INTRODUCTION: Last Sunday we learned several truth concerning praying.

1. There are two accounts in the NT in which the Lord Jesus gave the Model Prayer.
In the Sermon on the Mount. Matt. 6:5
When asked by the Disciples. Luke 11:1-4

2. This is the Model Prayer and is improperly named "the Lord's Prayer" The Lord's prayer is in found in John 17.

3. There are two activities the Child of God is to be a part of every believer's life.

The Study of the Word of God and Prayer.
1 - In the Bible God speaks to us......
2 - In prayer we speak to the Lord.....

4. Prayer is a vital part of the believer's life and relationship to the Lord. 1 Thess. 5:17, says to pray without ceasing meaning we are to be continually in prayer.

5. Jesus instructed His disciple to pray "After this manner" which literally means: "Thus or therefore." It does not mean to "use the exact words, but to pray "along these lines." The model prayer is a skeletal outline for all prayer. In other words the subject of prayer should follow the model prayer.

6. The Model Prayer begins: "OUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN". Matt. . 6:9

Who is your prayer directed toward?
1. You are praying to the Lord God our Creator.
2. Note is starts "Our". This prayer is only for a child of God.
3. We honor God the Father as the Head of the Trinity, praying to the Father and closing the prayer in Jesus' s name. God the Father sees us through the righteous of Jesus Christ.

7. The Model prayer says: WE ARE TO REVERE THE NAME OF GOD. "HALLOWED BE THY NAME."
a. To honor someone we honor their name. Memorials: to Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson.
A name identifies the person.

This is a Baptist church. That is a name. It traditionally means people who solely follow the Bible for their faith and practice. It does not make us what we are but a name is taken to describe what something is.

Baptist: People who believe in immersion for baptism and follow the Bible alone as their sole authority for faith and practice.

Fundamentalist: We literally believe and follow the Bible and nothing else.

Independent: We recognize only the Lord Jesus as being the Head of the Church, the Bible our authority. We an autonomous congregation with no one over us. We rule ourselves following the New Testament.

b. To "Hallow" the name of God is to have a holy and reverent regard for the name of God.
1. Ten Commandments:
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exodus 20:7)

2. Taking the Lord's name in vain means using it in slang or as a curse word. It means the Lord's name is to be set apart for God alone.

It is certainly disrespectful to refer to God as "the old man upstairs" or similar expressions. God is not a man He is Almighty God! We should never use the name of God the Father, Christ or the Holy Spirit as slang.

To misuse God's name is to show disrespect for God. Christians who have experienced the New Birth and have surrendered to the Lord Jesus are grateful and thankful for their salvation. They should never use curse words, or slang or off color language. People who use such language are showing contempt for God.

This practice degrades the person who does it, and in the case of a Christian, seriously harms their testimony. When you hear someone misusing God's name how does it impress you? We generally think little of them. Would you curse in front of your father or mother? Why not?

It is sin to use the Lord's name in vain and is a symptom of a spiritual problem. Using God's name in vain is a blatant sin. It is not discerning the Body and Blood of Christ. (see 1 Cor. 11:29). The Jews so revered the Lord's name that they would not speak it or even write it. Even today when writing the word "God," the orthodox or conservative Jew will spell it G-d.

c. Praying is addressing God, who loves and cares for us and pictures the responsibility of the earthly father who should love his child. Thus is would be totally improper not to show respect to God.

A. When we pray, and sincerely look forward to the Lord's Kingdom we are affirming our part in it.
"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13-14)

GOD has a plan for this Universe and believers are part of it.

1. The believer is made a part of God's Kingdom.

2. The believer is affirming that he has relinquished the rule of his life, and desires that God take control and do His will.

B. The Kingdom of God has several aspects.
1. The universal kingdom of God. This is God's rule over the entire universe, including rebellious men and angels.
The kingdom of God in this sense has no beginning and shall have no end; it is simply God's sovereign rule over His created universe.

2. God promised the world and the nation of Israel that the Messiah would one day come to earth and rule. Because of Israel's rebellion, God took their kingdom away, and in 70 AD Israel was scattered throughout the world (Jer. 29:16-19). The Bible promises, though, that God will rebuild this kingdom in the future.
(1) Possession of the land forever (compare Gen. 12:7; 13:14-17; Am. 9:15).
(2) Seed as the stars for multitude (compare Gen. 15:1-5; Jer. 33:22).
(3) Eternal earthly kingdom with God as Ruler (compare Gen. 17:7-8; Joel 3:17-20; Is. 9:6,7).
(4) Ultimate victory over enemies (compare Gen. 22:17; Joel 3:1-16).
(5) Throne of David established forever (compare 2 Sam. 7:14,15; Is. 9:6,7). Jesus Christ will rule over the world from Jerusalem.
(6) House and kingdom of David established forever (compare 2 Sam. 7:16; Zech. 12:7-10; Am. 9:11).
(7) Time of peace. The effect of the curse in the garden of Eden would be partly undone. The earth will yield great amounts of food, animal will not be carnivorous. There would be no wars, famine sickness. Men will still have a sinful nature.

3. For the Christian, it means that we being the bride of Christ, will be a part of the kingdom. We will be closest to Christ Jesus during this time.

