The Doxology of Prayer 03/14/21

Well, good morning and welcome to New Grace Baptist Church, and I hope everyone has had a wonderful week and we're glad that you could be here today. And don't forget tonight. I'm recording this on Saturday. So make sure you you spring forward with your clocks course, if you're listening this on Sunday, it's already too late. So you are either an hour ahead or behind one way or the other but we're glad that you could be here today and we are going to continue and our series Power praying and we are studying The Lord's Prayer and the title of the sermon today is the doxology of prayer. And what I want to do today is I want to give you for Supreme truths about God that we're going to learn in this lesson today and for things that we can apply to our life as we continue to try to have a Biblical worldview and also to the Papa powerful prayer Life as we go along. So we are in Matthew chapter 6 verse 9 through 13 and I will go ahead and read that and then we're just going to focus on one of the last few phrases of verse 13 today. So the Bible says in this manner therefore pray Our Father in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your 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 debtors. And do not lead us into temptation. But Deliver Us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Well, that's the Lord's Prayer and we've already talked about how we are to prioritize that and how this is a pattern for us to pray and we start out by praising God in and saying and Hallowed Be Your Name reverencing the name of God and then we come to his priorities would be done on this Earth and his will would be done on Earth as it is in heaven and then we came to our petitions. Give us this day our daily bread and we talked about our how our relationships should be. Right as we forgive those who have wronged US vice verse and so and then the last couple weeks we looked at the first part of verse 13 about we talked about Temptation how we are to pray that that we would not be led into temptation. And then last week we looked at what it meant to be delivered from Evil. So today what I want us to focus in on is just the third part. A verse 13 the third little phrase and this is what we're going to look at today. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen, well when we meet for worship at church, we all know that Christ is in our Miss specially like when we have the Lord's Supper, we know he is there with us when we pray he is close to us. You see we serve a not we don't serve a Faraway God but we serve a God who is near to us and he promised to never leave us nor forsake us and he's there when we pray in the morning and then when we kneel by our beds at night he is there then as well UCR God manifest his presence more so when we praise and worship him and the Bible says in the Book of James if we will draw near to God He will draw near to us. So there's nothing in all the world that will help us since God's presence in our life. Like that, which happens when we worship and praise Him He Lives within the Praises of his people. So when we are praising him, we should sense his presence more than any other time and that's why our Lord went off for no pattern of prey and he ended the prayer kind of the way. He started it with praise. He says for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever. Amen. It's almost like we've come back to the beginning of the prayer. We began by praying about God's kingdom and we in by affirming his kingdom we began with your will be done and we in by emphasizing God's power to do his will. I think about it. We begin by praying about God's holy name Hallowed be your name and we in by praising his glory We Begin by mentioning God's will being done on Earth as it is in heaven. And then we end by Ridge or seen that God's kingdom will last forever. So it's kind of like we've come to the Mountaintop of praise and here in this last phrase. We going to allow our words to focus on the greatness of God. You see if we fail to recognize his awesomeness if you will will be left to face the Troubles of This World In Our Own Strength, you see will still have problems but they'll be no Solutions because we can only look to ourselves or to the things of this world. You see God through his son Jesus wonderfully taught us that there's a kind of psychology to prayer. We must begin the prayer right and then we Must end it by calling out his greatness and if we don't feel our prayers with praise. Will definitely and eventually be overcome by the very request that we offer him in prayer. So these closing words right here this one little phrase offers. I think for Supreme truths about God and the more we study them the more will realize how desperately we need to remember them, especially in this evil and hostile world and culture that we live in so let's go ahead and have four points here and let's go ahead and go to point number one and that is simply this. That if we're going to praise God we praise God for his sovereignty. Now. We see that in the phrase for thine is the kingdom you see everything in existence is under the sovereignty of God and the greatest exhibition of God's control is found in the fact that he has anointed his own son to be the king of this world in the Bible verse after verse offers a reminder that Christ is indeed King. I listen to some of these I'm not going to put them up on the screen, but just listen to some of these Daniel 4:37 tells us that he is the king of Heaven Matthew 2:2 says that Jesus is the king of the Jews John 1:49 states that Jesus is king of Israel. Psalm 24:7 reveals that he is the king of glory and then Revelation Knight 19 verse 16 Gives him the greatest title of all the Bible says there that he is king of kings and Lord of lords. He is the greatest of all Kings and he is Sovereign over the universe now many people will argue today. Well, if if God is King, he must not be doing a very good job of controlling things right now because it looks like the world is out of control the friends understand this that God has allowed the current cycle for. Of time. But one of these days he's going to come home and he's going to take the kingdom unto himself. And when he does that Christ will rule and Reign forever and there'll be no more trouble in this world. They'll be no trouble