It's really good to be with you, especially on missions weekend, the time when this church focuses attention on what the mission of the church is, and I'm excited about that, and I hope you are too. If you're not, you need to get on board because it's the best thing happening in the world, so here it is. The church you're reading this morning is from a passage that you know well, it's from Matthew chapter 6, but you know it already, and I'm going to ask you to stand with me and recite it. We're going to recite the Lord's prayer together. Now, Chuck, in your church, do you have trespasses or deaders? Deaders, okay. So, if you're a trespasser today, you're off the hook, okay? No problem for you, but you deaders, you've got a problem, and knowing the economy, that's pretty much everybody. Okay. You remember how Jesus taught His disciples to pray? He taught them to pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our deaders, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, amen. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we call no one our teacher but you, because we believe there is no one we can trust like we trust you. We admit to you, Lord, that many of us have heard those words of the Lord's prayer so many times that we can recite them without even thinking for a moment about what they may mean, how they guide us in prayer, how they guide us in our whole lives. Lord Jesus, we need you to send Holy Spirit to us. May He come and open our eyes to see in our ears to hear, and may He soften our hearts that we may love you and serve you more faithfully. Do this, Lord, and we will give you the praise, and we will honor you, amen. Thank you, be seated, please. I think everybody in here understands what I'm about to say. Every time you start a project off, I don't care what it is, small, big, large, whatever it is, every project that you begin usually has some kind of vision, some kind of dream, some goal you're trying to reach. But you also know that every project is worth doing is not easy. There are hiccups, there are bumps along the way, and you know the reality is is that if your vision for where you're going is small, if it's insignificant, and if it doesn't seat down deep inside of you, when those hard times come, well, then it's very easy just to give up on the project. At least to become complacent about it, get around to it when you may want to. And I think that's true for the Christian life, it's true for everybody that follows Jesus, and that is we have some kind of idea of where we're going, but sometimes that vision's too small to bring us through the difficult times. And so we give up. And that's certainly true of what we're talking about today, we call it the mission, the mission, the Christian mission, the church's mission, the mission of Jesus, and in a word what that amounts to is, bringing the word about Jesus to everybody in the world. Now that's not an easy thing to do. And so if your vision for that is small, when those hard times come, it's going to be very easy for all of us to sort of set it aside and say, well, that's a good thing when I get around to it. But if your vision is big, and if it seats down deep inside of you, then it's the kind of thing that can compel you through even the hard times, even the difficult times. And give you something that's not just for you, but for your children, for your grandchildren, and their children after them. And there are lots of places in the Bible that talk about that vision, lots of them. But one of the best places I have found to sort of catch it in just a few words is in the Lord's prayer. Now as I look around myself, I've noticed something about most Christians in our country. Most of us, we get our vision for the Christian life out of the Lord's prayer, but it's the bottom half of the Lord's prayer. You know how it goes. Give us this day our daily bread, which basically means, Lord, help me depend on you more. Take care of me please. Forgive us our debts, which basically means I'm a sinner. Forgive me please. Reassure me I'm forgiven. That's important to me too. And then the last thing is lead us not into temptation, which basically means help me do better tomorrow than I did today. Now if that's where you are, if that's a way you could sum up the big goals of your Christian life, you as a follower of Jesus, that's great because you're way ahead of most of the world. If you're concerned about depending on God, finding forgiveness in Christ, doing better tomorrow than you did today, that's great. But that's not where the big vision is. You know there's a common word in those last petitions of the Lord's prayer. Forgive us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts, lead us not into temptation. Did you hear the word? Us, is that surprised you? Does this surprise you that we would find our Christian, our lives in Christ centered around us? Naturally, we gravitate toward that. That's what our culture is all about. It's all about us. But the big vision that Jesus gives His disciples in this prayer and the kind of vision that will compel all of us to move forward with energy, with life into this thing called the mission, is found in the top half of the Lord's prayer. You know that's the part you hurry through