{"id":19223,"date":"2018-04-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-043\/"},"modified":"2018-04-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-043","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-043\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 043"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19223","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-matthew","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 043","sermon_date":"20180425","sermon_month":"4","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5716,"sermon_slides":5715,"sermon_mp3":5720,"sermon_id":"425181938442","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"5:3, 10","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n4-25-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremiah 30:7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 43\n\nMatthew 5, verse 3, continuing to progress on the doctrine of the kingdom, and the first part of the study was really laying out what does the Bible say about the kingdom so we went from Genesis to Revelation trying to understand that.\u00a0 And we basically saw that the kingdom today is not in a state of cancellation but postponement, really awaiting the response of national Israel to her Messiah.\u00a0 That took a while to go through that and then last time we completed number 2, what are the main problems with the idea that we\u2019re in the kingdom now, because that\u2019s sort of the buzzword today, that we\u2019re in the kingdom. I gave you this quote from Dallas Willard, and many other people I could quote trying to argue that\u2026 the name of the game today is people trying to argue we\u2019re in a spiritual form of the kingdom today.\n\nAnd so I gave you two main problems with that.\u00a0 The first problem is the kingdom, every time its portrayed in the Old Testament it\u2019s always portraying it as earthly over a repentant Israel.\u00a0 And the problem with kingdom now interpretation is you have to believe that somehow the New Testament changes the Old Testament meaning.\u00a0 I gave you this quote from Colin Chapman where he basically is doing that very thing.\u00a0 And that creates a lot of problems.\u00a0 For example, God cannot lie, it makes God a liar in essence.\u00a0 Number two, truth is determined by conformity to prior Scripture and if you have a spiritual form of the kingdom today and the Old Testament always portrays it as earthly and over Israel you have to come up with a definition of the kingdom in the New Testament which contradicts the Old Testament.\u00a0 And then I also showed you number three there, that the over\u00adwhelming times, the New Testament will place the kingdom, not in the present but in the future.\n\nA second major problem with this idea that we\u2019re in the kingdom now is related to the fact that the Old Testament is very clear that the kingdom can\u2019t come until the time of distress comes first.\u00a0 The time of distress is the great tribulation period.\u00a0 So Dr. Toussaint asks, \u201cIf the kingdom began in the ministry of Christ, where is the prophesied judgment in the Gospels?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWere the Old Testament prophets and John incorrect in their message?\u201d\u00a0 So again it\u2019s a case of people developing their definition of the kingdom totally independent of what the Old Testament says about it.\n\nAnd one\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of the things the Old Testament is very clear on is the kingdom will come only after the time of distress.\u00a0 The great tribulation period hasn\u2019t happened yet.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 I mean, you might feel like you\u2019re in the great tribulation period if you\u2019re going through some difficulties but I would call what you\u2019re in trial (little t), the Trial (big P) is coming upon the earth.\u00a0 And you don\u2019t want to be in that one and you won\u2019t be if you\u2019re a believer in Christ.\n\nBut the Bible is very clear that the kingdom can\u2019t come until that time period elapses.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Revelation 20 follows that whole time period described in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Revelation 20 describes the kingdom.\u00a0 So The Book of Revelation is consistent with what the Old Testament says, you can\u2019t have the kingdom until first have a time of distress.\u00a0 So those two issues really are the biggest problems with kingdom now beliefs.\n\nAnd we started last time, if I remember right, number three, if all of this is true why do some people believe that we are in the kingdom now?\u00a0 And what we started to walk through are the problem passages that people point to arguing that we\u2019re in the kingdom.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to be looking at passages from Christ\u2019s ministry, passages from Acts, passages from Paul, passages from the general letters, passages from the Book of Revelation and then some miscellaneous arguments.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re not going to do all that tonight.\n\nBut we started last time with passages from the ministry of Jesus Christ indicating that the kingdom has started.\u00a0 These are passages people use to try to argue that the kingdom has started.\u00a0 So here are all the different passages we\u2019re going to be walking through where people point to Christ\u2019s ministry and they say the kingdom started in Christ\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 We only looked at, if I remember right, the first one last time.\u00a0 The first one everybody points to (to argue that we\u2019re in the kingdom) is the statements that Jesus, John the Baptist, the apostles and the seventy make where they show up early in the Gospels, like this quote from John the Baptist and he says, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 And people misinterpret that to mean the kingdom is not near but the kingdom is here.\u00a0 So they use that basically to argue that the spiritual form of the kingdom started in the ministry of Christ, here even in the ministry of John the Baptist.\n\nAnd the last time we were together I gave you four reasons why they are misusing that verse, and I won\u2019t rehash all of those but really what that verse is saying, \u201cthe kingdom of God is at hand,\u201d it\u2019s not saying that the kingdom is here but it\u2019s saying the kingdom is near, and had Israel enthroned Christ, which they did not do nationally, the kingdom would have come.