in his kingdom because Jesus will have complete control God is Sovereign and we should think about his Sovereign his sovereignty when we pray if you think life has I'm outta control. Keep in mind that Christ is the one who brings order out of chaos. He was the one he's in control of creation. Why because he created all things he designed and made all things. So when I pray and I contemplate if you will God sovereignty. I am reminded that he brings peace in order to my life. Even when I face difficult circumstances. I know that God is over all circumstances. So the Bible tells us to remember that God is even in control of History, you know, sometimes we get upset and we can kind of throw up our hands in despair at at things like elections. I know this election cycle that just ended many people are upset many people are stressed and many times when we see what we perceive to be ungodly people leading our nation where there is president or Governor or whatever it may be weak. Stop saying it that we have politicized everything it seems but I want to show you what Daniel chapter 4 verse 17 says now listen to this this decision is by the decree of the Watchers in the sentence by the word of the Holy ones in order that the living may know that the most high this is speaking of God that the most high rules in the Kingdom of men and he gives it to whomever he will and sets over it the lowest of men you see I think this is why I try not to worry too much about the character of some of our national leaders friends. Listen God puts the right people in charge this nation. This world is headed for a determine in there by says, what's this world coming to I can tell you what is coming to is coming to Jesus because the Bible says Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the father friend. That's what this world is coming to and probably this world has to get worse and worse before we can get there. So God, he still rules. He rules in the Kingdom of me and and he gives it to whomever he will sometimes he may give it to what we would perceive as an ungodly person. Think about Israel in Babylon invaded and took them into captivity for 70 years. They probably had questions guy. How could you allow this to happen? Will he did it? Because he was judging the nation of Israel in many times in our own land things can happen in it may be simply because God is judging America or it may not be judgement it off. It may just be the steps that is needed to be taken for this world to come to the determined in that God has determined that it will come to so we can't say all the time with this happened because Judgment of this or that but I know this that we're not robots down here and sometime God he has given us Free Will and sometimes he allows us to choose what we want and we will have to face the consequences of our choices. So he still rules in the Kingdom of men see when ungodly people get selected God. He hasn't lost control. He is still Sovereign and by the same token when things are out of order in your life and and we need to get better control. All we have to remember is that God is Sovereign and we can let the king bring order to our lives. So the first thing that we're going to do Is we're going to praise God for his sovereignty. Well number 2. We praise God also for his authority and we see this in the phrase Vine is the power you see our God is not an absentee God. He's not setting up in heaven watching events on Earth unfold if we believe that then what we are we are deist, we believe that God created this world and then just sit back and folded his arms that okay. Y'all take care of it. No, that's not he is a Hands-On God if you don't believe it just remember the study we did in the in the Book of Genesis on the life of Joseph how God was behind the scenes moving people in moving events and circumstances for his good pleasure. You see we praise God for his authority. He's in control. We have a God who is a Hands-On God is a powerful God who is actively involved in the working out of this world. He has full Authority now, Escaped his attention. God is omniscient which means he knows everything and God never makes a mistake now when we look at our world and we think about how bad things are at least from a temporal perspective. We can think that God is making mistakes but friends, he's in control and he is a all-powerful God. That's why Jesus said here we prayed for thine is the power for God has all authority. There is nothing too difficult for him. Just think about this he made Abraham a great nation. A great nation come from Abraham and his family. But Abraham was just he could not hardly believe what God was telling him. But the Bible says he believed God and then God made it happen out of that promise, which seems so impossible came the great nation of Israel. You see we serve a powerful God now one day the disciples asked Jesus. They said well Jesus, we don't understand this who who can be saved and this is what Jesus said to them. Since when his disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished saying who then can be saved now watch what Jesus says but Jesus looked at them and said to them with men this is impossible then possible for man to save himself or anybody else but With God all things are possible. You see he is a powerful God and he's able to do the impossible now. Maybe there is a loved one in your life A co-worker or a friend whom you just think there's no way God can change them friends. Listen, there is no one out there who is so lost so far from God that his power cannot reach that person's heart and transform them. You know, sometimes you look back over the request that you made to God over the years and sometimes some of them seem really big and you and you would think Lord if this is going to happen, this would be a miracle but incredibly God has moved on those were Wes why because we have a powerful God now, let me say something about our world and our culture that we live in our culture is obsessed with power and authority. In our culture is obsessed with the notion that mankind can solve his own problems my friends. If you were to attend one of these positive attitude seminars, here are some of the things that you're going to hear you would hear things like well if it's going to be it's up to me or what the mind can conceive man can