's not me I I can't control everything in my life and Lord I'm at peace with that there's a great deal of peace that comes when you realize unless the Lord blesses it it ain't gonna happen it's his glory it's his power he's the one who's gonna do it and so when we pray Yours is the power. We take our imaginary control, the control that all of us want to feel like we have in our own life, and we give it to who really is in control.

Do you see the blessing of that? You don't have to worry. Straight on the heels of this passage is where Jesus says, do not worry about what you will eat or what you will drink or what you will wear. Your father in heaven knows everything you need. He's gonna provide for you. Don't be anxious about anything.

Do you see why Paul is able to tell us in Philippians chapter four, don't be anxious about anything, but in all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving in your heart, let your request be made known to God. And what's the result of that? And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Christ is giving you this prayer because when you give up your own control and you recognize that God is the one who has the power, you can have peace finally.

Anxiety has no place in the Christian heart. When you find yourself anxious and worrying, you're not confessing His power. Deepen your prayer life. Go to Him. He's displayed this power. He's displayed it in saving you. He's displayed it in His cross. He's displayed it in His Son. But when we pray, For yours is the kingdom and the power. We need to realize that God does nothing that's not in accord with his own glory. That's the third part of this conclusion. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory.

First question of the catechism. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Nothing like stumbling over the easiest question in the catechism. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Why? Because God does nothing that is not in accord with His glory. Or saying that positively, God only does what's glorifying to Himself. But what is glory? That's a Christianese word, glory. What is glory? The idea of glory is something that's weighty, something that carries heaviness to it, something that's important. And when we speak of God's glory, we're saying that he is the most important, he's the most weighty.

When we go to Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah chapter six, verse three, Isaiah sees this before his very own eyes. Isaiah has a vision of heaven, and he's in the throne room of God. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim, each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, holy, holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts.

The whole earth is full of His glory. What is God's glory? It is the manifestation of His holiness, His totally separateness. When we understand that God is triunely holy, that God is perfectly set apart to Himself, He is not like you, He is not like me, He is not sinful, He is above, we are below.

And when we get our priorities straight, as this conclusion to the Lord's Prayer teaches us, our eyes are filled with the glory of God. That is what we are to be brought to in the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer. Because when we have God-centered prayers, we have God-entranced prayers. When we have God-centered prayers, the holiness, the glory, the weightiness of God presses upon your soul, and you realize that you are praying to one who is infinitely better than we could hope or imagine for.

Man, when we say that God is good, he's not good. He is good. When we talk about God being righteous, we're not just saying he's kind of like a nice God. We're saying he is absolutely, perfectly just and there's nothing wrong in him. When you pray, yours is the kingdom, yours is the power, yours is the glory, we're ascribing to God his weightiness that's due to him. and to pray anything less. It's idolatrous. To pray anything less than for God to do everything according to his own glory is to pray for our wills and not for him. Do you see the beauty and the depth of what God teaches us here by the very words of Jesus Christ? in the Lord's prayer. Do you see how even our prayers can sometimes be so, just so low?

I'm guilty of this. You know, you are too sometimes as well. When we pray and we're just on autopilot, You know what that's like when we pray and it's just, we could even be saying these very words in the Lord's Prayer. And they just wrote, come off our lips, they just roll off, you know, and our mind wasn't engaged at all.

But these words are profound that Jesus gives us as a model, as a pattern, as words to say in our prayer life to enrich our souls. Jesus is teaching us here That we are to pray for His kingdom, for His power, and for His glory. And that that glory, that His kingdom and that His power would extend through the entire globe. This is why we spend time every single Sunday praying for the nations. This is why we pray every single Sunday that God's glory might be known here and in the state and in the country and around the globe, because to pray for anything less is not the vision God has given us. See, God has given us a vision that's global, that is every tribe and every people and every nation and every tongue. Yet we're so often okay with, God, I'm in this tough spot.

Help me out here, please." And we treat him like a Santa Claus God, rather than the God of glory. Now it's not wrong to pray for those things. God wants to hear our prayers as a loving and merciful Father. But so often her prayers are so small, and her God is so great. So often we think this person is beyond hope and we stop praying that God would save their soul. I am here telling you that I know of people who were saved in their 90s. Are we praying for people until their dying breath that they might know Jesus Christ? Are we having a God-sized vision or are we okay with little prayers?

Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ gives us a prayer that's grand and glorious and all-consuming. And when he tells us how we end this prayer, it's with a type of resolve. It's like our king gave us this prayer that we know it can actually happen. Jesus tells you to end that prayer with Amen. Again, just another Christian word that flows off our lips. We say it all the time. We don't think about what the word Amen means, but Amen is a declaration, so may it be. If we are praying Matthew chapter 6, if we are praying the Lord's Prayer, this is God's will. How do we know it's God's will? Because it's in His revealed will. Sermon notes are gone. It's okay. It's going to last forever.

When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we're able to, with full heart of assurance, know that our Father hears this prayer. Our Father is pleased with this prayer. Our Father is going to bless us as we have a heart desiring what Jesus tells us to desire in this prayer. So brothers and sisters, as you go here this week, as you've been challenged for the last four weeks, do not let your prayer life slip to the side or become small, but have it as a center of your daily life.

Closing Prayer

Give us this day our daily bread. Daily you lean on God. Daily you pray to God. Daily we go to Him and His Word. This is the way that He has designed us to enrich our faith. Man, I can't wait to get to heaven. I don't know about you. I cannot wait for the day that I get to sing the praises of God with all the angels in heaven, to join that heavenly choir and to sing about the Lamb who is on the throne and reigning in righteousness. This is what the angels are doing now. With God in Transvision. With Kingdom Focus. praying to God for who he is. Pray this way. Let's pray now.

Lord, forgive us for how little our prayers often are. Thank you. Thank you for the grandness of who you are. Thank you, Lord, for making yourself known to us. God, please apply these words to our hearts. Lord, may our eyes be filled with your glory. Lord, please enrich us by taking hold and making these words our very own, that your glory might shine forth, both in our souls, but even more so, Lord, to the ends of the earth. In Jesus' name, amen.