There is a prayer that is repeated quite often, quite frequently. It's probably the most repeated prayer that there is. Anybody know what that might be? It's generally called The Lord's Prayer and many children grow up repeating this prayer, many of you may have grown up being taught that particular prayer. The Catholic's call it, "Our Father" and they say it with the rosary. Jesus Christ gave us this prayer as a model, it's an example to us how to organize our prayer life, how we should be praying. But there's a lot more to this prayer than I think most of us have ever thought of. People repeat it thousands of times and have no idea what they're saying. In fact, if you had to say take a few laps around the rosary as many Catholics do, it gets to be such a rote that it has absolutely no meaning whatsoever.

Jesus Christ came to the earth, as He said, to reveal to us the Father and this sample prayer reveals an amazing amount about God the Father. Let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew 6:9. If I could summarize what we learn from this, we learn that God is holy, that He shares or that He gives to us, He reveals His will and His plan for mankind. He explains His grace, His mercy and His forgiveness and God will lead us, He will guide us, He will never direct us in a wrong way or off the path. He delivers us, He reminds us of His great power, His great glory,  His majesty and finally, God will be faithful. Now it's not necessarily expressed in exactly those words but that's precisely what this prayer is talking about.

But there's another application to this prayer that perhaps most of us have never thought about, which we want to concentrate on today. The model prayer can be used as a broad outline for the Millennium; it is an outline or a blueprint when you come to understand it of what God is going to do in the future and it's amazingly so simple that when you read it, every time you go over this scripture it ought to remind you exactly what God is doing and will do in the future. It is a blueprint or an overlay of the 1,000 year period and beyond. So we want to analyze this prayer today and see if we can't come to have a deeper understanding of God's plan, His purpose and be able to have an opportunity to understand about the Millennium. To begin with, in Matthew 6:9, it says:

Matthew 6:9 – Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

Now you have to ask yourself the question, is God's name hallowed today? And the answer is in fact it is not, God is cursed, He's blasphemed, He's made fun of, He's accused of many false charges and you will read in a lot of books that God is a harsh God, He's a monster, He's wrathful. People are constantly taking God's name in vain. Golfer's blame God for slices and hooks. You'll find…how many times have you ever heard a person say something, "Oh my ___" and they use God's name in vain. You hear that type of terminology all the time. A person's name stands for who they are, stands for their reputation, their status, their character.

God's name describes who He is. Let me mention a few names to you and what comes to your mind? Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, I mean you can go on and on with a list of names and immediately we have a reaction to those individuals. We think of Holocausts and warfare and destruction. But if I mentioned names like Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington we have the opposite reaction, we have good feelings about them and their name convey to us a certain meaning.

There are sixteen names for God in the Old Testament that are listed. They reveal who He is. If I could summarize them very quickly – God is called the Eternal, He's the Almighty, He's our Shepherd, He's ever present with us, He's our Healer, He's Righteous, our Provider, our Banner, our Peace, The Most High God, He is the strong one who is with us who sees everything, He's the Everlasting God.

Then you find some of the attributes of God as described in the Bible, He's omnipresent, omniscient, all wise, immutable, holy, He is righteous and just, true and faithful, good and merciful, gracious, He's the God of love. Now all of those describe our God and yet in the world they don't think of God this way.

When you say, "Hallowed be Your name" do you know what the word hallowed means? The word "hallow" in the Greek means to feel reverence for or to honor as holy. God's name is holy and in Matthew 6:9 it could be translated, "May Your name be honored as holy." Now let's take a look at the start of the Millennium. Go back to the book of Ezekiel 36 and we'll begin in verse 16. Notice what God says of what God is going to do:

Ezekiel 36:16 – Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: "Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways…so God says it's our ways, our way of life, the way that we are living, things that people do that have defiled the land…to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. Therefore…what is God going to do? He said:

Ezekiel 36:18 – "Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood that they had shed in the land and for their idols with which they have defiled."