because what in the world's that got to do with me. Let's get down to what's really important. It's the part that you know, our Father who art in heaven, how it would be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I think that's where the big vision is. So let's unpack it. In this opening of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus challenges you and me. He challenges us to change the way we think, to change our priorities, to change the ways we behave, with regard to certain things, even the way we feel about certain things. And the first thing that these words challenge us to change is the way we believe about God, our Father. Those are precious words to us. If you're a follower of Jesus, I can hardly imagine anything being more precious than the fact that the creator of the universe can become like a Father to you. He can become your spiritual Father so that He knows your name, so that He knows what's important to you, what you need, and that He cherishes you like a good Father would. Those are precious words. In fact, most religions in the world have no idea of that sort of thing. They think if they think of God at all that He's so far away, He couldn't care about you. You're just a little insignificant, nothing down here. But we have good news to bring the world, and the good news is that to as many as receive Jesus, to them He gives the right to be called the Children of God. That's a great truth. It's a wonderful thing. But I've noticed something, something about you and about me, living like we do in the world in which we live. When we hear those words, our Father, we're usually not put off by them. In fact, we embrace them, but we embrace them in the wrong way, because almost immediately an image comes to our minds, our Father. What's that mean? Well, God's like a sweet granddaddy sitting up in heaven, ringing his hands like this as He looks down on the earth. And as He looks down there, He says, you know, I just love those people down there so much. If there was just one more thing I could do to get them to pay attention to me, I'd do it. I mean, I want to meet their needs. I want to take care of them. They just won't call out to me. Come on, please. Our idea is that God is like this sweet granddaddy in heaven and his heavenly rocking chair, wishing that people would pay attention to him because His number one reason for existence is to take care of you and me. I have some really good news for you. That's not what Jesus meant when He said, pray our Father. Now, I think we all know what a sweet granddaddy is. I am one. I know what a one is. I've got three grandchildren who adore me, and I adore them too. But I'm no fool. I know exactly why. I know exactly why they adore me. It's because every time I see them, I give them a big bear hug, and I say, I love you so much. And then the very next thing I say to them, each and every time is this. Do you want to go to Toys Are Us now? And I take them and I buy them whatever they want. It doesn't matter what it is. I buy them whatever it is. Because I don't care why they love me. I just want them to love me. Right grandfathers? That's what it's all about for granddaddies. But unfortunately, that's often the way we think about God. Now, the great news is this. It's not what Jesus meant. And we get the first clue of this from the fact that he doesn't say pray our Father. He says, pray our Father in heaven. And every single time the Bible refers to heaven and describes it to us, it describes it in the same way. Whether it's in the Old Testament or the New Testament, it's the same picture. Here's what heaven is. Heaven is the throne room of God. It's where God sits on a throne and blinding light radiates from him. Peels of thunder echo through the halls of heaven, lightning flashes from the throne. A river of fire pours out from beneath his feet and surrounding him are tens of thousands of creatures who are crying out holy, holy, holy, which is the same as hallowed be thy name. You see, that's the picture Jesus is giving us disciples and they understood it. We're the ones that don't get it. He's saying, when you begin to think about God, this is the number one sort of bottom line way you need to think about him. And this is what you need to believe about him. He is your king, enthroned in heaven and his name is to be kept holy. He's to be honored for being your king and respected as such. And that's a huge problem for us, huge problem for us because we don't have a clue what that might mean. We are Americans. We have no king. We think that government officials are people to whom we give power. They do a good job. We'll keep them in office. They don't do a good job. They're out. They're public servants. We're the ones with the power. And so, when you have a government that is by the people and for the people, it isn't long before you have a religion that's by the people and for the people. You see, kings are things of fairy tales for us. And we're not going to have one. I come for Virginia. We have the best state flag in the union. Maybe you've seen it before. Let me tell you what it looks like. It's got this nice, blue, solid, satin background. And in the middle of that flag is a circle. Now, most people know that much about the