\n\nSo this takes us to another set of verses that people use routinely to argue that we are in the kingdom now.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I had you open up to Matthew 5:3, and also verse 10.\u00a0 This our Lord\u2019s teachings on the Sermon on the Mount and this takes place very early on in His ministry.\u00a0 And Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount starts to give the beatitudes and He says:\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBlessed are the\u00a0poor in spirit, for\u00a0theirs is the kingdom of heaven...\u201d And \u201cis\u201d there is the Greek verb eimi, which is in the present tense and so people try to argue that because the present tense of that verb is used then Jesus obviously started a spiritual form of the kingdom at His first coming.\u00a0 See that?\n\nAnd verse 3 and verse 10 are sort of the brackets to a chunk of material, those two brackets, if you want the fancy word are called an inclusio, it\u2019s sort of like eating a sandwich, you\u2019ve got your roast beef in the middle and you\u2019ve got your two pieces of bread on the outside.\u00a0 The two pieces of bread are what we would call the inclusio, including everything in between.\u00a0\u00a0 So the inclusio is what starts the unit and what ends the unit, and then the content is what\u2019s in between those two things.\n\nSo verse 3, Jesus says, \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for there is<\/u> the kingdom of heaven,\u201d and then at the end, the end of the inclusio he says in verse 10, \u201cBlessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is\u201d again present tense of the Greek verb eimi<\/em>, \u201cthere is<\/u> the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\u00a0 So people will say well, there it is, right there in the Bible, Jesus says \u201cfor theirs is the kingdom of heaven\u201d when He was giving the beatitudes so therefore Jesus started a spiritual form of the kingdom in His first coming.\u00a0 See that, see the argument?\u00a0 And let me give you four fast reasons why I think that is not what Jesus is saying at all.\n\nThe first reason is yes, the present tense verb is used to describe the kingdom in verse 3 and verse 10 but if you go down to verse 19 of Matthew 5, it says, \u201cWhoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You see when he says \u201cshall be\u201d?\u00a0 Is he putting the kingdom there present or future?\u00a0 He\u2019s putting it into the future.\n\nHe does the same thing in verse 20, He says, \u201c\"For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\u00a0 So is He putting the kingdom there in the present or the future?\u00a0 It\u2019s very clear, He\u2019s putting it into the future.\u00a0\u00a0 And then if you go one chapter to the right and go over to Matthew 6:10, the so-called Lord\u2019s prayer, you might be saying to yourself I\u2019ve never really understood that prayer.\u00a0 Well, stay tuned, you\u2019re going to get an explanation of that prayer tonight like you\u2019ve never heard before.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 When I received this explanation I was startled at how wrong I was in thinking I was praying the right prayer the right way and the reality is the prayer was nothing the way I was praying it because the Bible doesn\u2019t support the way I was praying the prayer.\u00a0 And I would say 99% of Christendom misunderstands this prayer, and yet we pray it all the time and we don\u2019t even really know what we\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 That\u2019s not a putdown to anybody, that\u2019s a putdown to myself because I was in the same boat\u00a0 until I had someone come along, Dr. Toussaint, and explain it.\u00a0 But more on that in just a second.\n\nIf you look at verse 10 part of that prayer is \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d\u00a0 Now isn\u2019t that kind of odd to pray for the kingdom to come if we\u2019re already in it?\u00a0 So that verse puts the kingdom into the future as well.\u00a0 And then if you go over to Matthew 6:33, people use this to argue that we\u2019re in the kingdom, it says, \u201cBut seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.\u201d\u00a0 And I don\u2019t think that verse is saying we\u2019re in the kingdom either.\u00a0 It\u2019s saying seek the values of the kingdom; your knowledge of the future and the values of the future dictate\u00a0 your actions in the present.\u00a0 So it is true that verses 3 and 10 of Chapter 5 of Matthew seem to indicate that the kingdom is now but when you keep studying this out what you learn is that the kingdom, other than in Matthew 5:3 and other than Matthew 5:10 is something that\u2019s a future reality.\n\nSo I would encourage you when you\u2019re constructing your theology not to build it on a verse or two but to keep reading in the context and see how the context uses the same word in other places.\u00a0 And I think if you start looking at this the word kingdom is not viewed as a present reality physically, it\u2019s a future reality.\n\nSo if that is true then how do I explain the use of the present tense verb, eimi<\/em>, in Matthew 5:3 and Matthew 5:10?\u00a0 What in the world is Jesus saying when He\u2019s saying there \u201cis\u201d the kingdom?\u00a0 Well, this is an example of what\u2019s called the futuristic present.\u00a0 You say what in the world is that?\u00a0 Dan Wallace, the Greek grammarian, wrote a big thick book on Greek grammar and he describes the futuristic present as follows, a Dallas Seminary professor.\u00a0 I had him for a class or two.\n\nHe says, \u201c\u201cThe present tense\u201d that\u2019s in Greek, \u201cmay be used to describe a future event, though. . . . it typically adds connotations of immediacy and certainty....The present tense may describe an event that is wholly<\/em> subsequent to the time of speaking, although as if it were present.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament with Scripture, Subject, and Greek Word Indexes<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 535-35.]\u00a0 So sometimes in the Bible what you\u2019ll discover is the Bible will use a past tense or a present tense to describe a future reality to communicate the point that the future reality is certain, it\u2019s going to happen, and it\u2019s imminent, it can happen at any moment.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s so certain and so imminent that the Bible presents it as a present tense reality or uses the present tense verb when in actuality the Bible isn\u2019t actually using the present tense to describe a present reality; it\u2019s\u00a0 using the present tense to describe the certainty of something.