We are a nation of violent people. 2010, the last year I had statistics in this country there were 14,778 murders. Sometimes that gets into the 20's and 30's, 2010 happened to be a low year. During that year there were 87,000 women raped – those were only those that were reported, they figure that that number could be doubled or quadrupled because a lot of people do not report those type of things. And so God looks down, He looks at our nation, He wants to bless us, God would be more than willing to say, "I forgive you" if we as a people if we as a nation would return to Him. But sadly, that's not the case. So, verse 19 -  if there is no repentance, God says:

Ezekiel 36:19 – "So I will scatter them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. When they came to the nations wherever they went, they profaned My holy name – when they said of them, ‘Well these are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of the land.'

Now notice the indictment that is mentioned here, when our people, our nations collapse, if we do not repent, and go into captivity, the nations that we go into captivity to are going to say: Our god is greater than their God, our religion is greater than their religion because their God allowed them to go into captivity, their God allowed them to become our slaves. Consequently, we're greater, our nation is greater, our god is greater, we're right, they're wrong. And so the peoples who believe, profess, who believe in the Bible, who profess that God is their God are going to bring shame and dishonor upon God's name. In verse 23 God says:

Ezekiel 36:23 – "I will sanctify My great name which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord," says the Lord God, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes."

So there is going to come a time when they will finally recognize that God is God. The word in the Hebrew for hallowed means to consecrate, to sanctify, to be holy, to be separate, sacred, majestic. So how is God going to turn this around to where the nations will finally come and admit that He is God, that He is holy, that He is the sacred one, that His majesty is the greatest? Well turn over to Ezekiel 38 – chapter 38 and 39 describe a period of time when God has brought Israel back out of captivity, they've been reestablished in Palestine, Jesus Christ is on the earth ruling over Israel, the resurrection has taken place but not all nations are yet totally aware that Christ is on the earth. There are still going to be nations out there in the far reaches of this world who are not going to acknowledge God. Not every nation comes under God's government immediately. When Christ comes back, not everybody falls down and worships Him – they fight Him we find. So let's notice how the story unfolds in Ezekiel 38:2:

Ezekiel 38:2 – "Son of man, set your face against God, in the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, the Meshech and Tubal, and prophecy against them." So many of the Orientals and people in far-flung areas.

Ezekiel 38:8 – "After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword…see our people have gone into captivity, they've been brought back…and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel which have long been desolate; and they were brought up out of the nations and now all of them dwell safely.

So God is there, He is ruling over them, there is no standing army, there is no navy, there is no air force, God is there, we're there and we're going to protect them. In verse 11:

Ezekiel 38:11 – "You will say…in other words, these nations will say…'I will go up against the land of unwalled villages; (symbolic of no defense) I will go to a peaceful people who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates'…

See anciently people lived inside of walls in a city, walls kept armies out, animals out, criminal element out and they had to open the gate in order for people to come in. So these people are going to come up, they're going to see the nations of Israel have been brought back out of captivity, who God is now blessing, beginning to produce crops and these people are still out there and they're suffering from famine and droughts, things are not going well, they look, their spies tell them - there is still a lot in Palestine, they've got all this food, go get it! So you find in verse 12 they're going to come up to:

Ezekiel 38:12 – "to take plunder, to take booty, stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, against the people gathered from the nations who have acquired lifestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land."

Ezekiel 38:16 – "You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land..now why is God going to do this? Why is He going to let these nations come up and attack His people? Notice: …so that the nations may know Me…the nations have to come to know who the true God is…when I am hallowed in you, O-Gog, before their eyes."

See God is going to allow these nations to come up and then He's going to destroy their armies, and it's going to be supernatural and then we're going to go out to those nations, they're not going to have armies anymore or they're going to be greatly weakened and we're going to teach them God's way and God will begin to first of all, demonstrate to them His power, His authority. He said the nations will know Me. Many of these nations worship gods or other gods, they don't believe in the true God, but God will be hallowed in their eyes. Now in verse 23 here:

Ezekiel 38:23 – "I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations." God says! Now chapter 39 says the exact same thing. In chapter 39:6-7:

Ezekiel 39:6-7 – "I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. And they shall know that I am the Lord. So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel."

