Introduction

• Well we’ve come to our last week of looking at the

Lord’s Prayer.

• Anyone feeling relieved? It’s often nice to get to

the end of something isn’t it?

• You know, I often find I’m rushing to finish things -

can you relate?

• A big task that you’ve been working on - maybe a

school project, an assignment, a big report or

presentation for work - and you rush the end.

• You’ve put so much work in to this big thing, and

you get to that bit where you have to write a

conclusion and you’re just like - oh man, I can’t

be bothered to do this!!

• I’ll just make something up quickly and then I’ll be

done.

• If you’ve been Anglican for a while, and you’re

anything like me, you’ll get to the end of a

confession, or a collect or any sort of prayer, and

get to that last line — you know, the one that

seems to be in every prayer in the prayer book -

and just rush through it.

• Blah blah blah blah, ‘for the kingdom, the power

and the glory are yours now and forever amen!’

Phew! Done! Brilliant! We can move on..

• Now hang on…

• Let’s slow down. For the Kingdom. The power. And

the Glory are yours. Now. and forever. Amen.

• **Kingdom. Power. Glory. Now. and forEVER.

• Do they sound like throwaway words to you? ///

• These words, bring brilliant perspective to our

praying.

• They put us in our place.

• They remind us of who we’re praying to.

• They ground us in the glory and majesty and

supremacy of God.

• They are important!!

• But when it comes to this line -

• **WHY do we pray it?

• WHAT are we really praying?

• and WHAT does it mean for us NOW and

FOREVER?

1. Why do we pray it?

• So why do we pray this line, when we pray the

Lord’s prayer?

• Let’s go back to the Bible and have a quick look

once again at Jesus’ prayer.

• **So here’s Matthew’s account, and Luke’s

account.

• Have a quick read….maybe just cast your eyes to

the bottom couple of lines.

• Do you notice what’s missing?

• Where’s the kingdom, power, glory bit?

• Interestingly - it’s actually not in Jesus’ version of

the prayer which we have in our version of the

Bible.

• So if it’s not in the Bible .. it’s not biblical and we

shouldn’t be praying it. Right?

• Well actually, wrong. It is there - but way way back

in the days of King David in the Old Testament.

• **It’s in that passage we read earlier, in 1

Chronicles 29 :10.

• If you’ve got it open in front of you, have a look

with me now.

• Verse ten - David the king said to “All the

assembly”

• So for a bit of context - David is speaking to a huge

gathering of the people of Israel, from the high up -

armies, palace officials - to the low - farmers and

so on - thousands of people

• And it’s a big occasion - the dedication of the

temple, and passing on the reign to his son King

Solomon.

• And in front of all these people on this huge

occasion he offers up this huge big picture prayer

of praise.

• Verse 11 - look with me - YOURS O lord is the

greatness and the POWER and the GLORY and

the victory and the majesty… yours is the

KINGDOM, O Lord and you are exalted as head

over all.

• Some of those words look familiar? Yep - it’s all

pretty much the same as what we pray today.

• So it IS biblical, and it IS a great thing to pray — in

fact it’s thought it was introduced to our way of

praying way back in the first century, and they

gave it a special name - a doxology - which just

means a formula of praise to God

• And over time it naturally evolved in to this ending

which was appended on to all prayers - a bit like

when we say Amen

• And It’s thought that the first Christians who

witnessed Christ’s resurrection used it as a

celebration - a bit of an exclamation mark - for

their newly alive and exciting faith.

• So that’s where it’s come from - but WHY is it a

good thing to be praying?//

**

• One of the things I love most in life is structure.

• And particularly when it comes to writing and

communication.

• When you listen to someone or read something,

you want a sense of where they’re going.

• As a journalist this is imperative!!

• The first thing I do when I write a news story for

TV, is write the intro which are the two lines that

the newsreader reads before they play the voiced-

over story.

• My job in those two lines is to tell the viewer what

the story’s about. Sounds obvious right?

