The Lord's Prayer

`As most of you know for the last three months we have been carefully going through a 10-part sermon series on the lord's prayer looking at each section together.  As we go through this prayer that all of us are all familiar with I do pray that each one of you were blessed to take this journey together and i hope and pray that through this journey together your prayer life is indeed enhancing.  You continue to develop deep meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ again.  As Ellen White have said, “prayer is the breath of the soul, the channel of all blessings.”’ Also here's another powerful quote by Ellen White regarding prayer Acts of the Apostles page 564, “prayer is heaven’s ordained means of success in the conflict with sin in the development of christian character.”

 

If you want to deal with the sins of your life, if you want to adopt christ-like character, prayer is indeed heaven's ordained means for us to succeed. The divine influences that come and answer to the prayer of faith will accomplish in the soul of the supply and all for which he pleads. For the pardon of sin, for the holy spirit, for the christ-like temper, for wisdom and strength to do his work, for any gift he has promised we may ask, and the promise is he shall receive.

 

My friends I thank the lord that we have the privilege and honor to have direct connection with our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ our Lord and savior.  As a result of our connection with our father our hearts and our souls are alive and vibrant no matter what we go through in our lives.

 

Having conversation with some of you even this week. What we do here at Hemet Seventh-day Adventist Church during worship service and everything before the time in which sermon is being delivered it's not just the preliminary.  Each and every one of you bring your heart to the lord and present it to the lord and each and every one of your presentations inspires us all, because your souls are alive and your souls are vibrant no matter what we may go through in our lives.

 

We get to experience the blessing god wants to indeed bestowed upon us all as this quote says “we can be pardoned of our sins to receive the holy spirit to adopt a christ-like character, temper, to receive wisdom and strength to do his work and for any gift God has promised he shall give.”

 

What a wonderful, what a mighty God we serve. Amen? My friends at the end of the day, prayer is one of the main keys for us to be ready and stay ready for the imminent return of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.  So today as we come to the end of this sermon series we are going to take a look at the very last section, the tenth section of the Lord's prayer which is, “for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.”

 

Now right off the bat this concluding words of praise or the doxology that we recite so frequently are not part of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. They are not found in the gospel of Luke and also in the oldest manuscript of the gospel of Matthew, the codex Vaticanus, which is one of the most important ancient manuscripts.

 

So where did this ending of the prayer come from?  The answer is, it is an addition by the early church.  As a matter of fact this ending is a very similar prayer of David from 1 Chronicles 29:10-13.

 

“Therefore David blessed the lord before the assembly; and David said: “Blessed are You, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.  Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory the and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord and you are exalted as head over all.”  

So the question is, why did the early church add these final words of praise to the Lord's Prayer? The early church experienced not just the cross of Jesus Christ, but also the resurrection of Jesus and the spreading of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Even under serious persecution and martyrdom.  They felt compelled to add a note of triumph, a doxology.  Even under persecution, even under the the pushback, the the setback, and everything that they went through, they sang their song in their own ways in moments like these.  “I sing out a song, I sing out a love song for Jesus.”  It's one thing when you're singing a love song to Jesus when everything is going well in your life, but ladies and gentlemen it's another thing when you are going through the thick and thin and you still praise god in spite of it all.

 

Ultimately we need to remember that it is God who has the last say.  Amen?  On everything that happens here on this earth and entire universe and also when it comes to The Lord's Prayer or any part of the bible God is the one who decides and inspires and guides individuals and groups of people through the unction of the Holy Spirit, as to what gets included into the holy canon of the word of God the Bible.  As well as what gets left out.

 

Let me take a moment to say that when the council got together to canonize the 66 books of the bible, ultimately it was not human doing but it was God's doing.  As God orchestrated it all, because God is the author and the provider of the Bible, because this bible is His word not ours.  Doxology, doxa means glory and logia means saying.  Doxology is giving glory and praise to god

 

One theologian have said, “prayer and praise are like bird’s two wings: with both working, you soar; with one out of action, you are earthbound.  But birds should not be earthbound, nor Christians praise-less.”

 

Ellen White says in the book Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, page 120 “The last like the first sentence of the Lord's Prayer points, to our father as above all power and authority and every name that is named.”  So we begin praying the Lord's Prayer by saying Thy kingdom come and we affirm at the end of this prayer thine is the kingdom.

 

Then when we pray thy will be done, we affirm God has the omnipotent power to accomplish his will, his plan.  So we say Thine is the power

 

When we then pray hallowed be Thy name and we affirm together Thine is the glory.  When we pray with much affirmation and confidence that for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory we are literally admitting that we are not self-sufficient.  That's why Thine is the kingdom and not mine is the kingdom

 

Thine is the kingdom. If you're going to build a kingdom build God's kingdom not yours.