So God is going to have to get their attention to start with – He destroys their armies, they realize that there's a greater power, a greater authority on the earth than their gods and God will begin to teach them. When Israel came out of Egypt, you might remember, God made His kingdom known to the nations. The same will be true in the World Tomorrow after the second Exodus. When God starts the Millennium, have you ever asked yourself the question, why does He start it with Israel? Why does He start it with the peoples of America, Britain and the nations of Israel? Well because we are the people who profess to have God as our God. We're the ones who believe in the Bible and so consequently the Messiah is going to come back, Jesus Christ, and He is going to show the nations that He is the God of the Bible, He is the God of the scriptures, in that the gods of the Buddhists, the Hinduists, of Islam, whatever religion you can think of, are not the gods of the scriptures or the Bible.

So the world at that time will ultimately come to worship one God, we will not have competing gods, they'll learn to worship the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Instead of religions dividing nations, religion at that time will unite nations. People will all worship the same God. Did you ever notice you can go anywhere in the world today to a Church of God and they're all the same? All have services alike and you feel right at home with God's people. What will it be like when every village, hamlet, town, city, nation, doesn't matter what nation you go to in the world, they're all worshipping the true God. And you won't have to drive 100 miles to go to church, the church on the corner will be God's Church, the minister of that church will be God's minister. You can walk to church, what a blessing that will be, what tremendous blessing! That's what God is going to do.

Now if you remember what Matthew 6:9 said? "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Your name." When you say "Father" what automatically comes to your mind? I've got five sons, I am a father, I'm looking at a lot of fathers out there and a lot of mothers. When you say "Father" it means that you've had children and so the fact that God refers to Himself, we're told when we pray to pray to the Father, it reveals that He has a family and He is creating a family. He is a Father and we are His children.

Now in the Millennium, God the Father will still be in heaven, He will not be on the earth; Jesus Christ will come back to the earth. God the Father does not come down to the earth until the time of the New Heavens and the New Earth, when the New Jerusalem comes down. The Father at that time will come to the earth. So in the Millennium people will still pray to God in heaven, they will pray, "Our Father which art in heaven" because that's where He will be. Man will be taught that God's ways are superior to his ways and thoughts. Man is going to have to first of all at that time, be taught who God is, who the true God is. He'll have to be taught the great questions and answers to the great questions of life. They'll have to understand God's plan and all of that will be taught. All mankind will worship God and will hold Him in honor, high respect and reverence and His name WILL be holy at that time.

Now let's notice the next line in this prayer. "Your kingdom come." Now in the millennium, that part of the model prayer will be answered, guess what? The kingdom is coming! It will be on the earth at that time. I noticed the other day, last Sunday, when the Beyond Today program that came on WGN, that one woman who was interviewed asked about Christ coming back if she thought He would come back, she said, "Yes, but not in my day." Now why didn't she want Him to come back in her day? Well she said, "I want to see my children grow up and my grandchildren" and so you have a lot of people who have that idea, that if Christ comes back while I'm alive, I won't get to live this physical life and I won't get to have children or see children or see my grandchildren, you know they have this idea. But the world desperately needs the Kingdom of God. This world cries out for God's Kingdom to come and to be set up here.

Now the Kingdom of God will mean different things to different folks at that time. For us, as firstfruits it is the time of the resurrection, it's the time of job assignments, it is getting down to the work as part of the government of God. Because Christ is going to come to each one of us, He's going to say, "I'm putting you over five cities" "You've got six cities" over here, "I'm going to put you in charge of agriculture" you know your background lends you, I'm going to put you in charge of whatever it might be. And God is in the process right now, with this little group here, other groups, God is in the process of preparing each one of us for specific jobs, responsibilities, and duties in His Kingdom. And so when Christ comes back, He's not going to look around and say, Whose going to help Me? We will be there and He will immediately assign us. Now in Matthew 13:43 – the reason why this will be special for us, notice the time of the resurrection. It says:

Matthew 13:43 – "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father."