• Then when I write the actual story - I know that the

viewer has that background in mind - they know

the FOCUS of the story— and I can get on with

telling the story.

• And then at the end of the minute-twenty, I need to

wrap things up - draw them to a close - and usually

it’ll be something like ‘Parliament will vote on the

issue this Thursday’ - or ‘so and so will be released

from prison in twelve months’ or whatever it is. But

it needs to bring the viewer back to the beginning -

back to the big issue that was raised in the intro.

• It’s just like your English teachers and uni lecturers

told you to do when you’re writing an essay. “Tell

‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em. Tell them. Then tell

‘em what you told ‘em.” //

• **So when you look at the Lord’s prayer - you see

the first few lines start off with God as the focus,

the subject.

• Then it moves to us, and our needs…

• And then there’s our line at the end - which brings

us back to God!

• The last word belongs to God.

• It’s like two bookends isn’t it. God - the father in

heaven - is the focus - the all-important intro and

conclusion to this prayer. //

• When you pray, do you pray like this? // **

• Let’s drill down on that other word - FOR.

• For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are

yours.

• Why???? What’s it there for?

• It’s a ‘because’.

• We’re praying all this stuff BECAUSE the kingdom,

power and glory are God’s.

• It doesn’t say - ‘FOR we are Christians and

therefore deserve to be blessed with all these

things by God’

• It doesn’t say - ‘FOR we really really just want this

stuff to live a good life’

• We’re praying all this BECAUSE of God and who

he is.

• How often do you think about that when you pray?

• Why are you praying what you pray?

• If you were to be asked ‘why’ you just prayed what

you did after a prayer, what would your answer be?

• Would it be because you just want a good sleep, or

an easy day at work, or the kids to be well-

behaved?

• Or is it because of the Kingdom, the Power and the

Glory of God?? //

2. What are we praying?

• But what do we mean when we’re talking about

God’s kingdom, his power and his glory?

• Have a look again at the 1 Chronicles 29 passage

- looking at verse 11

• “Yours O lord is the greatness, power and glory,

victory and majesty — for all that is in the heavens

and in the earth is YOURS. YOURS is the

Kingdom, O lord, and you are exalted as head

above all….”

• It’s a pretty obvious conclusion that David’s made

here isn’t it. God made the heavens and earth,

he’s exalted as HEAD above all - it’s clear that

God’s a King over a Kingdom - one that’s so huge

it includes not only the earth, but the entire

universe.

• Those of us who love and serve Jesus as our Lord,

are part of his Kingdom…

• But how often do we live our lives without

respecting Christ as King? How often do we ignore

his will for our lives and do our own thing? ///

• But when Christ’s kingship is acknowledged and

embraced, we are set free - and our life is

changed.

• I know when I say to God, I want one thing, but

you clearly want another - but I trust his

sovereignty and just go with it — often I’m proven

wrong and he’s proven right - and a whole weight

is lifted off my shoulders!

•What about this ‘power’ word?

•Well the Old Testament has a lot to say about

God’s power - especially in the Psalms…

•Psalm 62 verse 11 says that “power belongs to

God”

•Psalm 148 verse 5 - creation itself praises the

Lord’s power - “Let them praise the name of the

Lord - for he commanded and they were created.”

•Psalm 65 verses 5 to 8 - he shows his power in the

way he sustains the world - “the one who by his

strength established the mountains, … stills the

roaring of the seas, the roaring of the ways, the

tumult of the peoples.”

•And there’s plenty of other examples - think about

the exodus - and how God delivered his people out

of slavery and changed Pharaoh’s mind with all

those POWERFUL plagues!

• In the New Testament God’s power is described

more in how it influences our lives on earth.

•One example in Ephesians 3 - we can in fact be

strengthened from God’s power - “he may grant

you to be strengthened with power through his

Spirit in your inner being”

•But then - I think the most important thing to

remember, is that God ultimately revealed his

power to us, in the person of his son Jesus.

