Your Kingdom Come: Learning to Want What God Wants

August 9th, 2026
by Pastor Bob

Your Kingdom Come: Learning to Want What God Wants
This week, Pastor Bob continued our look at the Lord’s Prayer, focusing on the words Jesus taught us to pray:

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

At first, that may sound like a strange thing to pray. If God is God—powerful, wise, and sovereign—then won’t His kingdom come whether we ask for it or not?
Yes. God’s purposes will stand. But prayer is not about convincing God to care about the right things. Prayer helps shape us to care about the right things.
When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are asking God to make His goodness, love, justice, mercy, and saving work more visible in the world—and in us.

What Do We Mean by “God’s Kingdom”?
The phrase “God’s kingdom” can feel abstract. It may make us think of castles, crowns, or something far away in the future. But Pastor Bob reminded us that Jesus spoke about God’s kingdom as something both present and future.
Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” In other words, with Jesus, God’s kingdom had already begun breaking into the world.

We see glimpses of it whenever lives are changed by God’s grace. We see it in acts of love, forgiveness, compassion, and service. We see it when people are fed, welcomed, prayed for, and told that they are loved by God. We see it when the church lives as a signpost pointing people toward Jesus.

At the same time, the kingdom is not yet here in its fullness. We still live in a world marked by pain, loss, injustice, anxiety, and death. So when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are also longing for the day when Jesus makes all things right—when sorrow and suffering are finally gone.

Pastor Bob described this as the “already, but not yet” reality of God’s kingdom. It is already here in part, but not yet fully complete.

Seeking the Kingdom First
Jesus later says in Matthew 6:33:
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
That verse comes in a section where Jesus talks about worry and anxiety. He knows how easily our fears can take over—concerns about daily needs, relationships, responsibilities, the future, and everything else that weighs on us.
But Jesus invites us to shift our focus.

Pastor Bob asked a simple but important question: What are you worried about this morning?

The answer is not to pretend those worries don’t exist. The answer is to bring them to God and then re-center our lives around what matters most. When we seek God’s kingdom first, our worries may not instantly disappear, but they are put in their proper place. We remember that God loves us, sees us, and knows what we need.
Seeking the kingdom means our loyalty to God comes before every other identity or allegiance. Pastor Bob put it this way:
“I am not an American Christian. I am a Christian who happens to be an American.”
That’s a helpful distinction. Our faith in Jesus is not just one part of our lives. It becomes the center that reshapes every other part.

A Treasure Worth Everything
Pastor Bob also reflected on Jesus’ short parable about a hidden treasure:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…”
— Matthew 13:44

In the story, a man finds treasure in a field, joyfully sells everything he owns, and buys the field. Jesus’ point is not that God’s kingdom can be purchased. The point is that God’s kingdom is worth everything.

When we truly see the beauty and value of life with God, surrender no longer feels like losing. It becomes joy.

That raises a personal question for each of us: Is God’s kingdom worth everything to me?
Not just in theory. Not just on Sundays. But in our decisions, priorities, schedules, relationships, money, and dreams.

Pastor Bob said:
“My life has meaning. It has purpose to the extent I give it to God.”
That is the heart of praying, “Your kingdom come.”
“Your Will Be Done” Starts With Us

The next phrase—“Your will be done”—is deeply connected to “Your kingdom come.”
Sometimes when we think about God’s will, we think only in big, mysterious terms: world events, the future, or questions we can’t answer. But Pastor Bob emphasized that in this prayer, we are also asking God to shape our lives.
We are praying:

“God, help me want what You want.”
“Teach me to live Your way.”
“Make me more loving, faithful, obedient, and courageous.”
“Use my life to bring Your goodness into the world.”

Romans 12:2 says that we are transformed as our minds are renewed. As we spend time with God, learn from Scripture, pray, worship, and walk with others, we begin to see life differently. Our desires change. Our priorities shift. We become more aligned with God’s heart.

Pastor Bob used the image of being in the water and pulling on a rope attached to a boat. From our perspective, it may feel like we are pulling the boat toward us. But in reality, we are being drawn toward the boat.

That is what prayer often does. We may think we are trying to move God toward our plans, but God is actually drawing us closer to His.
Sometimes We Become Part of the Answer
When we pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done, we should be prepared for God to involve us.

Maybe we pray for a neighbor to come to know Jesus, and over time God changes our heart toward that neighbor. Maybe we become more compassionate, more patient, more willing to listen. And then, one day, we realize God is inviting us to be part of the answer to that prayer.

Prayer does not just change circumstances. It changes people. Often, it changes us first.
How Do We Enter the Kingdom?

Toward the end of the sermon, Pastor Bob turned to Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. Nicodemus was a religious leader, but Jesus told him that no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are “born again.”
That means the kingdom is not something we earn by being good enough. It is not something we achieve by religious effort. It is a gift we receive through faith in Jesus.

John 3:16 says:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus came because every one of us has sinned and fallen short of God’s perfect goodness. We cannot fix that on our own. But Jesus gave Himself for us so that we could be forgiven, made new, and welcomed into life with God.
That is how we receive the kingdom: by trusting Jesus.

A Prayer for Today
“Your kingdom come, your will be done” is not just a line to recite. It is a way to live.
It is a prayer that says:
God, make Your love known in this world.
Start with me.
Shape my heart.
Change my priorities.
Use my life.
Help me seek what matters most.
And bring the day when everything is made right.
May we learn to pray those words honestly—and may we become people who live them.

Scriptures Referenced