When Christ comes back and the Kingdom of God is set up, you and I will be transformed, our bodies will be glorified, we will have power radiating from us, just like the sun radiates energy and power from it. We will be born members of the Kingdom of God, the family of God, by God's spirit and in His spirit family at that time. But for the masses of humanity who are left alive, it will be different because they will still be alive physically and they will be delivered from the dominion of Satan the devil, of a cruel taskmaster and cruel governments of this world. The greatest blessing that mankind could have is for God to establish His Kingdom on this earth and to take care of the problems that humanity is faced with right now. Let's notice Psalm 145, a scripture, every time I read it I get excited about it.

Psalm 145:10 – All Your works shall praise you O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your Kingdom.

There's going to come a time when you and I have been changed and made immortal, having spirit bodies and we shine like the sun when our capacities have been altered and changed, you'll no longer be limited like you are physically but you will have a mind that will be capable of never forgetting, of remembering, of learning, absorbing and you will be able to appear to human beings. It says:

Psalm 145:11 – They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of your power, and to make known to the sons of man His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

Now I can get up here, even someone as eloquent as Jerry Aust can get up here and we can't describe, I don't know any of us that is capable of describing the glories of God's kingdom. You know why? I've never been there, I've never experienced it. Now let me just illustrate. You women, if I were to ask you, you who are mothers, do you know what it's like to give birth to a child? You would be able to say yes – why? Well, you gave birth to a child, you carried a baby for nine months, you know what it's like. Now ask your husband, does he know what it's like to give birth to a child? Well, I held my wife's hand five times, I didn't go through the birth, she did. And the same thing is true here, you and I will have a front row seat in the kingdom of God and we will be able at that time, when people will come up and say, "What's Jesus Christ really like?" We'll be able to say, "Let me tell you, I know Him, I sat down at a banquet with Him, He came around and served my table, let me tell you what He's like and how good He is, powerful, and we'll be able to explain a little bit what it's like to be a spirit being and we can sort of glow if we want to, we can disappear through a wall, whatever it might be, we will be able, in a way that we're incapable of today, to explain to people what the kingdom of God is like, to motivate them.

In the World Tomorrow, the teachers will be a part of the kingdom and we will be able to teach at that time, we'll be able to explain again the spirit dimension. Now think how much more convincing we'll be at that time than maybe we are today simply because we've never experienced it, we haven't lived it

We may be dealing, stop and think about this, you may be dealing with some people who just a few months before saw you as a neighbor, knew you, knew your family and all at once you appear to them and you begin to teach them and you disappear, or you glow a little bit and they will maybe have known us as a neighbor or as a friend or as a relative. Can you imagine the impact that's going to have on them when they used to think you were nutty or you were crazy and now, wow, he knew the truth, he knew the true God, he knew the Holy One. And we will be able to deal with them at that time. So we will speak of the glories of God's kingdom at that time, we will have a totally different perspective. And that kingdom of God will be set up over the whole earth, as the Bible says, it's going to be so saturated, like the waters filling the seabeds totally saturating the world at that time.

Now another part of the model prayer is "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Now God's will is done in heaven, no doubt about that. Here on the earth, where do you see God's will being done among the nations, the politicians? You just don't. We're told to pray this, that Your will be done on earth. Brethren about the only place where God's will is beginning to be exercised is among His people, where we strive to do the will of God, we strive to obey God, we strive to serve Him and there's going to come a time when God's will shall be done on earth. Notice Revelation 4:11, we read:

Revelation 4:11 – "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created." Or as the NIV says: "They were created and have their being."

And so all things were created by the will of God and have their being. It's interesting in the Greek, this Greek word for "created" means to "create something which has not existed before." And so the physical creation as we know it is a creation out of nothing that existed before as far as physical elements. God had to create all of that, shape and form it. What is God's will for the human race? You know in studying through this, I came across a remarkable quote I'd like to share with you about the will of God. This is taken from the Tyndale Bible Dictionary, what it has to say about the will of God and it talks about, "The will of God is an important New Testament term that indicates God's choice, His determination emanating (or springing) from desire." Paul uses the word and let's go over there in Ephesians 1:5,9 and 11 we'll focus on. It conveys the idea of desire or even heart's desire. Something I never realized before.

