The Lord s Prayer: The Kingdom, The Power & The Glory Psalm 27 Sunday 12th April 2015 8 & 10am services This morning we ve reached the end of our series in the Lord s Prayer. We ve explored the amazing words that Jesus taught His followers to pray. I wonder how much this series has influenced your prayer-life. Have you been challenged, inspired, revitalised or spurred-on to pray more deeply, more honestly, and more intimately with God? This morning we ve got one last chance to engage with the Lord s Prayer as we come to the final phrase: The kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever, amen. Last time I preached in this series, I joked that I d been tasked with giving a sermon on just three words: your kingdom come. Well, this is a bigger challenge: to preach on a phrase that doesn t even appear in the bible! This conclusion to the Lord s Prayer was added to the words of Jesus that are found in Matthew and Luke. But Christians everywhere use these words to conclude their prayers, and there s certainly nothing wrong with them! So, to help us explore those words, we re going to dig into Psalm 27. I ve entitled this morning s talk, Everything that matters is found in God. It s a bold statement, isn t it? I want us all to take a moment to consider our own lives. What matters the most to you? It could be something you already have that you hold really dear; something that, if you lost it, your life would be over. Or maybe it s something you long for, and work for, and hope for; something you don t have yet but you d give anything to obtain it.
I ve made a little list of the most common ones, thanks to Google: Husband or wife Children Family (i.e. parents & siblings) Peace/Safety/Security Happiness/pleasures Freedom Self-esteem/purpose/hope Reputation/legacy Career/Money Health Now, there might be more. But if you ve got one or two of those in your mind, I want you to just hold it there for the next few minutes, and we ll examine it together. Because I think that if that thing truly matters, it will be most fully satisfied in God. David, who wrote Psalm 27, sure thought so. He had many needs, but there was only one thing he was seeking: (v4) to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to gaze upon his beauty and seek him in his temple. That was David s one desire: God. And in that place he found satisfaction. God in His very nature, by his very presence satisfies every want and need. And this satisfaction is found in three ways: in his kingdom, in his power, and in his glory. When we pray yours in the kingdom, the power and the glory, we are acknowledging that those things, those good things, are found in Him. We do not obtain them by creating them for ourselves we are welcomed into them by our loving God, who wants to share himself with the world. 1. The Kingdom Firstly, the kingdom. The Kingdom of God is God s intended world order. When Jesus came to earth as a man, he inaugurated God s Kingdom, and made it the ongoing project of His people to live the kingdom way and bring this new world order to bear on the world around them. In the kingdom there is justice and equality. In the kingdom there is a world made right. In the kingdom of God, there is a community of people who are bound together under one king, Jesus, living and working together to change the world, little by little, like yeast working through a batch of dough, or a tiny mustard seed growing into a tree. The kingdom of God provides answers to the questions, why isn t my life the way it should be? and why do things always seem to go wrong? In the kingdom of God, when it comes in full, everything we go right, and we will live with God and his people in loving harmony forever. And because the kingdom of God is already coming, even now, bit by bit, we can be part of the healing and turning around of the world around us. The Kingdom of God provides for so many of the things that matter in life: purpose, family, hope, legacy, peace and security. Look at how David concludes Psalm 27, from verse 11:
Teach me your way, O Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. Do not hand me over to the desires of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence. David longs to know God s way, the way of God s kingdom. He wants to have a path to follow, purpose and direction in life. And he longs for justice and peace, to be delivered from his enemies who speak lies and threats against him. See how he continues this thought in verses 13 & 14: I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. David is confident that the kingdom of God will come. And he knows that it is the Lord s kingdom, not his own, that will prevail over evil and injustice. That is the kind of prayer we are praying when we pray yours is the kingdom it s a prayer that says, I am confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. God, the kingdom belongs to you make it evident and real in my life, and in this world. Because in the Kingdom I find so much of that which my heart longs to see and experience. 2. The power Secondly, the power is God s. God has all authority, dominion and supremacy. This is something we know it s such a core attribute of God s character, he wouldn t be god without it. The power of God is the backbone of David s opening words in Psalm 27: The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid? It is the Lord who provides safety and security in the face of people or situations where we might be afraid. It is his powerful presence that protects us and strengthens us. And it is God in whom we should put our trust whenever we are afraid, because there is nothing more powerful than God. When we examine our list of things that matter, we find that the power of God is greater and more trustworthy than the other places we look for security. By his power he provides peace, safety and security; much more than locks or bars, or savings or insurance policies ever can. We think that by having lots of money we will be safe and secure, but in fact we have a God who provides for us everything that we need. God is a powerful provider. Now, God uses his power to protect his people in unusual ways. David was not without worries or dangers in his life. God did not protect him from enemies or troubles ever coming against him. But God s power overcomes the most incredible situations as we celebrated just last week, God has power even over death itself. When we pray yours is the power, we are giving God the credit he deserves nothing else is anywhere near as powerful or able to overcome difficulties as God.