\u00a0 Does that make any sense?\n\nFor example, have\u00a0 you studied 1 John 2:17 lately?\u00a0 It says, \u201c1 John 2:17, \u201cThe world is passing away and\u00a0also<\/em>\u00a0its lusts; but the one who\u00a0does the will of God lives forever.\u201d\u00a0 Now \u201cpassing away\u201d is the Greek verb parag\u014d<\/em>,<\/em> and that verb is in the present tense.\u00a0 So two thousand\u00a0 years ago John said the world is passing away, present tense.\u00a0 He describes the world as passing away in his day and\u00a0 you might say to yourself well John must have been wrong because two thousand years have passed and the world is still here.\u00a0 So if the world never passed away in John\u2019s day why did he use the present tense verb to communicate the passing away of the world?\u00a0 Because in John\u2019s thinking the passing away of this world is so certain that he describes it with the present tense.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo he\u2019s talking about something completely future but it\u2019s so certain and so immediate that it can happen at any time that John uses the present tense verb.\u00a0 And that\u2019s all Jesus is doing in Matthew 5, verse 3 and verse 10 when He says, \u201ctheirs is\u201d eimi<\/em> \u201cthe kingdom.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s not saying you\u2019re in the kingdom, he\u2019s saying your citizenship in the kingdom is certain, in fact, it\u2019s so certain I can describe it through the present tense verb.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Dan Wallace means when he talks about the futuristic present.\n\nSo I give you this long quote here from Stanley Toussaint, explaining what I just said.\u00a0 And Dr. Toussaint, in his commentary on Matthew, called Behold the King: A Study of Matthew, <\/em>which I highly encourage you to get, I think it\u2019s probably the best Matthew commentary available.\n\nHe says, \u201cThose who are to inherit the kingdom are called blessed now<\/em> because all these things shall be theirs. All of the verbs are future in verses three through ten except two. [According to M\u2019Neile] \u201cThe present tense of estin<\/em> [\u201cis\u201d] must not be pressed:\u201d he says.\u00a0 What he is saying here, and Toussaint was a Greek scholar, he\u2019s saying don\u2019t make too much of the present tense use of the verb.\u00a0 All of the kingdom now theologians make a big deal about the present tense of the verb and Toussaint is saying don\u2019t press it.\n\nHe says, \u201cThe present tense is timeless, and in Aramaic\u201d and he\u2019s bringing up Aramaic here because he believes that was probably the language, one of the languages conversations were spoken in, so biblical writers, biblical characters probably spoke four languages.\u00a0 One would be Hebrew, the language that most of our Old Testament or Hebrew Bible is recorded in.\u00a0 Another one would be Aramaic; another one would be Greek, and probably another language they spoke was Latin due to the influence of Rome.\u00a0 So when you study the crucifixion of Christ and\u00a0 you study the sign that was put over Christ\u2019s head as He was crucified, the different gospel writers narrate those in different languages.\u00a0 So one explains it in Greek, one explains it in Aramaic, one explains it in Latin and so forth. \u00a0That\u2019s why he\u2019s bringing up Aramaic.\n\nHe says, \u201cThe present tense is timeless, and in Aramaic\u201d the language probably they were conversing in when those words took place, he says \u201cin Aramaic the connecting verb would not be used. As a potential right, the kingdom is theirs now and always: as an actual possession it is still future,\u201d see that, \u201cas is shown by the verbs in vv<\/em>. 4\u20139, which describe various aspects of the bliss.\u201d Here he quotes another scholar who also makes an excellent comment on present tense\u00a0 Montefiore also makes an excellent comment on the present tense of the copulative. \u201cThe present tense of the copula \u2018is\u2019 must not be pressed. There would have been no verb in the original. The future tense<\/em> in the next verses makes it certain that the future is also meant here. The Kingdom is the eschatolog\u00adical Kingdom: the Kingdom which is to come.\u201d [Stanley D. Toussaint, Behold the King: A Study of Matthew (Grand Rapids, Kregel, 2005), 96.]\n\nSo that\u2019s a lot of scholarly language just to make a simple point that oftentimes Biblical writers describe something with a present tense verb not to communicate a present tense reality but to communicate the certainty of that reality.\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s a certain issue that the kingdom is going to come to the earth; it\u2019s a certain reality that the earth is going to dissolve one day.\u00a0 And in fact, these things are so certain that the Bible describes them sometimes as a present tense.\n\nLet me just give you another example. Romans 8:29-30 tells you that you have already been glorified.\u00a0 [Romans 8:29, \u201cFor those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become<\/em> conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; [30] and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 Did you all know that, you\u2019re already glorified?\u00a0 You guys don\u2019t look very glorified.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I look very glorified either.\u00a0 So why would the Scripture portray our future glory as if it\u2019s already happened?\u00a0\u00a0 For a very simple reason; it\u2019s a done deal!\u00a0 It\u2019s so certain that the biblical writers sometimes use the present tense or sometimes the past tense to describe it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s all Jesus is doing here when He says theirs is the kingdom.\u00a0 See that.\n\nLet me give you another example, you might want to hold your finger here in Matthew and turn to Jude.\u00a0 \u00a0If you go over to the Book of Jude, remember Jude is the Lord\u2019s half-brother, and look at what he says here about the Lord\u2019s coming.\u00a0 Jude 14, only one chapter in the Book of Jude, that would only take me about ten years to preach through.\u00a0 Jude 14 says, \u201cIt was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, \u2018Behold, the Lord\u2019\u201d look at the verb there, \u201ccame\u201d see that, \u201cwith many thousands of His holy ones.