Ephesians 1:5 – Having predestinated us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure…now notice how that's worded…the good pleasure of His will. What does it mean, "the good pleasure of His will?"

Ephesians 1:9 – Having made known to us the mystery of His will…mystery means a hidden truth is now revealed, it was hidden, now it's revealed, so we understand the mystery of His will…according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.

Ephesians 1:11 – In Him we also have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

Now there's a tremendous amount in these verses, actually, I could have given a whole sermon on these three verses if we wanted to just concentrate on those. The word is usually translated "will" in the Bible, the will of God, but the English word actually supplements the primary meaning of this word as it's written in the Greek. The Greek word is primarily an emotional word, it is not just a logical word, it is an emotional word. God's will is not so much God's intention as it is God's heart desire. What does God's heart desire?

What do we desire when we come to the Feast? Don't we desire to be able to come here for eight days to keep this Feast? If we have family, don't we desire to be able to see our families, fellowship with them, meet old friends, new friends and we have certain desires in our heart. What's the desire of a young person in their early 20's? Probably they'd like to meet someone and get married, have a family. There are desires, there are feelings that we have. Now, do we stop and realize that God Himself has heart desires? That's what this word actually means. God does have an intention, a purpose or a plan. In verse 11 the word "purpose" literally means, the laying out beforehand. Like a blueprint or something that has been laid out. God has laid out His plan, His purpose ahead of time. This plan was created by God's counsel and that's what the word means, to counsel. However behind the plan and the counsel, was not just a mastermind, but a heart, it wasn't just brilliant intelligence, but a heart of love and good pleasure.

What motivated God to create the plan of salvation? Did you ever stop and think about that? One time there were two Beings in the universe, they existed on a spirit level but we don't know exactly what was in that spirit level but they existed in a different dimension than we exist in. And at some point, God's heart desire was, I want to share this with others. Now how do we do that? How can I share this wonderful life that I enjoy? This brilliance that I have, how can I share this with others and who are others, how am I going to share it with them? And so God set down, He and the Word counseled together and through their wisdom, their brilliance, their understanding, they've created what we call the plan of salvation. And God created us, He took dirt and He's going to make gods. You and I are dirt, we came from the ground, we return to the ground and God is going to take us and He is going to make gods in His family. We're going to become a part of His very family.

What motivated God to do this? It was a heart desire, it was His pleasure, it's what He wanted, it's His very nature. God is a God who wants to share, I mean that's His whole being. He's the God of grace and He wanted to share and so how is He going to share this level of existence? And brethren, He created this plan. You and I, sitting here today, standing here, are privileged to be among the first. Think about that calling, to be among the first to know God, His calling, to have a part in that plan.

So God Almighty did all of this. Let me read an alternate translation to this and then we'll move on. There's so much depth of understanding here, we just begin to comprehend it. In verse 5 Paul talked about the good pleasure, this is an alternate translation – of God's heart.

Ephesians 1:9 – He made known to us the mystery of His heart's desire according to the good pleasure which He purposed in Him.

Ephesians 1:11 – Indeed God operated all things according to the counsel of His heart's desire and will.

The impetus of God's eternal purpose came from His heart and His heart's desire was to have many sons and daughters added to His kingdom. In Romans 8:28 we read where this is clearly articulated in the scriptures.

Romans 8:28-29 – We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…so we've been predestined, called to become like His Son…that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Jesus Christ is the firstborn among many and we, all human beings will have that opportunity. So with that in mind we need to realize that the will of God expresses His feelings for us. God made us with feelings, did He not? Feelings for our children, for our mate, for our families, for our friends. We react when they're in danger or they're injured or they hurt or they're sad or brokenhearted, we ache, we hurt likewise for them. I remember twice two of my sons had accidents, one the time we were living in San Antonio, my son broke his arm, he let out this blood-curdling scream and I felt for him, I did the only thing a man would do – I fainted! I just,(motioned down). It happens a second time, guess what? I fainted! So I guess I'm just the strong masculine type when it comes to those things. But we all have emotions and feelings, we feel for others, we hurt for others and God does the same for us. Remember Luke 4:17-18 when Jesus Christ comes back to the earth? One of the things that He is going to do is to heal the brokenhearted and He is going to have a bride who is made just like Him, that's us, who will likewise feel the same way, will want to heal the brokenhearted. God's great desire is to bring many sons and daughters into His family, into His kingdom.