achieve Now does not sound great. It doesn't sound great to have a positive attitude about yourself and I can do this and I can do that and have all the confidence in the world. You see that sounds so good but friends. Let me tell you something about that positive thinking like that. The only thing wrong with it, is it unbiblical and heretical you see it's not up to me. It's up to God and there's plenty of times that I have conceived some wild things that I thought would be good for me, but God in his wisdom kept me from having that because he loves me and he's in control. So every day when I pray I need to close by saying God you're in control. It may feel like nobody is in control this world, but God is still in control. The Throne of Heaven is not empty. The Lord is there he is seated and he is powerful and he can do whatever he determines to do friends. We don't need to get into this second or psychology of that is all up to me. Remember what Paul said Paul said I can do all things now. Did he closed that verse right there? No, he didn't how did he in that? He said I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Listen this world and this culture will elevate a man centered worldview and leave God out and it will get us to think that we can do all things that it's all up to us. It's our gift talents and abilities friend. It's not it's not up. You and me is up to God and I want that kind of power on my side. He is the awesome God he spoke in a billion stars came into existence and not only that he gave them all a name. He said a word a word and the world was made matter fact the Prophet Jeremiah said he made the Earth by his power. He established the World by his wisdom and he has stretched out the heavens by his understanding you see friends. I don't want to get up every morning and have to psych myself up and give myself some positive self-talk Too Faced today instead. I want to get up and trust that God is still in control and that he has power over everything. That's why our prayer should Simply Be thine is the power. So let's go back and let's look at our verse once more. Jesus said pray for thine is the kingdom. That is the sovereignty of God. He's in control and then he said to pray and the power that is the authority of God in friend. We want that power on our side and then he says this and the glory so not only do we praise God for his sovereignty and secondly, we praise God for his authority. But certainly we praise God for his majesty and that is 9 is the glory you see you in his prayer. Jesus says dying his kingdom the power and the glory in other words. Our God is a god of Glory. Now that word Glory it literally means light. So the Bible says that God covers himself with light as with a garment now. Look what 1st John said John said this in his little epistle first John chapter 1 verse 5. He says this this is the message which we have heard from him speaking of Jesus. And declare to you that God is light. That's the word glory god is light and in him is no Darkness at all. You see when I go to him in prayer having offered up my petitions having asked for my protection and and having in prayed for others and help with personal relationship. I come with praise for the one who brings light. You see, here's what how in prayer I get away from looking at things horizontally and begin to look at things vertically friends. The problem with many of us in our prayer life is we look at life horizontally. We look at everything beside us and we get overwhelmed friends. We need to start looking upward. We need to look up to heaven and see Jesus there. We need to look vertically and I when we do that, we realize that the one to whom I am praying is the all Mighty and powerful and solver. God the god whose light fills the Earth you see the Book of Revelation tells us that in the future when we get to heaven something is going to happen and I want you to look at it here and Revelation chapter 21 in verse 23. This is what the Bible says when we get to heaven the city speaking of Heaven had no need of the Sun or of the moon to shine in it. Why not for the glory the light of God illuminated it the lamb is it's like you see in the future the Lord Jesus Christ shall illuminate. The entire universe is our God is a great God of glory and he shines down upon us everyday Don is the glory we pray for Jesus is the most glorious of all creation. We praise him because he is like So we said so far. on this verse here that we praise God for thine is the kingdom that's his sovereignty and the power that's his authority and the glory and the glory is a course. Remember Glory means like that's his majesty and then we have one more word. It says forever. Well, what is forever? What does that mean? Well, we praise him for his sovereignty. We praise him for his authority. We praise him for his majesty and fourthly. We praise God for his eternity. What is forever me? Well forever means forever. That means eternity Jesus concludes with the word forever. And that's a truly awesome word. We not only thank God for his sovereignty and authority and Majesty, but we praise him because he is eternal now, this is what the Bible says. The Bible says that God inhabits eternity now think about what that means. Just as you inhabit your house and you go through the rooms in the house or the home that you live in God inhabits eternity. In other words. He lives within the boundaries of Eternity stretching farther back than we can imagine. I think of this there was never a time in which God did not exist and he will live on into the future forever throughout all the ages friends. God is eternal he has no beginning. He has no ending he has always existed and he will always exist and I want you to look at what Paul said to Timothy and this is 1st Timothy Chapter 1 verse 17. I think this captures what we saying here. We praise him for his eternity in our prayers. Look what Paul says. Speaking of God now to the king Eternal there. It is right there the Eternal King. He says Immortal in other words. He'll never die. There was never a time when he didn't see if they'll never be a time when he doesn't is if he is Immortal invisible to God who alone is wise be honor and Glory. There's that word light forever and ever amen friends as we reflect on these attributes of God in the Lord's Prayer. We need to ask ourselves.

