The Happiness Project: Prayer

Good morning, CTK. My name is Russell McCutcheon. If I don't know you or you haven't met me, I'm the pastor of Reconciliation Church, a church plant that has come out of CTK. My wife and I are glad to be here and worship with family.

Now, you all just read the Lord's Prayer, but guess what? We're going to read it again because that's where we're preaching from. We're going to be in Matthew chapter six, verses five to 13. Let's read it together.

Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly, I tell you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your private room, shut the door, and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. When you pray, don't babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words. Don't be like them because your father knows the things you need before you ask him. Therefore, you should pray like this: Our father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. 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 have also forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. — Matthew 6:5-13

Before going further, let's pray. Father in heaven, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Right now, we acknowledge that the angels are obeying your every command. And I pray that what's true in heaven will be true here on earth. But Lord, we offer this prayer because so many people are hurting right now.

I was reminded and looked at the news that in Buffalo, New York, people's lives were cut down senselessly. A young man goes into a community that he's not from and just opens fire. Killing. Bodies laying in the street. People crying and wailing because their loved one who left the house to go to the store will not return home. Lord, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, we are in the midst of what seems like a long war between Ukraine and Russia. There is global unrest and uncertainty, and even where we live, Lord, we are still asking the question: when will COVID no longer be a thing? We are still in the midst of a pandemic. Lord, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And so Lord, as I stand and open your word, Father, glory your name. Glory your name. May we see Jesus. We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Fog Parable

A father told his son one particular day to get into the car and go take a package down the street to some people that he knew. So the son agreed, and he got into the vehicle in the driveway. He turned the car on, put it in reverse, and backed out of the driveway. But when he got into the street, he could only go about 10 feet. He pulled the car back into the driveway and went back in the house.

So you know where this goes. The dad is saying, "So why are you in here, son?" He says, "Dad, it's heavy fog outside. I can't see more than 10 feet in front of me." The dad says, "Oh really? It's foggy. You can only see about 10 feet in front of you?" He said, "About 25 feet." The dad said, "This is what you do. Get in the car and drive those 25 feet."

The idea is: if you go 25 feet, then you will see another 25 feet and then be able to go 25 more feet.

Friends, you and I may not see clearly all the way down the road, the will of God. It may be unclear, as foggy. But we must take a step toward what we can see. Friends, if we can only see five feet in front of us, we need to go those five feet because when we go those five feet, we will be able to see five more feet. Again, God's will be done.

The question is: do we want God's will? I believe many of us would say that we want it individually. But do we want God's will corporately and globally? See, most of us would say yes to that. But when we can't make sense of what's before us—when God is foggy out here and we can only see 25 feet in front of us—when we can't make sense of what's before us, we turn from what God wants to what we want and think that what we want is what God wants.

So then we switch it. It becomes less about God's will, but we look at what we want, and because we're good Christians, we assume that "Oh God, this was on my heart, and your word says you will give me the desires of my heart. So what I feel and what I want must be your will." But we're not letting God lead in that moment.

How Can We Know God's Will?

But how can we know God's will? How can we know it? Many of us love devotions, and let me say outright: Russell is not against devotions. As a matter of fact, I would say please do a morning devotion.

But I'll also say, if all you want is a devotion, that's like going to a restaurant for a meal and only wanting a snack. We didn't go to the restaurant for a snack. We want a meal, and in order to get a meal, we need all of God's word. Because in all of his word, this is where we would know his will.

All scripture is inspired by God. God breathe and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training, and righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. — 2 Timothy 3:16-17

By the way, when Paul wrote this, he is not referring to what we know as the New Testament because Paul did not have a New Testament. It was being written. Paul says all scripture. He's talking about Genesis to Malachi. Even that book Leviticus that you and I just go through. We're not trying to read about all the cubits and all of these things. But Paul says all scripture is inspired by God.

God's will is revealed in his word. All we have to do is come to it. Now, see, I'm an old school dude. I still like the hand, the book I can hold in my hand. But now, with phones, all of us have access to a Bible. If you want to read King James, you can find it. ESV, you can find it. NASV, we have the word of God at our fingertips. But I wonder if we desire to come to God daily and saturate ourselves in what he has said in his word.