Now going on with the model prayer and we better go on or we won't cover this. It says, "Give us this day our daily bread." I think this will be talked about quite often during the Feast, that God is going to bless all nations in the Millennium with abundance of crops. Today 2 billion people go to bed every night hungry, thousands, tens of thousands die of starvation, there's going to come a time when a little baby lays its head down on a pillow and is not going to go to bed hungry. Everybody will be full, everybody will have clothing and houses to live in. As the Bible tells us in the book of Amos, the plowman will overtake the reaper, all the world will be blessed with abundant crops and so when people go out and pray that God would give them their daily bread, God will answer that superabundantly and God will bless this world. The world…we as human beings have to learn a lesson, why is God allowing 6,000 years for man to go his own way and He turns things around in 1,000? Well because man has to try everything out and find that it doesn't work. No government of man works, no religious system of man works, no economic system, they all fail and so consequently man is going to have to learn that only God's way works. So God will bless the world at that time.

So let's move on to something that I think will be extremely important in the Millennium; "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Now, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, God is not going to forgive unless we're willing to forgive others, so that puts a tremendous burden on us to be willing to forgive others. God's going to establish a new covenant with the nations at that time, they will have to repent of their sins, they've got to be willing to forgive one another which includes forgiveness on a national scale. What causes strife between these people, conflicts among nations? Why do nations go to war, why do we have hard feelings? Why do the Arabs despise the Israeli's and the Israeli's – vice versa? Why do you find various nations around the world having difficulties with one another, hating one another, fighting one another? Proverbs 10:12 tells us:

Proverbs 10:12 – Hatred stirs up strike…

Hatred – the word hatred here means, it's an emotional attitude, it means to oppose, to detest, to despise, there are those who absolutely hate others, they despise them and it also connotes to have no contact or relationship with them. Now it's interesting though, it is therefore though, the exact opposite of love. Whereas love draws and unites, hate separates and creates distance. You can find that definition in  Theological Work Book of the Old Testament, or as the NIV translates chapter 10 verse 12: Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs. And so we find people hating others and there's going to come a time when all nations are going to have to learn to get along together. It is also I think important to realize that the word "hatred" here is a word when you look up hatred, there can be an idiom and it means, "to kill in the heart, or, to spit on somebody's heart."

Now most of us don't think that way, doesn't the Bible tell us that if we hate our brother, we are guilty of murder? And that hatred is to kill in the heart, that's what the Bible shows and they're going to be all kinds of nations that are going to have to live next door to one another and cooperate and get along. " I'm not going to live with those people." And yet they're going to have to learn to do so. Ezekiel 25, let's go back to the book of Ezekiel again, verse 15

Ezekiel 25:15 – ‘Thus says the Lord God, "Because the Philistines dealt vengefully and took vengeance with a spiteful heart, to destroy because of the old hatred." Nations perpetuate hatred, animosity against other people. Chapter 35:5

Ezekiel 35:5 – "Because you have had an ancient hatred, that shed the blood of the children of Israel by the power of the sword at the time of their calamity when their iniquity came to an end." Talking about Esau.

Brethren, one generation passes on to another generation feelings of hatred. Children are not born hating, you know Arab children are not born hating Israeli's, Jews, their children are not born hating somebody else, your children are not – they have to be taught that, they have to learn it. So there's going to come a time when people are not going to be taught to hate other nations. In order for the world to be able to live in harmony and peace instead of hatred, we're going to have to love one another and that is exactly what is going to happen.