state flag of Virginia. But I want to take you inside the circle so you can know what's inside there. It's a picture. It's a picture of a man lying dead on his back. And next to him on the ground is a crown. He's a dead king. And standing over this dead king is a woman who has a spear in one hand and her foot on the chest of that dead king. You've got the picture. Dead king, a woman, spear and her foot on the chest of that dead king. And written around the edge of that circle in Latin are these words. Sick, simple, tyrannous. Thus, always to tyrants. Got the message? We will never have a king in the state of Virginia. And if anybody tries to become one, we know exactly what to do. We send our women after them. And they take care of it. And that's not the attitude just in Virginia. That's the attitude of Americans. And when that's our attitude toward human kingship, it doesn't take long before the idea that God is your king diminishes in any significance at all. We begin to feel as if we're doing Jesus a favor, doing God a favor when we give him a little bit of time. And boy, are we doing him a big favor when we give a little bit of money to his cause? Now, if there were one thing that I would have to say is true about human kings in every age, every time, every place, it has to be this. Human kings are very inconvenient. I mean, they don't let you just live your life. They have these weird ideas that their dreams and their visions and their agenda are more important than the dreams and the visions and the agenda of their citizens. And somehow the citizens are supposed to devote themselves to the king's vision, the king's dream, the king's agenda. I mean, they're supposed to devote themselves wholeheartedly to that. In fact, so much so that they're willing to sacrifice for it, they're even willing to give up their lives for it. They're ready to die for their king. Human kings are terribly inconvenient, and that says something about our Christian faith. If your Christian faith has become something that's convenient for you, and by that I mean, you just live your life and you go to church, you do the right sorts of things, but pretty much that's what you do anyway. If you're the kind of person that you would be, and you just got a little nice Jesus icing on your life, and now you're feeling better about things because you're going to go to heaven one day, if you're basically living a convenient life, you may not yet know what it means to say that God is your royal father, who's enthroned in heaven, and his name is to be kept holy. You may not yet know if you have a convenient Christian life, what it means to say that God is your king, because he has an agenda that is not yours.
I mean, we live in a country that tells us that God made us and has given us certain, inalienable rights. And what are they to seek His glory? No. To seek His way? No. To follow Him? No. That's not our inalienable right. What is our inalienable rights? They are to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, convenience. And so long as that is the way we think of God, we will never serve Him as our king. Everyone in this room, whether you're a follower of Jesus or not, you are made by God. He owns you. And those of you who are followers of Jesus, you have been purchased by God with the blood of His Son. He owns you. Lock stuck in barrel. Every moment of your life belongs to Him. Every thought you have belongs to Him. Everything you do belongs to Him. Every penny you have belongs to Him. And all of it, without exception, is to be used in the service of His Royal Agenda. The number one way the Bible reveals God to us is that He is our king. Okay, I think we've got some changing to do. God's no longer your sweet granddaddy. He's now your king. But Jesus doesn't challenge us just to change the way we think about God. There's some other adjusting we've got to do here. Are you ready for it? It's going to sound strange, but it's true. We've got to change the way we think about the earth. Life here, what you're doing right now, this thing called living, on this planet, right here, right now. He challenges us to change the way we think of that too. Do you remember how he does it? Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. You see, I told you he was thinking of God as king. Our father, thy kingdom come. But what's that mean, Jesus? Thy kingdom come. I mean, I know in Georgia, you use that expression. My grandmother used it all the time. Every time we went and asked her if we could have some more ice cream, she'd say, yeah, when the kingdom comes, you know what that meant, don't you? No, never. Can we go down to the park? Yeah, when the kingdom comes, no, never. I mean, we use the phrase a lot, kingdom come. But we don't have much sense of what that means. So what does it mean to say that God's kingdom may come? Well, he tells us thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Oh, I got it. God is the king, and his rule happens when people obey him. Okay, that makes sense. Maybe what kind of king could you be if you had rebellion in your kingdom, right? So you've got a God, he's the king, he's going to have a kingdom, and that can only happen where his will is done. But now, where does Jesus want that kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven? I want you to notice something. Jesus does not set up heaven as the destiny. He doesn't say thy kingdom come, thy will be done in heaven because that's where we're all going anyway. Now, that's not what he says. What he says is thy kingdom come, thy will be done on the earth like it's already being done in heaven. Heaven's not the destiny. Heaven's the standard. And when you read the Bible, and you read about what goes on in that throne room, every creature, including Satan himself, does exactly what the king says when they're there in the throne room. I don't know what happens if you don't. I guess you melt or something. It won't be pleasant. I can guarantee that. But nobody even dares. Because the brilliant presence of God, the flashes of lightning, the thunder, the river of fire are so overwhelming, you don't even think about doing something other than what God would command you to do while you're in his throne room. But now leave the room, and you do what you want. Come down to this planet where God's presence is hidden from view, and of course, you're going to do what you want to do. But Jesus dream, Jesus vision, was that that would not be true one day. That what happens on this planet would be just what God wants as much as it is true already in the throne room. And that's just the opposite of what most of us believe today. Most of us believe today that if you are a spiritual person, if you're maturing in Christ, if you are experienced in Christ, then what's going to happen to you is you're going to be less and less and less involved in life on this planet, less and less concerned about things going on down here, and more concerned about getting to heaven. In fact, it's become so much a part of us that it's almost impossible for us to talk about eternal life without summarizing it up by saying, going to heaven. Strange thing that we've done, because we've actually turned it on its head. This vision that Jesus had, think about it this way. If you were to ask an unbeliever, someone is not a follower of Jesus, somebody you know, maybe in your neighborhood, at the club, at the office, if you were to ask them, what would be a good life? The kind of life you will be glad to have lived, so that the last moment, as you're taking your last breath, you could say, I'm glad I lived this life rather than some other. What would they say to you? They'd probably say things like these. They'd probably say, well, I hope not to get divorced more than once, because that really hurts. And to have a good life, my kids need to do well. So if my kids aren't doing well, I couldn't call that a good life. And everybody needs a good job. If I could have a good career, that would make for a good life, because I can make a lot of money and maybe I could retire early so that I could enjoy life before I get too old to enjoy it. Now I know that everybody's going to get sick and die, but I want to die with just as little pain as possible. And the best way to die is in the middle of the night, while you're asleep, because you don't even know what's going to happen. And then, when I die, if I discover there is a God and there is a heaven, I hope you'll agree that I was good enough to get in. Now, isn't that basically where most of your unbelieving friends are? Isn't that their life? Isn't that the way they would define the good life that they will be glad to have lived? But now, let's ask the same question of a typical Christian in our country. I mean you, me, our kinds of people, you know, I mean sincere believers who like the Bible, who like Jesus, and trying to be good Christians. Let's ask the same question. What would be the good life for you? The kind of life you will be glad to have lived so that at the last moment as you're taking your last breath, you could say, I'm glad I lived this life rather than some other. What would we say? We say things like these. Well, I hope not to get divorced more than once because it really hurts. And if my kids aren't doing well, it's not a good life. And you know, everybody needs a job. And if I can make enough money to retire early, that'd be great because then I can enjoy life before I get too old to enjoy it. And I know I'm going to get sick and die, but, you know, I really want to die with just as little pain as possible and even believers in Jesus will say, the best way to die is in the middle of the night while you're asleep because you don't even know it's going to happen. I can't imagine a worse way to die. I want a five minute warning. How about you? I've got some things to say and some people to see and things like that. I want a five minute warning. Give me five minutes, Lord. I'm ready to die. I want to know when I'm going to die, but most people are so afraid of it. They don't want to do that. So, let me go to sleep. I won't even know what's going to happen. I'll wake up and I'll be going somewhere else because at that point, then the Christian stories changes. We believe that when you die, your soul is going to begin to shake like this and sparkle with little lights on it and sprout wings on it and we'll fly away to heaven. And when you get up to heaven, we'll meet St. Peter and St. Peter will say, wait just one moment, he'll