\u201d\u00a0 Now this is talking about a prophecy that Enoch, way back in the Book of Genesis, we read about Enoch in Genesis 5, he made a prophecy about the Lord\u2019s return.\u00a0 It\u2019s clearly a second advent passage because it talks about the Lord returning with thousands of His holy ones and yet Enoch, all the way back in the Book of Genesis, as his words are recorded here, says \u201cthe Lord came.\u201d\n\nNow here we are in the twenty-first century and the Lord hasn\u2019t come\u00a0 yet.\u00a0 So why would Jude and Enoch describe a holy future event with a past tense verb like that?\u00a0 Well the issue is the coming of the Lord is so certain, just like your glorification is so certain, that the concept yet future can be spoken of as if it\u2019s already happened.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Because God is outside of time, isn\u2019t He; to God tomorrow is already today, God doesn\u2019t have to wait for His alarm clock to go off tomorrow for it to be tomorrow.\u00a0 God is outside of time and He can see tomorrow and He can see yesterday and He\u2019s not bound by time so He can describe events in His Word with present tense verbs and past tense verbs even though those events (from our standpoint, from our time zone) haven\u2019t even happened yet.\u00a0 That\u2019s how the Lord\u2019s coming is described, this is how our glorification is described.\n\nSo when Jesus said \u201ctheirs is the kingdom\u201d you shouldn\u2019t make too big a deal about the present tense verb because the present tense can be a futuristic present describing something not in terms of factual reality today but in terms of certainty.\u00a0 See that.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s great to know the Lord, right, and walk with the Lord because the Lord knows what\u2019s around the corner.\u00a0 I mean, He knows what kind of day you\u2019re going to have tomorrow and He\u2019s already provided the grace thereof. Amen!\u00a0\u00a0 Because He\u2019s outside of time.\n\nAnother problem with taking \u201ctheirs is the kingdom\u201d and trying to make it sound like we\u2019re in the kingdom now is\u00a0 you\u2019ll notice in Matthew 5:3 the word \u201ckingdom\u201d which is the Greek noun, basileia<\/em>, is the kingdom defined here when he says \u201ctheirs is the kingdom,\u201d verse 3 and verse 10 of Matthew 5 is the kingdom defined?\u00a0 \u00a0[Matthew 5:3, \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 5:10, \u201cBlessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d]\u00a0 No it\u2019s not.\n\nSo where do you think we ought to go to develop the meaning of the word \u201ckingdom\u201d?\u00a0 The Old Testament, particularly since Jesus here is speaking to the Jews who knew the Old Testament and the Sermon on the Mount, and since Matthew\u2019s Gospel was written to\u2026 I believe Matthew\u2019s Gospel was probably the earliest gospel, written to Hebrew Christians.\u00a0 A lot of people will tell you that Mark was the first gospel written; I don\u2019t think that\u2019s true at all.\u00a0 I think Matthew was the first gospel written and I think that because Matthew is answering a Jewish question\u2014if Jesus is the King where is the kingdom.\u00a0 And when was the early church Jewish?\u00a0 At its inception or later on?\u00a0 Right at the beginning the whole church was Jewish.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have a Gentile convert until Cornelius and the population of the church really doesn\u2019t start to become Gentile until Paul\u2019s first missionary journey.\n\nSo since Matthew is answering a Jewish question doesn\u2019t it make sense that it would be the first gospel written, while the church was still Jewish?\u00a0 I mean, it doesn\u2019t make any sense to make Mark the first gospel and yet in most seminaries today they\u2019ll tell you Mark was the first gospel.\u00a0 In fact, one of the members of our youth group goes to a local Christian school and at the women\u2019s fellowship, while we were waiting to serve the tables our youth pastor was doing sort of a pop quiz with our kids on Bible things and all of a sudden out of her mouth came this idea that mark is the first gospel.\u00a0 And I said who taught you that?\u00a0 Oh, over at the Christian school I go to they taught us that Mark was the first gospel.\u00a0 And I said well, you might want to rethink that, and I gave her some of the reasons I\u2019ve been giving you today, and she kind of looked at me and said that\u2019s very interesting.\u00a0 And that kind of ended the conversation.\u00a0 But that\u2019s to show you that in Christendom today the majority believe that Mark is the first gospel.\u00a0 And yet the church for 2,000 years unanimously believed Matthew as the first gospel\u00a0 This idea that Mark is the first gospel really doesn\u2019t come about until the last century, being developed in Europe\u00a0 really, under German rationalism and higher criticism.\n\nSo Matthew is a Jewish gospel written to Hebrew Christians.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t define the word kingdom so when Jesus used the word kingdom, speaking to Jews, He\u2019s expecting them to fill the definition of the word with what had already been revealed where?\u00a0\u00a0 In the Hebrew Bible.\u00a0 And you see, this is not what people are doing today.\u00a0 They\u2019re coming to the word \u201ckingdom,\u201d basileia <\/em>and they\u2019re just dumping into it whatever their political philosophy they happen to have.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a Marxist\u00a0 you dump Marxism into that.\u00a0 If you\u2019re into social critical theory you dump social critical theory into it.\u00a0 And so the kingdom is sort of a buzzword to advance people\u2019s personal agenda.\u00a0 And what I\u2019m saying here is that\u2019s not how you interpret the Bible.\u00a0 It\u2019s certainly not how you interpret \u201ckingdom\u201d in the most Jewish gospel that we have, the Gospel of Matthew.\n\nSo we have spent forty lessons, haven\u2019t we, developing the Old Testament definition of the kingdom.\u00a0 I mean, the kingdom is something that will be worldwide; \u201cthey will beat their swords into plowshares.\u201d \u00a0[Isaiah 2:4, \u201cAnd he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.\u201d KJV]\u00a0\u00a0 And it will be headquartered where? Washington D.C.?\u00a0 NO, in Jerusalem and that is how the kingdom was meant to be understood when Christ said \u201ctheirs is the kingdom.\u201d \u00a0He\u2019s not saying you\u2019re in the kingdom now; it he were to say that he\u2019d be changing the whole definition. What he\u2019s saying is\u00a0 your citizenship in the kingdom is absolutely certain; that\u2019s why He describes it with a present tense verb, eimi.