Let your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. — Matthew 6:10

The Lord's Prayer as a Model

Today, I wanted to look at this section of the text that we call the Lord's prayer, which I don't like to call it the Lord's prayer. Why? Because Jesus never had to confess sins. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." This is a model prayer. This is the prayer that Jesus is teaching the disciples to pray and how they should approach God.

Friends, we must understand this: we can't approach God any kind of way. He is a holy God. There is a way that we enter. Now, we come boldly—Hebrews says we come boldly before the throne—but we come with a heart posture that says, you're God. Your name is holy. You're the king who rules. You're the one who provides for us. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." There is a posture that we ought to have when we come to God.

So, as Jesus is teaching this to the disciples, he is on a mountain in Galilee. And it's the section of the text that we call the Sermon on the Mount. In this section of teaching, Jesus shows that blessings are the promises of the kingdom—God's kingdom—for those who live a repentant life. The blessings are the promises of the kingdom for those who live a repentant life.

Doctor Tony Evans says that in the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes, Jesus gives us the antibiotics from God's pharmacy that can aid in life's transformation. I love it. If you don't listen to Tony Evans, do yourself a favor. Listen to Doctor Evans because he is able to give word pictures and I love it. These antibiotics from God's pharmacy—God has medicine that heals. It's in his word that aids in life transformation.

Living from the Inside Out

So, what Jesus taught here is that he is concerned with what is happening on the inside that will show itself on the outside. You know, sometimes I get frustrated with people and myself. Let me put myself there first. When I do something sinful or I say something I should not say, I would then say this: "Oh that's not me." Really? Because what comes out is what's in. And Jesus has given a rubric now for that multivitamin that would rework the inside of ourselves so that what comes out reflects what he put in.

But often, our actions and our words don't display the truth of what he has in his word. What he taught here is that placing it on the inside—what the repentant life looks like on the inside—will show itself up on the outside. And this is how the people of the kingdom of God live. Those who trust in the Lord Jesus are kingdom people, and this is how they live.

But what does the kingdom of God mean? The kingdom of God is the sovereign rule of God initiated by Christ's earthly ministry and will be consummated when the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever.

Revelation 11:13

So, when Jesus came to earth, he said, "Repent for the kingdom of God has come near." But I would also want to expand this—not on Jesus's words, but I want us to look back in the Old Testament to see that the kingdom did not just come when Jesus came to earth. The kingdom is also seen in Genesis one and two, with God reigning and ruling. But then Adam and Eve being given a mandate to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.

God had given Adam and Eve a mandate: Eden, which is one place on the planet. The rest of the earth was not Eden, but they ought to expand Eden throughout the Earth. How are they to do that? They have kids who would be living under the rubric of God's kingdom, expanding it. And so where Adam failed, Jesus did not fail. He came and said, "Now, you need to repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near." See, the kingdom has come because Jesus has come, and therefore, to be a part of this kingdom, any person who is a part of this kingdom will have their lives marked by repentance.

Friends, repentance ought to be part and parcel of your life, of my life. If you're like me, you're repenting all the time. I don't say that boastfully. I say that I'm repenting every day. Because the word of God tells me I can confess. First John one nine says:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. — 1 John 1:9

Now, this is not like I lose my salvation every day. No, I'm in Christ. I'm relationally connected to Christ. But now for relationship to be vibrant, I come to God and confess, because he already knows. He already knows the thoughts that you and I had. He knows if we are married that we've messed up with our spouses, that we've said something we shouldn't say. He knows when our minds are coveting certain things. He knows all of that, and then we are able to come to him and repent.

Here's the main thing I want you to get from this message, prayerfully: Everything will be set right someday. Everything is going to be set right someday. It's not always going to be like this. Even though it feels like I'm getting tired of what we're living in, it's not always going to be this way. But it is this way right now because the world is broken.

I remember yesterday as I was looking at the news, I got an alert that there was another mass shooting. I'm frustrated with these mass shootings. I see it's happening in Buffalo, and I see it's an eighteen-year-old kid who drove up in army fatigues, going into an inner city community, goes to a grocery store, and just opens fire, killing people. We live in a broken world. We're all living in the midst of a global pandemic. We're thinking we're on the other side of it, and then this new variant is hitting people. But because we're so fatigued, we're just like, "Man, it's whatever. I'm gonna get it anyway." But then we still look and see that there are people dying of this virus. Or if you're like my family, we continue to look down the barrel of sickness in our homes, with our families, and know it's not right. The person who is sick—we remember when they were not sick—but yet the sickness is ravaging their body. God, something is not right. But my friends, everything will be set right someday.