go off into another room and he'll come out with a great, big, gigantic golden harp. And he'll hand it to you and he'll say, take this harp, stand right over there in that choir and start singing and start playing that harp forever and forever and forever and forever. You ever been in a choir? It sounds a whole lot to me like the other side rather than heaven. I mean, I could do it for 10,000 years. I really could, but 10,000 years is nothing compared forever. I mean, most of us, when we think about our eternal destiny, we think of ourselves as disembodied spirits that are sort of flying around somewhere out there in heaven, playing a harp, singing a choir, and somehow we're overdosed on celestial pro-zac so much that we think this is good. This is fun. This is bliss for you younger people, sort of a teaching chong kind of heaven. Yeah, man, this is wild. I have some really good news for you. That is not why Jesus came to this earth. It is not why He died. It is not why He resurrected. It is not why He is the Lord of heaven and earth now and it is not why He's coming back. He did not do all of that so that you could get a golden harp and play it forever. It's not it. Jesus came for the reason He says, here, by kingdom come, thy will be done on the earth as it is in heaven. Because when Jesus comes back, He will make all things new. What the Bible calls, the new heavens and the new earth. And He will look to those who have believed and trusted in Him and He will say, it's all mine and it's all for you. And you can imagine what that's going to be like because right now at this moment with all the horror that this earth has to offer us and all you have to do is look at the television to see some of that horror. The pain and the strife and the struggling and the disappointment and the absolute nightmare sometimes it is to live on this planet. We still get glimpses, don't we? Of what life on this planet can be like. You remember when you first fell in love? You remember what that was like? Do you remember when you saw that sunset and it took your breath away? Do you remember when you heard that symphony and your spirit was lifted? Do you remember those moments that you can have every once in a while in life here, even in a sinful fallen world? You get a glimpse of what this creation can be and what it can mean to be a human being living on this planet. Now imagine a new world made by Jesus, a physical world and you with a new physical resurrected body like He has. And imagine living in a world that has no sin, no trouble, no violence, no oppression, no suffering, no disappointment, no regrets whatsoever. And it is yours forever because you believed in Jesus. That is why Jesus came to this earth. That is why He died for you. That is why He resurrected. That is why He is now ruling over all things until all of His enemies are put under His feet and that is why He is coming back to give you a new earth that has been remade by the power of God Himself. Don't lose that dream. Don't exchange it for some golden harp and celestial prosack. Hold on to the dream because it is what our faith is all about. How wonderful to think that that is where we are going because of Jesus. Well why would Jesus say such a thing? Why would He present that to His disciples into you and me and say this is your vision? It is because the whole story of the Bible is about that. From the very beginning until the very end the story is this, God is going to prove against every creature that has ever said anything to the contrary. He is going to display it without question that He is the creator. He is the Lord. He is the King. He is going to prove it. And the way He is going to do that is by turning this planet into His kingdom. You want to know why evil is here is so it can be eliminated. You want to know why sorrow is here is so that it can be overcome. You want to know why disease and sickness is here is so it can be destroyed by whom, by God Himself. And then He will be praised for His mighty deeds and for His kingship and those who are in Christ will enjoy it forever. I can guarantee you something. If you knew that the governor of Georgia was coming to have lunch with you today after church, I don't care what your party affiliation is, doesn't matter. If you knew, if you had gotten an invitation, a letter saying, Governor, it is coming to your house. This Sunday at 1215 and He is going to have lunch in your home. I guarantee you would not be here right now. What would you be doing? You would be getting ready. I mean ladies, you would have all the furniture you ever dreamed of ever having bought. Okay? Every room would be freshly painted. The front lawn would be manicured and you would be working so hard to get ready for the governor to come because you know it would not be appropriate for the governor to come to your house looking like it looks right now. It has some good news for you. The king is coming to the earth and it's time to get it ready. The king is coming to the earth. It's time to get busy. That's what missions is all about. Because Jesus has said to us, don't worry, I'm coming back and whatever is left to be done, I'll do it. I'll do it. But He also says to us, in the meanwhile, get busy. Get it ready. Go as far