<\/em>\n\nAnd beyond that, if Jesus set up a spiritual form of the kingdom through the expression, \u201cthe kingdom of heaven is at hand,\u201d Matthew 4:17, or in the expression \u201ctheirs is the kingdom\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 5:3, Matthew 5:10, if the kingdom has already been set up then what in the world are the disciples offering five chapters later?\u00a0 [Matthew 4:17, \u201cFrom that time Jesus began to preach and say, \u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 5:3,\u00a0 \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 5:10, \u201cBlessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d]\n\nDo you remember these verses, these are very important. \u00a0[Matthew 10:5-7]\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThese twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: \u201cDo not go in the<\/em> way of the<\/em> Gentiles, and do not enter any<\/em> city of the Samaritans; [6] \u00a0<\/sup>but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. [7] \u00a0<\/sup>And as you go, preach, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is at hand <\/u>\u2019\u201d \u00a0I mean, are these verses that we\u2019re going to quote if we had a missions conference, would we quote these verses here?\u00a0 A Christ for the nations conference?\u00a0 We might quote Matthew 28, the great commission, but we don\u2019t quote the offer of the kingdom because this is an offer limited to who?\u00a0 First century Israel. [Matthew 28:19-20, \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d]\n\nSo when he says \u201cThe kingdom of heaven is at hand\u201d He\u2019s not saying the kingdom is here; He\u2019s saying it\u2019s near and if Israel, the chosen nation, the elect nation enthrones the King the kingdom would have come.\u00a0 So this offer to Israel doesn\u2019t make any sense if Jesus, already in the Sermon on the Mount established a spiritual form of the kingdom.\u00a0 That\u2019s my point.\u00a0 So \u201ctheirs is the kingdom,\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 4:17] how do we understand that?\u00a0 We have to understand that it is used in the present tense there but its primary usage is in the future tense.\u00a0 So this would be an example of a futuristic present describing something in the present tense because of its certainty coming one day.\u00a0 The kingdom is totally undefined here so you can\u2019t dump into the word a spiritual meaning when we\u2019re expected to go into the Old Testament to develop the meaning.\u00a0 And if a spiritual form of the kingdom was established in Matthew 4, 5, 3, or wherever then why would it be offered to Israel in Matthew 10?\u00a0 Do you follow me on this?\n\nSo passages from Christ\u2019s ministry saying that we\u2019re in the kingdom now\u2026 the first one, \u201cthe kingdom is at hand,\u201d we dealt with that last week.\u00a0 The second one, \u201ctheirs is the kingdom\u201d we just dealt with that one.\u00a0 And now if you go one chapter to the right you\u2019ll come to Matthew 6:9-13 which is the so-called Lord\u2019s Prayer. \u00a0And if we were to really understand the Lord\u2019s prayer we would completely understand that there\u2019s no way that we could be in the kingdom.\u00a0 The prayer is structured completely NOT on the basis to argue that we\u2019re in the kingdom now.\u00a0 In fact, the whole prayer, if we understand it correctly, is a request for the kingdom to come.\u00a0 If that\u2019s our request then how could it be set up already?\n\nSo let\u2019s spend a\u2026 I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll finish this this evening but tonight and then next week let\u2019s spend some time talking about the Lord\u2019s prayer, the so-called Lord\u2019s prayer.\u00a0 And I have here the dispensational and kingdom implications of the Lord\u2019s prayer.\u00a0 Now you know the Lord\u2019s prayer, right?\u00a0 You\u2019ve been saying it forever, since you became a Christian.\u00a0 I was saying it before I was a Christian not even knowing what I was saying but I had it memorized.\n\nJesus is with His disciples and he says this: [Matthew 6:9] \u201cPray, then, in this way: \u2018Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.\u00a0 [10] Your kingdom come.\u00a0 Your will be done, o\u00a0On earth as it is in heaven.\u00a0 [11] Give us this day our daily bread.\u00a0 [12] And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.\u00a0 [13] And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.\u201d Does that sound familiar at all?\u00a0 Now let\u2019s make one thing very, very clear before we get into the Lord\u2019s prayer.\u00a0 This is really not the Lord\u2019s prayer. \u00a0The Lord\u2019s prayer is a prayer we would think that Jesus Himself prayed, right?\u00a0 But Jesus never prayed this prayer.\u00a0 You say well how do you know that?\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s a clause in it that says, verse 12, \u201cforgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.\u201d\u00a0 Did Jesus have any debts?\u00a0 Did He have any sins that needed to be forgiven in His life?\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 He\u2019s the perfect God-man without sin.\u00a0 So there\u2019s no way He could have prayed this.\n\nThe great Harry Ironside says, \u201cJesus Himself could not pray for it,\u201d this prayer in other words, \u201cfor it includes a request for forgiveness of sins, and He was ever the Sinless One.\u201d\u00a0 [Henry Allen Ironside, Expository Notes on the Gospel of Mattthew (New York: Loizeaux, 1948), 63<\/em>.]\u00a0\u00a0 So we have completely misnamed this the Lord\u2019s prayer; it is not the Lord\u2019s prayer because Jesus could not have prayed this.\u00a0 You say well where is the Lord\u2019s prayer then if it\u2019s not here. If you really want to find the Lord\u2019s prayer in the Bible you would study John 17; that is the prayer that Jesus prayed just before He died and then left the earth.\n\nAnd by the way, in that prayer, John 17, He prayed for you and He prayed for me.\u00a0 He prayed for Himself and He prayed for His disciples and then He prayed for the church that was about to be birthed on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0\u00a0 And the whole John 17 is in red and I don\u2019t like these red letter editions of the Bible because people think well, the red parts are important and everything else is unimportant.\u00a0 But the last time I checked, \u201cAll Scripture is God-breathed,\u201d the whole Bible should be in red.