Now that leads us to the next point here, "Do not lead us into temptation but deliver from the evil one." Brethren, the evil one is present in society today, Satan the devil, he and his demons influence this world. This present age is called "this present evil world." One of the major factors to bring about the millennium is that the spirit of this world will no longer be there to influence mankind. This prayer will literally be answered at that time. There is going to be a change in leadership, the change for those who are in charge. God is going to be there, He's going to set up His government. The problems today, leaders rule for the wrong reason, they rule for power, influence, wealth, pride, vanity, what they can get, not for the good of the people. Leaders today follow their leaders, who are their leaders? The leader of this evil age is Satan the devil; he's the one who influences all mankind.

In the World Tomorrow, we as rulers and priests, kings, we will follow our leader Jesus Christ, He will be there and we will see how He rules, we'll see how He does things, we'll know, we'll be able to emulate that. In Isaiah 9, let's go back here to Isaiah 9:7, it says:

Isaiah 9:7 – Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, His kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice.

Jesus Christ will rule with judgment and justice – out of love and peace. David is called a man after God's own heart – why? Read 2 Samuel 8:15, you will find the exact same thing is mentioned of David, that David ruled Israel with judgment and justice, and therefore he was qualified to be king over all Israel.

Stop and think about what it's going to be like to have a government, to have leaders who base their rulership upon 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, patient, kind, good, loving, you can go through all of those qualities in Chapter 13 and I think it would make a good study and review for you here at the Feast. And you stop and think how this describes what love is. And if I'm going to be a ruler and I'm going to have the love of God like God does, then this is how I must rule in the World Tomorrow.

So that brings us down to the final point here: "For Yours is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever. Amen." Once God's kingdom is set up on this earth, it will never cease, it will go on for all eternity, it will continue to grow and prosper. In the resurrection we will be glorified, we'll have the same body that Jesus Christ has, we will be on the God level, His family, and God will begin to share His power with us, and we'll be able to see the glory of God, the power of God at work.

But I want us to focus on a word at the end of this, and most of us just sort of forget about it. After the sermon, the final song today, somebody will come up and say the prayer and say "amen." What does that mean? What does the word "amen" mean? Well, it means in Hebrew, "so it is" or "let it be" or "be firm or sure." It's an important word, Isaiah 65:16, let's read Isaiah 65:16 – it says:

Isaiah 65:16 – So that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; actually most translations, or many translations, the God of amen, it's the same word but it's translated here in the New King James Version as the God of truth or the God of amen…he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth…or the God of amen…because the former troubles are forgotten.

God is the God of truth or the God of amen. When God says amen to something, you know what He's saying? "That's the truth, that's it, that's what will happen," there are no doubts, it will occur. Notice the NET Translation: "Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth will do so in the name of the faithful God."  The word amen refers to God's faithfulness, that He is faithful, He is completely trustworthy and faithful, He fulfills His promises.

So how do we know that Jesus Christ is going to come back to the earth? Because He is the Amen and He will keep this promise. God the Father is amen and He will keep His promise. In the CEV Translation, it says, "I am God, I can be trusted." So God can be relied upon, He can be trusted. Revelation 3:14 you read this:

Revelation 3:14 – "To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.'"

Did you know that "Amen" was a name of God? We say amen at the end of our prayers, we are saying so be it, but we should be able to say that everything in that prayer is correct, is right and God uses as a title of Christ here, that He is the Amen, meaning it emphasizes His reliability and the truth of what He says.

Again the NET Translation says: "To the angel of the church in Laodicea, write the following, this is the solemn pronouncement of the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Originator of God's creation.

God is the great Amen. Our word should be amen, people should be able to rely upon us, but you know what? We humans can't always keep our word can we? Because we are human, so when you study this word you see that it conveys to us the meaning of who God is.

So brethren, the model prayer is an example of love, it's an example of how to organize our prayers, it reveals God's nature and desire, it reveals God's heart desire for all humanity, all mankind. It is a blueprint to follow that helps us to understand the coming kingdom of God and the rule of Jesus Christ on the earth. We look forward to the time when the whole world will not just recite this as a ritual but will come to understand what the model prayer means and use it as an outline of understanding. And brethren, that's the time that we look forward to. And may God hasten that day.