 

As a matter of fact the kingdom, the power, the glory. is all God’s.  It's all God’s.  It's not mine, it's not yours, it's all His.  So when we pray for Thine these words are a reminder that it is all His.  When it comes to the kingdom, when it comes to power and when it comes to glory, amen and amen.  It's all His because true life is not about elevating ourselves to the highest place above and on top of other people.  True life is not about building your own kingdom.  Rather it's about giving honor and praise to god whose kingdom we hope and pray will come fully on earth soon and very soon, amen.

 

You see the type of kingdom that we are waiting are not like the four kingdoms mentioned in 2 Daniel. Not Babylon, not Medo-Persia, not Greece, not Rome but it's the kingdom which shall never be destroyed.

 

It's the one coming out of nowhere. In Daniel 2:44 it says, “this kingdom, “shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand ever.””

 

This is the kingdom we're talking about, my friends.  What are you building, what kind of building, what kind of kingdom are you building in your life? If it's not God's kingdom we should bring a whole wrecking crew and bring it to pieces. That's why Ellen White goes on to say in Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, “the savior beheld the years that stretched out before his disciples, not, as they had this dream, lying in the sunshine of worldly prosperity and honor, but dark with the tempest of human hatred and satanic wrath.”

 

Amid national strife in ruin, the steps of disciples would be best with perils and often their hearts would be oppressed by fear.  They were to see Jerusalem a desolation.  The temple swept away.  It’s worship forever ended and Israel scattered to all lands like wrecked on desert shore.  

 

“Jesus said, “you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars.” “Nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows.””  Matthew 24:6-8. 

 

Yet Christ's followers were not to fear that their hope was lost or that god had forsaken the earth.  The power and the glory belong unto him whose great purposes would still move on unthwarted toward their consummation.   Ellen White says next “in the prayer that breeds they daily wants, the disciples of Christ were directed to look above all the power and dominion of evil, unto the Lord their God whose kingdom ruleth over all who is their Father and everlasting friend.”

 

This is where we put our sights, our focus on.  Nothing more.  So my friends we need to choose which kingdom we will serve, which kingdom we will participate to build.

 

God's kingdom, where god rules forever or our own kingdom where we rule and eventually be destroyed and be no more. Then we pray for Thine is the power, for Thine is the power.  You see God has the power to accomplish His will and the power that is available to us if we are willing to connect with God.  We have to be plugged into a power source.  We have to be connected with God, for God's power to flow through us.  And guess what, such things as

worship, such things as God's word, prayer, and service are the four main conduits to God's power.

 

If you want to experience God's power, participate not just one of these aspects, but participate in all aspects of the conduit.  Worship be in the word of God, to talk with God, to walk with God, and to be in service to glorify God.

 

The Bible guarantees that you will experience power flowing through you.  No matter come what may, when you are going through all kinds of difficulties in your life, you're going to have so much power that in moments like these you can sing out, a love song love song for Jesus.

 

You don't need to be a scholar, you don't need to be a theologian, you don't even need to be a preacher.  By incorporating these things in your life, you will become a powerhouse for the Lord.

 

You’ll need a surge protector to stop yourself, because God will indeed put a tremendous amount of power into the marrows of your bones.

 

Every time you speak, every time you smile, every time you look at someone, every time you sup with that person, every time you fellowship with that person, every time you call and to text that person, it becomes inspiring.  That you just want to be with that person not because I am being demanded of but because this person has so much power.  The power of God surging through them.

 

So i want to encourage all of us here at the Hemet Seventh-day Adventist Church to continue to be in the word of God to pray unceasingly.  To worship God like you have never worshipped before and be in service.  Get Him involved.

 

In these connections, and if those connections are loose, or even worse disconnected, we may find ourselves enduring needless trouble, difficulty and or frustration.  However, when these connections are firm and strong we have the power for living and doing God's will.  Not because you feel like you have to do it, but you do it because you want to do it.

 

Then we pray for Thine is the glory forever.  You know the apostle Paul talks about how all people sin and falls short of the glory of God.  Yet thanks be to God for sending his only begotten son Jesus to die for our sins and filling our hearts with God's spirit.  Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:11, 12 “As you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as the Father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who called you into His own kingdom and glory.”  There is a calling on each and every one of us to be a citizen, a resident of God's own kingdom. So as we especially focus on verse two notice that God is calling us and inviting us to participate not only in his kingdom, but on this earth to glorify God in everything that we do.  Apostle Paul goes as far as far as to say whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

 

Have you ever noticed how sometimes it seems like dogs and their owners often resemble each other? I know this because I had an uncle who lived in Hiroshima, where I kid you not, him and his dog looked so much alike down to the eyebrows.