\u00a0 Now people put in red to identify the words of Christ and so that\u2019s fine but it mistakenly gives people the impression that some parts of the Bible are more important than others.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not true, the whole Bible is given by God. But it is true the Bible does record some of the words of Christ and in John 17 you\u2019ll see the whole thing in red because that\u2019s the Lord\u2019s prayer.\n\nIn Matthew 6 it\u2019s not the Lord\u2019s prayer but it\u2019s His prayer, it\u2019s the disciple\u2019s prayer, He\u2019s teaching them how to pray in other words.\u00a0\u00a0 Now the Lord\u2019s prayer, can I stop calling it that, can I call it the disciple\u2019s prayer\u2026 you guys with me on that?\u00a0 You guys\u00a0 won\u2019t pick up stones and stone me to death if I do that?\u00a0 The disciple\u2019s prayer is found in Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Matthew\u2019s Gospel revolves around three purposes.\u00a0 So therefore the disciple\u2019s prayer found in that Gospel has to revolve around those three purposes.\n\nSo what is the purpose of Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Remember it\u2019s the first Gospel written to Hebrew Christians.\u00a0 It has three purposes. Everything in Matthew\u2019s Gospel can be explained in light of these three purposes.\u00a0 Number 1, Matthew\u2019s Gospel was written to explain that the Jesus in whom they (the Hebrew Christians) had believed in was the long-awaited Jewish Messiah because to all of these Jews that had gotten saved, you don\u2019t even have a Gentile saved yet until Cornelius, and they\u2019re sitting around wondering well, if Jesus is the King then where is His what?\u00a0 Kingdom! So king and kingdom are like horse and carriage, they are supposed to come together.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the Old Testament said.\u00a0 So they\u2019re starting to doubt, man, maybe we believed in the wrong guy, maybe this isn\u2019t the Jewish Messiah.\n\nSo the first purpose of Matthew\u2019s Gospel is to explain that Jesus, in whom they had believed in, was the long-awaited Messiah.\u00a0 Then it\u2019s to explain to them why the kingdom had been postponed, despite the fact that the King had arrived.\u00a0 Matthew is answering a question that a Hebrew Christian is wrestling with.\u00a0 And you can\u2019t understand Matthew\u2019s Gospel until you think like a Jewish person.\u00a0 A Jewish person who is now saved is wondering if Christ is the King where is the kingdom, and maybe I have believed in the wrong guy, the kingdom is not here.\u00a0 So Matthew is written to explain that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it gives the genealogy in Matthew 1, and His miracles and His fulfillment of prophecy.\u00a0 And then it goes on and explains that the kingdom had not been cancelled but what?\u00a0 Postponed, despite the fact that the King had arrived.\u00a0 Now why had it been postponed?\u00a0 Because national Israel had done what with Jesus?\u00a0 Rejected Him.\u00a0 The coming of the kingdom is dependent upon the response of the nation\u2019s leaders to their King.\u00a0 The nation\u2019s leaders had rejected their king, a remnant had believed, and so the kingdom was not cancelled but it was in a state of postponement.\n\nThen the issue becomes well, if we\u2019re not in the kingdom now then what is God doing today?\u00a0\u00a0 So Matthew takes it to a third level and he says his third purpose is to explain the interim program of God during the kingdom\u2019s absence.\u00a0 That\u2019s why he lays out the interadvent age in the form of eight parables that we\u2019ve studied, Matthew 13, and that\u2019s why he starts talking about, in Matthew 16:18, I will build my\u2026\u201d it starts with a \u201cc\u201d, \u201cchurch.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Church?\u00a0 What\u2019s that?\u00a0 That\u2019s the interim program of God; that\u2019s us while the kingdom is not here.\u00a0 So everything that happens in Matthew\u2019s Gospel is going to relate to one, two or three of these purposes, to explain that Jesus, in whom they had believed in was the long awaited Messiah, to explain why the kingdom had been postponed despite the fact that the King had arrived, and to explain the interim program of God during the kingdom\u2019s absence.\n\nSo if that is what Matthew\u2019s Gospel is all about then the prayer of the disciples, that He taught them to pray in Matthew 6, has to relate to those three purposes.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So as you try to fit the disciple\u2019s prayer into Matthew\u2019s purposes in writing suddenly the disciple\u2019s prayer starts to make sense.\u00a0 \u00a0Dr. Toussaint says,\u00a0 \u201cThe sample prayer, it can be concluded, is given in the context of the coming kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 Now do you want to understand this prayer?\u00a0 You have to understand there\u2019s six clauses in it, six requests.\u00a0 The first three requests is part one, the second three requests is part two.\u00a0 The first three requests are petitions for the coming of the kingdom, there basically are synonyms, same meaning, different word, all requests for the kingdom to come.\u00a0 The last three are for the needs of the disciples in the interim preceding the establishment of the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 [Behold the King: A Study of Matthew (Grand Rapids, Kregel, 2005), 112.]\n\nSo requests one, two and three are different ways of praying for the kingdom to come.\u00a0 The second set of requests is since the kingdom is not here right now I\u2019ve got three needs so I\u2019m asking God to fulfill those needs, to meet those needs, while the kingdom is not here, because once the kingdom comes am I going to have those needs any more?\u00a0 No, I won\u2019t have those needs any more.\n\nNow this to me was very earthshaking and eye opening because for years and years and\u00a0 years I have followed the A.C.T.S. method, not the Book of Acts, but A.C.T.S\u00a0\u00a0 I had thought that this prayer was about \u201cA\u201d stands for adoration, you get in the presence of the Lord and\u00a0 you adore Him and you say \u201cHallowed be Thy name\u201d and things like that.\u00a0 The \u201cC\u201d in the Book of Acts is confession so you get before the Lord and first you adore Him and then\u00a0 you confess\u00a0 your sins.\u00a0 And then the \u201cT\u201d in the Book of Acts is thanksgiving, thanking God for things.