The Fruit of Repentance

Here is the one point I want us to think through from this verse—only one today: Only those who bring forth the fruit of repentance genuinely pray for God's kingdom to come. Only those who bring forth the fruit of repentance genuinely pray for God's kingdom to come. But what is the fruit of repentance? What does that look like? I'm glad you asked, because John the Baptist deals with this in Luke chapter three starting in verse seven through verse fourteen. The text says:

He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, "Brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore, produce fruit consistent with repentance. Don't start saying to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. The axe is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn't bear, that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

What then should we do? the crowds were asking him. He replied to them, "The one who has two shirts must share with someone who has none, and the one who has food must do the same." Tax collectors also came to be baptized and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He told them, "Don't collect any more than what you have been authorized." Some soldiers also questioned him, "What should we do?" He said to them, "Don't take money from anyone by force or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages." — Luke 3:7-14

Do you see it? The fruit of repentance that John gives is right where you and I live. It's the things that we do. How we treat one another. Fruit is the result of something. It's offspring. So the result of a changed life shows itself in what can be seen.

Here's a question for you, friends: If we say we are in Christ, do you hate certain groups?

Do I hate certain groups of people when God's word says, love Him with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself? In other words, love all people. But then Jesus one-ups that. He says, love even your enemies. Love even your enemies.

If we say we're in Christ, do we steal or extort from others? I used to read a lot of stories—and still do read James Baldwin and other writers—who would talk about the horrors of living in places like Harlem where you had slumlords who would have rent but then raise it to an enormous price that really paralyzed the person living in that apartment, extorting them. And this is still happening in our day. I'm not just talking about financial matters like rent and things of that nature, but people are stealing from others. Do we refuse to be generous with our time, talent, and treasure? Do we refuse to see someone who is hungry and we have the means to get them something to eat but refuse to? And we say stuff like, "Oh, you look like an able-bodied person who can go to work while you're not working." This is the fruit of repentance.

Your Kingdom Come

So Jesus continues this model prayer in verse 10, and he's telling the disciples that they should pray this way: "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Now, most scholars recognize that Jesus did not get this prayer out of nowhere. Jesus is God. He could've just offered a prayer that no one prayed before. But I love it—Jesus came to Earth to a particular culture, the Jewish culture, and He did not rework things in a sense. He didn't ignore the things that were right before Him. He actually took a prayer that they often prayed in synagogues that was called the Kaddish.

Jeremiah quotes what he believed to be the prayer's earliest form. Listen to it:

Exalted and hallowed be His great name in the world which He created according to His will. May He let His kingdom rule in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel. Speedily and soon and to this day, amen.

So Jesus is teaching the disciples to pray in a very similar way. He teaches them here in verse 10 to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Early on in His prayer, Jesus tells them that they should pray, "Hallowed be Your name" or "Your name be honored as holy." Then He talked about the consummation of His reign, His kingdom coming and the doing of His will. All of these are variant versions of the same end-time promise: Everything is going to be set right someday.

But here's what I love. We could actually pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done" today, in the present, right? Because we all want His will to be done today. But this will of God, His kingdom coming, also has an eschatological ring—meaning that everything is not going to be like we want it to be, but there is a day coming. Just read the book of Revelation. And by the way, if you read Revelation, don't go looking for helicopters and atom bombs and stuff like that. John is not writing about that. But what you can get when you read Revelation is this truth: Jesus wins. And because He wins, we win as the people of God. Everything is going to be set right someday.

Complacency and Kingdom Prayer

Now, we will not pray this prayer if we are complacent. If we are complacent with the treasures and the trinkets of our day. What do I mean?

We're not going to pray this prayer if we've got a good salary on our job. We're not worried about food prices and gas prices going up because God has given us some resources and we're okay. My savings account has thousands upon thousands of dollars in it. My 401k is swollen. I'm good, right? My kids are not acting up. I've got good insurance. As a matter of fact, I'm on deck. I'm right in line for another raise. My life is good.