I find this particularly challenging, because I know that I so often rely on myself, or my friends, or my family, before relying on God. Do I think that my money or my relationships are more able to help me than God is? Maybe I do, deep down. I need to pray, yours is the power and then give over to God all the things that worry me, and all the things I fear, and say, you are able to overcome all obstacles even the power of death is weak compared to your strength help me to trust that you are able to help and protect me, and to bring me through any trouble I find myself in. 3. The glory Thirdly, and finally, the glory belongs to God. He is glorious, everything that is glorious is found in him, and all glory ought to be given to him. We long, in this life, for those moments of bliss and pleasure; for beauty and fullness, for those moments when we feel a deep sense of joy and wonder, for happiness. I think, really, that the pursuit of happiness is the thing that most people long for most deeply. And the happiness that is found in God s glory is the truest happiness, of which all other beauty, pleasure and joy is only a reflection. God s glory is his presence, his fullness, his very being. His power is a key component of his glory, but we ve already covered that. Yet the beauty of the Lord is something the bible talks a lot about, but which we understand very little. When you look at a beautiful natural landscape, or a beautiful creature like a bird or some other animal, or when you look at a beautiful person, or perceive some kind of inner-beauty in somebody s character; all this beauty is a reflection of God, who created these things. When you hear beautiful music, or see beautiful art, or see or hear or read a beautiful story, that beauty too finds it s source in the beautiful glory of God. Truth, too, is found in the glory of God. Sometimes it s a white-hot, glaring, revealing truth that lays bear all your lies and shortcomings. Yet it is also a truth that exposes the lies that hold you back; a truth that sets you free. (John 8:32) The freedom of God s truth says that you are loved by Him, washed clean by the death of Jesus, raised to new life in His resurrection, and made new to live with him forever. All this is glory. And the glory of God is coming when Jesus returns, his glory will fill the world, and everything will be made new and glorious, including you and me. So when we say the glory is yours, we are entering into the glorious space of God s presence and enjoying him. Like David in the Psalm, we can dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives and gaze upon the beauty of the lord And look at what happens next, in verse 6: Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.
That is our response, too. When we experience the presence of God in our lives, and receive a taste of his glory, we respond by glorifying him that is, we worship him with shouts of joy, singing and making music to him. To say the glory is yours is to worship Him, and to worship Him alone. In the glory of God we find peace, happiness, pleasure, joy, freedom, and hope. And these things are not just God s today, right now, as we meditate upon them. The kingdom, the power and the glory of God belong to him now, and will continue to belong to him forever and ever. leave us wanting more; yet in our eternal God we find the true and complete and lasting object of our desires. And so we pray, the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours, now and forever, because we put all our hopes and every need and desire we have into his hands, trusting him and acknowledging him as the source of all that is good and all that will last forever. This is a prayer of dependence and a prayer of praise everything that matters is found in God, so we come to him with all our needs, and when we stand in his presence, we worship him. Conclusion And that is an amazing way to conclude our prayers. To acknowledge the eternal nature of the kingdom, which is only breaking through now, but which is here now, and will be our home forever. To acknowledge the eternal, immutable nature of his power and his glory, that God is active in the world, and present in our lives, now and forever. And as we find our satisfaction in the kingdom, power and glory of God, we can know and celebrate that we are finding lasting satisfaction, eternal satisfaction. Our earthly families are temporary, our hard-won peace and safety and security will not last forever, happiness and pleasure outside of that which comes from God is fleeting; we give ourselves to purposes and careers and goals which, if we achieve them,