•What could be more powerful than rising again

having been crucified?

• The resurrection is an incredible sign of God’s

power.//

•Why can we have faith, that God can answer these

prayers we’re praying?

•Because he has shown - he has proven - that he is

all powerful. //

•And the last word, is glory.

•What words do you think of when you think of

Glory?

•Brilliance, worthiness, praise, honour ? Power?

Kingship?

• It makes sense to think about the God’s glory

when we are talking to him. His position above all

else - his supremacy!

•Again - Jesus is often talked about when it comes

to glory - Hebrews 1 verse 3 - “He is the radiance

of the glory of God - the exact imprint of his

nature…after making purification for sins, he sat

down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

having become as much superior to angels as the

name he has inherited is more excellent than

theirs.”!

• The disciples themselves saw it in Jesus - John

says in his gospel, in chapter 1 verse 14 - “The

Word (God) became flesh (Jesus) and went

among us — and we have seen his glory, glory as

of the only Son from the Father, full of Grace and

truth.”!

•And just this week we’re going to be hearing about

shepherds worshipping the son of God in a

manger - even THEY had heard about it - the

angel visiting them in the field and saying, “Glory to

God in the highest, and on earth peace among

those with whom he is pleased!”

•Did you know we as Christians were created to

bring glory to god? —

•Ephesians 1 verse 12 tells us that we were created

and have been brought into a relationship with God

- “for the praise of his glory”

•And so I wonder if - when you pray - you have this

idea at the centre of what you pray - is what you’re

praying going to bring glory to God?

• For in this prayer - the Lord’s prayer - we pray the

prayer, FOR the Glory of God — BECAUSE of his

glory.

• Is what you pray ultimately about bringing glory to

God?

3. What it means today, and in the future

• So we know WHY the Kingdom, the Power and the

Glory are God’s — what about the ‘Now and

forever’?

• It’s no surprise that the Bible is on about eternity -

God is outside of our human idea of time.

• So I think when we pray this bit, it’s just yet

another way of describing how God is supreme - is

King over everything.

• Not only is the kingdom, power and glory God’s

now, but that’s not going to change - ever.

• I think this is a great comfort.

• For me - there’s very little in life more scary than

uncertainty.

• Not having a job, or having a job but not knowing

what the day ahead holds and wondering if you’ll

be able to cope …

• Hebrews 13 verse 8 says, “Jesus Christ is the

same, yesterday, today and forever.”

• The fact that God is above all things - is in control -

is not going to change!

• So we can have certainty that this amazing God

will be there for us.

• It’s one of the great privileges of being part of

God’s kingdom!

• And indeed that kingdom is here now! We have the

blessing of the Holy Spirit, which guides us through

this temporary time sandwiched between Jesus’

death and resurrection, and his return - the ‘now

but not yet’.

• And if you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord and

saviour - you’ll one day get to be with God, in his

perfect Kingdom, surrounded by his power and

glory. ////

Conclusion

• Friends - could there be a better conclusion to the

very prayer Jesus himself taught us to pray?

• Sure, it’s not directly from the text of the Lord’s

prayer.

• But it is in the Bible! King David said it to a huge

assembly.

• And we’ve said it as Anglicans for centuries, in

service after service.

• But even though it’s the last line- and one you

know so well- don’t be tempted to skip over it!

• The God you’re praying to is the king of the universe - and you have the privilege to be a part

of God’s kingdom!

• The God you’re praying to has the ultimate power - and he reveals this to us in so many ways!

• The God you’re praying to has - and deserves -

ALL the glory.

• Again I ask you - do your prayers have God as the

focus?

• Does your LIFE have God as the focus?

• Are you living, as if the kingdom is his, all the

power is his, and all the glory is his?

• Let’s pray and indeed live our lives - with God as

the focus - the God who is the same now and

forever.

Amen.