as you can go. In taking my gospel to the ends of the earth and transforming this earth into a place where God's will is done, like it is done in heaven. And that is our mission. I go to lots of missions, conferences and churches. This year, the story has been basically the same everywhere I've gone. How's it going in missions? Well, it's going great. We've got lots of good things happening, but, but, but. I know what's next. The economy, the economy. And I say to myself, okay, here we go. You know, we made these promises to missionaries and we weren't able to keep them all. Why? Because people didn't give their money. We would love to see more happen, but we can't do it. Why? Well, because the economy is bad. You know, you know, the most philanthropic people in the world, the most charitable people in the world are not Christians. The ones who give millions and billions of dollars to things, they're not Christian people. They're unbelievers. They're pagans. They couldn't care less about Jesus. Couldn't care less about His kingdom. The boy they give money away like crazy. But you know the thing about it is this. They give out of convenience. John Travolta, for example, sent at least eight jet airplanes down to Haiti when the trouble took place down there. They filled up with supplies, filled up with food and things. And the interviewers are saying to him, well, why would you do this? You know, that sort of thing. He just looked and said, well, there's no big deal. I own four of those jets. They're just sitting on the runway in my home right in front of my house. What else are going to do? There's no big deal. I've got so much. It's nothing for me to do this. And he's right. That was a very humble thing for him to say, actually. But that's right. Unbelievers who have no purpose in life, have no dream, no future, no nothing, just trying to survive. Even they are generous when it's convenient. It's time for us to stand up and show the world that that's not who we are. We are not generous when it's just convenient. We do not give out of convenience. We give out of conviction that Jesus has called us to transform the earth into the kingdom of God. And we know he's going to succeed. And we know that every investment of time and energy and money in that program is worth every bit and more. And we're convinced it's true. And it's time for the world to sit up and say, in a time of economic hardship, the church has not become slack. The church has not diminished in what it's doing. It's actually grown. What is going on over there? What do they understand that we don't understand? What do they believe that we don't believe? How can they give out of conviction even when it's inconvenient? And I'm sure that at a time like this and a group this size, I don't know who you are and I don't know how God's doing this in your life. But somebody here, the Holy Spirit is tugging at you and saying, you know, you really don't need another flat screen TV. But the missions at your church needs that $2,000. There's somebody in this room that Holy Spirit is tugging on you. And he's saying to you, you know, you really don't need to take that third vacation this year off to the third lake house you're thinking about buying. But the body of Christ needs it. There's somebody even in this room in all likelihood that Holy Spirit is saying, can't you just drive that car one more year? And instead of buying a new car to satisfy whatever you think it will satisfy for a week or two, that what you're going to do instead is out of conviction because you believe the word of Jesus is true. You're going to show the world that is worth it. And you'll actually inconvenience yourself a little bit. I wouldn't say that to you if I were not inconveniencing myself. I would not dare. And your pastors would not bring up this issue of faith promise that they're going to be having in just a moment. If they were not inconveniencing themselves, they would not dare do that to you. So they're not asking you to do something that they're not doing themselves. All we're saying to you is this, the vision that Jesus has given us for the earth is true and it's worth it. And we need to let the world know we believe it. It's true that you can start off a project but if your vision isn't big enough and if your vision isn't compelling enough when the hard times come like an economic time like we're facing now, it's easy to just sort of set it aside. So listen to the vision again that Jesus gives us. Our Father enthroned in heaven. May your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come. May your will be done on this earth as it is in heaven. That's a vision worth living for. That's a vision worth dying for. Let's pray together. Our Lord Jesus, we adore you because you lived in a way that showed your devotion to this kingdom. And now we come to you and we say we know that we don't share that kind of vision with you. And even though we've heard you speak today, we know that we can't carry through unless Holy Spirit wraps this vision around us and transforms our hearts in renewed energy and renewed life for that vision. So we plead with you. Give us courage. Give us faith. Give us hope that we may hear those words from your prayer and live them out. Amen.