 

Have you ever felt like the longer people are married, the more they look alike and or speak alike?  Even completing each other's sentences, because they know each other so well.  You see God is a part of our lives day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year we began to look and act and speak and more and more like God.  As we have been living with and walking with through the years, we become more like Him.

 

It becomes a natural response, it becomes natural like muscle memory. That you are like Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is in you.  Every word you speak, every expression you give out, your demeanor, your actions, everything exudes of the loving savior Jesus Christ.

 

Just like that hymn, In the Garden, we are walking with Him, and we are talking with Him, and we are spending time with Him.  

 

So as we come to the end of this sermon series, I need to ask once again how is your devotional life?  How is your walk with Jesus Christ?  How is your prayer life? How are you conversing with Jesus christ?

 

So we do not pray mine is the glory, because our focus is on God and not ourself.  The Lord's Prayer closes by returning our focus to God, with whom it begins.  As John the Revelator have said, “God is indeed alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.”  My friends, the more we focus on God in heaven, the more inspired we will be on earth.  Fix our eyes on Him.

 

If you want to change people's lives, if you want to make a difference in people's lives, fix your eyes on Jesus.  You will become an inspiration to others here on this earth.

 

There was a social sociologist who accompanied a group of mountain climbers on an expedition.  Among other things the sociologist observed a direct correlation between cloud cover of the mountain and contentment.  So when there was no cloud cover and the peak was in perfect view, the climbers were energetic and cooperative.  So if you want to climb a mountain with a group of individuals, pray to the lord that the weather will permit.  You're going to be happy, you're going to be joyful, and there will be no complaint coming out of your mouth.  No negativity, because you're looking at the peak of that mountain.  You are praising, you are rejoicing, because soon and very soon you get to be at the peak of the mountain.

 

Then when the grey cloud eclipsed the view of the mountaintop, climbers became bad tempered.  The climbers became gloomy and began complaining.  I'm talking about professional climbers.  Just by the change of the weather pattern, from complete positiveness to doom and gloom.

 

You know I believe the same thing can happen to us as Christians, as christ followers.  As long as our eyes are on God's kingdom, God's majesty and power, God's glory, there is a bounce in our step, in the light in our eyes, and in our hearts.  When our eyes focus on the dirt beneath our feet, we may end up grumbling about every rock, every pebble and crevice we have to cross.

 

You know we couldn't plan it otherwise, there was no control when it comes to the heat wave that was coming through this week.  Almost back to back Sunday and Wednesday we're out there at the church school, and we're back here at the food distribution, both times eight o'clock nine o'clock rolls around it's almost 100 degrees.  You know it's not just the intense heat that's just beating down on you, it's the heat that starts rising from the asphalt.

 

As we were raking some stuff, and as we were pruning some stuff, and and as we're just picking pansies, we we're doing some serious situation at the church school where we need to uproot these nasty wicked tumbleweeds (I know that those weeds will not make it to heaven, amen), it's amazing what you begin to focus on those things.

 

I try to be as positive, I try to be as cheerful as I can be, but if i can be very honest with you there are moments where I even forgot I was a pastor.  There were moments where I even forgot I was Christ's followers and I just wanted to just kick those things to the curve and curse it to hell.

 

Then came Wednesday, boy it was a hot Wednesday.  Then I'm just inspired by all the volunteers that are there.  Not one complaint coming out of their mouths.  It’s amazing when you're with a group of individuals that have their sights on the goal.

 

Let's get through these pallets, let's get through these vegetables, let's get through this and this, and you know I mean it is where the rubber meets the road.  It is intense.  It is hard.

 

What I learn again through Sunday and Wednesday’s experience, is when I remove my site from the asphalt, from the wicked tumbleweed, from the intense beating of the sun, to my brothers and sisters in Jesus christ, in as we continue to set our eyes on Jesus even if it's gloomy out there, even if there's a cloud where we can even see the peak, by faith we can praise.  By faith we can go continue on, by faith we can keep on keeping on, amen.

 

So I'm looking forward to fall and in wintertime.  I'm looking forward to break all the sweat that I need to break and I pray that as i'm sweating out all the impurities that all the things in my heart will be sweated out as well.  Purge me God and help me to be more like you.

 

So that every time you see me out there, every smile that you'd be able to catch from me, that it's coming from somewhere deep within.  Where it's not so much the smile of James Uyeda but it's a smile that comes out of me being so much in love with Jesus.

 

When our eyes are focused on the dirt beneath and our feet swelling up, we will end up grumbling about every rock and crevice we have to cross

 

This doxology at the end of Lord's Prayer reminds us who is in charge over our lives.  Who's your boss, who is in charge over your life.  As we confess that God is in charge, we admit that we are not and as we proclaim that God has power.  He can do what he wants.  We admit that we need his power and we will live our lives here on this earth no matter come what may.

