Back to Sermon Index The Family Room of Prayer...Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done...On Earth as it is in heaven. February 24, 2008 There is a difference between a family room and a living room. When I grew up, folks often had both. The Living room was a mysterious place that we never went! It was there for company, but it seemed that all the company we had spent their time with us in the family room. The living room had nice furniture, often with covers on it. There were knick-knacks on the coffee table and the room was full of delicate breakables. YOU BOYS STAY OUT OF THERE! My mother would say. I would go into the Living room to read sometimes, and it made everyone uncomfortable. My brothers would warn me to not be in there when Mom got home. What was I doing in there...it made them uncomfortable, like someone going behind the velvet ropes at a museum. But the family room was different. It was full of comfortable and well used furniture. There was nothing breakable that was not broken already. It is where everyone lived. People played games, watched TV, listened to music, and just hung out. God's great house of prayer might have a living room...perhaps it is the great cathedrals of worship. But where we really live is the family room. And it is represented for us in this duel petition: Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done...on earth as it is in heaven. These two are the same request, repeated for emphasis. Thy kingdom come is when people surrender themselves to Jesus as King. Thy Kingdom come is when we acknowledge Jesus as King of our hearts and our lives and our homes and our work. To let him rule and give allegiance to no one else. He is king above all others and we echo the proclamation of the church through the ages: Jesus Christ is Lord! This was the proclamation of the early church, Jesus is Lord. It is repeated in the Gospels and through out the New Testament writings. It is a statement of ultimate allegiance and yes, defiance. For us to understand the impact and the gravity of this proclamation we must understand the culture in which it was made. The term Lord means king, but is more familiar. It means master, leadr and he one to whom we swear our allegiance. Every year every Roman citizen was required to swear allegiance to Rome and to Caesar. This was done in public before local and Roman officials. The citizens would gather in the amphitheater where they would see a bust of Caesar displayed. Each person was to come forward when called and drop to one knee...present their offering and bow their heads and proclaim Caesar lord. Caesar is Lord was the common phrase of commitment and devotion to Rome and the present ruler. Caesar was the most powerful person on the globe, and he ruled Rome with an iron fist. The cult of Caesar proclaimed that he was a god in flesh. There were temples erected to Caesar, where people gathered for weekly worship and sacrifice. Making your commitment to Rome and its ruler for some was merely a symbolic gesture, a formality of citizenship that must be endured... a day away from the home and the shop. But for many it was a true swearing of allegiance and commitment. Rome was revered by its citizens — and with good reason. While Rome could be cruel and savage, and its ruler diabolical and insane...for the most part people revered the idea of Rome. Romans had rights as citizens, and there were laws that were enforced throughout the vast empire. There was commerce and travel and a common language and coin throughout the empire. Romans built...they built roads and aqueducts that are still in used today...and many of its grander structures still endure after thousands of years. And Rome had culture and drama and sport. Rome provided pubic spas and baths for the community at large, not just the elite. Roman military power was unsurpassed in the known world. Its solders were feared and respected from the British Isles to North Africa and as far east as Persia. People believed that Rome was eternal and its ruler a god on earth, absolute ruler and Lord of all the kingdom. But then alone came the Christians. They had different ideas and a different view of the Roman life and culture...and they had a different proclamation. Caesar was just a man, and he was often not even a good man. And although they might love their country, they knew that it was not always just and good and that it certainly was not divine or eternal. They were citizens of a new and different kingdom. A kingdom where every person was valued and the weak do not exist to serve the strong, nor do the poor live to serve the rich. Men and women, slaves and free, Greek or Roman or Jew...all are brothers and sisters together and are equal before the table of the lord. In fact, it was the gifts of the Holy Spirit that called forth leaders, and they might be simple people like fishermen or tax collectors or software engineers or janitors. They had been set free from the world and its power. They belonged to a heavenly kingdom and they thought of themselves as citizens of heaven. And they had the audacity to proclaim that Jesus Christ was LORD. He was lord of their lives, Lord of their homes and marriages and work, lord of little, Lord of much, Lord of life, Lord of all. No Caesar, but Jesus. The Apostle Paul shares for us the words of an early Christian hymn or poem. In his doing so, we know that it would have been widely known and remembered. It says that "Jesus Christ, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross, Therefore God highly exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him a name that is above every Name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ Is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:6-11). Jesus Christ is Lord, he is king, president, premier and prime minister. A proclamation that sent ripples through the Roman empire. These Christians were a problem. They had to be watched or taken care of. They weren't loyal Romans and unwilling to put Caesar first. Whom do you put first? Would you be willing to publically proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord...and refuse to "bend the knee" to Caesar? Even if it meant others would look at your, would know you did not join them in their worship and allegiance to the world's ruler? Who do you put first in your life? Who is Lord? You? Your work? Your family? Your country? Jesus Christ is Lord means that God's kingdom has come and is now here. Not fully seen or developed, but in this place...around me and my life, I pray that his kingdom may come...that Jesus would be lord of all. We pray for his kingdom to come on earth...but also in our lives. It is a commitment and an act of personal devotion and worship. And we pray for his kingdom to grow until it is on earth as it is in heaven. Every time we pray we should remember and reaffirm who is lord, and renew our commitment to Jesus...and to trying to do his will. It is the simplest pray and the hardest. Thy will be done. We see Jesus' struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. Sometimes God's will is something big. God is calling you to be in service in some way or do enter some kind of ministry. To do something big for Jesus...even if it is only Big to you. How do you discover the Will of God? One way God reveals his will to you is through the church. He speaks to one member of his body through another member. It could happen in a Bible class, a small group, during communion, or during dessert. God has as many methods as he has people. Another is to prayerfully consider what your passion is...there you will find the will of God for your life...for God is at work within us, both to Will and to Do his good pleasure. God works to help us want to do what he wants us to do...Max Lucado says in his book "The Great House of God" Do you want to know God's will for your life? Then answer this question: What ignites your heart? Forgotten orphans? Untouched nations? The inner city? The outer limits? Heed the fire within! Do you have a passion to sing? Then sing! Are you stirred to manage? Then manage! Do you ache for the ill? Then treat them! Do you hurt for the lost? Then teach them! As a young man I felt the call to preach. Unsure if I was correct in my reading of God's will for me, I sought the counsel of a minister I admired. His counsel still rings true. "Don't preach," he said, "unless you have to." As I pondered his words I found my answer: "I have to. If I don't, the fire will consume me." What is the fire that consumes you? Mark it down: Jesus comes to set you on fire! He walks as a torch from heart to heart, warming the cold and thawing the chilled and stirring the ashes. He is at once a Galilean wildfire and a welcome candle. He comes to purge infection and illuminate your direction. The fire of your heart is the light of your path. Disregard it at your own expense. Fan it at your own delight. Blow it. Stir it. Nourish it. Cynics will doubt it. Those without it will mock it. But those who know it — those who know him — will understand it. To meet the Savior is to be set aflame. To discover the flame is to discover his will. Thy will Be done... But other times, the will of God is simple. We think to much about finding God's will that is not known and not enough about doing God's will that is known. I mean, we know that we are called to be faithful today in following Jesus. We are to be kind, generous, loving, courageous and caring. We are to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. These things we know to be the will of God... And our daily prayer for God's will is a prayer to be like Jesus in our life, our thoughts, our attitudes and our actions. To live out the claim that Jesus Christ is Lord...and thus bring his kingdom to this moment on earth. To this relationship. To this work I do, time I spend, dreams I hope. To this moment and this day, o God, thy will be done, thy Kingdom come...in my life as it is in heaven. Back to Sermon Index