C. The world mocks these promises from God.
They say man by his own efforts will conqueror the stars. Yet, man can't overcome, murder, child abuse, sex crimes, abortion, wars, unrest disease & drugs pollution and destruction of our world. The more technology supposedly advances man, yet only more and greater problems arise.

ILLUS: I watched a news clip which was advertising a coming special on bullies in school. The clip showed children playing at recess. The boys were fighting, and kicking one at one another like karate . I mentioned to Carolyn...that they learned that from the video games, TV programs which depict these things. Children on an average watch over four hours of TV per day and much of it is based on violence. Thus this technology because it is not proper used has made our children become "immune" to the horror of violence, to gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems, to imitate the violence they observe on television; and identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers.

The Bible tells us things will grow worse as we proceed in time toward the Great Tribulation. Many believe that violence and murder were the reason the Lord destroyed the earth in the Great Flood.

In praying for God's kingdom to come we are praying for an end to sin and violence and all the heartache that mankind suffers. We are longing for the peace that only God will bring. Most people are looking to government to bring peace. We look to the President to make the proper decision and to guide us to peace. Problem is that is rarely their reason the aspired to the position. They mostly want the power and prestige that the government position gives them over other people. Most are self which is the state of all lost men. No man or government can bring peace....only God can. The faithful believer knows God's promises are true and one day...maybe soon...He will come and rule this world.

D. The world seeks to build a kingdom without God!

ILLUS: Today, January 10, 2008 George Bush is in Israel supposedly seeking to negotiate a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians. Who then are the partisipants in the negotiation? The nation of Israel who in truth ignore God, do not believe or follow His word. They do not know the God that created them and made them at nation. They blindly conduct their affairs according to human reasoning. The Palestines are Arabs who worship the false God Alah that does not exist. They have no regard for God, or even the most elemenary mortals and proper human behavior. The hate all Christians and those that believe in Jesus Christ. So what can people like this accomplish? Nothing! Every treaty they have signed as been violated and has never brought peace.

Yet, the believer recognizes the Will of God will be done and longs for it. Therefore in the Christians prayers he longs for Christ's return and an end to the sinful ways of man ruling the world. He longs to see the Lord honored, ruling and peace on earth.

E. Praying for souls to be saved is praying for the kingdom of God to come.
Living a life that is a testimony to life changing power of God...is seeking God's kingdom to come.

F. The desires of our lives for the believer will be in tune with those of God.
How could it be otherwise? Many professing Christians lives are confusing! They say Christ Jesus is their Lord, and yet Christ has little effect on their lives.

They do not consider the Lord in where they go, what the say, what they work for, what are their desires, what they do with the their money. Serving the Lord is secondary in their lives and only if it is convenient and they do not have anything else to do.

If we are truly interested in God's kingdom we will live working to obey God and faithful work to build that kingdom by doing the will of God in our lives.

ILLUS: The very moment I was being convicted of my sin on the day I was saved one thought came immediately to mind. You know what it was? It was bass fishing. I knew that if I accepted Christ as my Savior....it would change my Sundays. That was the day I fished. It bothered me to think that I would have to give up fishing on Sunday. Thank God He worked in my heart and I believed and received Christ as my Savior and Lord. Yep, I quit fishing on Sundays and took my family to church. God has blessed us for that. I still fish when I can, but there are more important things that fishing. My personal obedience to the Lord, my family, my testimony are more important than catching a fish. Like all world pleasures, and it is very pleasurable to catch a big bass, it all pasts away. It means nothing. Yet, living for the Lord repeats eternal reward.
Many do not consider God in their love of one another, their nature to be forgiving, their desire for personal recognition, their dealing with temptation.

Many know little about sacrificial living. Folks if we desire the Kingdom of God, they we will be willing to do what is necessary to accomplished. We will be willing to do all we can to be a part of God's plan.

G. Praying "Thy Kingdom come" means we are praying for God's will to be done in our lives and in the world.
We are praying for the Second coming, the rapture of the saints of God, for the defeat of Satan, and that we want to see God's plans carried out in our lives and the lives of others.

Titus 2:13 says the Christian is "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ,"

1 John 3:3 explains that if a believers is truly looking for the Lord's return it will affect his life. " And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

A. The Kingdom and God's will are tied together.
1. Doing God's will in my life is an important part of God's kingdom.

2. If I do not live right, then am I truly interested in God's

3. God never desired that sin rule in the lives of men. Christ came to earth and died, paid the penalty that we would not have to be under the domination of sin.

Paul explains in Rom. 6:2 that the believer should not live in sin. He said, "God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

B. The "Talmud", the Jewish commentary on the Bible says, "A prayer in which there is no mention of the Kingdom of God is no prayer at all".

1. Prayer teaches us to that we are to live by the Word of God, letting God direct our lives? We are to live to please Him, seeking that in all you do you do as God would want?

2. The most important thing in a believer's life should be the will of God. We should ask what would God ask me to do?

There is a pen some Christians wear and a movement in which they ask "What would Jesus do?" I know what Jesus would.....a better slogan would be "What would Jesus Have me to do?"

Yet so often people build there lives on shifting sands. Wasting their lives by working to build on things that will not last. Money, material things. Many Christians involve the Lord very little in lives.

3. The question we should ask ourselves this morning is "Are we truly living for the Lord and by that reaping the blessing of God and living the best life possible on this earth.?