 

We give God all the glory.  How much of the glory?  All the glory, because there is no one else like God.  God is God all by himself.

 

Richard Foster writes in his book Prayer Find the Heart's True Home, these words and this encourages my soul, “truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a mess of motives - altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter.”   I'm like thank you Richard Foster, because nine times out of ten my prayer is all messed up.

 

Frankly the side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad, the pure from the impure, but what I have come to see is that God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture, amen.  My friends as you know the Lord's Prayer is brief.  Yet, with his few words there is depth that we can easily miss.  This prayer is indeed a guide to the Christian life, contentment, freedom and peace we all need in spite of it all no matter what kind of chaotic experience you are going through.  This we need.

 

The following story appeared in the newsletter of Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington DC, that offers many forms of hospitality to people with desperate needs. One of the residents at the emergency shelter was the victim of an unprovoked attack just outside of the church. Julie Goodenough, coordinator of the shelter, recalls what happened after she rushed to the side of the wounded man.  She says and I quote, “the few minutes seem like a lifetime. Much of it is a blur, but some moment stands out.  The stranger, a black man I've never seen before, helping to lay Ronnie down and calm him.  The anguish and anger of the crowd surrounding us the fear of death.  The stranger was claiming me calming me and the people around us.  He knelt beside me, talked quietly of God's love and giving my heart strength.  He led us all in the Lord's Prayer in the moments while we waited for the ambulance to arrive, and i felt the Lord's presence with us on that sidewalk.  Medical help arrived. Ronnie was taken away (and eventually recovered).  The stranger and I walked away embraced and as we held each other he whispered, “just keep praying. Keep prayer in your heart.”  He walked around the corner and was gone.”

 

My friends, this is simply a bizarre incident far removed from our quiet lives.  This a window, even a little bit a window into the way things are frequently, maybe even typically just beneath the surface of what we call ordinary life.

 

I know that Nancy and myself were receiving calls this week.  We were communicating back and forth because both of us simultaneously receiving calls from some of the members of our church that are going through some stuff this week.  That was not planned, that was not scheduled, it was unexpected.

 

What do you do when you are going through situation that you can't even control, nor plan?

 

My friends I believe there is a struggle, a daily struggle for God's kingdom to come.  In the midst of the world's pain, in the midst of the brokenness, violence, hunger, sorrow, and inability to forgive, Jesus taught his disciples to pray like the man in the story.  Praying for the homeless man on the sidewalk so that whenever Satan strikes God's kingdom and God's power and God's glory might be revealed even in the midst of the pain.

 

One person in particular as tears are rolling down our faces, we were praising God even in those moments of pain.

 

So my friends as we come to the conclusion of the sermon series, I do hope and pray together with our prayer ministry team that from this point forward until kingdom come that you and I will do what the gentleman said in this story.  Which is none other than just keep praying.  Keep prayer in our hearts.  

 

Two historians from Duke University uncovered a beautiful moment from the dark days of World War II.  In a prison camp, on a cold dark evening after a series of beatings, after the hundreds of prisoners of war had been marched before the camp commander verbally attacking them for an hour; when the prisoners were returned to the dark barracks and told to be quiet for the rest of the night, someone, somewhere in one of those barracks began praying the Lord's Prayer.

 

Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.

 

Fellow prisoners lying next to him began to pray with him.  Their prayer was overheard by prisoners in the next building who joined them.  One by one each set of barracks joined in the prayer until as the prayer was ending with thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.  Hundreds of prisoners had joined their voices in a strong groin passionate prayer reaching a thunderous amen.

 

My friends in a sense we offer our prayers from the barracks, for we are still at war with our old enemy the Devil.  Soon our warfare will be over and Jesus Christ will return and reign victoriously forever and ever.

 

Jesus is about to go into his chain station to disrobe his priestly garment, and he's going to wear his royal garments. In the meantime it is cold and it is dark and we must take courage by praying together.

 

As we come to the end of this sermon series how many of you are committed to not just pray unceasingly?  I want you to look at the person next to you, to your right to, your left, look at the person behind you and look at the person in front of you, look at the person diagonal to you look at every person around in this sanctuary and the question is are you willing to pray together?  A church that prays together, stays together.  That's how we're going to make it.  As Nancy's mom says it all the time we're gonna get through it ladies and gentlemen.   And how we're gonna get through it?  We're going to pray together.  So by the show of hands, how many of you are willing, how many of you want to be devoted and committed to pray together in Jesus name?

 

If that is your wish let us end this sermon series by together, just like those men in the barracks, the Lord's Prayer.

 

Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.