But here's the problem: we don't live in bubbles. We don't live in bubbles. Our lives bump up against people who are not doing as well. So here's the truth: you bump up against my life, you're going to find out that everything is not okay. Now, things could be worse in my life, but things are not perfect in my life. When I bump up against you, I would find out real quick. It doesn't matter if you make more money than me, but I will understand really quick that life for you is not perfect. It's not.

See, because we live in a time and a place where perfection is unattainable. We're not always healthy. We know this is true because all of us—whether we want to say, "I ain't worried about the pandemic" or "I'm not worried about COVID"—the truth is you don't want it. We know it's a problem. We're trying to stay away from it in whatever ways that we do it. We're afraid of disease and sickness.

I also feel like there is a paranoia among us. What do I mean? We look at such a divide.

We're so divided as a country right now that we put people on either side—you must be for them on the far right or for them on the far left. And if you side with any side, then the one on the other side looks at you with disdain, and we're like, something is wrong with you. We caricature everybody, right? If you're a Democrat, so you believe in abortions, you believe in such and such. If you're a Republican, oh, you don't believe in justice. We just caricature, and we look at people and we don't even know them. We don't even get a chance to know one another, but we put them in a category. All of this just shows me that there is a problem in our world.

Your kingdom come, Lord. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But for the people of God, there is a yearning that grows inside us day by day as we seek the Lord in His word. I don't know about you, but I pray this prayer every day, and I know I can pray it: "Lord, today Your will be done in my life as it is in heaven. Your will be done, Lord God."

Even when I can't understand it, because when I'm telling you—you pray that prayer, you think, "See, if I pray that prayer, then God is going to put that coin in the machine and everything is going to be smooth that day." But I promise you, as I pray it, then it's like the bottom falls out. I'm saying, "God, didn't I ask you? Didn't I ask you for your help?" But the assumption is the help must come the way I think it must come. But God sees something that you and I cannot see. He has a perspective that you and I don't have, and He knows:

All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. — Romans 8:29

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

The Kingdom Has Arrived

John the Baptist and Jesus both preached repentance because the kingdom of God has come near. And so when Jesus came to Earth, there was a new sense of urgency in His message. It was a now or never opportunity. Why? Because the kingdom has arrived. There is coming a day when this kingdom is going to be known in its fullness, and there's not going to be anymore sickness. There's not going to be anymore tears. There's not going to be anymore weakness. There's not going to be anymore pain. Why? Because He is going to be on His throne ruling in righteousness. I'm not going to have to worry anymore about injustice or whether I'll have enough to meet certain needs.

How was the kingdom seen when Jesus came to Earth? Jesus was a true gangster—with the A, not the ER. And I'm not talking about gangs that we look at. I'm talking about when you can look at a demon and the demon gets down and bows down and says, "Jesus, what are you about to do with us?" If that's gangster, that's next level. That's how you knew the kingdom was here.

Lepers would see the work of Jesus, and they knew they had to be outside of the camp. These were untouchables. They're out there and they're always yelling, "Unclean!" But Jesus comes near, and they say, "Jesus, if you will, you can make me clean." And then Jesus becomes unclean for us so that those lepers could be clean.

He sees a funeral procession. A mom who is burying her son, mourning and wailing, and the son is in the casket. Jesus stops a funeral procession. He goes to that casket and tells that young man, "Get up." And this young man gets up. This is how you see the kingdom present. But not everyone recognizes the kingdom.

In Matthew chapter 13, verses 31 and 33, here's what the text says:

He presented another parable to them. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It's the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown is taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in his branches. — Matthew 13:31-32

There was a hidden presence of God's kingdom like the mustard seed. Growing up, my grandmother—and she still to this day, she doesn't do it much, but she loved gardening. We always saw seeds. We always saw planting, and that little bitty seed is going into the ground. You can't see it. But after a while, what's unseen now becomes greatly seen. This is what the kingdom of God is like. It is preparing. That scene is preparing for a future, a more public demonstration. We call this the "already but not yet." The mustard seed is in the ground. It's there. It's already here, but it's not yet in its fullness. This is where we are when it comes to God's kingdom.

So we declare that the kingdom is already, even though not everyone recognizes it.

So here's my question for you.

In what ways can you see the kingdom of God that it has come? Are you able to recognize it? When you see someone come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, know that the kingdom of God is present. That someone is going from spiritual death to spiritual life. Even seeing people who are in Christ go from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity.