\u00a0 And then the \u201cS\u201d in, not the Book of Acts but the pneumonic A.C.T.S. is supplication, you\u2019re asking God to meet a need in your life.\u00a0 So A<\/u>dore, C<\/u>onfess, T<\/u>hanksgiving, S<\/u>upplication, and for most of my Christian life, until I got under Dr. Toussaint, who started explaining these things to me, I was running this prayer through that grid.\u00a0 Now has anybody else ever done that or am I the only one, followed the A.C.T.S. model.\u00a0 See, it\u2019s very, very common, people do this all the time and they don\u2019t really understand what this prayer is.\n\nThe prayer, clauses 1, 2 and 3 are for the kingdom to come.\u00a0 The last set of requests,4, 5, and 6 are for needs that we have now while the kingdom is in postponement, because once the kingdom comes we won\u2019t have those needs any more.\u00a0\u00a0 And see, that prayer fits beautifully, the way Jesus taught them to pray here, with Matthew\u2019s purpose in writing. Right?\u00a0\u00a0 And that\u2019s one of the things you want to do when you go through any book of the Bible, you want to figure out what is the purpose of this book and how do the different paragraphs relate to the overall purpose?\n\nSo this is Dr. Toussaint\u2019s outline, the prayer, as follows: Verses 9 and 10 are requests for the kingdom to come, \u201cHallowed be Thy name\u201d is a request for the kingdom to come as I\u2019ll show you.\u00a0 \u201cYour Kingdom Come\u201d is a bold expression for the kingdom to come \u201con earth as it is in heaven\u201d is another expression for the kingdom to come.\u00a0 But until the kingdom comes I\u2019ve got three needs; one physical and two spiritual.\u00a0 So once the kingdom comes prosperity will break out all over the earth but is that what\u2019s happening today?\u00a0 I mean, we have a lot of prosperity in the United States but worldwide there\u2019s famines, there\u2019s starvation, and that\u2019s because we\u2019re not in the kingdom now.\u00a0 So I have a need for my basic needs to be met through the use of the expression \u201cdaily bread\u201d that I\u2019m to pray to God while the kingdom is not here.\u00a0 That\u2019s verse 11.\n\nAnd then do you guys ever get mad at people?\u00a0 Do you ever hold grudges?\u00a0 Not this group, maybe some of the online folks do that, certainly not us. What does that do to you when you hold a grudge and harbor anger towards people?\u00a0 Does that make\u00a0 you unsaved?\u00a0 No, you\u2019re as saved now as you\u2019ll always be but what it does is it damages your fellowship with God.\u00a0 It damages your moment by moment enjoyment with God.\u00a0 So as long as I\u2019m living in this fallen body I can go back to the sin nature and I can harbor animosity towards people, I can treat people, at least in my mind, with justice even though God has treated me with grace.\n\nSo my spiritual need, verse 12, is to forgive, ask God to forgive me as I forgive other people.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t get you saved, that restores fellowship with God.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a marriage.\u00a0 If I do something to offend my wife we\u2019re still married. Right?\u00a0 She\u2019s sitting out there saying maybe not!\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 I mean positionally we\u2019re still husband and wife but the sin has damaged my moment by moment fellowship with her, enjoyment of her. That\u2019s hindered; see that?\u00a0 That\u2019s what unconfessed sin does and so part of this prayer is that we ask God to forgive us as we have forgiven others.\n\nAnd then in the kingdom Satan is going to be bound. Amen.\u00a0 Is he bound right now?\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s not bound right now, he\u2019s the prince and power of the air.\u00a0 So the last part of the prayer is we need to be praying for deliverance from evil; I think the better translation, as I\u2019ll show you, is deliverance from the evil one.\u00a0 And by the way, don\u2019t waste your time in your prayer life binding Satan; people do this all the time, \u201cI bind Satan,\u201d that\u2019s not a biblically informed prayer because Satan is not going to be bound until the beginning of the millennial kingdom, Revelation 20:2-3.\u00a0 [Revelation 10:2, \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3] and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it<\/em> and sealed it<\/em> over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 So I\u2019m not wasting my time binding Satan.\u00a0 What I can pray for is protection from him, that God would protect me from his evil devices.\u00a0 Do you see the structure of the prayer?\n\nSo let\u2019s start off with the first part of it, clauses 1, 2 and 3, requests 1, 2 and 3.\u00a0 These are basically requests for the kingdom to come.\u00a0 So you notice how the prayer begins, \u201cPray then in this way, \u2018Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.\u201d\u00a0 Now \u201cname\u201d is the person of Christ or God and \u201challowed\u201d means reverence or respect.\u00a0 So what are you praying for in request one?\u00a0 You\u2019re praying for the time in history to arrive when His name will be respected all over the earth.\u00a0 Is that happening today?\u00a0\u00a0 Obviously not, based on a news report I just read, someone at GQ Magazine, not that I\u2019m a regular subscriber or reader, basically says the Bible is a ridiculous book and anybody that believes it is just dumb and stupid because the Bible is filled with silly things.\u00a0 \u00a0A major magazine now says that.\n\nAnd in the State of California, if you followed this, they\u2019re now passing laws to ban the sale of the Bible.\u00a0 Yes,\u00a0 you heard me correctly, and basically it relates to all this same sex agenda stuff that they\u2019re pushing all the time.\u00a0 And so they\u2019re banning any book that would tell people to change their sexual orientation.\u00a0 Now wouldn\u2019t that include the Bible?\u00a0 Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, so everybody is saying conceivably the way this law is written, and it\u2019s going to pass overwhelmingly through the assembly, which is one party controlled, super majorities of the Democratic party in all the committees, Upper Chamber, Lower Chamber, Jerry Brown\u2026 do you think Jerry Brown will veto a bill like this?\u00a0 Jerry Brown, he\u2019s like a reincarnation from a nightmare, I mean, he was the governor when I was a little kid, now he\u2019s back in there, and what in the world is going on.