For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are Yours now and ...

The Doxology of the Lord’s prayer reminds us worship is not about our feelings. Life is all about honoring our Father’s name, extending our Father’s rule in people’s hearts, undertaking our Father’s gracious saving will. This conclusion to Jesus’ prayer sets before us the whole vista of God's glory and God’s eternal gracious purposes in His temporal and fallen world. “To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy-- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!”

REFERENCES 'Able to keep you' - Jude 24-25 | The Lord rules - Revelation 19:6 ‘… speak boldly'- Ephesians 6:20 | 'Full of grace and truth' - John 1:14

Q

U E S T I O N S

1 Have you been through times when either, a) Christian living was reduced to a dull duty, or b) the easy words on our lips seemed to have little connection with the real world in which we live? How long was your journey through that? 2 The apostle John speaks of our Lord as 'full of grace and truth'. How can we keep this in a world that forces people to be so tolerant as to allow falsehood side by side with truth or even to encourage false views over the truth? 3 In what ways do these concluding words help us to focus on the dominion and purposes of God our heavenly Father?

THE DOXOLOGY

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are Yours now and forever. Amen.

What does this mean? We can be sure that these petitions are acceptable to our Father in heaven and are heard by Him, for He H imself has commanded us to pray in this way and has promised to hear us. Therefore we say, "Amen," "Yes, it shall be so." Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church and School 10611 Hwy 13 South, Wisc. Rapids, WI, USA 54494-9574 PASTORS: Paul A.Tullberg, Robert Hartman EDUCATOR: Donna Tullberg WWW.1GOODSHEPHERD.ORG

FOR

KINGDOM, ARE YOURS

THE

THE

POWER

AND THE

GLORY

FOREVER AND EVER.

Our Lord's pattern for prayer puts the petitions in specific order. This particular order serves to strengthen and refocus our worship of our heavenly Father. Now at the close, the doxology turns our eyes heavenward again. How good it is to boldly affirm the glorious truth that our heavenly Father is the Lord. All gracious power and awesome authority belong alone to Him. Our Father in heaven is well able to lift up, deliver, and keep us safe even though we walk through death’s shadow valley. God gives us a contagious trust, an inner joyful confidence in God’s eternal plans for His family of faith. Life has great challenges, difficulties and battles. We may be tempted to let our lively gift of faith slowly mutate into an unlovely, formal duty. The Bible records in detail how the sinful nature of even so-called “heroes of faith” at times hoodwinked them with distorted world-views. So Elijah and Abraham misstep, the disciples stumble, Jacob and Job waver. The list goes on. In public and private worship, we plead with the Lord from a heart full of His Word and focused on His will. Our new God-given nature celebrates all the practical issues of living for Jesus. We are alive in Jesus! Christians glory in the truth that God is able to keep us from falling, able to present us before Himself faultless! Our heavenly Father is able to do more than we can even begin to think or imagine . . . the kingdom, the power and ultimately all glory imaginable belong to the Lord God, our heavenly Father. 'The kingdom, the power and the glory,' here is the unending peal of praise, ripples of light following Jesus’ words of light. Give glory to God our heavenly

Father whose gracious kindness and awesome power will never cease, even for ever and ever. To be sure, when we study the Bible, we find that not all translations have this ending, “The kingdom, power and glory are Yours forever and ever.” Some translations end the prayer with, 'Lead us not into temptation,' or, 'Keep us from the evil one' . Although the LORD has not let a clear ending be recorded for us, as God’s people prayed it, they returned and reflected on the great themes of this prayer Jesus gave them at the beginning. This praise at the end of the prayer is in keeping with the whole teaching of the Scriptures. It sets out who God is; the one true God, Creator and Owner of the universe. God’s creation largely tries to ignore Him. Some live in active rebellion against Him. But the members of our Father’s family of faith confidently confirm that the living God alone is Lord. In fact, we join together, Sunday after Sunday to let all the earth know that the one, living gracious God is truly and eternally preeminent. You might ask, “Is such a statement of the authority and exclusivity of God a charitable, a "Christian", attitude? After all, we live in a very tolerant age. Surely the spirit of Christianity is tolerance, an open and welcoming spirit.” Answer: Clearly, there is a place for godly patience. But sometimes tolerance, kindness towards others, tempts even God’s rescued people to hold back, or even turn aside from the truth. Imagine a house on fire. Smoke is pouring out of the windows. A firefighter barges into a bedroom in that house to get a young boy out of bed. But the boy rubs his eyes, “No, no, leave me alone. I want to sleep, I’m not in danger. Besides I’m still in my PJs.” Then, he pulls his bed covers over his head. Surprisingly rude, the firefighter does not follow the boy’s heartfelt feelings. The firefighter is persistent, pressing in words and actions. The firefighter speaks loudly, perhaps a bit harshly even. The firefighter does whatever it takes to get the boy out of his comfortable bed into the fireman’s strong arms, out the burning house, to safety. The firefighter is skilled in following his training. So he does not follow the boy’s feelings. The firefighter knows there is something greater than the boy’s feelings at stake. The child’s whole future is much more important the child’s heartfelt feelings at the moment. In fact, the longer the child combats and delays, the more dangerous it is for himself and his would-be rescuer.

Similarly, some people today are pulling tolerance up over their heads. They are annoyed at the troublesome truth is trying get them out of bed to safety. They clearly complain, “Just let me be, I am who I am, let me sleep! I’m ok!” What terrible troubles and dangers arise for not just the sleeper, but also the one trying to rouse and rescue the sleeper. Some of our friends and family are sleepy, curled-up under the deadly smoke of our culture, saying “just let me be”. So, do we walk out of the burning houses? Do we bow to false feelings? apologize for intruding? quietly leave the fire to do its deadly work? As we contemplate this, it is good to review a short the life of Mr/Ms Ordinary Christian. Ordinary Christian says, “My Father in heaven looked for and found me, a rebellious, sleeping, corpse of a soul. He walked with His Word right into my house, without my asking or seeking Him. While my place was filling with deadly smoke and fire, heaven’s God called my name, found me, got me, saved me. “Even though I fought Him all the way, God’s eternal Son lifted me up onto His broad shoulders. Jesus brought me out of that dark, deadly place into the light and life of God Himself. Now, daily, I breathe in God’s fresh forgiveness. Daily, I am renewed with the merciful kindness of my Savior. Daily, I drink in the refreshing, lifegiving waters of His Word. And yes, daily I try some way to say and to show thanks to Him who so loved me.” Every now and then the Lord makes Mr/Ms Ordinary Christian aware of other souls. Those souls have their covers pulled up over their hearts. So, we clearly speak out the Good News: “Wake up! Get out of that death bed! God for Jesus’ sake forgives sin and forgives the sinner! Run to the open arms of the Rescuer, Jesus Christ.” What else can we do? Believe it or not, the devil successfully convinces many followers of Jesus to tone it down a bit. The devil has uses arrows like, “Don’t be so bold. Don’t be so confident that your way is the right way. Don’t be so focused. Open up and relax a bit.” The Lord’s apostle knew that danger too well. So the LORD moved Paul to request a divine shield: 'Brothers, pray for me that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.' Now that is a prayer worthy of echoing in a world that increasingly tolerates anything. In fact the only thing the world does not tolerate is this truth: Jesus Christ is the living Lord God and is the world’s only Savior.