If things are healthy between us and God. You see he has he provided for us and taking care of us today. You see since God is eternal. Every day to God is today. God is not sending up in heaven wringing his hands over what might happen tomorrow because God lives in the Eternal he sees the end from the beginning. So if I have a healthy relationship with God right now, I have nothing to fear in my future why because every day to God is today tomorrow is today 10 years from now will be today thousand years is today for God and I know you see he sees the end from the beginning and so I have nothing to fear. And I know that God can be trusted because every day is today that when you consider the history of God when you end the Bible is is a historical book when you consider the history of God when you consider his faithfulness that's recorded in Scripture. When you consider how you have seen God work in your own life don't you have confidence and trust in him? I hope you do friends. This is part of his kingdom because he is Sovereign and he is in control he can do anything he wants for he has all power. He is at Majestic God high and lifted up Seated on the throne of glory and surrounded by the Elder singing of his majesty and Friends. It will always be that way because he is the Eternal God. He inhabits eternity Jesus Christ. The Bible says the same yesterday today and forever. There is never a better day to come to him then today. Because he'll never love you more than he does right now. Remember every day is today for God and anytime you want. You can approach him for God lives in the Eternal now. And for that reason we don't have to wonder what's going to happen today. Why because God is in control friends. We all not to complain about the tough times that we face or the overwhelming challenges of life because he God has the power to overcome them and friends his power resides in us. So in essence, God says trust me I can do it from mine is the power you see God knows us he loves us and he is working on our behalf. He has both the god of glory and The God Who lives inside of us. He has both the almighty Creator and the one who walks next to us and holds her hand throughout life. That's why this Lord's Prayer begins with the words Our Father which art in heaven. And it ends with the words for thine is the kingdom. He is Sovereign and the power he has all authority and the glory all Majesty for ever for all eternity friends. We serve a great God and he abides within those who know him. Well, let's pray father we do. Thank you and praise you and love you today. What a wonderful wonderful verse that the Lord's Prayer closes with Lord we just want to thank you today that you are indeed Sovereign. This world seems out of control. all the evil in this world Lord we just see the world spiraling. Even our own Nation spiraling down at a quick pace. Lord we know that you control all kingdoms and no one can be in charge unless you put them there or thank you for the compliments that gives us thank you for the trust that we have in you. Thank you that you are in control. Thank you that you have the easy button with you. And you hold it for this Earth is your footstool Lord? We thank you that you are light. We thank you that you have all authority and it has been given to you Lord help us to trust you and to love you with all of our heart help us not to have confidence in her own flesh Lord for we know that that will lead us to have a man centered worldview where we uplift ourselves and our own gifts and talents. We know that Jesus shed for that without me. You can do nothing Lord help us to understand that that you have all power that you are sovereign that you are Majestic. There's no darkness in you at all. You are the light of this world and in heaven, we will see you and you will like heaven because it will not even need the moon or the sun to do that or we thank you for that. And we thank you that you are Eternal and we thank you that we're going to spend eternity with You for those of us who know you Lord I pray for each one that's listening to this and Lord. I pray that they would be able to to look at this verse in to see the wonderful Supreme throughs that we learn about you at the end of The Lord's Prayer force in Christ's name. I do pray and for his sake amen. All right. Well, thank you for being here today. Now next week. I'm going to wrap up the Lord's Prayer. We just come I'm on kind of do an overview of what we studied and we will wrap that up and then and Wednesday night this week. We're coming to the end of our study on prayer also there and so was in the next couple weeks will be starting a couple of new series and I'll talk more about that as we get there. But I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend. And thank you for being here and have a great week and we will see everyone Wednesday night on Zoom. If not, we'll be back here Sunday for our next sermon.