\u00a0 But anyway, this bill is making its way through and there are several others where they\u2019re going to start policing home schooling because we all know home schoolers are abusers\u2026 right?\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ve got to unleash an army of bureaucrats to spy on the home school parents, even though the home school kids score way better on national tests than those in public schools (they don\u2019t tell you that part).\u00a0 Anyway, I need to stop talking, I\u2019m going to start talking politics here.\u00a0 My point is we\u2019re living in a world where God\u2019s name is not respected at all.\u00a0 Just turn on TV.\n\nSo this prayer is to pray for the time in history when God\u2019s name will be respected.\u00a0 Now when do you think that\u2019s going to happen?\u00a0 In the kingdom, because you interpret an expression like this by the Old Testament.\u00a0 And Isaiah 29:23 talks about the manifestation of the kingdom on the earth and it says this:\u00a0 \u201cBut when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, They will sanctify My\u201d what? \u201cname; [Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.]\u201d\u00a0 When the kingdom comes God\u2019s name is going to be respected again, all over the earth.\n\nAnother Old Testament passage that reveals the same thing as the famous Ezekiel 36 passage, the regathering of Israel in the last days and the coming forth of the kingdom, God says when all these things are accomplished I will vindicate the holiness of My great name.\u00a0 [Ezekiel 26:33, \u201cI will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,\" declares the Lord GOD, \"when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.\u201d]\n\nSo when Jesus, a Jew, is talking to Jewish disciples and He\u2019s saying pray \u201cHallowed be Thy name\u201d they would automatically interpret that as pray for the manifestation of the what?\u00a0 The kingdom.\u00a0 So the first part of the prayer is \u201cHallowed Be Your name,\u201d that\u2019s a roundabout way of saying pray for the coming of the kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 The second petition in the prayer, verse 10, is the most obvious because it says we should also pray \u201cThy\u201d or \u201cYour kingdom come.\u201d\u00a0 Now is the word \u201ckingdom\u201d here defined?\u00a0\u00a0 Yes or no?\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 So how do you think we should define it?\u00a0 By the Old Testament because this is a Jew speaking to Jews who know the Old Testament; this is recorded in Matthew\u2019s Gospel, the most Hebrew of the Gospels which we have, our first Gospel, and the Old Testament lays out what the kingdom is.\u00a0\u00a0 And we\u2019ve walked through that in detail, haven\u2019t we?\n\nThe kingdom is a time period when Jerusalem will be the center or worldwide spiritual and political authority; it\u2019ll be a time of perfect justice, world peace, they will beat their swords into plowshares, there\u2019ll be peace in the animal kingdom, you\u2019ll be able to stick your hand in the cobra\u2019s nest, or your child or your grandchild will go out back and put their hand in a cobra\u2019s nest with no fear of harm.\u00a0 And the earth will be filled with the universal knowledge of the Lord.\u00a0 It\u2019s the smiting stone that we\u2019ve studied in the Book of Daniel that will shatter the antichrist\u2019s empire in a nanosecond.\n\nAnd this is why our doctrinal statement, whether it be the College of Biblical Studies that I used to work for or Dallas Seminary, or Sugar Land Bible Church, all of these doctrinal statements under\u00adstand this because they\u2019ve placed the kingdom in the what?\u00a0 In the future, because they\u2019re, at least these doctrinal statements were written, now whether people working at these schools respect the doctrinal statement is a different discussion.\u00a0 But at least the founders of all of these doctrinal statements understood what I\u2019m saying here, that the kingdom is future, because you can\u2019t just fill it up with your own idea what the kingdom is, you have to pay attention to what it says in the Old Testament which pushes it into the future.\n\nToussaint criticizes those who with platonic concepts subjectively spiritualize the future aspect of the kingdom of God in Christ\u2019s teaching.\u00a0 Let me just conclude here with this quote by Ed Glasscock, another really good Matthew commentary you ought to think about adding to your library.\u00a0 He says, \u201cIt should be remembered that Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray, and the petitioning for God to bring about His kingdom certainly indicates that the world in which we live is not yet under His rule.\u201d\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 \u201cJesus introduced the kingdom at His appearing (cf. Matthew 4:17) but was rejected by His own people who chose to have Caesar as their king (John 19:15). He was not declaring that the kingdom would come in the hearts of His servants but that it would exercise dominion over the whole earth (g\u0113<\/em>). Thus, even though He was the Messiah and brought the promise of the kingdom to the nation, the kingdom is still expressed in eschatological terms, \u201clet it come,\u201d because it is not yet realized in human history since the Messiah was rejected and killed.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew<\/em>, Moody Gospel Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1997), 147.]\n\nI mean, how in the world could the kingdom be here when the nation not only rejected Jesus but turned Him over to the Romans for execution, and said we will not have this man reign over us.\u00a0 So when we are to pray we are basically praying for the kingdom to come.\u00a0 \u201cHallowed be Your name,\u201d you\u2019re praying for the time in history for the kingdom to materialize when God\u2019s name will be respected.\u00a0 And then the second request is \u201cThy kingdom come,\u201d not defining \u201ckingdom\u201d by any other definition other than the Old Testament.\n\nAnd then the next time we\u2019re together I\u2019ll share with you the rest of these clauses; clause 3, what does it mean when he says \u201con earth as it is in heaven\u201d?\u00a0 That\u2019s another roundabout way of saying the kingdom, a desire for the kingdom to come.\u00a0 And while the kingdom is not here I\u2019ve got three needs, one physical, two spiritual, and so we\u2019ll fill those in next time.\u00a0\u00a0 So look at that, I\u2019ve stopped right at 8:00 o\u2019clock.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t