Craig Keener, a scholar, wrote a book called Miracles: Supernatural in Modern Times. You know, because we're sophisticated and we have science. When someone says a miracle has taken place, we tend not to believe it. But Craig Keener has a thick volume of documented medical examples of healing that has taken place on this Earth. It's documented.

So, when we see that, again, I don't know where you are. You may be a cessationist. That's fine, but Russell believes God can flex and heal whenever He gets ready. I'm just putting my cards on the table. That's what I believe and I'm going to continue to seek the Lord because I have sick family. I'm going to continue to seek Him. God can heal, but even if you don't heal on this side, I know healing is coming. One day, there's going to be a new body.

First Corinthians 15

They're not going to have pain. I know this is coming. Lord, let me see your kingdom.

But our sad reality for us is that even as Christians, it is so seldom that we see God's kingdom at work because we are not conditioned, or we don't have a mind to see when God is working. We have a paradigm that we place God in. We tell ourselves: if You do it this way, God, I see You. But anything outside of that, no, that must not be You, God.

I don't know if you've done this, but I certainly have done it. And what I've learned is that there's nothing—from denominations to ideologies to anything—that I can put God in and say, God, I got You all figured out. You're in this box. God is God. As I used to hear an old church mother say, He's so high you can't get over Him. He's so deep that you can't get under Him. He's so wide that you can't wrap your arms around Him. This is the God that we serve.

So instead, we come to God and put ourselves at His disposal by saying, Lord, Your will be done. And when we pray that, we trust Him with the results.

The Kingdom Come

When we pray that Your kingdom come, we are not asking that something may become true which is not already true. We're not praying that God would become king. But rather that His actual kingship by right would be fully implemented as people submit to His sovereignty. He is the true King. The essence of His kingship is that He is fully obeyed and His purpose fulfilled.

We have a high court in this land called the Supreme Court. Trust me, I'm not about to get deep because Russell didn't understand anything about law. But I do know that the Supreme Court is the top court. There are a bunch of lower courts that also make rules. They make decisions. They come up with answers. But they could do whatever they want to do. When a Supreme Court decides to take on a case, it doesn't matter what that lower court has determined. The Supreme Court's answer overrules anything that the lower courts have decided.

Friends, I don't know who has made a decision for your life and I don't know what court has ruled your circumstances. It may be that your employer has ruled that you will never get that promotion. It may be that the court of your finances has determined that you would never have enough. It may be that the court of your doctor would say that we can't fix that disease. But I will call on you to do something. Take it to the Supreme Court. Take it to God, because His decision is the one that matters. At least place it up there in the docket so that God can decide what the final rendering is. Whatever God's rendering is, it doesn't matter what these lower courts have said.

As a matter of fact, yes, it is real. All that we're dealing with this pandemic, but I wonder what would happen if the people of God will bombard heaven asking God to move in a way as we are dealing with all of this stuff. I wonder if we will see a mighty move of God. Whether He decides to remove it or not, but I want Him to move in a way that we can sincerely, clearly see His hand and say, God, I see You. And that we would take another step towards Him. Because even as we are struggling here, we see God beckoning us: follow Me. Follow Me. Even though it's difficult.

Therefore, as the people of God, we must join God's angelic forces in honoring and serving Him. Friends, right now, we must know this. At this moment, in heaven, angels are obeying the commands of God. Obeying them perfectly. And Jesus said we can pray: Lord, Your will be done on earth the way that the angels are obeying You in heaven. We pray that that same obedience will be manifested in our lives on earth.

We want God's kingdom to come to where His name and glory will saturate this earth, that He would rule in righteousness. Until that day, we have a responsibility, and that responsibility for us is to proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone we come in contact with.

Prayer

Father, thank you. Always thank you, Lord God, for Your word. Lord God, my prayer for us is one of obedience—obeying what Your word has said. That presupposes that we are in Your word, and so I pray that if we don't have a heart to come to Your word, Lord, give us a heart to want to know what Your word has said.

Lord, again, I want to pray for the families of those who are experiencing the loss of loved ones there in Buffalo. I pray for those of us who are experiencing pain here this morning. Whatever it is—whether it's a doctor's report, whether it's family that's not doing well, whether it's struggling financially—Lord God, You see all that is happening with us. And I pray, Lord:

Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We ask this in the name of Christ Jesus. Amen.